Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHNRGO); February 28, 2025: Shoeib Rezapour, a man on death row for murder, was hanged on a public bridge in Esfarayen. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged on Behesht Esfarayen bridge in Esfarayen in North Khorasan province on 28 February. His identity has been established as 28-year-old Shoeib Rezapour.  He was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. An informed source told IHRNGO: “Shoeib Rezapour was from a village in Esfarayen and was arrested for killing someone with a knife three and a half years ago.”

Iran Human Rights (IHNRGO); February 28, 2025: At least eight men including five Kurdish minorities were executed for murder, drug-related and mohareheh (enmity against god) charges in Ghezelhesar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least eight men were executed in a group hanging in Ghezelhesar Prison in Karaj on 26 February. Six of the men were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder and have been identified as Amir Jafarpanah, Yasser Abbasi, Sajad Eghbali (Geravand), 21-year-old Alireza Basatinia, all Kurdish minorities, and Mosayeb Azizi and Bahman Houshmand.

LAHORE: A sessions court has awarded the death penalty to a man for committing blasphemy on Thursday. Shahdara police had registered the FIR in 2020 under section 295 A & C of the PPC on the complaint of Niaz Ahmad Noori, a prayer leader and local emir of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The complainant alleged that the accused uttered disrespectful remarks against the Holy Prophet. The former wife of the convict also testified in the trial proceedings and presented an audio recording of the blasphemous remarks allegedly uttered by him.

After nearly three decades maintaining his innocence on Oklahoma’s death row, Richard Glossip this week now has the opportunity to win his freedom after the US Supreme Court ordered he receive a new trial , finding prosecutors failed to correct false testimony that may have influenced his jury. The question now? Whether Oklahoma prosecutors want to retry the case at all. Since Glossip’s 1998 conviction as the alleged orchestrator of a murder-for-hire scheme targeting his boss, Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese, a raft of issues with his prosecution has surfaced, coinciding with a shift of political winds now at the inmate’s back.

A local court in Southwest China's Guizhou Province on Friday executed death sentence on Yu Huaying, who was convicted of abducting and trafficking 17 children in 10 years. Between 1993 and 2003, Yu, in collaboration with others, traveled to various places, including Guizhou, Chongqing, and Yunnan, where she abducted a total of 17 children to gain illegal profits. On October 25, 2024, the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court sentenced Yu to death for child abduction, deprived her of political rights for life, and confiscated all her personal property.

We look at a rare victory for a death row prisoner before the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, three conservative justices joined with the three liberals to overturn the murder conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip , who has spent nearly 30 years on Oklahoma death row and had exhausted all other appeals to stay his execution. The justices said Glossip was entitled to a new trial after errors in his original prosecution. Glossip’s conviction stems from the 1997 murder of his former boss, who was killed by another man who accused Glossip of masterminding the killing. 

An 88-year-old Japanese man who at one point was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been presented with a rosary blessed by Pope Francis. Archbishop Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo recently visited Iwao Hakamada, a former boxer and convert to Catholicism, to make the presentation of the papal gift to the now officially innocent octogenarian. Following his release from prison in 2014 because of new DNA evidence – after 48 years on death row – Hakamada still wasn’t officially proclaimed innocent until his definitive acquittal a decade later.

The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) arrested two Singaporean men and seized a large cocktail of drugs which could potentially feed the addiction of about 490 drug abusers for a week. The haul of drugs had an estimated worth of more than S$135,000 (US$100K). The authorities said the two men were standing next to a car in the vicinity of Redhill Road when they were nabbed in the late hours of Tuesday, 25 February.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) — Attorneys for an inmate scheduled to be executed on March 7 filed a motion to halt proceedings to determine whether the information the state provides about its lethal injection drugs is sufficient. Lawyers for Brad Sigmon, 67, convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents at their home in Greenville County, argued in a motion to South Carolina's Supreme Court that the state hasn't released enough details about the lethal injection drug to give a condemned prisoner sufficient information to select the least inhumane method of execution, which is guaranteed by state law.

