Death Penalty News

A review of state prison data, court records shows Tarrant County has surpassed Dallas County in the number of people awaiting execution.  Jason Alan Thornburg showed no emotion as the judge read his death sentence aloud. A few jurors, who had decided the murderous former street preacher’s fate moments ago, brushed away tears. Relatives and friends of the victims let out sighs of relief.  The scene in a crowded Fort Worth courtroom last month marked the 6th time last year that a Texas jury condemned a man to die. Four of those death sentences came from North Texas counties, including 3 — Thornburg’s among them — from Tarrant County. 

State lawmakers considered a proposal Tuesday to abolish the death penalty in Montana and make the maximum allowable punishment life in prison without parole. Similar measures have come before the Legislature in previous sessions and failed. If this bill passes, it will go into effect immediately and change the sentences of two inmates currently on death row in Montana. Senate Bill 185 sponsored by Democratic state Sen. David Wanzenried of Missoula drew emotional testimony during the hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee from relatives of murder victims, church leaders, state prosecutors and jail wardens.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); January 13, 2025: The execution of a prisoner named Jafar Fallah, who had been sentenced to death on drug-related charges, was carried out at Semnan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), the death sentence of a man was carried out at Semnan Central Prison on the morning of Sunday, January 12. The identity of the prisoner, who had been sentenced to death on drug-related charges, has been confirmed as 44-year-old Jafar Fallah.

On January 10, 2025, three Connecticut law­mak­ers intro­duced a bill that would make it ille­gal to man­u­fac­ture and sell any drugs or med­ical devices in the state meant to car­ry out the death penal­ty. In 2024, Connecticut-based com­pa­ny Absolute Standards was iden­ti­fied as the source of lethal injec­tion drugs used in 13 fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in 2020 and 2021. In a let­ter to the bill’s spon­sors, John Criscio, President of Absolute Standards, said the com­pa­ny ceased pro­duc­tion of pen­to­bar­bi­tal in December 2020 and does not intend ​“to resume any pro­duc­tion or sale” of the drug.

Rep Anna Paulina Luna says President-elect Donald Trump backs her effort Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is unveiling a new set of bills that could have child sexual predators facing the death penalty. "If you are raping someone, if you're molesting someone, you are essentially murdering their soul. Those people never actually fully recover. I've actually sat on a committee with a very prominent [female House Democrat] who actually talked about the fact that she was molested as a child. And so you can see that it impacts and really hurts people," Luna said.

DADU: Jamshoro’s additional sessions court on Friday sentenced a man and his son to death after they were found guilty of murdering a young woman and her father in the name of honour. The convicts Ali Mohammad Rind and his son Munir alias Farooq Rind had reportedly brutally killed 50-year-old Meer Rind and his 18-year-old daughter Ms Nimani in Joghi Khan Rind village near Sehwan in 2023.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of murdering a husband and wife during a fishing trip nearly 30 years ago is set to be executed next month in the state’s first scheduled execution of 2025. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for James Ford on Friday.  Ford is slated to be put to death on Feb. 13 at Florida State Prison.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee on Jan. 9 released a redacted version of its newly completed execution manual, blacking out sporadic job titles and team names throughout the notably trimmed-down document that now provides vague guidelines and omits previously detailed steps on carrying out the death penalty. The Tennessee Department of Correction initially refused to hand over the manual when pressed by The Associated Press, arguing that the state had to keep the entire manual secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.

Politicians like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton project an image of being tough on crime, but they’re also tough on those who are innocent, per a year-end report from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The annual report tells the stories of several individuals who faced execution in 2024 despite evidence that they were not guilty of the crime for which they were convicted. Three of the eight people the state planned to execute this year tried to present evidence of innocence. 

WASHINGTON — An appeals court in Washington on Thursday temporarily halted a deal between the alleged mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, as well as other co-defendants, and the US Department of Justice at the request of the Biden administration, reported German news agency dpa. The court issued a temporary stay – a provisional suspension of the proceedings – which pauses all steps related to the proposed agreement until a final decision is made.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has scheduled its fourth execution by nitrogen gas as critics continue to argue the new method needs additional scrutiny. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday set a Feb. 6 execution date for Demetrius Terrence Frazier, 52. Her office said the execution will be carried out by nitrogen gas. It is the state’s first scheduled execution of 2025. Frazier was convicted of killing Pauline Brown while burglarizing her Birmingham apartment in 1991.

In two videos circulating on social networks and authenticated by the site Verify.sy, the minister, a former Islamic judge in the Idlib region then under the control of al-Nosra, supervised the killing of women accused of "prostitution." The images are chilling. In one video, a man with a thick beard, wearing a chechia and qami, the traditional Muslim dress, pronounces a death sentence “for corruption and prostitution” next to a woman in  a black niqab  , on her knees. In another, the same man appears next to a woman also in a full veil, on the ground, who implores clemency. A fighter recites  verses from the Quran  and claims that there is “proof” that she committed adultery and prostitution, thus spreading “corruption on earth” . A third man then draws a handgun and shoots her in the head.

