Death Penalty News

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Federal prosecutors were directed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi this week to pursue the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year in New York City. Mangione allegedly shot Thompson as the executive was headed to a health care conference on Dec. 4, killing the father of two on the street. The 26-year-old faces federal murder and stalking charges and 11 state charges, including murder and terrorism charges, which are not eligible for the death penalty.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 4, 2024: In March 2025, at least 59 people including five women, were executed in Iranian prisons. Three Afghan nationals, seven Baluch and one Kurdish minority were amongst those executed. The number of executions in the first three months of 2025 were more than double for the same period in 2024. Iran Human Rights expresses concern about the potential rise in executions in the coming weeks. It urges Iranian civil society and the international community to focus more on the issue of executions in Iran and to take action to stop this trend. 

Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security has proposed abolishing the death penalty for several crimes, including receiving bribes and embezzlement, as part of a revision to the nation's Penal Code. The draft amendment, which is expected to be presented to the National Assembly this October, suggests replacing capital punishment with life imprisonment for eight specific crimes. Under the proposed changes, the death penalty would no longer apply to eight crimes -- receiving bribes, embezzlement, espionage, actions against the government, sabotage, trading counterfeit medicines, illegal transportation of narcotics, and incitement to war.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Within two years year of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim administration abolishing the mandatory death penalty, the number of death row inmates has plunged by nearly 90 per cent, the clearest sign yet that Malaysia is moving away from capital punishment — even as it remains legal. Data presented in Parliament during the February-March sitting this year showed a sharp increase in commutations of existing death sentences in the six months after Putrajaya repealed the mandatory death penalty. This comes as death row inmates filed appeals for resentencing and judges granted them.

As the Church's liturgical readings recall Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery, the Director of the US-based Catholic Mobilizing Network explores the Lord’s rejection of capital punishment. This Sunday’s Gospel reading for Year C describes the event traditionally called the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). My friends have helped to give it new relevance for me this year. In our work at Catholic Mobilizing Network, we strive to end the death penalty, advance justice, and begin healing.

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

In a rare ruling with broad implications for jury deliberations and the death penalty in California, the California Supreme Court on April 3, 2025, reversed the murder convictions and death sentence of Timothy Joseph McGhee, a reputed gang leader convicted of multiple homicides and attempted murders in Los Angeles. Writing for a unanimous court in People v. McGhee (S169750), Justice Goodwin Liu found that the trial court had committed a “clear abuse of discretion” by improperly removing a dissenting juror during guilt-phase deliberations, undermining the defendant’s constitutional right to a unanimous jury.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 1, 2025: Mahnaz Kakaei and Ali Soufian, a woman and man on death row for murder and drug-related charges, were executed in Isfahan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a woman and a man were hanged in Isfahan (Dastgerd) Central prison on 29 March. The woman’s identity has been established as 24-year-old Mahnaz Kakayi who was arrested for the murder of her fiancé four years and seven months ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court.

Bruce Ward, a convicted murderer who was the longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death row, has died, the state Department of Corrections said. He was 68.  The state Department of Corrections said Ward was pronounced dead Tuesday from natural causes. He had been held on death row at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould, located 67 miles (108 kilometers) south of Little Rock.  Citing confidentiality, the department declined to provide any further details on Ward’s health or the circumstances surrounding his death. 

The United Arab Emirates sentenced to death 3 Uzbek nationals who killed Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan last November.  The 3 are suspected of having carried out the killing at the behest of Iran.  The murderers are believed to have tracked the rabbi, monitored his daily activities, and ultimately kidnapped and killed him.  Following the abduction, Kogan’s car was discovered with evidence of violence and blood. 

Convict’s relatives continue to threaten slain man’s family A judge in Pakistan sentenced to death a Muslim who murdered a 20-year-old Christian in the presence of his family, sources said.  Saima Riyasat, additional sessions judge of Pasrur, Sialkot District, handed the country’s maximum punishment for murder to Muhammad Zubair for killing Farhan Ul Qamar on Nov. 9, 2023, said Christian attorney Lazar Allah Rakha. The court also imposed a fine of 500,000 Pakistani Rupees ($1,785 USD), he said. 

The direction came as the bench of Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill and Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi held that the case did not fall within the ‘rarest of rare’ category warranting capital punishment A father, who raped and murdered his six-year-old daughter, has escaped the gallows after the Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment for the “remainder of his natural life” without remissions. The direction came as the bench of Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill and Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi held that the case did not fall within the ‘rarest of rare’ category warranting capital punishment.

“Individuals increasingly find themselves in cages unfit for lab mice and subjected to conditions with less scrutiny than that of invertebrate species kept in aquariums.” One hundred and thirty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged the devastating effects of solitary confinement. In an 1890 ruling declaring that Colorado had improperly subjected a man named James Medley to isolation, the court noted the practice had deleterious effects on the human psyche, including turning people “violently insane.” The court noted that others committed suicide, while “those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity.” 

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.  The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that she has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, following through on the president’s campaign promise to vigorously pursue capital punishment. It is the first time the Justice Department has sought to bring the death penalty since President Donald Trump returned to office in January with a vow to resume federal executions. Bondi’s decision to do so in the high-profile case against Mangione, who has drawn a following of supporters upset with the health care industry, underscores the attorney general’s commitment to carrying out the president’s push for new death penalty cases.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 30, 2025: Yasser Roshani, man on death row for murder, was executed in Arak Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Arak Central Prison on 29 March. His identity has been established as Yasser Roshani from Arak. He was arrested for murder four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) by the Criminal Court.

Florida's death penalty system has faced numerous criticisms and controversies over the years - from execution methods to the treatment of Death Row inmates The Sunshine State remains steadfast in its enforcement of capital punishment, upholding a complex system that has developed since its reinstatement in 1976. Florida's contemporary death penalty era kicked off in 1972 following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia , which temporarily put a stop to executions across the country. Swiftly amending its laws, Florida saw the Supreme Court affirm the constitutionality of the death penalty in 1976's Gregg v. Georgia case.

Rafael Caro Quintero, extradited from Mexico in 2022, appeared in Brooklyn court as feds weigh capital charges for the torture and murder of Agent Enrique Camarena NEW YORK — The death penalty is on the table for notorious drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, the so-called “narco of narcos” who orchestrated the torture and murder of a DEA agent in 1985, according to federal prosecutors. “It is a possibility. The decision has not yet been made, but it is going through the process,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy said in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday.