Death Penalty News

Saudi authorities executed seven people who had been convicted of drug trafficking in a single day, state media says. The Saudi Press Agency says five Saudis and two Jordanians were found guilty of trafficking amphetamine pills into the kingdom. “The death penalty was carried out as a discretionary punishment against the perpetrators,” the agency reports, adding that the executions took place on Sunday in the Riyadh region. Since the beginning of 2026, Riyadh has executed 38 people in drug-related cases, the majority of the 61 executions carried out, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Shelby Nealy will be executed by the state for bludgeoning his wife’s family to death in 2018, a judge decided Friday. During a two-week sentencing trial in July, jurors heard how Nealy, 32, ended a volatile relationship with his second wife by killing her, then murdered her parents and brother a year later in an effort to never be caught. He pleaded guilty to the crimes in 2023. On July 25, the jury of three men and nine women deliberated for about two hours and voted 11-1 that Nealy should be sentenced to death. He stared straight ahead as the verdict was read.

Jason Jones will join 11 men on Nebraska’s death row after a three-judge panel unanimously decided on Friday that he should be sentenced to death for a quadruple murder in 2022 that stunned the small town of Laurel. District Court Judge Bryan Meismer, who presided over Jones’ trial, read from the sentencing memorandum at the Cedar County Courthouse on Friday afternoon. The other two judges on the panel, Timothy Burns of Douglas County and Patrick Heng of Red Willow County, sat on either side of Meismer.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche has directed federal prosecutors in Los Angeles to seek the death penalty against three members of a transnational street gang charged with murdering a former gang member who was cooperating with law enforcement on a racketeering and methamphetamine trafficking case, officials announced Thursday. In a letter to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on Wednesday, Blanche told prosecutors in the Central District of California they are “authorized and directed” to seek the death penalty against Dennis Anaya Urias, 27, Grevil Zelaya Santiago, 26, and Roberto Carlos Aguilar, 31. All are from South Los Angeles.

The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday that Clarence Jordan’s punishment was unconstitutional  A death sentence handed down by a Harris County jury in 1978 was overturned Thursday by the Court of Criminal Appeals.  Clarence Jordan, 70, has been on Texas Death Row for almost 50 years, serving out one of the longest death sentences in the nation while suffering from intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia, his attorney told the Houston Press. 

DeCarlos Brown, accused of stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train, has been found mentally unfit for trial, stalling death penalty proceedings. DeCarlos Brown Jr., accused of fatally stabbing 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train in August 2025, has been found mentally incapable of standing trial, according to a court motion filed 7 April in Mecklenburg Superior Court. A 29 December 2025 report from Central Regional Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Granville County, concluded that Brown was "incapable to proceed to trial," according to the motion filed by his attorney, Daniel Roberts. The evaluation was ordered after Brown's defense raised concerns about his mental state.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said Tuesday it won't consider another man's confession as a reason to pause a scheduled lethal injection in three weeks. James Broadnax was convicted of murdering two Christian music producers in Garland, but his cousin, Demarius Cummings, recently confessed that he was the shooter. University of Texas School of Law Capital Punishment Clinic professor Jim Marcus said the appeals court acts as a gatekeeper for cases meeting criteria to get back in court.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Tanner Lynn Horner, a former contract delivery driver for FedEx, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the 2022 capital murder and aggravated kidnapping of 7-year-old Athena Strand, a move that abruptly shifted the proceedings into a high-stakes punishment phase where jurors will decide between life imprisonment and the death penalty. Horner, 34, entered the plea in a Tarrant County courtroom as his trial was set to begin. The case was moved to Fort Worth from neighboring Wise County last year after defense attorneys argued that pretrial publicity would prevent a fair trial in the community where the girl disappeared.

Mohsen Eslamkhah, a 20-year-old Kurdish citizen who was arrested in connection with the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising in Bukan, has been sentenced to death on charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) by Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Mahabad. Eslamkhah is currently held in Bukan Prison alongside two other political prisoners facing execution: Rauf Sheikh-Maroufi and Mohammad Faraji. An informed source who spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said: “Mohsen Eslamkhah was identified by security forces in 2022 due to his participation in the Women, Life, Freedom protests in Bukan. His family home was raided several times by these forces in an attempt to arrest him. He was 16 years old at the time and, due to pressure from security bodies and fear of arrest, he was forced to leave Iran and lived in the Kurdistan Region [of Iraq] until 2025.”

