Death Penalty News

The Iranian Judiciary has executed Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saeedi, two men arrested in connection with the January protests, amid a continuing surge in political executions and the authorities’ ongoing campaign of reprisals against protesters. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saeedi were carried out in the early hours of Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Shahroud Central Prison in Semnan Province. The executions were announced by Mizan News Agency, the official media outlet of the Iranian Judiciary.

A series of executions and arrests have been reported across Iran, alongside cases involving protest-related sentencing and charges linked to social media activity and religious expression, according to rights groups including HRANA, HANA and Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO). Executions The foreign-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that on 15 June, authorities at Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan executed three prisoners on charges of murder and drug-related offences, News.Az reports.

SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. (WBRC) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up an Alabama death-penalty case involving Michael Anthony Powell, leaving in place a state appeals court decision that threw out Powell’s conviction. Two justices — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — said the Court should have stepped in. In a written dissent, Alito argued the Alabama appeals court misapplied U.S. Supreme Court precedent about what prosecutors can and can’t say during closing arguments.

TEHRAN – The Iranian authorities on June 16 executed two men after convicting them for their alleged role in anti-government protests that peaked in January, the judiciary said. “The death sentences of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi, armed leaders of the January 2026 coup attempt, were carried out,” the judiciary’s official outlet Mizan Online reported. The executions were carried out after the pair were convicted of “moharebeh” – waging war against God – and “corruption on earth”, both capital offences.

Charles Flores argued that his conviction was improperly based on testimony from a witness who changed her recollection after hypnosis by an investigator. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Texas death row inmate Charles Flores’ efforts to force the state’s highest criminal court to reconsider his appeal. The Supreme Court denied the petition without comment. Flores argued that his 1999 conviction should be overturned under the Texas “junk science” law because testimony from a key witness was improperly influenced by hypnosis performed by a police officer who was investigating the murder of 64-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Black in Dallas County.

For Iran’s Kurdish population, the death penalty is not only a criminal-justice issue. It is part of a larger architecture of state control, political intimidation, and national-security repression that has followed the Kurdish question since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Kurdish activists, religious prisoners, protesters, and ordinary prisoners are pulled into a judicial system where the state often controls the accusation, the interrogation, the confession, the court narrative, and, finally, the rope.

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the federal death penalty trial of Payton Gendron, who is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty in state court to carrying out the racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in 2022 that killed 10 Black people and injured three others. The upcoming proceedings relate to separate federal charges, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and jurors could ultimately decide whether Gendron is executed or remains in prison for life. Here are three key takeaways as the next phase of proceedings gets underway:

Iranian authorities have carried out the executions of five prisoners, including an Arab prisoner and a Turkish prisoner. The prisoners have been identified as Seyed Akbar Bani Hashem, Jan Mohammad Saadati, Manouchehr Nikoukhalgh, Mohammad Akbarpournia, and Amir Abbas Dekavand. The men had previously been sentenced to death in separate cases involving drug-related offenses and premeditated murder. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Seyed Akbar Bani Hashem and Amir Abbas Dekavand were executed at dawn on Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 9 June 2026: Azad Shushtari, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Mashhad Central Prison after his family failed to raise the blood money sum demanded by the victim’s family. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Mashhad (Vakil Abad) Central Prison on 4 June 2026. His identity has been established as Azad Shushtari who was arrested around four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for an unpremeditated murder that took place after a street fight.

The Supreme Court these days is generally in the business of helping executions go forward. But on Thursday night, the court did something notable: It told Alabama no. Even then, the court wasn't unanimous. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the refusal to let the nitrogen gas execution of Jeffery Lee proceed. What prompted the rare rejection? In line with the typical shadow docket practice, the court didn't explain itself. Nor did the dissenters, who merely noted their disagreement. But a deeper look at the case helps us understand why a majority of the court was unwilling to help the state this time.

Jeffery Lee, who successfully challenged his scheduled Thursday execution by nitrogen gas, argued that execution by firing squad would be less painful. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office Friday sought to put an Alabama death row inmate to death by lethal injection a day after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed the state’s attempt to execute him by nitrogen gas. In a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court Friday afternoon, the state sought an expedited motion to set a new execution date for Jeffery Lee, 49. The state said that with a permanent injunction in place against nitrogen gas, the method by which the state intended to execute Lee on Thursday, it could execute him by lethal injection or the electric chair.

The death sentence of Mehdi Barahimi, a police officer convicted of “premeditated murder” in connection with the fatal shooting of a suspect during an operational mission, was carried out in Bandar Abbas Central Prison. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Barahimi, an officer with the Bandar Abbas police force, was executed on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, after spending several years in prison and failing to secure the consent of the victim’s family. Informed sources told Hengaw that seven years ago Barahimi was dispatched to respond to a domestic dispute. During the operation, he opened fire on a man who had allegedly been involved in an altercation with members of his family. The shooting proved fatal.

A man charged with the targeted killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in what prosecutors described as an act of political violence has pleaded guilty, avoiding a potential death penalty under a plea deal. Vance Boelter said he shot and killed Democrat Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their Minnesota home last June. Boelter also admitted to shooting state lawmaker John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, in their home. The couple survived the attack. Boetler, 58, pleaded guilty to six counts, which include murder and stalking, and is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison.

After a week of legal volleyball, Alabama death row inmate Jeffery Lee’s execution—scheduled for Thursday evening—was called off after federal courts called the state’s nitrogen gas execution method “likely unconstitutional.” The state took the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping Lee could still be put to death tonight.  In an order issued at 8:10 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that it would not lift a ban on Alabama executing Lee via nitrogen . In a short court order, the justices denied Alabama’s motion to go ahead with the execution.  Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch would have granted the appeal and let the execution proceed, according to the order. 

Trained members of Idaho law enforcement with demonstrated firearms proficiency are expected to fill slots for carrying out the death penalty by firing squad as the state prison system transitions to the controversial execution method next month.  Six volunteers certified for no less than three years apiece through Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, will be recruited to ensure the Idaho Department of Correction is ready to comply with a state law that prioritizes shooting prisoners to death over lethal injection starting July 1.  No one on the team may have faced disciplinary action over firearms, use of force, or related conduct over the prior year, according to new execution protocols the prison system released this week. 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is waging a last-minute legal fight to execute a man with nitrogen gas on Thursday night, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to set aside a judge’s findings that the method violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Alabama’s nitrogen protocol is unconstitutional and blocked the state from using it to execute Jeffery Lee , 49. The Alabama attorney general’s office is appealing the decision. The outcome of the eleventh-hour legal battle will determine if Lee’s execution goes forward Thursday night with nitrogen gas. It could also help determine the future of the controversial execution method Alabama began using in 2024.

The death sentence of Samad Mousavi, who had previously been sentenced to death on charges of “premeditated murder” in connection with the killing of a forest ranger, has been carried out at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Mousavi was arrested in connection with the killing of a forest ranger and was subsequently sentenced to death (qisas) by the Iranian Judiciary on charges of “premeditated murder.” The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court before being carried out at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.

A Bangkok court convicted Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed of premeditated and attempted murder for their role in planting a bomb at the popular Erawan Shrine in the capital's commercial heart. The blast tore apart the site where worshippers and tourists had gathered, wounding more than 100 people and leaving the shrine to the Thai representation of Brahma littered with motorbike fragments and singed debris.

TOPEKA — Attorney General Kris Kobach on Tuesday urged the governor to deny clemency to Kansas inmates who have been sentenced to death. Eight of nine people sentenced to death in Kansas formally filed clemency requests in May, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office. Kobach urged Gov. Laura Kelly to reject them.