Death Penalty News

Group of eight wants hold on death penalty until problems solved A group of Tennessee Republican senators is urging the governor to commission an independent review of a failed execution and correct any problems before the state attempts another execution. In a demand for “full transparency and accountability” from the Department of Correction, eight GOP senators sent a letter Monday to Gov. Bill Lee requesting that he initiate a review of the botched execution of Tony Von Carruthers on May 21. The letter obtained by the Lookout is signed by Senator Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin, Sen. Ferrell Haile of Gallatin, Sen. Joey Hensley of Hohenwald, Sen. Becky Massey of Knoxville, Sen. Richard Briggs of Knoxville, Sen. Tom Hatcher of Maryville, Sen. Dawn White of Murfreesboro and Sen. Ken Yager of Kingston.

Amid public outcry about death row inmates applying for clemency, the government board that handles the process is being overhauled by a new state law with provisions taking effect July 1. Under the Kansas Constitution and state law, the governor has executive clemency power, which allows Gov. Laura Kelly to commute a sentence. Clemency applications are first submitted to the Prisoner Review Board, which reviews the case in accordance with state laws before ultimately submitting a recommendation to the governor, who makes the final decision.

Iranian authorities have executed two Lor prisoners, Mohammadali Hajihasani and Mahmoud Qaem, in separate cases at Yasuj Central Prison. They had previously been sentenced to death on charges of "premeditated murder" and "armed robbery," respectively. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions were carried out in the early hours of June 22, 2026. Hajihasani, 25, and Qaem, 28, were both from Yasuj. Informed sources told Hengaw that Hajihasani had been arrested two years earlier on the charge of "premeditated murder," while Qaem had been arrested four years earlier on the charge of "armed robbery." Both were later sentenced to death.

The decision affirms a lower court’s ruling nullifying Jimmie “Chris” Duncan’s 1998 first-degree murder conviction. Duncan was convicted based in part on forensic evidence that is now widely regarded as junk science. Former Louisiana death row inmate Jimmie “Chris” Duncan is officially a free man following a unanimous ruling Monday by the Louisiana Supreme Court. In the opinion, justices upheld a lower court’s decision to toss out Duncan’s 1998 conviction for killing his former girlfriend’s toddler, Haley Oliveaux, citing flawed forensics practices used to convict him. 

Two for­mer California death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers, Ernest Dykes and Curtis Ervin , have filed law­suits against Alameda County, accus­ing the District Attorney’s office of ​“set[ting] out to rig the juries” in their cap­i­tal cas­es. Both men were released from prison after their death sen­tences were reduced because of the dis­cov­ery of uncon­sti­tu­tion­al pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct dur­ing each of their jury selec­tions in the 1990s. The law­suits allege that the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office (ACDAO) had a long-stand­ing prac­tice of engag­ing in racial dis­crim­i­na­tion dur­ing jury selec­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es. ​“The evi­dence shows that the errors were com­mit­ted know­ing­ly and not in iso­la­tion, but rather, borne from the prod­uct of a pat­tern and prac­tice rein­forced by those with super­vi­so­ry author­i­ty with­in the ACDAO,” the suits state. Both law­suits accuse the ACDAO of vio­lat­ing the men’s right to a fair tri­al by uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly...

Special tribunal in capital Dhaka hands down death penalty in absentia for crimes against humanity DHAKA, Bangladesh—A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Sunday gave the death sentence in absentia to three police officers, including the former police chief of the capital Dhaka, in connection with the killing of protesters during a 2024 uprising that led to the collapse of the government. A three-member International Crimes Tribunal led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder delivered the verdict.

An Australian man has been charged with murder after the body of a 17-year-old girl was found in a suitcase in Thailand. Police in the coastal city of Pattaya said they found Tunchanok Donhomla "stuffed" in the bag, which had been discarded near a railway track, in the early hours of Saturday. Thai police said they arrested Simon Peter Carman at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport in connection with the death as he was allegedly "preparing to flee the country." He denies the charges. In a message issued to the victim's family after his arrest, Carman said: "I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control."

Pune (Maharashtra): A special court in Pune on Monday awarded the death penalty to a 65-year-old man convicted of raping and murdering a three-year-old girl in Pune district, describing the crime as “heinous.” The convict, identified as Bhimrao Kambale, was found guilty of raping and murdering the minor in Nasrapur village. The incident took place on May 1. The case was heard in a fast-track court (POCSO) following the incident. While pronouncing the sentence, the special court observed that the nature of the offence was heinous and held that the gravity and motive of the crime warranted the imposition of the death penalty.

Recently Florida carried out the execution of Dusty Spencer , a 74-year-old Marine veteran, for the murder of his wife, Karen, in 1992. It was the ninth Florida execution this year. For their own sake, I urge Florida’s corrections workers to refuse to carry out another one. Before you dismiss me as some soft lefty, you should know that I am an Air Force veteran. I voted for Ron DeSantis for governor twice—and for Donald Trump for president three times.

Correction officials confirmed Westville can accommodate firing squad executions as lawmakers, the governor, and the U.S. Justice Department push for changes to protocols. As Indiana inches toward what could be its fourth state execution since resuming capital punishment, prison officials confirmed the state’s next correctional complex is already equipped for an execution method Hoosier lawmakers have yet to authorize. The Indiana Department of Correction confirmed to the Indiana Capital Chronicle that the new Westville Correctional Facility, now nearing completion, is designed to accommodate both lethal injection and firing squad executions. Indiana law currently allows only lethal injection.

A United Nations expert on violence offered a shocking reaction when a female October 7 survivor confronted her for denying Hamas' rapes after she detailed her own sexual abuse at the hands of the terrorist group. Ilana Gritzewsky testified at the UN Human Rights Council's 62nd session on Tuesday and offered an emotional account of the trauma Hamas inflicted on her when she was held as a hostage. 'On October 7, terrorists stormed our Kibbutz, murdering, kidnapping, and burning,' Gritzewsky said. 'They touched me and sexually abused me.' Gritzewsky, who was brought to the floor by watchdog nongovernmental organization UN Watch, added that she had been sexually assaulted by at least seven Hamas terrorists.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 24 June 2026: Issa Rahmani, 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 June 2026. His identity has been established as Issa Rahmani, a 38-year-old Baluch man from Saravan. He was arrested almost four years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

74-year-old man becomes oldest inmate executed in modern Florida history  A 74-year-old man convicted of fatally stabbing his wife became the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history on Thursday, and the state is scheduled to execute another 74-year-old inmate next month.  Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Spencer was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of his wife Karen. 

Dusty Ray Spencerʼs crime “merits a severe punishment,” but the state should “exercise mercy,” the state bishops' conference said. Florida’s Catholic bishops are urging state Gov. Ron DeSantis to spare the life of a convicted murderer set to be executed for killing his wife more than three decades ago. DeSantis should “grant a stay of the execution of Dusty Ray Spencer and … commute his sentence to life without parole,” the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a letter to DeSantis dated June 18.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported the issuance of death sentences for two brothers, Hadi and Fazlollah Nikbakht, warning that both are at imminent risk of execution. Their other brother, Mohammad Nikbakht, is also facing charges that could potentially lead to a capital sentence. According to the report, Hadi and Fazlollah Nikbakht were sentenced to death approximately two weeks ago by the Revolutionary Court of Golpayegan on charges of “corruption on earth.” The two brothers were arrested at their home in Golpayegan on October 24, 2025, after they attempted to prevent the confiscation of their agricultural land. Following two months of absolute incommunicado detention, they were transferred to Isfahan Central Prison, also known as Dastgerd Prison.

June 24 (Reuters) - A conservative federal judge on Wednesday took the position that despite a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring the death penalty for child rape, prosecutors today may be free to seek capital punishment in cases involving sexual offenses against children. St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Joshua ​Divine, who was appointed to the bench only last year by Republican President Donald Trump, delivered his views in an unusual ‌court opinion issued on the same day he was set to sentence a Missouri man who faced a maximum prison term of 20 years.

