Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 28, 2024: Mansour Hadadi and Esmail Shehbakhsh, two men on death row for drug-related offences, were executed in Birjand Central Prison. According to Haal Vsh, a man was executed in Birjand Central Prison on 22nd October. His identity has been reported as Mansour Hadadi from Zabol who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. He was executed without his family being notified and the right to a last visit with them.

Iran consistently ranks among the world’s leading executioners, claiming the grim distinction of having the highest number of executions per capita.  The Iranian regime extensively employs the death penalty as a tool not only for judicial punishment but also for political repression. The Iranian legal system, with its reliance on vaguely defined charges such as Moharebeh (waging war against God) and Baghi (rebellion), provides the state with broad latitude to impose capital punishment. These charges are frequently invoked not only in cases of violent crimes like murder but also to silence political dissent, protests, and religious beliefs that deviate from the state’s official ideology.

Kim* is a young professional who started using cannabis when family life became messy. Things improved, but her drug habit stuck - and by then, her social circle was primarily made up of people who also used. With a reliable local supplier of weed, Kim’s friends asked her if she would get some for them. “That’s what I did,” Kim says. “I never marked up the price in any way, because this was friendship... It’s like, I’m helping you to purchase something we both use anyway.”

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 24, 2024: Ayoub Sangari and Abdolgharib Maleki, two Afghan nationals on death row for murder, were executed in Qom Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two Afghan men were executed in Qom Central Prison on 22nd October. Their identities have been established as 26-year-old Abdolgharib Maleki and Ayoub Sangari who were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

More than three decades after Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murders of their parents and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the brothers now see a path to their potential release. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón on Friday will recommend that a judge resentence the siblings – a decision that was the culmination of a review that came after defense attorneys said in 2023 they had new evidence pointing to abuse by their father.

Yu Huaying, a woman who abducted and trafficked 17 children for financial gains between 1993 and 2003, was sentenced to death by a court in Guizhou province on Friday after a retrial. "Considering the circumstance of her offense was extremely serious, bringing great damage to the victims and their families, we impose the death penalty on her," said the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court.

The Kenyan government has been actively involved in seeking a resolution to Munyakho's case, where he is set for execution after he accidentally killed a Saudi colleague in an altercation The government has successfully negotiated the postponement of the execution of Stephen Munyakho, a Kenyan national who has been incarcerated in Saudi Arabia for over a decade. Munyakho, who was set to face the death penalty on November 26, 2024, has been granted an additional year as both parties work towards a resolution.

From the beginning of 2024 until October 24th, Saudi authorities have carried out 20 executions on charges of treason, part of a total of 234 executions this year, marking an unprecedented record. In contrast, death sentences for treason this year have been issued by the Specialized Criminal Court, while in 2023, two individuals were executed on treason charges in military trials—one a colonel, the other a first sergeant. No executions for treason were recorded in 2020 or 2022, while in 2021, three people were executed for treason under discretionary sentences from the Specialized Criminal Court.

Robert Roberson’s death sentence has become a circus, with gruesome acts playing simultaneously in three distinctly American rings. In the center are Texas politicians battling one another for power to end or preserve Roberson’s life. In a side ring, celebrities weigh in on whether the condemned man might be telling the truth about his young daughter’s death, and in another, medical experts debate the credibility of shaken baby syndrome and the meaning of the autism spectrum.

As scientific and technological progress continues, many prisoners may benefit from these advancements. However, many legal procedural barriers continue to block prisoners from accessing DNA evidence that has the potential to exonerate them. Death-sentenced prisoners with credible evidence of innocence have gained significant attention this month with the execution of Marcellus Williams in Missouri, the near-execution of Robert Roberson in Texas, and the U.S. Supreme Court arguments in Glossip v. Oklahoma . There is a common misconception that DNA evidence is widely available in all cases and central to exonerations, but the reality is that DNA exonerations in death penalty cases are relatively rare.

Saudi Arabia executed seven individuals on Wednesday, including five for drug trafficking, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA). The executions bring the total number carried out this year in the Gulf kingdom to 236 , based on an AFP tally using official statements. Yahya Lutfullah, Ali Azib, Ahmed Ali, and Salem Nahari were executed in the southern province of Asir for “smuggling hashish” into the country, the interior ministry stated in a report published by SPA.

