Death Penalty News

Bruce Ward, a convicted murderer who was the longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death row, has died, the state Department of Corrections said. He was 68.  The state Department of Corrections said Ward was pronounced dead Tuesday from natural causes. He had been held on death row at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould, located 67 miles (108 kilometers) south of Little Rock.  Citing confidentiality, the department declined to provide any further details on Ward’s health or the circumstances surrounding his death. 

The United Arab Emirates sentenced to death 3 Uzbek nationals who killed Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan last November.  The 3 are suspected of having carried out the killing at the behest of Iran.  The murderers are believed to have tracked the rabbi, monitored his daily activities, and ultimately kidnapped and killed him.  Following the abduction, Kogan’s car was discovered with evidence of violence and blood. 

Convict’s relatives continue to threaten slain man’s family A judge in Pakistan sentenced to death a Muslim who murdered a 20-year-old Christian in the presence of his family, sources said.  Saima Riyasat, additional sessions judge of Pasrur, Sialkot District, handed the country’s maximum punishment for murder to Muhammad Zubair for killing Farhan Ul Qamar on Nov. 9, 2023, said Christian attorney Lazar Allah Rakha. The court also imposed a fine of 500,000 Pakistani Rupees ($1,785 USD), he said. 

The direction came as the bench of Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill and Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi held that the case did not fall within the ‘rarest of rare’ category warranting capital punishment A father, who raped and murdered his six-year-old daughter, has escaped the gallows after the Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment for the “remainder of his natural life” without remissions. The direction came as the bench of Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill and Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi held that the case did not fall within the ‘rarest of rare’ category warranting capital punishment.

“Individuals increasingly find themselves in cages unfit for lab mice and subjected to conditions with less scrutiny than that of invertebrate species kept in aquariums.” One hundred and thirty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged the devastating effects of solitary confinement. In an 1890 ruling declaring that Colorado had improperly subjected a man named James Medley to isolation, the court noted the practice had deleterious effects on the human psyche, including turning people “violently insane.” The court noted that others committed suicide, while “those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity.” 

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones. 

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.  The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that she has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, following through on the president’s campaign promise to vigorously pursue capital punishment. It is the first time the Justice Department has sought to bring the death penalty since President Donald Trump returned to office in January with a vow to resume federal executions. Bondi’s decision to do so in the high-profile case against Mangione, who has drawn a following of supporters upset with the health care industry, underscores the attorney general’s commitment to carrying out the president’s push for new death penalty cases.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 30, 2025: Yasser Roshani, man on death row for murder, was executed in Arak Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Arak Central Prison on 29 March. His identity has been established as Yasser Roshani from Arak. He was arrested for murder four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court.

Florida's death penalty system has faced numerous criticisms and controversies over the years - from execution methods to the treatment of Death Row inmates The Sunshine State remains steadfast in its enforcement of capital punishment, upholding a complex system that has developed since its reinstatement in 1976. Florida's contemporary death penalty era kicked off in 1972 following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia , which temporarily put a stop to executions across the country. Swiftly amending its laws, Florida saw the Supreme Court affirm the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976's Gregg v. Georgia case.