Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 19, 2025: Ezatollah Arab, Moein Arab and Abdolbari Jahani, three Afghan nationals on death row for drug-related offences, were executed in Bandar Abbas Central Prison. According to Haalvsh, an Afghan man was hanged in Bandar Abbas Central Prison on 25 February 2025. His identity has been reported as Abdolbari Jahani who was on death row for drug-related offences.

The trio, all of whom have experience in the shipping industry in Singapore, were arrested in July 2024 after Indonesian authorities intercepted their vessel in the Karimun district, near Singapore. Three Indian nationals from Tamil Nadu identified as Raju Muthukumaran (38), Selvadurai Dinakaran (34), and Govindhasamy Vimalkandhan (45), face the death penalty in Indonesia for allegedly smuggling 106 kg of crystal meth aboard the Singapore-flagged vessel Legend Aquarius.

Grissom used some of his last words on Earth to apologize to everyone he hurt and said that he prays they can find forgiveness for their own sake. As for his execution, he said it was a mercy. Oklahoma executed Wendell Arden Grissom on Thursday for the murder of 23-year-old Amber Matthews in front of her best friend’s two young daughters in 2005.  Grissom, 56, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. local time, becoming the first inmate to be put to death by the state in 2025 and the ninth in the United States this year. 

Among the Japanese, public support for the death penalty remains rock solid. More than 80% of respondents have expressed approval for it. The Cabinet Office has released the results of a public opinion survey on the death penalty. Of the respondents, 83.1% said that having the death penalty is "unavoidable," while 16.5% said that it should be abolished. The Cabinet Office cautioned that simple comparisons cannot be made because the survey method has changed from in-person interviews to questionnaires sent by mail. Nonetheless, the new survey showed that support for the death penalty increased by 2.3% since the previous opinion poll in 2020.

Edward James received 3-drug lethal injection under death warrant signed in February by governor Ron DeSantis  A Florida man who killed an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs was executed on Thursday.  Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8.15pm after receiving a 3-drug injection at Florida state prison outside Starke under a death warrant signed in February by Governor Ron DeSantis. The execution was the 2nd this year in Florida, which is planning a 3rd in April. 

Mohammad Abdullah al-Faraj is originally from al-Awamiyah, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. He lived in Dammam and was working as an employee in the private sector. In 2011 and 2012, he allegedly participated in demonstrations and funerals that took place in al-Qatif district in Saudi Arabia protesting the treatment of Shi’a citizens. He was abducted from his workplace on February 28, 2017, by officials from the Mabahith (General Investigation Directorate or GID). Mohammad Abdullah al-Faraj was never informed that he was accused of any crime.

Four Canadians were executed in China on drug-related charges earlier this year, Canadian authorities have confirmed. All of them were dual citizens and their identities have been withheld, Canada's foreign minister Mélanie Joly said. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada reportedly urged Ottawa to "stop making irresponsible remarks", as pundits feared a further downturn in relations between the countries after years of strain. China's foreign ministry said on Thursday that it had acted "in accordance with the law", while the embassy said there was "solid and sufficient" evidence for their crimes.

FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona man who kidnapped and murdered his girlfriend’s ex-husband was executed Wednesday, the second of four prisoners scheduled to be put to death this week in the U.S. Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, was lethally injected with pentobarbital at the Arizona State Prison Complex in the town of Florence, John Barcello, deputy director of Arizona’s department of corrections, told news outlets. He was pronounced dead at 10:33 a.m. Gunches fatally shot Ted Price in the desert outside the Phoenix suburb of Mesa in 2002. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2007.

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona man who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder was scheduled to be executed Wednesday in the state’s first use of the death penalty in more than two years. Aaron Brian Gunches, 53, was slated to be lethally injected with pentobarbital at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. Gunches fatally shot Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, in the desert outside the Phoenix suburb of Mesa in 2002. Gunches is the second of four death row prisoners in the United States set to be executed this week. Louisiana executed a man on Tuesday and two more executions were scheduled in Florida and Oklahoma on Thursday. Gunches will be the first person executed in a state with a Democrat serving as governor since Virginia did so in 2017, when Terry McAuliffe was in charge.

BEIJING: A former Chinese engineer has been sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to a foreign power, Beijing's spy agency said Wednesday. The man, surnamed Liu, "secretly copied, duplicated, and sold a large volume of state secrets to a foreign espionage and intelligence agency", China's Ministry of State Security said in a post to its official WeChat account. Liu had worked as an assistant engineer at a research institute and had resigned after believing he had been treated unfairly, the ministry said.

Louisiana used nitrogen gas Tuesday evening to execute a man convicted of murdering a woman in 1996, the 1st time the state has used the method, a lawyer for the condemned man said.  Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, was put to death at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, defense lawyer Cecelia Kappel said in a statement. He was the 1st person executed in the state in 15 years, and his death marked the 5th use of the nitrogen gas method in the US, with all the rest in Alabama.  Hoffman was convicted of the murder of Mary "Molly" Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive. At the time of the crime, Hoffman was 18.

On March 14, 2025, a group of nine death row pris­on­ers in Tennessee filed a law­suit chal­leng­ing the state’s sole use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal in its revised lethal injec­tion pro­to­col, argu­ing it cre­ates a ​“high risk of a tor­tur­ous death.” In December 2024 , the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) com­plet­ed a mul­ti-year lethal injec­tion pro­to­col review and announced that instead of the pre­vi­ous three-drug pro­to­col, the state would shift to rely on just one drug: pen­to­bar­bi­tal.  Earlier this month, the Tennessee Supreme Court sched­uled exe­cu­tion dates for four indi­vid­u­als begin­ning in May 2025: Oscar Smith (May 22), Byron Black (August 5), Donald Middlebrooks (September 24), and Harold Nichols (December 11).

On March 12, 2025, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 37 into law, mak­ing the fir­ing squad the state’s pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion. In a state­ment to Catholic News Agency, Gov. Little said, ​“I have long made clear my sup­port of cap­i­tal punishment…My sign­ing of [this bill] is con­sis­tent with my sup­port of the Idaho Legislature’s actions in set­ting the poli­cies around meth­ods of exe­cu­tion in the state of Idaho.” The bill, which takes effect on July 1, 2026, passed both cham­bers of the Idaho Legislature by wide mar­gins, with a vote of 28 – 7 in the Senate and 58 – 11 in the House. Just three Republican law­mak­ers joined all 15 of their Democratic col­leagues in vot­ing against the bill. 

Louisiana is preparing this week to execute a man by nitrogen gas, the first execution in the state in 15 years HOUSTON (AP) — Louisiana is set this week to execute a man by nitrogen gas, the first execution in the state in 15 years. Jessie Hoffman Jr., 46, is scheduled to die on Tuesday in Louisiana. He was convicted of the 1996 murder of a woman in New Orleans. If Louisiana carries out the execution, it would join Alabama as the only two states to use nitrogen gas to put a prisoner to death.

Jessie Hoffman's attorneys race against time to halt the historic execution, raising questions about justice and human rights BATON ROUGE, La. -- Attorneys for Louisiana death row inmate Jessie Hoffman Jr. are mounting last-minute efforts to halt his scheduled execution using nitrogen gas, set to occur on Tuesday evening, March 18, 2025. This execution would mark both Louisiana's first nitrogen gas execution and the fifth such execution in the United States, raising significant legal and ethical questions surrounding this controversial method.

OSAKA—The Osaka High Court on March 17 rejected a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by death-row inmates over the constitutionality of executing prisoners hours after they are notified they will die. The case was sent back to the Osaka District Court, which had rejected the lawsuit in April 2024. In Japan, condemned inmates are executed on the day they are notified that their death sentences will be carried out. Two death-row inmates sued the government over this same-day process, saying it violates Article 31 of the Constitution.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 17, 2025: Mehdi Faraji, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Urmia Central Prison. Two women including his wife, and a man were previously reported to have been executed at the prison that day. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Urmia Central Prison on 16 March. His identity has been established as Hamed Faraji who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. IHRNGO previously reported the executions of Mojgan Azarpisheh, Kosar Bagherzadeh and Arshad Farzadband at the prison that day.

Taipei, March 17 (CNA) Opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Monday said his party will launch a campaign to hold referendums opposing the abolition of the death penalty and what he alleged was a push toward martial law and war by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Chu announced the referendum campaigns at a press conference held with KMT lawmakers in front of the Legislative Yuan, saying Taiwan's democracy had reached a "critical moment" due to "destructive" actions by President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and the DPP. On the issue of the death penalty, Chu slammed a ruling issued by the Constitutional Court last year, which found the death penalty constitutional only for the "most serious" premeditated murders and crimes leading to death.

A British drugs mule grandmother on Indonesia's death row is so convinced she will be freed from prison that she has started given her clothes away to other inmates.  Lindsay Sandiford, 67, has been incarcerated in a cramped cell inside Bali's hellish Kerobokan prison since 2013 where she is facing execution by firing squad.  The grandmother-of-two was sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle £1.6million worth of cocaine into Indonesia's capital by stuffing it into the lining of her suitcase.  But her pals say she has now 'slumped into depression' as she thought she would have been released by now due to a change in the country's law.