Death Penalty News

HRANA News Agency – Today, April 30, Mizan, the Judiciary’s media center, announced the execution of Mohsen Langarneshin (Langar-Neshin), a prisoner accused of espionage and collaboration with hostile governments. His mother had released a video the previous day stating that she had her final visit with him at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. Mizan claimed that Mr. Langarneshin had been arrested and tried on charges of moharebeh (enmity against God) and corruption on earth due to alleged intelligence cooperation and espionage in favor of the “Zionist regime.” 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 29, 2025: Abolfazl Kianpour, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison, Khuzestan province on 28 April 2025. His identity has been established as Abolfazl Kianpour from Masjed Suleiman. He was arrested three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 29, 2025: Two unidentified women and three Baluch men named Mohammadreza Damideh, Amirahmad Sanayi (Mazarzehi) and Sajad Barahouyi were executed for drug-related and murder charges in Mashhad Central Prison on 8 April. Five political prisoners were previously reported to have been executed, bringing the total number executed at the prison to ten that day. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two women and three men were hanged in Mashhad (Vakil Abad) Central Prison on 8 April 2025. Two of the men and the two women were sentenced to death on drug-related charges. The two women’s identities have not been established at the time of writing. The two men have been identified as 32-year-old Mohammadreza Damideh and Amirahmad Sanayi, two Baluch minorities.

On April 29, 2025, Iran witnessed a fresh wave of nationwide protests as citizens from diverse sectors and regions rallied against what they described as systemic injustice, economic mismanagement, and government repression. From Khuzestan to Tehran, Zanjan to Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, demonstrators demanded urgent changes, accountability, and basic rights. In Tehran, patients suffering from immune deficiency disorders staged a protest in front of the Food and Drug Organization, citing shortages and the high cost of IVIG, a critical medication. Despite repeated demonstrations, the crisis persists, and protesters say government pledges have gone unfulfilled.

Jeffrey Hutchinson is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Florida on May 1, 2025, despite a long­stand­ing men­tal ill­ness and his attorney’s claim that he is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent.  On April 24, 2025, attor­neys for the Gulf War vet­er­an filed a motion in Bradford County Circuit Court seek­ing a stay of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion and request­ing an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to assess their client’s com­pe­ten­cy. Mr. Hutchinson has suf­fered from a delu­sion­al dis­or­der for decades, with a per­sis­tent delu­sion that his exe­cu­tion is meant to silence his expo­sure of gov­ern­ment secrets, includ­ing the iden­ti­ty of the actu­al per­pe­tra­tors in his case. 

Justice Department targets Luigi Mangione after Trump ends Biden's moratorium on capital punishment A former federal prosecutor said the Trump administration is using the Luigi Mangione case to "send a message" in the first 100 days through its potential use of the death penalty. Mangione pleaded not guilty to federal charges of stalking, murder through a firearm, and other firearms offenses during an arraignment hearing on Friday. He's accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December outside a Hilton hotel where an annual shareholder meeting was scheduled to take place.

Idaho quadruple murder suspect's claims about overwhelming evidence preparation 'ring hollow,' judge rules A judge in Idaho denied a motion from Bryan Kohberger's defense team asking to remove the death penalty as a potential punishment if he's found guilty. Kohberger is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of four students at the University of Idaho, including Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; and Ethan Chapin, 20. The former student at the University of Washington was also charged with one felony count of burglary.

A legislative committee on Tuesday is scheduled to debate a bill that would allow people sentenced to death in North Carolina to choose between three options for their execution: lethal injection, electrocution, or firing squad. Capital punishment could soon look a lot different in North Carolina. A House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday plans to discuss House Bill 270, which would allow criminals sentenced to death in North Carolina to choose lethal injection, electrocution, or firing squad for their execution.

Pannir Selvam Pranthaman’s appeal hearing is set for May 7. He received a last-minute stay of execution on February 19, when the Court of Appeal allowed him to file a review of his case. If his appeal is denied, Pannir could once again face imminent execution. This is the 3rd time he has been at risk.  Pannir, a Malaysian national, was convicted in 2017 of importing 51.84 grams of heroin into Singapore. The trial judge ruled that Pannir only transported the drugs. However, because the prosecution did not issue a certificate of substantive assistance, the court sentenced him to the mandatory death penalty.  Meanwhile, executions in Singapore have continued at an alarming pace. Since October 2024, authorities have hanged 12 men.

