Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 26, 2024: Motiollah Barkezi, an Afghan national on death row for drug-related charges, was executed in Ghaen Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, an Afghan man was executed in Ghaen Prison in South Khorasan province on 24 July. His identity has been established as Motiollah Barkezi, a 40-year-old father to two children from the border village of Mahi Roud.

A German citizen who was sentenced to death in Belarus has asked Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for mercy in a video broadcast on state television. A 30-year-old German man sentenced to death in Belarus asked for pardon from President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday in a television appearance. 

Kamran Sheikheh, a Kurdish religious prisoner held for over 14 years, was executed on Thursday morning.  Sheikheh was the last of seven defendants in a joint case to face execution.

China executed three people on Tuesday for a mass stabbing in Kunming that killed 31 people last year, the country's top court said, with authorities blaming the attack on separatists from mainly Muslim Xinjiang.  Iskandar Ehet, Turgun Tohtunyaz and Hasayn Muhammad were put to death for "leading a terrorist organisation and intentional homicide", the Supreme People's Court said in a microblog post. 

The family of Steve Munyakho, a Kenyan migrant in a Saudi Arabian prison has renewed appeal for donations to help pay the Sh150 million court fine to secure his release. Munyakho has been a jailbird, languishing in several prisons in the Arab country for the last thirteen years after he was convicted of killing his workmate where he is currently incarcerated at Shimeisi Prison in Makkah region.

The six former students of Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) had their initial 18-year prison sentences overturned, and were sentenced to death for the murder of navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain seven years ago. PUTRAJAYA: Six former students of Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) were sentenced to death by a Malaysian court on Wednesday (Jul 24) for the murder of navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain seven years ago.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 23, 2024: Hassan Falahi, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Qom Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Qom Central Prison on 22 July. His identity has been established as Hassan Falahi, a 30-year-old from Meshkindasht in Karaj.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 23, 2024: Omid Assadi who is on death row after unintentionally killing a man in a car accident, is scheduled to be executed on 22 August if his family cannot raise the €160k demanded diya amount. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Saqqez native named Omid Assadi is at risk of execution in Karaj Penitentiary. He was arrested after being involved in a car accident that caused the death of the other driver.

A man facing execution next month for the murder his girlfriend’s mother asked state officials Monday to spare his life, saying he is not the same person he was when he killed the woman after a day of drinking and using drugs.

According to reports received by Iran Human Rights Monitor, the Iranian judiciary carried out the execution sentences of 9 individuals on Saturday and Sunday, July 20th and 21st, in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, Adel Abad Prison in Shiraz, and Diezelabad Prison in Kermanshah.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 22, 2024: The execution of four prisoners, including a Baluch citizen and two Afghan nationals who were convicted of "drug-related charges" or "premeditated murder," was carried out in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. According to information received by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), on the morning of Sunday, July 21, the execution of four men was carried out in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. Two of these prisoners, identified as Davood Barahouyi and Mehdi Aliakbari Fard, were sentenced to death on "drug-related charges."

One day Alabama will conduct its final execution. The witnesses present won’t know that, of course. If capital punishment disappears, it will be by law or ruling that comes after these men and women gather in the small, tomb-like room at Atmore Correctional Facility.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Attorneys for a Georgia inmate sent to death row 25 years ago are accusing a prosecutor of hiding a deal that they contend casts doubt on the credibility of a crucial trial witness. Warren King was sentenced to death in September 1998 after an Appling County jury convicted him of murdering Karen Crosby, a convenience store clerk who was fatally shot during an armed robbery in southeast Georgia.

Taberon Dave Honie will be put to death by pentobarbital instead of the untested lethal drug combination Utah abandoned plans to put a man to death with an untested lethal drug combination in his upcoming execution. A previously used drug will be used for Taberon Dave Honie's execution instead.

“Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” The abbreviation of the Book of Exodus 21:24 is a favorite for those who support the death penalty. So much so, that the verse regularly even gets recited by those trying to justify their own participation in executions. The logic of course is that if you kill someone then you deserve to be killed. On the inverse, the logic is that if you don’t kill someone then you don’t deserve to be killed. Pretty basic stuff, right? 

As the state prepares to execute death row inmate Alan Eugene Miller by nitrogen gas, he’s expressed fears over the novel method: "You're telling me to practice killing myself." Unredacted documents posted by Alabama officials in the federal courts’ electronic filing system reveal new details about the nation’s first nitrogen gas execution carried out in January, including the identity of the state’s execution captain, his impressions from inside the death chamber and the concerns of another inmate who is set to die by the same punishment.

In 2021, the man shot Nassau County Deputy Joshua Moyers in the face, killing him NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — A man who was convicted of shooting and killing Nassau County Deputy Joshua Moyers during a traffic stop nearly three years ago has been sentenced to death, News4Jax reported.

Payton Gendron's attorneys argued he shouldn't be sentenced to death because of his age. The government disagreed. BUFFALO, N.Y. — The federal government has filed two responses opposing motions by Payton Gendron's attorneys to take the death penalty off the table in connection to the Tops mass shooting that happened on May 14, 2022.

Belarus is the last country in Europe still to apply the death penalty, executing several people each year by firing squad.

Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed execution warrants for six Florida inmates, the most in any year in the state since 2014. He was also running for president.  DeSantis had signed off on just two executions — both in 2019 — to that point. The sudden step up, along with legislation he signed lowering Florida’s death penalty jury requirement, seemed to signal a new approach to capital punishment. 

Gavin was executed by lethal injection in the shooting death of William Clayton Jr., a married father of 7 described by his son as a gentle giant. It's Alabama's 3rd execution this year. Alabama executed death row inmate Keith Edmund Gavin on Thursday, more than two decades after he fatally shot a father of seven who had stopped at an ATM to get money for a date night with his wife.

Alabama Death Row inmate Keith Gavin had said in a court filing by his attorneys last month he didn’t plan any more appeals of his scheduled lethal-injection execution Thursday for the 1998 murder of man at a bank ATM in Cherokee County. But in the past few weeks he has been fighting for his life in a handwritten motion to a judge.

Saudi Arabia enforces strict penalties for drug trafficking Saudi Arabia executed Kitab Gul, a Pakistani citizen convicted of heroin smuggling, following a local court’s decision.  Despite appeals to higher courts, including the Supreme Court, which upheld the death sentence, Gul was executed today under a royal decree confirmed by the Saudi Ministry of Interior. Gul was arrested for drug trafficking and sentenced to death by a local court.

For at least the last six years, the Texas prison system’s method for acquiring pentobarbital – the substance it uses to execute death row inmates – has looked remarkably like a drug deal. That’s the conclusion of death penalty opponents after a report from National Public Radio dropped on July 10. The source of Texas’ execution drugs has long been hidden from the public, but NPR’s Chiara Eisner used state and federal documents and interviews with an anonymous pharmacist to identify the supplier as a San Antonio company that the U.S. Department of Justice alleges has illegally dealt drugs and “fueled and profited from the opioid epidemic.”