TEHRAN — Iran hanged 22 convicted criminals in mass executions on Tuesday and Wednesday in Tehran and a few other cities, official news media reported.

Iran has the highest number of executions in the world after China. Crimes like murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and adultery are punished by execution.

The state-run television news reported Thursday that 10 men were hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison on Wednesday. The semi-official Fars news agency reported that an 11th man, scheduled to be executed in February, witnessed the hanging of the 10.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A University of Illinois professor believes George Ryan deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his stand against the death penalty, even if the former Illinois governor is in prison.

Francis A. Boyle, a professor of International Law and Human Rights, has nominated Ryan for the 2009 prize. It’s the sixth time Boyle has nominated Ryan.

Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois in 2000. He was convicted on corruption charges in 2007 and is serving six and a half years in federal prison.

Boyle believes the death penalty will be abolished in the United States. He credits Ryan for creating the first state moratorium on capital punishment.

Last month in Texas a man named Andre Thomas, who has a long history of mental illness, tore his eye out and ate it. He had previously ripped his other eye out while he was waiting to stand trial in 2004. A judge ruled him fit to stand trial after the first incident. Now he is completely blind.

In 2007 Kenneth Foster’s death sentence was commuted to life by the Governor of Texas only hours before his scheduled execution. He had been sentenced to death under the Law of Parties even though he had not killed anyone. His accomplice codefendant, who did kill someone, has already been executed. Foster’s life was saved after some brilliant legal work coupled with a sustained, grassroots campaign that included members of his own family and anti-death penalty activists in Texas that kept his case in the news for years. Recently, a bill was filed in the Texas Legislature that would prohibit the death penalty under the Law of Parties.

Over the next eight days, starting today, Jan 21, Texas is scheduled to execute five people. the first person on the schedule is Frank Moore. One person has already been executed this month in Texas. So, a total of six executions may take place in Texas this month.

In 2008, Texas conducted almost 50 percent of all executions in the nation.We are still waiting for a ruling from the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct on the complaint signed by more than 1900 people against Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. We filed the complaint, which accused her of misconduct and urged the Commission to remove her from office, because she had said “we close at 5” and refused to accept an appeal from a person about to be executed. He was executed later that night without a final ruling on his appeal from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

It is just a matter of time before we discover that Texas has executed an innocent person. The evidence may come later this year when the the Texas Forensic Science Commission issues its report on the case of Todd Willingham. He was executed in 2004, but some nationally recognized fire experts said in a 2006 report that the fire that killed his children was likely not an intentionally set arson but just a tragic accidental fire.All these stories are just a few examples of the many horrible problems with the Texas death penalty system.

One impediment to slowing down executions in Texas is that there has always been very little funding for anti-death penalty work in Texas and even less funding to help families of people on death row. But now, there is a project underway that could bring a little extra funding for Texas anti-death penalty work.But we need your help to get that funding.

A new social collaboration website called Amazee is holding a membership contest and giving away $5,000. The contest ends Thursday, Jan 22, at 3 PM Eastern Time. We created an anti-death penalty project on Amazee and we are in a close race for one of the top three places.

www.amazee.com/abolish-death-penalty

Please go to the project and help us bring some anti-death penalty funds to Texas.

Join the “Abolish the Death Penalty Project” on Amazee.com and help Texas anti-death penalty activists win the Amazee Bucket membership contest. We could win up to $5,000 to use against the death penalty in Texas. The project with the most members by Jan 22 wins $5,000; second place is $3,000 and third place is $2,000.

If we win, we plan to use one-half of any prize money we win to help needy families of people on death row travel to visit their loved ones on death row. We will use the other half of the prize money to advocate against the death penalty, including during the legislative session.First go to the project page, then you have to click on “join project” on the right hand side, then click on “register”. Then they will send you an email. Then log back in and join the project.

Keep in mind though, that to qualify as one of the members who count towards the contest, you have to upload a picture or avatar of yourself. It does not have to be a picture of you, it can be a picture of anything.

We were all moved by the many family members who spoke at the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston on Oct 25, so we were thinking of how we could help them. We all know that the death penalty is reserved for the poor. There are no rich people on death row. We will use one half of any money we win through this contest to help family members visit their loved ones on death row. Many families have a hard time making ends meet and the extra cost of traveling long distances to visit their loved ones on death row is a great financial burden. Some of the people on death row have young children who rarely get to visit them.

The other half would be used for activities during the upcoming Texas legislative session from Jan to May 2009, such as an anti-death penalty rally at the capitol.We will be supporting bills to end the death penalty under the Law of Parties, to create an Innocence Commission, to establish a moratorium on executions and create a death penalty study commission.

Please help us by joining the project on Amazee.

www.amazee.com/abolish-death-penalty

With just five minutes of your time, you can help us win a contest that would allow us to help some families of people on death row, as well as fight the death penalty.

Please help, so we can help some families of people on death row.

http://www.amazee.com/abolish-death-penalty

Join the “Abolish the Death Penalty Project” on Amazee. com and help Texas anti-death penalty activists win the Amazee membership contest.

We could win $5,000 to use against the death penalty if we come in first, $3,000 for second and $2,000 for third.

The project with the most members by Jan 22 wins. If we win, we plan to use one-half of any prize money we win to help needy families of people on death row travel to visit their loved ones on death row.

We will use the other half of the prize money to fight against the death penalty.

http://www.amazee.com/abolish-death-penalty

Visit the project page, click on “join project” on the right hand side, then click on “register”. They will send you a password. Log back in, return to the project page, click “join project” again. Then to qualify as one of the members who counts towards the contest, you have to upload a picture or avatar to represent you. It can be a picture of anything. If you do not upload some sort of picture, then you won’t count towards the contest.

We were all moved by the many family members who spoke at the 9th Annual March to Stop Executions in Houston on Oct 25, so we were thinking of how we could help them. We all know that the death penalty is reserved for the poor. There are no rich people on death row.

We will use one half of any prize money we get through this contest to help family members visit their loved ones on death row. Many families have a hard time making ends meet and the extra cost of traveling long distances to visit their loved ones on death row is a great financial burden. Some of the people on death-row have young children who rarely get to visit them.

http://www.amazee.com/abolish-death-penalty