Death Penalty News

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); September 30, 2025: Khashayar Amiri, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Gorgan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Gorgan Central Prison on 28 September 2025. His identity has been established as Khashayar Amiri from Rasht. He was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

George Wilson, 23, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, is said to have received 9.15kg of methamphetamine from another Briton at a hotel in the red-light area of Bangkok on Monday evening. But vice squad cops are said to have been tipped off about the movements of the drugs gang. Officers swooped on the hotel room at Le Fenix on Sukhumvit Soi 11 and arrested George. In the arrest video, George was heard telling police he had been in Thailand for 'two weeks'. When asked what is in the bag, he says 'I don't know'.

State Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general supporting efforts to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana. In a letter sent to the Department of Justice and the White House General Counsel’s office, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is among 20 attorneys general pushing to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana , which barred states from imposing the death penalty in cases of child rape where the victim did not die. The coalition of attorneys general argues that Kennedy was wrongly decided and that the Constitution allows capital punishment for the most horrific crimes against children.

The Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court in China’s Zhejiang province has sentenced 11 people to death over their alleged role in a $1.4bn illegal gambling scam operation in Myanmar. At the Monday trial, the judicial body handed five other suspects death sentences suspended for two years. According to the BBC, the court found multiple members of the Ming family mafia guilty of conducting criminal activities, including murder, fraud, assault, and telecom fraud. Non-profit news firm China Perspective took to X with a video of suspects receiving the death sentence, which is commonly completed via lethal injection.

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally stabbing a married couple during a 1990 robbery in South Florida is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday evening. Victor Tony Jones, 64, is set to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. It would be Florida’s 13th death sentence carried out in 2025, further extending the state record for total executions in a single year.

INDIANAPOLIS — Governor Mike Braun has denied clemency for Roy Lee Ward, allowing his execution to proceed as scheduled for October 10. "After carefully reviewing the unanimous recommendation from the State Parole Board, I have decided to allow the execution of Roy Lee Ward to proceed as planned for October 10," Braun said. The Indiana Parole Board unanimously recommended denying Ward's request for clemency after conducting public hearings on September 22. Ward had requested his death sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole.

The Court of Appeal rejected Pannir Selvam Pranthaman’s latest challenge on 5 September 2025, exposing him to the risk of execution for the third time. Following the Court of Appeal’s rejection of his latest appeal on 5 September 2025, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman could be exposed to the risk of execution for the third time.  Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was convicted on 2 May 2017, aged 29, of importing into Singapore 51.84g of diamorphine (heroin) and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty. The Court of Appeal rejected his ordinary appeal on 18 October 2018. The judge found Pannir Selvam Pranthaman to have been involved only in the transport of drugs, meeting the “courier” requirement under the law. However, the prosecution did not provide him with a certificate of substantive assistance, leaving no option to the judge but to impose the mandatory death penalty. 

Officials took a former death row prisoner from his cell in Terre Haute and transported him to South Carolina over the weekend. Brandon Council, 40, is now likely to face state charges for a 2017 double murder that resulted in his original federal death sentence. Former President Joe Biden reduced that sentence to life without parole in a mass clemency decision last year. But prosecutors in South Carolina have indicated in recent months that they were considering re-charging Council with the murders of two bank tellers, Donna Major and Kathryn Skeen, in the 2017 armed robbery.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); September 29, 2025: Mahmoud Nazari and Saeed Parsayi, two men on death row for drug-related offences, were executed in Jiroft Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Jiroft Prison on 28 September 2025. Their identities have been established as Mahmoud Nazari from Isfahan and Saeed Parsayi from Shiraz. They were arrested six years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court in separate cases. At the time of writing, their executions have not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said Monday it hanged a man accused of spying for Israel, the latest as Tehran carries out its largest wave of executions in decades. Iran identified the executed man as Bahman Choobiasl, whose case wasn’t immediately known in Iranian media reports or to activists monitoring the death penalty in the Islamic Republic. Iran accused Choobiasl of meeting with officials from the Israeli spy agency Mossad.  Iran’s Mizan news agency, which is the judiciary’s official mouthpiece, said Choobiasl worked on “sensitive telecommunications projects“ and reported about the “paths of importing electronic devices.”

China’s former minister of agriculture and rural affairs Tang Renjian was on Sunday sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes amounting to USD 38 million. Tang, also a former secretary of the agricultural ministry’s leading ruling Communist Party members’ group, has been deprived of his political rights for life, the Intermediate People’s Court of Changchun in northeast China’s Jilin Province said in its judgment. All of Tang’s personal property will be confiscated and his illegal gains from bribery recovered and turned over to the national treasury, the court said.

