Death Penalty News

A United Nations expert on violence offered a shocking reaction when a female October 7 survivor confronted her for denying Hamas' rapes after she detailed her own sexual abuse at the hands of the terrorist group. Ilana Gritzewsky testified at the UN Human Rights Council's 62nd session on Tuesday and offered an emotional account of the trauma Hamas inflicted on her when she was held as a hostage. 'On October 7, terrorists stormed our Kibbutz, murdering, kidnapping, and burning,' Gritzewsky said. 'They touched me and sexually abused me.' Gritzewsky, who was brought to the floor by watchdog nongovernmental organization UN Watch, added that she had been sexually assaulted by at least seven Hamas terrorists.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 24 June 2026: Issa Rahmani, a Baluch man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Zahedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Zahedan Central Prison on 21 June 2026. His identity has been established as Issa Rahmani, a 38-year-old Baluch man from Saravan. He was arrested almost four years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

74-year-old man becomes oldest inmate executed in modern Florida history  A 74-year-old man convicted of fatally stabbing his wife became the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history on Thursday, and the state is scheduled to execute another 74-year-old inmate next month.  Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Spencer was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of his wife Karen. 

Dusty Ray Spencerʼs crime “merits a severe punishment,” but the state should “exercise mercy,” the state bishops' conference said. Florida’s Catholic bishops are urging state Gov. Ron DeSantis to spare the life of a convicted murderer set to be executed for killing his wife more than three decades ago. DeSantis should “grant a stay of the execution of Dusty Ray Spencer and … commute his sentence to life without parole,” the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a letter to DeSantis dated June 18.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported the issuance of death sentences for two brothers, Hadi and Fazlollah Nikbakht, warning that both are at imminent risk of execution. Their other brother, Mohammad Nikbakht, is also facing charges that could potentially lead to a capital sentence. According to the report, Hadi and Fazlollah Nikbakht were sentenced to death approximately two weeks ago by the Revolutionary Court of Golpayegan on charges of “corruption on earth.” The two brothers were arrested at their home in Golpayegan on October 24, 2025, after they attempted to prevent the confiscation of their agricultural land. Following two months of absolute incommunicado detention, they were transferred to Isfahan Central Prison, also known as Dastgerd Prison.

June 24 (Reuters) - A conservative federal judge on Wednesday took the position that despite a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring the death penalty for child rape, prosecutors today may be free to seek capital punishment in cases involving sexual offenses against children. St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Joshua ​Divine, who was appointed to the bench only last year by Republican President Donald Trump, delivered his views in an unusual ‌court opinion issued on the same day he was set to sentence a Missouri man who faced a maximum prison term of 20 years.

Brooke George from Gravesend, Kent, is accused of stabbing the man to death with a kitchen knife after they met on Facebook Brooke George, 23, from Gravesend, Kent is accused of killing a fellow Brit with a kitchen knife. According to campaign group Detained in Dubai, George stabbed him to death in an act of self defence. Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, said: “She reached for a knife after being attacked. Authorities must treat her as a domestic violence survivor while they investigate.”

Gov. Bill Lee has not responded to calls for a death penalty pause after the failed lethal injection of Tony Carruthers It has been just over a month since executioners in Nashville abandoned the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers, who was strapped to a gurney for more than an hour as they tried and failed to place a secondary IV line. But while Gov. Bill Lee quickly granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve, his administration has not responded to urgent calls for a pause on the state’s death penalty.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A new murder trial has been set for a former Oklahoma death row inmate who was on the brink of being executed multiple times during the three decades he spent in prison for the 1997 killing of his former boss. The Supreme Court overturned Richard Glossip’s conviction in 2025, and a state judge released the man on bond last month. His attorneys had asked the same judge to consider whether there is enough evidence to retry him, but after a hearing Tuesday, the judge ruled that a new trial would start Sept. 28.

