Death Penalty News

Jerome Anderson shot and killed Antoine Melvin, 42, John Burch, 65, and Patrick Lassiter, 35, in 2023. A man pleaded no contest to a triple-murder in Daytona Beach and was sentenced April 20 to three consecutive life terms in prison as part of a plea deal in which he avoided a possible death sentence. Jerome Anderson, 41, was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the 2023 triple-slaying. Anderson pleaded no contest to the three first-degree murder charges April 20 and, in exchange, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak agreed not to continue to pursue the death penalty.

Tanner Horner apologised to Athena Strand's loved ones for 'taking their little angel away' in a two-page letter Athena Strand's killer penned a letter to her family apologising for 'taking their little angel away' - before chillingly claiming he 'wasn't the only one involved' in another addressed to investigators. Tanner Horner, 34, confessed to abducting and murdering the seven-year-old on 30 November, 2022, after delivering a parcel to her dad's home in Paradise, Texas. Jurors - who were left in tears after listening to distressing audio of the little girl's final moments last week - must now decide if the former FedEx driver should face the death penalty or life in prison.

During the last 10 years, the number of death row inmates from Brevard county dropped from 12 down to three and soon it will likely be two. Chadwick Willacy, formerly of Palm Bay and who has spent 36 years on death row for the murder of his 58-year-old neighbor Marlys Sather, is set to be executed by lethal injection on April 21. Willacy is 56. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been setting records trying to clear as much of the death row roster as possible ― in 2025, Florida executed 19 inmates, more than twice the number of the previous high of eight in 2014. But the dwindling roster of Brevard death row inmates can also be traced to a misinterpretation by the Florida Supreme Court of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2016 requiring unanimous jury recommendations regarding the death penalty.

DPN — Iranian authorities executed two men at dawn Monday on charges of espionage and cooperation with Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, the judiciary’s official news outlet reported. The men, identified by the Mizan news agency as Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi, were hanged following convictions for " moharebeh " — or waging war against God — and collaboration with "the Zionist regime." The executions were carried out after the country’s Supreme Court upheld their death sentences.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Attorneys for death row inmate Tony Carruthers filed a motion in Shelby County Criminal Court seeking immediate DNA testing on evidence they claim will prove his innocence in a 1994 triple murder.  Carruthers is scheduled for execution on May 12. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murders of 24-year-old Marcellos Anderson, 17-year-old Delois Anderson, and 21-year-old Frederick Scarborough. Prosecutors at trial alleged the victims were buried alive in a Memphis cemetery as part of a drug-related robbery.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the convictions and death sentences of Joseph Zieler for the 1990 murders of an 11-year-old girl and her babysitter, clearing the way for his execution after decades of the case remaining unsolved. Zieler, 61, was sentenced to death in 2023 for the slayings of Robin Cornell and Lisa Story. The decision by the state’s highest court marks a pivotal moment in one of Southwest Florida’s most notorious cold cases, which saw no progress until a 2016 DNA match linked Zieler to the crime scene.

Bita Hemmati and three others have been sentenced to death for 'collusion' and 'propaganda.' Advocates claim the charges are baseless, citing a secretive process and state-televised interrogations. Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”  

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 15 April 2026: Mohammad Nourani Gargari, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Ardabil Central Prison. Simultaneously, a woman named Mona Shojaei was saved from execution and released from prison after nine years, having obtained the consent of the victim's next of kin. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Ardabil Central Prison on 1 March 2026. His identity has been established as Mahmoud Nourani Gargari, a 31-year-old father to a young child. The Ardabil native was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

SINGAPORE — Singaporean authorities executed Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj at Changi Prison on Thursday, April 16, 2026, following his 2019 conviction for importing 1,009.1 grams of cannabis. Bamadhaj, 41, though some reports have cited his age as 46, was arrested on July 12, 2018, during a routine search at the Woodlands Checkpoint. Officers discovered the narcotics wrapped in plastic and hidden within his vehicle as he attempted to enter Singapore from Malaysia.  Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the threshold for the mandatory death penalty involving cannabis is 500 grams, a limit this shipment exceeded by more than double.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

(London, April 15, 2026) – The Singaporean government should immediately halt the execution of Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj, scheduled for April 16, 2026, for trafficking cannabis, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Capital Punishment Justice Project (CPJP), and Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) said today. Singaporean authorities arrested Omar, a Singaporean national, now 41, on July 12, 2018, and a court later convicted him of importing just over one kilogram of cannabis, considered a Class A controlled drug under the 1973 Misuse of Drugs Act . After Singapore’s highest court dismissed his appeal in October 2021, he was sentenced to death in February 2022.

