Death Penalty News

The Final Letter of a Student Executed Before His Appeal Was Heard The family of Vahid Ben Amerian did not know their son would be executed that morning. No notice arrived from the court. His lawyers were not informed that the sentence would be carried out, even as his case was still pending before Iran’s Supreme Court. The family learned through state media that the top electrical engineering student had been executed on April 4 alongside five other prisoners. Before his execution, Vahid sent his mother a final message: “What greater honor is there than for you and me, Mother, to pay the price of resilience, to endure this pain, and to have made an impact on the fate of our people?”

South Asian country enacted new anti-rape law in wake of 2020 incident A Pakistani court has upheld the death sentences awarded to two men for raping a French woman in front of her children six years ago. Abid Ali and Shadqat Ali were accused of assaulting the foreign tourist on the busy Lahore-Sialkot motorway in September 2020. Investigators said the 32-year-old woman’s car had run out of fuel, leaving her stranded on the highway after midnight. She was calling for help when the two men pulled up. They broke the windows of the car, dragged the tourist and her children to a nearby field and sexually assaulted her. They were sentenced to death by a trial court in March 2021 but moved to the Lahore High Court for reprieve later that year.

At least 80 prisoners, including 17 political prisoners, were executed in prisons across Iran during May 2026, according to data compiled by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. The figure represents a decrease of 83 executions, or approximately 51%, compared with the same month in 2025, when at least 163 executions were recorded. Hengaw has verified the identities of 76 of those executed, while the identities of four others remain under investigation. Among those executed was a woman, Esma Zarei, a 28-year-old from Parsabad, who was executed in Ardabil Central Prison after being convicted of murder.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 2 June 2026: Morteza Sadeghzadeh, Kurdish man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Damghan Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Damghan Prison on 1 June 2026. His identity has been established as Morteza Sadeghzadeh, a 28-year-old Kurdish man. He was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. At the time of writing, his execution not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

An Australian woman has been arrested in Indonesia for allegedly receiving a delivery of cannabis-infused vape liquid. Indonesian police have arrested an Australian woman allegedly found with 59 millilitres of vape liquid containing cannabis that she said was for pain relief but can land her in prison. The woman, 53, risks 20 years behind bars under Indonesia's no-exceptions anti-drug laws, narcotics officer I Nyoman Diana Mahardika told AFP on Thursday. The unnamed woman was arrested last month at her rented house on the resort island of Lombok after police found out she had allegedly received a delivery of liquid cannabis.

ATLANTA, Ga. — The man accused of stabbing and killing a 66-year-old woman on a MARTA train last Saturday has caught the attention of federal prosecutors. John Elijah Matthews, 25, faces a federal charge of committing an act of violence causing death on a mass transportation station, the District Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said on Tuesday. He was also charged with murder in Fulton County.

Iranian authorities have secretly executed Fathollah Avary, a prisoner arrested during the January 2026 protests, in Hamedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Avary was executed at dawn on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Hamedan Central Prison. The execution was carried out without prior notification to his family, who were also denied a final visit. The Iranian judiciary had sentenced Avary to death on charges of moharebeh (“waging war against God”), accusing him of killing a member of the security forces identified as Mohammad Javad Bakhshian during protests in Hamedan on January 8, 2026.

After the state of Tennessee failed in its attempt to execute Tony Carruthers last month, defense attorneys were in a mad dash to preserve evidence. Tennessee Department of Correction staff and medical contractors had tried to establish an IV into Carruthers’ arms — and, when that failed, a doctor tried twice to cut into his chest and then once into his shoulder before the execution was called off. Carruthers’ legal team asked the Davidson County Chancery Court for a few things: They wanted an independent doctor to examine Carruthers. Ideally, they said, he would undergo the exam within 48 hours of the failed execution — so by the end of the day on May 22. And they wanted the court to order TDOC to keep all the equipment used that day.

Jacksonville man who killed his girlfriend’s 5-month-old baby in 1996 executed 30 years later A Jacksonville man who confessed to killing his girlfriend’s 5-month-old daughter and throwing her body in a pond 3 decades ago was executed on Tuesday evening.  Andrew Richard Lukehart, 53, was scheduled to receive a 3-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke.  He was sentenced to death after being convicted of aggravated child abuse and felony murder in the death of Gabrielle Hanshaw. The baby’s mother told News4JAX she plans to attend the execution.

Kentucky's top cop is joining more than a dozen other states that are calling on the federal government to address delays in death penalty cases. According to a release, Coleman is adding his name to a 16-state push to speed up the process in often lengthy death penalty litigation. The states are in favor of a U.S. Department of Justice proposal meant to streamline federal review of state capital murder convictions. The U.S. Department of Justice proposal aims to expedite the federal habeas corpus review process for state-level capital murder convictions. By establishing stricter procedural timelines and limiting the scope of successive petitions, the initiative intends to reduce the protracted litigation cycles that frequently characterize death penalty cases.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 2 June 2026: Zahra Shahbaz Tabari, a female political prisoner and electrical engineer detained in Rasht Central Prison, has been resentenced to death on the charge of baghy (armed rebellion) through affiliation with the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK) by the Revolutionary Court. Since 30 March, at least 13 political prisoners affiliated with banned opposition groups have been executed in Iran. Of those, nine were affiliated with the PMOI/MEK, two to Baluch groups and two to Kurdish groups.

Iranian authorities have executed twelve prisoners, including three Baloch prisoners, two Turks, one Kurd, and two Afghan nationals, in prisons in Shiraz, Zanjan, and Sabzevar. The prisoners had been sentenced to death on charges related to “drug offenses,” “premeditated murder,” and “rape.” According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, ten of the executions were carried out in the early hours of Sunday, May 31, 2026, at Shiraz Central Prison (Adelabad Prison). Hengaw has identified eight of those executed as Saeid Dehqanizadeh, Barzou Mousazadeh, Abbas Bayat, Ali Akbar Sarabi Moqadam, Salar Sheikhi, Mohammad Osman Danebarchin, Qader Khodamoradi, and Mohammad Sediq Balouchi. The identities of two other executed prisoners, both Afghan nationals, have not yet been confirmed and remain under investigation.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 30 May 2026: Farhang Sheikhleh, a Kurdish man on death row for murder, was executed in Sanandaj Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Sanandaj Central Prison on 25 May 2026. His identity has been established as Farhang Sheikhleh, a 55-year-old Kurdish man from Sanandaj. He was arrested around five years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 1 June 2026: State media have reported the executions of Ashkan Maleki and Mehrdad Mohammadinia, two protesters arrested for the arson of a mosque and a seminary during protests in Tehran on 9 January. They were convicted of “operational actions against national security on behalf of Israel and the United States” under the newly enacted espionage law. Arman Marefati, the third defendant in the case whose charges were elevated to capital offences at trial, is now at imminent risk of execution. Since 19 March, at least 17 protesters have been executed in connection with the nationwide January protests, an average rate of one execution every 4.5 days.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 1 June 2026: Benyamin Naghdi, a protester arrested on 3 January, has been sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Shiraz Revolutionary Court. He was convicted on the charge of efsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth). Benyamin’s coerced confessions were aired by state media a day after his arrest. According to Emtedad, Benyamin Naghdi, a 26-year-old protester arrested in relation to the December–January protests, has been sentenced to death.  The 26-year-old MMA fighter and kickboxer was arrested at a protest in Shiraz on 3 January. His coerced confessions were aired by state media on 4 January. He was accused of using a fire extinguisher as a makeshift flamethrower, which he used against security forces passing by on motorcycles.

Thirty years ago while on probation for fracturing an infant’s skull, Andrew Lukehart inflicted at least five blows to the head of another baby, then concocted a story that she was abducted before eventually leading authorities to her body in a swamp area.  At 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, the 53-year-old from Jacksonville is set to become Florida’s eighth man on death row to be executed in 2026. He will become the 36th under Gov. Ron DeSantis after a record 19 inmates were executed by the state in 2025, including another from Duval County: Michael Bell.

The Islamic regime has used “wartime conditions” as a cover to intensify repression against the Iranian people, according to information reviewed by Amnesty International published earlier this week. In text messages reviewed by Amnesty, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was seen issuing direct warnings that those attempting to break through the regime’s internet restrictions could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, the punishment for which is often the death penalty. These threats were issued under the framing that ordinary online activity was a threat to national security.

Iranian authorities secretly executed Elias Zeinoddini, a Baloch prisoner from Lashar County, at Zahedan Central Prison in mid-May. He had previously been sentenced to death on accusations of “ moharebeh ” (waging war against God) and “participation in premeditated murder” in connection with the killing of a law enforcement officer. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Elias Zeinoddini, 44, from Lashar County in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, was executed in the early hours of Friday, May 16, 2026, at Zahedan Central Prison. He was denied a final visit with his family prior to the execution.

A second execution would be an unimaginable nightmare for Tony Carruthers and a moral horror for the rest of us. Tony Carruthers is not supposed to be alive . On May 21, Tennessee set out to execute him. It failed. Carruthers survived. He is not the first person to survive an execution in the United States, and he won’t be the last. For Carruthers, the question is: Now what? Will the state seek to arrange a second execution?