Death Penalty News

Dubai: Kuwait has executed five men convicted of murder and other serious crimes after their death sentences were upheld by the country's highest courts and ratified by the Emir, the Public Prosecution said. The executions were carried out by hanging at the Central Prison after all legal procedures had been completed, according to a statement carried by local media. The public prosecution said the convicts had been granted all constitutional guarantees, including the right to defense and appeal throughout the investigation and trial process. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 19 June 2026: Pejman Saedi, a Kurdish man convicted of murder based on a qassameh ceremony after being exonerated, was executed in Qorveh Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Qorveh Prison on 12 January 2026. His identity has been established as Pejman Soltani, a 21-year-old Kurdish man from Dehgolan. He was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

Iranian Court Imposes Flogging Sentences on Musician and Production Team The criminal division of the Qom provincial court has handed down 74-lash sentences to Iranian performer Parastoo Ahmadi and eight production staff members, according to legal assessments released this week.  The sentencing concludes a case initiated after a December 2024 YouTube livestream, in which Ahmadi performed an “imaginary concert” at a historic caravanserai without wearing a mandatory head covering. Beyond the corporal punishment, the court has mandated a two-year ban on the defendants leaving the country and a two-year prohibition on all professional creative work.

Iranian authorities executed two women, Asieh Farahmand and Zeinab Zarini, in Qazvin Central Prison earlier this month after they were convicted in a joint case of “premeditated murder.”  Data compiled by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights shows that at least nine women have been executed in Iranian prisons over the past six months. Information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights shows that the executions were carried out in the early hours of June 7, 2026, at Qazvin Central Prison (Choobindar Prison). Farahmand, 28, and Zarini, 32, were both from Qazvin.

Hengaw – Friday, June 19, 2026: At least 12 prisoners, including two Baloch prisoners, one Kurdish prisoner, one Arab prisoner and one Lor prisoner, have been executed in recent weeks in prisons across Iran. The prisoners, identified as Karim Karami, Zahir Shahouzehi, Hossein Brahoui, Rashid Arefi, Khalegh Shahriari, Mehdi Moradian, Sadegh Shiri, Keyvan Rashidian, Mohammadreza Malekzadeh, Mansour Bakhtiari, Abbasgholi Seifzadeh and Rahman Bikar, had been sentenced to death on charges including drug-related offenses, premeditated murder, rape and armed robbery.

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. – A judge issued a death sentence Thursday for Kenneth Simpson, the man who shot two police officers in Hermann and killed one in 2023. Simpson was convicted of first-degree murder and eight other felonies in the shooting and death of Detective Sgt. Mason Griffith and the shooting of Officer Adam Sullentrup on March 12, 2023. On Thursday, in a packed courtroom, prosecutors introduced evidence that showed Simpson bragging about the shooting on video calls, where he claimed law enforcement officers were no match for him.

VIERA, Fla. (Court TV) — A Florida man will not face a potential death sentence for the death of a child after pleading no contest to multiple charges as part of a deal with prosecutors. Joshua Manns, 30, pleaded no contest to first-degree felony murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, aggravated child abuse, and felony child abuse on Wednesday, court records show. Manns had initially denied any responsibility for the death of 3-year-old Jameson Nance, who had been left in his care when he died. On June 11, 2021, Nance’s mother, Erica Dotson, called 911 after Manns called her and said something was wrong with her son. She said that when she arrived home, Manns was nowhere in sight, but Jameson was “lying on the bathroom floor with his arm stuck in the upward position.”

Gov. Kay Ivey announced the execution window for Jeremy Williams Thursday. Williams will be executed during a window from August 13 to 14 by lethal injection. Williams was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 5-year-old Kamarie Holland from Georgia. He was given four death sentences for his crime. Russell County Circuit Court Judge David Johnson handed down the sentence.

Florida has set an execution date of June 25, 2026, for 74-year-old death row inmate Dusty Ray Spencer, a move that would make him the oldest person ever executed in the state’s history . Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant on May 26, 2026, marking the tenth such warrant issued this year as the state continues its current pace of capital punishment. Spencer was convicted in 1992 of the first-degree murder of his wife, Karen Spencer, in Orange County. Court records detail a prolonged and violent pattern of abuse preceding the homicide. On January 18, 1992, after prior incidents of physical assault and threats, Spencer stabbed his wife to death in their backyard. The trial evidence included testimony that the victim was alive and conscious during the attack, which involved blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds while the couple's son was present.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 18 June 2026: At least eight men were executed in a group hanging in Ghezel Hesar Prison on 13 June and two men were hanged on 15 June. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least eight men were hanged in Ghezel Hesar Prison on 13 June 2026. They were all sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. Three of the men have been identified as Amirabbas Dakami from Gharchak, Seyed Akbar Banihashem and Mehdi Moradian. The identities of the other five men have not been established at the time of writing.

TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly denied a Kansas serial killer clemency from his death sentence on Thursday. She denied the request of John Robinson, an 82-year-old Kansas prison inmate convicted of killing eight women from the mid-1980s until he was arrested in 2000. The governor said he did not meet the criteria for clemency. “As the existence of a credible claim of innocence or evidence of manifest injustice are absent in his request,” Kelly said in a press release, “I have denied John Robinson’s request to commute his death sentence.”

Mr Mangione, 28, is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO ​Brian Thompson outside a hotel in Midtown in December 2024 Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down a health insurance executive on a Manhattan sidewalk, is for now withdrawing plans to introduce evidence at trial that he was undergoing an extreme mental health crisis at the time of the ​ alleged killing, according to a Friday court filing.

D4vd secures another court delay in his murder case, pushing the probable cause hearing to July 21 as his legal team reviews mounting evidence. D4vd walked into the Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday in an orange jail uniform and waist shackles, his legal team already preparing for another delay in what’s becoming a pattern of postponements in his murder case. The platinum-selling “Romantic Homicide” singer, 21, received his third hearing delay after his defense team requested additional time to review evidence, pushing the probable cause hearing from June 29 to July 21 with a status conference scheduled for July 7.

The request comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Jeffrey Weisheit’s case, ending years of state and federal appeals. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Wednesday asked the Indiana Supreme Court to schedule the execution of death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit. The filing came just eight days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in Weisheit’s case. He was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murders of 5-year-old Caleb Lynch and his 8-year-old sister, Alyssa Lynch, who were killed in a Vanderburgh County house fire in 2010.

Ohio’s attorney general says he will continue to uphold the state’s death penalty law, in spite of a call for abolishment of the capital punishment yesterday from Gov. Mike DeWine, who appointed him AG. Andy Wilson said in an interview he respects the opinion of DeWine, who appointed him as AG last month. While DeWine has asked the Ohio legislature to abolish executions for good, Wilson supports the use of capital punishment, as a former prosecutor who tried four death penalty cases. "I believe that the death penalty is a tool that should be available for prosecutors in the criminal justice system in a very limited set of cases when dealing with these most serious crimes," Wilson said.

The Iranian Judiciary has carried out the executions of at least three prisoners in recent days, including two Baloch men, Aref Barahoui and Hossein Keshani, as well as Hassan Fatemi. They had been sentenced to death on charges of "drug-related offenses" and "premeditated murder." According to reports received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution of Aref Barahoui (Eidozehi), a 34-year-old Baloch man from Zahedan, was carried out in the early hours of Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at Zabol Prison. Barahoui was married and the father of three children. He was arrested in Zabol in 2022 on drug-related charges and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of the city.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have secured a superseding indictment against the Afghan national accused of fatally shooting a West Virginia National Guard soldier and seriously wounding another Guardsman near the White House last year, adding charges that could make him eligible for the death penalty. A federal grand jury returned a 17-count superseding indictment Tuesday against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 30, in connection with the Nov. 26, 2025, attack that killed Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and seriously injured Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe of Martinsburg.

Mike DeWine spent years quietly opposing thedeath penalty in Ohio without ever saying so out loud – largely by ensuring no one was executed in the seven-plus years he has been governor. Even though most people could see how he felt, he still had a big moment Tuesday when he formally announced his opposition. One reason the announcement had weight, Today in Ohio podcast hosts said on Wednesday, is that he was the author of the state’s death penalty law 45 years ago. But podcast hosts also said the announcement landed with a bit of a thud, because it was so unsurprising and because DeWine did not do the one thing that would have had a big impact: commute all existing death sentences.

As Gov. DeWine calls for Ohio to end capital punishment, the state’s last execution remains the one I witnessed in 2018 Inside Ohio's death house, there is a room for executions and separate witness rooms: one for those connected to the victim and another for those connected to the inmate. Windows separate the death chamber from those watching, the condemned from the living. I was there on July 18, 2018 – during Ohio’s most recent execution. Robert Van Hook was put to death that day for killing David Self in 1985. He sat on death row for three decades. I was one of three media witnesses to the execution.