Death Penalty News

A Revolutionary Court in Tehran has sentenced social media activist Amirhossein Mousavi to death on charges of "corruption on earth" over his activity on X, his lawyer said Wednesday. In a post on X, Mousavi's lawyer, Reza Shafakhah, said his client had been sentenced over his online activity under the account name "James Bidin." The sentence was issued by Branch 15 of Tehran's Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, who is under US, British and European Union sanctions over his role in human rights abuses.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — After the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency for a high-profile death row inmate in Oklahoma, a local organization is protesting his execution. James Pavatt was sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of Rob Andrew, a 39-year-old Oklahoma City advertising executive and father of two. Evidence presented at Pavatt's trial showed that he began an affair with Andrew's wife, Brenda Andrew, in 2001. Prosecutors argued that the murder was especially cruel and that Pavatt killed Andrew for an $800,000 insurance policy.

An Indiana man who admitted killing his girlfriend's two children was executed early Thursday in the first of three lethal injections scheduled for the same day in the U.S. Jeffrey Weisheit killed the children, ages 8 and 5, by setting fire to his girlfriend's house in the Evansville area in 2010.  The remains of 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch were recovered from the ruins of a fire at their home in the Evansville area. Alyssa’s body was in a closet. Caleb’s body was on a mattress, restrained with duct tape. A railroad flare was in his underwear, and another was under his body. The children’s mother, Lisa Lynch, was at work at the time. She was in a relationship with Weisheit, but it was breaking down, investigators said. Weisheit spent 13 years on death row after his conviction. Weisheit died at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The lethal injection started just after midnight, and he was pronounced dead at 12:45 a.m., according to Noelle Russell, ...

If all three executions are carried out as planned, it will be the second triple execution in the U.S. this year, reflecting an overall uptick in the death penalty since the beginning of 2025. Three states are planning to carry out a rare triple execution this week on Nov. 5. Indiana is set to execute Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, by lethal injection for the 2010 murders of his girlfriend's two children, 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother, Caleb. The children were burned alive in their home.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 3 November 2026: State media reported the executions of Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi, two protesters sentenced to death in Isfahan’s “Alikhani Square” case, were executed in Isfahan Central Prison. Since 19 July, nine protesters, including two Afghan nationals, have been executed in connection with the case, which is marred by due process violations, including torture-tainted confessions and testimonies.

Indiana’s governor turned down a clemency request and says an execution planned for Thursday will go forward against a man who killed his girlfriend’s two children in 2010 Indiana's governor turned down a clemency request Monday and said an execution planned for this week would go forward for a man who set a fire that killed his girlfriend's two children in 2010. Gov. Mike Braun said he would follow the Indiana Parole Board's recommendation to let the death sentence stand for Jeffrey Weisheit. “The Indiana Department of Correction will continue preparations to carry out the court-ordered sentence of execution” Thursday, said Braun, a Republican.

The judiciary identified Amir Hossein Ebrahimi and Amir Hossein Maleki as “the main perpetrators.” Both were executed on Tuesday morning. ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran on Tuesday executed two men accused of killing four police officers in Isfahan province during the nationwide January protests, the judiciary reported.  The suspects protested in a group, who were family members and acquaintances, and were allegedly armed with knives, machetes, and Molotov cocktails, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.  

Editor's note: This story was translated from the original VOA Persian article. A U.S.-based rights organization says that Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence against a fruit seller convicted in connection with anti-government protests earlier this year. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the media arm of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, reported Monday that the court reached the decision in the case against Arman Marefati. The group also said that two female protesters arrested in connection with the protests have been sentenced to a combined 44 years in prison.

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – 13 Australian men and boys detained in Iraqi prisons over alleged connections to ISIS could potentially face trial and the death penalty by hanging. Between January and February 2026, the US military transferred approximately 5,700 detainees, including around 2,200 foreigners from 65 different countries, from prisons in northeast Syria to al-Karkh Central Prison near Baghdad due to increasing instability in Syria. The detainees transferred from northeastern Syria to Iraqi custody earlier this year included the 13 Australian men and boys.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant Friday for inmate Ricardo Gonzalez, who killed a North Miami Beach police officer during a 1992 bank robbery. Gonzalez, 56, is one of four who robbed the Kislak National Bank of a cash box from a drive-thru teller. He is set to die by lethal injection Dec. 1 at Florida State Prison. With executions scheduled for Thursday and Nov. 19, Gonzalez is in line to be the 21st inmate executed by the state this year. Florida’s Department of Corrections conducted 19 executions last year, the most by the state for a single year since the U.S. Supreme Court ended a moratorium on executions in 1976.

A competent court issued a ruling confirming the charges against the three defendants and sentencing them to death by qisas (retribution) Saudi Arabia has executed three Saudi nationals convicted of murder in the Eastern Province on November 1, the Ministry of Interior announced. The three men were identified as Abdullah bin Malhaq bin Mohammed Al Marzouqi Al Buqami, Abdulmajeed bin Shabab bin Ghazi Al Kurizi Al Buqami, and Malik bin Abdullah bin Ali Al Barghash. Their victim was identified as Ahmed bin Ali bin Abdullah Sabie, also a Saudi national.

Iranian authorities have executed at least seven prisoners, including one Kurdish, one Lor, and three Turk prisoners, in Qazvin, Semnan, Zanjan, Karaj, and Nishapur prisons over four days. All seven had been sentenced to death on charges of “premeditated murder” or “drug-related offenses.” According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, authorities executed Esmail Moradvand, 64, a Lor from Dasht-e Azadegan in Khuzestan Province who lived in Qazvin, and Faramarz Seyfouri, 38, a Turk from Abhar in Zanjan Province, in Qazvin Central Prison on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. Both had been convicted of “drug-related offenses.” Moradvand was the father of four children, while Seyfouri had one child.

Tennessee says it followed its protocol when Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital. The failure lies in a method that needs medical skill that doctors are ethically barred from providing. Editor’s note: Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and medical ethicist, has served as a medical expert for Christa Pike’s legal team, including providing expert testimony in her challenge to Tennessee’s execution protocol before the Sept. 30 execution attempt.

The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Criminal Code significantly increasing penalties for drug-impaired driving, including raising the maximum prison term from three to five years and allowing capital punishment for repeat offenders who cause death within 10 years. The amendments passed with support from opposition lawmakers, who hold a majority in the legislature, following a joint motion by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to separate penalties for drug-impaired driving from those for drunk driving.

Dr. Mark Fowler knew something was wrong after 45 minutes passed without word from the warden. In most cases, executions take no more than ten minutes. When he was summoned from his waiting room to the chamber next door, he saw 50-year-old Christa Pike, who’d received two lethal doses of pentobarbital that night, strapped to a gurney, gasping for air. “She’s not dead,” Fowler recalls the warden saying. “I thought, Well, in human beings there’s a spectrum of responses to medications and we’ll give it a few more minutes,” he says. Another half-hour passed. Fowler worried she might survive with irreversible brain damage. “She’s going to be in a permanent vegetative state with a quarter-million dollars in medical expenses.” He came back in and diagnosed her as comatose. The deputy commissioner ordered the execution to stop. Now, instead of taking part in Pike’s death, Fowler’s job was to bring her back to life.

Convicted murderer Christa Pike said Friday that she is in constant pain, a month after surviving a botched execution attempt in the US state of Tennessee. "There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain," Pike said in a statement released by her lawyers. "My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts," she said. "I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn't just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul."

Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court has sentenced three individuals arrested during the January 2026 protests—Amirreza Rezaei, Vahid Gahramani, and Mehdi, a cleric whose surname has not been disclosed—to death. HRANA reported that the sentences were officially served to the three prisoners in detention on Monday, October 26.  Among the charges brought against them in this case is “operational actions on behalf of Israel.”

Gov. Mike Braun is still weighing Jeffrey Weisheit’s clemency request, however. Gov. Mike Braun’s administration will not allow death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit to undergo additional brain scans before his scheduled execution next week. The decision follows weeks of legal efforts by his attorneys to obtain additional medical evidence for his clemency case. Braun’s general counsel, Stephanie Flittner, met with Weisheit’s legal team Wednesday to discuss the testing and his pending clemency request.

Iranian authorities have executed two prisoners, Amrollah Seiri and Reza Talebi, in Karaj and Sabzevar Central Prisons. Both were sentenced to death for “premeditated murder,” with Seiri spending 14 years in prison before his execution. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Seiri (Hadavandi), a Lor man from Farunabad in Pakdasht County, Tehran Province, was executed in Karaj Central Prison on Wednesday morning, October 28, 2026.