Fousseyni Thera, 27, a Malian man, who had his five-year-old...

Fousseyni Thera, 27, a Malian man, who had his five-year-old son's throat slit in order to conjure up good luck, was sentenced to death. Thera decided to sacrifice his son, Daniel, after meeting an elderly witchdoctor and asking him to create a good luck charm, court documents said. The witchdoctor demanded human blood to make the charm. The men brought the boy to a tree-filled ravine in the capital Bamako in January 2003. His father held him down while the witchdoctor cut his throat, gathering the blood in a bowl into which he dipped the good luck charm. Thera was arrested after he went back to the ravine at nightfall to bury the boy's body. He was sentenced to death in a criminal court in Bamako.