Death Penalty News

Iranian authorities have executed at least two prisoners, Ali Alizehi, a Baloch man, and Mehrdad Sheikhi, in prisons in Kerman and Isfahan. Both had previously been sentenced to death on charges related to “drug offenses.” Based on information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Alizehi, approximately 43 years old and a father of two from Zahedan, was executed at dawn on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at Kerman Central Prison.

Baghdad—The Iraqi authorities carried out the death sentence against 10 people convicted of terrorism crimes, according to what the French news agency AFP reported from informed sources. This comes in the latest execution of death sentences against those convicted of terrorism-related cases in the country. The sources reported that the sentences were implemented against the convicts after judicial death sentences were issued on the grounds of terrorism crimes. This comes within the framework of the Iraqi authorities implementing judicial rulings related to those convicted in these cases.

The prosecution of lawyers and restrictions on independent defence In Iran’s judicial system, prosecutors pursue charges and judges decide on release, detention and the outcome of cases. In the face of these powers, a defendant’s chosen lawyer must be able to access the case file, speak with their client and challenge the actions of judicial and security bodies without fear of personal or professional repercussions. A lawyer’s independence in this context is not a professional privilege; it is a condition for an effective defence against state power.

Iran executed two more in relation to the nationwide January protests over the country’s battered economy, the judiciary said Wednesday, accusing them of involvement in killing four security personnel in the northeastern Mashhad city.  The judiciary’s Mizan Online News Agency accused Ali Himati and Majid Nikandish of being “leaders of the unrest in Tabarsi, Mashhad,” where rioters allegedly carried weapons and incendiaries causing damage to public property. 

A 77-year-old man convicted of killing a woman with a hammer has become the 16th person executed this year in Florida  A 77-year-old Florida man was put to death Tuesday for his conviction in a deadly hammer attack on a woman decades ago, becoming the 16th person executed to date this year in the nation’s busiest death chamber.  Curtis Wilkie Beasley was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder, robbery, and grand theft auto in the 1995 hammer attack on Carolyn Monfort at her home south of Orlando. 

The case has highlighted the difficulty of distinguishing between the public demand for severe punishment and the legal treatment of suspects according to their age. TUNIS – Shock over the alleged collective rape of a 15-year-old girl in Tunis has revived debate in Tunisia over the severity of penalties for sexual violence against children, including renewed calls to reconsider the country’s abolition of the death penalty for rape.

Kosowski returns to court Oct. 8 for a Spencer hearing as the judge considers whether to sentence him to death.  Convicted killer Tomasz Kosowski will return to court Oct. 8 as a judge moves closer to deciding whether the former plastic surgeon will be sentenced to death for the murder of attorney Steven Cozzi.  The case is entering its final stage under unusual circumstances. Kosowski is representing himself, waived a jury for both the guilt and penalty phases, and has declined to present mitigation or evidence intended to support a sentence other than death. 

Cases involving shaken baby syndrome (SBS) have resulted in overturned convictions in Georgia and California, while New Jersey's high court has jumped a step further.  As courts in other states reconsider convictions based on shaken baby syndrome, Robert Roberson’s lawyers have kept close watch—filing new notices in Texas each time a ruling calls the theory into question.  In Georgia and California, judges have overturned convictions after finding that advances in medical science could have changed the outcomes. In New Jersey, the state’s highest court went a step further, declaring shaken baby testimony inadmissible in criminal trials. 

Gov. Bill Lee does not plan to stop Christa Pike's execution. Pike, 50, is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection 10 a.m. Sept. 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. “After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene," Lee said in a statement released Sept. 28. Pike's attorneys lamented the news.

Iranian authorities have executed at least five prisoners, including two Kurdish men and one Baloch, in prisons in Isfahan and Karaj. The five had been sentenced to death on “drug-related” or “murder” charges. According to reports received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Abdolghani Salarzehi, a 35-year-old Baloch prisoner, was executed at Isfahan Central Prison at dawn on Monday, September 28, 2026. Informed sources said Salarzehi, a married father of five, had been arrested seven years earlier on “drug-related” charges and subsequently sentenced to death.

Justin Michael Wolfe’s case once attracted national attention as an example of suburban youths dabbling in the worlds of drugs and death. A Virginia man once sentenced to death in a 2001 murder-for-hire case will be released from prison after a plea deal finalized Monday ended his decades-long legal battle, his attorneys said. Justin Michael Wolfe, whose case attracted national attention as an example of suburban youths dabbling in the worlds of drugs and death, pleaded guilty to two lesser charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and solicitation of robbery, according to court records. The latter disposition was made under an Alford plea, meaning a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but does admit prosecutors have enough evidence that could lead to a conviction.

PROVO, Utah (KUTV) — A man convicted in a 1985 capital murder case is to be released after more than four decades on Utah's death row. A Utah County judge ruled that Douglas Carter could be released on bail as he awaits a potential retrial for the 1985 murder of Eva Olesen. He will be released with certain stipulations, including a required GPS monitor purchased by his attorney and a no-contact order with the victim's family. The bond hearing took place Monday less than a week after prosecutors dropped the death penalty. This was in response to new evidence showing that Carter's DNA did not match the blood at the crime scene.

Dunnellon, Florida—Every night, one of the men Ron McAndrew killed would sit at the foot of his bed and stare, blankly, into his tortured soul. He knew they were coming. He’d shift over in his sheets to make room. “They never said anything,” McAndrew recalls, his aged voice straining from the weight of the memory. “They just sat there and looked at me.” But their eyes would talk. They would ask, "How could you do such a thing?’” says McAndrew. “You always claimed to be a good person. And now you’re killing people.”

TOKYO—Why fight to keep a murderer alive? asks Aera magazine (Sept 21-28). Defense lawyer Yasushi Mizutani’s profession qualifies him to explain. On July 5, 2009, at 4:15 in the afternoon, a man walked into an Osaka pachinko parlor, doused the floor with gasoline and set it on fire. Five burned to death. Ten others survived their burns. The next day police in Hiroshima arrested Sunao Takami, then 41. He confessed immediately. “Why did you do it?” they asked him. He shrugged. “I wanted to kill. It didn’t matter who.”

‘ Phua Chu Kang’ actors Lim Kay Siu and Neo Swee Lin are charged with taking part in a public assembly outside the State Courts Six Singaporeans , including journalist Kirsten Han and Phua Chu Kang actors Lim Kay Siu and Neo Swee Lin, were charged on Monday with taking part in public assemblies. The assemblies were held in prohibited areas, with one held outside the State Courts in support of abolishing the death penalty, as well as candlelight vigils held outside Changi Prison for death row inmates.

Iran's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Mozhdeh Hashemi Bazargani, a 27-year-old Red Crescent worker who said in a recording from Qazvin prison that interrogators beat her until her teeth broke and made her sign a confession, a source told Iran International. Hashemi Bazargani was denied a lawyer of her own choosing throughout the proceedings, the source said. She is held in Qazvin Central Prison, in the city 150 kilometers west of Tehran, and is accused of sending the location of a military site to "the enemy," a charge she has denied.

(TNND) — As Tennessee prepares for a Sept. 30 execution, the Tennessee Supreme Court has denied death row inmate Christa Gail Pike’s request to stop it. The court rejected Pike’s challenge to the state’s lethal-injection protocol, finding that her thrombocytosis diagnosis, a condition involving elevated blood platelets, did not show the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

President Marcos Confirms Decision to Grant Absolute Pardon to Mary Jane Veloso  President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has signed an absolute pardon for Mary Jane Veloso after more than a decade.  On Friday (September 25, 2026), the President confirmed the decision during a visit to Guiuan, Eastern Samar.  According to him, the pardon was officially signed the previous day, marking a major development in the case.  

Douglas Stewart Carter, 71, was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen Prosecutors are dropping their plan to seek the death penalty in an upcoming retrial of a Utah man who spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing in which newly analyzed DNA evidence did not match him. Douglas Stewart Carter, 71, was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief. The state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter remains in custody and maintains his innocence.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an exe­cu­tion war­rant for 74-year-old pris­on­er William ​“Bill” Thompson less than 24 hours after he was released from the hos­pi­tal to the hos­pice wing of the prison. After his attor­neys raised seri­ous con­cerns about his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy and dete­ri­o­rat­ing phys­i­cal health, Gov. DeSantis agreed to tem­porar­i­ly stay the exe­cu­tion so Mr. Thompson’s com­pe­ten­cy can be eval­u­at­ed on October 1. If he is found com­pe­tent, his exe­cu­tion remains sched­uled for October 13.

