Nepal | Lawmakers demand death penalty for rapists

KATHMANDU, AUGUST 24—Members of Parliament from across the party lines in the House of Representatives today called for reforms in laws, including capital punishment for rapists after the rape and murder of three-year-old Garima Chaudhary in Bara.

While acknowledging that capital punishment conflicts with constitutional guarantees and Nepal's international human rights commitments, lawmakers argued that Parliament must have the legislative strength to amend laws in response to severe public outrage.

The three-year-old went missing from her home in Dasdhure Tol, Jitpursimara Sub-Metropolitan City-1, on the morning of August 16. After her mother, Manmati Chaudhary searched for her unsuccessfully for over three hours, local police were alerted. Her body was recovered two days later in a nearby abandoned house.

Drawing on recent violent crimes against women in Nepal and elsewhere, several MPs urged the government to go beyond standard prison sentences and relief packages. Prakash Pathak of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) raised the murder of 25-year-old Lakshmi Rajbanshi, who was killed in her room in Japan, as well as the disappearance of 12-year-old Rebika Bishwakarma, a Grade VII student from Haldibari-2, Jhapa, who has been missing for two days.

Urging the Home Ministry to launch an immediate search for Bishwakarma, Pathak said: 'Whether at home or abroad, our daughters are unsafe everywhere. Only those who endure it know the pain. Until when must our daughters become Lakshmi Rajbanshi, Nirmala Panta and Garima Chaudhary?'

Addressing constitutional limitations, Pathak added: 'Sub-article 2 of Article 16 of the Constitution guarantees the right to live with dignity. But this does not mean protecting criminals and murderers ... Whether it is the constitutional restriction against enacting death penalty laws or human rights treaties to which Nepal is a state party, they must now be amended. This House must demonstrate that capability.' He proposed that convicted rapists and murderers should no longer receive standard state rations in prison and should instead face execution upon conviction.

Ashika Tamang, also of the RSP, called for extreme punishment: 'If possible, provisions for hanging rapists must be made. If not, laws should be enacted to amputate the organ used to commit the rape.' Shraddha Kunwar Chhetri of RSP argued that punitive action should be determined by the severity of the crime rather than strict adherence to standard constitutional interpretation: 'Pickpockets and rapists cannot be kept in the same room and punished equally.'

Ranju Darshana of RSP noted the irony of daughters being unsafe in a society that reveres women, calling for awareness and reform initiatives beginning at the school level. Shahjan Khatun and Ninukumari Karna of the Nepali Congress, Radhika Ramtel of the Shram Sanskriti Party, and Padma Aryal of the CPN-UML each questioned where perpetrators derive the audacity to commit such acts, calling on the state to strengthen control measures and provide formal answers.

Beyond calls for harsher punishment, several lawmakers sharply criticised the government's handling of the victim's family, rejecting administrative compromise agreements in favour of longterm justice. Pramila Kumari Gachhadar of the Nepali Congress objected to the government's approach of reaching local administrative accords and offering relief packages: 'I want to ask the government: Will erecting a statue bring back the life of a three-year-old girl? An agreement paper may temporarily stop protests, and relief may ease momentary pain, but it cannot restore long-term perception of justice and trust in the state.' She further demanded strict action against facilitators who attempt to broker compromises in cases of heinous crime, warning that senior ministers overriding local administration weakens public trust.

Balawati Sharma of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) said the rape and murder of the child in Bara had brought shame upon the entire state and raised serious questions about executive accountability. 'Daughters are unsafe in their own courtyards, creating a tragic situation where victim families must take to the streets to beg for justice,' she said, urging the government to deliver immediate compensation to the family alongside strict justice.

Source: thehimalayantimes.com, Bal Krishna Sah, August 25, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

Death Penalty News For a World without the Death Penalty

Oklahoma executes James Pavatt

Pavatt claimed innocence in the slaying of an Oklahoma City advertising executive for insurance money. His co-defendant and former lover Brenda Andrew is also on death row. James Pavatt made no final statement before being executed Thursday for killing his lover’s estranged husband nearly 25 years ago. Pavatt merely shook his head when asked by Oklahoma Department of Corrections Chief of Operations Jason Sparks if he had any last words. Pavatt appeared to share a quick word with Michael Scott, his spiritual advisor, after microphones inside the death chamber had been cut off.

