Death Penalty News

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed into law the Death Penalty Abolition Act. Zimbabwe currently has over 60 prisoners on death row who will now have their sentences commuted. The last execution in the country was nearly two decades ago in 2005. Parliament had pushed to amend the Criminal Law Code, Criminal Procedure Law and the Defence Act which allowed the death penalty in cases of murder committed under aggravating circumstances.

Since the beginning of 2024, Iranian authorities have carried out at least 883 executions, with 94 percent conducted in complete secrecy. This has sparked widespread public protests both inside and outside the country. The Iranian human rights site "HRANA" revealed that at least 883 executions took place in Iranian prisons during 2024, reflecting an 18.3 percent increase compared to the previous year. In 2023, authorities in Iran executed 834 individuals, marking the highest toll since 2015.

62-year-old man drove his car into crowds, killing 35 people on Nov. 11 A Chinese court sentenced a 62-year-old man to death on Friday for a deadly car-ramming incident that killed 35 people and injured 43 others, according to state media. The Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court found Fan Weiqiu guilty of endangering public safety after he deliberately drove his car into crowds exercising outside a sports complex on Nov. 11, 2024 in southern China's Guangdong Province, Xinhua reported.

French diplomats have acknowledged that talks were underway for the transfer of the 61-year-old Frenchman arrested in 2005 at a drugs factory. JAKARTA: France has sent Indonesia an official request for the transfer of a French death row inmate who has spent nearly 20 years in prison, an Indonesian minister told AFP on Saturday. Indonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mum on death row and the last five members of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug ring.

A court in Vietnam sentenced 27 people to death on Friday after finding them guilty of trafficking more than 600 kilos of narcotics including heroin, ketamine and methamphetamine, state media reported A court in Vietnam sentenced 27 people to death on Friday after finding them guilty of trafficking more than 600 kilos of narcotics including heroin, ketamine and methamphetamine, state media reported. Gang leader and notorious female crime boss Vu Hoang Anh, alias Oanh Ha, was among those condemned to death, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly executed 330 people this year, in what rights groups are calling the highest number in decades. According to the Reuters news agency, the latest number of executions carried out by Saudi authorities – based on announcements compiled by the human rights group Reprieve – has reached up to 330 people, in a significant increase from the 172 executed last year and the 196 executed in 2022.

HOUSTON (AP) — The number of executions in the U.S. remained near historic lows in 2024 and was mostly carried out in a small group of states, including Alabama, which became the first state to use nitrogen gas as an execution method, according to an annual report on capital punishment. The report by the Death Penalty Information Center was released on Thursday, the same day that Oklahoma conducted the nation’s 25th and final execution of the year. Kevin Ray Underwood received a lethal injection Thursday morning for the killing of a 10-year-old girl that was part of a cannibalistic fantasy.

At dawn on December 25, the death sentences of three prisoners were carried out in Ghezel Hesar Prison, Karaj. HRANA has identified the executed individuals as Hamed Pakdaman, Masoud Jalilian, and Hossein Mansouri-Nasb. Hamed Pakdaman was arrested approximately three years ago on charges of “enmity against God (Moharebeh) through armed robbery” and was subsequently sentenced to death by the judiciary.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 24, 2024: Davoud Ghalijayi, a Baluch man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Birjand Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a ‌Baluch man was executed in Birjand Central Prison on 24 December. His identity has been established as Davoud Ghalijayi, a 28-year-old father of one from Zabol. He was arrested five years ago and sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. He was denied the right to say goodbye to his family.

Chisako Kakehi, a woman sentenced to death for the murders of three elderly men using cyanide compounds, has died, local media reported Thursday. The 78-year-old death row inmate was convicted of murdering the men — with the intent of inheriting their assets — in Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo prefectures between 2012 and 2013. Among the victims was her 75-year-old husband, Isao. The other two were men with whom she had entered common-law relationships.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 23, 2024: Loghman Ahmadi Aghdam (Shengeh), a Kurdish man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Urmia Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Kurdish man was executed in Urmia (Darya) Central Prison on 23 December. His identity has been established 45-year-old Loghman Ahmadi Aghdam (known as Loghman Shengeh) from Naghdeh who was arrested six years ago and sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

The mystery of Joe Biden’s views about capital punishment has finally been solved. His decision to grant clemency to 37 of the 40 people on federal death row shows the depth of his opposition to the death penalty. And his decision to leave three of America’s most notorious killers to be executed by a future administration shows the limits of his abolitionist commitment. The three men excluded from Biden’s mass clemency—Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers—would no doubt pose a severe test of anyone’s resolve to end the death penalty. Biden failed that test.

President Biden used his clemency authority Monday to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row to life without parole, in one of the most significant moves taken against capital punishment in recent presidential history. Biden did not commute the sentences of three men who were involved in cases of terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder, including Robert Bowers , convicted for the 2018 mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue; Dylann Roof , convicted for the 2015 mass shooting at a Black church in Charleston, S.C.; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , convicted of the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 22, 2024: Soltan Jahantigh, a Baluch man on death row for murder, was executed in Zahedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Baluch man was executed in Zahedan Central Prison on 21 December. His identity has been established as Soltan Jahantigh who was sentenced to qisas(retribution-in-kind) for murder. According to Haal Vsh which first reported news of his execution, Soltan was a father of six and arrested with two of his relatives five years ago. They all received qisas sentences.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 20, 2024: Mojtaba Jamshidian and Jebrael Naseri were executed for drug-related offences in Rasht Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison on 14 December. His identity has been established as Mojtaba Jamshidian from Khomein. He was sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

Hideko Hakamada, 91, fought half her life to free her brother - the world's longest serving death row inmate When a court declared Iwao Hakamada innocent in September , the world's longest-serving death row inmate seemed unable to comprehend, much less savour the moment. "I told him he was acquitted, and he was silent," Hideko Hakamada, his 91-year-old sister, tells the BBC at her home in Hamamatsu, Japan. "I couldn't tell whether he understood or not."

In 2007, the Philippines signed and ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which refers to the abolition of the death penalty. The Philippines has voted in favor of a global moratorium on the death penalty at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. During Wednesday’s plenary session of the UNGA, the Philippines joined 129 other countries, representing more than two-thirds of the members, in voting in favor of the resolution. At least 32 countries voted against the resolution proposed by Argentina and Italy on behalf of an Inter-Regional Task Force of member states and co-sponsored by 70 states, while 22 countries abstained.

Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence.  President Biden and North Carolina Governor Consider Commutations of Death Rows to Remedy Systemic Problems. USA | The Death Penalty in 2024: Summary Four States Responsible for 76% of Executions   (Washington, D.C.) This year marked the tenth consecutive year where fewer than 30 people were executed (25) and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death (26). High-profile cases of death-sentenced individuals garnered significant attention and new, unexpected supporters.  

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An ailing French national on death row for drug offenses has made a last-ditch plea to be returned home, Indonesian authorities said Friday, as the new administration of President Prabowo Subianto planned to give pardon to 44,000 inmates nationwide. Subianto has surprised the nation with the clemency plan, barely two months after he took office. Past Indonesian leaders have rarely used the presidential prerogative of giving amnesty. Serge Atlaoui, who had spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prison, won a last-minute reprieve in 2015 and was excluded from being executed by a 13-member firing squad.

Oklahoma executes Kevin Underwood by lethal injection for brutal 2006 murder Nearly two decades after Kevin Ray Underwood murdered his 10-year-old neighbor, he died by lethal injection Thursday morning at 10:14 a.m., according to media witnesses. By coincidence, it was his 45th birthday. Underwood was sentenced to death in 2008 for killing Jamie Bolin in Purcell two years earlier. He confessed to police that he lured Bolin into his house, beat her over the head, attempted to decapitate her and stashed her body in a plastic tub with hopes of later eating it.

During the seven years I spent portraying President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet on The West Wing , I developed deep respect for the presidency and the monumental challenges its real-life officeholders confront every day. Recent news about President Biden’s exercise of his clemency power has drawn my memory to one of the most difficult “decisions” I made as President Bartlet—one that has stayed in my mind over the ensuing years—to deny clemency to a federal prisoner and allow his execution to proceed.

Many Were Child Brides Hanged for Murder of Abusive Husbands From Whom There Was No Protection  December 18, 2024 — Amidst a huge surge in executions in the Islamic Republic— 862 so far in 2024, the highest per capita execution rate globally—the Iranian authorities are now increasingly including women in those it sends to the gallows. Since the start of 2024, Iran has executed at least 29 women. More executions of women may have taken place that are unknown.

Building on the historic UN vote, Morocco now faces mounting pressure to remove capital punishment from its Criminal Code in a move toward complete abolition. Doha - In a landmark shift, Morocco voted on Tuesday in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions. The vote marks a significant departure from Morocco’s 17-year stance of abstention since the resolution’s first introduction in 2007.

China on Thursday upheld the death sentence for a child trafficker whose crimes shocked the nation and traumatised dozens of victims. Yu Huaying, 60, separated at least 17 children from their parents and sold them to other families during the 1990s. She was first handed the death penalty last year but appealed her sentence, a move that commonly results in clemency in China. But state media reported Thursday that a court in southwestern Guizhou province had rejected her appeal and upheld capital punishment.

An Oklahoma man who killed a 10-year-old girl is to be put to death on Thursday in the 25th and final execution in the United States this year. Kevin Ray Underwood, who turns 45 on Thursday, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10:00 am Central Time (1600 GMT) at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Underwood, a grocery store clerk, was convicted of the 2006 rape and murder of Jamie Rose Bolin, the daughter of his neighbors in the town of Purcell, 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City.

A Filipino woman who spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia arrived in Manila on Wednesday, reuniting with her family after narrowly escaping a firing squad in 2015. Convicted in 2010 of carrying 2.6kg heroin hidden in a suitcase, Mary Jane Veloso claimed she was duped by a recruiter who promised her a job abroad. The single mother’s conviction and death sentence sparked outrage in the Philippines, prompting advocacy and diplomatic efforts to save her from execution. “I am grateful to God who has answered my prayers. I will return to my country and I believe that God has a beautiful plan for my life,” Veloso, now 39, said. “Thank you, Indonesia, I love Indonesia.”

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 17, 2024: Behzad Seyedi Bukani, a Kurdish man on death row for murder charges, was executed in Miandoab Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Kurdish man was executed in Miandoab Prison in West Azerbaijan province on 16 December. His identity has been established as Behzad Seyedi Bukani who was sentenced  to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Prime Minister Ishiba: "I want to deepen discussion within the LDP" regarding the death penalty Regarding the death penalty system, Prime Minister Ishiba responded to a request from a private group made up of members of the judicial system to set up a conference within the government and the Diet to fundamentally review the system, by expressing his desire to deepen discussion within the Liberal Democratic Party.

If Joseph Corcoran had been sen­tenced to death just a few miles to the east, across the bor­der in Ohio instead of in Fort Wayne, Indiana, it’s like­ly that a court would have barred his exe­cu­tion. Ohio law pre­vents a per­son with a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness (SMI) at the time of their crime, defined as schiz­o­phre­nia, schizoaf­fec­tive dis­or­der, bipo­lar dis­or­der, or delu­sion­al dis­or­der, from being put to death. 

Indiana carries out first execution in 15 years An Indiana man convicted in the 1997 killing of four people including his brother and his sister’s fiancé was put to death on Wednesday in the state’s first execution in 15 years. Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, according to the Indiana Department of Correction, making it the 24th execution in the U.S. this year. He was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, although officials did not mention that drug in their statement.

MANILA, Philippines — The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking, has spanned over a decade and remains one of the most high-profile legal battles involving an overseas Filipino worker. RELATED |  Philippines | Mary Jane Veloso returns to joyous welcome from family after narrowly escaping Indonesian firing squad Veloso was arrested on April 25, 2010, at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was sentenced to death in October – just six months after her arrest. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld the penalty in May 2011.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 16, 2024: Ghorban Razi and Mohammad Kasrani were executed for murder and drug-related charges in Tabriz Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Tabriz Central Prison on 15 December. Sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, the first man’s identity has been established as Ghorban Razi, a 29-year-old man from Tabriz.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - A local pastor has been arranging protests against the state’s decision to continue with the upcoming execution of Joseph Corcoran for the past couple weekends. Anna Lisa Gross is a co-pastor at Beacon Heights here in Fort Wayne and has been working with multiple churches to protest the execution of Corcoran. “Our community has failed him more than one time, and now to kill him would do nothing,” says Gross.

Zephen Xaver text a friend from the bank parking lot, saying: ’Watch for me on the news’ A prison guard trainee who executed five women inside a Florida bank has been sentenced to death. Zephen Xaver, 27, appeared to gulp but otherwise showed no emotion as Judge Angela Cowden pronounced the sentence at the Highlands County Courthouse in Sebring. At gunpoint, Xaver ordered his victims, all women, to lie on the floor and then shot each the head as they begged for mercy.

China on Tuesday executed a former official for corruption, a court in the northern region of Inner Mongolia said, the latest development in Beijing’s sweeping campaign against graft. Li Jianping, former secretary of the Communist Party working committee of the Hohhot economic and technological development zone, had previously been sentenced to death for crimes including bribery and misappropriation of public funds.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma panel on Friday rejected a plea for clemency for a man convicted of torturing and killing a 10-year-old girl as part of a cannibalistic fantasy, paving the way for him to become the 25th and final person executed in the U.S. this year. Three members of Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously against clemency for Kevin Ray Underwood, who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday, his 45th birthday.  An Indiana man, Joseph Corcoran, is set to die Wednesday for killing four men in 1997 in what would be the Hoosier State’s first execution in 15 years.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 15, 2024: Hossein Koulivand, a man on death row for murder charges, was executed in Arak Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Arak Central Prison on 14 December. His identity has been established as Hossein Koulivand  who was sentenced  to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

A Vietnamese-Canadian man, along with three accomplices, was sentenced to death on Monday for trafficking over 100 kg of drugs into Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court handed down the death penalty to Chu Ba Chung, 40, Truong Ngoc Mai, and Tran Kim Loan for "illegal trading of narcotics." Another accomplice, Nguyen Vu Khai Hoang, received the same sentence for "illegal transportation of narcotics." Two other accomplices, who were linked to Chung and Mai, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

SYDNEY, Australia -- The five remaining members of the Australian "Bali Nine" drug ring flew home Sunday after 19 years in jail in Indonesia, ending a saga that had frayed relations between the two countries. Indonesian police arrested the nine Australians in 2005, convicting them of attempting to smuggle more than eight kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin off the holiday island of Bali. The case drew global attention to Indonesia's unforgiving drug laws, with two of the gang executed by firing squad, while the others served hefty prison sentences.

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Filipino death row inmate Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso knelt to pray when officers came to take her to an execution site in May 2015, just a few feet away from her isolation cell on an Indonesian prison island, where a 13-member firing squad was waiting. While she prayed, the Philippines government was wrapping up a lengthy legal battle over her fate. Veloso’s life was ultimately spared — temporarily — by Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office, which issued a stay of execution shortly before Veloso was to be executed with eight other death row inmates.

HOUSTON (AP) — Prosecutors in Texas announced Friday that they will seek the death penalty against two Venezuelan men who are accused of killing a 12-year-old Houston girl after they had entered the U.S. illegally. The death of Jocelyn Nungaray was among several cases this year that became flashpoints in the debate over the nation’s immigration policies. Nungaray’s mother campaigned for President-elect Donald Trump, calling for better control of the border in the wake of her daughter’s death.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 13, 2024: Mohammad Amin Mahdavi Shayesteh, a political prisoner on death row for “insulting Islamic sanctities” and “collaborating with the enemy”, has been transferred to the pre-execution solitary confinement cells of Ghezel Hesar Prison. His collaboration with Israel was established based on his torture-tainted confessions and he was hastily convicted. More than 300 people have  been executed in the past two months.

Jakarta, Dec 14 (IANS) Indonesian Minister of Law Supratman Andi Agtas has said that President Prabowo Subianto would grant amnesty to several categories of prisoners, including drug users and prisoners with long-term illnesses. According to Supratman, the move aims to reduce overcapacity in correctional facilities while addressing humanitarian concerns, Xinhua news agency reported. Prisoners suffering from chronic illnesses like HIV/AIDS and individuals with mental disorders are among those eligible.

The death sentence of a prisoner, previously convicted on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court, was carried out at dawn on Sunday, December 8, 2024, in Kashan Prison. The prisoner, identified as Farhad Atashzadeh from a village in Bonab, East Azerbaijan province, was hanged at dawn on Sunday, December 8, 2024. Mr. Atashzadeh was arrested approximately six years ago on drug-related charges and later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court. He was buried on December 9.

A Filipina drug convict on death row in Indonesia told AFP from prison Friday that her planned transfer was a "miracle", in her first interview since Manila and Jakarta signed an agreement last week to repatriate her. Mother of two Mary Jane Veloso, 39, was arrested and sentenced to death in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin, in a case that sparked uproar in the Philippines. Both she and her supporters claim she was duped by an international drug syndicate, and in 2015, she narrowly escaped execution after her suspected recruiter was arrested.

Morocco is set to vote on the abolition of the death penalty for the first time, marking a milestone in the country’s human rights history. Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi announced on 9 December that Morocco will support the UN resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty to be discussed at the UN General Assembly on 15 December. “This is a commitment to protecting the right to life, in line with the Moroccan Constitution,” Ouahbi told Parliament, referencing Article 20 of the national document. The vote will introduce a two-year moratorium on executions, with plans to amend the penal code for permanent abolition.

Taipei, Dec. 12 (CNA) A man found guilty of arson that resulted in the deaths of eight family members in June 2022 had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment Wednesday as the Taiwan High Court determined he showed remorse by voluntarily turning himself in to the authorities. The decision can still be appealed. The death sentence handed down by the Hsinchu District Court to Chen Yen-hsiang (陳彥翔) who set fire to his home in Hsinchu in 2022, resulting in the death of eight, including his mother, wife and three children, was commuted to life in prison by the Taiwan High Court, High Court spokesman Wang Ping-hsia (王屏夏) said.

Ali Khaleqi Farghani, a 22-year-old prisoner convicted of premeditated murder, was executed on his birthday in Mashhad Central Prison on Thursday, December 5, 2024. According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization, he had been arrested two years ago on charges of premeditated murder and was subsequently sentenced to two counts of the death penalty.

Iran Human Rights is publishing a report on Qarchak Women’s Prison in Tehran province. This shocking report only reveals a part of the atrocities that are taking place in Qarchak Prison. We invite you to read the testimonies of human rights activists and former political prisoners. Qarchak Prison in Varamin (Tehran province) has become one of the darkest symbols of systematic human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Originally designed as a poultry farm, the facility has been transformed into an inhumane detention centre for women prisoners, including political prisoners. The conditions in this prison not only violate international principles such as the Bangkok Rules and the Nelson Mandela Rules but also disregard the most basic principles of human dignity.