Death Penalty News

TOKYO—Why fight to keep a murderer alive? asks Aera magazine (Sept 21-28). Defense lawyer Yasushi Mizutani’s profession qualifies him to explain. On July 5, 2009, at 4:15 in the afternoon, a man walked into an Osaka pachinko parlor, doused the floor with gasoline and set it on fire. Five burned to death. Ten others survived their burns. The next day police in Hiroshima arrested Sunao Takami, then 41. He confessed immediately. “Why did you do it?” they asked him. He shrugged. “I wanted to kill. It didn’t matter who.”

‘ Phua Chu Kang’ actors Lim Kay Siu and Neo Swee Lin are charged with taking part in a public assembly outside the State Courts Six Singaporeans , including journalist Kirsten Han and Phua Chu Kang actors Lim Kay Siu and Neo Swee Lin, were charged on Monday with taking part in public assemblies. The assemblies were held in prohibited areas, with one held outside the State Courts in support of abolishing the death penalty, as well as candlelight vigils held outside Changi Prison for death row inmates.

Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Mozhdeh Hashemi Bazargani, a 27-year-old Red Crescent worker who said in a recording from Qazvin prison that interrogators beat her until her teeth broke and made her sign a confession, a source told Iran International. Hashemi Bazargani was denied a lawyer of her own choosing throughout the proceedings, the source said. She is held in Qazvin Central Prison, in the city 150 kilometers west of Tehran, and is accused of sending the location of a military site to "the enemy," a charge she has denied.

(TNND) — As Tennessee prepares for a Sept. 30 execution, the Tennessee Supreme Court has denied death row inmate Christa Gail Pike’s request to stop it. The court rejected Pike’s challenge to the state’s lethal-injection protocol, finding that her thrombocytosis diagnosis, a condition involving elevated blood platelets, did not show the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

President Marcos Confirms Decision to Grant Absolute Pardon to Mary Jane Veloso  President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has signed an absolute pardon for Mary Jane Veloso after more than a decade.  On Friday (September 25, 2026), the President confirmed the decision during a visit to Guiuan, Eastern Samar.  According to him, the pardon was officially signed the previous day, marking a major development in the case.  

Douglas Stewart Carter, 71, was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen Prosecutors are dropping their plan to seek the death penalty in an upcoming retrial of a Utah man who spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing in which newly analyzed DNA evidence did not match him. Douglas Stewart Carter, 71, was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief. The state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter remains in custody and maintains his innocence.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an exe­cu­tion war­rant for 74-year-old pris­on­er William ​“Bill” Thompson less than 24 hours after he was released from the hos­pi­tal to the hos­pice wing of the prison. After his attor­neys raised seri­ous con­cerns about his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy and dete­ri­o­rat­ing phys­i­cal health, Gov. DeSantis agreed to tem­porar­i­ly stay the exe­cu­tion so Mr. Thompson’s com­pe­ten­cy can be eval­u­at­ed on October 1. If he is found com­pe­tent, his exe­cu­tion remains sched­uled for October 13.

A district judge found Lucio “actually innocent" in 2024 and ruled the state had suppressed evidence in her death penalty case. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday struck down a lower court’s finding that death row inmate Melissa Lucio is innocent of the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter. Lucio has spent 18 years on death row after being convicted of killing her daughter, Mariah Alvarez. But questions about Lucio’s possible innocence have lingered for years, stemming from questions on the origin of Mariah’s fatal head trauma: from abuse or an accidental fall down the stairs.

Iranian authorities have executed three prisoners, including two Lors and one Arab, in separate cases at prisons in Dezful, Isfahan, and Ahvaz. The prisoners, Emad Mirdoraghi, Mostafa Karimzadeh, and Seyed Sadegh Mousavi, had been sentenced to death on charges of murder or drug-related offenses. Based on information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Emad Mirdoraghi, a Lor from Andimeshk, was executed at Dezful Central Prison in Khuzestan Province at dawn on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.

Thai police have arrested a 26-year-old Hong Kong man after seizing about 350 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, known as "ice," worth an estimated 700 million baht (about HK$165 million, US$21.04 million) at a residential property in Bangkok's Min Buri district. The raid was carried out on Monday night by the Department of Special Investigation's Crime Suppression Bureau and narcotics police at a house on Rom Klao 11 alley in the Saen Saep sub-district. Officers found three large plastic barrels containing the drugs, along with plastic bags, cardboard boxes, electronic scales, blenders, vacuum sealers, suitcases, and plastic containers.

