Death Penalty News

In an effort to counter rising political dissent, North Korea has toughened its criminal code and imposed the death penalty for crimes against the state, according to South Korean intelligence sources.  Following revisions to the country's criminal code introduced in April, those found guilty of participating in armed uprisings now face life imprisonment or execution. Previously, they faced 10 years in a labour camp. 

The death penalty would not solve Fiji’s drug problem.  Former chief justice Daniel Fatiaki shared this yesterday while responding to calls for capital punishment for drug offenders, arguing that addiction should be treated as a health issue rather than punished as a crime.  Mr. Fatiaki said countries that impose the death penalty for drug crimes have not provided a model Fiji should follow.  “We (Fiji) used to have the death penalty. George Speight will tell you he got a death sentence given to him,” Mr. Fatiaki said.  He also said his opposition to the death penalty was rooted in his Christian faith, saying he believed the taking of life should not be left to people.  “But I’m Christian, and I believe in the Ten Commandments, and one of them says, Thou shalt not kill. And that’s all there is to it.”  Mr. Fatiaki said taking a person’s life was not the answer to addressing the country’s growing drug crisis and instead urged greater investment in rehabilita...

Iranian authorities have secretly executed Jabbar Khadem and Hosseinali Zamani, convicted on drug-related charges, at Shiraz Central Prison, also known as Adelabad Prison. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Hosseinali Zamani and Jabbar Khadem were executed at dawn on July 7, 2026, at Shiraz Central Prison. Both men had previously been transferred from Pirbanoo Prison to Adelabad Prison ahead of their executions. Sources familiar with the case said prison officials carried out the executions without prior notice to the men’s families, depriving them of the opportunity for a final visit.

Three years after the rape and murder of a US tourist near Neuschwanstein Castle, the convicted man, also from the United States, is contesting his extradition from Germany. The 33-year-old pushed two young women down a slope of around 50 metres during a visit to the world-famous castle. A 21-year-old later died in hospital and her friend was injured. The man raped and strangled the 21-year-old before pushing her over the edge. Kempten Regional Court sentenced him to life in prison for murder, attempted murder and rape resulting in death. The foreigners' office in the area then issued a deportation order against the convicted murderer.

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Days after Idaho made the switch to a firing squad for executions, two Idaho death row prisoners next in line to be put to death sued the state prison system, saying its director withheld information about how she settled on the specifics for carrying out the method. Attorneys for prisoners Thomas Creech and Gerald Pizzuto filed suit this week in state district court against Idaho Department of Correction Director Bree Derrick. In the filing, they called her approval of an updated standard operating procedure for the firing squad and lethal injection as a backup method “arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion and in excess of the statutory authority of the agency.”

Iranian authorities executed Hossein Vahidpour and Farshad Pahlavani, convicted of murder in a joint case, at Semnan Central Prison last month. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Hossein Vahidpour, 24, and Farshad Pahlavani, 26, were executed at dawn on June 16, 2026, at Semnan Central Prison. Sources familiar with the case said Vahidpour and Pahlavani were arrested about five years ago and accused of killing a friend, identified only as Alireza, in what was described as an honor-related killing.

Dennis Michael Sochor is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday, the 29th person executed by the state in the past 19 months. Dennis Michael Sochor, convicted of strangling an 18-year-old woman he met at a New Year’s celebration in a Broward County bar 44 years ago, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison. His last wish? To have Gov. Ron DeSantis personally observe his execution up close and personal.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for the Pasco County execution of Dominick Occhicone, scheduled for July 28. Defense attorneys argue the 80-year-old double-murderer is too old and frail to be executed under the 8th Amendment. HOLIDAY, Fla. - Dominick Occhicone is scheduled to face execution on July 28 for the 1986 cold-blooded murders of his ex-girlfriend's parents in Pasco County, sparking an intense legal battle over his advanced age and failing health. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Dominick Occhicone, who has spent nearly 40 years on death row, according to state records. The man is about to turn 81 and was convicted of killing Raymond and Martha Artzner at their home in Holiday. The warrant comes shortly after the state executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer last week. If the scheduled July 14 execution of 74-year-old Dennis Sochor proceeds, he will surpass Spencer as the oldest inmate executed in Florida since 1976. Court records show that Occhicone wen...

A Dead Woman’s Sentence Is Commuted to Life in Prison. Justice or Farce? On July 8, England’s Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, David Lammy, informed his colleagues in the House of Commons that King Charles had granted a conditional pardon to a woman who was executed on July 13, 1955. The beneficiary of the King’s posthumous mercy was Ruth Ellis, who, as a report in the Guardian notes , “was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom.”

