Death Penalty News

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a video of the construction of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offenses will be hanged. Ben-Givr said the new execution site would be equipped with viewing booths for families of victims to watch the hangings. He posted the video on social media of a visit he had made to the unidentified location, where he can be seen pointing at foundations being laid and saying it was where “terrorists will be executed." Photographs in the Israeli media showed a bulldozer and heavy construction work in a cordoned-off area, reportedly close to a prison.

Iranian authorities executed Ghaem Hosseini, also known as Arian, a 20-year-old Afghan national arrested in connection with the January protests, at Isfahan Central Prison. Hosseini was a defendant in the “Isfahan Alikhani Square” case and is the fifth defendant in the case to be executed. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, authorities carried out Hosseini’s execution at dawn on Thursday, August 20, 2026. He was the maternal cousin of Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, another Afghan national and defendant in the same case who was previously executed.

Sections 365 and 365A of the colonial-era Penal Code still criminalises homosexuality. Penalties include up to 10 years in prison, though no one has been prosecuted yet under the said provisions. Yet, the discriminatory law fosters social stigma and creates a permissive context for abuse. Criminalisation also stands in the way of any meaningful measures for equal opportunities for LGBTQ communities in employment and social life, effectively entrenching discrimination against citizens based on sexual identity and orientation. The bitter irony is that some of the most powerful political bigwigs of the country were openly gay, others lived a lie, and either way, the public did not care about their private lives. Yet the dubious anomaly in the colonial-era law has persisted under successive governments. 

Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Michael Caruso, a former Republican state legislator who previously backed the death penalty for adults convicted of sexually battering children under 12, was arrested Tuesday on five felony child sex abuse charges. The 67-year-old married father of seven who was appointed by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faces five felony counts: kidnapping, child molestation, lewd exhibition, luring or enticing a child, and child abuse causing mental injury, an arrest affidavit shows.

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison.  At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up.  He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

The trial of a man who admitted to suffocating his estranged wife and her 2 young daughters with a plastic bag more than a decade ago began Monday morning with jury selection.  Sandwiched by his attorneys, Alberto Sierra, 42, sat in a navy blue sweater as dozens of prospective jurors shuffled into the largest courtroom in the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami.  In 2 weeks, hundreds of the jurors will be questioned on their thoughts about the death penalty.  The pool will be whittled down to a 12-person jury that will be tasked with deciding whether Sierra should be condemned to Florida’s death row or sentenced to life in prison. 

Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Kim So-young, who was indicted and detained on charges including killing two people with drug-laced drinks, to death. On the 18th, according to legal sources, at the sentencing hearing for defendant Kim So-young in the "Gangbuk motel serial murder case," held before the Seoul Northern District Court Criminal Division 14 (Presiding Judge Oh Byung-hee, senior judge), prosecutors sought the death penalty. They also requested, among other measures, a 30-year electronic monitoring order.

Hours before the State of Florida is scheduled to execute 61-year-old William Frances Silvia , his spiritual advisor plans to hold a virtual press conference to publicly release Silvia’s full final statement. The spiritual advisor, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, is scheduled to meet with Silvia from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18, at Florida State Prison. Following the visit, Hood will host a press conference to read Silvia’s statement in full. Silvia chose to release his statement early to ensure his words are shared at length rather than being limited to the brief final remarks typically allowed inside the execution chamber.

Ammon News—A Syrian court on Tuesday handed a death sentence to Wassim al-Assad, who appeared in the dock, a cousin of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was himself sentenced to death in absentia last week. The 46-year-old relative of al-Assad was convicted over atrocities committed under his cousin’s rule during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war. Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Assad’s cousin was convicted of multiple murders and “murder accompanied by torture and brutality... classified as crimes against humanity and war crimes,” adding that “he is therefore sentenced to death.”

William Frances Silvia, 61, was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder for the deadly 2006 attack on Patricia Silvia, along with her mother, Betty Woodard. MIAMI — A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and wounding his mother-in-law is set to be executed Tuesday, August 18, continuing the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ‘ final term. William Frances Silvia, 61, would be the 13th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, which has two more executions scheduled in September and has carried out more than half of the nation’s 22 executions so far in 2026.

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has refused to scrap hanging as the method of executing the death penalty, but said the issue can be looked at again if new scientific or medical evidence shows that another method causes less pain. The court also said the Centre can set up an expert panel to examine whether another method of execution would reduce pain and protect the dignity of death row prisoners. Why was a plea filed against hanging as a method of execution? The petition was filed by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, who challenged the law that provides for hanging as the method of executing a death sentence, according to a LiveLaw report. Section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure says that a person sentenced to death should be "hanged by the neck till he is dead." Malhotra's plea sought to replace hanging with other methods, including lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or a gas chamber. He argued that hanging can cause prolonged pain and suffering and violates...

Starting next summer, Georgia’s highest court will no longer routinely hear appeals in murder cases. The decision was announced Thursday as part of a concurring opinion from Chief Justice Nels Peterson that was tied to a murder case out of Fulton County, Coleman v. The State , though it was not clear why Peterson’s opinion was attached to that case. Murder conviction appeals, which account for more than half of the Georgia Supreme Court’s published cases, will be heard in the Georgia Court of Appeals starting July 2027.

Iranian authorities have executed Mohammad Afrookhteh, a Baloch prisoner from Sib and Suran, and Mohammad Yousefi Azad, from Eslamshahr, in separate cases at Zahedan and Zanjan central prisons. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Mohammad (Cheragh) Afrookhteh, 30, was executed at Zahedan Central Prison in the early hours of Sunday, August 16, 2026. Informed sources said Afrookhteh had been arrested three years earlier on charges of “premeditated murder” and was subsequently sentenced to death.

Hengaw – Sunday, August 16, 2026-- Iranian authorities executed Shahram Sadeghi, who was arrested in connection with the January 2026 protests, at a prison in Karaj, Alborz province. Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s official news agency, reported that Sadeghi was executed at dawn on August 16, 2026, but did not specify the prison where the execution took place. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights has learned that Sadeghi’s case was heard by the Karaj Revolutionary Court, which sentenced him to death and ordered the confiscation of all his property on the charge of “operational activities in support of Israel, the United States, and hostile groups and countries,” under Article 1 of Iran’s law on increased punishment for espionage and cooperation with Israel and hostile states against national security and interests.

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country.  Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.  He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument.  Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said. 

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group.  No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.