Death Penalty News

Trump sat down with DailyMail.com for an interview at his Mar-a-Lago home. He talked about the campaign and his plans for day one in the White House. Donald Trump says he will end the Justice Department moratorium on executions on his first day in office, and use the full force of the law to go after major drug dealers and cop killers. The Trump campaign sees crime, in general, and Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor in California, in particular, as areas where they can inflict damage on her presidential bid.

Singapore, known for having some of the world's harshest anti-drug laws, gave death penalties to two drug traffickers last year. While recreational cannabis is legal in some countries, it is strictly banned in Singapore.  A Singapore man has been sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to incriminate his wife by planting cannabis in her car.  Tan Xianglong planted 500 grams of cannabis in his wife's vehicle, fully aware that possessing such a large amount could result in the death penalty under Singapore's strict drug laws, reported The Straits Times.

The Islamic Republic's authorities have carried out the executions of two prisoners amid a significant rise in death penalties. The death sentence of Meysam Hossein-Khani, a 22-year-old resident of Kuhdasht, was carried out in Khorramabad Central Prison (Parsilon Prison) on Wednesday.  He had been sentenced to death by the Iranian judiciary on charges of alleged "premeditated murder."  He was arrested three years ago and has been awaiting execution since his conviction, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 28, 2024: Shapour Hosseini, an Iraqi national named Irfan Abdolazizi and two Afghan nationals only identified as Mohebollah and Moshref, were executed for drug-related and murder charges in Tabriz Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, four men were executed in Tabriz Central Prison on 26 August. Three of the men who were death row for drug-related charges have been identified as Shapour Hosseini from Tabriz, a 32-year-old Afghan national Mohebollah (surname unknown) and 27-year-old Moshref, whose surname also has not been established at the time of writing.

Florida executes man convicted of killing college student, raping victim’s sister in national forest  A Florida man convicted of killing a college freshman and raping the murder victim’s older sister while the siblings camped in a national forest 30 years ago was executed Thursday.  Loran Cole, 57, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the 1994 killing of the 18-year-old student. Cole also was serving t2life sentences for rape.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of killing a college freshman and raping the student's sister while the siblings camped in a national forest 30 years ago is scheduled to be executed Thursday. Loran Cole is set to be put to death just after 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison for the 1994 killing. Cole is also serving two life sentences for rape.  The U.S. Supreme Court denied Cole's final appeal earlier Thursday.

The Thai court has read the verdict in the case of the murder of Colombian Edwin Arrieta at the hands of Daniel Sancho, son of Rodolfo Sancho.  As we were saying earlier this Thursday, the Thai court has sentenced Daniel Sancho to life imprisonment for murdering and dismembering Colombian surgeon Edwin Arrieta in Thailand.  The court found that there was premeditation and sentenced Sancho to one of the worst sentences, second only to the death penalty. He will also have to pay $119,000 in compensation to Arrieta’s family.

The Higher People’s Court of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Tuesday turned down the appeal by Li Jianping, who was sentenced to death in September 2022 for corruption, bribery, embezzlement and engaging in organised crime. Beijing: A former Chinese Communist Party official, accused of embezzling a staggering $421 million - the largest-ever corruption case in China's history, was sentenced to death by a court in Inner Mongolia.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s prisons director said Wednesday that state’s supply of a lethal injection drug is pure, its electric chair was tested two months ago and its firing squad has the ammunition and training to carry out its first execution next month in more than 13 years. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling was ordered by the state Supreme Court to submit a sworn statement to the lawyer for Freddie Owens certifying that all three methods of putting a prisoner to death are available for his scheduled Sept. 20 execution.

Federal Court allows the prosecution’s appeal to overturn an appellate court decision reducing Khairuanuar Baharuddin’s conviction to culpable homicide. PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has reinstated the death penalty imposed by the High Court on a former police corporal for murdering his two-year-old stepdaughter nine years ago. A three-member panel comprising Justices Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal, Nordin Hassan and Hanipah Farikullah made the decision on Aug 27 when they allowed the prosecution’s appeal to overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision.

El español Daniel Sancho fue encontrado culpable del asesinato premeditado del cirujano colombiano Edwin Arrieta y de otros delitos relacionados de los que estaba acusado. Fue condenado a cadena perpetua por un juez de Tailandia, quien además fijó una indemnización para la familia de la víctima de 106.000 euros. La Fiscalía pedía la pena de muerte, mientras el acusado defendía que fue una muerte accidental.

We, the undersigned seven organizations, are gravely concerned by developments in Singapore since the beginning of August 2024, which has seen the authorities carry out two executions in violation of international safeguards on the death penalty, as well as limiting the right to freedom of expression of the Transformative Justice Collective, a non-governmental organization who expressed concern about human rights violations and criticized the processes leading up to the executions.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Marcellus Williams thought the DNA evidence was enough to remove him from Missouri’s death row, perhaps even him from prison. A decades-old mistake by a prosecutor’s office has kept his life hanging in the balance. Williams, 55, is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24 for the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle in the St. Louis suburb of University City. St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton on Wednesday will preside over an evidentiary hearing challenging Williams’ guilt. But the key piece of evidence to support Williams is DNA testing that is no longer viable.

The 30-year-old's crimes were described by Circuit Judge Nicholas Thompson as “heinous, atrocious, and cruel,” with one murder deemed cold, calculated, and premeditated. Wade Wilson, infamously dubbed the “Deadpool Killer,” was sentenced to death on Tuesday for the 2019 murders of two Florida women. The 30-year-old's crimes were described by Circuit Judge Nicholas Thompson as “heinous, atrocious, and cruel,” with one murder deemed cold, calculated, and premeditated.

It's the first time the party has not opposed the practice nationally since 2016 and the first time since 2004 that it has been omitted entirely. The Democratic Party has omitted the death penalty from its national platform for the first time in 20 years, following back-to-back cycles of opposing the practice outright. The news came on Aug. 19, when the delegates to the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago voted to approve the new document, which is to guide the party’s electioneering for the next four years. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 26, 2024: State media have reported the public hanging of an unnamed man for the murder of a lawyer on a street in Shahroud. This is the first public execution in 2024. Iran Human Rights warns about the return of public hangings to Iranian streets and urges the international community to deal seriously with this type of execution in Iran.

A PhD student in the US accused of killing her friends’ baby and abusing his twin brother could face the death penalty if convicted. Nicole Virzi has been charged with murdering six-and-a-half-week-old Leon Katz while she babysat him at the family’s home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 29-year-old is also accused of abusing Leon’s twin brother Ari.

La Fiscalía de Tailandia solicita la pena de muerte para el español por el asesinato premeditado del cirujano colombiano Edwin Arrieta el año pasado El español Daniel Sancho asegura estar “preparado para lo mejor y para lo peor” ante la sentencia que determinará el 29 de agosto si es o no culpable del asesinato premeditado del cirujano colombiano Edwin Arrieta en una isla de Tailandia el pasado año. Sancho se enfrenta a una petición de la Fiscalía de pena de muerte.

The Iranian judiciary, early this morning, Monday, August 26, 2024, carried out the death sentence of a prisoner who had previously been sentenced to public execution for the murder of a judicial attorney in Shahroud county.  The second branch of the criminal court in Semnan province had issued the death sentence for this defendant publicly.

Firdaus Ismail was ordered to be jailed 40 years and given 12 strokes of the rotan instead. PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today commuted the death sentence to 40 years in prison for a man who murdered his mother and dumped her body in a septic tank six years ago. The three-judge panel, consisting of Court of Appeal judges Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Zaini Mazlan and High Court judge Noorin Badaruddin, also ordered Firdaus Ismail to receive 12 strokes of the cane.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 25, 2024: Vahid Abbasi, a Kurdish man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Nahavand Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Nahavand Prison on 22 August. His identity has been established as 33-year-old Vahid Abbasi who was arrested for murder three years ago. He was sentenced to qisas by the Criminal Court.

Pope Francis should speak loudly and without hesitation against Singapore's practice of capital punishment. The Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), an activist group that campaigns against the death penalty, has received two corrective orders following a posting expressing concern about the recent execution of two drug convicts in Singapore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on Sunday that his government has achieved more for women in the past decade than all previous governments since Independence.  Speaking at the Lakhpati Didi rally in Jalgaon, north Maharashtra, Modi said that his government is also reinforcing laws to impose harsher penalties for crimes against women.

Former President Donald Trump has signaled he will continue his administration’s aggressive pursuit of the death penalty if he is elected, while Vice President Kamala Harris has gone mum on the issue.  Trump made his most detailed comments yet on capital punishment since launching his campaign during remarks at the Arizona border on Thursday, at the same time that Harris has come under scrutiny for her silence on the matter.

The chairperson of the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission (FHRADC) shot down suggestion by a senior government minister to bring back the death penalty to deter international drug traffickers.  This week, Women and Children's Minister, Lynda Tabuya, told local media that she wants "see the death penalty brought to Fiji for those who traffic large quantities of drugs”.  The minister said Fiji continues to be used as a transit point for drug traffickers. 