The vote to approve the bill for first reading went ahead despite a request from the Prime Minister's Office, according to Israel's national security minister. The Knesset National Security Committee on Sunday approved for first reading a bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists. Committee members voted to advance the law, which was introduced by Otzma Yehudit Party Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech, despite warnings by Israel Defense Forces Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, coordinator for the captives and missing, that the move could endanger the hostages held by Hamas.

Defectors from the Pyongyang regime describe the growing repression and deterioration of human rights denounced by the UN Article 1 of North Korea ’s Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, passed in 2020, outlines why Pyongyang believes the legislation is necessary: The law “contributes to the strengthening of our sense of ideology, revolution, and social class by launching a powerful battle to obstruct the inflow and distribution of reactionary ideology and culture and anti-socialist ideology and culture.” Article 7 adds that strict punishments, including the death penalty, will be applied to any citizen “bringing in, viewing, and distributing reactionary ideology and culture, depending on the severity, regardless of the reason and the offender’s social class.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir insists that a bill to impose the death penalty on terrorists will “allow us to bring the hostages home,” and says he rejected a request to push off discussion of the controversial measure over concerns that it could complicate efforts to free them. Ben Gvir tells the Knesset National Security Committee, which is holding a meeting to advance the legislation, that the bill will “bring deterrence” and “advance the return of the hostages” while showing Hamas that “there is a price tag for what they did” on October 7.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); September 24, 2025: Ali Keshavarz, Sajad Aslani, Ahmad Bakhtiar and Keyvan Rahmati were executed in a group hanging in Isfahan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, four men were hanged in Isfahan (Dastgerd ) Central Prison on 24 September 2025. Two of the men were sentenced to death on drug-related charges. Their identities have been established as 30-year-old Ali Keshavarz from the Qashqai tribe in Shiraz, and Sajad Aslani. Ali was arrested four years ago and Sajad, four years ago.

Donald Trump signs presidential memorandum implementing the death penalty in Washington, D.C. The presidential memorandum calls for his administration to reinstate the death penalty for crimes in Washington, D.C. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that the administration is working toward implementing the death penalty nationwide. September 25, 2025 Memorandum for the Attorney General and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Subject: Enforcing the Death Penalty Laws in the District of Columbia to Deter and Punish the Most Heinous Crimes By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct: Section 1. Background. Federal law provides for the death penalty for criminals found guilty of especially aggravated crimes (18 U.S.C. 3591(a)). Capital punishment is an essential part of how our justice system deters and punishes the most reprehensible crimes that often involve grotesque and lethal violence ag...

Blaine Milam executed for 2008 killing of toddler in East Texas East Texas death row inmate Blaine Milam has been executed for the 2008 exorcism-style murder of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson. He was convicted in the December 2008 exorcism-style killing of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson in Rusk County.  Milam received the lethal injection at 6:19 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. this evening. His execution follows a decade of legal challenges as his defense team challenged the use of bite mark evidence and raised concerns about intellectual disability. 

Alabama executes man with nitrogen gas for 1997 shooting death of store clerk  An Alabama man convicted of killing a woman during a 1997 gas station robbery was put to death Thursday after apologizing to the family and pleas from the victim’s son to spare his life.  Geoffrey Todd West, 50, was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility by nitrogen gas, a method Alabama began using last year. It was 1 of 2 executions scheduled on the night in the United States.  West said “No sir” when asked by the warden if he had final words. Strapped to the gurney with a blue-rimmed gas mask covering his face, he gave a thumbs up in the direction of his attorney, who was seated in a viewing room, as the execution began at about 5:56 p.m. 

Hayat says the execution of drug mules will effectively eliminate potential witnesses to drug operations. PETALING JAYA: Executing drug couriers and low-level operators will not deter or hamper drug syndicates, and will instead embolden them, says a group that advocates for criminal justice reform. Hayat said the execution of drug mules would effectively eliminate potential witnesses to drug operations. “Executions do not disrupt syndicates, nor do they dismantle the systems that enable them to thrive.

Death row inmate Blaine Milam is scheduled to be executed Thursday evening for the 2008 killing of his then-fiancée’s 13-month-old daughter after his two previous execution dates were delayed. In 2008, Milam and the girl’s mother, Jesseca Carson, called police to their home near Tatum, where authorities found 13-month-old Amora Carson dead, with human bite marks on her body and signs of physical and sexual assault, according to court documents. The two initially gave police different reasons for the toddler’s death, including that they had left the home and found her injured, that she had eaten insulation and later that they had performed an exorcism on the child.

It is one of two executions scheduled Thursday in the United States. Texas plans to carry out a lethal injection on the same evening. Alabama is preparing to execute a man convicted of killing a woman during a 1997 gas station robbery in what will be the nation's latest execution carried out with nitrogen gas. Geoffrey Todd West, 50, is scheduled to be executed Thursday night at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in south Alabama. West was convicted of capital murder for the 1997 shooting death of Margaret Parrish Berry, 33. Berry's son is among those who urged Alabama's governor to commute West's sentence to life in prison.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — Singapore has executed Malaysian national Datchinamurthy Kataiah over his conviction for trafficking heroin into the country. Singapore’s central narcotics bureau confirmed the execution in a statement, maintaining that Datchinamurthy was “accorded full due process under the law and was represented by legal counsel during trial and appeal”. It added that his clemency petitions to the Singapore president were unsuccessful.

Datchinamurthy Kataiah, 39, will be hanged tomorrow in Changi Prison fourteen years after his arrest. His sister's appeal against a sentence that is ‘too severe and extreme for a naive act committed by a young man’. The appeal of 33 local NGOs for a moratorium after the Wong government promoted a case for commutation of the sentence for the first time. Currently, 40 people are on death row. Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) - The execution of a Malaysian citizen sentenced to death for drug trafficking is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday 25 September, in Singapore. The case is reigniting criticism of the city-state's use of the death penalty.

Albuquerque man charged with death of Uber driver Seliky Sanchez faces a mandatory life sentence or the death penalty ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An 18-year-old man has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from a carjacking and kidnapping that resulted in the death of an Uber driver.  On Aug. 7, Sheliky Sanchez of Albuquerque was picked up at his residence on Estrella Brillante Street NW just after 3 a.m. by an Uber ride driven by Joseph Andrus, an Albuquerque Police Department news release said.

According to the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes under South Korean law, the murder of a child under the age of 13 after abduction or enticement is punishable by death or life imprisonment. SEOUL – Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a teacher accused of stabbing a first grader to death at an elementary school in Daejeon this year. During a hearing at the Daejeon District Court, prosecutors argued that Myeong Jae-wan, the 48-year-old elementary school teacher, should face capital punishment for the murder of the student, Kim Ha-neul, on Feb. 10.

Paris (AFP) – Iran has executed at least 1,000 people so far in 2025, an NGO said on Tuesday, denouncing a "mass killing campaign" in prisons aimed at spreading fear through society. At least 64 people were hanged in the past week alone, an average of more than nine per day , said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group, which counts and verifies executions in Iran on a daily basis. With more than three months of 2025 still to go, the figure is already the highest since IHR began keeping records in 2008, topping the 975 executions recorded last year. Iran carried out a wave of executions in the 1980s and early 1990s in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the Iran-Iraq war.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); September 22, 2025: Abdolaziz Ghaljayi, a Baluch man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Zahedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Zahedan Central Prison on 21 September 2025. His identity has been established as Abdolaziz Ghaljayi, a 35-year-old Baluch man from Zahedan. He was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); September 22, 2025: An unidentified woman, Mostafa Pirabbasi and Peyman Khani were executed for separate murders in Sabzevar Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a woman and two men were hanged in Sabzevar Prison on 17 September 2025. The men’s identities have been established as Mostafa Pirabbasi and Peyman Khani. The woman has not been identified at the time of writing. They were arrested around six years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for separate murders by the Criminal Court.

The author, a medical ethicist and practicing physician, argues that when executions fail to cause death within five minutes, the Constitution requires immediate medical resuscitation—even if it means saving the life of a condemned prisoner... “It’s hurting so bad,” Byron Black said five minutes after the State of Tennessee initiated his execution last month. The 69-year-old’s anguished words echoed through the death chamber as a device designed to save lives may have prolonged his dying, creating the very cruelty the Constitution forbids.

Murder vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers hold a wide range of views about what jus­tice means. For some, the death penal­ty holds the promise of clo­sure, while for oth­ers, it is a source of con­tin­ued trau­ma and uncer­tain­ty. In two recent cas­es, vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers have pub­licly expressed their oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty, cit­ing their reli­gious views and need to forgive.

Iranian serial killer Kolsoum Akbari, a 58-year-old woman convicted of murdering 11 former husbands over about 20 years by poisoning, was sentenced to 10 death penalties, Iranian media reported. Born in 1967, Akbari allegedly used sedatives to kill her spouses, with the murders spanning the 1990s to the 2010s. Arrested in September 2023 for trying to murder her 82-year-old husband, he survived after becoming suspicious she was trying to kill him.

