Death Penalty News

A broad coalition of voices, including the victim’s daughter and a majority of the still-living jurors, are urging Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to grant clemency to 75-year-old death row inmate Charles “Sonny” Burton before his scheduled March 12 execution.  According to a news release from Burton’s attorneys and advocates, Burton — who has been on death row since 1992 — faces execution despite what the State of Alabama has long acknowledged: he did not kill anyone.  In 1991, Burton and 5 other men robbed an auto parts store in Talladega, Alabama. After Burton left the building, his co-defendant, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed customer Doug Battle.

I have seen three executions. I hope I never see a fourth. Capital punishment is violence. But the state does all it can to conceal that fact. The viewing areas outside the death chamber are still and silent. Bright light floods the small room where people die. The warden pronouncing the sentence speaks in clipped, measured tones, saying no more than needed. You’re expected to view the act as a bloodless execution of justice.

TEHRAN, Iran (DPN) — Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved pardons or sentence reductions for more than 2,100 convicts, the judiciary announced Tuesday, in a move coinciding with the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. However, authorities explicitly excluded anyone involved in the deadly nationwide protests that erupted in late December 2025 and continued into January 2026, highlighting the regime's ongoing hardline stance against dissent.

Officials described in silence the day Mary Jane Veloso returned to Philippine custody in December 2024 after spending over fifteen years overseas. However, many Filipinos found it emotionally charged, particularly those who had family members employed abroad. Not only did someone return, but the topic we’ve been trying to answer—what happens when the system fails the weakest?—also came back into focus. She had departed the nation in 2010 with common aspirations: modest but determined. To provide for her family, she sought domestic work overseas, just like a startlingly high percentage of Filipina workers. What happened next was a destructive spiral. Mary Jane, who was arrested in Indonesia after more than two kilograms of heroin were discovered in her suitcase, said she had no idea what she was carrying.

Alabama has scheduled a March execution date for a man sentenced to death for a fatal shooting during a 1991 robbery even though he didn't pull the trigger.  Gov. Kay Ivey on Thursday set a March 12 execution using nitrogen gas for Charles “Sonny” Burton, 75. Burton was convicted as an accomplice in the shooting death of Doug Battle, a customer who was killed during an Aug. 16 robbery that year of an auto parts store in Talladega. 

In January 2026, the Alabama Supreme Court authorized Governor Kay Ivey to set an execution date for Charles Burton, allowing the state to proceed with execution by nitrogen gas. This followed the exhaustion of his appeals, and he is now eligible for execution at any time.  MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Charles "Sonny" Burton didn't kill anyone. The state of Alabama could execute him anyway. Burton, 75, is facing execution for his role as an accomplice in a 1991 robbery at an auto parts store where customer Doug Battle was killed.  No one disputes that another man, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed Battle. Burton, one of six men involved in the robbery, was outside the store at the time of the shooting, according to testimony. DeBruce and Burton were both sentenced to death. But DeBruce was later resentenced to life imprisonment, leaving Burton -- who neither fired the gun nor ordered anyone to be killed -- as the only person facing execution.

In the wake of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s recent decision to grant clemency to Tremane Wood, a non-shooter in a capital case, national death penalty advocates are intensifying calls for Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to halt the execution of Charles “Sonny” Burton, a 75-year-old, wheelchair-bound man facing an imminent execution date.  Advocates argue that Burton’s case presents even more compelling circumstances than Wood’s, pointing to evidence that Burton neither fired a weapon nor was present in the building at the time of the fatal shooting. The individual who carried out the killing was later resentenced to life without parole, a disparity critics say highlights the extreme disproportionality of Burton’s death sentence. 

Victims’ families and the sole survivor urged the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to reject clemency for the man sentenced to die for a 2006 double murder. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 against recommending clemency on Wednesday for death row inmate Kendrick Simpson.  Simpson, 45, was sentenced to die by lethal injection for fatally shooting Glen Palmer, 20, and Anthony Jones, 19, after an argument at an Oklahoma City nightclub.  The Jones and Palmer families support Simpson’s execution. They urged the board to deny clemency. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday said he will not intervene to stop the execution of Harold Wayne Nichols. Nichols, 64, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 20-year-old student at Chattanooga State University. Nichols confessed to killing Pulley as well as raping several other women in the Chattanooga area. Although he expressed remorse at trial, he admitted that he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested. He was sentenced to death in 1990.

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist once explained that exec­u­tive clemen­cy is intend­ed to oper­ate as the ​“fail safe” of the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. It is the final oppor­tu­ni­ty, after all legal avenues have been exhaust­ed, for an exec­u­tive to decide whether to spare a pris­on­er from exe­cu­tion.  Most grants of indi­vid­ual clemen­cy come after con­sid­er­a­tion of one or more fac­tors, includ­ing evi­dence of offi­cial mis­con­duct or oth­er unfair legal process­es, inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel, inno­cence, or excessive sentencing.

Indonesia and the Netherlands have agreed to repatriate two Dutch nationals convicted on drug offenses in Indonesia Indonesia and the Netherlands on Tuesday agreed to repatriate two Dutch nationals convicted on drug offences in Indonesia, including one facing the death penalty and another serving a life sentence. The agreement was signed by officials in both Jakarta and Amsterdam following a request by the Dutch king and foreign ministry for the release of the men, both of whom are in poor health, according to Indonesia’s senior law minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Tremane Wood was prepared to die by lethal injection. A minute before he was to be put to death, a call came in The signature at the bottom of the email about witnessing an execution said cheerfully: “Oklahoma Corrections. We Change Lives!” I had received the email three weeks earlier. It explained that I was being invited to participate in a lottery, from which five media representatives would be selected to witness the execution of Tremane Wood in the Oklahoma state penitentiary on 13 November. I had never heard of Wood, who had been convicted of the murder of Ronnie Wipf, 19, in 2002.

Republican Kevin Stitt commuted Tremane Wood’s death sentence to life in prison for 2002 murder of Ronnie Wipf Tremane Wood, the 46-year-old death row inmate who faced execution today in Oklahoma, has had his life spared just minutes before he was set to receive a lethal injection. Kevin Stitt, the state’s Republican governor, accepted the Oklahoma pardon and parole board’s recommendation that Wood’s sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole. It is just the second time during Stitt’s nearly seven years as governor that he has granted clemency.

Tremane Wood was convicted of a murder his brother had confessed to. Now a Republican governor will decide whether he dies on Thursday It may be about to execute him, but Oklahoma’s department of corrections hasn’t even spelled Tremane Wood’s name right: it lists him on its official website as “Termane” Wood. For 16 of his last 21 years in prison, following his conviction for the murder of 19-year-old Ronnie Wipf, he has been confined, often alone, to a series of windowless concrete cells in the state penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, in an underground block that prisoners have compared to a tomb.

Two British drug convicts, including a grandmother who had been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade, arrived back in the UK on Friday. Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws, but has moved to release more than half a dozen high-profile detainees in the last year. Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was sentenced to death on the tourist island of Bali in 2013 for smuggling $2.14 million worth of cocaine into Indonesia. She was released on humanitarian grounds along with Shahab Shahabadi, 36, who had been serving a life sentence for drug offences after his arrest in 2014.

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester.  Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lindsay Sandiford, 69, will be handed a UK-funded seat on a flight leaving Bali this afternoon. She was sentenced to death in 2013 after being caught smuggling £1.6million of cocaine into Indonesia. The 69-year-old pensioner has been granted a UK-funded seat on a flight leaving Bali this afternoon. The legal secretary, who was sentenced to death in 2013, will have a brief layover before landing at London Heathrow Airport following a 20-hour journey. This marks the end of a distressing period for Sandiford, during which she spent 13 years awaiting execution for smuggling £1.6million worth of cocaine into Indonesia.

A 22-year-old former university student facing the death penalty for murdering and burning his pregnant girlfriend's body 2 years ago in Sabak Bernam is now appealing for a reduced sentence.  Lawyer Muhammad Nor Tamrin, representing Muhammad Fakrul Aiman Sajali, said a notice of appeal to review the death penalty was filed at the Court of Appeal through Messrs M. Nor & Partners on Oct 20.  According to court documents, Fakrul Aiman is appealing against the decision of Klang High Court judge Norliza Othman on Oct 15, which found him guilty of murdering his pregnant girlfriend and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The archbishop of Tokyo, Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, is renewing calls for abolition of the death penalty  in Japan and for clemency for 2 men, 1 convicted of murder and already sentenced to death, the other awaiting sentencing.  In 2023, Masanori Aoki stabbed 2 women in the city of Nakano and then shot 2 policemen with a hunting rifle. His defense team asked for a lesser sentence, saying the man suffered from schizophrenia, but the sentencing court imposed the death penalty on Oct. 14. 

INDIANAPOLIS — Governor Mike Braun has denied clemency for Roy Lee Ward, allowing his execution to proceed as scheduled for October 10. "After carefully reviewing the unanimous recommendation from the State Parole Board, I have decided to allow the execution of Roy Lee Ward to proceed as planned for October 10," Braun said. The Indiana Parole Board unanimously recommended denying Ward's request for clemency after conducting public hearings on September 22. Ward had requested his death sentence be commuted to life in prison without parole.