Death Penalty News

Iranian authorities executed Mohammadreza Rezaei Knkat, a 26-year-old Kurdish prisoner from Nurabad, Delfan, on drug-related charges in Khorramabad Central Prison. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution was carried out at dawn on Saturday, August 22, 2026. Informed sources told Hengaw that Rezaei Knkat was arrested in 2019 at the age of 19 on drug-related charges and subsequently sentenced to death by the Iranian judiciary.

The move is being made to narrow the scope of application of the country’s harshest punishment in line with progressive legislative trends. HANOI – The Government has proposed retaining the death penalty for only four offences: treason, murder, terrorism and illegal production of narcotics instead of the current 10. The move is being made to narrow the scope of the country’s harshest punishment in line with progressive legislative trends. The proposal was put forward on Thursday morning by Minister of Public Security General Lương Tam Quang, who, authorised by the Prime Minister, presented a summary of the Government’s submission on the draft revised Penal Code as the National Assembly continued its first extraordinary session.

Japan on Friday announced the execution of a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, the first execution by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government as the country faces growing calls for more transparency and the abolition of capital punishment. The Justice Ministry said Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged to death earlier Friday. Takami in 2009 set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a video of the construction of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offenses will be hanged. Ben-Givr said the new execution site would be equipped with viewing booths for families of victims to watch the hangings. He posted the video on social media of a visit he had made to the unidentified location, where he can be seen pointing at foundations being laid and saying it was where “terrorists will be executed." Photographs in the Israeli media showed a bulldozer and heavy construction work in a cordoned-off area, reportedly close to a prison.

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

Iranian authorities executed Ghaem Hosseini, also known as Arian, a 20-year-old Afghan national arrested in connection with the January protests, at Isfahan Central Prison. Hosseini was a defendant in the “Isfahan Alikhani Square” case and is the fifth defendant in the case to be executed. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, authorities carried out Hosseini’s execution at dawn on Thursday, August 20, 2026. He was the maternal cousin of Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, another Afghan national and defendant in the same case who was previously executed.

Sections 365 and 365A of the colonial-era Penal Code still criminalises homosexuality. Penalties include up to 10 years in prison, though no one has been prosecuted yet under the said provisions. Yet, the discriminatory law fosters social stigma and creates a permissive context for abuse. Criminalisation also stands in the way of any meaningful measures for equal opportunities for LGBTQ communities in employment and social life, effectively entrenching discrimination against citizens based on sexual identity and orientation. The bitter irony is that some of the most powerful political bigwigs of the country were openly gay, others lived a lie, and either way, the public did not care about their private lives. Yet the dubious anomaly in the colonial-era law has persisted under successive governments. 

Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Michael Caruso, a former Republican state legislator who previously backed the death penalty for adults convicted of sexually battering children under 12, was arrested Tuesday on five felony child sex abuse charges. The 67-year-old married father of seven who was appointed by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faces five felony counts: kidnapping, child molestation, lewd exhibition, luring or enticing a child, and child abuse causing mental injury, an arrest affidavit shows.

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison.  At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up.  He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

The trial of a man who admitted to suffocating his estranged wife and her 2 young daughters with a plastic bag more than a decade ago began Monday morning with jury selection.  Sandwiched by his attorneys, Alberto Sierra, 42, sat in a navy blue sweater as dozens of prospective jurors shuffled into the largest courtroom in the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami.  In 2 weeks, hundreds of the jurors will be questioned on their thoughts about the death penalty.  The pool will be whittled down to a 12-person jury that will be tasked with deciding whether Sierra should be condemned to Florida’s death row or sentenced to life in prison. 

Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Kim So-young, who was indicted and detained on charges including killing two people with drug-laced drinks, to death. On the 18th, according to legal sources, at the sentencing hearing for defendant Kim So-young in the "Gangbuk motel serial murder case," held before the Seoul Northern District Court Criminal Division 14 (Presiding Judge Oh Byung-hee, senior judge), prosecutors sought the death penalty. They also requested, among other measures, a 30-year electronic monitoring order.

Hours before the State of Florida is scheduled to execute 61-year-old William Frances Silvia , his spiritual advisor plans to hold a virtual press conference to publicly release Silvia’s full final statement. The spiritual advisor, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, is scheduled to meet with Silvia from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18, at Florida State Prison. Following the visit, Hood will host a press conference to read Silvia’s statement in full. Silvia chose to release his statement early to ensure his words are shared at length rather than being limited to the brief final remarks typically allowed inside the execution chamber.

Ammon News—A Syrian court on Tuesday handed a death sentence to Wassim al-Assad, who appeared in the dock, a cousin of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was himself sentenced to death in absentia last week. The 46-year-old relative of al-Assad was convicted over atrocities committed under his cousin’s rule during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Assad’s cousin was convicted of multiple murders and “murder accompanied by torture and brutality... classified as crimes against humanity and war crimes,” adding that “he is therefore sentenced to death.”

William Frances Silvia, 61, was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder for the deadly 2006 attack on Patricia Silvia, along with her mother, Betty Woodard. MIAMI — A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and wounding his mother-in-law is set to be executed Tuesday, August 18, continuing the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ‘ final term. William Frances Silvia, 61, would be the 13th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, which has two more executions scheduled in September and has carried out more than half of the nation’s 22 executions so far in 2026.

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has refused to scrap hanging as the method of executing the death penalty, but said the issue can be looked at again if new scientific or medical evidence shows that another method causes less pain. The court also said the Centre can set up an expert panel to examine whether another method of execution would reduce pain and protect the dignity of death row prisoners. Why was a plea filed against hanging as a method of execution? The petition was filed by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, who challenged the law that provides for hanging as the method of executing a death sentence, according to a LiveLaw report. Section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure says that a person sentenced to death should be "hanged by the neck till he is dead." Malhotra's plea sought to replace hanging with other methods, including lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or a gas chamber. He argued that hanging can cause prolonged pain and suffering and violates...

Starting next summer, Georgia’s highest court will no longer routinely hear appeals in murder cases. The decision was announced Thursday as part of a concurring opinion from Chief Justice Nels Peterson that was tied to a murder case out of Fulton County, Coleman v. The State , though it was not clear why Peterson’s opinion was attached to that case. Murder conviction appeals, which account for more than half of the Georgia Supreme Court’s published cases, will be heard in the Georgia Court of Appeals starting July 2027.

Iranian authorities have executed Mohammad Afrookhteh, a Baloch prisoner from Sib and Suran, and Mohammad Yousefi Azad, from Eslamshahr, in separate cases at Zahedan and Zanjan central prisons. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Mohammad (Cheragh) Afrookhteh, 30, was executed at Zahedan Central Prison in the early hours of Sunday, August 16, 2026. Informed sources said Afrookhteh had been arrested three years earlier on charges of “premeditated murder” and was subsequently sentenced to death.