As five men are now believed to be at imminent risk in Singapore, we, the undersigned civil society organizations , call on the Singaporean authorities to immediately halt all executions. We also urge the Malaysian government to take all possible steps to protect the rights of its nationals facing execution in Singapore and to press for a complete end to the death penalty, at home and internationally. Among those who are at imminent risk of execution are Datchinamurthy Kataiah, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, Saminathan Selvaraju, Lingkesvaran Rajendaren and Jumaat bin Mohamed Sayed. All of them were sentenced to death for drug trafficking, and have each spent seven to ten years on death row. While Jumaat is a Singaporean, the other four are Malaysians. The five of them had their most recent appeals dismissed, after many years of struggle for justice against all odds.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — Singapore’s use of the mandatory death penalty is facing mounting criticism, as affected families and rights groups highlight what they describe as systemic injustices, prosecutorial overreach and worsening conditions for prisoners on death row. Decisions on how to frame charges, prosecute cases, and whether to grant a certificate of substantive assistance have direct implications for prisoners like Pannir Selvam Pranthaman.

Anti-death penalty activists say a Malaysian man on death row in Singapore is to be executed this week for heroin trafficking KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Malaysian man on death row for trafficking heroin is to be executed this week in Singapore, anti-death penalty activists said Monday, renewing calls for a halt to capital punishment in the city-state. If the execution goes through, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, 39, will become the third Malaysian national and the eleventh person to be hanged this year in Singapore.

NEW YORK – Luigi Mangione’s lawyers urged a federal judge in New York on Sept 20 to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty for their client, who is charged with killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson. In a court filing, Mangione’s lawyers argued that US Justice Department officials should be precluded from seeking the death penalty because of actions that had violated his due process rights. They said these included “staging a dehumanising, unconstitutional ‘perp walk’ where he was televised, videotaped and photographed clambering out of a helicopter in shackles on his way to his initial appearance”.

The Iranian Judiciary had a 52-year-old woman called Zahra Fotouhi executed at dawn on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, in Tabriz Central Prison. Zahra Fotouhi had been arrested five years ago on charges of killing her ex-husband and detained under a death sentence. She was a victim of domestic violence and harassment from her ex-husband. With the execution of Zahra Fotouhi in Tabriz, the number of women executed in Iran since the beginning of 2025 has reached 35 .

The Utah County prosecutor announced Tuesday he will seek the death penalty against the man accused of gunning down the founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk during a public event at Utah Valley University on September 10. Tyler James Robinson, 22, appeared in court by video from the county jail wearing a green suicide-prevention smock. He spoke only to confirm his name as Utah 4th District Court Judge Tony Graf read the charges against him. The office of Utah County District Attorney Jeffrey Gray charged Robinson with seven criminal counts including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, two counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering and committing a violent offense in the presence of a child. He is being held without bail.

The cap­i­tal charges filed against Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing con­ser­v­a­tive polit­i­cal activist Charlie Kirk on September 10th, have drawn new atten­tion to Utah’s death penal­ty. Although Utah was among the first states to rein­state the death penal­ty after it was inval­i­dat­ed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, and the first to per­form an exe­cu­tion in the mod­ern era, exe­cu­tions have been rare over the last 50 years. Just eight peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed in Utah since 1977. In 2024, the state exe­cut­ed Taberon Honie, end­ing a 14-year hia­tus in exe­cu­tions. Utah juries have sen­tenced 26 peo­ple to death in the mod­ern era but have not done so since 2008.

Prosecutors said Elias Rodriguez, accused of killing two Israeli Embassy staff in Washington, had bought a body camera online and used it to record the attacks.    A man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington was wearing a body camera that captured video of the killings from his close-range perspective, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing on Friday. Elias Rodriguez purchased the body-worn camera online and arranged for it to be delivered to the hotel where he was staying in Washington before the May 21 shootings, according to the filing. Prosecutors said the transaction demonstrates the premeditated nature of the crime.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); September 18, 2025: Zahra Fotouhi and Morteza Shirkhani, a woman and a man on death row for separate murders, were executed in Tabriz Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a woman and a man were hanged in Tabriz Central Prison on 17 September 2025. Their identities have been established as 52-year-old Zahra Fotouhi from Tabriz and 40-year-old Morteza Shirkhani from Tabriz. They were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for separate murders.

