Death Penalty News

Tennessee says it followed its protocol when Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital. The failure lies in a method that needs medical skill that doctors are ethically barred from providing. Editor’s note: Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and medical ethicist, has served as a medical expert for Christa Pike’s legal team, including providing expert testimony in her challenge to Tennessee’s execution protocol before the Sept. 30 execution attempt.

The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Criminal Code significantly increasing penalties for drug-impaired driving, including raising the maximum prison term from three to five years and allowing capital punishment for repeat offenders who cause death within 10 years. The amendments passed with support from opposition lawmakers, who hold a majority in the legislature, following a joint motion by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to separate penalties for drug-impaired driving from those for drunk driving.

Dr. Mark Fowler knew something was wrong after 45 minutes passed without word from the warden. In most cases, executions take no more than ten minutes. When he was summoned from his waiting room to the chamber next door, he saw 50-year-old Christa Pike, who’d received two lethal doses of pentobarbital that night, strapped to a gurney, gasping for air. “She’s not dead,” Fowler recalls the warden saying. “I thought, Well, in human beings there’s a spectrum of responses to medications and we’ll give it a few more minutes,” he says. Another half-hour passed. Fowler worried she might survive with irreversible brain damage. “She’s going to be in a permanent vegetative state with a quarter-million dollars in medical expenses.” He came back in and diagnosed her as comatose. The deputy commissioner ordered the execution to stop. Now, instead of taking part in Pike’s death, Fowler’s job was to bring her back to life.

Convicted murderer Christa Pike said Friday that she is in constant pain, a month after surviving a botched execution attempt in the US state of Tennessee. "There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain," Pike said in a statement released by her lawyers. "My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts," she said. "I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn't just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul."

Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court has sentenced three individuals arrested during the January 2026 protests—Amirreza Rezaei, Vahid Gahramani, and Mehdi, a cleric whose surname has not been disclosed—to death. HRANA reported that the sentences were officially served to the three prisoners in detention on Monday, October 26.  Among the charges brought against them in this case is “operational actions on behalf of Israel.”

Gov. Mike Braun is still weighing Jeffrey Weisheit’s clemency request, however. Gov. Mike Braun’s administration will not allow death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit to undergo additional brain scans before his scheduled execution next week. The decision follows weeks of legal efforts by his attorneys to obtain additional medical evidence for his clemency case. Braun’s general counsel, Stephanie Flittner, met with Weisheit’s legal team Wednesday to discuss the testing and his pending clemency request.

Iranian authorities have executed two prisoners, Amrollah Seiri and Reza Talebi, in Karaj and Sabzevar Central Prisons. Both were sentenced to death for “premeditated murder,” with Seiri spending 14 years in prison before his execution. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Seiri (Hadavandi), a Lor man from Farunabad in Pakdasht County, Tehran Province, was executed in Karaj Central Prison on Wednesday morning, October 28, 2026.

A Flagler County judge sentenced Jermaine Mandell Williams Sr. to death Monday for stabbing his wife outside their Bunnell home in 2024.  Williams, 34, was convicted of 1st-degree murder in July. Jurors deliberated about 20 minutes before finding him guilty and later voted 11-1 to recommend the death penalty.  The attack happened Aug. 2, 2024. Surveillance video and testimony showed Williams went inside the home, returned with an 8-inch chef’s knife and attacked his wife, Yolonda Charmaine Williams, in the street, according to court and prosecution accounts. She was stabbed 19 to 20 times and later died at a hospital. 

A Cameron County jury recommended the death penalty for Rogelio Martinez for killing a San Benito police lieutenant during a police chase in Brownsville.  Martinez stared forward as the judge announced the recommendation. Lt. Milton Resendez's family told Martinez in court that their lives will never be the same.  Resendez's wife and siblings walked past cameras and declined to speak with reporters. Inside the courtroom, where no audio or video recording was allowed, Resendez's sister Jackie raised her voice at Martinez during impact statements. 

Brian Lansing Martin was sentenced to death Monday for killing Sheffield Police Sgt. Nick Risner, whose death prompted Alabama lawmakers to restrict early-release credits for inmates convicted of killing someone with a deadly weapon. A Colbert County judge formally imposed the sentence Oct. 26, following a jury’s unanimous recommendation in September, WAFF reported. “Today’s sentence represents justice and accountability for the murder of Sergeant Nick Risner,” Colbert County District Attorney Hal Hughston said in a statement quoted by the station.

A Kuwaiti court on Monday sentenced three men to death on charges of plotting to assassinate the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, collaborating with Iran, and joining Lebanese Hezbollah, according to two judicial sources speaking to Agence France-Presse. The Criminal Court ordered the death penalty for religious scholar and Secretary-General of the National Islamic Alliance Hussein Abdullah Al-Maatouq alongside two other individuals.

Verdicts are first issued for group of 47 French citizens handed over from Syria An Iraqi court on Tuesday sentenced seven French ISIS members to prison in the first verdicts of a trial involving 47 of the country's citizens transferred from Syria, handing down sentences under terrorism laws. The court sentenced six people to 20 years in prison, and one was jailed for 15 years.

The socialist president celebrated for abolishing the death penalty in France sent 45 condemned men to the guillotine when he was Minister of Justice. In French political history, François Mitterrand is the father of the historic victory of May 1981. He remains associated with one of the greatest moral laws of the Fifth Republic: the definitive end of capital executions, carried through with Robert Badinter in the autumn of 1981.

Tennessee Republican lawmakers are ready to change the state’s death penalty laws in the wake of two botched executions by lethal injection, including a renewed look at electrocution and firing squads. Republican Rep. Jody Barrett of Dickson confirmed this week he is considering sponsoring legislation in 2027 to make firing squads a method for putting people to death, even though one Democratic lawmaker called the practice “depraved.” Republican Sen. Tom Hatcher also said he is having a bill drafted that would either remove lethal injection from the execution process or reform it based on the results of a third-party investigation Gov. Bill Lee ordered after the failed execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike in September. Hatcher, a first-term senator from Maryville, acknowledged that eliminating lethal injection would leave electrocution as the only way allowed to put people to death.

Former top IDF lawyer Zana Modzgvrishvili will oversee trials of more than 400 suspected Hamas Nukhba terrorists under a new law allowing the death penalty for crimes committed during the October 7 massacre  Former chief military prosecutor Zana Modzgvrishvili has been appointed to lead the prosecution of Hamas Nukhba terrorists accused of participating in the October 7, 2023, massacre, in what is expected to become one of the most complex and sensitive legal undertakings in the country's history.  The proceedings are expected to involve hundreds of suspects who infiltrated southern Israel during the Hamas-led attack, along with an extraordinary volume of evidence, witness testimony, victims' accounts and investigative materials. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 25 October 2026: Javad Baranizadeh, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Ghezel Hesar Prison on 21 October 2026. His identity has been established as Javad Baranizadeh. He was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, who awarded 23 death sentences in 11 cases between April and September 2026, has been transferred from a fast-track court to a family court in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. Under an Allahabad High Court transfer order, Diwakar has been appointed Additional Principal Judge of the family court. Judge Shiv Kumari will take over as the Additional District and Sessions Judge at the fast-track court. The transfer comes after Diwakar questioned the withdrawal of 97 part-heard criminal cases, including murder cases and other serious offences, from his court through administrative orders issued by the then Muzaffarnagar District and Sessions Judge in August.

SINGAPORE – A 24-year-old Malaysian man was arrested at Tuas Checkpoint on Oct 21 for trying to smuggle over 2kg of drugs into Singapore on a motorcycle. In a statement on Oct 26, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said officers had directed the man’s Malaysia-registered motorcycle for more checks at the checkpoint. They found five bundles, suspected to contain controlled drugs, in a tote bag hidden under a raincoat in the top box of the vehicle.

Gov. Mike DeWine created a faster path to pardons and now opposes the death penalty. Some hope that means he'll grant them clemency before he leaves office in January Advocacy groups are urging Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to grant pardons and commutations before his term ends. Governors have the constitutional power to grant clemency, which includes pardons, commutations, and reprieves. Since 2019, DeWine has granted 396 clemency applications, many through an expedited project for non-violent offenders. Several high-profile inmates, including some on death row, are seeking clemency from the governor. With just three months left as Ohio governor, people are lobbying Mike DeWine for last-minute pardons and commutations.

Indonesia has not carried out an execution in a decade, yet it continues to impose death sentences and holds hundreds of people on death row under a new criminal code that reclassifies capital punishment as a measure of last resort. The country’s last executions occurred in 2016, when four people convicted of drug trafficking were put to death by firing squad. No further executions have taken place. The pause meets thresholds used by international organizations to describe a country as de facto abolitionist, even though the death penalty remains legal.

A U.S. Marine has been formally charged with killing and robbing a Japanese woman at a hotel in Okinawa’s capital, three weeks after his arrest prompted calls for changes to the status of forces agreement governing American military personnel in Japan. Lanc Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, was indicted Sunday on a charge of robbery causing death in the killing of Anna Yagi, 39, according to a copy of the indictment provided by the Naha Public Prosecutors Office. The Japanese legal system applies in this case.⁠

New details of IV team’s attempts to find a vein shared by Pike’s lawyer ‘shocked and disturbed’ practitioners Medical experts have expressed shock at the apparent incompetence shown by Tennessee’s execution team during the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike , the prisoner who survived a normally fatal dose of pentobarbital, which they say would be considered medical malpractice in any other setting.

(NewsNation) — Death penalty attorney Dale Baich says allegations that medical staff warned multiple times about issues during Christa Pike’s execution attempt raise serious constitutional concerns and should have prompted officials to stop the procedure. “Well, the affidavit that was filed by her lawyers is chilling. And what’s interesting is, this was so predictable,” Baich said. “The lawyers went into court, laid out the problems that would occur during the execution, and they were just sort of blown off by the state’s attorneys.”

What we know about the executions of Suety Akhter and Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir in Saudi Arabia and the diplomatic fallout it's created  Clutching a picture of his daughter, Fazal Mia is still in shock that he was not told that his child, Suety Akhter, would be executed in Saudi Arabia.  After leaving Bangladesh to work in the Gulf kingdom, Akhter sent money home for the first 5 months before calling her family one day to say she had been imprisoned.  The family then found out from news reports that their daughter was handed the death penalty, alongside another Bangladeshi citizen, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir.

A Death Row inmate from the Florida Keys who tied up and strangled a pregnant third-grade teacher and her husband after breaking into their home more than three decades ago may soon be executed. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed a death warrant for Thomas Mitchell Overton, 70, who was convicted and condemned to die for the Aug. 22, 1991, murders of Susan “Missy” MacIvor, 29, and Michael MacIvor, 30. The MacIvors were expecting their first child, planning to name him Kyle Patrick. Overton’s execution is scheduled for Nov. 19 at Florida State Prison in Raiford. It’s scheduled to be the 20th execution in the state so far this year and the first involving a case out of Monroe County. Last year, Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed for murdering a Miami Herald employee he carjacked and sexually assaulted in the Keys in 2000.

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against a woman charged with murder in the 2025 deaths of her twin toddlers. Andrea Shaw, 23, has pleaded not guilty and has said the 18-month-old twins became sick and died after receiving flu shots and routine childhood vaccinations. But Payette County Prosecutor Mike Duke wrote in court documents that an autopsy revealed symptoms consistent with smothering and wrote that suffocation “is the only conceivable explanation” for their deaths.

Records reveal Tennessee spent at least $1.175 million in recent years on lethal injection drugs, but their source and cost per dose remain secret. The state of Tennessee has spent $1.175 million on lethal injection chemicals in recent years while failing to carry out two of its three recent executions. Nearly all other details about the lethal injection drugs, like where they came from, remain hidden from the public. An attorney who represents people on death row said there is "absolutely no transparency" around the chemicals.

A 28-year-old Tampa rapper convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child has asked a Florida judge to sentence him to death, waiving his lawyers’ mitigation arguments. Billy Adams III’s unusual request—and the jury’s split recommendation—sets up a complex sentencing hearing on December 1. Billy Adams III, a 28-year-old Tampa rapper known professionally as Ace NH, has asked a Florida judge to sentence him to death following his conviction for the January 2023 killings of his pregnant girlfriend, Alana Sims, and her unborn child. His request, made in a handwritten letter filed with the court on October 12, 2026, comes after a jury recommended life imprisonment for Sims’ murder but voted 8–4 in favor of execution for the death of her unborn child.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Tuesday that she has commuted the death sentence of Toforest Johnson, 53, to life imprisonment without parole, citing concerns about the reliability of the evidence against him. Mr. Johnson has long maintained his innocence in the 1995 shooting death of a Jefferson County deputy sheriff who was moonlighting as a security guard at a Birmingham hotel. “In the 27 executions I have overseen, I have said we review each case with careful consideration, taking into account all the facts,” the governor said in a press release. “When presented with Mr. Johnson’s case, I had concerns there was not enough direct evidence to carry out the most serious punishment, death.”

Jeffrey Weisheit set his house on fire in 2010, killing his girlfriend’s two young children he was watching.  The Indiana Parole Board will now make a recommendation in the coming days to Governor Mike Braun on whether to grant clemency to condemned killer Jeffrey Weisheit.  Jeffrey is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Nov. 5 for the 2010 murder of his girlfriend's 2 children in Vanderburgh County. 

The failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee calls attention to Ohio’s own death penalty laws, as the high-stakes governor race has the potential to end Gov. Mike DeWine’s almost eight-year-long freeze on any death penalty executions.  According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are currently 112 inmates on death row in Ohio, with the last execution occurring in 2018.  DeWine has held an over 7-year-long, unofficial moratorium on state executions throughout his governorship by repeatedly issuing reprieves, which are temporary delays on executions. On Aug. 7, DeWine did so for 3 executions set to happen next year, pushing all of them to 2030.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 19 October 2026: Authorities at Ghezelhesar Prison have verbally notified drug death-row prisoners in Unit 2 that those from provincial towns and cities are to be transferred to their home jurisdictions, a move detainees fear is intended to facilitate their executions. This push to disperse the ward follows two successful strikes staged by Unit 2 prisoners in October 2025 and July 2026, which forced authorities to temporarily halt drug-related executions at the prison.

Matters have passed beyond legal concerns in the Islamic Republic. On the other hand, it is equally clear that as long as the Islamic Republic remains standing, regardless of the degree of instability and political lawlessness, the performance of its institutions must be examined. One cannot ignore and leave unspoken a reality that cuts to the bone and inflicts open wounds until the day of reckoning arrives. The institutions of this regime pretend to adhere to the rule of law before the international community. It would be naive to assume that without efforts to expose this lie, global circles will believe otherwise. Before thousands more protesting Iranians are killed, the struggle must continue so that international judicial bodies might better understand these criminals masquerading as lawful authorities, read their hands, and confront them.

Oct 21 (Reuters)—Burkina Faso’s transitional legislature, the 71-member Assemblée législative du peuple (People’s Legislative Assembly), unanimously adopted a revised penal code on Tuesday that restores the death penalty, nearly a decade after the West African country abolished capital punishment, the Justice Ministry said in a statement. The revised code reintroduces the death penalty for crimes including terrorism (for authors and accomplices), espionage, treason, parricide, and the importation of expired or banned products that result in death, according to state-run media and the ministry. The new text is a substantial revision of the 2018 penal code and also toughens penalties for other offenses, such as certain large-scale economic crimes.

Florida puts 77-year-old man to death for a deputy's killing in its 18th execution this year  Florida carried out its 18th execution of the year on Tuesday under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ aggressive use of the death penalty in his final term.  William Reaves, 77, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1986 shooting death of Indian River County Deputy Richard Raczkowski. 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, October 19, rejected an appeal by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, leaving him facing a possible death sentence. The decision leaves in place a lower court ruling that allowed former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to withdraw a plea agreement under which Mohammed would have pleaded guilty in exchange for life imprisonment without parole. The Supreme Court provided no explanation for its decision. Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate.

Christa and I have been communicating regularly via a messaging system on her prison table for over a year. Her experience is proof that she and other guilty individuals on death row are not monsters As a former Jewish prison chaplain and co-founder of L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty, I have communicated via phone and computer messaging for years with many individuals on American death rows before their ultimate execution. One of our long-time correspondents, Christa Pike , catapulted into international news late last month when she survived two torturous doses of lethal drugs in a botched execution attempt by the state of Tennessee.

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - One-third of Americans think the government should try a second time to put a convicted criminal to death if a first execution attempt fails, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after a botched lethal injection in Tennessee. The four-day poll, completed on Monday, showed 39% of respondents thought the government should instead allow convicts to serve life in prison following a failed execution, while 26% were not sure which was a better approach.

Iranian authorities executed 50-year-old Ali Asghar Sanei in Shahroud Central Prison following his conviction on “drug-related offenses.” According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution took place at dawn on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. Sanei was from Semnan. Hengaw sources reported that he worked as a tiler in the construction industry before his arrest approximately three years ago for transporting nine kilograms of heroin.

There is massive outrage over the way two Bangladeshi migrant workers have been executed by Saudi Arabia. They were executed for "immoral acts" in a Mecca mosque, said Saudi media. But the opacity surrounding the execution process, including the lack of details of their crimes, and Dhaka being informed only after they were killed, have led to a backlash. There is outrage over Saudi Arabia executing two Bangladeshi nationals accused of committing immoral acts in a mosque in the holy city of Mecca. The executions have raised questions about their alleged crimes, the opacity of the process, the fairness of their trials, and whether Dhaka was informed beforehand and could have, in any way, helped save the couple.

A criminal court in Algeria on October 18, 2026, sentenced two men to death for the illegal importation and sale of 144 kg of synthetic drugs—approximately 235,000 ecstasy tablets.  This is the second death sentence issued in the country in two weeks under the anti-drug trafficking law adopted in July 2025, The Rio Times reports. According to Algerian state radio and the newspaper Echorouk, the court of first instance in Dar El Beida heard the case of eight members of the network. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for all defendants. The other accused were sentenced to terms of 10 years in prison or acquitted.

Saudi Arabia carried out a series of executions in mid-October, including that of a woman convicted of killing her mother and attempting to kill her sister, alongside five men in the Eastern Province. Official statements described the five as terrorists; human rights groups described them as political prisoners sentenced under discretionary (ta’zir) penalties, one of whom was a child at the time of the alleged acts. The cases illustrate the kingdom’s continued use of the death penalty under Sharia, its stated commitment to public order and justice, and criticism from human rights organizations over the scope of capital punishment.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear appeals from three men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks who are currently awaiting trial at the infamous Guantánamo Bay prison.   The justices turned away petitions from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two alleged accomplices, Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Walid bin ‘Attash, without explanation.  Justice Brett Kavanaugh recused himself from the Mohammed and al-Hawsawi petition.  The three prisoners were seeking to reinstate plea deals in which they agreed to plead guilty and give detailed confessions about their roles in the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history. In exchange, prosecutors would not have sought the death penalty.

Two death sentences in Meerut have renewed attention on women facing capital punishment. Historical records and recent data reveal how rare executions remain On October 14, the Meerut District and Sessions Court sentenced Muskan Rastogi and her partner Sahil Shukla to death for murdering her husband, Saurabh Rajput, and concealing his dismembered body in a blue plastic drum filled with cement. On October 16, another Meerut court sentenced Ravita Kashyap and her partner Amardeep to death for murdering her husband, Amit Kashyap, and staging his death to resemble a snakebite .

With his execution date looming, convicted killer William Reaves will soon be moved from Raiford's Union Correctional Institution to a death watch cell in nearby Florida State Prison, a maximum-security complex also known as "The Rock." Reaves, 77, a former Gifford resident in Indian River County who’s been on death row for 38 years, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. His execution will fulfill a sentence of death imposed for the 1986 fatal shooting of Indian River County Sheriff’s Cpl. Richard “Raz” Raczkoski outside a Zippy Mart store on State Road 60 west of Vero Beach.

DUBAI — Saudi Arabia executed five people Saturday on terrorism charges, the ministry of interior said, bringing the total number of death sentences carried out this year to 188, according to an AFP tally based on official statements. The five Saudi nationals were convicted of “joining a foreign terrorist organization," opening fire on security forces and “providing support” for “terrorist operations inside the kingdom." Their executions were carried out in the Eastern Province, home to most of Saudi Arabia’s Shia Muslim minority, which has long complained of marginalization in the Sunni-majority country.

Iranian authorities executed Nasser Parvaneh, Ahmad Parviz, and a third prisoner named Farid, whose surname remains unknown, at Qezelhesar Prison in Karaj and Shirvan Central Prison. All three had been sentenced to death for “murder” in separate cases. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Ahmad Parviz, a former lawyer, was executed at Qezelhesar Prison on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

On 10 October 2026, the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) asks Malaysia to speed up the abolition of the death penalty. Malaysia has made progress towards abolition. The last execution was in 2017, and there has been a moratorium on executions since 2018. The mandatory death penalty was abolished in July 2023. This means Malaysia is on the verge of becoming “abolitionist in practice” (or de facto abolitionist). Such countries keep the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for at least 10 years. They also have an established policy or practice against executing people.

Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, October 16 (ANI): Meerut Court on Friday handed down the death penalty to a woman and her paramour for the murder of her husband, a crime they systematically attempted to pass off as a tragic accident involving a venomous snake. The court sentenced Ravita Kashyap and her accomplice, Amardeep, to death for the murder of Ravita’s husband, Amit Kashyap. The sentencing comes shortly after the court convicted the duo of murder and criminal conspiracy on October 7.

The magistrate handling the proceedings against Pablo Ibar in Florida (United States) has completely dismissed the motion filed by his defense, which requested a public hearing for the witness who exculpates the Spanish inmate, of Guipuzcoan origin, from the three murders for which he is serving a life sentence.  The ruling is not yet final and will be appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeals.