the Punjab Rights Forum (PRF) appealed to President Abdul Kalam to implement a moratorium on the death penalty in India.

the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Julius Murphy 24 hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection. The court ordered a state district court to review claims by Murphy, 27, that he is mentally retarded and cannot be subject to capital punishment.

the Bac Giang People's Court, Vietnam, handed out death sentences to Than Nhan Lam, 37, Than Nhan Sang, 28, Do Van Hoa, 37, and Nguyen Quang Thang, 37, on charges of drug trafficking.

an Inner Mongolia court sentenced a college president to death for hiring a man to kill his former employee.

a man was hanged in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for alleged murder charges. Death sentence for the man identified by his first name Esmail, was endorsed by the mullahs' supreme court.

New Jersey lawmakers have voted to suspend executions while a study commission examines the fairness and expense of the state's death penalty.

two Thai fishermen, Bualoi Posit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, were sentenced to death for the rape and murder of student Katherine Horton after an unusually short trial and sustained political pressure.

a Vietnamese court sentenced five people including a woman to death for trafficking drugs, a court official said.

a group of 40 law enforcement officers, current and former prosecutors, and judges at the state and federal level have urged California lawmakers to enact a temporary halt to executions in the state while a commission examines the accuracy and fairness of the death penalty.

California executed Clarence Ray Allen, its oldest condemned prisoner, by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison after last-ditch court appeals for a stay of execution failed.

California's Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has denied clemency to the oldest prisoner on California's Death Row, saying a murderer's life should not be spared because he is old and ill.

Wichai Somkhaoyai, and Bualoi Posit, the two Thai fisherman who raped and murdered British backpacker Katherine Horton should be spared the death penalty but locked up for life, the victim's mother said.