Case termed ‘rarest of rare’ In a landmark verdict, a court in Tamil Nadu on 6 April sentenced nine police personnel to death in the 2020 Sathankulam custodial deaths case, holding them guilty of the brutal killing of a father-son duo. First Additional District and Sessions Judge G Muthukumaran classified the case as the “rarest of rare”, observing that those entrusted with protecting citizens had committed a crime that “shook the collective conscience of society”. The court awarded capital punishment to all nine convicted personnel for the murder of P Jayaraj and his son J Bennix.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 6 April 2026: State media reported the execution of Ali Fahim, a 23-year-old protester arrested at the 8 January protests in Tehran. He is the fourth defendant in the case to be hanged in five days. His co-defendants Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani, Shahab Zohdi and Yaser Rajaifar are at grave and imminent risk of execution. Condemning Ali Fahim’s execution in the strongest terms, IHRNGO calls on the international community and civil society organisations to react strongly to the daily execution of political prisoners in Iran.

Two more death sentences have been carried out in Iran in connection with the recent mass protests. According to the Fars news agency, they are Shahin Vahedparast Kaloor (30) and Mohammedamin Biglari (19).  The judiciary accuses them of breaking into a "militarily classified site" of the paramilitary Basij militia in Tehran together with others and setting fire there. An attempted theft of weapons is said to have failed.

Chan Thao Phoumy, a 62-year-old Frenchman born in Laos, was executed, “despite the efforts of the French authorities, including efforts to obtain a pardon on humanitarian grounds for our compatriot”, said a foreign ministry statement. Phoumy, who was born in Laos, had been sentenced to death in 2010 following a conviction for drug trafficking. Despite sustained diplomatic pressure and formal requests for clemency on humanitarian grounds, Chinese authorities proceeded with the capital sentence.  A massive drug manufacturing and distribution operation Chan Thao Phoumy was convicted for his involvement in a massive drug manufacturing and distribution operation that remains one of the largest drug-related cases in Chinese history. Phoumy and his accomplices were convicted of manufacturing approximately 8 tons of crystal methamphetamine between 1999 and 2003.

The high court ruled in 2002 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.” The Supreme Court will clarify how IQ scores should be evaluated when a death sentence is barred based on an intellectual disability. The court already ruled in 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia , that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” but justices did not define intellectual disability.

Nearly 2 years after a Cumberland County mother was arrested in the deaths of her adoptive children, prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty in the high-profile case.  Avantae Deven faces 5 felony charges, including child abuse and 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of her children, Blake and London Deven. A grand jury indicted her on March 10. Her next court appearance is scheduled for May 6.  "I think it's good," said John Whitker, Deven's next-door neighbor on Berridale Drive. "She knew what she was doing. She was planning, and then she starved them. She took advantage of the lowest common denominator." 

Ani Anggraeni spent nearly 15 years in prison for drug trafficking before her death sentence was commuted and she was later pardoned An Indonesian woman who spent nearly 15 years on death row in a Malaysian prison for drug trafficking has returned home after receiving clemency, in a case rights groups say highlights the exploitation of poor migrant women in cross-border drug operations. Ani Anggraeni, also known as Asih, boarded a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta late on Thursday after being freed from custody.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian authorities executed two men Saturday morning on charges of armed rebellion and membership in a banned opposition group, marking a continuation of a sharp increase in capital punishment following recent regional hostilities. The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online news portal identified the men as Abolhassan Montazer, 68, and Vahid Baniamerian, 34. Both were convicted of "armed rebellion" ( baghy ) and involvement in terrorist activities on behalf of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The judiciary alleged the men planned and executed explosions in Tehran using rocket launchers. The executions were carried out after the Supreme Court confirmed their death sentences, which originated from a Revolutionary Court trial in late 2024.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) 2 April 2026: State media reported the execution of Amirhossein Hatami, an 18-year-old protester arrested at the 8 January protest in Tehran. He was one of seven defendants sentenced to death by “Death Judge” Salavati a month after being arrested. Condemning the execution in the strongest terms, IHRNGO once again draws the international community’s attention to the Islamic Republic’s use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression, and the ongoing execution of political prisoners in the shadow of the war.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump removed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post Thursday, ending a 14-month tenure defined by a sweeping overhaul of the Justice Department and a hard-line approach to federal law enforcement. The president announced the decision on social media, naming Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting attorney general.