India | SC rejects Nirbhaya convict's plea on stay on death penalty

NEW DELHI:With just two days remaining for the execution of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the curative petition of Akshay, one of the convicts in the case, seeking a stay on the death sentence.

A five-judge bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Arun Mishra, R.F. Nariman, R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, considered Akshay's petition in-chambers.

"The application for oral hearing is rejected. The application for stay on the execution of death sentence is also rejected," said the top court.

Earlier, the apex court had dismissed the curative petitions of the other convicts Mukesh and Vinay.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had dismissed convict Mukesh Singh's plea seeking judicial review of the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.

With this decision by the top court, Mukesh has exhausted the last legal remedy available to him against the death sentence.

A bench comprising Justices R. Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A.S. Bopanna said that all the relevant documents connected with the case were placed before the President and then a decision was taken on his mercy petition.

The court observed that the alleged ill-treatment and cruelty in jail is no ground to grant mercy to the convict.

Also, Mukesh's counsel's contention that there was non-application of mind while rejecting his mercy petition was rejected by the court.

Mukesh' counsel had submitted that there was non-application of mind in rejection of the petitioner's mercy petition, as it was rejected with lightning speed.

Source: punjabnewsexpress.com, IANS, January 30, 2020

After Supreme Court dismisses curative petition, I hope convicts are hanged on February 1: Nirbhaya's mother

The dismissal of the curative petition of Akshay Thakur by the Supreme Court has brought the convicts closer to their execution and now without any delay, they should be hanged on February 1, said Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi on Thursday.

"They have moved a step forward towards their execution. Now, nothing is left to provide them as they were given all the time. All that is left is to hang them. Now, they should be hanged without any delay," Devi told ANI.

"It's not only me but everyone has understood that they are trying to delay the execution. They have made a mockery of the system. I still hope that they will be hanged on February 1 and will continue with the fight," she added.

Expressing happiness over the Supreme Court's decision, Nirbhaya's father Badrinath Singh said, "I welcome the decision of the top court. There is, of course, a delay in the process but we are not disappointed. We hope they will be hanged soon."

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court dismissed the curative petition of Akshay Thakur, who had sought the commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment.

A five-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice NV Ramana heard the matter.

The curative petition, which was filed by advocate AP Singh on behalf of Akshay, sought the commutation of the sentence of the petitioner "as it serves all the purposes that the death penalty claims to serve and protects society from the impending reality in the near-future in which torture and murder are equated with justice as a panacea for all social evils."

Source: ANI, Staff, January 30, 2020

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

'No Warning': The Death Penalty In Japan

Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite criticism over how it is carried out. Tokyo: Capital punishment in Japan is under scrutiny again after the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, was awarded $1.4 million in compensation this week following his acquittal last year in a retrial. Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite international criticism over how it is carried out.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

USA | Federal death penalty possible for Mexican cartel boss behind 1985 DEA agent killing

Rafael Caro Quintero, extradited from Mexico in 2022, appeared in Brooklyn court as feds weigh capital charges for the torture and murder of Agent Enrique Camarena NEW YORK — The death penalty is on the table for notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, the so-called “narco of narcos” who orchestrated the torture and murder of a DEA agent in 1985, according to federal prosecutors. “It is a possibility. The decision has not yet been made, but it is going through the process,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy said in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday.

Inside Florida's Death Row: A dark cloud over the Sunshine State

Florida's death penalty system has faced numerous criticisms and controversies over the years - from execution methods to the treatment of Death Row inmates The Sunshine State remains steadfast in its enforcement of capital punishment, upholding a complex system that has developed since its reinstatement in 1976. Florida's contemporary death penalty era kicked off in 1972 following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia , which temporarily put a stop to executions across the country. Swiftly amending its laws, Florida saw the Supreme Court affirm the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976's Gregg v. Georgia case.

Louisiana's First Nitrogen Execution Reflects Broader Method Shift

Facing imminent execution by lethal gas earlier this week, Jessie Hoffman Jr. — a Louisiana man convicted of abducting, raping and murdering a 28-year-old woman in 1996 — went to court with a request: Please allow me to be shot instead. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 16 seeking a stay of his execution by nitrogen hypoxia, a protocol that had yet to be tested in the state, Hoffman requested execution by firing squad as an alternative.

A second South Carolina death row inmate chooses execution by firing squad

Columbia, S.C. — A South Carolina death row inmate on Friday chose execution by firing squad, just five weeks after the state carried out its first death by bullets. Mikal Mahdi, who pleaded guilty to murder for killing a police officer in 2004, is scheduled to be executed April 11. Mahdi, 41, had the choice of dying by firing squad, lethal injection or the electric chair. He will be the first inmate to be executed in the state since Brad Sigmon chose to be shot to death on March 7. A doctor pronounced Sigmon dead less than three minutes after three bullets tore into his heart.

Bangladesh | Botswana Woman Executed for Drug Trafficking

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Lesedi Molapisi, a Botswana national convicted of drug trafficking, was executed in Bangladesh on Friday, 21 March 2025. The 31-year-old was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail after exhausting all legal avenues to appeal her death sentence. Molapisi was arrested in January 2023 upon arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, where customs officials discovered 3.1 kilograms of heroin hidden in her luggage. Following a trial under Bangladesh’s Narcotics Control Act, she was sentenced to death in May 2024. Her execution was initially delayed due to political unrest in the country but was carried out last week.

564 People On Death Row In India, Highest Since The Turn Of The Century

In 90% of of all death penalty sentences in 2024, trial courts imposed sentences in the absence of adequate information about the accused, finds a recent report Bengaluru: Following the uproar and the widespread protests after the August 2024 rape and murder of a medical professional in Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital, there were demands for death penalty for the accused. The state government passed the Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2024 (awaiting presidential assent) which included mandatory death sentence for rape which results in death of the victim or if the victim is left in a vegetative state, despite such a mandatory sentence being unconstitutional.

South Carolina | Spiritual adviser of condemned inmate: 'We're more than the worst thing we've done'

(RNS) — When 67-year-old Brad Sigmon was put to death on March 7 in South Carolina for the murder of his then-girlfriend's parents, it was the first time in 15 years that an execution in the United States had been carried out by a firing squad. United Methodist minister Hillary Taylor, Sigmon's spiritual adviser since 2020, said the multifaceted, months long effort to save Sigmon's life, and to provide emotional and spiritual support for his legal team, and the aftermath of his execution has been a "whirlwind" said Taylor, the director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog