Manuel Martínez Coronado

Manuel Martínez Coronado was a farmer and mass murderer from Guatemala, executed on February 10, 1998 for the May 1995 murders of seven people.

He was a peasant farmer of the Chortí ethnic group.[1]

Murders

Coronado murdered seven members of the same family in an incident that occurred on May 17, 1995.[2][3] However, Amnesty International would later claim that evidence indicated that his stepfather may have been the real killer.

Arrest and execution

Coronado was arrested and charged with multiple homicide. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Despite pleas from Amnesty International to overturn the verdict, Guatemalan authorities claimed that he would be executed on February 10, 1998.

Execution

Coronado was executed by lethal injection in Escuintla on February 10, 1998.[4] His execution was broadcast live on television. Doctors in surgical gowns and masks carried out the execution. After the poison was administered, it took 18 minutes for him to die. His wife and children were heard sobbing in the background throughout the execution. The doctors then examined the body to confirm his death. He was the first Guatemalan executed by lethal injection (the government had recently made lethal injection legal). At least three more Guatemalans have since been executed by this method.

Criticism

Amnesty International, which had protested his death sentence, complained that doctors carrying out the execution was a "breach of medical ethics"[5] and that Guatemalan authorities refused to release the identities of the healthcare workers who carried out the execution.

See also

Other executions

References

  1. ↑ "AI Index: AMR 34/23/00." Amnesty International. Retrieved on March 3, 2016.
  2. ↑ Amnesty International- Rapid Medical action- Manuel Martinez Coronado
  3. ↑ En la historia nacional, El Universo (November 21, 2007)
  4. ↑ Amnesty International- Document- Guatemala: Further information on Medical letter writing action: Lethal Injection
  5. ↑ Amnesty International- Lethal Injection leads doctors to break medical oath

External links

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