Death Penalty News

The former warden of San Quentin prison in California, Jeanne Woodford, regrets having taken part in executions and has called for replacing the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole.  In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Woodford notes that after each execution, “someone on the staff would ask, ‘Is the world safer because of what we did tonight?’ We knew the answer: No.” The full article can be found below.

Pavatt claimed innocence in the slaying of an Oklahoma City advertising executive for insurance money. His co-defendant and former lover Brenda Andrew is also on death row. James Pavatt made no final statement before being executed Thursday for killing his lover’s estranged husband nearly 25 years ago. Pavatt merely shook his head when asked by Oklahoma Department of Corrections Chief of Operations Jason Sparks if he had any last words. Pavatt appeared to share a quick word with Michael Scott, his spiritual advisor, after microphones inside the death chamber had been cut off.

The state of Florida has executed 38 people in the past two years, by far the most of any state in the nation. No state has executed more death row inmates over the past two years than Florida, but with a change of administrations taking place in January, anti-death penalty advocates are calling on Gov.-elect Byron Donalds to pause on any further executions. The Rev. Jeff Hood is spiritual adviser to two men scheduled to be executed within the next month. He is urging Donalds to commit to a six-month moratorium between Jan. 5, when he takes office, and July 5.

TOYAMA, Japan—Prosecutors again sought the death penalty Thursday for a former Self-Defense Forces member in his retrial over the 2018 killings of an officer at police box and a security guard in central Japan. The defense for 30-year-old Keita Shimazu is set to present its closing arguments next Monday, and the Toyama District Court is scheduled to hand down a ruling on Dec. 8. In its closing arguments, the prosecution denounced the killings as "an extremely malicious crime showing a high disregard for human life."

The U.S. was preparing to carry out two executions on Thursday, one in Oklahoma and one in Texas. In Texas, the condemned man is John Allen Rubio, 46, who is set to be put to death at the state prison in Huntsville. He was convicted of beheading three young children he was raising in a 2003 killing that rattled a community along the U.S.-Mexico border. The other man facing execution is James Pavatt, 73, who is set to die by lethal injection at Oklahoma's state penitentiary in McAlester.

Florida has faced allegations that since February 2025 it has used expired lethal injection drugs A Florida Department of Corrections employee used white-out to alter the expiration dates of lethal injection drugs, according to a complaint from a Death Row inmate who was executed Thursday night, a revelation that a federal appellate judge recently called “deeply troubling.”  That episode was included in a lawsuit filed by Jesse Guardado in September that called into question whether the drugs the state uses are expired, but it didn’t affect his scheduled execution Thursday night. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Guardado’s request for a stay Thursday afternoon. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Guardado’s death warrant on Oct. 5, a week after his lawsuit was filed.

James Pavatt is scheduled to be executed on Thursday for the 2001 killing of an Oklahoma City man. OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma Death Row inmate James Pavatt is set to be executed for the 2001 murder of advertising executive Rob Andrew. His execution is scheduled for Nov. 12, 2026. In 2004, Pavatt and his lover/co-conspirator, Brenda Andrew, were sentenced to death for planning the killing of her estranged husband in an attempt to claim his $800,000 life insurance policy. Brenda is the only woman on Oklahoma’s death row.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a warrant Tuesday for what is slated to be the 22nd execution of the year, even as a group of people exonerated after sitting on Florida’s death row are asking the next governor to slow the record-setting pace. The warrant is for Willie Seth Crain, a convicted child molester found guilty in the 1998 disappearance and death of 7-year-old Amanda Brown in Hillsborough County. Brown’s body was never found. Crain, 80, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 10 at Florida State Prison in Raiford.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 10 November 2026: Arshad Abbasi, a Kurdish man on death row for murder, was executed in Kermanshah Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Kermanshah Central Prison on 10 November 2026. His identity has been established as Arshad Abbasi, a 24-year-old Kurdish man from Salas, Babajani County. He was arrested around two 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.

Gov. Mike DeWine is considering whether to remove people from Ohio's death row before he leaves office in January. The Ohio Parole Board notified county prosecutors that it will review the cases of at least five people on death row in the coming weeks. The notices came months after DeWine called on state lawmakers to end the death penalty, arguing the system is slow, expensive and doesn't deter crime. DeWine said Monday that while he’s looking at commuting some death-penalty sentences before leaving office in January, he won’t follow California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lead by issuing a blanket commutation for all 106 Ohio Death Row inmates.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Forty-nine percent of U.S. adults are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers, and 45% are opposed. While statistically similar to last year’s 52%, the latest update marks the first time support has been below the majority level since 1971, when it was also at 49%. The last time support was lower than now was in 1966, when a record-low 42% favored the death penalty. The high point for support was 80% in 1994.

“They tried to remove his cross tattoo. They tortured him. They had him crucified the whole time that he was there,” the fiancée of Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek, an Egyptian convert to Christianity who faces the possibility of execution, told The Jerusalem Post, describing the abuse he has endured after being charged as punishment for leaving Islam. Abdelrazek was arrested in July 2025 and has been detained by Egyptian authorities since then. His lawyer, Said Fayez, confirmed on Tuesday that Egyptian prosecutors are pursuing the “maximum penalty,” either execution or 25 years' imprisonment. According to the NGO Coptic Solidarity, Abdelrazek faces charges of contempt for Islam, inciting public disorder, disseminating false information, and joining a banned terrorist organization that allegedly does not exist.

On Oct. 20, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey did something quite unusual for the chief executive of a deep-red and pro-death-penalty state: She commuted the death sentence of Toforest Johnson, who had been convicted of the 1995 murder of Deputy Sheriff William Hardy.   This was the 3rd time Ivey had used her clemency power to spare the life of someone awaiting execution. As she explained to the media, “’When presented with Mr. Johnson’s case, I had concerns there was not enough direct evidence to carry out the most serious punishment, death. My decision is not a determination of innocence, but a recognition that the circumstances of this case justify commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment, without possibility of parole.’” 

On October 20, Reuters released the results of a survey showing that 33% of the American public want Tennessee to try again to put Christa Pike to death. Another 26% are undecided. That means 59% of the public would support or be open to such a possibility. I want to suggest a reason why. Second execution attempts are rare in this country and, as a result, the public knows little if anything about them. That may help explain why so many would give Tennessee another chance to kill Christa Pike.

In a statement, the judiciary said that “the death sentences of Hassan Deoband, Hamid Kazemi, and Reza Zangana were carried out on charges of ‘participating in operational action for the infamous Zionist regime and the United States and hostile groups.’” ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran on Sunday executed three more protesters over their involvement in the nationwide demonstrations in January, the judiciary announced, accusing them of spying for the United States and Israel and destroying infrastructure. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Two failed executions in Tennessee are now at the center of a growing legal battle over the state’s lethal injection protocol after a judge ruled in favor of death row inmates Friday. A Davidson County judge ruled death row inmates can expand their lawsuit to include new allegations stemming from the botched executions of Tony Carruthers and Christa Pike. The original lawsuit, filed in March 2025, argues Tennessee’s death penalty protocol violates the constitutional rights of death row inmates with complex medical conditions. More than one year later, the state then failed to execute two inmates: Tony Carruthers and Christa Pike.

The death penalty remains an option in California as local prosecutors defy Newsom’s clemency move (DPN) — Prosecutors across California have pledged to continue seeking the death penalty in future cases even after Governor Gavin Newsom announced mass commutations converting all 548 existing death sentences to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This action, the largest such clemency in U.S. history, leaves the death penalty itself intact under state law. Voters have twice rejected measures to abolish it, and district attorneys in several counties argue that the severity of certain murders still warrants capital charges. They intend to pursue them where the facts support it, regardless of the governor’s decision on prior sentences.

Four prisoners, including an Afghan national, were executed at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. All four had been sentenced to death under Iran’s qisas (retributive justice) laws on murder charges. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, one of the executed prisoners was identified as Gol Agha Eskandari, an Afghan national. Eskandari had been convicted of murder following a dispute between neighbors in the Khorasan Square area of Tehran in July 2024 and subsequently sentenced to death.

This month marks 10 years since a record number of Nebraska voters turned out to weigh in on a controversial issue: whether the state should reinstate the death penalty. In 2015, the Nebraska Legislature abolished capital punishment, becoming the first conservative-leaning state to do so since North Dakota in 1973. But voters restored it in 2016. LB268 was the 38th bill of its kind. Sen. Ernie Chambers had introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty at the beginning of every legislative session since 1979. “Had not the conservative faction decided that it’s time for a change, there’s no way that what is happening today would be taking place,” Chambers said on the legislative floor in 2015.