Weeks before calling to abolish capital punishment in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine commuted the man’s death sentence to life in prison without parole. When Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called on lawmakers to abolish the state’s death penalty last week, he wouldn’t tell reporters if he would spare any of the more than 100 people on death row. Three weeks earlier, however, DeWine quietly did just that for Gregory Lott, a man with intellectual disabilities. Lott, now 64, will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for the death of an 82-year-old East Cleveland man he set on fire during a home burglary in 1986.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A former Oklahoma death row inmate who was released from incarceration after nearly three decades is scheduled to be back in court as his case proceeds to a retrial for a 1997 killing that put him on the brink of execution three times. Richard Glossip’s initial conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, and he was released on bond by a state judge last month.  Tuesday’s hearing will determine whether his case goes straight to retrial or if he will be given a new hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed.

After prosecuting Saldaño's murder case, Texas officials joined the man's bid to remand the case to a trial court to fully weigh his intellectual disability argument. WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a Texas man’s bid to stave off his looming execution related to a murder conviction based on his argument that he is intellectually disabled. Victor Saldaño was previously successful in challenging a 1994 murder conviction and death sentence, but when retried in 2004 he again faced the death penalty, which he argues was wrong due to his trial attorney’s failure to present mental health or intellectual disability evidence.

The death row population in the U.S. has dropped below 2,000 for the first time since the 1980s, according to the latest report on national capital punishment trends released by the civil rights think tank Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF). The Spring 2026 edition of Death Row U.S.A., which tracks state and national data on death row populations, executions, the race and sex of victims in execution cases, and the impact of moratoria and judicial reversals, shows that the nation’s death row population now stands at 1,993, down 47% from its peak of 3,726 in January 2001. The current death-row population is the smallest recorded in LDF’s more than 50 years of monitoring since December 1987, when 1,982 incarcerated people faced execution.

Almost 100 people executed so far this year as dozens more remain on death row for drug-related offences Saudi Arabian authorities have executed nearly 100 people so far this year, including at least 61 for drug-related offences, the latest of which was on 18 June. In response, Dana Ahmed, Middle East Researcher at Amnesty International, said today: “It is halfway through the year and Saudi Arabia has executed nearly 100 people, a grim milestone exposing the authorities’ unconscionable and unlawful use of the death penalty. Of the 96 people put to death already in 2026, an astounding 61 were executed for drug-related offences; 39 of them were foreign nationals and 22 Saudi nationals.

Rules capital charges leveled against the disabled Catholic man were fabricated A Pakistani court has acquitted a blind Catholic man of blasphemy charges, ruling that the case against him was fabricated. The Additional Session Judge Court in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, cleared Nadeem Masih, 51, on June 22 and ordered his immediate release from detention. Judge Saad Salman Khan delivered the verdict in a case that carried the death penalty under Pakistan’s Penal Code.

Iran has turned executions and opaque security trials into one of its harshest tools for suppressing dissent and maintaining control. The Iranian regime has used its conflict with Israel and the United States, regional tensions, and recurring political crises as tools to intensify repression at home. The sharp rise in executions in recent years stands out as the starkest expression of this policy. Reports published by international human rights organizations show that Iran remains one of the world’s leading executioners.

Iranian authorities have executed two Afghan nationals, Mirwais Khalilzadi and Ebrahim Ahmadshahi, in Shiraz Central Prison. Both men had previously been sentenced to death in separate cases on drug-related charges. With these two executions, at least 12 Afghan prisoners have been executed in Iran in less than six months since the beginning of 2026. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions of Mirwais Khalilzadi, 55, and Ebrahim Ahmadshahi, 40, both fromAfghanistan, were carried out at dawn on Sunday, June 21, 2026, in Shiraz Central Prison (Adelabad).

Government says men were involved in terror and drug cases between 2014 and 2022; over 100 remain on death row, Amman says executions to proceed ‘one by one’ Jordan hanged on Sunday six men convicted of killing security personnel, a government official said, ending a nine-year moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Government spokesman Mohammad Momani said in a statement that the men had been convicted in “terrorism and criminal cases” that led to the deaths and injuries of police officers and soldiers. According to the Jordanian Roya News outlet, the executions were carried out at dawn Sunday. Two of the men were involved in a 2018 case in the city of Salt, where six security officers were killed during a raid, the Jordanian government said.

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.