Death Penalty News

In solitary, you’re bombarded by the sounds of humans forced into a grinding monotony of hunger, uncertainty, and madness. The noise in solitary confinement is ceaseless. You’re startled awake throughout the night by the repetitive slam of heavy steel doors and the shrill jangle of guards’ keys hanging from their belts, by the sound of their walkie-talkies crackling through the vast empty space. Once you’re awake, the light that never sleeps takes over—the long fluorescent bulb mounted above you burns bright. You cover your head with a blanket trying to evade its encompassing glare. As soon as you drift off, a guard kicks your door and tells you to show yourself, so they know you’re alive. When you do sleep, the garbled screams of your neighbors invade your dreams.

A man was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Monday on charges related to a attack on Halloween night 2021 in which he stabbed a man and lit a fire on a Tokyo train while dressed as the Joker. The Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court handed down the sentence on Kyota Hattori, 26, who was charged with attempted murder and arson offenses. He admitted to stabbing a male passenger and starting the fire on a moving express train. Prosecutors demanded 25 years, arguing that he planned to kill indiscriminately with the stated intent to get the death penalty and that "his motive was extremely selfish and deserving of strong condemnation."

Last week, the Tsaghati department issued a statement about what it considered a “suspected misstep” by the official, saying the matter had been “referred for careful consideration to the judicial authorities”.  The statement further warned against sharing the video to “undermine the honorable cultural front of the Islamic Revolution”. But editor-in-chief Peyman Behboudi said Radio Gilan would continue to expose “corruption among regime officials”. Local media reported that the resignation of Seqati, who is married with three daughters, was attributed to “scandals” and that the decision was made under the guidance of the culture minister. 

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — After nearly every death row inmate in Louisiana asked for clemency en masse, the state's pardon board turned away all 56 petitions this week. Francis Abbott, executive director of Louisiana’s Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole, confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that none of the applicants are currently eligible. That decision was based on an opinion filed last week by Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican and gubernatorial candidate, who found that the board can’t waive a policy requiring a clemency petition to be filed within a year of a judge ruling on an appeal, as reported by The Advocate.

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Friday hanged a 45-year-old citizen for drug trafficking, the city-state's first execution of a woman in nearly 20 years, officials said. The execution was carried out despite appeals from rights groups, who argue capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect on crime. "The capital sentence of death imposed on Saridewi Binte Djamani was carried out on 28 July 2023," the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement. She was convicted of trafficking "not less than 30.72 grams" of heroi n, more than twice the volume that merits the death penalty in Singapore.

Two convicts, who were sentenced to death for killing Rajshahi University (RU) Professor S Taher Ahmed, were executed in Rajshahi central  jail on Thursday night. Those hanged are Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin, associate professor of Rajshahi University’s Geology and Mining Department and Md Jahangir Alam, caretaker of Professor S Taher’s residence. They were hanged simultaneously at 10:01 pm, said Nizam Uddin Bhuiyan, jailer of Rajshahi central jail. Deputy Commissioner Shamim Ahmed, District Superintendent of Police ABM Masud, GIG Prison Kamal Hossain, Rajshahi Civil Surgeon Abu Said Md Farooq, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abdul Raqib were present during the execution.

The 40-year-old Singaporean woman, Saridewi Djamani, scheduled to executed tomorrow was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of trafficking a total of 1kg of drugs containing 30.72g of pure heroin. Djamani who was arrested in 2018, will be the second drug convict to be executed in one week after fellow Singaporean Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, was executed last week, and will be the first woman to be handed the death penalty in 20 years, according to human rights groups. In her defence, Djamani claimed she was suffering from persistent depressive disorder and severe substance use disorder and was stocking up on heroin for her own use during the fasting month but the plea was discarded by the court. Prosecutors told the court that on 17 June 2016, at about 3.35pm, one of Djamani’s accomplices, Muhammad Haikal Abdullah, met her at the block of her flat and passed her a plastic bag containing drugs in exchange for two envelopes containing $15,550 in total.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 26, 2023: The scope of offences leading to the death penalty has widened significantly this year. In the latest case, state media have reported the death sentence against an unidentified man for consensual sex. Extramarital relations are criminalised under the Islamic Republic’s laws which proscribe the death penalty for the married party. On the other hand, Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei called for the execution of those who burnt the Quran in Sweden last week. Iran Human Rights once again calls for the urgent attention of the international community to the growing number of death sentences and executions in Iran. Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “In order to create fear to prevent popular protests, Islamic Republic authorities have expanded the scope of charges for which they’re issuing and carrying out death penalty charges as well as the already significant rise in the number of executions.”

