Death Penalty News

Taipei, Dec. 30 (CNA) Taiwan's presidential candidates addressed the issue of the death penalty in Saturday's televised debate when Kuomintang presidential candidate (KMT) Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) brought it up in a question he asked of the other two candidates. In one of the few questions the candidates asked each other that was issue-based, Hou openly expressed his opposition to abolishing capital punishment.

The French Revolution of 1789 was a pivotal event in history, marked by profound social, political, and cultural changes. The revolution aimed to dismantle the existing monarchical system, abolish feudal privileges, and establish principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The upheaval had its roots in widespread discontent with the absolute monarchy, financial crisis, and social inequality. The Estates-General (Etats généraux) was convened in 1789 to address the fiscal problems, but tensions escalated, leading to the formation of the National Assembly. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 29, 2023: Reza Eyvazi, a man sentenced to death for drug-related charges, was executed in Kashan Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Kashan Prison on 28 December. His identity has been established as 30-year-old Reza Eyvazi from Najaf Abad. He was arrested two years ago and sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

Hideo Hiraoka has not forgotten the barbs and sneers directed his way over his cautious stance toward ordering death penalties when he was justice minister. More than a decade after leaving that post, Hiraoka was offended by another comment concerning capital punishment. Yasuhiro Hanashi was forced to resign as justice minister in November last year after he jokingly said that he served in a “low-profile position that makes headlines only when the minister has stamped an order for executing a death penalty.”

Japan carried out no executions in 2023 for the first time in three years. Currently, there are 106 people on death row in Japan. Three of the inmates died and three death sentences were finalized this year, according to the Justice Ministry. The last execution was on July 26, 2022, when Tomohiro Kato was hanged. He was convicted of murdering seven people by driving into them or stabbing them in a random attack in Tokyo’s Akihabara district in 2008.

Iran and its proxy groups in the Middle East pose a serious threat to the West IRAN has executed four “saboteurs” linked to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, the Mizan news agency affiliated to the judiciary said. The killings could be seen as a possible revenge move after Senior Iranian general Sayyed Razi Mousavi was killed on Christmas Day in Syria.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 has led to a surge in child marriage, as families struggle to cope with the economic and social upheaval. According to a recent report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), reported by the Independent newspaper, the number of child marriages in Afghanistan has increased by 25% since the Taliban took power.

India's foreign ministry had expressed shock after a court in Qatar sentenced them to death. A court in Qatar has commuted the death sentences of eight former Indian naval officers, India's foreign ministry has said. "The sentences have been reduced," a ministry statement said on Thursday. "Due to the confidential and sensitive nature of proceedings of this case, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment at this juncture," it added.

Eleven people, all convicted of drug trafficking, were executed last year. KUALA LUMPUR: It has been almost 10 years since Sangkari Pranthaman's brother has been in prison in Singapore and in that time, she has only held his hands twice. Both occasions were marked by extreme emotions on both ends of the spectrum. The first time was a crushing heartbreak when she heard the court convict and sentence her brother Pannir Selvam Pranthaman to death for trafficking 51.84g of heroin in 2017. "I held my brother's hand. I told him, no matter what, we will try our best," she said. The second time was in relieved jubilation when the Singapore Court of Appeals gave him a stay of execution on May 23, 2019, a day before he was scheduled to go to the gallows.

According to the Iran Human Rights Society, on Monday, December 25, 2023, at least four prisoners accused of drug offenses executed in the central prisons of KhorramAbad and Isfahan. Execution in KhorramAbad Central Prison On Saturday, December 23, 2023, two prisoners accused of drug offenses named Khodakaram Lorestan and also Hossein Mousivand executed in KhorramAbad Central Prison.

The Filipina, whose supporters say is a victim of human trafficking, has been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade. Jakarta, Indonesia – For more than a decade, Mary Jane Veloso has been held in a prison in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta awaiting execution after being found guilty of drug trafficking. This year, her family got to see her for the first time in five years.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, who has been on Utah’s death row for 35 years , has an unusual attitude toward the penalty that awaits him. One the one hand he says that if the state is going to execute him it must use the firing squad . On the other, he contends that execution by that method would constitute cruel and unusual punishment and violate Utah’s Constitution. As the state attorney general’s office notes , Menzies was “convicted in 1988 and sentenced to death for the brutal murder of Maurine Hunsaker, a young mother of three who worked as a Kearns convenience store cashier.” Two years earlier, it alleges that Menzies “kidnapped Hunsaker from her job and took her to Big Cottonwood Canyon…. Her body was found two days later, tied to a tree with her throat slashed.”

SALT LAKE CITY — A lawsuit filed by five Utah death row inmates claiming the state's capital punishment statutes equate to cruel and unusual punishment has been dismissed. On Friday, 3rd District Judge Coral Sanchez agreed with a motion filed by the Utah Attorney General's Office that the lawsuit filed by Ralph Menzies, Douglas Carter, Troy Kell, Michael Archuleta and Taberon Honie should be dismissed.

Tallahassee—Florida is one of five states that regularly uses the death penalty — and in 2023 the state stood out for its efforts to increase and expand the use of capital punishment. The state’s moves to resume executions after three years, to lower the bar for juries to recommend death sentences and to expand the crimes eligible for death put Florida at the forefront of the issue nationally. A recent report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that studies capital punishment, said Florida was responsible for a nationwide increase in the number of executions carried out this year. The state executed six people in 2023, second only to Texas, which had eight executions.

Saudi Arabia is currently promoting  the Saudi Green Initiative under which it plans to plant some 10 billion trees in order to “rehabilitate 40 million hectares of land and restore Saudi Arabia’s natural greenery.“ With the world’s current focus on climate change, such an initiative will create the impression of a modern, forward thinking and environmentally responsible nation. Politically this is a smart move, clearly designed to portray the Kingdom as being in tune with western norms and values.

A sessions court in Lahore has sentenced a Christian man to death in a three-year-old blasphemy case. The verdict was announced by Additional District and Sessions Judge Ishrat Abbas on December 20, 2023. The police lodged an FIR (237/20) dated June 2, 2020, on the complaint of a police officer, Muhammad Nawaz, allegedly accusing Anwar Masih of making objectionable remarks against the Prophet Muhammad, which is a criminal offense punishable with the death penalty under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Cairo: A member of the Saudi advisory Shoura Council has proposed amending the kingdom’s anti-drug law to allow abolishing flogging as a form of punishment, a Saudi news portal has reported. Akhbar24, citing unspecified sources, said the proposal had been made by the council’s member Hadi Al Yammy. However, the proposal drew opposition from the council’s security committee, the sources added without elaborating.

Alabama has settled a lawsuit filed by a Death Row spiritual advisor who claimed the state’s procedures to execute an inmate violate the inmate’s religious liberty, the minister said. Under the settlement, the Rev. Jeff Hood will be able to anoint Kenneth Smith’s with oil and share the Holy Eucharist with him and place his hands on Smith’s feet while praying and reading scripture during the execution, the minister said. A settlement was not yet in federal court records, and the Alabama Department of Corrections could not immediately be reached to confirm a deal between the agency and Hood was in place.

The North Carolina Supreme Court published a ruling Friday that a Black man on death row should not be given a new trial despite that he’d been sentenced to death by an all-white jury after prosecutors used a handout to strike Black people from the jury pool. Russell William Tucker was sentenced to death in 1996 for killing a security guard outside a Kmart in Forsyth County. He has since challenged that conviction, arguing that prosecutors relied on racist jury strikes to send Black jurors home and ensure that those who decided his death sentence were all white.

A federal judge has overturned the death penalty conviction of a Mississippi man, finding a trial judge didn’t give the man’s lawyer enough chance to argue that the prosecution was dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons. U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills ruled Tuesday that the state of Mississippi must give Terry Pitchford a new trial on capital murder charges.