In an unusual move, two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden in December have refused to sign paperwork accepting his clemency action Two federal inmates, Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, are refusing to accept outing US President Joe Biden’s decision to commute their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. Their refusal comes after Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates last month, sparing them from execution.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 26, 2024: Hamed Pakdaman, Massoud Jalilian and Hossein Mansouri Nasab were executed for moharebeh (enmity against god) and drug-related charges, were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison. Another death row prisoner named Mohammad Koushaki died by suicide in fear of his looming execution.

Some 102 men were executed by the Congolese government in the past week, and 70 more are set to be executed, the country’s minister of justice said Sunday in a statement to the Associated Press. It said the men, aged 18 to 35, were armed robbers and “urban bandits,” locally known as Kulunas, who were executed in northwest Congo at Angenga prison. Forty-five were killed in late December, and the remaining 57 were executed within the last 48 hours. A flight of 70 more people from Kinshasa has arrived at Angenga, but the government hasn’t commented on the status of the prisoners.

SINGAPORE, Jan 6 — Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) seized drugs estimated to be worth over S$1 million (US$700K) on Saturday, potentially enough to fuel the addiction of around 4,590 drug abusers for a week. CNB said in a statement that four Singaporean suspects — three men and one woman — were arrested in connection with the drug haul, which included heroin, ice, ketamine, ecstasy, and cannabis. Two of the suspects, men aged 25 and 27, were arrested by CNB officers at a car park in the vicinity of Cassia Crescent.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — Just days after Tennessee announced it had a new manual for executing death row inmates, the state's top prison officials said they aren't going to release the document to the public. The Tennessee Department of Correction had told The Associated Press to file a public records request to obtain a copy of the latest execution manual, known as a protocol. However, the agency this week denied the AP's request, saying it needs to keep the entire document secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Supreme Court set a Jan. 31 date for the state’s next execution after allowing a pause for the Christmas holidays. The state is working through a backlog of inmates out of appeals but temporarily spared because prison officials couldn’t obtain drugs needed for lethal injection. Marion Bowman Jr., 44, was convicted of murder in the shooting of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County in 2001.

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona death row prisoner asked the state’s highest court to skip legal formalities and schedule his execution earlier than authorities were aiming for, pushing as he had in the past to have his death sentence carried out. Aaron Brian Gunches’ execution would mark a resumption of Arizona’s use of the death penalty after a two-year pause while it reviewed its procedures. In a handwritten court filing this week, Gunches asked the state Supreme Court to schedule his execution for mid-February for his murder conviction in the 2002 killing of Ted Price.

It’s December 18th, 2024. In the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a guard approaches one of the 200 cells in Death Row and finds a prisoner inside, sitting on the edge of his bed. It’s 3 p.m. Kevin Ray Underwood has 24 hours left to live. Not every state in the US allows – or uses – the death penalty. The ones that do all have different execution protocols. But generally speaking, the timeline features similar events with slight differences in the details.  These protocols can take months of preparation—all so that the day of execution is well… perfectly executed. 

Iran executed three Afghan nationals on the first day of 2025 at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj, according to two human rights watchdog organizations. Halvash reported that Iran executed two individuals from Afghanistan and one Baloch national in Bandar Abbas prison. They were executed without holding a last meeting with their families, the watchdog said. Another human rights watchdog, Henvaw, reported the execution of an Afghan national.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the death sentences of 15 men on his final day in office. All 15 will still serve life sentences without the possibility of parole. RALEIGH, N.C. — In one of his final acts in office, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the death sentences of 15 men convicted of murder to life in prison without parole on Tuesday, reducing the state's death row population by more than 10%.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed into law the Death Penalty Abolition Act. Zimbabwe currently has over 60 prisoners on death row who will now have their sentences commuted. The last execution in the country was nearly two decades ago in 2005. Parliament had pushed to amend the Criminal Law Code, Criminal Procedure Law and the Defence Act which allowed the death penalty in cases of murder committed under aggravating circumstances.

Since the beginning of 2024, Iranian authorities have carried out at least 883 executions, with 94 percent conducted in complete secrecy. This has sparked widespread public protests both inside and outside the country. The Iranian human rights site "HRANA" revealed that at least 883 executions took place in Iranian prisons during 2024, reflecting an 18.3 percent increase compared to the previous year. In 2023, authorities in Iran executed 834 individuals, marking the highest toll since 2015.

62-year-old man drove his car into crowds, killing 35 people on Nov. 11 A Chinese court sentenced a 62-year-old man to death on Friday for a deadly car-ramming incident that killed 35 people and injured 43 others, according to state media. The Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court found Fan Weiqiu guilty of endangering public safety after he deliberately drove his car into crowds exercising outside a sports complex on Nov. 11, 2024 in southern China's Guangdong Province, Xinhua reported.