Asia a bastion for executions despite abolitionist wave

Japan is reviewing the death penalty and Singapore's frequent use of capital punishment is under the spotlight, but Asia remains a bastion of support for executions despite outrage from rights groups. Amnesty International says thousands of convicts may have been executed in China and at least 26 others were put to death in other Asian countries in 2009 despite growing global support for abolition.

The execution of 2 Japanese men for murder on Wednesday reignited a debate over the relevance of judicial executions in the 21st century.

Justice Minister Keiko Chiba announced a review after witnessing the 1st executions since the centre-left government took power last year.

"It made me again think deeply about the death penalty, and I once again strongly felt that there is a need for a fundamental discussion about the death penalty," Chiba said.

Even China is taking a look at its laws by launching a review of the 68 offences currently punishable by death, according to state media reports.

But in Singapore, British writer Alan Shadrake, 75, will appear before the High Court on Friday to face contempt of court charges after launching a book titled "Once a Jolly hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock."

In the book, Shadrake highlights candid conversations with a retired hangman, Darshan Singh, who the author says executed some 1,000 local and foreign criminals in a career spanning nearly half a century.

Shadrake, based in Malaysia and Britain, is out on bail and undergoing a separate investigation for criminal defamation.

Among human rights groups, Singapore is known as the execution capital of the world because of the number of hangings it has carried out relative to its population, currently standing at just 5 million.

Singapore keeps its tally of executions secret and maintains that the death penalty on murderers and drug traffickers has been crucial in keeping the crime rate low in island, widely acknowledged as one of Asia's safest countries.

Amnesty International estimates that Singapore executed at least 420 people between 1991 and 2009.

"Our view is that there is a growing global sentiment against the death penalty," Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, told AFP, adding that countries that still execute convicts are "seriously out of touch" with international opinion.

Amnesty says China was believed to have executed thousands of people in 2009 -- more than the rest of the world combined -- although the figures are a state secret.

The London-based human rights group said at least 26 people were known to have been executed in other Asian countries in 2009, led by nine in Vietnam and seven in Japan.

In Malaysia, the government rarely releases information about executions but activists said there were 358 hangings carried out between 1981 and 2005.

"The death penalty is inhumane," said lawyer Charles Hector, from rights group Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture.

Thailand has executed 325 convicts, including 3 women, since 1934, when it began using firing squads instead of beheadings, according to government figures.

It introduced lethal injection in 2003 and has since executed 6 people by this method.

India has not carried out any execution since 2004 and has hanged only 2 people since 1998.

The last available government statistics show that 308 people were on death row at the end of 2007, although no breakdown was provided about the status of prisoners in the appeals process.

Those waiting to hear their fate include the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991, and Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, convicted for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

In Taiwan, a total of 541 people have been executed since 1981, according to figures compiled by Taiwan's Justice Ministry.

The last took place in April, when 4 prisoners were executed after the justice minister stepped down, causing a political storm by saying she would not allow any convict to be put to death during her term.

In Indonesia, executions are carried out by firing squad. The last one was in November 2008 when 3 extremists behind the 2002 Bali bombings were shot.

Source: Agence France-Presse, July 29, 2010

Comments

Alabama Set To Carry Out Execution This Week

Alabama is preparing to execute Jeremy Williams, who pled guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. The execution is scheduled for Thursday (August 13) at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Williams, who is 41, requested the death penalty and waived his right to appeal, making this the first execution in Alabama this year.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

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.

Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

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.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Tennessee set to execute Anthony Darrell Hines

Barring any last-minute interventions, the Tennessee Department of Correction will execute Anthony Darrell Hines by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville Thursday morning. This week, two courts had the opportunity to halt the execution: the federal court in Middle Tennessee and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday he personally would not prevent the execution. “After deliberate consideration of Anthony Darrell Hines’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” he said in a written statement. The U.S. Supreme Court has not granted a stay or reprieve.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

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.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issues three death penalty reprieves

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued execution reprieves for three death row inmates on Friday. In a statement, DeWine said he issued reprieves for Keith LaMar, Scott Group, and Davel Chinn, all of whom were set to be executed early next year. LaMar was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 13, 2027. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the deaths of five inmates during a 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He received the death penalty for four of the killings. His new execution date is Jan. 13, 2030. Watch the latest NBC4 headlines in the video player above.

Arizona prosecutors seek death penalty a second time for 2 inmates

County Attorney Brad Miller said Aug. 6 that the nature of the attack and both men's past criminal records meet the strict legal bar required for execution under Arizona law. FLORENCE, Ariz. - Pinal County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two inmates accused of violently killing a fellow prisoner behind bars, officials announced Thursday. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton in connection with the fatal attack on Kenneth Thompson.

Iran’s War on Women: Executions, Floggings, and the Politics of Fear

The Iranian regime is increasingly using death sentences, corporal punishment, and judicial persecution against women—not only to silence dissent but also to intimidate a society demanding change. The Iranian regime has long viewed women as central to the country’s struggle for freedom—and therefore as central targets of repression. The nationwide uprising of 2022 fundamentally altered the political landscape, demonstrating that Iranian women were no longer merely participants in protest movements but among their principal organizers and symbols. Since then, the authorities have steadily intensified their campaign against women, expanding the use of executions, imprisonment, corporal punishment, and judicial intimidation.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog