Death Penalty News

Amnesty International says Indonesia continues to impose large numbers of death sentences despite a decade-long halt in executions, warning proposed execution regulations risk undermining human rights protections. Amnesty International has warned that Indonesia remains a significant contributor of new death sentences globally despite not carrying out executions for nearly a decade. In its latest report, Death Sentences and Executions 2025 , released on Wednesday, Amnesty International said Indonesian courts handed down at least 68 death sentences during 2025, most of them linked to drug-related offences.

An Iranian political prisoner sentenced to death on charges of “espionage and collaboration with a hostile state (Israel)” is at imminent risk of execution after being transferred to solitary confinement, the Norway-based rights group Hengaw said on Wednesday. Gholamreza Khani Shakarab, 34, a former MMA champion, coach and international referee, was moved from a high-security ward in Tehran’s Evin Prison to solitary confinement in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, Hengaw said. The case comes amid a widening wartime crackdown in Iran, where authorities have intensified arrests, executions and threats against dissent while repeatedly warning that criticism could aid the country’s enemies.

A decade on from reforms to its religious police, Saudi Arabia might not be quite as tough as it once was on its Christian population, but it remains one of the toughest places in the world to believe in Jesus. In its annual ranking of global persecutors, Open Doors places Saudi Arabia as the 13th worst country for the persecution of Christians. While foreign-born Christians of a certain status are able to enjoy a very limited amount of religious freedom, the situation is far worse for those lower down in society and for native-born Saudis who wish to follow Christ.

Absent court action, Tony Carruthers is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Tennessee on May 21, 2026, despite untest­ed DNA evi­dence, an inno­cence claim, and seri­ous men­tal ill­ness con­cerns . On May 18, faith lead­ers, civ­il rights advo­cates and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers marched to the state capi­tol to urge Governor Bill Lee to grant Mr. Carruthers clemen­cy or stay his exe­cu­tion to allow addi­tion­al DNA test­ing, deliv­er­ing a peti­tion with over 130,000 sig­na­tures. Gov. Lee announced on May 19 that he has no plans to inter­vene and stop the exe­cu­tion. Mr. Carruthers’ case has drawn nation­al atten­tion as his sched­uled exe­cu­tion date nears, includ­ing from celebri­ty Kim Kardashian, who urged her 345 mil­lion Instagram fol­low­ers to call Gov. Lee’s office to press for the DNA test­ing, and from Demetrius Minor, the Executive Director of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.

Iranian authorities executed a prisoner from Sari identified as Yahya Sobhani, who had previously been sentenced to death on drug-related charges, earlier this month in Sari Central Prison. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution of 44-year-old Yahya Sobhani was carried out in Sari Central Prison at dawn on Sunday, May 3, 2026. Sobhani, a resident of Sari, was married and the father of two children. He had been arrested approximately two years ago by Iranian authorities on charges related to the transportation and possession of narcotics and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Sari.

Iranian authorities secretly executed two Iraqi nationals, Ali Nader al-Obeidi and Fazel Sheikh Karim, in Karaj Central Prison during the final days of the 40-day war involving Iran, Israel, and the United States. The two men had previously been sentenced to death in a joint case on charges of allegedly spying for one of the Arab countries in the region. According to a report received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions were carried out in the early hours of Monday, April 6, 2026. The two men, both Arab residents of the Iraqi city of Amarah, were identified as 27-year-old Ali Nader al-Obeidi and 29-year-old Fazel Sheikh Karim.

Iranian authorities have secretly executed two Kurdish political prisoners, Ramin Zaleh and Karim Maroufpour, both from Naqadeh, who had previously been sentenced to death in a joint case on charges of membership in the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI). According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the death sentences of Ramin Zaleh and Karim Maroufpour were carried out in secret at dawn on Wednesday, May 21, 2026, in Naqadeh Central Prison, without prior notice to their families or the opportunity for a final visit.

MIAMI — The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed a historic criminal indictment charging former Cuban President Raúl Castro and five co-defendants with murder and conspiracy.  The charges stem from the February 24, 1996, shoot-down of two unarmed civilian aircraft operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. The group frequently flew over the Florida Straits to search for and assist Cuban rafters fleeing the island. The unsealed document represents a major escalation in U.S.–Cuba relations, marking the first time in nearly seventy years that top Cuban leadership has faced criminal charges in an American courtroom for violence against U.S. citizens. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictment outside Miami's Freedom Tower, highlighting the decades-long push for accountability.

Arizona executes inmate who set couple on fire in 'horrific attack' Arizona has executed Leroy McGill for setting 21-year-old Charles Perez and his 24-year-old girlfriend on fire. Perez died the next day and Perez survived with severe burn injuries.  Arizona has executed a death row inmate for setting 2 people on fire more than 20 years ago, killing 1 of them and changing the other's life forever.  The state executed Leroy McGill, 63, by lethal injection on Wednesday, May 20, for the 2002 murder of 21-year-old Charles Perez. McGill set Perez and his girlfriend on fire after they accused him of theft, court records say. Perez died of his injuries the next day while his girlfriend survived with severe burns. 

For close to a quarter of a century, death row inmate Hiroko Kazama’s every movement in her 3½ tatami-size cell at the Tokyo Detention House has been watched. When she wakes up, uses the bathroom or creates a piece of art, she does so surveilled by guards who observe her through a ceiling-mounted camera. “Prisoners are never told how or when they are being monitored, which creates a profound sense of fear and uncertainty,” Kazama, 68, said in a statement to The Japan Times. As male guards are not prohibited from surveilling female prisoners, such exposure is particularly distressing for Kazama.

