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India | Ahmedabad Serial Blasts: Gujarat High Court Upholds Death Penalty For 38 Convicts, Life Terms For 11

On July 26, 2008, 56 people died, and more than 200 people were injured after 21 explosions rocked Ahmedabad within a span of 70 minutes. The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentences of 38 convicts and life imprisonment awarded to 11 others in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case, affirming the verdict of a special court that had convicted members of the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM). A division bench of Justices A.Y. Kogje and Samir Dave dismissed all appeals filed by the convicts against the 2022 special court judgment, thereby confirming the sentences.

Indiana governor leaves death penalty discussion to state lawmakers

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Gov. Mike Braun said the future of the death penalty will be up to state lawmakers. “It’s not an easy conversation,” Gov. Braun said during a July 2 news conference when asked about the future of Indiana’s death penalty. There are five men on Indiana’s death row. The Attorney General’s Office is currently requesting an execution date for Jeffrey Weisheit, a death row inmate convicted of murdering two young children in 2010. The state has put three men to death over the last 18 months since it resumed executions under former Gov. Eric Holcomb. All by lethal injection.

Indiana | ‘Dignity’ is a poor excuse for blocking press access to state executions

Indiana law says that the press has no right to be present when the state carries out executions. It limits those who can attend to the warden of the prison where the execution is carried out, immediate family members of the crime victim, no more than five friends or relatives of the convicted person, the prison physician, and the prison chaplain. Only if an inmate selects a member of the press as one of the five friends may they attend.

Iran Hangs Five Afghan Nationals in One Month as Executions Surge

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Iran carried out at least 109 executions in June, including five Afghan nationals, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, as the country’s use of the death penalty continues to rise. In a report, the Norway-based Iranian rights group, which tracks human rights abuses inside the country, said the figure represents an increase of at least 10% compared with the same month last year, when 99 people were executed. Hengaw did not disclose the identities of the five executed Afghans, their specific charges, or the prisons where the executions took place. According to the report, the majority of cases in June involved charges of premeditated murder (54 cases), followed by drug-related offences (44 cases) and political or espionage charges (5 cases).

Cambodia moves to permanently block death penalty revival

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has announced plans to ratify a key UN treaty that would permanently prohibit the reintroduction of the death penalty, reinforcing more than three decades of constitutional abolition. The announcement was made by Minister of Justice Koeut Rith during the Ninth World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Paris from June 30 to July 2. Rith reaffirmed the Royal Government’s commitment to ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), an international treaty aimed at the global abolition of capital punishment.

China | Former official of Nanjing development zone sentenced to death

Yang Youlin, the former executive deputy director of the administrative committee of the Nanjing Development Zone in East China's Jiangsu province, was sentenced to death on Monday by the Changzhou Intermediate People's Court for multiple crimes. Yang was convicted of accepting bribes totaling over 2.2 billion yuan ($324 million). He was also deprived of political rights for life, and all his personal assets were confiscated.

At least 109 prisoners executed in Iran during June 2026

Hengaw, Saturday, July 4, 2026—During the past calendar month, the death sentences of at least 109 prisoners, including 5 political prisoners, were carried out in various prisons across Iran. This figure represents an increase of at least 10 cases (equivalent to 10%) compared to the same period last year. In June 2025, at least 99 prisoners had been executed in Iranian prisons. The full identities of all 109 executed prisoners have been verified by Statistics and Documentation Center of the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.

As Idaho Reinstates Firing Squad, Volunteers Sought for Executions

The state becomes the first in the U.S. to make the firing squad the standard method of capital punishment Idaho is opening a new phase in the administration of capital punishment in the United States, returning to the firing squad as the default method of execution. The decision reintroduces a system that has been abolished or abandoned in most of the country and is now being reorganized through a formal and highly structured framework. The new death penalty protocol State authorities have begun recruiting volunteer law enforcement officers to take part in executions. The operational model includes three primary shooters assigned to carry out the execution, two alternates, and one operations coordinator. All participants will remain anonymous, known only to the prison warden and deputy warden.

Iran sentences political prisoner and fiancée to death on Israel-linked charges

A Tehran Revolutionary Court judge has sentenced political prisoner Mehdi Nazer and his fiancée, Mahnaz Chardouli, to death and also 10 years in prison, according to information received by Iran International. Judge Abolghasem Salavati, head of Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, also sentenced Nazer’s sister, Atefeh Nazer, to 10 years in prison. The three political prisoners were arrested in Tehran on January 11, 2026.

Five more protesters sentenced to death in central Iran

Five protesters arrested in central Iran in connection with the January uprising have been sentenced to death on charges of “enmity against God,” sources familiar with their cases told Iran International. The prisoners arrested in the city of Mahallat have been identified as Erfan Khalili, Ali-Akbar Mahlooji, Hesam Issaei, Hossein Shokouhi and Abolghasem Kazem-Aslani. They are being held in Arak prison and have only 10 days to appeal the verdicts. Their verdict was announced on the same day that fellow political prisoner Arghavan Fallahi was sentenced to death on a charge of “baghi,” or armed rebellion, the US-based HRANA news agency reported.

U.S. | Lethal injections are more likely to be botched, experts say

Tony Carruthers, a Memphis man on death row, is one of hundreds of people in the U.S. whose executions did not go as planned When the Tennessee Department of Corrections botched Tony Carruthers’ execution, it wasn’t surprising to Austin Sarat. He’s been researching and writing about “state killings” for decades. “Of all of the methods of execution used in the United States over the last 140 years, lethal injection has the highest rate of being botched,” said Sarat, a professor of law and politics at Amherst College. He said an execution is botched when it deviates from standard operating procedure or official legal protocol.

Pakistan | Two get death sentence for ‘blasphemous’ Facebook post

SAHIWAL: Two men were awarded a death sentence on Thursday for making a blasphemous post on Facebook in 2024. Along with the death penalty, AntiTerrorism Court Special Judge Ziaullah Khan also awarded the convicts seven-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs1.5 million each. According to the police, both men were booked in the FIR under the PPC Section 295-C, sections 7 and 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (1996), and sections 10 and 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (2016).

Iran | Man Hanged for Accidental Homicide After 20 Years on Death Row

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 1 July 2026: Shouresh Sattarzadeh, a Kurdish man who spent 20 years on death row for an accidental death when he was 18 years of age, was executed in Sanandaj Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Sanandaj Central Prison on 1st July 2026. His identity has been established as Shouresh Sattarzadeh, a 38-year-old Kurdish man from Saqqez. He was arrested 20 years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

Alabama | New coalition “We The Jury” urges Ivey to grant clemency in judicial override cases

The group said 25 Alabama death row prisoners remained under sentences imposed through a practice the state abolished in 2017. We The Jury —a new coalition of jurors, judges, attorneys, elected officials, community advocates and activists—is urging Governor Kay Ivey to grant clemency to death row inmates who were sentenced by judicial override, a now-illegal sentencing scheme that allowed judges to override a jury’s life sentence recommendation in favor of the death penalty.

Iraq | Appeals Court Upholds Death Sentence for Anfal Convict Ajaj al-Tikriti

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Nearly four decades after the Anfal campaign left tens of thousands of Kurdish families searching for answers, Iraq's judicial process has reached another decisive moment. On Thursday, the Federal Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence imposed on Ajaj Ahmed Hardan al-Tikriti, a former Baath-era prison official convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, sexual violence, and the murder of Kurdish detainees held at the notorious Nugra Salman prison in 1988.

Iran | Executions in Karaj, Sanandaj, Shiraz

Lor prisoner Abbas Abdolmaleki, a resident of Varamin who had been sentenced to death on a charge of “premeditated murder,” was executed at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj in early February 2026. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights is reporting the execution for the first time nearly five months after it was carried out. According to information received by Hengaw, the 40-year-old was executed on Sunday, February 1, 2026, at Ghezel Hesar Prison.

Tennessee Reduced Training in IV Placement in New Lethal Injection Protocol

The protocol that took effect in 2025 sheds new light on Tony Carruthers’ botched execution, when Dr. Mark Fowler spent nearly an hour trying, and failing, to place a secondary IV line Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol adopted a year and a half ago appears to include reduced training in IV placement. That’s the part of the process prison staff failed to complete last month before aborting the execution of Tony Carruthers. Filings from ongoing litigation over the protocol show concerns about the executioners’ training and qualifications aren’t new.

New Mississippi laws take effect July 1, including juvenile court changes, death penalty for sexual battery

PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) - “Effective July 1”: It’s a phrase we’ve heard over and over. Now, that date is here. Laws passed in the 2026 legislative session will take effect starting Wednesday. Sen. Joey Filligane says a few of the laws enforce stricter penalties. The goal isn’t to put more people behind bars, but actually the exact opposite.

Firing squad set to become primary method of execution in Idaho

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — The firing squad will become the primary method of execution in the State of Idaho starting July 1, 2026. Those in support of the change argue it's a more humane and efficient method, while some are more skeptical. Idaho is now one of five states to authorize the firing squad as a means of execution. Other states include Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina. Where Idaho differs, it's the only state to make it the primary method.