In a 5 – 3 deci­sion issued in Glossip v. Oklahoma on February 25, 2025, the United States Supreme Court threw out Richard Glossip’s 2004 con­vic­tion for arrang­ing the mur­der of Barry Von Treese and ordered a new tri­al because pros­e­cu­tors allowed a key wit­ness to lie in court and with­held cru­cial infor­ma­tion about the same wit­ness. Justice Sonya Sotomayor, writ­ing for the major­i­ty, said that pros­e­cu­tors in Mr. Glossip’s case ​“vio­lat­ed [their] con­sti­tu­tion­al oblig­a­tion to cor­rect false tes­ti­mo­ny,” and thus, he ​“is enti­tled to a new tri­al.” Justice Sotomayor was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Amy Coney Barrett con­curred in part with the major­i­ty, while Justice Gorsuch did not take part in the case’s consideration. 

A fractured Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, whose appeal drew national attention and support from the state’s conservative attorney general, in light of allegations that the state withheld evidence related to its main witness. The ruling is a major win for Glossip, whose 1998 conviction for arranging the murder of Barry Van Treese a year earlier has been called into question by him and, critically, the state attorney general after new evidence emerged in recent years.

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Malaysian government has granted a change in criminal sentences for 68 Indonesian citizens who were initially sentenced to death. Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail stated that the change occurred after the convicts filed an appeal to the Federal Court of Malaysia. "68 out of 70 of inmates have had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment," Saifuddin told a press conference at the Coordinating Ministry for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections office in South Jakarta on Tuesday, February 25, 2025.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The U.S. Supreme Court Feb. 24 considered the case of a Texas death-row inmate who is seeking to obtain post-conviction DNA testing on evidence that he claims would show he did not directly participate in a 1998 murder and lead to the repeal of his death sentence. The case presents a complex legal question about his ability to make such an appeal about his death sentence, not his conviction. Under Texas law, a party to murder can be convicted of murder, but it could bar the death penalty sentence. Capital punishment is a practice opposed by the Catholic Church in most circumstances.

The French welder, sentenced to death for drug trafficking in 2007,  landed in France on February 5. RTL collected the testimony of his wife, Sabine, who has not seen him since 2019. "Shattered", she is happy to see him again. Atlaoui spent nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons, including 17 on death row.

A Chinese court on Monday upheld the death sentence for Bai Tianhui, former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings, after rejecting his appeal in a bribery case involving more than 1.1 billion yuan ($151.8 million). The Tianjin High People's Court announced its decision on its official WeChat account, saying it had upheld the original ruling by the Tianjin No 2 Intermediate People's Court. The sentence has been submitted to the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, for mandatory review, it said.

Christopher Sepulvado, the 81-year-old man who was facing execution next month for the 1992 murder of his stepson, died overnight at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, according to his attorney. Shawn Nolan, who had represented Sepulvado, said his client had had a gangrenous leg amputated last week at a New Orleans hospital. Doctors had determined Sepulvado, who had multiple serious ailments, was terminally ill and recommended hospice care at the time a judge set his execution date for March 17, according to his attorney.

KOLKATA: A Pocso court in the city on Tuesday sentenced a 34-year-old man to death for raping a seven-month-old infant on Nov 30 last year, leaving her fighting for life. The court termed the case "rarest of rare". The court also awarded compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the survivor. The sentencing came a day after Rajib Ghosh (also known as Gobra) was found guilty of the crime. "This is a rarest of rare case. There cannot be any other punishment that the court can think of," judge Indrila Mukhopadhyay Mitra said, reading out the verdict.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); February 21, 2025: Abbas Bameri, 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 15 February 2025. His identity has been established as 46-year-old Abbas Bameri, a father of three and farmer who was sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. An informed source told IHRNGO: “Abbas lived in a village in Golestan province and was arrested for carrying drug and firearms five years ago.”

Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to be killed on March 7 A South Carolina death row inmate has chosen to be executed by a firing squad, which would make him only the fourth inmate in the U.S. to die by this execution method. Brad Sigmon, 67, who is scheduled to be killed on March 7, informed state officials on Friday that he wishes to die by firing squad rather than by lethal injection or the electric chair, citing, in part, the prolonged suffering the three inmates previously executed in the state had faced when they were killed by lethal injection.

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A New Jersey man was convicted Friday of attempted murder for stabbing author Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage in 2022. Jurors delivered the verdict after deliberating for less than two hours, also finding Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of assault for wounding a man who was on the Chautauqua Institution stage with Rushdie at the time. Matar ran up to Rushdie as he was about to speak on Aug. 12, 2022, and stabbed him more than a dozen times before a live audience. The attack left the 77-year-old prizewinning novelist blind in one eye.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge on Friday reopened a lawsuit challenging Louisiana's execution protocol as the state prepares to carry out the death penalty using nitrogen gas in the coming weeks. For the past 15 years, Louisiana had paused executions due to a lack of political interest and inability to secure lethal injection drugs. But with a nitrogen gas execution protocol finalized this month and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry eager to proceed, the state is scheduled to execute two death row inmates on consecutive days in March.

The 17th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) and ECPM (Together Against the Death Penalty), provides an assessment and analysis of death penalty trends in 2024 in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It sets out the number of executions in 2024, the trend compared to previous years, the legislative framework and procedures, charges, geographic distribution and a monthly breakdown of executions. Lists of women and juvenile offenders executed in 2024 are also included in tables in the categories section.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); February 19, 2025: Mehdi Iranian and a woman only identified as Ms Bagherinejad who were both on death row for murder, were executed in Shiraz Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man and a woman were executed in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison on 18 February 2025. Their identities have been established as 28-year-old Mehdi Iranian and 45-year-old Ms Bagherinejad who were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder in separate cases.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office is asking the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for five people on death row, five years after the state last put a person to death. The Attorney General's Office on Friday filed motions asking the court to set execution dates for Kevin Burns, Jon Douglas Hall, Kennath Artez Henderson, Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines and William Glenn Rogers, according to a spokesperson for the office.  The motions are the next step in the process to resume executions in Tennessee after they were paused in 2022.

We, the 3,800+ members of the group “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” wish to respond respectfully to Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Lieberman’s Feb. 15th Jerusalem Post op-ed entitled “Should Israel execute Hamas terrorists for war crimes on par with the Nazis?” In his thoughtful, powerful and nuanced essay, Rabbi Dr. Lieberman expresses how difficult it has been for him as a rabbi and physician to even ask this question, given the sanctity of life to which he has devoted his laudable career. We profoundly honor Rabbi Dr. Lieberman’s sacred callings, as well as his courage in sharing his feelings so openly and vulnerably in the public square. We also empathize with his suffering and understand and respect his position. Indeed, like Jews everywhere, we too have been shocked beyond belief by the horror and barbarity that continue to unfold in the wake of the Oct. 7th, 2023 pogrom. The mutilated bodies of the youngest members of the Bibas family that Hamas just released are a palpable remi...

The vast majority of the public continues to endorse the country's death penalty system, according to a recent government survey. In the Cabinet Office's survey of 1,815 people between October and December, 83.1% said that the system is “unavoidable.” The percentage of respondents giving that answer exceeded 80% for the fifth consecutive time. When asked about whether they’d support abolishing the death penalty in the future if “circumstances change,” 34.4% of the 1,508 respondents who said the death penalty system is “unavoidable” answered in favor.

At least 975 people were executed in Iran in 2024, a staggering 17% increase from the 834 executions recorded the previous year, according to a joint report released by the Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM). "While the world's attention was focused on the growing tensions between Iran and Israel the Islamic Republic took advantage of the lack of international oversight to terrorize its own people by carrying out 5 to 6 executions daily ," said Mahmoud Amiri-Moghaddam, director of IHRNGO.

SINGAPORE, Feb 19 (Bernama) -- Singapore Court of Appeal on Wednesday has granted Malaysian death row inmate Pannir Selvam Pranthaman a stay of execution just hours before he was scheduled to be executed on Thursday (Feb 20). Judge of the Appellate Division Woo Bih Li, in his judgment, said the stay was granted pending the determination of Pannir Selvam’s Post-Appeal Applications in Capital Cases (PACC) application.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Rights activists in Singapore and Malaysia will hold candlelight vigils Wednesday to protest capital punishment as Singaporean authorities prepare to execute a Malaysian man for drug trafficking despite mounting pressure to halt the sentencing. Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was arrested in 2014 for having 52 grams (about 1.8 ounces) of heroin and sentenced to death in 2017. He is due to be hanged on Thursday, making him the fourth person to be put to death in the Southeast Asian country this year alone; two others were executed for drug-related crimes and one for murder.