A Broward County man is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday evening while his legal team mounts a furious, multi-pronged effort to halt the execution in federal and state courts. Richard Knight, who was convicted of the 2000 murders of Odessia Stephens and her daughter, Hanessia Mullings, faces a May 21 execution date at 6:00 p.m. ET. If carried out, it will mark the seventh execution in Florida this year and the 34th under Governor Ron DeSantis.

The judges argued he would be aware that the job involved something dangerous or illegal, because he was "accustomed to criminal activities". A 73-year-old Singaporean man was unsuccessful in appealing against his conviction and sentence for drug trafficking in 2019. Previously, Low Sze Song and his accomplice, 37-year-old Malaysian national Sivaprakash Krishnan, were each found guilty of trafficking at least 43.2g of pure heroin, exceeding the 15g threshold for the mandatory death penalty under Singapore law. After a trial, they were both sentenced to death on Apr. 14, 2023.

On days when executions are scheduled at Union Correctional Institution, in northwest Florida, members of the prison’s Catholic services pray the rosary. Over the course of the last year, they gathered in the chapel 24 times to pray for each person scheduled to die. After the state’s 19 executions in 2025, a record number , prisoners and staff alike have become increasingly numb to the routine act of state-sanctioned killing. The vibe around here is mostly the same on execution days. We used to be locked down; but not anymore, when there are sometimes up to two executions a month these days. The compound moves as it always has. Everybody here has been, and will be, here a long time; one gets used to these grim machinations.

South Carolina didn’t seek a death sentence the first time. Murdaugh is poised to challenge any attempt to do so now as illegally “vindictive.” After South Carolina’s Supreme Court reversed Alex Murdaugh ’s double-murder conviction and life sentence last week, the state’s attorney general, Alan Wilson, said the death penalty is “on the table” for a retrial against the ex-attorney who was found guilty in 2023 of killing his wife, Maggie, and their son Paul in 2021. But introducing the prospect of capital punishment could further complicate the state’s case in what’s already been a tortured legal process.

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona prisoner convicted of killing another man by throwing gasoline at him and lighting a match is set to be put to death Wednesday, the first of three executions planned this week around the U.S. Leroy Dean McGill, 63, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. He was convicted of murder in the July 2002 death of Charles Perez. Authorities said McGill threw the gasoline and a lit match at Perez and Perez’s girlfriend, Nova Banta, as they sat on a sofa in a north Phoenix apartment on July 13 of that year. Perez and Banta had accused McGill of stealing a gun from the apartment before the attack. At the time, McGill was using methamphetamine and hadn’t slept in several days.

On May 13, the Ministry of Justice published an appraisal document for the policy dossier of the draft amended Penal Code prepared by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS). In a significant shift, the MPS has proposed reducing the number of crimes punishable by death in Việt Nam from 10 to 2.  The Details: Under the proposal, capital punishment would be retained only for murder under Article 123 and for the rape of a person under 16 under Article 142.  The stated goal is to meet international standards to which Việt Nam is a party. Notably, drug-related crimes would be exempt from capital punishment, even though they currently account for nearly 85% of death sentences. 

Hengaw – Tuesday, May 19, 2026—Iranian authorities executed a prisoner from Shiraz identified as Saeid Rahmanirad, who had previously been sentenced to death on charges of premeditated murder by the Iranian judiciary, at Adelabad Prison in Shiraz. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution was carried out at dawn on Sunday, May 17, 2026, at Shiraz Central Prison, commonly known as Adelabad Prison. Rahmanirad, 30, had been convicted of “premeditated murder” by the Iranian judiciary.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Alex Murdaugh’s defense attorneys are questioning a statement from the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office about his fate after a retrial. Murdaugh, who was convicted in 2023 of killing his wife and son, was granted a new trial by the South Carolina Supreme Court. Attorney General Alan Wilson issued a statement saying, ”In light of the Supreme Court’s decision, we’re back to square one on this case, and that means all our legal options are on the table, including the death penalty." Murdaugh’s lawyers held a press conference on Monday to discuss a related federal lawsuit he has filed against the former Colleton County clerk of court. “I had hoped that would have been the main topic of this press conference, but over the weekend we learned that the Attorney General has announced he’s considering the death penalty in this case,” attorney Dick Harpootlian said. “Clearly, he is not talking to the lawyers in his office. He’s probably talking to his ...

2,707 executions worldwide in 2025, a record for over 40 years. Every year, Amnesty International releases a report detailing the use of the death penalty from the previous year. In this year’s report, there was a staggering rise in executions and death sentences, carried out by a handful of governments determined to rule by fear. Here, we provide the details on the main findings from the report, at a global and regional level.

Amnesty International Malaysia, however, says that without full abolition, Malaysia remains with the minority of countries still holding on to an unjust and irreversible punishment. PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s judicial reforms have led to a clear decline in the use of the death penalty, with only 15 new death sentences recorded in 2025, although Amnesty International Malaysia says full abolition remains a distant goal. The rights group said Malaysian courts imposed 15 death sentences in 2025, down from 24 in 2024 and 38 in 2023, following the abolition of the mandatory death penalty.