Iranian authorities, on Wednesday, executed four people convicted of selling contaminated bootleg alcohol that killed 17 people last year.  The defendants had been sentenced to death in September 2023 for selling the contaminated alcohol that killed at least 17 people and put more than 190 others into a hospital in the province of Alborz, west of Tehran.  “The death penalty against four defendants in the case of poisoning caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages was carried out at Karaj central prison,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 21, 2024: Mohammad Farhadzadeh and Hamid Chatrsimabeh were executed for murder and moharebeh charges in Jiroft Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Jiroft Prison in Kerman province on 21 October. Mohammad Farhadzadeh was arrested seven years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court. The second man’s identity has been established as 40-year-old Hamid Chatrsimabeh (Sabaki) from Goldasht who was sentenced to qisas by the Criminal Court and “moharebeh (enmity against god) through clashing and killing a NAJA officer” by the Revolutionary Court.

From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, the site of death row for the men’s prison system. Though I wasn’t housed on death row, as the editor of the Maximum Times prison newspaper and, for a time, the chaplain’s clerk, I was on occasion able to visit. It was there that I was fortunate enough to meet author, prison volunteer and death row pastor Joseph B. Ingle.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 21, 2024: Mohammad Ashouri, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Isfahan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Isfahan Central Prison on 16 October. His identity has been established as 32-year-old Mohammad Ashouri from Mamasani county in Fars province. He was arrested six years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 19, 2024: Mahmoud Bameri, a Baluch man who was sentenced to death for both murder and moharebeh charges, was secretly executed for the latter in Kahnuj Prison after paying blood money in the murder case. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Baluch man was secretly executed in Kahnuj Prison on 17 October. His identity has been established as 45-year-old Mahmoud Bameri (Sabaki) who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court and moharebeh (enmity against god) by the Revolutionary Court for allegedly killing a policeman.

The chief of the Shizuoka Prefectural Police on Monday offered an apology in person to Iwao Hakamada at his home in Shizuoka Prefecture following his acquittal in a retrial over a 1966 murder case last month. Takayoshi Tsuda visited the home of Hakamada, 88, in the city of Hamamatsu, bowing deeply for about two minutes. “I am sorry for the pain and burden I have caused you over the last 58 years, which cannot be expressed in words,” Tsuda said to Hakamada and his older sister Hideko, 91, who fought a decades-long legal battle on behalf of her brother.

The cost to maintain Idaho’s execution capabilities for prisoners sentenced to death, including upgrades to the area planned for a firing squad, has grown to nearly $1.3 million , according to the state’s prison system. The Idaho Department of Correction issued notice last week of changes to its procedures for lethal injection. These changes include the construction of an “execution preparation room” just before prisoners enter the execution chamber at the state’s maximum-security prison south of Boise. There, execution team members, with help from a “qualified physician,” will decide whether to use a standard IV or heightened means to inject the lethal chemicals.

Singapore CNN  — Though he is provided with a straw mat, Matthew says he prefers to sleep on the concrete floor of his cell in the maximum-security wing of Singapore’s Changi Prison. “It’s more cooling that way,” says the 41-year-old former schoolteacher, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and seven strokes of the cane for selling methamphetamine. CNN met Matthew, who spoke on condition that his last name be withheld, during an exclusive tour of Changi Prison provided by Singapore authorities as they defended the city-state’s uncompromising position on drugs.

19th September 2024 – (Qingdao) A 25-year-old man, Li Mouyong, was sentenced to death by the Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court on October 18 for the brutal murders of two kindergarten teachers in Pingdu, Shandong Province.  The court found Li guilty of intentional homicide, stripping him of his political rights for life. The tragic incident occurred on 11th December, when Li forcibly entered the rented accommodation of the two teachers, fatally stabbing one, Li Moufei, before proceeding to kill another teacher, Liu. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 16, 2024: Amar Assian, a policeman on death row for murder, was executed in Kerman Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Kerman Central Prison on 13 October. His identity has been established Amar Assian who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 16, 2024: Younes Akhtar Samar, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) based on elme-qazi and a qassameh ceremony due to the lack of evidence against him, was executed in Jiroft Prison after his family failed to raise the €300k blood money. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Jiroft Prison on 14 October. His identity has been established as Younes Akhtar Samar who was sentenced to qisas based on elm-e-qazi (knowledge of the judge) and a qassameh ceremony.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 17, 2024: Mohsen Mokhtari, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Shiraz Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Shiraz Central (Adel Abad) Prison on 16 October. His identity has been established as Mohsen Mokhtari from Shiraz who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. An informed source told IHRNGO: “Mohsen Mokhtar was arrested for murder five years ago. He was transferred to the gallows from Ward 10 of the prison.”

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 19, 2024: At least 6 men including four Afghan nationals were executed for drug-related and murder charges in Ghezelhesar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least six men were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison in Karaj on 16 October. Four of the men were sentenced to death for drug-related charges. Three of their identities have been established as Javid Ahmadi and Afghan nationals Abdolbari Tajik and Pasha Pashto. The fourth man has not been identified at the time of writing.