Taipei, Feb. 19 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court on Wednesday upheld a life sentence for a man who stabbed a convenience store clerk to death over being asked to wear a face mask. Taoyuan resident Chiang Chia-kai (蔣嘉凱) was originally given the death penalty for the November 2021 murder, which occurred during Taiwan's strict mask mandate due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Taoyuan District Court's December 2022 sentence was reduced when the case was automatically sent for appeal to the Taiwan High Court, in accordance with Article 344 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Mogadishu (HOL) — Saudi authorities executed a Somali national convicted of drug smuggling and a Saudi citizen found guilty of murder, the Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday. The Somali national, identified as Mohamed Nur Hussein Ja'al, was arrested for attempting to smuggle hashish into Saudi Arabia. A specialized court found him guilty and sentenced him to death under tazir punishment, a discretionary ruling in Islamic law for severe crimes. After an appeal, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence, and a royal decree authorized the execution, which was carried out on Sunday in Najran, southern Saudi Arabia.

On February 13, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine postponed the three Ohio executions that were scheduled for 2025. And he predicted that no one would be put to death during the remainder of his time in office which ends in 2026. Columbus’s NBC4 reports that “the reprieves were issued due to ‘ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), pursuant to DRC protocol, without endangering other Ohioans.’”

Muhsin Hendricks, who claimed to be "the first openly gay imam," was shot dead Saturday near Port Elizabeth in South Africa. He was reportedly the victim of a targeted attack. He was known as "the first openly gay imam." Muhsin Hendricks, who rose to prominence when he came out as gay in 1996 while leading the Al Ghurbaah mosque in Wynberg, Cape Town, South Africa, was shot dead on Saturday near Port Elizabeth, provincial police said. "At around 10am, the deceased (58 years old), Imam Moegsien Hendricks (his first name in the civil registry) and a driver were on board (a car)," a police statement said. "Two unknown suspects with covered faces (...) began firing several shots at the vehicle."

“People say that executing criminals does not take away from their dignity – if it is done with dignity. But the fact of the matter is that whether you’re waiting to die by lethal injection – waiting ... for the poison to flow down your veins – or waiting for a bullet, or waiting for a rope, or waiting for gas, or waiting for the electric current – there is no difference: there is no lesser or greater dignity in dying. The practice of the death penalty is the practice of torture. And by the time people I have been with finally climb into the chair to be killed, they have died a thousand times already because of their anticipation of the final horror.” – Helen Prejean, author of the book “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.” _____________________________________________________________________ Twitter/X   |  Instagram   |  Telegram   | Contact Us "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have c...

His former lawyer, M Ravi, says the only recourse now is for the Malaysian government to file an urgent application to the International Court of Justice challenging the execution. PETALING JAYA: Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, the 38-year-old Malaysian convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore, will be executed on Thursday (Feb 20), according to his former lawyer, M Ravi. In a Facebook post today, Ravi said Pannir’s sister told him that she had received a letter from the prison today confirming his execution in four days. Ravi claimed that during his time representing Pannir in 2020, Singapore’s prison authorities improperly forwarded confidential information on 13 inmates to the Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine extended the state’s unofficial death penalty moratorium once again Thursday as he postponed three more executions that had been scheduled for this year. The governor’s announcement again cited the state’s inability to secure the drugs used in lethal injections due to pharmaceutical suppliers’ unwillingness.

A condemned man who is the next person scheduled to be put to death in South Carolina is again asking for his execution be postponed because his lawyers have not yet received the autopsy report from the last execution two weeks ago The state Supreme Court rejected a similar request earlier this month by Brad Sigmon. But his attorneys said in a motion Friday that the situation has become more urgent because he faces a Feb. 21 deadline to decide whether to die by lethal injection, firing squad or electric chair.

COVINGTON — A St. Tammany Parish judge has scheduled a condemned killer to be executed March 18, the day after another man convicted for a separate murder will be put to death. They could be the first two people to die in Louisiana by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method state lawmakers and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry approved last year. Judge Alan Zaunbrecher with the 22nd Judicial District issued a death warrant Wednesday for Jessie Hoffman, 46, who authorities said brought 28-year-old Mary “Molly” Elliot to a rural portion of St. Tammany Parish where he raped and killed her in 1996. 

President Donald Trump's newly installed attorney general, Pam Bondi, has ordered the transfer of a federal inmate to Oklahoma so he can be executed, following through on Trump's sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty. Bondi this week directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer inmate George John Hanson, 60, so that he can be executed for his role in the kidnapping and killing of a 77-year-old woman in Tulsa in 1999.

Hideko Hakamada’s brother Iwao was sentenced to death for murder in Japan in 1968. She campaigned tirelessly for his release as he spent nearly five decades on death row, being described as the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner.   In September 2024, Hakamada was acquitted after a retrial – a court ruling that the evidence that incriminated him was fabricated. Here, 92-year-old Hideko celebrates her brother’s long-awaited freedom. 

A Japanese man acquitted of a 1966 quadruple murder in a retrial is set to file a lawsuit against the state for defamation after the prosecutor general called the ruling that found him not guilty "unacceptable," his lawyers said Thursday.  Iwao Hakamada, 88, was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court last September after spending nearly half a century on death row before new evidence led to his release in 2014. He was recognized that year as the world's longest-serving death row prisoner. 

James Dennis Ford executed in Florida for couple's murder  Florida executed James Dennis Ford on Thursday for the savage murders of 2 young parents in front of their toddler daughter in 1997.  Ford, 64, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. ET, becoming the 1st inmate to be put to death by the state in 2025 and the 4th in the United States this year. 

Texas executes man for 2004 double killing in a dispute with his strip club manager  A Texas man who killed his strip club manager and another man, then later prompted a massive lockdown of the state prison system when he used a cellphone smuggled onto death row to threaten a lawmaker, was executed Thursday night. Richard Lee Tabler, 46, was given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He is the 2nd person executed in Texas in a little over a week, with 2 more scheduled by the end of April. The time of death was 6:38 p.m. CST. 

Does the death penalty – ‘a life for a life’ – really help victims’ families achieve closure? A new documentary finds out For almost 20 years, Aaron Castro was certain about what had to happen. John Ramirez had to die. Ramirez’s execution was the only way to ensure he got the justice he deserved. And it was the only way that Castro, the son of Ramirez’s victim, could staunch his bleeding heart, soothe the constant anger boiling inside him, and achieve what had been eluding him for two decades: closure.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Feb. 24 in the case of a man on Texas death row who has long tried to obtain postconviction DNA testing on evidence that he says would exonerate him.  Ruben Gutierrez was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in Brownsville, Tex. Gutierrez has maintained his innocence and says DNA from several pieces of evidence — such as a hair and nail scrapings from Harrison’s finger and blood stains — would show that he was never in Harrison’s home. And if the DNA evidence shows that he never entered Harrison’s home, he contends, the jury would not have sentenced him to death. 

A French court commuted the sentence of Serge Atlaoui, who was allowed to return to France last week after 18 years on death row in Indonesia, where he was convicted of drug offenses. The ruling opens the door for a presidential pardon. A Frenchman reprieved after 18 years on death row in Indonesia on drug offenses will have to serve 30 years in jail after being repatriated last week, a French court ruled Wednesday, February 12. The ruling – which was largely a technicality and not based on the case itself – now gives Serge Atlaoui the chance to ask for a softening of his sentence or a pardon from President Emmanuel Macron, which could see him released after a two-decade ordeal.

He would be the second inmate executed in Texas in a little over a week, with two more scheduled by the end of April. A Texas man who murdered his strip club manager and another man, then later prompted a massive lockdown of the state prison system when he used a cellphone smuggled into death row to threaten a lawmaker, was scheduled to be executed Thursday. Richard Lee Tabler, 46, would be the second inmate executed in Texas in a little over a week, with two more scheduled by the end of April. He's set to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

A man's fate hangs in the balance after decades on death row. The complexities of capital punishment in Florida are revealed. James D. Ford spent nearly every moment of the last 25 years in a six-foot by nine-foot cell on Florida’s Death Row. From the moment a judge in Charlotte County in southwest Florida handed down his death sentence in 1999, Ford’s only option was to wait. He waited as his lawyers unsuccessfully submitted appeal after appeal to Florida’s higher courts. He waited for rulings on motions meant to turn his death sentences into lifetime confinement. After his appeals lapsed and his sentence stood, he waited for his death warrant.