Pakistan: 7,046 death row inmates awaiting execution

Appeals of 5,378 pending in provincial high courts, 1,031 in apex court

The Supreme Court was informed on Wednesday that 7,046 inmates on death row are awaiting execution across the country.

The Interior Ministry, through the attorney general of Pakistan's office, on Wednesday submitted complete details of the prisoners on death row in different prisons of the country. Petitioner Barrister Zafarullah Khan of the Watan Party has drawn the Supreme Court's attention to the ordeal faced by such inmates. According to the details provided by the ministry, 5,378 appeals against the death sentence are pending in the provincial high courts and 1,031 in the Supreme Court.

The province-wise breakdown of death row prisoners is: Punjab, 4,981; Sindh, 266; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 102; and Balochistan, 29. Meanwhile, 532 mercy applications are pending before the president. It has also been learnt that the president has stopped the implementation of 78 capital punishment sentences, whereas the GHQ has pending with it appeals of 6 military personnel, while the Federal Shariat Court has 21 appeals.

It is noteworthy that the PPP government, which had announced a moratorium on executions in November 2008, carried out its first execution last year when Muhammed Hussain, a soldier who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2009 for murdering 1 of his colleagues, was hanged in November 2012. This is not the 1st time that the ordeal of inmates on death row has been highlighted before the Supreme Court. In 2008, the court had taken up a suo motu notice on a news report that 7,000 inmates on death row were waiting for their execution.

The court had asked the government if it was serious about bringing out any legislation to commute death sentences into life term. On June 21, 2008, former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had announced that his government would recommend to the president to commute death sentence of thousands of prisoners into life imprisonment as part of a birthday tribute to slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto. According to reports, 62 countries in the world still maintain death penalty, while 92 countries have abolished it completely. Ten countries retain it, but only for the crimes committed during war times.

During the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government in the 1970s, life sentence was increased to 25 years from 14 years with the aim to completely abolish capital punishment in the years to come. But the Ziaul Haq regime retained both the 25-year life sentence and death penalty.

Source: Daily Times, February 27, 2013

Indiana executes Benjamin Ritchie

Death row inmate Benjamin Ritchie was executed by lethal injection shortly after midnight Tuesday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to Department of Correction officials. The death sentence was carried out nearly 25 years after Ritchie shot and killed Beech Grove law enforcement officer William Toney. The condemned man had been on death row since his conviction in 2002. Details about the 45-year-old’s execution were sparse. No independent media representatives were permitted to witness the process.

Iran | Singer Amirhossein Tataloo at Grave Risk of Execution for Blasphemy

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 17, 2025: Asghar Jahangir, Iran’s Judiciary spokesman announced today that the blasphemy death conviction of Amirhossein Maghsoudloo, known as Tataloo, has been upheld by the Supreme Court and sent for enforcement. The singer’s defence lawyer, Majid Naghshi, previously reported filing a judicial review request. Reiterating its opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances, Iran Human Rights considers the use of this inhumane punishment for charges such as blasphemy to be a flagrant violation of international human rights law and calls on civil society and the international community not remain silent about Amirhossein Maghsoudlou’s death penalty.

Indiana man set for execution in state's second since 2009

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man convicted in the 2000 killing of a police officer is set to receive a lethal injection early Tuesday in the state’s second execution in 15 years. Benjamin Ritchie, 45, has been on death row for more than 20 years after being convicted in the fatal shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a foot chase. Unless there’s last-minute court action, Ritchie is scheduled to be executed “before the hour of sunrise” at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to state officials.

South Carolina | Death row inmate seeks to volunteer to die after friends are executed

A South Carolina death row inmate has said he wants to become his own attorney, a decision that would likely lead to his own execution after his best friend and four fellow inmates were put to death in less than a year. A 45-day delay in James Robertson's request was ordered by a federal judge, allowing time for a different lawyer to talk to him and make sure he really wants to fire his own attorneys. The consequences of his decision are likely to be lethal. The 51-year-old Robertson has been on death row since 1999 after killing both his parents in their Rock Hill home. He beat his father with the claw end of a hammer and a baseball bat and stabbed his mother. He then tried to make it look like a robbery in hopes he would get his part of their $2.2 million estate, prosecutors said.

Tennessee executes Oscar Franklin Smith

The state of Tennessee has executed Oscar Franklin Smith, sentenced to death for the 1989 killings of his estranged wife Judith Robirds Smith and her two teenage sons, Chad Burnett and Jason Burnett, in Nashville. Smith, 75, was killed by a fatal dose of the drug pentobarbital injected into his veins at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. He was pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m. May 22. Smith's execution marks a return to capital punishment in Tennessee after the governor instituted a moratorium on the state's most severe penalty. It had been five years since a Tennessee prisoner died by execution and six years since the state killed someone by lethal injection.

Oscar Franklin Smith, Tennessee death row inmate, declines to select execution method

Oscar Franklin Smith, a Tennessee death row inmate scheduled for execution on May 22, will die by lethal injection if the process moves forward. Smith, who was asked to choose between lethal injection and the electric chair, declined to pick, his attorney Kelley Henry, a supervisory assistant federal public defender, said. When an inmate does not choose, the method defaults to lethal injection. It's not the first time Smith has been given this grim decision and declined. That decision to not choose ultimately saved his life for three more years.

Florida executes Glen Rogers

Florida executes suspected serial killer once eyed for possible link to the OJ Simpson case A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room. Glen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of 2 he had met at a bar.

Iran | Convicted killer hanged in Tabriz. Execution carried out by his uncle, who was plaintiff in the case

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 10, 2025: Hassan Saei, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Tabriz Central Prison. His execution was carried out by his uncle, who was the plaintiff in the case. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Tabriz Central Prison on 6 May 2025. His identity has been established as Hassan Saei who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court. An informed source told IHRNGO: “Hassan Saei was arrested for the murder of his cousin and his maternal uncle carried out the execution.”

Texas Set to Execute Fourth Inmate of the Year

Matthew Johnson was convicted of the 2012 murder of Nancy Harris in Dallas County. Matthew Johnson’s guilt was never in question. On the stand during his 2013 trial, he admitted to the crime that landed him on death row. The attack—an early morning robbery and murder in a populous Dallas suburb—was also caught on camera. Johnson is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on May 20, exactly 13 years to the day after he robbed a Fina Whip-In convenience store in Garland and set the store clerk on fire. Johnson was convicted of the murder of Nancy Harris, the 76-year-old clerk.

Texas executes Matthew Lee Johnson

Texas man is executed 13 years to the day of a store robbery in which he set a clerk on fire A Texas man was executed Tuesday evening, 13 years to the day of a convenience store robbery in which he set a clerk on fire in a Dallas suburb. Matthew Lee Johnson, 49, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the May 20, 2012, attack on 76-year-old Nancy Harris, a great-grandmother he splashed with lighter fluid and set ablaze in the suburb of Garland. Badly burned, she died days afterward.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog