I was arrested and tortured into making false confessions after demanding democracy in Bahrain. This week, the Kingdom plans to sentence me to death while the world is celebrating Christmas.

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's new government said it would abolish the death penalty for all crimes and halt all pending executions, a rare move against capital punishment in Asia that human rights groups hailed as a major advance. More than 1200 people, including Sydney grandmother Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, are on death row in Malaysia, which mandates hanging as punishment for a wide range of crimes including murder, drug trafficking, treason, kidnapping and acts of terror.

A condemned inmate scheduled to die this month for the slaying of a teenage boy said officials should execute him by firing squad because his breathing problems and poor veins make him too ill to be killed by lethal injection. Ohio lawmakers could quickly approve legislation allowing the firing squad to be used as an alternative execution method for the first time in the state, attorneys for death row inmate Alva Campbell said in a court filing late last month.

On a Saturday evening in July 2013, just before 6:30, James Rhodes was recorded on a surveillance camera walking into a Metro PCS cellphone store in Jacksonville, Fla. He was wearing a black do-rag and a blue bandanna, which he pulled over his nose and mouth. Shelby Farah, the store manager, stood behind the counter. Rhodes pointed a gun at her and demanded the money in the cash register. Shelby gave it to him. Then Rhodes shot her in the head. She was 20 years old. He was 21.

Indonesia has toughened its punishments for child rapists to include the death penalty and chemical castration. It follows outrage over several recent violent crimes, including the gang-rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl. President Joko Widodo said the regulation was "intended to overcome the crisis caused by sexual violence against children". Previously, the maximum sentence for rape, of either an adult or a child, was 14 years in jail.

San Quentin inmate Kevin Cooper on watching the minutes tick away on his life.