Death Penalty News

His judgment also contained observations about alleged threats, pressure on the judiciary, and the influence of gangsters and mafia in western Uttar Pradesh MEERUT Additional district and sessions judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, while pronouncing his 23rd capital punishment in the last five months in a murder case on Monday (September 7), said in his verdict that he would prefer death to being called a “coward judge."

Arizona executes inmate who set couple on fire in 'horrific attack' Arizona has executed Leroy McGill for setting 21-year-old Charles Perez and his 24-year-old girlfriend on fire. Perez died the next day and Perez survived with severe burn injuries.  Arizona has executed a death row inmate for setting 2 people on fire more than 20 years ago, killing 1 of them and changing the other's life forever.  The state executed Leroy McGill, 63, by lethal injection on Wednesday, May 20, for the 2002 murder of 21-year-old Charles Perez. McGill set Perez and his girlfriend on fire after they accused him of theft, court records say. Perez died of his injuries the next day while his girlfriend survived with severe burns. 

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona prisoner convicted of killing another man by throwing gasoline at him and lighting a match is set to be put to death Wednesday, the first of three executions planned this week around the U.S. Leroy Dean McGill, 63, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. He was convicted of murder in the July 2002 death of Charles Perez. Authorities said McGill threw the gasoline and a lit match at Perez and Perez’s girlfriend, Nova Banta, as they sat on a sofa in a north Phoenix apartment on July 13 of that year. Perez and Banta had accused McGill of stealing a gun from the apartment before the attack. At the time, McGill was using methamphetamine and hadn’t slept in several days.

Oklahoma executed a death row inmate by lethal injection on Thursday morning. The inmate had been convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her baby almost two decades ago.  Raymond Johnson, 52, was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. Thursday following a three-drug injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, prison officials said. He was sentenced to death for killing 24-year-old Brooke Whitaker and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya, in June 2007. Johnson was the 11th person executed in the United States so far this year, and the second executed in Oklahoma. Another Oklahoma inmate, Kendrick Simpson, received a lethal injection in February for the drive-by shooting deaths of two men in 2006. Florida has carried out five executions since January, more executions than any other state.

STARKE, Fla. -- A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she returned from work to find him burglarizing her home was executed Tuesday evening. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. It was Florida's fifth execution this year. The curtain to the execution chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6 p.m. time, and the lethal injection got underway two minutes later, after Willacy made a brief statement.

Chadwick Willacy, 58, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. This would be Florida’s fifth execution in 2026 following a record 19 executions last year. A man who set his Brevard County neighbor on fire after she found him burglarizing her home during her lunch break from work is set to be executed Tuesday evening at the Florida State Prison. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, is scheduled to receive a three-drug injection starting at 6 p.m. for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. Willacy was sentenced to death a year later upon a 9-3 jury recommendation after being convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery and arson.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has directed the Florida Department of Corrections to move forward with two executions scheduled for late April 2026, marking a significant ramp-up in the state's use of capital punishment. The scheduled deaths of Chadwick Willacy and James Ernest Hitchcock follow a series of landmark judicial rulings that have kept both men on death row for decades.

PHOENIX -- A May 20 execution has been scheduled for an Arizona man convicted of murder for fatally setting a man on fire during a 2002 attack, marking what would be the state’s first use of the death penalty this year. The Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday issued a warrant to execute 63-year-old Leroy Dean McGill, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Charles Perez. Authorities said McGill threw a cup of gasoline and a lit match at Perez and another person, Nova Banta, as they were sitting on a sofa in an apartment in north Phoenix.

Leroy Dean McGill was sentenced to death for a 2002 gasoline attack in North Phoenix against a couple, Charles Perez and Nova Banta. PHOENIX — Attorneys for Arizona death row inmate Leroy Dean McGill have formally challenged the state’s attempt to secure an execution warrant, citing a catastrophic 2025 cyberattack and a long history of troubled lethal injection protocols. The challenge comes as Arizona seeks to resume capital punishment following a year-long hiatus. If the Arizona Supreme Court grants the state’s request, McGill would become the first person executed in the state since 2024.

A man convicted of the 1990 murder of his neighbor while burglarizing her home is scheduled to be the 6th person executed in Florida this year. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday, March 13, issued a death warrant for Chadwick Willacy, 58.  Willacy was in Marlys Sather's home when she arrived home from work unexpectedly. He struck her several times, tied her up, attempted to strangle her, and then set the house on fire after removing the smoke detectors and dousing her with gasoline, prosecutors said. Willacy's record to that point included some minor offenses in New York and Florida, mostly drug-related.

Alabama executes inmate Anthony Boyd despite innocence claims in 1993 burning death  Alabama executed an inmate using nitrogen gas Thursday night, despite the man’s claims of innocence and a legal fight calling the execution method unconstitutional.  Anthony Todd Boyd , 54, died by breathing in nitrogen through a gas mask at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The prison is where Alabama death row is housed, holds the state’s only execution chamber and is just miles north of the Florida border. 

No physical evidence connected Anthony Boyd to a 1993 murder. He was sent to death row on the word of a co-defendant who testified under the threat of capital punishment. On the afternoon of August 1, 1993, the Talladega County Sheriff’s Department got a call to check out the ballfields in Munford, Alabama. When they arrived, they discovered a man’s badly burned body lying underneath an oak tree where spectators would sit to watch softball games. A pair of cinderblocks were nearby, and a charred wooden board was next to him.  Unable to identify the body, the state’s forensic pathologist cut off a hand during the autopsy in order to take fingerprints. They came back as a match for Gregory “New York” Huguley, 32, who lived in Anniston, about 20 minutes north of Munford. 

A woman was burned alive this weekend by a Muslim mob for allegedly blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's holiest figure, in Niger State, central Nigeria, police said Monday.  The woman was burned alive on Saturday in a mob attack after making remarks deemed blasphemous against the Prophet in the Kasuwan-Garba community in Mariga district, Niger State Police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said in a statement.

Texas man is executed 13 years to the day of a store robbery in which he set a clerk on fire  A Texas man was executed Tuesday evening, 13 years to the day of a convenience store robbery in which he set a clerk on fire in a Dallas suburb.  Matthew Lee Johnson, 49, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the May 20, 2012, attack on 76-year-old Nancy Harris, a great-grandmother he splashed with lighter fluid and set ablaze in the suburb of Garland. Badly burned, she died days afterward.

Matthew Lee Johnson is set to be executed in Texas on Tuesday for the death of an elderly woman he set on fire during a convenience store robbery. Johnson, 49, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection after 6 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. The Context Johnson was condemned for the 2012 death of 76-year-old Nancy Harris. He poured a bottle of lighter fluid over the great-grandmother, who was working as a cashier, before setting her on fire at a store in Garland, a northeast suburb of Dallas, on May 20, 2012. She was able to describe the suspect before she was taken off life support and died five days later. What To Know Johnson admitted to setting Harris on fire during his 2013 trial. "I hurt an innocent woman. I took a human being's life. I was the cause of that. It was not my intentions to—to kill her or to hurt her, but I did," he said. Johnson said he had not been aware of what he had done because he had been high after smoking $100 worth of crack....

Matthew Johnson was convicted of the 2012 murder of Nancy Harris in Dallas County. Matthew Johnson’s guilt was never in question. On the stand during his 2013 trial, he admitted to the crime that landed him on death row. The attack—an early morning robbery and murder in a populous Dallas suburb—was also caught on camera. Johnson is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on May 20, exactly 13 years to the day after he robbed a Fina Whip-In convenience store in Garland and set the store clerk on fire. Johnson was convicted of the murder of Nancy Harris, the 76-year-old clerk. 

Attorneys argue support for death penalty has waned since trial There is only so much that defense attorneys can do in cases like that of Matthew Johnson. Johnson is scheduled to be executed on May 20 for the murder of Nancy Harris in Garland in 2012. His guilt has never been in doubt. At his trial, prosecutors played surveillance video which showed him entering the convenience store where Harris worked, spraying lighter fluid on her, stealing money from the cash register, and setting Harris on fire.

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) – In a ruling delivered on Wednesday, the Banadir Regional Court in Mogadishu handed down the death penalty to a man convicted of burning his wife to death in January.  The announcement came during a brief court session attended by representatives from both families.

The 31-year-old convict killed a 46-year-old woman and her three-year-old neighbour on April 14, 2017. A sessions court in Mumbai Tuesday sentenced a 31-year-old man to death for setting ablaze two people — a woman and a child — in Bandra in 2017. Deepak Jath was found guilty of charges under Indian Penal Code charges sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) for killing Amravati Harijan, 46, and her three-year-old neighbour. 

More than 100 people have been arrested in a city in east Pakistan after thousands of Muslims burned churches and vandalised homes. Violence in Jaranwala was sparked by claims that two Christian men had torn pages from the Quran. The historic Salvation Army Church was still smouldering on Thursday, one day after the riot. Ruins have been surrounded with barbed wire as the situation remains tense in the city. Public gatherings have also been restricted for 7 days in Faisalabad district, which includes Jaranwala.