Oklahoma Death Row inmate James Pavatt scheduled to be executed Thursday

James Pavatt is scheduled to be executed on Thursday for the 2001 killing of an Oklahoma City man. OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma Death Row inmate James Pavatt is set to be executed for the 2001 murder of advertising executive Rob Andrew. His execution is scheduled for Nov. 12, 2026. In 2004, Pavatt and his lover/co-conspirator, Brenda Andrew, were sentenced to death for planning the killing of her estranged husband in an attempt to claim his $800,000 life insurance policy. Brenda is the only woman on Oklahoma’s death row.

Judge allows Tennessee death row inmates to include botched executions in lawsuit

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Two failed executions in Tennessee are now at the center of a growing legal battle over the state’s lethal injection protocol after a judge ruled in favor of death row inmates Friday. A Davidson County judge ruled death row inmates can expand their lawsuit to include new allegations stemming from the botched executions of Tony Carruthers and Christa Pike. The original lawsuit, filed in March 2025, argues Tennessee’s death penalty protocol violates the constitutional rights of death row inmates with complex medical conditions. More than one year later, the state then failed to execute two inmates: Tony Carruthers and Christa Pike.

Two men set to be executed in Texas and Oklahoma today

The U.S. was preparing to carry out two executions on Thursday, one in Oklahoma and one in Texas. In Texas, the condemned man is John Allen Rubio, 46, who is set to be put to death at the state prison in Huntsville. He was convicted of beheading three young children he was raising in a 2003 killing that rattled a community along the U.S.-Mexico border. The other man facing execution is James Pavatt, 73, who is set to die by lethal injection at Oklahoma's state penitentiary in McAlester.

Texas executes John Rubio

Texas man who killed 3 children is put to death, hours after an Oklahoma execution James Pavatt was put to death in Oklahoma for Rob Andrew’s killing. In Texas, John Allen Rubio was executed for the deaths of Julissa Quesada, John E. Rubio, and Mary Jane Rubio. A Texas man convicted of fatally stabbing and beheading 3 young children in a squalid, windowless apartment in 2003 was executed Thursday evening, hours after Oklahoma put another man to death.

Why Many Americans Think Christa Pike Should Undergo a Second Execution Attempt

On October 20, Reuters released the results of a survey showing that 33% of the American public want Tennessee to try again to put Christa Pike to death. Another 26% are undecided. That means 59% of the public would support or be open to such a possibility. I want to suggest a reason why. Second execution attempts are rare in this country and, as a result, the public knows little if anything about them. That may help explain why so many would give Tennessee another chance to kill Christa Pike.

Iran executes three more January protesters accused of spying for Israel, US

In a statement, the judiciary said that “the death sentences of Hassan Deoband, Hamid Kazemi, and Reza Zangana were carried out on charges of ‘participating in operational action for the infamous Zionist regime and the United States and hostile groups.’” ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran on Sunday executed three more protesters over their involvement in the nationwide demonstrations in January, the judiciary announced, accusing them of spying for the United States and Israel and destroying infrastructure.

Alabama executes Michael Shannon Taylor

Alabama executes man convicted of 1991 double murder The state of Alabama carried out the execution of 54-year-old Michael Shannon Taylor Thursday night for the 1991 murders of an elderly Etowah County couple, 35 years and 1 day after the crime. Taylor, convicted in 1993 on 3 counts of capital murder, was sentenced to death unanimously by a jury for killing 83-year-old Ivan Ernest Moore and 79-year-old Lucille Moore inside their Gadsden home during a robbery. Taylor was 19 at the time.

Iran | 10 executed in Ahvaz, Isfahan, Karaj

Four prisoners, including an Afghan national, were executed at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. All four had been sentenced to death under Iran’s qisas (retributive justice) laws on murder charges. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, one of the executed prisoners was identified as Gol Agha Eskandari, an Afghan national. Eskandari had been convicted of murder following a dispute between neighbors in the Khorasan Square area of Tehran in July 2024 and subsequently sentenced to death.

Florida executes Jesse Guardado

Man convicted of 2004 killing is put to death in Florida’s 19th execution this year, tying a record Florida carried out a record-tying 19th execution of the year in an unusual instance of 3 states administering the death penalty on the same day. Jesse Guardado was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at a state prison in Starke. He had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing 75-year-old Jackie Malone inside her Walton County home in 2004 before stealing her jewelry box, $80, and other valuables to buy drugs. The woman had helped him get a job and housing.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog