Death Penalty News

Kuwait appeal court upholds death sentences for three Iranians in drug case Kuwait’s Court of Appeal has upheld death sentences handed to three Iranian nationals convicted of attempting to smuggle large quantities of drugs into the country, local media reported. The ruling confirmed an earlier verdict by the Criminal Court, which found the three men guilty of trying to traffic more than 120 kilograms of hashish and 10,000 psychotropic pills.

A man convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death is set to be executed in Florida STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his 13-year-old step-niece to death nearly 50 years ago is set to be executed Thursday evening. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Hitchcock was initially sentenced to death in 1977 after being convicted of first-degree murder in the July 31, 1976, killing of Cynthia Driggers. Following a series of appeals, he was resentenced to death in 1988, 1993 and 1996.

⚠️ Some readers may find the following content distressing. Prosecutors have put forward worrying new details in their case against US singer D4vd. It comes after the Los Angeles Police Department arrested the 21-year-old star on 16 April in connection with the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Prosecutors allege that Burke met Celeste when she was just 11, and claim that he started sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18.

Scott Peterson's attorneys said they plan to appeal to a higher court. SAN MATEO, Calif. -- A California judge has denied Scott Peterson's attempt to present new evidence that his attorneys claim exonerates him in the murder of his wife and unborn son. Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002 when she was eight months pregnant. Her body was found in the San Francisco Bay in April 2003. Scott Peterson, 53, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son. A jury found him guilty following a six-month trial in 2004.

Maryam Hodavand, a woman held in Evin Prison following her arrest during the December 2025/January 2026 uprising, has been sentenced to death by a Tehran revolutionary court in connection with a mosque fire that killed two people. Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran, presided over by Judge Afshari, issued the sentence in relation to the fire at the Seyyed al-Shohada mosque in Pakdasht, Tehran Province. The verdict was handed down while Hodavand was denied access to legal representation.

The Court flagged the failure of trial courts to call for reports on mitigating circumstances and lack of meaningful representation in death penalty cases. The Supreme Court on Monday issued pan-India directions governing how courts must handle death penalty cases. [ Aman Singh & Anr v. State of Bihar ] A three-judge Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi passed the directions while hearing an appeal filed by a convict challenging a judgment of the Patna High Court, which had upheld the death penalty awarded to him in a murder case.

Despite an 11th-hour confession from another man, James Broadnax is slated to be executed by the state of Texas later this week.  Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection April 30 in Huntsville. He was condemned by a Dallas County jury in 2009 for the deaths of Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Garland music studio. Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, had set out to rob the men, but left with only $2 and a 1995 Ford, according to previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News. 

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are among the world’s most egregious tools of religious repression. They enable abuse, mob violence, and the targeting of individuals and religious minorities (including Christians) for criminal prosecutions that carry life sentences and death penalties.  Pakistani professor Junaid Hafeez, for instance, is imprisoned and sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. 

The trial judge failed to take into account that the convict’s lack of means to engage a counsel constitutes a mitigating factor and ought to have been considered while sentencing.  The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently commuted the death penalty imposed on a Tirunelveli man, who sexually assaulted and impregnated his 14-year-old daughter, to life imprisonment till the remainder of his natural life.

The Shubra El Kheima Criminal Court has sentenced the defendant in the killing of Mirna Gamal Abdel Tawab—widely known in the media as the “Khosous Girl”—to death by hanging.  The verdict was issued after receiving the opinion of the Dar Al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, which approved the implementation of the death penalty. The court concluded that the charges against the defendant were proven based on case files and official investigations, according to local reports.  The Public Prosecution charged the 26-year-old defendant, a ceramic tile worker identified as “K.N.D.” from the Khosous area, with premeditated murder. Investigations revealed that he had planned the crime after the victim’s family rejected his proposal to marry her. 

A Florida pastor who became a potential candidate for the death penalty gets a triple life sentence for filming himself abusing a child. Jonathan Elwing, who was senior pastor at Palm View First Baptist in Palmetto when the abuse occurred, will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole after a jury found him guilty on 12 felony counts. Police initially charged the pastor and father of four with four counts of possessing child pornography and for using cryptocurrency to buy explicit images of children from the dark web.

Singer, 21, could face death penalty after being charged with murder of 14-year-old Video game Fortnite is approving refunds for any D4vd cosmetics after the singer, 21, was charged with the sexual abuse, murder and mutilation of a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. The game first collaborated with D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, in 2024, initially releasing an emote to his track “Feel It” before releasing Fortnite’s first official anthem with Burke, titled “Locked and Loaded”, the following year.

North Korea dramatically increased executions during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly for consuming South Korean dramas, K-pop and other foreign culture and political offences, a report published Tuesday showed.  Pyongyang closed its borders in January 2020 to stop the spread of the coronavirus, with research and media reports indicating that the diplomatically isolated nation spent subsequent years bolstering security along its frontiers.  Campaigners have said the shutdown worsened longstanding human rights abuses in North Korea, whose government is widely seen as one of the world's most repressive.

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it will resume the federal use of capital punishment and that it is seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. DOJ also said that it will use firing squads, electrocution, or nitrogen asphyxiation if the drug used in lethal injection is unavailable. The announcement follows the Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty report, published on April 24. The report is especially critical of the moratorium on federal executions, ordered by Attorney General Merrick Garland in July 2021, to remain until the death penalty could be conducted “fairly and humanely.” Garland was concerned about the federal lethal injection protocol, which uses only one drug, pentobarbital, and the possibility that it causes “unnecessary pain and suffering.” In response to Garland’s moratorium and concerns, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, leaving only three prisoners.

Itanagar, Apr 27: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court in Arunachal Pradesh’s Yupia has sentenced a 44-year-old man to death for repeatedly raping his minor relative in 2019, terming the offence a “rarest of rare” case marked by a grave breach of trust. Special Judge (POCSO) Dr Hirendra Kashyap convicted Lakang Tallang under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including rape by a person in a position of trust and criminal intimidation, read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act.

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

TOKYO— A 47-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of killing a 29-year-old woman in Tokyo’s Roppongi district in 2018. Police said Nobuaki Takahashi, who had been on an international wanted list since June 2019, was arrested on Saturday at Narita airport after being extradited from Malaysia, NTV reported. Takahashi left Japan for Malaysia on Oct 13, 2018, five days before the body of Aisha Kumi Balletta, 29, was found in his apartment. Balletta, a Japanese-American, had multiple head injuries and had been dead for more than a week. She lived in Yokohama and was apparently a regular visitor to the apartment, neighbors said.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has directed federal prisons to expand the range of methods used for executions to include firing squads, gas asphyxiation and electrocution. In a 48-page memo released on Friday, the department says this will "strengthen" the death penalty, "deterring the most barbaric crimes, delivering justice for victims, and providing long-overdue closure to surviving loved ones". The previous administration had placed a moratorium on most federal executions. Before leaving office, former president Joe Biden gave clemency to 37 of the 40 federal death row prisoners. President Donald Trump directed the DOJ to resume seeking executions on his first day in office last year.