New legislation creates ‘Capitol Sexual Battery’ charge, effective July 1 MISSISSIPPI (WLBT)—Mississippi's most severe criminal punishment now applies to the most severe crimes against children, under a new state law that took effect July 1. Senate Bill 2821 creates a charge called Capitol Sexual Battery, which is punishable by the death penalty. The law applies only to cases occurring on or after July 1. Under the new law, sexual battery against a child under the age of 12 or an attempt to commit such an act that injures the child’s sexual organs, makes a defendant eligible for the death penalty.

Like Gov. Mike DeWine, most agreed the death penalty is broken and does not deter crime, but not always with the same reasoning. Some people on Ohio’s death row praised Gov. Mike DeWine for having the courage to come out against the death penalty. Others said actions speak louder than words, and they want the governor to commute their death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. But all agreed with the governor on one thing: Ohio’s death penalty law is broken. DeWine said long delays in carrying out executions undermine its intended function as a deterrent. Condemned prisoners resoundingly said that the possibility of being executed never stopped anyone from committing murder.

Six states have already enacted legislation making child rapists eligible for execution As reports of sex crimes against children continue to rise across the state—including within government schools—Texans are recommending harsher penalties for child sexual predators. Some are ready to consider the harshest penalty for the worst offenders: death. Six states have already enacted laws making child rapists eligible for the death penalty in certain circumstances: Florida, Tennessee, Idaho, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Twelve protesters in Isfahan face imminent execution after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld death sentences in a case built around the alleged killing of four Basij members, a lawyer familiar with the case told Iran International. The case stems from protests on January 8 at Alikhani Square in Isfahan, where authorities said four Basij members were killed. According to the lawyer, 59 people were initially arrested after the incident. The lawyer said 23 of those detained were sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison, even though they were not accused of directly taking part in the deaths and appeared to have been added to the case to strengthen the prosecution’s broader narrative.

(Lake County, FL) Today, State Attorney Bill Gladson of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, alongside Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell, announces the grand jury indictment of 44-year-old Shahidul Islam. A grand jury was convened earlier today to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to charge Shahidul Islam. The grand jury returned a true bill of indictment for Premeditated First-Degree Murder with a Firearm, F.S.S. 782.04(1)(a)1, 775.087(1), 775.087(2)(a)1, 775.087(2)(a)2, and 775.087(2)(a)3.

Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the UK, has been granted a posthumous conditional pardon. Ellis was hanged at London's Holloway Prison in 1955 after being convicted of murdering her lover David Blakely. Her family have campaigned for her murder conviction to be overturned, arguing she was a victim of domestic abuse and was physically and emotionally abused by Blakely before shooting him. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told MPs the King had granted the pardon, saying that the death penalty had been replaced with a sentence of life imprisonment.

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York—name a Northeastern state, and you will be naming a place where there is no death penalty. New Hampshire was the latest to join the list in 2019.  But there is one glaring omission.  Pennsylvania. In the Keystone State, capital punishment is legal, even though no one has been executed there since 1999. The state exists in a kind of death penalty limbo, not abolishing it but unable or unwilling to carry out death sentences.  Recent polls suggest that the residents of Pennsylvania are ready to break the logjam. 58% now favor a life sentence rather than the death penalty for people convicted of murder. 

Andrea Shaw is accused of suffocating her 18-month-old twins in May 2025.  An Idaho woman who said her toddler twins died last year after being vaccinated faces murder charges connected to their deaths, authorities said.   A grand jury indicted Andrea Shaw, who is accused of suffocating her 18-month-old twins in May 2025, on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder on June 29, according to court records and a statement from the Payette Police Department. 

It has been nearly 40 years since my mother, Marguerite, was murdered in a small town near Houston. It has been almost 19 years since the man who murdered her was executed. His death did not heal my pain — I still miss my mother every day — and it did not feel like “justice.” Instead, my personal experience with the death penalty left me firmly convinced that it is both a false promise to the families of murder victims and a failed public policy. That is why, as a current Kansas resident, I urge Gov. Laura Kelly to commute the death sentences of the nine men on Kansas’ death row to life without parole.

In 2008, a majority of the Supreme Court decided that executing a man who raped his eight-year-old stepdaughter so violently that she required emergency surgery violated the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. That’s the holding of Kennedy v. Louisiana , 554 U.S. 407. Four justices disagreed. Sixteen years later, multiple states have passed laws saying the majority was wrong, and they intend to prove it.