Brooke George from Gravesend, Kent, is accused of stabbing the man to death with a kitchen knife after they met on Facebook Brooke George, 23, from Gravesend, Kent is accused of killing a fellow Brit with a kitchen knife. According to campaign group Detained in Dubai, George stabbed him to death in an act of self defence. Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, said: “She reached for a knife after being attacked. Authorities must treat her as a domestic violence survivor while they investigate.”

Gov. Bill Lee has not responded to calls for a death penalty pause after the failed lethal injection of Tony Carruthers It has been just over a month since executioners in Nashville abandoned the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers, who was strapped to a gurney for more than an hour as they tried and failed to place a secondary IV line. But while Gov. Bill Lee quickly granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve, his administration has not responded to urgent calls for a pause on the state’s death penalty.

The upcoming retrial of Richard Glossip, now scheduled for September 28, 2026, marks a pivotal moment in the Oklahoma judicial system. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to vacate his conviction, the case has evolved from a capital punishment dispute into a fundamental test of institutional integrity. Central to this transition is the revelation of "Box 8," a trove of long-withheld prosecution records that exposed a systemic pattern of constitutional violations during the original 2004 proceedings.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A new murder trial has been set for a former Oklahoma death row inmate who was on the brink of being executed multiple times during the three decades he spent in prison for the 1997 killing of his former boss. The Supreme Court overturned Richard Glossip’s conviction in 2025, and a state judge released the man on bond last month. His attorneys had asked the same judge to consider whether there is enough evidence to retry him, but after a hearing Tuesday, the judge ruled that a new trial would start Sept. 28.

Weeks before calling to abolish capital punishment in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine commuted the man’s death sentence to life in prison without parole. When Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called on lawmakers to abolish the state’s death penalty last week, he wouldn’t tell reporters if he would spare any of the more than 100 people on death row. Three weeks earlier, however, DeWine quietly did just that for Gregory Lott, a man with intellectual disabilities. Lott, now 64, will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for the death of an 82-year-old East Cleveland man he set on fire during a home burglary in 1986.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A former Oklahoma death row inmate who was released from incarceration after nearly three decades is scheduled to be back in court as his case proceeds to a retrial for a 1997 killing that put him on the brink of execution three times. Richard Glossip’s initial conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, and he was released on bond by a state judge last month.  Tuesday’s hearing will determine whether his case goes straight to retrial or if he will be given a new hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed.

After prosecuting Saldaño's murder case, Texas officials joined the man's bid to remand the case to a trial court to fully weigh his intellectual disability argument. WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a Texas man’s bid to stave off his looming execution related to a murder conviction based on his argument that he is intellectually disabled. Victor Saldaño was previously successful in challenging a 1994 murder conviction and death sentence, but when retried in 2004 he again faced the death penalty, which he argues was wrong due to his trial attorney’s failure to present mental health or intellectual disability evidence.

The death row population in the U.S. has dropped below 2,000 for the first time since the 1980s, according to the latest report on national capital punishment trends released by the civil rights think tank Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF). The Spring 2026 edition of Death Row U.S.A., which tracks state and national data on death row populations, executions, the race and sex of victims in execution cases, and the impact of moratoria and judicial reversals, shows that the nation’s death row population now stands at 1,993, down 47% from its peak of 3,726 in January 2001. The current death-row population is the smallest recorded in LDF’s more than 50 years of monitoring since December 1987, when 1,982 incarcerated people faced execution.

Almost 100 people executed so far this year as dozens more remain on death row for drug-related offences Saudi Arabian authorities have executed nearly 100 people so far this year, including at least 61 for drug-related offences, the latest of which was on 18 June. In response, Dana Ahmed, Middle East Researcher at Amnesty International, said today: “It is halfway through the year and Saudi Arabia has executed nearly 100 people, a grim milestone exposing the authorities’ unconscionable and unlawful use of the death penalty. Of the 96 people put to death already in 2026, an astounding 61 were executed for drug-related offences; 39 of them were foreign nationals and 22 Saudi nationals.

Rules capital charges leveled against the disabled Catholic man were fabricated A Pakistani court has acquitted a blind Catholic man of blasphemy charges, ruling that the case against him was fabricated. The Additional Session Judge Court in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, cleared Nadeem Masih, 51, on June 22 and ordered his immediate release from detention. Judge Saad Salman Khan delivered the verdict in a case that carried the death penalty under Pakistan’s Penal Code.

Iran has turned executions and opaque security trials into one of its harshest tools for suppressing dissent and maintaining control. The Iranian regime has used its conflict with Israel and the United States, regional tensions, and recurring political crises as tools to intensify repression at home. The sharp rise in executions in recent years stands out as the starkest expression of this policy. Reports published by international human rights organizations show that Iran remains one of the world’s leading executioners.

Iranian authorities have executed two Afghan nationals, Mirwais Khalilzadi and Ebrahim Ahmadshahi, in Shiraz Central Prison. Both men had previously been sentenced to death in separate cases on drug-related charges. With these two executions, at least 12 Afghan prisoners have been executed in Iran in less than six months since the beginning of 2026. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions of Mirwais Khalilzadi, 55, and Ebrahim Ahmadshahi, 40, both fromAfghanistan, were carried out at dawn on Sunday, June 21, 2026, in Shiraz Central Prison (Adelabad).

Government says men were involved in terror and drug cases between 2014 and 2022; over 100 remain on death row, Amman says executions to proceed ‘one by one’ Jordan hanged on Sunday six men convicted of killing security personnel, a government official said, ending a nine-year moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Government spokesman Mohammad Momani said in a statement that the men had been convicted in “terrorism and criminal cases” that led to the deaths and injuries of police officers and soldiers. According to the Jordanian Roya News outlet, the executions were carried out at dawn Sunday. Two of the men were involved in a 2018 case in the city of Salt, where six security officers were killed during a raid, the Jordanian government said.

Dubai: Kuwait has executed five men convicted of murder and other serious crimes after their death sentences were upheld by the country's highest courts and ratified by the Emir, the Public Prosecution said. The executions were carried out by hanging at the Central Prison after all legal procedures had been completed, according to a statement carried by local media. The public prosecution said the convicts had been granted all constitutional guarantees, including the right to defense and appeal throughout the investigation and trial process. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 19 June 2026: Pejman Saedi, a Kurdish man convicted of murder based on a qassameh ceremony after being exonerated, was executed in Qorveh Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Qorveh Prison on 12 January 2026. His identity has been established as Pejman Soltani, a 21-year-old Kurdish man from Dehgolan. He was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

Iranian Court Imposes Flogging Sentences on Musician and Production Team The criminal division of the Qom provincial court has handed down 74-lash sentences to Iranian performer Parastoo Ahmadi and eight production staff members, according to legal assessments released this week.  The sentencing concludes a case initiated after a December 2024 YouTube livestream, in which Ahmadi performed an “imaginary concert” at a historic caravanserai without wearing a mandatory head covering. Beyond the corporal punishment, the court has mandated a two-year ban on the defendants leaving the country and a two-year prohibition on all professional creative work.

Iranian authorities executed two women, Asieh Farahmand and Zeinab Zarini, in Qazvin Central Prison earlier this month after they were convicted in a joint case of “premeditated murder.”  Data compiled by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights shows that at least nine women have been executed in Iranian prisons over the past six months. Information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights shows that the executions were carried out in the early hours of June 7, 2026, at Qazvin Central Prison (Choobindar Prison). Farahmand, 28, and Zarini, 32, were both from Qazvin.

