Death Penalty News

Relatives of a 17-year-old Thai girl whose body was found in a suitcase in Pattaya said on Monday (October 12) they want the death penalty for the Australian man accused of killing her, as they say he refused to apologize to them during a hearing at Pattaya Provincial Court. "I'm really angry. Being there in the courtroom, I see it as a life for a life, after the things he did to my child," said Thongchai Donhomla, the 46-year-old father of the victim. Simon Peter Carman faces charges of murder, concealment of a body, moving or destroying a body, and taking a minor for sexual purposes. 

Tomasz Kosowski sat each day alone at the defense table, wearing orange jail garb and rubber sandals with socks. In a rare and largely unprecedented move for a death penalty case, Kosowski represented himself, waiving his right to a jury trial and allowing a judge in Pinellas County, Florida, to decide his fate. Prosecutors presented the state’s case over six days, laying out for the judge how the former plastic surgeon accosted Steven Cozzi in the bathroom of his law office on a Tuesday morning, and Cozzi was never seen again.

An Australian national accused of murdering a Thai teenager and concealing her body inside a suitcase appeared in a Thai court on Friday, formally entering a not guilty plea to all charges. Simon Peter Carman, 45, faced the Pattaya Provincial Court following his indictment by prosecutors. He has been held at the Pattaya Remand Prison since late June, following an investigation into the death of 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla. Carman was formally indicted on multiple counts, including murder, concealing a corpse to hide the cause of death, abduction of a minor over 15 years of age for indecent purposes, and two counts of committing indecent acts on a minor.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — A former plastic surgeon accused of killing an attorney involved in a lawsuit against his former employer will put his fate in the hands of a judge. Tomasz Kosowski has waived his right to a jury trial in the murder of attorney Steven Cozzi, according to court records. He has also waived his right to have a jury determine his sentence if he is convicted and the case proceeds to a penalty phase. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Kosowski plans to represent himself.

Hua Hin Provincial Court has sentenced a man accused of killing and robbing a hotel employee in January to death, ruling that the crime was so serious and shocking that there were no grounds for leniency despite his guilty plea. The court handed down the sentence on Tuesday in a case involving the killing of a hotel employee during a robbery in Hua Hin district of Prachuap Khiri Khan province.

45-year-old Australian Simon Peter Carman, accused of murdering 17-year-old Thai citizen Thunchanok Donhomla, said he acted in self-defense. In an interview with ABC News Australia, recorded at Pattaya Remand Prison, he said he had tried to stop the girl, who, according to him, threatened him with a knife. Carman has been in custody for nearly two months and denies all four charges brought against him. They include murder, concealing a body, and abducting a minor for indecent purposes. If found guilty of murder, he could face the death penalty or life imprisonment.

An Australian man has been charged with murder after the body of a 17-year-old girl was found in a suitcase in Thailand. Police in the coastal city of Pattaya said they found Tunchanok Donhomla "stuffed" in the bag, which had been discarded near a railway track, in the early hours of Saturday. Thai police said they arrested Simon Peter Carman at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport in connection with the death as he was allegedly "preparing to flee the country." He denies the charges. In a message issued to the victim's family after his arrest, Carman said: "I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control."

For close to a quarter of a century, death row inmate Hiroko Kazama’s every movement in her 3½ tatami-size cell at the Tokyo Detention House has been watched. When she wakes up, uses the bathroom or creates a piece of art, she does so surveilled by guards who observe her through a ceiling-mounted camera. “Prisoners are never told how or when they are being monitored, which creates a profound sense of fear and uncertainty,” Kazama, 68, said in a statement to The Japan Times. As male guards are not prohibited from surveilling female prisoners, such exposure is particularly distressing for Kazama.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has officially affirmed the capital murder conviction and death sentence of Marco Perez, according to an announcement made by Attorney General Steve Marshall on Monday. This ruling marks a significant milestone in a case that began over seven years ago with the shooting death of Mobile Police Officer Sean Tuder. The legal journey reached this point after Perez was initially convicted in the Mobile County Circuit Court on March 18, 2024. During that trial, a jury voted 11–1 in favor of the death penalty, a recommendation the court followed.