PUTRAJAYA: A man and his girlfriend were spared the gallows by the Court of Appeal today for killing their newborn baby girl who was found with a sock stuffed in her mouth. Fikri Hakim Kamaruddin, 27, and Nurul Filzatun Sahirah Abdul Aziz, 28, were instead sentenced to 30 years in jail. The court also ordered Fikri to be whipped 12 times. In dismissing the duo's appeal on conviction, the three-judge panel led by Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera said after considering the evidence, the court found that the prosecution has proven that there was common intention by the duo to commit the offence.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 27) — The Philippine government intends to discuss with Malaysia later this year the issue of dozens of Filipinos facing the death penalty there, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Thursday. During the last day of his state visit to Malaysia, Marcos told reporters that he expects the issue to be taken up during the two countries' Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) in October. "The joint commission mechanism is something that we use to raise any issues that come up between the Philippines and Malaysia, and it is one of them," the president noted.

Kuwait City (AFP) – Kuwait put to death five people on Thursday, including a man convicted of involvement in a 2015 Islamic State group suicide bombing that killed 26 people, the Public Prosecution said. The multiple executions in the Gulf emirate -- relatively rare compared to neighbouring Saudi Arabia -- are the first since seven people were put to death in November last year ending a five-year moratorium. In a statement, the Public Prosecution said it oversaw the "implementation of the death sentence in Kuwait's Central Prison" against five people, most of them accused of murder.

A 45-year-old woman convict is set to be hanged in Singapore on Friday July 28, marking the first time a woman will be sent to the gallows in the country in nearly 20 years.  Saridewi Djamani, 45, is set to be sent to the gallows and become the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai. 'Once she exhausted her appeal options it was a matter of time that she would be given an execution notice,' said Kirsten Han, a journalist and activist who has spent a decade campaigning against the death penalty.

Both to be hanged simultaneously in Rajshahi jail The two convicted killers of Rajshahi University Prof S Taher Ahmed are likely to be executed at 10:01pm on Thursday, Rajshahi jail authorities said on Wednesday. Both death row convicts will be hanged simultaneously in Rajshahi jail. Family members of the two death row convicts—Dr Miah Mohiuddin and Jahangir Alam—visited them in the prison on Tuesday. With this, the execution process started.  Seven-eight executioners have been prepared to execute the two. They have rehearsed the execution several times. Jahangir's younger brother Mizanur Rahman said on Tuesday that the jail authorities sent them and the family of Mohiuddin a letter on Sunday to meet the two inmates for the last time. 

"Singapore, Disneyland with the death penalty" SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore on Wednesday (July 26) hanged a local man convicted of drug trafficking, officials said, two days before the scheduled execution of the first woman prisoner in the city-state in nearly 20 years. Mohd Aziz Hussain, convicted and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking "not less than 49.98 grams" (1.76 ounces) of heroin, was executed at Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement. The 57-year-old was the 14th convict sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hussain's previous appeals against his conviction and sentence had been dismissed, and a petition for presidential clemency was also denied.

The Louisiana Pardon Board took no action during its meeting yesterday on 56 clemency applications from prisoners sitting on death row.  Most of the clemency petitions were submitted last month and Louisiana District Attorneys Association director Loren Lampert is glad the board is taking its time. “We’re pleased that the board found that pumping the brakes, making sure that all the ‘i’s were dotted and the ‘t’s were crossed, and that they were complying with the law and their own rules.” Director of the Pardon Board, Francis Abbott, said the clemency petitions are the most scrutinized their office has ever processed. 

Defense attorneys for Buffalo mass shooter Payton Gendron say the Department of Justice is moving forward with the decision-making process to determine if their client could face a death sentence. Gendron shot and killed 10 Black people at Tops on Jefferson Avenue in May 2022. His defense attorneys are expecting to meet with the DOJ Capital Case Committee in September, where they will present mitigating evidence to show why they think the U.S. attorney general should not seek the death penalty as part of the federal sentence. They are also working to reverse a scheduling order set at the last hearing, requiring them to file all non-death penalty related motions by Aug. 31.

