Death Penalty News

The magistrate handling the proceedings against Pablo Ibar in Florida (United States) has completely dismissed the motion filed by his defense, which requested a public hearing for the witness who exculpates the Spanish inmate, of Guipuzcoan origin, from the three murders for which he is serving a life sentence.  The ruling is not yet final and will be appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeals.

President Donald Trump reversed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's decision to livestream the state execution of the Fort Hood terrorist after pushback against the shocking decision.  'Nidal Malik Hasan, a former U.S. Army Major turned traitor, is a very bad and evil man who killed 13 people, including a pregnant soldier who died, along with her unborn son, and injured, very seriously, 32 more innocent people,' Trump said of the 2009 tragedy.  Hasan's execution by firing squad is scheduled for December 3.  Last week, Hegseth said that the execution will be made 'public,' and the Department of War later announced it would be live streamed.

Otto Lenke, a Sebastian resident and former Indian River County firefighter/paramedic, as well as a former Melbourne police officer, was convicted in May 2026 of first-degree murder with a firearm and first-degree arson for the February 2021 killing of Richard Benson, owner of Fast Frank’s Cycle Concepts in Fort Pierce. SEBASTIAN—A Nineteen Judicial Circuit judge on Tuesday sentenced former Indian River County firefighter and Melbourne police officer Otto Lenke of Sebastian to death for the 2021 killing of a Fort Pierce motorcycle shop owner.

(The Hill) — A new survey found the majority of Americans opposed publicly broadcast executions ahead of the Pentagon’s planned livestreamed execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. In the YouGov poll , 71 percent of respondents opposed “having executions broadcast live to the public,” while 18 favored it and 13 percent were not sure. Along partisan lines, 52 percent of Republicans opposed livestreamed executions, and 31 favorited it, while 87 percent of Democrats opposed it compared to only 8 percent in favor.

Relatives of a 17-year-old Thai girl whose body was found in a suitcase in Pattaya said on Monday (October 12) they want the death penalty for the Australian man accused of killing her, as they say he refused to apologize to them during a hearing at Pattaya Provincial Court. "I'm really angry. Being there in the courtroom, I see it as a life for a life, after the things he did to my child," said Thongchai Donhomla, the 46-year-old father of the victim. Simon Peter Carman faces charges of murder, concealment of a body, moving or destroying a body, and taking a minor for sexual purposes. 

New provisions prescribing the death penalty for crimes involving forest arson and child kidnapping have taken effect in Algeria under amendments to the penal code, the Algerian Press Service reported Wednesday. The amendments, approved by both houses of parliament last week, were published in the Official Gazette, it said. Under the law, capital punishment applies to anyone who deliberately sets fire to forests, wooded areas, cultivated or uncultivated fields, or trees and timber within forests.

Varisheh Moradi, an imprisoned Kurdish political and women’s rights activist, has been sentenced to death for the second time by Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. Her defense attorneys state that the verdict was issued despite the court failing to conduct the additional investigations mandated by the Supreme Court, opting instead to hand down the death penalty once again. According to a report by Emtedad, Amir Sajjadi, one of Moradi’s attorneys, announced on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, that the new ruling was officially served to one of her lawyers. According to him, Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Moradi to death on charges of “membership in a rebel group” (baghi). This ruling is subject to appeal to the Supreme Court within 20 days.

Saudi Arabia has carried out the death penalty on two Bangladeshi nationals in Mecca. The country's Interior Ministry announced this in a statement on Wednesday. According to the report, they were sentenced over allegations of involvement in immoral acts inside a mosque in Mecca. The information was reported by Ajel News, citing the Saudi Interior Ministry's statement. The two Bangladeshis executed were a man and a woman, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir and Sithi Akhter. The “immoral acts” referred to illicit heterosexual intercourse, not homosexual activity.

Saudi Arabia's supreme court has overturned the death penalty awarded to a Sri Lankan migrant worker for a Facebook comment insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Anojan Sivarasa, a 24-year-old migrant worker from Kalmunai in Sri Lanka's eastern province, was sentenced to death in September for blasphemy after his online comment was brought to the attention of his Saudi employer. The case triggered a flurry of diplomatic efforts from the Sri Lankan government, which sent a four-member legal team to Riyadh to file a clemency appeal on Anojan's behalf.

