Death Penalty News

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has refused to scrap hanging as the method of executing the death penalty, but said the issue can be looked at again if new scientific or medical evidence shows that another method causes less pain. The court also said the Centre can set up an expert panel to examine whether another method of execution would reduce pain and protect the dignity of death row prisoners. Why was a plea filed against hanging as a method of execution? The petition was filed by senior advocate Rishi Malhotra, who challenged the law that provides for hanging as the method of executing a death sentence, according to a LiveLaw report. Section 354(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure says that a person sentenced to death should be "hanged by the neck till he is dead." Malhotra's plea sought to replace hanging with other methods, including lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or a gas chamber. He argued that hanging can cause prolonged pain and suffering and violates...

Arizona State Sen. Kevin Payne has a very bad idea . Earlier this month, Payne introduced a proposal in the Arizona Senate to ask voters to amend the state constitution in order to allow the use of the firing squad as a method of execution. Payne, an ardent death penalty supporter, has been frustrated by Arizona’s inability to pick up the pace of executions. The state resumed executing people in 2022 after an eight-year pause caused by difficulties in obtaining drugs needed for lethal injection. Between then and now, it has put five people to death . It has only one execution on the docket for 2026.

Israel’s prison authorities have begun logistical and operational preparations for carrying out executions following the first Knesset reading of a bill allowing the death penalty in terrorism cases In recent days, the Israel Prison Service has begun making practical preparations for the possible implementation of the death penalty for convicted terrorists, following the first reading in the Knesset of a bill that would authorize capital punishment in exceptional cases. According to a report by Channel 13 News, the preparations include logistical, organizational, and personnel-related measures. 

The Supreme Court today reserved its verdict on a plea seeking a painless procedure for death convicts other than hanging. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta has reserved their judgment after hearing Attorney General for India R Venkataramani, Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora (for Project 39A), and Advocate Rishi Malhotra, who is the petitioner. In 2023, the Supreme Court had allowed an intervention application filed by National Law University, Delhi's Project 39A in the plea seeking a painless procedure for death convicts.

Osaka, Jan. 16 (Jiji Press)--Osaka District Court on Friday dismissed a request from three death-row inmates for the state to ban executions by hanging. The three, whose death sentences have been finalized, claimed that executions by hanging are against an international treaty that prohibits cruel punishments. Noting that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the Japanese government, prohibits inhumane and cruel punishments, the plaintiff side claimed that executions by hanging are “cruel and should not be allowed to continue.”

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (October 15) said that the Centre appeared hesitant to replace hanging with lethal injection as a method of executing death row inmates. It was hearing a plea that argued execution by hanging is ‘inhuman and cruel’. India is among the few countries where capital punishment remains legal. What are the methods of execution used by other countries? India is debating the method of execution for death row convicts. The Supreme Court is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to provide an alternative to death by hanging.

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT The practice of execution has been around since the days of ancient civilisations, and, as uncomfortable as it may be to think about, this punishment is still handed out in various countries around the world today. Capital punishment for murder was suspended in the UK as recently as 1965, within living memory.  Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans became the last prisoners to be executed on British soil on August 13, 1964, with the pair hanged at separate prisons in Manchester and Liverpool for the murder of John Alan West. Since then, there have been frequent calls to bring back the death penalty, which some supporters believe to be an effective deterrent against the most despicable crimes. Those on the other side of the debate believe capital punishment to be an inhumane measure, often citing the numerous instances where convicts have faced agonising deaths.

Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite criticism over how it is carried out. Tokyo: Capital punishment in Japan is under scrutiny again after the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, was awarded $1.4 million in compensation this week following his acquittal last year in a retrial. Stakes for wrongful convictions are high in Japan, where the death penalty has broad public support despite international criticism over how it is carried out.

WASHINGTON STATE — Fourteen years after the last death sentence was carried out in Washington, the execution chamber at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla was closed in a ceremony held Wednesday morning. Gov. Jay Inslee, who issued a moratorium on the death penalty ten years ago, said shuttering the chamber was the ‘final closure’ of the controversial issue in Washington state law.

Doomed to hang: At Newgate prison, 17 condemned men knelt in a circle waiting to learn their fate. But for James and John - the only ones accused of 'the detestable crime' of being sodomites - there was no mercy.  Chris Bryant's haunting new book: " A True Story Of Prejudice And Murder" There was barely time to register what the Recorder at the Old Bailey had just said. With evident relish, he’d condemned James Pratt and John Smith to death – and now, still reeling, they were being herded through a narrow passageway known as Birdcage Walk.

This past week Alabama continued our country’s experiment with different ways to kill people. It executed Kenneth Smith. A brief history. In the American colonies, death sentences, imported from Great Britain, were by hanging. Hanging could be gruesome. The fall through the trap door in the gallows sometimes caused decapitation. If the condemned’s neck didn’t snap immediately, he could suffer lengthy, painful, nauseating-to-watch strangulation. The lifeless body swaying from the gallows eventually followed.

Landry, who supported gas, firing squads and hanging in the past, will ask the Legislature to expand execution methods. Gov. Jeff Landry will direct lawmakers to expand methods Louisiana can use to execute death row prisoners, he said Wednesday, describing death sentences as "contractual obligations" between government and victims' families that the state has long failed to uphold.

America has never been squeamish when it comes to developing new methods to deliver condemned killers to the abyss. But as the old saying goes, the road to hell can be paved with good intentions. And that’s what happened to Alabama hitman Kenny Smith last Thursday. It was supposed to be all over quickly for the contract killer who rotted for 36 years on the state’s death row for icing a preacher’s wife for $1,000. Nitrogen gas was supposed to send Kenny to the hereafter, el pronto.

In a little over three weeks, the State of Alabama intends to strap a mask on the face of Kenny Smith as tight as possible to create an airtight.  Then, prison officials will step back, allow nitrogen to flow into the mask and wait for Smith to be declared dead.  If successful, this new execution procedure known as “nitrogen hypoxia” will become the latest option in a long line of procedures dubbed more humane than the last.  

SINGAPORE — Singapore on Friday hanged a 45-year-old citizen for drug trafficking, the city-state's first execution of a woman in nearly 20 years, officials said. The execution was carried out despite appeals from rights groups, who argue capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect on crime. "The capital sentence of death imposed on Saridewi Binte Djamani was carried out on 28 July 2023," the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement. She was convicted of trafficking "not less than 30.72 grams" of heroi n, more than twice the volume that merits the death penalty in Singapore.

Two convicts, who were sentenced to death for killing Rajshahi University (RU) Professor S Taher Ahmed, were executed in Rajshahi central  jail on Thursday night. Those hanged are Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin, associate professor of Rajshahi University’s Geology and Mining Department and Md Jahangir Alam, caretaker of Professor S Taher’s residence. They were hanged simultaneously at 10:01 pm, said Nizam Uddin Bhuiyan, jailer of Rajshahi central jail. Deputy Commissioner Shamim Ahmed, District Superintendent of Police ABM Masud, GIG Prison Kamal Hossain, Rajshahi Civil Surgeon Abu Said Md Farooq, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abdul Raqib were present during the execution.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 26, 2023: The scope of offences leading to the death penalty has widened significantly this year. In the latest case, state media have reported the death sentence against an unidentified man for consensual sex. Extramarital relations are criminalised under the Islamic Republic’s laws which proscribe the death penalty for the married party. On the other hand, Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei called for the execution of those who burnt the Quran in Sweden last week. Iran Human Rights once again calls for the urgent attention of the international community to the growing number of death sentences and executions in Iran. Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “In order to create fear to prevent popular protests, Islamic Republic authorities have expanded the scope of charges for which they’re issuing and carrying out death penalty charges as well as the already significant rise in the number of executions.”

Kuwait City (AFP) – Kuwait put to death five people on Thursday, including a man convicted of involvement in a 2015 Islamic State group suicide bombing that killed 26 people, the Public Prosecution said. The multiple executions in the Gulf emirate -- relatively rare compared to neighbouring Saudi Arabia -- are the first since seven people were put to death in November last year ending a five-year moratorium. In a statement, the Public Prosecution said it oversaw the "implementation of the death sentence in Kuwait's Central Prison" against five people, most of them accused of murder.

Both to be hanged simultaneously in Rajshahi jail The two convicted killers of Rajshahi University Prof S Taher Ahmed are likely to be executed at 10:01pm on Thursday, Rajshahi jail authorities said on Wednesday. Both death row convicts will be hanged simultaneously in Rajshahi jail. Family members of the two death row convicts—Dr Miah Mohiuddin and Jahangir Alam—visited them in the prison on Tuesday. With this, the execution process started.  Seven-eight executioners have been prepared to execute the two. They have rehearsed the execution several times. Jahangir's younger brother Mizanur Rahman said on Tuesday that the jail authorities sent them and the family of Mohiuddin a letter on Sunday to meet the two inmates for the last time. 

Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted. Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison. A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.