Ghana’s Parliament today abolished the death penalty for all ordinary crimes (including murder, genocide, piracy and smuggling of gold and diamonds and attempted murder in prison) by passing a private member’s Bill to amend the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Act, tabled by the MP for Madina, Francis Xavier-Sosu. Working alongside Ghanaian Parliamentarians and campaign groups, the London legal action NGO The Death Penalty Project (DPP) played a pivotal role in the run-up to today’s decision.    Ghana is the 29th country to abolish the death penalty in Africa and the 124th globally. There are currently 170 men and 6 women on its death row, whose death sentences will now be replaced by life imprisonment. Ghana has not carried out an execution since 1993, but until today, its courts were still imposing death sentences, and its death row grew every year. In cases of murder, the death penalty was the mandatory punishment, leaving judges no discretion to impose a lesser sentence. Last...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Florida Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded the judge who oversaw the penalty trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz for showing bias toward the prosecution. The unanimous decision Monday followed a June recommendation from the Judicial Qualifications Commission. That panel had found that Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer violated several rules governing judicial conduct during last year’s trial in her actions toward Cruz’s public defenders. The six-month trial ended with Cruz receiving a receiving a life sentence for the 2018 murder of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the jury could not unanimously agree that he deserved a death sentence.

This week  Singapore intends to execute  Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, a 56-year-old Singaporean Malay man convicted of trafficking approximately 50g of diamorphine (heroin) and Saridewi binte Djamani, a 45-year-old Singaporean woman convicted of trafficking approximately 30g of diamorphine (heroin).  It has been almost twenty years since Singapore last executed a woman.  If these executions proceed, Singapore will have executed 15 people for drug offences since 30 March 2022, an  average of one execution every month. International law restricts the death penalty to the ‘most serious crimes’ understood as intentional killing: executions for drug offences clearly fail to meet the ‘most serious crimes’ criterion under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). 

Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted. Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison. A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

A week after Governor Ron DeSantis scheduled his execution, Florida death-sentenced prisoner James Barnes discharged his lawyers and waived his appeals.  His execution will now proceed on August 3, 2023.  Since February 23, 2023, Florida has executed four prisoners. Mr. Barnes will be the fifth prisoner executed by Florida this year and the tenth volunteer executed.  In 2007, Mr. Barnes was sentenced to death for the murder and rape of Patsy Miller. He was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole when he confessed to the murder after converting to Islam. At his trial, he waived his right to counsel, to a jury, represented himself, pled guilty, and waived all mitigation evidence at sentencing. 

Commentators usually divide the world of the death penalty into two groups, those places that “have” or “retain” the death penalty and those that don’t. But this summer, Ohio and Nebraska are joining a number of places that don’t really fit into either of those categories. These are jurisdictions whose criminal laws authorize capital punishment but which have gone five years or more without executing anyone. They are what I call quasi-death-penalty states, or de facto abolition states. Adding Ohio and Nebraska will mean that 17 of the 27 states in which capital punishment is legal will not have carried out an execution for at least five years. And in 14 of those 17 states, no one has been put to death in the last ten years or more

In Iran, the punishment for homosexuality is death for men and up to 100 lashes for women. After repeat offenses, women can become subject to the death penalty. An official of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance was sacked after the release of a video purportedly showing him having same-sex intercourse. The scandal emerged last week when the Radio Gilan Telegram channel shared a video allegedly showing Reza Saghati engaging in a sexual act with a young man.  Saghati is the director-general of Culture and Islamic Guidance in northern Gilan province. The video was purportedly recorded within the premises of the General Directorate of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

The following story was published on April 25, 2023, prior to the execution of Tangaraju Suppiah, a 46-year-old Singaporean convicted of conspiracy to traffick marijuana. The Singaporean government is very secretive about how it carries out the death penalty, so little is known about what death penalty inmates experience in the last few days before their executions.  As the state prepares to execute Tangaraju Suppiah , a 46-year-old Singaporean convicted of conspiracy to traffick marijuana, tomorrow at dawn, the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), a local activist group working to abolish the death penalty, recently posted some slides detailing how Tangaraju’s last few days have been spent based on information collected from his relatives. 

Singapore will execute two more death row inmates convicted of drug trafficking this week, according to reform group Transformative Justice Collective. The group last night said that a 56-year-old Singaporean Malay man and a 45-year-old Singaporean woman will be hanged on Wednesday and Friday respectively after being sentenced to death for drug offenses on separate accounts in 2018. They were both given the harrowing week’s notice before the execution.

Record temperatures in much of the U.S. threatening more people in prisons. Sweltering doesn’t even describe it. This week, more than a third of the U.S. population was under excessive heat warnings and heat advisories . Dozens of major cities and states have set new temperature records in recent weeks , including Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which logged its hottest June ever . Less than an hour from the city is Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola prison, where the state set up a temporary youth jail last fall , in a building that once housed adults awaiting execution.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A deadlocked jury prompted a mistrial Saturday in the South Florida trial of rapper YNW Melly on charges that he murdered two of his friends five years ago. The 12-member panel could not reach a unanimous verdict after three days of deliberations.  Broward County prosecutors, who had been seeking the death penalty, will likely choose to retry the case with a new jury.  A unanimous verdict is required to convict or acquit a defendant. Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy twice asked the jurors to keep deliberating after they said they were deadlocked, but relented after they came back a third time.

It’s the question in Payton Gendron’s federal case that has everyone wondering: Will the U.S. attorney general seek the death penalty for the Buffalo mass shooter who killed 10 people and wounded three others at a Tops grocery store on May 14, 2022? But, according to the judge handling pretrial matters in the case, it’s not a question that should keep everyone waiting. So U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. last month pressed forward by setting deadlines for pretrial motions and responses by prosecutors and Gendron’s federal public defenders – over the defense team’s objections.

The Republican-appointed justices greenlit an "experiment" with human life, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. The Supreme Court recently handed down its final decisions in argued cases this term, but its work on the shadow docket continues. We were reminded of that on Friday, with an execution order that split the court along party lines and served as the latest reminder that these emergency appeals can be just as significant as ones that get oral argument and lengthier deliberation. Indeed, it was a matter of life or death on the docket. More specifically, it was a matter of how that death would come about, with the Republican-appointed majority permitting what Justice Sonia Sotomayor 's dissent called an "experiment" with human life.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 21 July, 2023: An unidentified man was executed for murder charges in Ahar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Ahar Prison in East Azerbaijan province on 18 July. His identity has not been established at the time of writing. He was 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. Those charged with the umbrella term of “intentional murder” are sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) regardless of intent or circumstances due to a lack of grading in law. 

A secondary school student in the North Atlantic Ocean African country of Mauritania could be sentenced to death after she was arrested for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed. Local media in the country reports that Islamic authorities have demanded the death penalty for the student after she was arrested on charges of blasphemy. The student was reportedly arrested on Friday for writing an exam paper considered insulting to the Prophet in last month’s baccalaureate exams. A report in an online platform on Saturday noted that religious authorities demanded the death penalty if the young woman, who has not been named, is found guilty of blasphemy in court. The report states that Mauritania recently strengthened its blasphemy laws, prescribing the death penalty for Muslims who “ridicule or insult God or the Prophet, even if they repent”, nullifying a previous law where offenders could avoid the death sentence if they expressed remorse.

NONOICHI, Ishikawa Prefecture--A man reflected on what went wrong in his family after learning through news reports that his son, Yoshihiro, had been executed. “I was a complete failure as a father,” he says in his memoirs. “Did Yoshihiro ever feel happy that he had been born into this world?” The father also says, “I myself, not my son, am to be judged.” Yoshihiro Inoue, 48, was sent to the gallows on July 6, 2018, for a number of heinous crimes carried out by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, including mass murder on Tokyo’s subway system in 1995. A book containing letters from the former senior Aum member and his father’s memoirs was released by the Gendai Shokan publishing house exactly five years after the execution. It is titled “‘Aum Shikeishu Chichi no Shuki’ to Kokka Kenryoku” (“Memoirs of an executed Aum convict’s father” and state power).

It may have started as a row with another stallholder in the market or perhaps with a remark to a beggar. But while the beginning is unclear, how the day’s events unfolded and its tragic denouement have become all too familiar in northern Nigeria – not least because the mob that murdered Usman Buda filmed him being stoned to death . Buda, a butcher and father of six, was the latest person to be lynched for ‘blaspheming’ in Sokoto, one of 12 among Nigeria’s 36 states to adopt sharia law in 2000. The Associated Press reported that it began as an argument with another trader. The accusation of blasphemy – whether true or not – quickly led to ‘a large crowd that included children pelting stones at Buda on the floor as they cursed him’.

The woman managed to secure a safe haven visa but not her parents and brother, who escaped with her to Australia The family of a woman who fled Iran after facing the death penalty for escaping an arranged marriage has been granted the chance to stay with her in Australia. Despite an Immigration Assessment Authority decision to deport the woman’s parents and brother, the federal circuit court has ruled the trio should have their application for asylum reviewed. The Immigration Assessment Authority, established by Tony Abbott’s Coalition government nearly a decade ago, is tasked with reviewing fast-track decisions to refuse protection visas by the federal immigration minister.

President Joe Biden’s promise to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and work to end capital punishment in states seems to have gone dormant as the Department of Justice continues to press for the death penalty in certain cases and Biden—the first president to openly oppose the execution of prisoners—stays quiet on the issue as they continue in states. Biden pledged to push for the death penalty’s elimination on the campaign trail in 2020 and did order a moratorium on carrying out federal death sentences, but since then his administration has been largely silent on the matter. The nonpartisan Death Policy Information Center says there are 43 federal death row prisoners with sentences dating back as far as 1997, with the most recent death row inmate, Brandon Council of South Carolina, sentenced in 2019.

TOKYO — Prosecutors have sought a 25-year jail sentence for a man charged with attempted murder and arson while dressed in a Joker costume on a Tokyo train in 2021. During a trial at the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court, the prosecutors argued the actions of Kyota Hattori, 26, were premeditated and "his motive was extremely selfish and deserving of strong condemnation."

Alabama condemned him to death. He said he was headed for Higher Ground. When James Barber’s friends and family gathered with him before the Alabama man’s execution Thursday, they sang. One family member sang “Mary Did You Know,” a Southern staple. Then, together, they sang “When the Saints Go Marching In,” sources told Tread, and James Barber led them all in a march around the room. Finally, a prison staff member requested “Amazing Grace.”

In the last 10 years, approximately 5,000 executions have taken place in Iran, including dozens of children. The news was released this week in the latest recent report by Dadgostar, the news agency of US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA). Over the past decade, Iran has witnessed an alarming rate of executions with at least 4,800 individuals put to death by the Islamic Republic.  The report highlights the concerning trend of an average of 10 citizens being executed every week since May of the current year alone.

The Department of Migrant Workers has confirmed the case of Filipino who was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. According to JP Soriano's report on "24 Oras," the victim's family is reportedly asking for "blood money" worth 30 million Saudi riyals. "We're talking to the DFA about this particular case," DMW Undersecretary Hans Cacdac said. "Yes, we're aware of this case. We're talking, coordinating with DFA on this matter and we are reaching out to the family as well," he added.

The high court allowed the execution of James Barber despite botched attempts to execute other inmates last year. WASHINGTON — The three liberal Supreme Court justices took aim at their conservative colleagues for allowing the early Friday execution of an Alabama death row inmate who had raised claims about the state's history of botching the lethal injection process. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, declined to block the execution of James Barber , who was put to death at about 2 a.m. local time. "This court’s decision denying Barber’s request for a stay allows Alabama to experiment again with a human life," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a dissenting opinion joined by her liberal colleagues, Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Since the beginning of 2023, till the end of June Saudi Arabia has announced the execution of 61 individuals.  All 61 executions were carried out in a span of three months, at a rate of one execution every two days. With the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights monitoring in late 2022 of secret executions and the confirmation of the official Saudi Human Rights Commission to Amnesty the unannounced executions in 2022, it is possible that the actual number of executions carried out is even higher.

Oklahoma on Thursday carried out the execution of convicted murderer Jemaine Cannon. Cannon was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 10:13 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was 51. Opponents of the death penalty gathered outside the Governor's Mansion in Oklahoman City to protest Cannon's execution. A Tulsa County jury convicted Cannon of murdering Sharonda White Clark, a 20-year-old mother of two, in 1995 at her Tulsa apartment after escaping from an Oklahoma Department of Corrections community work center in southwest Oklahoma.  Prior to his escape, Cannon was serving a 15-year sentence for a 1990 attack on an 18-year-old woman who spurned his advances. That woman was beaten in the head with an iron, a toaster and a hammer, and left permanently disfigured.  Clark’s body was discovered Feb. 5, 1995. She was reported missing after she failed to pick her children up from a day care center. Her injuries included three stab wounds in the neck from a butch...

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama executed a man on Friday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state resumed lethal injections following a pause to review procedures. James Barber, 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison. Barber was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 beating death of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a handyman, confessed to killing Epps with a claw hammer and fleeing with her purse. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. It was the first execution carried out in Alabama this year after the state halted executions last fall. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced a pause on executions in November to conduct an internal review of procedures. The move came after the state halted two lethal injections because of difficulties inserting IVs into the condemned men’s veins. Advocacy groups claimed a third execution, carried out after a delay because of IV problem...