STARKE, Fla. — A Florida prisoner who said he killed his cellmate specifically to get on death row was executed Tuesday, nearly 18 years after the attack. James Robertson, 63, declined to offer any last words before receiving a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later. It was a stark contrast to the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee two weeks ago, where she was rushed to the hospital after surviving two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

Payton Gendron, who is already serving life without parole for killing 10 Black people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022, is asking a federal judge to throw out the case that could send him to death row. Defense attorneys filed the motion Monday — a day before jury selection was scheduled to begin — seeking to dismiss Gendron’s federal indictment. They argued that Black residents are underrepresented in the jury pool for New York’s Western District, according to WIVB and WKBW.

Kathmandu. A Chinese court on Tuesday sentenced three members of a criminal gang that operated a scam network in Myanmar's Kokang region to death. Dozens of other individuals have also been sentenced to various prison terms in the same case. In recent years, online scam businesses worth billions of dollars have flourished in some areas of Southeast Asia, including Myanmar. To control this, China has been increasing security cooperation with other countries in the region. Not all individuals involved in online scams voluntarily engage in criminal activity. Some foreign nationals, especially Chinese citizens, are trafficked to such centers by luring them with job offers. They are held captive in prison-like compounds and forced into scam activities.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 13 October 2026: Danial Jahanian, a man wrongfully convicted of murder, was executed in Bandar Abbas Central Prison. While state media portrayed the incident as an intentional ramming attack, official court records and other evidence obtained by IHRNGO show that plainclothes officers shot Danial through both legs, rendering him unconscious prior to collision, and that the officer's fatal injuries were caused by a secondary vehicle.

Iranian authorities have executed Ahmad Bazvand, a 35-year-old Lor prisoner, in Khorramabad Central Prison despite evidence raising doubts about his responsibility for the killing for which he was sentenced to death. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Bazvand was executed at dawn on Wednesday, October 7, 2026. A resident of Bazvand village in Pol-e Dokhtar County, he was married and the father of a six-year-old daughter.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Emergency help for Christa Pike was delayed by confusion among first responders and Tennessee prison officials following her failed execution last month, according to 911 dispatch recordings. The recordings, obtained Monday by The Associated Press through a public records request, show that precious minutes elapsed as officials and responders tried to figure out whether a request for emergency help in the execution chamber was legitimate. The initial 911 call came in at 8:40 p.m. on Sept. 30, just over an hour after the attempted lethal injection got underway. But the caller was unable to provide a code that would help verify the legitimacy of the request.

As Christa Pike returns to death row after surviving Tennessee’s attempt to execute her, several questions remain about her case and what comes next.  Pike, 50, was discharged from hospital and moved back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years, her attorneys said on Saturday.  She was hospitalized after surviving 2 doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital as Tennessee attempted to execute her on September 30. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, her classmate at a Job Corps training program in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 18 at the time. 

Florida is scheduled to execute James Robertson at noon on Tuesday, October 13, at Florida State Prison. His execution remains scheduled despite the withdrawal of William Lee Thompson’s death warrant, which had called for a 2nd execution that evening. If completed, this will be Florida’s 17th execution of 2026. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) and partners will be holding a series of vigils and demonstrations across the state. 

A coalition of former judges and prosecutors is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Texas death penalty case that raises fundamental questions about the constitutional right to effective legal representation, judicial responsibility, and whether a conviction can stand when the accused was deprived of meaningful assistance from counsel during critical portions of trial.  In an amicus brief filed Oct. 2, the coalition argues that allowing such a conviction to stand threatens the integrity of the adversarial process and could weaken constitutional protections for defendants facing the most severe punishment available under the law.

Filings obtained by The Dallas Morning News cite Melissa Lucio’s recent case proceedings as a consequence of moving forward without an evidentiary hearing.  Nearly a year after Robert Roberson’s last stay of execution, his attorneys are using another death row inmate’s case as grounds to again press a Texas judge for an evidentiary hearing. In court documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News, Roberson’s lead attorney Gretchen Sween asked Smith County District Judge Austin Reeves Jackson to schedule a date “as soon as possible.” Sween cited the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision late last month in the case of Melissa Lucio, arguing it makes the need for live testimony and further fact-finding especially urgent.