Death Penalty News

On Saturday, human rights groups reported the execution of ten individuals in Iran, highlighting the country’s troubling rate of capital punishment.  Two women were executed for separate crimes, while eight men faced execution on drug-related charges. This incident underscores Iran’s position as a global leader in executions, particularly for drug offenses.

At least seven people, including two women, were hanged in Iran on Saturday as the Islamic Republic has further intensified its use of capital punishment, a monitor said. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it has tallied at least 223 executions this year, with at least 50 so far in May alone. A new surge began following the end of the Persian New Year and Ramadan holidays in April, with 115 people including six women hanged since then.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 18, 2024: Parvin Mousavi, Ramin Lavandi, Mansour Naseri, Yousef Saeedi Chehreh,  Parviz Mirghasemi and a man only identified as Mr Jabali were executed for drug-related charges in Urmia Central Prison.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 17, 2024: Jafar Aslani, a man on death row for drug offences, was executed in Qazvin Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Qazvin Central Prison (Choobindar) on 15 May. His identity has been established as 40-year-old Jafar Aslani who was arrested for drug offences three years ago and sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.

David Hosier, who is weeks away from execution, is in a hospital after suffering what a Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman described as a “medical emergency." ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row prisoner who is due to be executed next month has been hospitalized because of a “medical emergency,” a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections said.

Attorney General Kris Mayes said this week her office would begin pursuing executions in cases early next year, potentially bringing to an end a two-year pause on capital punishment in Arizona. Executions have been on hold since early 2023, when Mayes and Gov. Katie Hobbs, both Democrats, stopped the state from carrying out the death penalty and launched a review of procedures. Resuming them could happen in less than a year, according to a letter from Mayes' office obtained by The Arizona Republic.

A 20-year-old Jewish man is scheduled to be executed by Iranian authorities on Saturday, according to Iranian media reports. The young man has been sentenced to death following his involvement in a fatal altercation with a local non-Jewish Iranian.

Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has fled to Europe after being sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, and confiscation of property by the Islamic Republic. Rasoulof's lawyer, Babak Paknia, previously said that the charges stemmed from the director's films and his participation in a letter urging authorities to stop violence during protests over a deadly building collapse in 2022.

The execution of Khosrow Besharat at dawn today in Iran's Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj marks a tragic and egregious act of injustice.  Besharat, who endured more than 14 years of imprisonment and was subjected to brutal torture to extract a coerced “confession,” has become yet another victim of the Iranian regime's systematic repression of dissent.

PUTRAJAYA: A former medical equipment supplier who murdered his sister-in-law more than two decades ago was freed by the Federal Court today after his death sentence was commuted to a 33-year prison term. A three-member bench chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who sat with Justices Zabariah Yusof and Abu Bakar Jais, ordered A Arokiasamy, 73, who is now wheelchair-bound, to serve 33 years in prison from the date of his arrest on July 19, 2000.

PUTRAJAYA, May 16 — The Federal Court here today upheld the death sentence of a Singaporean man for the murder of his eight-year-old Thai stepson in 2008. This followed the rejection of Shawal Senin’s application by the three-member panel of judges to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment under the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023.

Luo Chongchuang, a man who raped and molested multiple girls for a long time, was executed after China's top court approved his death penalty. The execution was carried by the Hainan First Intermediate People's Court, where he was convicted of rape and child molestation and given the death sentence.

Every few years, from childhood until my late teens, my granddad would take me along with him to the small Texas town where he grew up—Normangee, population 522—to visit old relatives and even older graves. The drive took us up I-45, beyond the Houston sprawl, past pine forests, and eventually through Huntsville, epicenter of the state prison system. One of the city’s seven prisons was just off the interstate, and as we passed by I’d stare at the guard towers and barbed wire before turning my attention across the street to the Texas Prison Museum, which had its own mock guard towers in the parking lot. (“Prison” and “museum” were words that never seemed to go together.) Later, I learned that the museum’s central attraction was the wooden electric chair the state used for executions until 1964.

At least eight prisoners were executed in Iranian prisons over the past two days, according to human rights groups. HRANA, a human rights website, reported the execution of Farokh Khan Mohammadi and Reza Gholam Hosseini in Ilam Central Prison.  Mohammadi's case dates back 14 years, while Hosseini was sentenced to death last year, both on murder charges.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has approved legislation allowing the death penalty in child rape convictions, a change the Republican-controlled Statehouse championed amid concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court has banned capital punishment in such cases. Lee, a Republican, quietly signed off on the legislation last week without issuing a statement.

May 13, 2024 – The death sentence issued against Mahmoud Mehrabi, a social media page administrator, should be immediately rescinded as his only so-called “crime” was posting content online, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). The case is yet another example of Islamic Republic judicial officials increasingly using the death penalty as a tool of repression, in this case, to silence a social media admin who was focused on local issues.

Over a written dissent by two justices, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a death penalty case asking them to weigh in on when jury selection begins and the defendant has a right to be present. The order in Sandoval v. Texas came as part of a list of orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any new cases to their docket for the 2024-25 term.

KUCHING (May 14): Three men convicted of murder and another convicted of drug trafficking had their death sentences commuted to imprisonment by the Federal Court today. Murder convicts Asis Lako, 41, Daud Passarin, 40, and Daniel Usin, 34, had their death sentences commuted to imprisonment of 35 years, 34 years and 33 years, respectively, with 12 strokes of the cane each.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 11, 2024: An Afghan national named Mohammad Afghan and Houshang Nourollahi Younjalu were executed for drug-related charges in Gorgan Central Prison. Mohammad Afghan’s mother was denied permission to visit her son for the last time.

Executions soared to their highest number in almost a decade in 2023 with a sharp rise across the Middle East, Amnesty International said today as it released its annual report on the global use of the death penalty. A total of 1,153 executions took place in 2023, which does not include the thousands believed to have been carried out in China , marking an increase of more than 30% from 2022. It was the highest figure recorded by Amnesty International since 2015, when 1,634 people were known to have been executed. Despite this increase, the number of countries that carried out executions reached the lowest figure on record with Amnesty International.

Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – Saudi Arabia has acceded to Kenya’s request to postpone the execution of Stephen Munyakho that was set for Wednesday to allow for further negotiations between all parties. According to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya will be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including religious leaders, to agree on the next urgent steps.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Baghdad court on Monday handed a death sentence for a drug dealer of foreign nationality accused of bringing narcotics into the country, state media reported.  “The convict brought narcotic substances into Iraq for the purpose of trafficking them and selling them among drug users,” state media said, citing a statement by Baghdad’s Karkh Criminal Court.  The verdict was issued in accordance with Article 27 of the Iraqi Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law. 

BALI, Indonesia (AFP): Two Ukrainians and a Russian national face the death penalty in Indonesia after police raided a suspected drug lab on the popular resort island of Bali, police said Monday. Authorities said four suspects, including an Indonesian national, were arrested earlier this month at a villa on the island.