Death Penalty News

Hideko Hakamada, 91, fought half her life to free her brother - the world's longest serving death row inmate When a court declared Iwao Hakamada innocent in September , the world's longest-serving death row inmate seemed unable to comprehend, much less savour the moment. "I told him he was acquitted, and he was silent," Hideko Hakamada, his 91-year-old sister, tells the BBC at her home in Hamamatsu, Japan. "I couldn't tell whether he understood or not."

In 2007, the Philippines signed and ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which refers to the abolition of the death penalty. The Philippines has voted in favor of a global moratorium on the death penalty at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. During Wednesday’s plenary session of the UNGA, the Philippines joined 129 other countries, representing more than two-thirds of the members, in voting in favor of the resolution. At least 32 countries voted against the resolution proposed by Argentina and Italy on behalf of an Inter-Regional Task Force of member states and co-sponsored by 70 states, while 22 countries abstained.

Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence.  President Biden and North Carolina Governor Consider Commutations of Death Rows to Remedy Systemic Problems. USA | The Death Penalty in 2024: Summary Four States Responsible for 76% of Executions   (Washington, D.C.) This year marked the tenth consecutive year where fewer than 30 people were executed (25) and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death (26). High-profile cases of death-sentenced individuals garnered significant attention and new, unexpected supporters.  

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An ailing French national on death row for drug offenses has made a last-ditch plea to be returned home, Indonesian authorities said Friday, as the new administration of President Prabowo Subianto planned to give pardon to 44,000 inmates nationwide. Subianto has surprised the nation with the clemency plan, barely two months after he took office. Past Indonesian leaders have rarely used the presidential prerogative of giving amnesty. Serge Atlaoui, who had spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prison, won a last-minute reprieve in 2015 and was excluded from being executed by a 13-member firing squad.

Oklahoma executes Kevin Underwood by lethal injection for brutal 2006 murder Nearly two decades after Kevin Ray Underwood murdered his 10-year-old neighbor, he died by lethal injection Thursday morning at 10:14 a.m., according to media witnesses. By coincidence, it was his 45th birthday. Underwood was sentenced to death in 2008 for killing Jamie Bolin in Purcell two years earlier. He confessed to police that he lured Bolin into his house, beat her over the head, attempted to decapitate her and stashed her body in a plastic tub with hopes of later eating it.

During the seven years I spent portraying President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet on The West Wing , I developed deep respect for the presidency and the monumental challenges its real-life officeholders confront every day. Recent news about President Biden’s exercise of his clemency power has drawn my memory to one of the most difficult “decisions” I made as President Bartlet—one that has stayed in my mind over the ensuing years—to deny clemency to a federal prisoner and allow his execution to proceed.

Building on the historic UN vote, Morocco now faces mounting pressure to remove capital punishment from its Criminal Code in a move toward complete abolition. Doha - In a landmark shift, Morocco voted on Tuesday in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions. The vote marks a significant departure from Morocco’s 17-year stance of abstention since the resolution’s first introduction in 2007.

China on Thursday upheld the death sentence for a child trafficker whose crimes shocked the nation and traumatised dozens of victims. Yu Huaying, 60, separated at least 17 children from their parents and sold them to other families during the 1990s. She was first handed the death penalty last year but appealed her sentence, a move that commonly results in clemency in China. But state media reported Thursday that a court in southwestern Guizhou province had rejected her appeal and upheld capital punishment.

An Oklahoma man who killed a 10-year-old girl is to be put to death on Thursday in the 25th and final execution in the United States this year. Kevin Ray Underwood, who turns 45 on Thursday, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10:00 am Central Time (1600 GMT) at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Underwood, a grocery store clerk, was convicted of the 2006 rape and murder of Jamie Rose Bolin, the daughter of his neighbors in the town of Purcell, 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City.

A Filipino woman who spent 14 years on death row in Indonesia arrived in Manila on Wednesday, reuniting with her family after narrowly escaping a firing squad in 2015. Convicted in 2010 of carrying 2.6kg heroin hidden in a suitcase, Mary Jane Veloso claimed she was duped by a recruiter who promised her a job abroad. The single mother’s conviction and death sentence sparked outrage in the Philippines, prompting advocacy and diplomatic efforts to save her from execution. “I am grateful to God who has answered my prayers. I will return to my country and I believe that God has a beautiful plan for my life,” Veloso, now 39, said. “Thank you, Indonesia, I love Indonesia.”

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 17, 2024: Behzad Seyedi Bukani, a Kurdish man on death row for murder charges, was executed in Miandoab Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a Kurdish man was executed in Miandoab Prison in West Azerbaijan province on 16 December. His identity has been established as Behzad Seyedi Bukani who was sentenced  to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Prime Minister Ishiba: "I want to deepen discussion within the LDP" regarding the death penalty Regarding the death penalty system, Prime Minister Ishiba responded to a request from a private group made up of members of the judicial system to set up a conference within the government and the Diet to fundamentally review the system, by expressing his desire to deepen discussion within the Liberal Democratic Party.

If Joseph Corcoran had been sen­tenced to death just a few miles to the east, across the bor­der in Ohio instead of in Fort Wayne, Indiana, it’s like­ly that a court would have barred his exe­cu­tion. Ohio law pre­vents a per­son with a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness (SMI) at the time of their crime, defined as schiz­o­phre­nia, schizoaf­fec­tive dis­or­der, bipo­lar dis­or­der, or delu­sion­al dis­or­der, from being put to death. 

Indiana carries out first execution in 15 years An Indiana man convicted in the 1997 killing of four people including his brother and his sister’s fiancé was put to death on Wednesday in the state’s first execution in 15 years. Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, according to the Indiana Department of Correction, making it the 24th execution in the U.S. this year. He was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, although officials did not mention that drug in their statement.

MANILA, Philippines — The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking, has spanned over a decade and remains one of the most high-profile legal battles involving an overseas Filipino worker. RELATED |  Philippines | Mary Jane Veloso returns to joyous welcome from family after narrowly escaping Indonesian firing squad Veloso was arrested on April 25, 2010, at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was sentenced to death in October – just six months after her arrest. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld the penalty in May 2011.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 16, 2024: Ghorban Razi and Mohammad Kasrani were executed for murder and drug-related charges in Tabriz Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Tabriz Central Prison on 15 December. Sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, the first man’s identity has been established as Ghorban Razi, a 29-year-old man from Tabriz.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - A local pastor has been arranging protests against the state’s decision to continue with the upcoming execution of Joseph Corcoran for the past couple weekends. Anna Lisa Gross is a co-pastor at Beacon Heights here in Fort Wayne and has been working with multiple churches to protest the execution of Corcoran. “Our community has failed him more than one time, and now to kill him would do nothing,” says Gross.

Zephen Xaver text a friend from the bank parking lot, saying: ’Watch for me on the news’ A prison guard trainee who executed five women inside a Florida bank has been sentenced to death. Zephen Xaver, 27, appeared to gulp but otherwise showed no emotion as Judge Angela Cowden pronounced the sentence at the Highlands County Courthouse in Sebring. At gunpoint, Xaver ordered his victims, all women, to lie on the floor and then shot each the head as they begged for mercy.

China on Tuesday executed a former official for corruption, a court in the northern region of Inner Mongolia said, the latest development in Beijing’s sweeping campaign against graft. Li Jianping, former secretary of the Communist Party working committee of the Hohhot economic and technological development zone, had previously been sentenced to death for crimes including bribery and misappropriation of public funds.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma panel on Friday rejected a plea for clemency for a man convicted of torturing and killing a 10-year-old girl as part of a cannibalistic fantasy, paving the way for him to become the 25th and final person executed in the U.S. this year. Three members of Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously against clemency for Kevin Ray Underwood, who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday, his 45th birthday.  An Indiana man, Joseph Corcoran, is set to die Wednesday for killing four men in 1997 in what would be the Hoosier State’s first execution in 15 years.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 15, 2024: Hossein Koulivand, a man on death row for murder charges, was executed in Arak Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Arak Central Prison on 14 December. His identity has been established as Hossein Koulivand  who was sentenced  to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

A Vietnamese-Canadian man, along with three accomplices, was sentenced to death on Monday for trafficking over 100 kg of drugs into Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court handed down the death penalty to Chu Ba Chung, 40, Truong Ngoc Mai, and Tran Kim Loan for "illegal trading of narcotics." Another accomplice, Nguyen Vu Khai Hoang, received the same sentence for "illegal transportation of narcotics." Two other accomplices, who were linked to Chung and Mai, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

SYDNEY, Australia -- The five remaining members of the Australian "Bali Nine" drug ring flew home Sunday after 19 years in jail in Indonesia, ending a saga that had frayed relations between the two countries. Indonesian police arrested the nine Australians in 2005, convicting them of attempting to smuggle more than eight kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin off the holiday island of Bali. The case drew global attention to Indonesia's unforgiving drug laws, with two of the gang executed by firing squad, while the others served hefty prison sentences.

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Filipino death row inmate Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso knelt to pray when officers came to take her to an execution site in May 2015, just a few feet away from her isolation cell on an Indonesian prison island, where a 13-member firing squad was waiting. While she prayed, the Philippines government was wrapping up a lengthy legal battle over her fate. Veloso’s life was ultimately spared — temporarily — by Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office, which issued a stay of execution shortly before Veloso was to be executed with eight other death row inmates.