Freddie Owens, who has been on death row since 1997, will be the first person executed in the state since 2011 COLUMBIA — South Carolina will execute its first inmate in over a decade next month, the state Department of Corrections announced Friday. Freddie Owens is scheduled to die Sept. 20. By law, any execution must take place four Fridays after the order of execution is issued.

ORLANDO  |  In its 111-year history, investigations and former students accounts have chronicled how the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys both in Marianna and Okeechobee were not so much a reform school but rather a place where physical, sexual and mental abuse was rampant.  In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly signed a bill — without any press present and with only a handful of Dozier survivors and three representatives who sponsored HB 21 — in which the state will divide $20 million in compensation between those who attended the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in North Florida between 1940 and 1975, as well as the Okeechobee School. 

Donald Trump announced new death penalty policies he would implement against illegal migrants during a campaign event along the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday. The former president traveled to Cochise County, Arizona, to highlight the stark differences between his and Vice President Kamala Harris’s im migration agenda. During the 70-minute address, Trump and the media stood cooking in the scorching southwest sun as the ex-president spoke and brought victims of migrant-related crimes to the podium to share their agonizing personal stories.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has averaged one execution every seven hours over the past month, as a new president was forming his cabinet following elections that some expected to bring change. Between July 22 and August 21 alone, at least 106 individuals were executed in Iranian prisons, a reminder of the brutal measures the Islamic government has used for four decades despite international criticism, reported the US-based HRANA news agency on Thursday.

The State Supreme Court said the trial had to hold a hearing before accepting a deal that would give the man a sentence of life without parole. In a suburban St. Louis courtroom on Wednesday, it appeared that Marcellus Williams would be spared execution after the local prosecutor’s office raised questions about his guilt and agreed to a prison sentence of life without parole .

Face to Face with Scott Peterson has landed on Peacock, placing renewed focus on his efforts to get a new trial. The new docu-series is worlds apart from American Murder: Laci Peterson , which dropped on Netflix earlier this month and looked at the many disturbing details that led to Scott’s conviction for the 2002 murder of his wife Laci and their unborn child Conner.

Lawyers for a man scheduled to be executed with nitrogen gas this fall argued in a court filing that Alabama has ignored problems with the method as it seeks to carry out more executions Lawyers for an Alabama inmate, set to be executed with nitrogen gas this fall, have argued in a recent court filing that the state has overlooked issues with the execution method as it plans to carry out more nitrogen executions.

Since May, Saudi Arabia has executed 28 people on drug-related charges, according to a tally based on official statements, up from just two in all of 2023 The two Egyptian inmates ate a routine final dinner in a prison in northern Saudi Arabia, not knowing they would be put to death for drug crimes the next morning.  Their abrupt killing this month extended a recent spree of drug-related executions in Saudi Arabia, after officials ended a moratorium on the death penalty for such crimes less than two years ago. 

BOSTON — Attorneys for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are seeking to remove the judge overseeing the protracted legal battle over Tsarnaev's death sentence. Tsarnaev's lawyers said during a hearing in federal court in Boston on Wednesday that U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole should be recused from the case, pointing to what they said were comments O'Toole made about the case on podcasts and at public events during the appeals process.

A Missouri inmate convicted of fatally stabbing a woman in 1998 will avoid the death penalty and instead be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said on Wednesday, after DNA testing of the murder weapon did not match him. Marcellus Williams, 55, who had been scheduled to be put to death next month, will enter what is known as an "Alford plea" to a first-degree murder charge on Thursday as part of a deal with prosecutors that vacates his original conviction.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has carried out the executions of three more prisoners amid a rise in the use of the death penalty. A prisoner previously sentenced to death on drug-related charges was executed in Urmia Prison on Wednesday morning. Human rights groups identified the prisoner as Mohammad Daghestani, who was arrested on drug charges and later sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic's judiciary.

(Beirut) – Iranian authorities have reportedly executed at least 87 people in the month after the presidential elections in late June, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. Among those executed was Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei, a Kurdish man arrested during the 2022 nationwide “Women, Life, Freedom” protests that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in custody.

Iranian authorities executed at least four prisoners in Yazd Central Prison on Monday.  The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights reports that the executed individuals included two Baluch men and two Afghan nationals. The Baluch prisoners have been identified as Abdol Rauf Shahbakhsh, 33, and Abdolrahman Damani, 34. Both of them hail from Zahedan. 

The Judiciary Fabricates Charges and Issues Arbitrary Sentences, While the Interior Ministry Falsifies Information On August 17, 2024, the Saudi Press Agency published a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior announcing the execution of Abdul Majid bin Hassan bin Abdullah Al-Nimr. The statement did not specify the type of sentence carried out, but it mentioned that it was issued by the Specialized Criminal Court, indicating that it was likely a discretionary (ta’zir) sentence. The statement listed the charges that the sentence was supposedly based on, including committing criminal acts involving betrayal of his country, joining a terrorist cell affiliated with the Al-Qaeda organization, financing terrorism and terrorist activities, and supporting extremist ideologies.

The North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty met Sunday afternoon at The Church on Morgan in downtown Raleigh.  There, advocates called for Gov. Roy Cooper to commute all death sentences in North Carolina before he leaves office. Rev. Sharon Risher lost her mother and 2 cousins in 2015 during the Charleston shooting, when 21-year-old Dylann Roof killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The Iranian government executed at least eight more prisoners early Monday morning, according to reports from human rights groups, with hundreds already hanged in 2024. This latest round of executions, which took place in Yazd and Shiraz prisons, is part of a broader trend that has seen the number of state-sanctioned killings skyrocket in 2023 and 2024, drawing international condemnation and sparking renewed calls for an end to the death penalty in Iran.

(Jefferson City, MO) – A St. Louis County Court is scheduled to hear about new DNA evidence this week involving a prisoner who could be executed next month. The case involves Marcellus Williams, who was convicted in the 1998 stabbing death of Felisha Gayle, a former social worker and newspaper reporter. Last January, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion to vacate Williams’ conviction. 

NEW YORK – As time runs out for California Governor Gavin Newsom to act on legislation that would limit the use of solitary confinement in the state, a diocese has reignited a push for faith-based organizations to sign a letter urging him to make the measure law. Despite passing the California State Assembly and Senate last September, Assemblymember Chris Holden decided to keep AB 280 pending in the legislature to prevent a potential Newsom veto and to allow negotiations to continue with the governor, who had already vetoed a prior version.

Former deputy commerce minister Banyin Tangpakorn who has been sentenced to death in two high-profile murder cases has received a royal clemency, reducing his penalties to life imprisonment, the Corrections Department chief said on Sunday. Sahakarn Phetnarin, director-general of the Corrections Department, said Banyin was among 30,597 prisoners, who were eligible for a royal clemency on the occasion of His Majesty the King’s 72nd birthday on July 28.

Pope Francis pens the preface to “A Christian on Death Row: My Commitment to Those Condemned ,” a new book by Dale Recinella, set for publication by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) on August 27. The 72-year-old former Wall Street lawyer has spiritually accompanied death row inmates in several Florida prisons as a lay chaplain since 1998, alongside his wife Susan.

Death penalty has little to no effect in deterring crime – let’s put an end to it;  As different methodologies and professions analysing different sets of data produce conflicting results, it might be illogical to continue using the deterrent effect to defend the use of the death penalty. - Astro AWANI  Malaysia’s efforts in promoting human rights have faced scrutiny due to ongoing issues like statelessness and sexual exploitation of children, as well as several outdated laws awaiting repeal. However, this does not mean that progress has not been made. 

The system is a pointless drain on state finances. Meanwhile, we keep discovering that innocent men have been wrongly sentenced to execution.  Imagine that well-meaning politicians created a government program that was supposed to help people. Now, imagine that same program getting 30 years of tax dollars and helping precisely nobody. Worse yet, imagine that the program’s mere existence actually hurts people in ways that no one originally considered. 

Toforest Johnson has been on Alabama’s death row since 1998. He was convinced of killing a Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy, a crime he says he didn’t commit.  For years, advocates have worked to share Johnson’s story, hoping to have a new trial for his case.  A billboard now standing over downtown Birmingham is working to get more people behind that movement. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis on July 29 signed a death warrant for Loran Cole  Attorneys for condemned killer Loran Cole have asked the Florida Supreme Court for a stay of his scheduled Aug. 29 execution, saying the state's lethal-injection procedures likely would cause "needless pain and suffering" because of Cole's symptoms from Parkinson’s disease. 

As California’s attorney general, Kamala Harris successfully defended the death penalty in court, despite her past crusade against it.  As a new senator, she proposed to abolish cash bail — a reversal from when she chided San Francisco judges for making it “cheaper” to commit crimes by setting bail amounts too low.  And now, as vice president and the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris’ campaign insists that she does not want to ban fracking, an oil and gas extraction process, even though that was precisely her position just a few years ago when she first pursued the White House.