Juries in recent years have failed to agree on the death penalty in some gruesome cases, including mass killings at a Parkland, Florida high school and an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray has announced that he is seeking the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk. This decision significantly raises the stakes for prosecutors. While they believe they have a strong case to prove Robinson's guilt, a death sentence is far from guaranteed. To secure it, prosecutors must convince every member of a 12-person jury to unanimously agree that the death penalty is the appropriate punishment for the crime.

Arizona prisoner set to be executed apologizes, says he won’t seek clemency PHOENIX -- An Arizona prisoner scheduled to be executed next month for killing four members of a family in their Phoenix home over 30 years ago has issued a statement apologizing for the pain he’s caused. In a handwritten note released Thursday, Richard Djerf reiterated he wasn’t going to seek relief from the state’s clemency board. “If I can’t find reason to spare my life, what reason would anyone else have?” he wrote. “I hope my death brings some measure of peace.” The Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which sought the warrant for Djerf’s execution, declined to comment on the statement.

A man who was charged with the murder of his wife, mother-in-law, and stepson in New Taipei last year was sentenced to death on Tuesday by a court panel that included 6 "citizen judges," according to the New Taipei District Court.  It was the 1st time that a death sentence was imposed by citizen judges since Taiwan implemented a lay judge system on Jan. 1, 2023.  In the ruling, the court said that the 24-year-old man, surnamed Chang, killed his 30-year-old wife sometime around midnight on April 30 by suffocating her with a pillow while she was asleep. 

The Supreme People's Court recently approved a ruling passed by the Guangdong High People's Court that sentenced a criminal syndicate organizer surnamed Zhou to the death penalty. Zhou was also deprived of political rights for life and had all his personal property confiscated as supplementary punishments, according to the ruling published by the Supreme People's Court recently. Zhou was convicted of multiple crimes: organizing and leading a gangland-style organization, sexual assault against a minor, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, theft, affray, forcible indecency, organizing minors to engage in activities that violated public security, extortion by blackmail, and intentional injury.

Convicted on drug trafficking charges, Malaysian Pannir Selvam Pranthaman was baptized in prison. September 3, 2014, felt like any other ordinary day for Angelia Pranthaman—until the Malaysian national found out that Singapore’s police had arrested her older brother Pannir Selvam Pranthaman for trafficking drugs into the Southeast Asian country. Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers stopped 27-year-old Pannir for a random search as he tried to cross the Malaysia-Singapore border at Woodlands Checkpoint, the world’s busiest land crossing. The officers discovered he was carrying diamorphine, or heroin.

States have executed 30 people this year — already the highest annual total in more than a decade. In Joe Biden’s final days as president, he landed a quiet political blow against Donald Trump by commuting the sentences of dozens of men on federal death row. Trump had said he wanted to carry out as many executions as possible; Biden deprived him of the chance. So it is all the more surprising that Trump’s first year in office is seeing a noticeable surge in executions nationwide. Ten states have executed 30 people since January, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That’s already the highest annual total in more than a decade, with 13 more executions planned through December.

A solidarity rally at Hong Lim Park on 29 September 2025 will demand accountability from institutions enforcing capital punishment and call for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty, after court rulings left five prisoners at imminent risk of execution. A solidarity rally will be held at Hong Lim Park on 29 September 2025 for five death row prisoners who now face imminent risk of execution. The event, titled Blood on Your Hands, AGC., will run from 7pm to 8.30pm at Speakers’ Corner and is organised by anti-death penalty activist Rocky Howe.

STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of killing his estranged wife’s sister and parents and setting their house on fire was put to death Wednesday evening in what was a record 12th execution in the state this year. David Pittman, 63, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. EDT following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis spokesperson Alex Lanfranconi said the execution was carried out without complications. Pittman’s last words were, “I know you all came to watch an innocent man be murdered by the state of Florida. I am innocent. I didn’t kill anybody. That’s it,” according to Lanfranconi’s statement.

His final appeals denied, 63-year-old David Pittman is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Florida State Prison. A Florida inmate convicted of killing his estranged wife's sister and parents and setting their Polk County house on fire is scheduled to put to death Wednesday, which would be a record 12th execution in the state in 2025. David Pittman, 63, is set to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Republican governor has signed more death warrants this year than any of his predecessors.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); September 16, 2025: Khalil Rashedi, an Arab man on death row for murder, was executed in Ramhormoz Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Ramhormoz Prison on 15 September 2025. His identity has been established as Khalil Rashedi, an Arab man from Ramshir. He was arrested around five years ago and 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.