Nitrogen. I keep hearing the word repeatedly. In fact, the word presently consumes a good part of my life. Will it happen? Will it kill me? What are the dangers? Is it all hyperbole? I don’t know. I just know that I’ve been asked by Kenny Smith in Alabama to accompany him to the 1st execution by nitrogen hypoxia…his execution. If that wasn’t enough, Smith was the victim of a botched execution just over a year ago. So, this is a moment of firsts for my ministry with guys facing execution…the 1st nitrogen hypoxia and the 1st in which someone is facing a 2nd attempt at execution. The temptation is to concentrate on the firsts. There is however something that is the same…the continuing evil of the death penalty. Indeed, it seems that talk of nitrogen is most fitting for this moment. One of the first effects of heavy nitrogen exposure is…a loss of consciousness.

Iran Human Rights (IHNRGO); December 22, 2023: Taher Davabi was executed for murder charges in Khorramabad Central Prison. Two drug death row inmates have also been transferred to solitary confinement in preparation for their executions. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Khorramabad Central Prison in Lorestan province on 18 December. His identity has been established as 43-year-old Taher Davabi from Sabzevar who was married with two children.

Iran this week hanged a young woman convicted of murdering her husband, whom she married while still a child, defying international pressure for her to be pardoned. The Islamic regime in Iran is engaged in a war against its own people as it executes them for minor offenses or no offense at all. Since the beginning of the year, Iran executed at least 419 people – a major increase from the same period in 2022.

A judge in Alabama will decide if a new method of execution using pure nitrogen gas can be used for the first time. Two other states are considering the method as an alternative to lethal injections, after a spate of botched executions in the US. But lawyers for Kenneth Eugene Smith, convicted of a 1988 murder, argued the method was unconstitutionally cruel.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 20, 2023: Najibollah Dahmardeh, Baluch man on death row for drug-related charges, was secretly executed in Ghaemshahr Prison. According to Haal Vsh, a Baluch man was executed in Ghaemshahr Prison in Mazandaran province on 20 December. His identity has been reported as 41-year-old Najibollah Dahmardeh who was from Sistan and Baluchistan province and lived in Golestan province (adjacent to Mazandaran province). Najibollah was arrested in Ghaemshahr for drug-related charges on 7 September 2018 and sentenced to death by the Ghaemshahr Revolutionary Court. He was executed without his family being notified and the chance to say goodbye to them. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran. Ethnic minorities, the Baluch in particular, are grossly overrepresented in execution numbers in Iran. In 2022, at least 174 Baluch minorities including 3 women, were executed in 22 prisons across Iran, making up 30%

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 19, 2023: An Afghan national and a Baluch minority were executed for drug-related charges in Karaj Ghezelhesar Prison. At least three others are at imminent risk of execution at the prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison on 19 December. Their identities have been established as Abdollah Zamani, an Afghan national, and 35-year-old Emsail Ijbari who were both sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 20, 2023: Samira Sabzian, a woman sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Ghezelhesar Prison. Condemning Samira’s execution, IHRNGO urges the international community for a serious reaction to the high rise in executions. Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “Samira was a victim of years of gender apartheid, child marriage, and domestic violence, and today she fell victim to the incompetent and corrupt regime’s killing machine. A regime that has sustained itself solely through killing and instilling fear. Ali Khamenei and other leaders of the Islamic Republic must be held accountable for this crime.”

Texas, long considered the death penalty capital of the United States, has undergone a remarkable transformation in its approach to executions. And what is happening in the Lone Star State is a harbinger of the fate of capital punishment across the country . A year-end report issued on Dec. 14 by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) documents those trends. In 2023, Texas had many fewer death sentences and executions than in the recent past, but its death penalty system continued to be plagued by arbitrariness, discrimination and cruelty.

During this time, particularly individuals such as women, juvenile offenders, protesters, and political prisoners whose executions could elicit stronger reactions under normal circumstances are at greater risk. Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 16, 2023: Samira Sabzian’s postponed execution is likely to be carried out in the coming days. At the same time as the recent high wave of executions, an unnamed man was executed for “links with foreign services including Mossad” in Zahedan and a Baluch man named Mohsen Salarzehi was executed for drug-related charges in Iranshahr. At least 31 people including 8 Baluch minorities have been executed in the last week.