The Iranian authorities have sentenced to death four more people, including a woman, over protests in January, several rights groups said on April 14. Iran has already hanged seven people in connection with the protests, which activists say were quelled in a crackdown that left thousands dead and tens of thousands arrested. Rights groups accuse the Islamic republic of using the death penalty as a tool of repression to instil fear in society, and fear it will ramp up capital punishment in the wake of the war against Israel and the United States.

On 13 April 2026, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court stayed a death sentence awarded to three convicts in a case from Dakshina Kannada. A trial court had convicted them and sentenced them to death in October 2024 for rape and murder under the penal code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 . A death sentence awarded by a trial court is not executable until it is confirmed by a High Court. On 6 February 2026, a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court confirmed the trial court’s decision. The Supreme Court left the conviction of the appellants untouched and reopened the sentencing question on two grounds: the High Court loosely engaged with the mitigation question in a single paragraph, and a third form of punishment—viewed as an alternative between ordinary life imprisonment and death penalty—was unconsidered.

Post Oct 7th, 2023, first came the words of outrage followed by encouragement and sympathy. Numerous heads of state flew in to tour Gaza-adjacent Israeli communities, where 1,200 men women and children were slaughtered, raped, beheaded, and taken hostage by Hamas bloodthirsty terrorists. Then an eerie silence as Hamas supporters, extreme haters of Israel, al Jazeera and a tsunami of social media bots, flipped the script, embedding Israel as the evil doer. Their crime? Counterattacking against Hamas and its 500 km underground city of terror. UN agencies, pious international courts, special rapporteurs, human rights NGOs, BBC-led hit pieces and social media bots and influencers, demonized a traumatized Jewish nation and taught the world to spell Zionist=N-A-Z-I.

TEHRAN — Iranian authorities have formalized the use of capital punishment for individuals utilizing Starlink satellite internet terminals as a nationwide communications blackout enters its seventh week. According to data from cybersecurity monitor NetBlocks, the state-imposed disruption has now surpassed 1,080 hours of near-total digital isolation, marking the most extensive connectivity shutdown in the country’s history.

Responding to the sentencing of nine police officers to death by the First Additional District and Sessions Court in Madurai for the 2020 custodial torture and killing of P. Jayaraj and P. Bennix, Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India’s Chair of Board, said:  “The court verdict marks a rare moment of accountability in India’s long struggle against police torture. The verdict acknowledges the brutality of a crime that shocked the nation. But this death penalty sentence is not justice – it is a deflection from the deeper reforms urgently required to ensure police oversight and accountability. Punishing a human rights violation with another does not end violence; it just perpetuates it.

The 18th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, published by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), reveals an unprecedented escalation in the use of the death penalty by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2025.  At least 1,639 people were executed, marking the highest number of recorded executions since 1989 and a dramatic 68% increase compared to 2024, when 975 executions were recorded. This is the continuation of the execution surge that began after the “Woman, Life, Freedom” nationwide protests in 2022, illustrating the authorities’ continued reliance on the death penalty as a tool to instil fear and deter new protests.

Adding a compensation clause to the Road Transport Act will help victims avoid a long-drawn-out civil suit, minister says There is no necessity to introduce the death penalty into the Road Transport Act 1987 for driving under the influence, according to Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke. Loke said existing laws were sufficient to prosecute serious offences and that offenders could still be charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, where applicable.

Saudi authorities executed seven people who had been convicted of drug trafficking in a single day, state media says. The Saudi Press Agency says five Saudis and two Jordanians were found guilty of trafficking amphetamine pills into the kingdom. “The death penalty was carried out as a discretionary punishment against the perpetrators,” the agency reports, adding that the executions took place on Sunday in the Riyadh region. Since the beginning of 2026, Riyadh has executed 38 people in drug-related cases, the majority of the 61 executions carried out, according to an AFP tally based on official data.