Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
A Thai court on Thursday sentenced two Burmese men to death in the murder of two British backpackers in Thailand last year. Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo were found guilty for killing Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24. The British tourists' bodies were discovered on a beach on the island of Koh Tao on Sept. 15, 2014. The two men, migrants from Myanmar, initially confessed but later said they had been tortured into signing confessions. Witheridge and Miller were found beaten to death and a post-mortem examination showed Witheridge had been raped. Prosecutors said DNA evidence collected from cigarette butts, a condom and the victims' bodies put Lin and Phyo at the scene of the crime, but the defendants' lawyers argued the DNA found on the hoe didn't match that of either suspect.