Death Penalty News

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. 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.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press.

President Joe Biden is facing growing calls to use his clemency power to commute the sentences of the 40 men on federal death row before he leaves office. The U.S. Constitution grants the president the power to issue pardons—forgiving federal criminal offenses—and commutations, which reduce penalties. The president recently exercised that power to extend a broad pardon to his son, Hunter, despite previously pledging not to do so. The move spares his son a possible prison sentence after he was convicted and pleaded guilty in tax and gun cases.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The U.S. bishops’ conference was among the groups that urged President Joe Biden on Dec. 9 to commute exiting federal death sentences before President-elect Donald Trump, who has sought to expand the use of capital punishment, returns to the White House. Opponents of capital punishment have argued that Biden, a Catholic and the first U.S. president to have campaigned on an openly anti-death penalty platform, should follow through with concrete action in the post-election lame-duck period.

Under Trump, there were 13 executions in his last six months as president. Biden must clear death row now to stop that and what Albert Camus described as the most cold-blooded premeditated murder. On Jan. 14, 2021, I stood in a small chamber in the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, while the federal government carried out an execution. Relegated to a spot 6 feet away from the gurney, I prayed with Corey Johnson, the “Gentle Giant” as he was known on death row.  He was one of the last of 13 people executed under then-President Donald Trump, who carried out an unprecedented killing spree during the final six months of his presidency.

According to reports, five prisoners, including a woman, were executed in prisons across Zanjan, Tabriz, and Isfahan. Execution in Isfahan On the morning of Saturday, December 7, 2024, a prisoner identified as Ashkan Fathi, aged 21, was executed in Isfahan Central Prison. Fathi had been arrested two years ago on charges of murder and subsequently sentenced to death.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 30, 2024: Ahmad Shehbakhsh, a Baluch man on death row for murder, was executed in Zahedan Central Prison. According to Haal Vsh, a Baluch man was executed in Zahedan Central Prison on 30 November. His identity has been reported as 33-year-old Ahmad Shehbakhsh (Khaneshini) who was arrested in Zahedan around five years ago. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Zahedan Criminal Court.

Pope Francis on Dec. 8 made a special appeal for the lives of death row inmates in the United States to be spared. "Let us pray for their sentence to be commuted, changed," said the pope. "Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord to save them from death." The pope's remarks come at a critical time when American Catholic leaders are pushing U.S. President Joe Biden to commute the sentences of the 40 inmates currently on death row. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 4, 2024: At least 144 people including 4 women, 12 Afghan nationals, a Jewish-Iranian and a man with intellectual disabilities were executed in Iranian prisons. On average, more than four people were executed per day. In October 2024, the Islamic Republic carried out 166 executions, the highest number of monthly executions recorded by IHRNGO since 2007. The number of executions by Iran authorities has dramatically hiked under the shadow of conflict and the international community’s attention to Middle Eastern crises.

Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were brutally executed in ‘Indonesia’s Alcatraz’. But they remained defiant until the end. The five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug smuggling gang in Indonesia may now be coming home after the Indonesian government appeared to agree for them to be repatriated back to their native Australia this week. The news came following a meeting between Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Institutions, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, and Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke, during which the Indonesian authorities reportedly provisionally green-lit the proposal – which Mr Burke said was “a significant step forward and shows significant goodwill”.

Mississippi has 35 men and one woman awaiting execution on death row. The state Supreme Court handed down two decisions Thursday that dealt blows to two men on Mississippi's death row. Richard Jordan, who has been on death row in Mississippi since 1977 for the 1976 kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter, the wife of a Gulfport bank executive, learned the court denied a motion for rehearing in his pursuit of post-conviction relief.

The state of Indiana is sched­uled to car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion in 15 years on December 18, 2024, with the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran. Sentenced to death for the 1997 mur­ders of four peo­ple, includ­ing his broth­er, Mr. Corcoran has a long his­to­ry of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. He has been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia, which includes symp­toms of hal­lu­ci­na­tions and delu­sions, and mul­ti­ple experts have tes­ti­fied that he is incom­pe­tent to face exe­cu­tion. Mr. Corcoran holds the con­sis­tent belief that prison guards are tor­tur­ing him with an ultra­sound machine. 

Iran’s new chastity and hijab law has drawn criticism from journalists and activists who warn it represents a new weapon in the state's arsenal against women which could authorize extreme punishments including the death penalty and flogging. The new Hijab and Chastity law, approved by parliament in September 2023 and finalized by the Guardian Council in September 2024, enforces compulsory hijab with harsher penalties, including hefty fines, longer prison sentences, and restrictions on employment and education.

The father of a 3-year-old girl was sentenced to life imprisonment, and his girlfriend received the death penalty for the brutal abuse and killing of the child in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Hulunbuir Intermediate People's Court delivered its verdict on December 6, following months of legal proceedings that exposed harrowing details of the case.

Jakarta (AFP) – Manila and Jakarta signed an agreement Friday to repatriate Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row for drug charges in Indonesia since 2015, with officials saying she could return to the Philippines before Christmas. The announcement came following the Philippines' Department of Justice undersecretary Raul Vasquez meeting with Indonesia's senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra in Jakarta Friday, where both ministers signed the agreement.

A Tarrant County jury sentenced Jason Alan Thornburg, 44, to death for killing three people, dismembering their bodies and burning them in a dumpster in 2021. Assistant District Attorneys Kim D'Avignon, Emily Dixon and Amy Allin represented the state. In September 2021, Thornburg said David Lueras, 42, Maricruz Mathis, 33, and Lauren Phillips, 34, needed to be sacrificed for religious reasons.

Two UN human rights experts on Wednesday urged Saudi Arabia to stop the imminent execution of three foreign nationals, with Riyadh having executed more than 300 people this year -- a record tally. Four more people were put to death on Tuesday: three people convicted of drug smuggling and another convicted of murder, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing the interior ministry. That brought the total number of executions for the year so far to 303 , according to an AFP tally based on state media reports.

JEFFERSON CITY — Christopher Collings, 49, was executed at state prison in Bonne Terre at 6 p.m. on Tuesday for the sexual assault and murder of a 9-year-old girl dating back to 2007. "Right or wrong I accept this situation for what it is," Collings said in a written final statement. "To anyone that I have hurt in this life I am sorry. I hope that you are able to get closure and move on." Collings was convicted of first-degree murder for raping and strangling 9-year-old Rowan Ford with chicken wire before throwing her into a sinkhole. In an April news release, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said, "the jury found Collings tortured the victim in a way that was vile, horrible, and inhumane."

Vietnamese courts said that property developer Truong My Lan's sentence could be reduced to life imprisonment if she pays back three quarters of the assets she is accused of stealing from Saigon Commercial Bank. A Vietnamese court upheld the death penalty Tuesday for a property tycoon in a multi-billion dollar fraud case -- but said her life could still be spared if she paid back three quarters of the assets she embezzled.

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has brought back an Indonesian woman who was sentenced to death for murder in Saudi Arabia and returned her to her family in Bangkalan, East Java. The woman, identified by the initials HMM, was detained by the Saudi authorities and sentenced to death in 2009 for killing her Saudi husband, according to a statement in Jakarta on Monday. The ministry and the Indonesian Consulate General (KJRI) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, made several efforts to resolve the case through diplomatic, litigation, and non-litigation means and to secure HMM's release.

With Trump returning to the White House, only mass commutations will stop another federal execution spree. Five days after Orlando Hall was executed in the federal death chamber, Donald Trump appeared in the White House Rose Garden for the 2020 Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony. The enormous white birds, Corn and Cob, stood ridiculously as Trump wished them a “very long, happy, and memorable life.” At the Special Confinement Unit inside the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, men on death row watched news coverage on TV.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 29, 2024: Kamran Hemati, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Arak Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Arak Central Prison on 28 November. His identity has been established as Kamran Hemati from Khorramabad. He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

On December 18, Indiana hopes to get back into the execution business. On that date, it plans to put Joseph Corcoran to death for the 1997 murder of four people, including his brother. Corcoran is one of eight men on Indiana’s death row—also called “X Row.” The others include an inmate who “stabbed two co-workers after he was fired,” another who “shot and killed a police officer,” and two people who each “killed multiple children.” Corcoran’s lawyers are seeking a stay of execution because he has long suffered from a serious mental illness. As they explain, he “cannot distinguish between reality and his delusions and hallucinations — his delusions are his reality.”

The new Indonesian president – who came to office with a questionable human rights record – has emerged as an unlikely champion for a prisoner swap deal In the dark of the early morning of 29 April 2015, two members of Australia’s so-called Bali Nine were each tied to a stake in a floodlit field on the Indonesian prison island of Nusakambangan. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran refused blindfolds, and sang as they stood before a firing squad of 12. They were killed at 12.35am.

Joe Biden’s Catholic faith should inspire him to stop the federal death penalty in its tracks In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, opponents of the death penalty are mounting a campaign to convince President Biden to commute the sentences of everyone on federal death row. Doing so would be a vindication not only of his announced anti-death penalty position but also of his Catholic faith .