Ron McAndrew was once the head of Florida's execution programme but one death made him regret everything A man that was once the head of Florida's execution programme recalled the moment where he realised the job wasn't for him, as he admitted he needed therapy to come to terms with what he'd seen. Ron McAndrew, now 88, didn't aspire to be a correctional officer in any form, but after being hired in a Miami prison in 1979, he climbed up the ladder over the next decade and became a warden. In what he now calls a 'wonderful career', he recalled moving to Florida State Prison, famous for holding the US state's death row inmates and for being the site where serial killer Ted Bundy was electrocuted to death.

Following a Verite News and ProPublica investigation, a district judge vacated the death sentence of Jimmie Duncan, whose 1998 murder conviction was based on allegedly fabricated bite mark analysis. It remains unclear if Duncan will walk free. A Louisiana judge this week set aside the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence of Jimmie Chris Duncan, whose 1998 conviction for killing his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter was based in part on bite mark evidence that experts now say is junk science . The decision comes after a Verite News and ProPublica investigation in March examined the questions surrounding Duncan’s conviction as Gov. Jeff Landry, a staunch death penalty advocate, made moves to expedite executions after a 15-year pause.

One fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ple of fair­ness upon which our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem relies is the notion that pros­e­cu­tors must dis­close excul­pa­to­ry, mate­r­i­al evi­dence favor­able to defen­dants. This Constitutional oblig­a­tion, estab­lished in Brady v. Maryland (1963), rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal safe­guard against wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Nevertheless, Brady vio­la­tions remain dis­turbing­ly com­mon, with dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for defen­dants who may spend years or decades wrong­ly impris­oned. The Death Penalty Information Center has iden­ti­fied more than 200 death-sen­tenced indi­vid­u­als in the mod­ern death penal­ty era whose con­vic­tions or sen­tences were over­turned due to pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct involv­ing a Brady violation.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 25, 2025: Akbar Sheikhi, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Hamedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Hamedan Central Prison on 23 April 2025. His identity has been established as 25-year-old Akbar Sheikhi from Hamedan. He was arrested five years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

James Osgood has been executed by the State of Alabama. Read an eyewitness account. There were no protestors today on the side of Highway 21 in Atmore, Alabama, outside Holman Correctional Facility where the state would soon begin its execution of James Osgood. Instead, under a cloudy spring sky, a few guard trucks were parked at the prison’s first gate, lonely in the grassy plains. Before, at the state’s previous killings, protestors have often flanked the roadside nearest those trucks, their dissenting bodies one of the few signals in the landscape of the death about to occur inside the prison’s gates.

NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors formally told a court on Thursday that they plan to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering a UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N), opens new tab executive in New York last year. Mangione, 26, is due to appear in Manhattan federal court for an arraignment on Friday. He has pleaded not guilty to a separate New York state indictment he faces over the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance division. While public officials condemned the killing, some Americans have cheered Mangione, saying he drew attention to steep U.S. healthcare costs and the power of health insurers to refuse payment for some treatments.

Alabama executes man who volunteered to die  Alabama executed an inmate Thursday evening after he volunteered to die for his crime – the 2010 slaying and rape of a Chilton County woman. In his last words, he apologized for the slaying.  James Osgood was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, just miles from the Florida state line. He was put to death using the state’s 3-drug lethal injection method, after he declined to choose death by nitrogen gas when Alabama allowed that swap in 2018. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 23, 2025: Mehdi Fathollahpour, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Rasht Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison on 21 April 2025. His identity has been established as 30-year-old Mehdi Fathollahpour from Abyek in Qazvin. He was arrested three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

The Iranian regime’s judiciary has rejected a final appeal from Behrouz Ehsani Eslamloo, a 70-year-old political prisoner sentenced to death, bringing him perilously close to execution. The decision, confirmed this week, comes amid international outcry and growing evidence of severe due process violations in Iran’s revolutionary courts. Ehsani was arrested in November 2022 at the height of the nationwide uprising and held in Tehran’s Evin Prison under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence. After enduring three and a half months of torture, extended solitary confinement, and coerced interrogations, he was transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison in January 2025, where he remains under constant threat of execution.

“Dad is here. He found the salon.” Those words, spoken frantically by 17-year-old Fatemeh Soltani to her mother over the phone at 9 AM on April 16, would be among the last she ever uttered. Within minutes, the streets of Islamshahr in Tehran would become the stage for an unthinkable act of violence – a father murdering his own daughter in broad daylight. Amir Mohammad Soltani raced through the city streets on his motorcycle after overhearing his sister’s desperate call, but he arrived too late.