A district judge found Lucio “actually innocent" in 2024 and ruled the state had suppressed evidence in her death penalty case. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday struck down a lower court’s finding that death row inmate Melissa Lucio is innocent of the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter. Lucio has spent 18 years on death row after being convicted of killing her daughter, Mariah Alvarez. But questions about Lucio’s possible innocence have lingered for years, stemming from questions on the origin of Mariah’s fatal head trauma: from abuse or an accidental fall down the stairs.

Iranian authorities have executed three prisoners, including two Lors and one Arab, in separate cases at prisons in Dezful, Isfahan, and Ahvaz. The prisoners, Emad Mirdoraghi, Mostafa Karimzadeh, and Seyed Sadegh Mousavi, had been sentenced to death on charges of murder or drug-related offenses. Based on information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Emad Mirdoraghi, a Lor from Andimeshk, was executed at Dezful Central Prison in Khuzestan Province at dawn on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.

Thai police have arrested a 26-year-old Hong Kong man after seizing about 350 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, known as "ice," worth an estimated 700 million baht (about HK$165 million, US$21.04 million) at a residential property in Bangkok's Min Buri district. The raid was carried out on Monday night by the Department of Special Investigation's Crime Suppression Bureau and narcotics police at a house on Rom Klao 11 alley in the Saen Saep sub-district. Officers found three large plastic barrels containing the drugs, along with plastic bags, cardboard boxes, electronic scales, blenders, vacuum sealers, suitcases, and plastic containers.

Texas executes man for a triple killing, days after other man convicted in case was put to death  A man was executed Wednesday evening in Texas for a triple killing committed during an attempted robbery at a rural home, 1 week after the other man convicted in the case was put to death.  Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. CDT following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was the 6th person executed this year in Texas, with 3 more lethal injections scheduled in the state over the next 2 months. 

Tomasz Kosowski sat each day alone at the defense table, wearing orange jail garb and rubber sandals with socks. In a rare and largely unprecedented move for a death penalty case, Kosowski represented himself, waiving his right to a jury trial and allowing a judge in Pinellas County, Florida, to decide his fate. Prosecutors presented the state’s case over six days, laying out for the judge how the former plastic surgeon accosted Steven Cozzi in the bathroom of his law office on a Tuesday morning, and Cozzi was never seen again.

Ker’Sean Olajuwa Ramey is scheduled to die Wednesday, one week after the state executed his co-defendant for the same killings. Texas is scheduled to execute a man on Wednesday for the 2005 shooting deaths of three people during a botched robbery in a small South Texas town, just one week after the state put his co-defendant to death for the same crime. Ker’Sean Olajuwa Ramey, 41, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Advocates say money spent litigating capital cases would do more good invested in unsolved murders, crime labs and survivor support Family members of homicide victims called on lawmakers and law enforcement to shift funding away from heavy sentences and capital punishment to cold-case investigations, violence prevention, and survivor support. At a news conference Monday, members of Arizonans for Effective Public Safety recounted the still unsolved murders of their daughter, son, husband, and cousin, crimes that date as far back as 1988.

The Hubei High People's Court upheld the death sentence handed down to a ringleader of a mafia-style organization on Wednesday after rejecting his appeal in a second trial. Huang Dafa, a former village head and businessman in the province, was sentenced to death on 21 charges—including leading organized crimes, intentional injury, and fraud—by Huanggang Intermediate People's Court in Hubei in April 2026. The high court said that the original ruling was based on clear facts and sufficient evidence, with accurate conviction, appropriate sentencing, and lawful procedures. It therefore dismissed Huang's appeal and kept the original verdict.

It was the message that Gigi had waited for all night.  She had flirted, sashayed and loitered along Walking St, and in the Buakhao neighbourhood, for hours, hoping to catch a customer from the sea of tourists partying in Pattaya's infamous red-light districts.  But by 4am, her feet ached, her cinched corset was unbearable, and she still hadn't earned a cent from the men stumbling out of the neon go-go bars.  Suddenly, her phone lit up with a message from an old client from Dubai. She had 6 minutes to get to his hotel room. 

A close reading of the nine judgements in which the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Muzaffarnagar, imposed 23 death sentences reveals a deeply troubling picture  It is highly unlikely that any of these 23 death sentences will be upheld by the appellate courts. However, it is a process that can take years. As a society and a legal system, we have chosen to retain the death penalty. The least courts can do in exposing an accused to the “spectre” of death is to ensure that such suffering is not inflicted in blatant disregard for the law. The Supreme Court has repeatedly insisted that the decision to impose it cannot be based only on the brutality of the crime and that a certain procedure has to be followed. Yet, the recent instance of a trial judge in Uttar Pradesh sentencing 23 people to death over approximately five months raises a fundamental concern about whether the law laid down by the Supreme Court is being followed.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 22 September 2026: Ali Zarei Douzdarehsi, a political prisoner on death row for “corruption on earth” charges, is at imminent risk of execution after being transferred to the solitary confinement cells of Ghezel Hesar Prison (Karaj). According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, political prisoner Ali Zarei Douzdarehsi was transferred to the solitary confinement cells of Ghezel Hesar Prison on 19 September 2026, raising concerns about the possibility of his imminent execution.

The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a man who was handed down death penalty for repeated sexual assault of three minor girls aged between six and eight. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Augustine George Masih and Sandeep Mehta passed the order while hearing a plea filed by the man challenging a verdict in June this year of the Madras High Court's Madurai bench which confirmed his conviction and death sentence given in the case. The high court had said that three minors were sucbjected to aggravated penetrative sexual assault repeatedly over a period of one year and they were aged six, seven and eight respectively. It had said the convict did not deserve any leniency.

BANGKOK — 22 September 2026, The Criminal Court has sentenced “Am Cyanide” to death in her eighth poisoning case, finding her guilty of premeditated murder in the death of Jantharat “Jum” in Phetchaburi province. The court also ordered Am, 39, to pay 60,000 baht in compensation to the victim’s husband, plus 5% annual interest from 15 August 2022 until payment is complete. The judgement was read today in courtroom 712 at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok, in black case No. A 856/2568. Prosecutors had charged Am with premeditated murder for financial gain, concealing another offence or avoiding punishment for another offence, and contaminating food, medicine or other consumer products in a way that caused death.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir raised the possibility of applying the death penalty to the Neveh Tzuf terrorist during a security meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two hours before the start of Yom Kippur on Sunday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir raised the possibility of applying the death penalty to the terrorist responsible for the attack in Neveh Tzuf during a security meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu had reportedly convened the meeting in response to the security situation in the West Bank following the Sunday terror attack.

Iranian authorities have executed Hadi Hasanlou on “drug-related” charges at Shiraz Central Prison and Nemat Maghami on a charge of “premeditated murder” at Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Hadi Hasanlou, a 36-year-old Turkish prisoner from Maragheh, was executed at dawn on Sunday, September 20, 2026, at Shiraz Central Prison (Adelabad Prison).

The news of that day has passed, but its meaning remains with us today. "That Day, Today" reads the present through the records of the past. — Editor's note On Sept. 21, 2006, a serial killer who murdered 13 people and gravely injured 20 others was sentenced to death.  He did not lower his head even after hearing the verdict of death. Instead, he shifted the blame, saying that if the state and society had helped him, such a tragedy would not have happened.  During the trial, he went so far as to say he could quit smoking but could not quit killing. This was a man who gave up alcohol and cigarettes and kept himself fit so that he could kill.

The identities of the six Islamic State group suspects remain unclear, but they are part of a group of 47 French citizens transferred from Syria last year. BAGHDAD: Six French nationals went on trial on Sunday, as Iraq moves to prosecute thousands of suspected Islamic State (IS) group members. Iraq’s prisons, already packed with IS suspects, have received thousands more detainees transferred since last year from neighboring Syria.

William Reaves is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on Oct. 20th. It's the 18th death warrant Gov. DeSantis has signed this year. Reaves shot Deputy Sheriff Richard Raczkowski in September 23, 1986. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his 18th death warrant of the year Friday. William Reaves, convicted of the 1986 killing of an Indian River County Sheriff's deputy, is set to be executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke on Oct. 20.

An Israeli settler was shot dead in the West Bank on Sunday on the eve of the Yom Kippur holiday, and the military said it arrested the suspected gunman. Israel’s military also reported a car-ramming attack attempt in the West Bank, in which the perpetrator was killed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the shooting as a “murderous attack” carried out ahead of the most important holiday for Jews, which will start on Sunday evening.

A physician uses a cartoon lawsuit to question the burdens US execution law places on condemned prisoners. As a physician, I have spent a career on the far side of a fact pattern I did not choose. This is the moment when something prescribed or administered goes wrong inside a body that trusted it not to. I have seen that more than once. It would be more comfortable to cast myself as the one who gets hurt. It is more honest to say I am the supplier. The drug, the dose, the device, and the airway all enter the body through me. In the cartoon, I am not the coyote. I am Acme.

