Death Penalty News

The Alabama Supreme Court has authorized the execution of a second inmate by nitrogen gas, months after the state became the first state to put a person to death with the previously untested method. Justices granted Attorney General Steve Marshall’s request for an execution date for Alan Eugene Miller, who survived a 2022 lethal injection attempt.

Based on the registered statistics at the Center for Statistics and Documentation of Iran Human Rights Monitor (Iran HRM), and through extensive research conducted in this field, the final figures of executions in April 2024 have been obtained. It should be emphasized that the actual numbers are significantly higher, as most executions in Iran are carried out secretly.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 2, 2024: Ali Ashraf Khani, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed Kermanshah Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Kermanshah Central Prison on 1st May. His identity has been established as 45-year-old Ali Ashraf Khani who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

Deranged nurse escapes the death penalty as she admits to killing three patients - and has been connected to 14 more - by injecting them with lethal amounts on insulin A Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients avoided the death penalty after she pleaded guilty to three counts of murder.

The man charged with murdering his three small sons should be excluded from the death penalty if convicted “due to serious mental illness at the time of (the) offense,” his lawyers contend in a new motion. CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio — Attorneys for Chad Doerman, the man accused of shooting and killing his three sons, are requesting the court exclude the death penalty "due to serious mental illness." The motion as filed by the defense along with Doerman's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. In response to Doerman's plea, the state requested a second evaluation of Doerman's mental condition on the day of the shooting.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 1, 2024: Saeed Imani, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed Khorramabad Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Khorramabad Central Prison on 30 April. His identity has been established as 35-year-old Saeed Imani from Khorramabad who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 1, 2024: Mehdi Eshterak, Mohammad Shehbakhsh, Mahmoud Gorgij and an unidentified woman, all Baluch minorities on death row for drug-related charges, were executed in Birjand Central Prison. According to the Baloch Activists Campaign, four Baluch people were executed for drug-related charges in Birjand Central Prison on 30 April. The three men’s identities have been reported as Mehdi Eshterak, Mohammad Shehbakhsh and Mahmoud Gorgij. The woman has not been identified

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 1, 2024: Ten men including an Afghan national, were executed in Isfahan Central Prison over two days. Seven were on death row for drug-related offences and three were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were executed in Isfahan Central Prison (Dastgerd) on 28 April. They were sentenced to qisas for murder but their identity has not been established at the time of writing.

SALT LAKE CITY — The state of Utah requested on Tuesday that a man who’s been on death row for almost 25 years be executed. Taberon Honie was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s mother in 1999. In the death warrant application, the state’s lawyers said Honie used up his appeals and there is no longer any legal reason to stop Honie’s execution.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 30, 2024: Mousa Fazeli, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed Qom Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Qom Central Prison on 30 April. His identity has been established as Mousa Fazeli who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

On the morning of Tuesday, April 30, 2024, four prisoners, including a woman, were executed in Birjand prison. The identity of the executed woman has not been determined. The other three prisoners were Mahmoud Gergij, Mohammad Shah Bakhsh and Mehdi Eshterak, from Sistan and Baluchistan province.

Aware that only the use of terror and force keeps it in power, the Cuban regime makes it clear that if necessary, it will not hesitate to kill. HAVANA TIMES – Inflation, misery, the lack of medicine, and power outages, which were the triggers for previous demonstrations, are worsening daily in Cuba. Given the possibility that these protests may occur again, the regime has threatened the death penalty for those who participate in demonstrations considered “illegal.”

PUTRAJAYA: A former construction company manager who murdered his Indonesian girlfriend by stabbing her 28 times six years ago was spared the death sentence by the Court of Appeal today. A three-judge panel chaired by Justice Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail, in a unanimous decision, substituted the death penalty imposed on Sobri Abdul Wahab with a 30-year jail term and 12 strokes of the rotan.

An Iranian billionaire convicted of stealing nearly three billion dollars has had his death sentence commuted to a 20-year jail term. Babak Zanjani was convicted in 2016 of pocketing money from the oil ministry to circumvent US sanctions on Iran. He said he had been unable to hand over the cash because of sanctions on him.

MENA Rights Group joins 30 organizations in expressing grave concerns regarding the death sentence and imminent executions of young men in Saudi Arabia for acts they committed as minors. The undersigned organizations express their grave concern for the lives of minor defendants particularly the two young men, Yousif Al-Manasif and Ali Al-Mubaiouq, who are at imminent risk of execution in Saudi Arabia following confirmed information that the Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal (SCCA) has upheld their death sentences. 

Authorities of the Islamic Republic executed four more prisoners over the weekend as death penalties continue to rise in the country. The Iran Human Rights Organization reported that three inmates were executed on April 27 in Tabriz Prison for drug-related offenses. The inmates were identified as Amir Moharrami, 36, Davoud Namyari, 33, and Sohrab Hokmabad. 

Today is the 9th anniversary of the deaths of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, executed by firing squad in Indonesia, alongside 6 other people. We remember them, along with every person who has died at the hands of a retributive state, and the families and friends left mourning them. May they rest in peace.

Iraq has passed a sweeping anti-LGBT law that criminalises same-sex relationships and could see gay people sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted The law, which was passed by Iraq’s parliament on Saturday, purports to “protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that have overtaken the world”.

According to the Iranian state-media reports, at dawn on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, a young woman named Shahnaz was hanged in Qezel-Hesar prison in Karaj. Shahnaz had been held in prison for three years. She is the fifth woman hanged in Iran in 2024.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 26, 2024: Javad Asgari, a man sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder, was executed in Arak Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Arak Central Prison on 24 April. His identity has been established as Javad Asgari who was sentenced to qisas for murder.

Four people including a woman and a possible juvenile offender were executed for murder charges in Karaj. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was executed in Ghezelhesar Prison in Karaj on 24 April. His identity has been established as Pejman Azizi who was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 26, 2024: Sources close to Reza Rasayi’s family have warned of the protester’s execution being carried out in the next few days. There has been a drastic rise in the number of executions in the past week, with at least 23 people executed in the last five days alone. Iran Human Rights calls for the death sentences against Reza Rasayi and other political prisoners to be overturned. It also urges the international community to adopt a firm and sustainable policy to stop the daily executions in Iran.

A group of high profile political prisoners in Iran have denounced the death sentence handed down to dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi, calling it a sign of Iran's "inhuman nature and deep corruption." Earlier this week, an Iranian revolutionary court sentenced the outspoken artist to death for his songs supporting the nationwide protests of 2022, charges that his lawyer, Amir Raeisian, claims he had previously been acquitted of.

Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has condemned the death sentence of protest rapper Toomaj Salehi. " Toomaj's death sentence signifies the death of our vibrant movement. Let us rally for the survival of the movement that defines our existence," she said in a message from Evin prison (pictured).