The store surveillance video showed Rolbert Joachin smashing the victim's car window before she exited the store and he attacked her with a hammer. Florida State Attorney Amira Fox announced Thursday that a Lee County grand jury has indicted Rolbert Joachin, a 40-year-old Haitian national, on a charge of first-degree murder in the killing of 51-year-old Nilufa Easmin, a Bangladeshi immigrant and mother of two who worked as a gas station clerk in Fort Myers. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. According to authorities, surveillance video from the D&D Convenience Store on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard captured Joachin smashing the windshield of a vehicle associated with Easmin using a hammer or mallet. When she came outside to confront him, he repeatedly struck her in the head in a targeted and extremely violent attack.

Richard Benson was shot three times and his body was set on fire inside his Fort Pierce motorcycle shop. FORT PIERCE — Former Indian River County firefighter and Melbourne police officer Otto Lenke faces a possible punishment of death after a jury on Friday convicted him of capital murder and arson charges related to the brutal 2021 homicide of Richard Benson at his business Fast Frank’s Cycle Concepts, in Fort Pierce. Benson's charred body was discovered inside his motorcycle repair shop just after 9 a.m. on Feb. 17, 2021, when St. Lucie County Fire District crews responded to the burning building in the 800 block of South Third Street just north of the main police station.

Entrevista exclusiva con el preso español, condenado en EEUU a cadena perpetua, después de que se conociera que su defensa ha presentado la declaración de un testigo en la que se le exculparía de ser el autor del triple asesinato en 1994. El caso de Pablo Ibar, el español condenado a cadena perpetua en Estados Unidos, dio un nuevo vuelco el pasado 23 de junio. Tras una investigación que se ha llevado en secreto, ese día su defensa presentó en los juzgados de Broward County una declaración jurada de un testigo en la que se le exculpaba de ser el autor del triple asesinato cometido en la ciudad de Miramar (Florida) en 1994. 

El triple asesinato que ocurrio en Miramar en 1994, podra ser abierto de nuevo tras nuevo testigo clave, dice abogado. El caso de Pablo Ibar, marcado por más de tres décadas de juicios y apelaciones, podría dar un giro decisivo. Su abogado actual, Daniel Tibbitt, asegura contar con un nuevo testigo que identifica a los verdaderos responsables del triple homicidio ocurrido en Miramar, Broward, en 1994.

A defense attorney for Pablo Ibar, the man sentenced to life in the June 1994 “Casey’s Nickelodeon” murders, is seeking to have his 2019 conviction vacated after a new witness came forward, alleging two people who were never charged were the true killers.  The “newly discovered evidence,” a sworn affidavit from a witness who was previously not known to Ibar’s defense, could have potentially resulted in a different outcome at Ibar’s trial, attorney Daniel Tibbitt wrote in a court motion filed Sunday. 

Los crímenes fueron cometidos en 1994. Pablo Ibar fue condenado a pena de muerte, pero ahora cumple cadena perpetua BILBAO.- Daniel Tibbitt, actual abogado de Pablo Ibar, sobrino del legendario boxeador guipuzcoano 'Urtain', afirmó que ha localizado a una persona que asegura conocer a los verdaderos autores de los crímenes de Florida por los que se encuentra encarcelado el preso de origen vasco. "Sabemos los nombres y apellidos de las personas sospechosas de haber cometido estos crímenes", ha asegurado el también letrado Joe Nascimiento.

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 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. 

Ali Khaleqi Farghani, a 22-year-old prisoner convicted of premeditated murder, was executed on his birthday in Mashhad Central Prison on Thursday, December 5, 2024. According to a report received by the Hengaw Organization, he had been arrested two years ago on charges of premeditated murder and was subsequently sentenced to two counts of the death penalty.

JOHOR BAHRU: The High Court has fixed Dec 11 to deliver its verdict on a maid and her husband who are accused of murdering their employer three years ago. Judge Datuk Abu Bakar Katar made the decision after Indonesian nationals Ekalia and Bartolomeus Fransceda, both 23 years old, changed their pleas to guilty today. The accused are jointly charged with the murder of 73-year-old Lau Yen Na at her home in Palm Resort, Senai, Kulai, around 2pm on March 17, 2019.

La defensa recurrirá ahora al Tribunal Supremo de Florida para intentar que deje sin efecto la pena Nuevo varapalo para Pablo Ibar. El Tribunal del Cuarto Distrito de la Corte de Apelaciones de Florida ha denegado el recurso de reposición solicitado por la defensa del estadounidense de origen vasco, que pidió la revocación de la condena a cadena perpetua que el mismo órgano judicial impuso el pasado mes de abril. Ahora, Ibar deberá acudir al Tribunal Supremo de Florida.