Death Penalty News

Vietnamese courts said that property developer Truong My Lan's sentence could be reduced to life imprisonment if she pays back three quarters of the assets she is accused of stealing from Saigon Commercial Bank. A Vietnamese court upheld the death penalty Tuesday for a property tycoon in a multi-billion dollar fraud case -- but said her life could still be spared if she paid back three quarters of the assets she embezzled.

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has brought back an Indonesian woman who was sentenced to death for murder in Saudi Arabia and returned her to her family in Bangkalan, East Java. The woman, identified by the initials HMM, was detained by the Saudi authorities and sentenced to death in 2009 for killing her Saudi husband, according to a statement in Jakarta on Monday. The ministry and the Indonesian Consulate General (KJRI) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, made several efforts to resolve the case through diplomatic, litigation, and non-litigation means and to secure HMM's release.

With Trump returning to the White House, only mass commutations will stop another federal execution spree. Five days after Orlando Hall was executed in the federal death chamber, Donald Trump appeared in the White House Rose Garden for the 2020 Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony. The enormous white birds, Corn and Cob, stood ridiculously as Trump wished them a “very long, happy, and memorable life.” At the Special Confinement Unit inside the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, men on death row watched news coverage on TV.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 29, 2024: Kamran Hemati, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Arak Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Arak Central Prison on 28 November. His identity has been established as Kamran Hemati from Khorramabad. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

On December 18, Indiana hopes to get back into the execution business. On that date, it plans to put Joseph Corcoran to death for the 1997 murder of four people, including his brother. Corcoran is one of eight men on Indiana’s death row—also called “X Row.” The others include an inmate who “stabbed two co-workers after he was fired,” another who “shot and killed a police officer,” and two people who each “killed multiple children.” Corcoran’s lawyers are seeking a stay of execution because he has long suffered from a serious mental illness. As they explain, he “cannot distinguish between reality and his delusions and hallucinations — his delusions are his reality.”

The new Indonesian president – who came to office with a questionable human rights record – has emerged as an unlikely champion for a prisoner swap deal In the dark of the early morning of 29 April 2015, two members of Australia’s so-called Bali Nine were each tied to a stake in a floodlit field on the Indonesian prison island of Nusakambangan. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran refused blindfolds, and sang as they stood before a firing squad of 12. They were killed at 12.35am.

Jakarta (AFP) – France has asked Indonesia to transfer a French death row convict, who has been jailed for drug crimes in the Asian nation since 2005, a senior Indonesian minister told AFP on Friday. Indonesia is in discussion with three countries, including France, over the return of several high-profile detainees and aims to transfer the prisoners by the end of December. "The French embassy has delivered a letter from France's justice minister to Indonesia's law minister dated November 4 containing a request for the transfer of a French prisoner named Serge Atlaoui," senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra told AFP in a message.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 29, 2024: Fariba Maleki Shahivand, a woman on death row for murder, was executed in Khorramabad Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a woman was executed in Khorramabad (Parsilion) Central Prison on 24 November. Her identity has been established as Fariba Maleki Shahivand, a mother to a five-year-old girl. An informed source told IHRNGO: “Fariba was accused of unintentionally killing her sister-in-law and mother-in-law during an altercation four years ago, when her daughter was just one year old.”

SINGAPORE, Singapore — Singapore hanged a 35-year-old Singaporean-Iranian man for drug trafficking on Friday, its fourth in less than a month, despite appeals from Tehran to "reconsider" his execution. The United Nations and rights groups say capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect and have called for it to be abolished, but Singaporean officials insist it has helped make the country one of Asia's safest. Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad, a Singaporean citizen born in the city-state to a Singaporean mother and an Iranian father, was convicted in 2013 for drug trafficking.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 28, 2024: Ashkan Moradi, Jalal Haj Babay, Davoud Heidari and Ehsan Basati Valiabad were executed for drug-related offences in Karaj Penitentiary. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Karaj Penitentiary (Central Prison) on 26 November. His identity has been established as 32-year-old Ehsan Basati Valiabad who was arrested four years ago and sentenced to death for drug-related offences.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 28, 2024: Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer and recipient of numerous international awards, including the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, and the European Human Rights Award, has appealed to the President of Singapore to grant clemency to Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad, who is scheduled to be executed tomorrow, 29 November 2024.

The Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that a second attempt to execute an Idaho death row inmate would not violate his Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The Wednesday decision affirms an earlier district court decision, rejecting an appeal by Thomas Creech. Creech, 74, survived his first execution attempt in February after the execution team failed to establish vein access and called off the execution. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 25, 2024: Nader Ghanizadeh and Naser Salmani were executed for murder and drug-related charges in Jiroft Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Jiroft Prison on 23 November. Their identities have been established as Nader Ghanizadeh and Naser Salmani who was 62 years old. Nader was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder and Naser was on death row for drug-related offences.

Vietnamese prosecutors have told property tycoon Truong My Lan she must repay an estimated US$11 billion if she wants to avoid execution by lethal injection. Lan, 68, is appealing her death sentence after being convicted in April of embezzling US$12.3 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank. She was also found guilty of bribing government officials and violating bank lending rules. Prosecutors have so far argued against leniency at her hearing in Ho Chi Minh City unless she finds a way to return a significant chunk of the 415.7 trillion dong (US$16.4 billion) she was found guilty of embezzling in two separate trials, according to her lawyer.

PHOENIX — Arizona will resume executions — perhaps as soon as early 2025, officials say. The decision by Attorney General Kris Mayes comes after Gov. Katie Hobbs dismissed, on Tuesday, the retired federal magistrate she had hired in early 2023 to review the process the state uses to put condemned people to death. Mayes said she was waiting on that report before seeking any death warrants from the Arizona Supreme Court. David Duncan has not finished his work, for which he was authorized to charge $175 an hour, up to $100,000.

Tokyo, Nov. 27 (Jiji Press)--More than two years have passed since Japan previously conducted an execution, as calls for the abolition of capital punishment in the country grow again, following the acquittal of former death row inmate Iwao Hakamada in a retrial. At the end of October, there were a total of 107 inmates on death row in the country. Under the country’s Penal Code, death sentences are carried out by hanging upon the order of the justice minister. 

Fariba Maleki Shiravand, 36 years old, was hanged in the Central Prison of Khorramabad, the capital of the western province of Lorestan. Fariba Maleki Shiravand was arrested and jailed four years ago on charges of deliberate murder. The Iranian Judiciary sentenced her to death. Fariba Maleki is the 17th woman executed since the regime’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian took office on July 28. Her execution on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women brings the number of women executed this year to 28 .

A targeted correction direction has also been issued to TikTok, which will be required to carry a correction notice to all end-users in Singapore who accessed the post. SINGAPORE: The Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) – an activist group that campaigns against the death penalty - was issued a fourth Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) order on Tuesday (Nov 26). The correction direction relates to posts made by TJC on its Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X pages on Nov 20. Activists Kokila Annamalai and Rocky Howe were added as collaborators on the Instagram post.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge on Monday delayed until January his decision on whether to resentence Erik and Lyle Menendez for killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion 35 years ago, squashing their family’s hope the brothers would be released and home for the holidays. Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic said at the hearing in Los Angeles that he needed time to review 17 boxes of documents and give a new district attorney in Los Angeles County time to weigh in on the case.

The Republic of Indonesia has quickly endorsed and accepted a Presidential principle agreement to return the five remaining members of the notorious “Bali Nine” to Australia, effectively truncating the five’s life sentence now being served in an Indonesian prison. On Saturday, 23 November 2024, Indonesian Minister of Law, Supratman Andi Agtas, confirmed the commutation of the five Australians life sentences, stipulating that the Australian convicts would be transferred to Australian prisons to serve indeterminate sentences. The exact period to be served by the five remains under review but is anticipated to be less than the life sentence without parole they are serving in Indonesia.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 21, 2024: Alireza Yarmohammadi, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Hamedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Hamedan Central Prison on 17 November. His identity has been established as 22-year-old Alireza Yarmohammadi from Malayer who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

The remaining Bali Nine members would continue to serve their sentences in Australia, a Labor minister says, as the Opposition calls on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to "stand up and explain" the deal. Talks are underway to return members of the so-called Bali Nine drug smuggling ring to Australia, the federal trade minister has confirmed. But he asserted that they would continue to serve their sentences and not be released.

President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.

St. Louis, Mo., Nov 22, 2024 / 15:05 pm - Missouri’s bishops are urging the state to forgo executing a man next month who was convicted of the 2007 abduction, rape, torture, and murder of a 9-year-old girl. Police said Christopher Collings confessed to killing Rowan Ford after raping her on Nov. 3, 2007. The murder took place in rural Stella, Missouri, in the far southwest corner of the state.