Death Penalty News

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.

The two men had brought several injured protesters into a shop to provide them with medical treatment. Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 20 July 2026: Mojtaba Dehbandi and Kianush Hamzezadeh-Kazerouni have been sentenced to death by the Shiraz Revolutionary Court for providing medical help to injured protesters during the January nationwide protests. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, Mojtaba Dehbandi, 23, and Kianush Hamzezadeh-Kazerouni, 27, were sentenced to death by Branch One of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court on charges of moharebeh (enmity against God) through the arson of public buildings and burning a Quran, and action against national security by harbouring protesters. Their preliminary sentence was issued over two months ago. Both men are Shiraz natives and detained in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 21 July 2026: More than 70 protesters arrested in connection with the January 2026 protests are facing execution at Isfahan Central Prison, with 26 held in pre-execution solitary confinement cells or isolation suites. Of the 31 individuals identified by IHRNGO, at least one was under 18 at the time of the alleged offence and three are Afghan nationals. Three other protesters are suspected to have been under 18 at the time of their alleged offences, which IHRNGO is working to verify.

A death row inmate is asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to replace the physician in charge of a botched execution in May or appoint a special master to consider his claim that a scheduled Aug. 13 execution could be unconstitutional. In a Monday Chancery Court filing, attorneys for inmate Darrell Hines cited the risk of extreme pain and suffering if the state uses the same doctor who was in charge when the state tried and failed to execute Tony Carruthers in May. The move comes after a Davidson County judge required the Department of Correction to reveal whether the same physician will perform Hines’ lethal injection.

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

Hengaw – Monday, July 20, 2026 Iranian authorities have executed at least five Turkish prisoners at Tabriz Central Prison in recent days. They had been sentenced to death in separate cases on charges of drug-related offenses and "premeditated murder."  One of the prisoners, Sohrab Nourmohammadi, was hanged after attempting suicide. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions of Sohrab Nourmohammadi, 40, from Jolfa, Sajjad Alizadeh, 31, from Varzaqan County, and Fardin Bernal, 31, from Tabriz, were carried out on Tuesday, July 14, 2026.

William Silvia, convicted of the 2006 shooting murder of his wife, Patricia, is scheduled to die by lethal injection in August, according to a death warrant filed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 17. If all previously scheduled executions go as planned, Silvia will be the 13th person put to death in Florida this year, following a record-breaking 19 executions in 2025. Silvia, now 61, went to his estranged wife's mother's house in Seminole County to attempt to reconcile with her, but first he calmly bought a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition, prosecutors said. After talking to Patricia Silvia, Silvia got the shotgun from his truck, shot her mother, Betty Woodard, in the face, and fatally shot Patricia in the head, court records show. Woodard, who was standing in front of her daughter, lost her left eye and the top portion of her nose.

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The state will seek the death penalty against a Tampa man charged with first-degree murder and accused of stabbing his girlfriend 65 times, the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office said. State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit Court Suzy Lopez told 8 On Your Side the aggravating factors that are necessary for the death penalty are present in this case. “The state legislature gives us enumerated aggravators. And here in this case, this crime was perpetrated in a very heinous, atrocious, and cruel way. Those are actually the words the legislature has given us,” she said.

(NewsNation) — Prosecutors say they will consider several factors before determining whether they will seek the death penalty for singer D4vd, who is charged with killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.  The singer, whose real name is David Burke, is charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under 14 and mutilating a body. Burke has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 19 July 2026: State media reported the execution of protesters Erfan Esfandiari and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, an Afghan national, in connection to the 8 January protests in Isfahan.  Their executions bring the total number of protesters executed in connection with the January 2026 protests to at least 23. Another January protester, Mohammad Amini Dehaghani, was hanged in Isfahan Central Prison six days ago.  

Earlier, while convicting Chenthamara, the court had asked whether he wished to say anything before sentencing. He initially replied that he had "nothing to say." PALAKKAD: In a significant judgment, the Additional District and Sessions Court-IV, Palakkad, on Monday sentenced Chenthamara (62) to death for the brutal double murder of his neighbours Sudhakaran and his 75-year-old mother Lakshmi at Boyan Unnathi in Pothundy, Nenmara in 2025. In addition to the death penalty, the court imposed a fine of Rs 20 lakh and ordered that this amount be paid as compensation to the victims' family.

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

HOLLYWOOD HILLS—David Anthony Burke, known by his stage name D4VD, is eligible to receive both life in prison and the death penalty for his alleged involvement in the murder of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.  Burke is facing first-degree murder with special circumstances, lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under 14, and mutilating a body. The special circumstances include lying in wait for the victim, committing the crime for financial gain, and murdering a witness in an investigation.

The number of death sentences handed out by juries has plunged by more than 90% since the 1990s. On July 8, the Death Penalty Information Center, or DPIC, released its midyear update on capital punishment in the United States. Many of the findings were sadly, disturbingly familiar. For example, racial bias still plays a large role in who gets executed, and the Supreme Court continues to allow executions to proceed even when those being put to death have strong claims of innocence. But there was also encouraging news.