Hengaw – Friday, June 19, 2026: At least 12 prisoners, including two Baloch prisoners, one Kurdish prisoner, one Arab prisoner and one Lor prisoner, have been executed in recent weeks in prisons across Iran. The prisoners, identified as Karim Karami, Zahir Shahouzehi, Hossein Brahoui, Rashid Arefi, Khalegh Shahriari, Mehdi Moradian, Sadegh Shiri, Keyvan Rashidian, Mohammadreza Malekzadeh, Mansour Bakhtiari, Abbasgholi Seifzadeh and Rahman Bikar, had been sentenced to death on charges including drug-related offenses, premeditated murder, rape and armed robbery.

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. – A judge issued a death sentence Thursday for Kenneth Simpson, the man who shot two police officers in Hermann and killed one in 2023. Simpson was convicted of first-degree murder and eight other felonies in the shooting and death of Detective Sgt. Mason Griffith and the shooting of Officer Adam Sullentrup on March 12, 2023. On Thursday, in a packed courtroom, prosecutors introduced evidence that showed Simpson bragging about the shooting on video calls, where he claimed law enforcement officers were no match for him.

VIERA, Fla. (Court TV) — A Florida man will not face a potential death sentence for the death of a child after pleading no contest to multiple charges as part of a deal with prosecutors. Joshua Manns, 30, pleaded no contest to first-degree felony murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, aggravated child abuse, and felony child abuse on Wednesday, court records show. Manns had initially denied any responsibility for the death of 3-year-old Jameson Nance, who had been left in his care when he died. On June 11, 2021, Nance’s mother, Erica Dotson, called 911 after Manns called her and said something was wrong with her son. She said that when she arrived home, Manns was nowhere in sight, but Jameson was “lying on the bathroom floor with his arm stuck in the upward position.”

Gov. Kay Ivey announced the execution window for Jeremy Williams Thursday. Williams will be executed during a window from August 13 to 14 by lethal injection. Williams was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 5-year-old Kamarie Holland from Georgia. He was given four death sentences for his crime. Russell County Circuit Court Judge David Johnson handed down the sentence.

Florida has set an execution date of June 25, 2026, for 74-year-old death row inmate Dusty Ray Spencer, a move that would make him the oldest person ever executed in the state’s history . Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant on May 26, 2026, marking the tenth such warrant issued this year as the state continues its current pace of capital punishment. Spencer was convicted in 1992 of the first-degree murder of his wife, Karen Spencer, in Orange County. Court records detail a prolonged and violent pattern of abuse preceding the homicide. On January 18, 1992, after prior incidents of physical assault and threats, Spencer stabbed his wife to death in their backyard. The trial evidence included testimony that the victim was alive and conscious during the attack, which involved blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds while the couple's son was present.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 18 June 2026: At least eight men were executed in a group hanging in Ghezel Hesar Prison on 13 June and two men were hanged on 15 June. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least eight men were hanged in Ghezel Hesar Prison on 13 June 2026. They were all sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. Three of the men have been identified as Amirabbas Dakami from Gharchak, Seyed Akbar Banihashem and Mehdi Moradian. The identities of the other five men have not been established at the time of writing.

TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly denied a Kansas serial killer clemency from his death sentence on Thursday. She denied the request of John Robinson, an 82-year-old Kansas prison inmate convicted of killing eight women from the mid-1980s until he was arrested in 2000. The governor said he did not meet the criteria for clemency. “As the existence of a credible claim of innocence or evidence of manifest injustice are absent in his request,” Kelly said in a press release, “I have denied John Robinson’s request to commute his death sentence.”

Mr Mangione, 28, is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO ​Brian Thompson outside a hotel in Midtown in December 2024 Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down a health insurance executive on a Manhattan sidewalk, is for now withdrawing plans to introduce evidence at trial that he was undergoing an extreme mental health crisis at the time of the ​ alleged killing, according to a Friday court filing.

