Death Penalty News

⚠️ Some readers may find the following content distressing LOS ANGELES — A preliminary hearing could wrap up Monday in the case of singer D4vd, who is charged in the killing of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered remains were found last year in the trunk of his Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard. The first four days of testimony in the hearing have featured sometimes-graphic images and testimony in which prosecutors have contended that the now-21-year-old singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, killed Celeste Rivas Hernandez to prevent her from going public about his sexual relationship with the underage girl, potentially damaging or destroying his burgeoning music career. On Friday, Los Angeles Police Department Robbery-Homicide Detective Corey Farell testified that Burke had a series of sexually explicit photos on his cellphone of Celeste, with some images depicting him and the teen engaged in sexual activity. Farell also said he reviewed a series of text messages between the two...

Barring a last-hour intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, two Florida death row inmates will be executed within hours of each other Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. James Aren Duckett, 68, is scheduled to be executed at noon. He has spent more than three decades on death row after being convicted of murdering 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987. Six hours later, Dominick Occhicone is scheduled to be executed after being convicted of a double murder in 1987 of his girlfriend’s parents, Martha and Raymond Artzner. At 80, Occhicone would be the second-oldest man executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

HOLMES COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – In just three minutes, Johnny Mack “Sketo” Calhoun was sentenced to death for a second time Friday morning. “It is the order of this court that Johnny Sketo Mack Calhoun be sentenced to death in a manner prescribed by the state of Florida for the first-degree murder of Mia Chay Brown,” said Chief Judge Christopher Patterson. After the eight-day resentencing hearing in April, a jury recommended that Calhoun receive the death penalty for the 2010 murder of Mia Chay Brown.

Iranian authorities executed three prisoners at Gonbad-e Kavus Prison and Ardabil Central Prison after convicting them in separate cases of "premeditated murder." Two of those executed were Turkmen. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the death sentences of Javad Mirhasani, 33, and Amirabbas Hatami, approximately 40, were carried out in the early hours of Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Gonbad-e Kavus Prison in Golestan Province. Sources familiar with the case said the two Turkmen prisoners, who were both held in Ward 3 of the prison, had been transferred to solitary confinement one day earlier in preparation for their executions.

The case of Rafael Andrés , a 61-year-old Cuban American sentenced to death for the second time on Friday by the judge of the Miami-Dade Circuit Court has brought attention to Cubans on death row in the United States. According to data from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), an organization based in Washington specializing in the analysis of this measure, there are five Cubans facing the death penalty in the United States, all of them in Florida. In the Sunshine State, there are a total of 12 foreign prisoners sentenced to death.

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

A Miami-Dade judge sentenced Rafael Andres, a 61-year-old Cuban, to death this Friday for the murder of Ivette Fariñas, a 31-year-old waitress, also Cuban, who worked at the La Carreta restaurant at Miami International Airport, a crime committed two decades ago. According to Telemundo 51, Judge Zachary James of the Miami-Dade Circuit Court followed the jury's recommendation, which voted 9 to 3 in favor of the death penalty last November after reviewing all the evidence in the case. The jury classified the crime as "atrocious, horrifying, or cruel," although they did not conclude that it was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner.

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.

As public hearings gather pace in the trials of former officials from Syria’s ousted regime, families of victims and survivors of torture are anxiously awaiting the verdicts, with many calling for the defendants to receive the death penalty. Proceedings before the Fourth Criminal Court at Damascus’ Palace of Justice have accelerated since April 25, when the court opened the in-absentia trial of deposed President Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, and several senior figures from the former regime. Former security chief Atef Najib also appeared before the court in handcuffs.

The teenage girl allegedly killed and dismembered by American singer D4vd had an abortion after their sexual encounter, according to text messages revealed Friday in a Los Angeles court. On the fourth day of a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the singer, the prosecution reviewed dozens of messages between him and Celeste Rivas Hernandez, a year before her death. D4vd, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, asks her, among other things, when she is going to have an abortion, before asking, "It is mine right," according to the texts.

⚠️ Some readers may find the following content distressing LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- A police criminalist testified Thursday that testing on evidence seized from singer D4vd's rented Hollywood Hills home showed a DNA profile consistent with that of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered remains were found in the front trunk of the entertainer's Tesla. In the third day of a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to require the 21-year-old singer to stand trial on murder and other charges, Los Angeles Police Department criminalist Samantha Tosch told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo that DNA collected from apparent blood stains on evidence, including a rowing machine, a green tarp, and a Tesla charger plug discovered in the home's garage were one septillion times—meaning one followed by 24 zeroes—more likely to occur if the DNA was from Celeste Rivas Hernandez than an unknown individual.

Iranian authorities have executed 18-year-old Baloch child offender Meysam Irandegani at Iranshahr Central Prison in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. Irandegani was 14 years old at the time of the alleged offense. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution was carried out at dawn on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at Iranshahr Central Prison. Irandegani was arrested approximately four years and two months ago, at the age of 14, following an altercation at the auto repair shop where he worked in Khash.

Victims and family members condemned Boelter in court while honoring Mark and Melissa Hortman as brilliant, dedicated public servants. MINNEAPOLIS (CN) — A federal judge sentenced Vance Boelter to two consecutive life terms plus 40 years on Thursday for the targeted shootings and killings of Minnesota lawmakers last summer. Senior U.S. District Judge John Tunheim presided over the hearing in Minnesota federal court, where Boelter, 58, of Green Isle, Minnesota, faced final sentencing following his June guilty plea. The charges stem from last year’s killings of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shootings of state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

US federal prosecutors said the man convicted of stabbing author Salman Rushdie contacted a person in Iran before the 2022 attack to confirm that the fatwa calling for Rushdie's death remained valid, the New York Times reported, as his federal terrorism trial opened on Wednesday. The trial in federal court in Buffalo will determine whether Hadi Matar acted independently out of religious anger or carried out the attack in response to the fatwa issued by Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and in service of Lebanon's Hezbollah, according to the New York Times.

A Tehran court has sentenced protester Ahad Shokouhian to death three times over his involvement in January demonstrations, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reported on Thursday. Shokouhian, 38, was arrested in Pakdasht on Jan. 15 and tried before Judge Iman Afshari in Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.

Billboard is tracking developments in the singer's criminal case for allegedly killing the 14-year-old and dismembering her body. D4vd, the 21-year-old pop singer made famous by his 2022 hit “Romantic Homicide,” is facing first-degree murder charges for allegedly killing and dismembering the body of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Prosecutors claim the musician, born David Anthony Burke, was having an illegal sexual relationship with the teenager and murdered her after she “threatened to expose his criminal conduct and devastate his musical career.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Questions surrounding Tennessee’s failed execution of death row inmate Tony Carruthers remain unanswered after the Tennessee Department of Correction declined to respond to a lawmaker’s request for details about what went wrong. Carruthers’ execution was stopped in May after medical staff spent more than an hour attempting to establish IV access for the lethal injection but were not able to find a vein. Following the failed execution, State Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) requested answers from TDOC about what changes, if any, have been made to prevent a similar incident from happening again. Barrett gave the department until Monday, July 20, to respond.

Iranian authorities have executed Iraj Ebrahimizadeh, a 37-year-old Kurdish prisoner from Ilam, at the city's Central Prison. He had previously been sentenced to death under the principle of qisas (retribution in kind) after being convicted of "premeditated murder." According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution was carried out during the early hours of Wednesday, July 22, 2026. Ebrahimizadeh had been transferred to solitary confinement one day earlier in preparation for the execution. Informed sources told Hengaw that Ebrahimizadeh was arrested on October 23, 2023, on charges of "premeditated murder" and was subsequently sentenced to death by the Ilam Province Criminal Court.

The defense argues that extensive media coverage prevented Horner from receiving a fair trial Defense attorneys for Tanner Horner, the former FedEx contract delivery driver sentenced to death for the 2022 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand, are asking a judge to grant him a new trial. The motion argues that extensive media coverage surrounding the case prevented Horner from receiving a fair trial. Defense attorneys said some potential witnesses declined to testify because of the publicity. Horner's trial was moved from Wise County to Tarrant County because of widespread attention the case received, including on social media.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.