Texas executes man for a triple killing, days after other man convicted in case was put to death  A man was executed Wednesday evening in Texas for a triple killing committed during an attempted robbery at a rural home, 1 week after the other man convicted in the case was put to death.  Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. CDT following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was the 6th person executed this year in Texas, with 3 more lethal injections scheduled in the state over the next 2 months. 

Tomasz Kosowski sat each day alone at the defense table, wearing orange jail garb and rubber sandals with socks. In a rare and largely unprecedented move for a death penalty case, Kosowski represented himself, waiving his right to a jury trial and allowing a judge in Pinellas County, Florida, to decide his fate. Prosecutors presented the state’s case over six days, laying out for the judge how the former plastic surgeon accosted Steven Cozzi in the bathroom of his law office on a Tuesday morning, and Cozzi was never seen again.

Ker’Sean Olajuwa Ramey is scheduled to die Wednesday, one week after the state executed his co-defendant for the same killings. Texas is scheduled to execute a man on Wednesday for the 2005 shooting deaths of three people during a botched robbery in a small South Texas town, just one week after the state put his co-defendant to death for the same crime. Ker’Sean Olajuwa Ramey, 41, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Advocates say money spent litigating capital cases would do more good invested in unsolved murders, crime labs and survivor support Family members of homicide victims called on lawmakers and law enforcement to shift funding away from heavy sentences and capital punishment to cold-case investigations, violence prevention, and survivor support. At a news conference Monday, members of Arizonans for Effective Public Safety recounted the still unsolved murders of their daughter, son, husband, and cousin, crimes that date as far back as 1988.

The Hubei High People's Court upheld the death sentence handed down to a ringleader of a mafia-style organization on Wednesday after rejecting his appeal in a second trial. Huang Dafa, a former village head and businessman in the province, was sentenced to death on 21 charges—including leading organized crimes, intentional injury, and fraud—by Huanggang Intermediate People's Court in Hubei in April 2026. The high court said that the original ruling was based on clear facts and sufficient evidence, with accurate conviction, appropriate sentencing, and lawful procedures. It therefore dismissed Huang's appeal and kept the original verdict.

It was the message that Gigi had waited for all night.  She had flirted, sashayed and loitered along Walking St, and in the Buakhao neighbourhood, for hours, hoping to catch a customer from the sea of tourists partying in Pattaya's infamous red-light districts.  But by 4am, her feet ached, her cinched corset was unbearable, and she still hadn't earned a cent from the men stumbling out of the neon go-go bars.  Suddenly, her phone lit up with a message from an old client from Dubai. She had 6 minutes to get to his hotel room. 

A close reading of the nine judgements in which the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Muzaffarnagar, imposed 23 death sentences reveals a deeply troubling picture  It is highly unlikely that any of these 23 death sentences will be upheld by the appellate courts. However, it is a process that can take years. As a society and a legal system, we have chosen to retain the death penalty. The least courts can do in exposing an accused to the “spectre” of death is to ensure that such suffering is not inflicted in blatant disregard for the law. The Supreme Court has repeatedly insisted that the decision to impose it cannot be based only on the brutality of the crime and that a certain procedure has to be followed. Yet, the recent instance of a trial judge in Uttar Pradesh sentencing 23 people to death over approximately five months raises a fundamental concern about whether the law laid down by the Supreme Court is being followed.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 22 September 2026: Ali Zarei Douzdarehsi, a political prisoner on death row for “corruption on earth” charges, is at imminent risk of execution after being transferred to the solitary confinement cells of Ghezel Hesar Prison (Karaj). According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, political prisoner Ali Zarei Douzdarehsi was transferred to the solitary confinement cells of Ghezel Hesar Prison on 19 September 2026, raising concerns about the possibility of his imminent execution.

The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a man who was handed down death penalty for repeated sexual assault of three minor girls aged between six and eight. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Augustine George Masih and Sandeep Mehta passed the order while hearing a plea filed by the man challenging a verdict in June this year of the Madras High Court's Madurai bench which confirmed his conviction and death sentence given in the case. The high court had said that three minors were sucbjected to aggravated penetrative sexual assault repeatedly over a period of one year and they were aged six, seven and eight respectively. It had said the convict did not deserve any leniency.