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Under current Supreme Court precedent, states cannot execute someone for raping a child if the victim survives. That’s not stopping State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-McKinney. “We’re going to have a debate in this building behind me about the death penalty being on the table for any Texan who rapes a child,” Leach, the chair of the Texas House Committee on Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence, said. Leach made the comments while hosting a news conference supporting his client, abuse survivor Cindy Clemishire.

In a single page of a verdict issued by Abolqasem Salavati, presiding judge of Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, the official count of Molotov cocktails listed as evidence changes three distinct times: from 20 to 22, and finally to 25. This deeply flawed document ultimately imposed death sentences on two protesters detained following the January 2026 demonstrations, alongside 10-year prison terms for all three co-defendants.

Hengaw – Friday, September 18, 2026 Rezvan Asgharzadeh, a 45-year-old woman and mother of six who had been sentenced to death on drug-related charges, has been executed in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan.  Her husband, who was sentenced to death on similar charges, remains imprisoned at the same facility and is at risk of execution.

A man was executed in Iran for passing information about Iranian missile sites to Israeli intelligence services during the war, the judiciary reported Saturday. ’’The death penalty was carried out against Hossein Pedaran, who had provided the Mossad with information on missile sites in Isfahan province,’’ in central Iran, Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s news outlet, reported. The judiciary accused Pedaran of ‘‘espionage and intelligence cooperation’’ on behalf of Israel but did not provide information about the date of his arrest or his trial. It said the death sentence had been ‘‘confirmed by the Supreme Court.’’ The case had not previously been reported by Iranian media.

A Sri Lankan Tamil migrant worker, Sivarasa Anojan, is facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia after an appeal against a five-year prison sentence over a Facebook post deemed insulting to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Former Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has urged Saudi Arabian authorities to grant clemency to Sri Lankan national Anojan Sivarasa following reports that his five-year prison sentence has been escalated to a death sentence over an offensive social media comment. Expressing deep concern over the reported development, Sabry said Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry had not confirmed the death sentence and that the formal written judgment was still awaited. “Respect for Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and legal system does not require silence in the face of disproportionate punishment,” Sabry said.

SINGAPORE: A 36-year-old Malaysian man and a 35-year-old Malaysian woman were arrested after trying to cross into Singapore on a motorcycle with drugs, including more than 10 kg of cannabis. If convicted, they may face the death penalty. In a media release on Friday (Sept 18), the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said its officers discovered four bundles of “vegetable matter” believed to be controlled drugs underneath the seat of the Malaysia-registered motorcycle.

A 29-year-old man charged with stalking and murdering his 31-year-old ex-girlfriend in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Dec 31, 2025, told a court on Thursday that he first hit her with a hammer and then stabbed her with a kitchen knife because he "wanted to finish her off." According to the indictment,Takumi Ouchi is accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend, Haruka Komatsumoto, by attaching a location-tracking tag to her car and subsequently killing her at her home between 5:20 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. on Dec 31.

An Australian national accused of murdering a Thai teenager and concealing her body inside a suitcase appeared in a Thai court on Friday, formally entering a not guilty plea to all charges. Simon Peter Carman, 45, faced the Pattaya Provincial Court following his indictment by prosecutors. He has been held at the Pattaya Remand Prison since late June, following an investigation into the death of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla. Carman was formally indicted on multiple counts, including murder, concealing a corpse to hide the cause of death, abduction of a minor over 15 years of age for indecent purposes, and two counts of committing indecent acts on a minor.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WBMA) — Alabama has executed Jeffery Lee, nearly three decades after he was convicted in the 1998 killings of two people during a pawnshop robbery in rural Dallas County. Lee, 49, was put to death by lethal injection Thursday evening at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. His execution came three months after a federal judge blocked Alabama's plans to execute him using nitrogen gas. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. Central Time, according to the office of Governor Kay Ivey. 

Convicted murderer Stacey Humphreys was not executed Wednesday night as scheduled after the Georgia Supreme Court upheld a Cobb County judge’s order temporarily halting the execution. The pause is for Humphreys to receive a hearing under the Georgia Survivor Justice Act, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last year. The state law is intended to allow abuse victims to petition for reduced sentences if their abuse led them to commit a crime. “Given the important and novel questions regarding the newly enacted SJA raised by this litigation, this appeal will be considered in the ordinary course of business and according to a forthcoming scheduling order,” the justices wrote in an order Wednesday. “We leave undisturbed the stay order issued by the Cobb County Superior Court.”