Death Penalty News

Maryam Hodavand, a woman held in Evin Prison following her arrest during the December 2025/January 2026 uprising, has been sentenced to death by a Tehran revolutionary court in connection with a mosque fire that killed two people. Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Afshari, issued the sentence in relation to the fire at the Seyyed al-Shohada mosque in Pakdasht, Tehran Province. The verdict was handed down while Hodavand was denied access to legal representation.

The Court flagged the failure of trial courts to call for reports on mitigating circumstances and lack of meaningful representation in death penalty cases. The Supreme Court on Monday issued pan-India directions governing how courts must handle death penalty cases. [ Aman Singh & Anr v. State of Bihar ] A three-judge Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi passed the directions while hearing an appeal filed by a convict challenging a judgment of the Patna High Court, which had upheld the death penalty awarded to him in a murder case.

Despite an 11th-hour confession from another man, James Broadnax is slated to be executed by the state of Texas later this week.  Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection April 30 in Huntsville. He was condemned by a Dallas County jury in 2009 for the deaths of Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Garland music studio. Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, had set out to rob the men, but left with only $2 and a 1995 Ford, according to previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News. 

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are among the world’s most egregious tools of religious repression. They enable abuse, mob violence, and the targeting of individuals and religious minorities (including Christians) for criminal prosecutions that carry life sentences and death penalties.  Pakistani professor Junaid Hafeez, for instance, is imprisoned and sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. 

The trial judge failed to take into account that the convict’s lack of means to engage a counsel constitutes a mitigating factor and ought to have been considered while sentencing.  The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently commuted the death penalty imposed on a Tirunelveli man, who sexually assaulted and impregnated his 14-year-old daughter, to life imprisonment till the remainder of his natural life.

The Shubra El Kheima Criminal Court has sentenced the defendant in the killing of Mirna Gamal Abdel Tawab—widely known in the media as the “Khosous Girl”—to death by hanging.  The verdict was issued after receiving the opinion of the Dar Al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, which approved the implementation of the death penalty. The court concluded that the charges against the defendant were proven based on case files and official investigations, according to local reports.  The Public Prosecution charged the 26-year-old defendant, a ceramic tile worker identified as “K.N.D.” from the Khosous area, with premeditated murder. Investigations revealed that he had planned the crime after the victim’s family rejected his proposal to marry her. 

A Florida pastor who became a potential candidate for the death penalty gets a triple life sentence for filming himself abusing a child. Jonathan Elwing, who was senior pastor at Palm View First Baptist in Palmetto when the abuse occurred, will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole after a jury found him guilty on 12 felony counts. Police initially charged the pastor and father of four with four counts of possessing child pornography and for using cryptocurrency to buy explicit images of children from the dark web.

Singer, 21, could face death penalty after being charged with murder of 14-year-old Video game Fortnite is approving refunds for any D4vd cosmetics after the singer, 21, was charged with the sexual abuse, murder and mutilation of a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. The game first collaborated with D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, in 2024, initially releasing an emote to his track “Feel It” before releasing Fortnite’s first official anthem with Burke, titled “Locked and Loaded”, the following year.

North Korea dramatically increased executions during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly for consuming South Korean dramas, K-pop and other foreign culture and political offences, a report published Tuesday showed.  Pyongyang closed its borders in January 2020 to stop the spread of the coronavirus, with research and media reports indicating that the diplomatically isolated nation spent subsequent years bolstering security along its frontiers.  Campaigners have said the shutdown worsened longstanding human rights abuses in North Korea, whose government is widely seen as one of the world's most repressive.

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it will resume the federal use of capital punishment and that it is seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. DOJ also said that it will use firing squads, electrocution, or nitrogen asphyxiation if the drug used in lethal injection is unavailable. The announcement follows the Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty report, published on April 24. The report is especially critical of the moratorium on federal executions, ordered by Attorney General Merrick Garland in July 2021, to remain until the death penalty could be conducted “fairly and humanely.” Garland was concerned about the federal lethal injection protocol, which uses only one drug, pentobarbital, and the possibility that it causes “unnecessary pain and suffering.” In response to Garland’s moratorium and concerns, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, leaving only three prisoners.

Itanagar, Apr 27: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court in Arunachal Pradesh’s Yupia has sentenced a 44-year-old man to death for repeatedly raping his minor relative in 2019, terming the offence a “rarest of rare” case marked by a grave breach of trust. Special Judge (POCSO) Dr Hirendra Kashyap convicted Lakang Tallang under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including rape by a person in a position of trust and criminal intimidation, read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act.

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

TOKYO— A 47-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of killing a 29-year-old woman in Tokyo’s Roppongi district in 2018. Police said Nobuaki Takahashi, who had been on an international wanted list since June 2019, was arrested on Saturday at Narita airport after being extradited from Malaysia, NTV reported. Takahashi left Japan for Malaysia on Oct 13, 2018, five days before the body of Aisha Kumi Balletta, 29, was found in his apartment. Balletta, a Japanese-American, had multiple head injuries and had been dead for more than a week. She lived in Yokohama and was apparently a regular visitor to the apartment, neighbors said.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has directed federal prisons to expand the range of methods used for executions to include firing squads, gas asphyxiation and electrocution. In a 48-page memo released on Friday, the department says this will "strengthen" the death penalty, "deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones". The previous administration had placed a moratorium on most federal executions. Before leaving office, former president Joe Biden gave clemency to 37 of the 40 federal death row prisoners. President Donald Trump directed the DOJ to resume seeking executions on his first day in office last year.

The US Justice Department is moving to accelerate federal death penalty cases, introducing significant changes that include expanding execution methods to allow death by firing squad. The shift signals a broader effort to revive and reinforce policies aimed at speeding up capital punishment proceedings after a period of rollback under the previous administration. At the core of the changes is a renewed emphasis on enforcement. Officials say the updated framework is designed to reduce delays in the legal process and ensure that sentences — particularly in the most serious criminal cases — are carried out more efficiently.

Iran has executed two men for alleged Mossad spying and protest-linked "chaos". Following the recent string of executions, rights groups have accused the Iran administration and judiciary of holding opaque trials and forced confessions. Iran has carried out two separate executions in recent days, putting to death individuals accused of links to Israel and involvement in anti-government unrest. The executions are part of the Iranian authorities’ wider crackdown that has drawn heavy flak from rights groups.

Iran has ramped up its executions since the outbreak of war with Israel and the US, putting to death 9 people linked to the protests since mid-March TEHRAN — Iran on Saturday executed a man for his role in mass anti-government protests in January, claiming he was carrying out a “mission” on behalf of Israel’s spy agency, the judiciary reported. It is the latest in a string of executions since war broke out with Israel and the United States. Erfan Kiani was hanged after his sentence was upheld by the country’s Supreme Court, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.

Every Thursday at 9 a.m. when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals publishes its orders and opinions online, Melissa Lucio’s family, supporters and lawyers scan the court’s website for the death row inmate’s name. Caught between freedom and a potential execution for the last two years, waiting for every Thursday morning is all Lucio and her team can do. The 56-year-old, found guilty in 2008 of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez, has spent two of her 17 years on death row in a legal limbo as the CCA weighs a district judge’s 2024 recommendation to overturn her capital murder conviction because of withheld evidence. An additional ruling from the judge six months later declared Lucio “actually innocent” of killing Mariah.