D4vd secures another court delay in his murder case, pushing the probable cause hearing to July 21 as his legal team reviews mounting evidence. D4vd walked into the Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday in an orange jail uniform and waist shackles, his legal team already preparing for another delay in what’s becoming a pattern of postponements in his murder case. The platinum-selling “Romantic Homicide” singer, 21, received his third hearing delay after his defense team requested additional time to review evidence, pushing the probable cause hearing from June 29 to July 21 with a status conference scheduled for July 7.

The request comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Jeffrey Weisheit’s case, ending years of state and federal appeals. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Wednesday asked the Indiana Supreme Court to schedule the execution of death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit. The filing came just eight days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in Weisheit’s case. He was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murders of 5-year-old Caleb Lynch and his 8-year-old sister, Alyssa Lynch, who were killed in a Vanderburgh County house fire in 2010.

Ohio’s attorney general says he will continue to uphold the state’s death penalty law, in spite of a call for abolishment of the capital punishment yesterday from Gov. Mike DeWine, who appointed him AG. Andy Wilson said in an interview he respects the opinion of DeWine, who appointed him as AG last month. While DeWine has asked the Ohio legislature to abolish executions for good, Wilson supports the use of capital punishment, as a former prosecutor who tried four death penalty cases. "I believe that the death penalty is a tool that should be available for prosecutors in the criminal justice system in a very limited set of cases when dealing with these most serious crimes," Wilson said.

The Iranian Judiciary has carried out the executions of at least three prisoners in recent days, including two Baloch men, Aref Barahoui and Hossein Keshani, as well as Hassan Fatemi. They had been sentenced to death on charges of "drug-related offenses" and "premeditated murder." According to reports received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution of Aref Barahoui (Eidozehi), a 34-year-old Baloch man from Zahedan, was carried out in the early hours of Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at Zabol Prison. Barahoui was married and the father of three children. He was arrested in Zabol in 2022 on drug-related charges and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of the city.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have secured a superseding indictment against the Afghan national accused of fatally shooting a West Virginia National Guard soldier and seriously wounding another Guardsman near the White House last year, adding charges that could make him eligible for the death penalty. A federal grand jury returned a 17-count superseding indictment Tuesday against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 30, in connection with the Nov. 26, 2025, attack that killed Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and seriously injured Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe of Martinsburg.

Mike DeWine spent years quietly opposing thedeath penalty in Ohio without ever saying so out loud – largely by ensuring no one was executed in the seven-plus years he has been governor. Even though most people could see how he felt, he still had a big moment Tuesday when he formally announced his opposition. One reason the announcement had weight, Today in Ohio podcast hosts said on Wednesday, is that he was the author of the state’s death penalty law 45 years ago. But podcast hosts also said the announcement landed with a bit of a thud, because it was so unsurprising and because DeWine did not do the one thing that would have had a big impact: commute all existing death sentences.

As Gov. DeWine calls for Ohio to end capital punishment, the state’s last execution remains the one I witnessed in 2018 Inside Ohio's death house, there is a room for executions and separate witness rooms: one for those connected to the victim and another for those connected to the inmate. Windows separate the death chamber from those watching, the condemned from the living. I was there on July 18, 2018 – during Ohio’s most recent execution. Robert Van Hook was put to death that day for killing David Self in 1985. He sat on death row for three decades. I was one of three media witnesses to the execution.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Gov. Mike DeWine Tuesday morning called on Ohio to abolish the death penalty, citing data that he said proves it is no longer a deterrent to violent crime. “For the state to take a human life, there must, in my opinion, there must be evidence that in doing so it will help protect the public, that the threat of that action will deter someone from committing murder,” DeWine said. “I do not believe that argument today can be successfully made.” DeWine cited data showing a decline in the last four decades of executions being carried out and an increase in the time inmates spend on death row.

The Iranian Judiciary has executed Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saeedi, two men arrested in connection with the January protests, amid a continuing surge in political executions and the authorities’ ongoing campaign of reprisals against protesters. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saeedi were carried out in the early hours of Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Shahroud Central Prison in Semnan Province. The executions were announced by Mizan News Agency, the official media outlet of the Iranian Judiciary.