Hassan Khalkhal Zard, a 32-year-old Iranian man who has languished behind bars for 11 weeks, is facing the death penalty for his online activities, IranWire has learned. Khalkhal Zard was arrested on October 1 by intelligence agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and is now being held in the quarantine ward of Gonbad-e Kavus prison in the northeastern city of Galikesh, according to a source close to him.

On January 25, Alabama intends to put Kenneth Smith to death using nitrogen hypoxia as its method of execution. If it does so it will be the first time that this method has been used in an American execution. Alabama’s plan is just the latest chapter in a long-running American saga of efforts to find a foolproof execution technology . That saga has carried us from hanging to the electric chair, from the electric chair to the gas chamber, from the gas chamber to lethal injection, and now to nitrogen hypoxia.

KAMPALA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - As a Ugandan court hears a challenge on Monday to one of the world's harshest anti-LGBT laws, there's more at stake than the simple constitutionality of the statute. LGBT activists say the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) has given Ugandans an implicit licence to abuse and discriminate against sexual minorities. While at least seven people have been charged under the AHA since its enactment in May, including two for alleged offences that carry the death penalty, hundreds more have suffered torture, sexual abuse, intimidation and eviction at the hands of private citizens, according to a report released in September by rights groups.

A famous serial killer of China, Lao Rongzhi, was reportedly executed on Monday after a death penalty for murdering 7 people, including a child.  China’s notorious female serial killer, Lao Rongzhi, was executed on Monday in East China’s Jiangxi Province. Between 1996 and 1999, she was reportedly involved in robbery, extortion and the murder of seven people, including a child. In 2022, the Jiangxi Provincial High People's Court affirmed the death sentence for Lao, who was convicted of orchestrating the deaths of seven individuals. The decision to uphold the severe penalty came after Lao's appeal was heard in August, nearly a year subsequent to the Intermediate People's Court of Nanchang, Jiangxi, handing down the initial sentence.

Chad Doerman, 32, has been indicted on 21 charges in connection with the shooting deaths of his young boys and is awaiting trial at Ohio's Clermont County Jail Chad Doerman, the Ohio dad accused of killing his three young sons in an execution-style shooting in June, is behind bars at the Clermont County Jail awaiting trial in July 2024. While in lockup, Doerman, 32, has been a "model citizen," Judge Richard Ferenc said during a court hearing last month. But he's also been isolated from other prisoners who might want to harm an alleged killer dad.

The convict burnt the corpses in an attempt to cover up his crime Saudi authorities have executed a citizen after he had been convicted of fatally stabbing his mother and sister and burnt their bodies. The execution was carried out on Saturday in Medina, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. The convict, identified as Abdul Rahman bin Saleh, had set the two victims’ dead bodies on fire in an attempt to conceal the murder and his addiction of prescription tablets, the ministry added.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 15, 2023: Kheirollah Nahtani, a Baluch man, was secretly executed for drug-related charges in Zahedan Central Prison. According to Haal Vsh, a Baluch man was executed in Zahedan Central Prison on 14 December. His identity has been reported as 38-year-old Kheirollah Nahtani from Zabol. He was a lorry driver who was arrested for drug-related charges in Zahedan over two years ago.

Idaho paid $50,000 for 15 grams of pentobarbital Attorneys for 2 men on Idaho death row have challenged the state prison system’s effort to withhold the date that officials bought drugs intended for use in a future execution, asking a federal judge to step in and force disclosure of the information. The Idaho Department of Correction revealed in October that prison officials had for the 1st time in years “secured” lethal injection drugs when it announced a death warrant and execution date for prisoner Thomas Creech. The lethal chemicals have become difficult for state prisons to obtain because drug suppliers increasingly refuse to provide them for executions.

Earlier this year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed CS/HB 1297 into law, which made sexual assault and battery on children 12 or younger a capital offense, taking effect in October. Florida's Fifth Judicial Circuit could see the first application of the new law in a case now. Florida's Fifth Judicial Circuit, which covers Lake, Hernando, Sumter, Citrus, and Marion Counties is seeking the death penalty for Joseph A. Giampa, who reportedly captured video of himself abusing a minor.

A North Texas man has earned his Master's degree, a feat made extra special when you consider he was once on death row for a murder he did not commit. His exoneration offered him a 2nd chance. Ryan Matthews, the new owner of a master's degree in business analytics from Texas Woman's University, had to overcome the obstacle of a lifetime to get here.

Khalil Majedi, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Ahvaz Sepidar Prison on 13 December. His identity has been established as 36-year-old Khalil Majedi from Ahvaz. An informed source told IHRNGO: “Khalil Majedi was arrested for the murder of his fiancé’s brother 3 years ago and sentenced to death. He was on the run for 2 months after but returned at his father’s request and turned himself in. The murder was committed during an altercation and was not premeditated. His fiancé’s brother passed away after 6 days in the hospital.”

Iran executed 1 person on charges of espionage for Israel’s Mossad intelligence service in Sistan and Baluchestan province, state media reported on Saturday. “This individual, while consciously engaging with foreign services, including Mossad, deliberately collected classified information and, with the cooperation of associates, provided documents to foreign services, especially Mossad,” Iranian state media IRNA reported. The identity of the individual was not given and it is unclear when they were arrested.

Texas once again led the nation in executions in 2023. A large proportion of the prisoners put to death suffered from some form of mental illness or cognitive disability. Texas put eight people to death over the course of the past year, accounting for fully one-third of the nation's executions. It was one of only five states in the country to conduct executions. The other four were Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Alabama.

On Wednesday, December 13, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Thornell v. Jones , its first death penalty case to be heard at oral argument in the 2023 term. Unlike most death penalty cases that seek Supreme Court review, the petitioner here is the state of Arizona, which asks the Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s grant of relief for death-sentenced prisoner Danny Lee Jones. The Ninth Circuit held that Mr. Jones demonstrated ineffective assistance of counsel at his sentencing phase under Strickland v. Washington (1984). 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 10, 2023: Mehdi Nasiri and Abbas Ketabi were executed for drug-related charges in Qom Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least two men were executed in Qom Central Prison on 9 December. Their identities have been established as 41-year-old Mehdi Nasiri from Karaj and 47-year-old Abbas Ketabi from Qom.

A Florida man accused of shooting 2 of his co-workers and then holding them hostage before beating and stabbing them to death using an assortment of office supplies pled guilty to 1st-degree murder just days into his trial. Jose Rojas, 55, also said in a 3-page letter to the judge that he would like to receive the death penalty for his actions, a fate that the jury will now deliberate next month as the trial moves to the penalty phase.

A report highlights the continuous failures of the state's capital punishment system, which executed 8 people this year despite a declining death row population. Despite declining death penalty usage, Texas still led the nation in executions this year, according to a new report that highlights the continuous failures of the state’s capital punishment system. Texas has the 3rd-largest death row population in the country, after California and Florida. In 2000, the Texas death row population peaked with more than 450 people facing execution. That year, the state executed 40 people.

Picotas, rollos, cruceros y humilladeros nos recuerdan en el urbanismo de pueblos centenarios de la región su pasado: se trata de símbolos de justicia de antaño Guillermo Herrero, responsable de la iniciativa www.toponimos.es nos trae en la sección Tras las huellas de la Sierra, símbolos de la justicia del pasado madrileño que podemos ver en plazas céntricas y otros lugares de los pueblos centenarios de la región.

A proposed death penalty repeal bill in the Ohio legislature is drawing attention to the state’s five-year pause on executions, and leading state officials from both parties to question whether the death penalty system is working.  Ohio Attorney General David Yost summed up the situation by saying, “This system satisfies nobody. Those who oppose the death penalty want it abolished altogether, not ticking away like a time bomb that might or might not explode. Those who support the death penalty want it to be fair, timely and effective. Neither side is getting what it wants while the state goes on pointlessly burning through enormous taxpayer resources.”