Death Penalty News

Stone tablets recount a corruption case so widespread that it became a capital offense in 480 CE. Archaeologists in western Turkey recently discovered a detailed account of 1,600-year-old tax fraud so brazen that ancient Rome made it a deadly offense. Initially believed to be funerary ode inscriptions, the Late Antiquity stone tablets actually provide vital missing information in a notably widespread corruption case that spanned more than a decade—and even implicated the estate of Emperor Valentinian III’s daughter, Placidia.

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

The family of Ruth Ellis, from Rhyl, said she was a victim of domestic abuse that was let down by the criminal justice system and the impact of her execution had been 'devastating for her family' The grandchildren of the last woman to be hanged in Britain are seeking a posthumous pardon, saying she was physically and emotionally abused by her partner before killing him.  Ruth Ellis, a nightclub hostess from Rhyl, was executed on July 13, 1955, at Holloway Prison after being convicted of murdering her lover, David Blakely.

A Nazi executioner in an infamous World War II photograph has been unmasked for the first time after 80 years, using Artificial Intelligence .  The man holding a pistol to the head of a kneeling Jewish victim in the harrowing photo known as 'The Last Jew of Vinnytsia' has been identified by a historian as Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Jakobus Onnen , who was 33 at the time of the killing. The heart-wrenching photograph, long regarded as one of the most haunting images of World War II, shows a German soldier in spectacles aiming his weapon at a man kneeling beside a mass grave while several other soldiers look on.

In pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, capital punishment was not merely a legal sanction, but a profound ritualistic act deeply embedded within cosmological beliefs. Civilizations like the Aztecs viewed human life as a commodity to be offered to the gods to maintain cosmic balance and ensure the continuation of the world.  The practice of human sacrifice, a form of state-sanctioned execution, was central to their religious and political systems. The methods of execution were diverse and often brutal, designed to be both a punishment and a dramatic offering. Heart extraction, where the still-beating heart was offered to the sun god Huitzilopochtli, was perhaps the most iconic. Other methods included decapitation, stoning, immolation, and ritualistic combat followed by sacrifice. 

During the French annexation, 36 prisoners were executed using this device. Built in 1799, this structure basically consists of a tall, vertical oak frame fitted with a heavy steel blade with an oblique cutting edge and suspended from the top. It was designed for a rapid execution by decapitation of those who were condemned to death in the Swiss canton of Geneva during the French period. Today it is part of the Permanent Collection at the Tavel House, the oldest building in Geneva.  

Thousands of years ago in ancient China, felonies were not simply punished with a stint in jail, but serious crimes often entailed the amputation of a limb, specifically legs. This harsh culture of punishment, known as yue , disciplined people for various crimes, such as desertion from duties, stealing, or defrauding the monarchy. It was also used in lieu of the death penalty.

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.

Each year on January 27, people across the globe observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was on this day 79 years ago Nazi Germany's largest death camp Auschwitz was liberated — by which point upwards of one million prisoners had been killed. It is on this grim occasion that the author, a Jewish cantor, reflects on the aftermath of Alabama's killing of Kenneth Eugene Smith with the novel use of nitrogen hypoxia...

TOKYO - Japan has had a complicated relationship with tattoos over its history. Unlike in most Western countries where it’s simply considered a form of expression or drunkenly poor decisions, currently body art is generally looked down upon in Japanese society despite having some of the best artists and techniques in the world. And yet most people in Japan are unaware that not too long ago, for a time during the Edo Period (1603-1868) the go-to form of punishment for non-violent crimes was a tattoo right in the center of your forehead.

The French Revolution of 1789 was a pivotal event in history, marked by profound social, political, and cultural changes. The revolution aimed to dismantle the existing monarchical system, abolish feudal privileges, and establish principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The upheaval had its roots in widespread discontent with the absolute monarchy, financial crisis, and social inequality. The Estates-General (Etats généraux) was convened in 1789 to address the fiscal problems, but tensions escalated, leading to the formation of the National Assembly. 

Picotas, rollos, cruceros y humilladeros nos recuerdan en el urbanismo de pueblos centenarios de la región su pasado: se trata de símbolos de justicia de antaño Guillermo Herrero, responsable de la iniciativa www.toponimos.es nos trae en la sección Tras las huellas de la Sierra, símbolos de la justicia del pasado madrileño que podemos ver en plazas céntricas y otros lugares de los pueblos centenarios de la región.

The U.S. Army on Monday set aside the court-martial convictions from a century ago of 110 African American soldiers, including 19 who were executed, saying they were denied fair trials in a landmark acknowledgement of official racism in America. The Army Board for Correction of Military Records overturned the convictions, restoring their service records as having concluded honorably and making their descendants eligible for military benefits, the Army said in a statement.

Seventy years ago, on June 19, 1953, our parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed after being convicted of federal charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were in their 30’s, and we were 10 (Michael) and 6 (Robert) when we last visited them at Sing Sing, the prison north of New York City where they were electrocuted. Today, compelling doubts about our mother’s guilt persist, and we call on the U.S. government to immediately release all documents related to her prosecution and execution, so that we and all Americans can finally know the truth about her case.

A blood-stained guillotine used by an infamous executioner to kill 1,200 people in Nazi Germany should be put on public display, the man who rediscovered it has said. The grisly relic was operated by Johann Reichhart, believed to be the fastest executioner in history, and took just seconds to take somebody’s life with a blade weighing 30lbs and a wooden bench bleached from constant washing. Journalist and author Ulrich Trebbin found it by accident at the Bavarian National Museum in Munich, announcing his discovery in 2014. However, at the time, the Bavarian regional government concluded it should stay out of the public eye in case it offends the families of victims and attracts ghoulish attention.

Virginia made history in 2021 when it became the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty. Closing the Slaughterhouse: The Inside Story of Death Penalty Abolition in Virginia tells the story of the commonwealth’s journey from leading executioner to groundbreaking abolitionist state. Written by journalist, author, and anti-death penalty advocate Dale Brumfield, the book explores Virginia’s history surrounding capital punishment, starting with the first execution in 1608 through its abolition on July 1, 2021. Characteristic of states whose criminal laws grew out of a legacy of slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow segregation, the capital punishment system in Virginia was deeply rooted in racism and shrouded by a veil of secrecy. Leading the nation with 1,390 executions throughout its history, Virginia also executed more enslaved individuals and women than any other state. The state continued heavily using the death penalty in the modern era, beginning in 1976, even adopting draconian...

Larry Keller covered the execution of Jesse Tafero in 1990 for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Tafero was convicted of killing Florida Trooper Phillip A. Black and his friend, Donald Robert Irwin. Larry Keller covered the execution of Jesse Tafero in 1990 for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. It was a relief when the alarm clock jarred me awake before the macabre dreams returned. Two days earlier my sleep had been tormented by vivid images of an old friend and my beloved dog, both dead. In reality, both, thankfully, were alive. It was the morning of May 4, 1990, and, as I greeted a fellow journalist in the pre-dawn darkness, she told me she also had had a nightmare: she and others were gazing down upon an algae-covered, naked corpse and each person was instructed to take a bite out of it. After discussing our ghoulish experiences, the two of us drove together to Florida State Prison near Starke for a rendezvous with the source of our dreams: the execution of cop-killer Jesse Tafe...

Malta’s gallows – responsible for the death of 14 men over half a century – will be open to the public for the first time in years. Featuring a clad noose and lever system, the interior gallows, located near Corradino Correctional Facility in Paola, will be open for visits between the 10th and 13th February.  A look back at the history of the gallows in Malta reveals an evolution in Malta’s approach to punishment and justice over the last two centuries. The first execution of this type was held back in 1893, to Ġużeppi Vella, while the last execution on the island was held in 1943, to the brothers Karmnu and Ġuzeppi Zammit. One of the most famous executions in Malta’s history is that of Carmelo Borg Pisani, who was accused of being an Italian spy working against the British authorities at the time, in 1942. In 1971, the death penalty was removed from Malta law.  Now, 51 years later, the gallows room has been restored in a project co-run by prison officials as well as inmates –...

People everywhere have long been oddly fascinated by the last meals of those on death row, specifically wanting to know more about the last meal requests of notorious criminals, like convicted serial killers: Did these men request an elaborate meal, or did they opt for something nostalgic like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or an order of KFC ? Or, like Ted Bundy, did they refuse a last meal altogether? But instead of looking at the last meals of specific prisoners, perhaps the focus should be on how this practice got started in the first place and how it’s changed over time. The history of the “last meal” One of the most well-recognized “last meals” is the last supper shared by Jesus Christ and his disciples before his crucifixion, as depicted in the Bible. In fact, the ritual of a doomed person eating some special kind of final meal goes back even further to pre-Christian times. A faculty publication from the Mercer University School of Law titled “Cold (Comfort?) Food: A System...

The guillotine is one of the most recognizable execution devices in the world. The iconic appearance of the fearsome angled blade ranks up there with the gallows and the cross as the more prominent images of human execution.  The guillotine dominated a gruesome part of European history and continues to engage the imagination to this day. But the guillotine was never supposed to become the killing machine that it did. When the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin advocated for the use of the beheading device as a method of execution, he could not have known that it would be used to kill thousands of his countrymen. The guillotine was initially invented as a mercy device. It was supposed to be a modernization of Medieval execution methods that had grown gory and inhumane. Enlightened people could not bear to kill people in such ways any longer. There had to be a better way. Those condemned to die should not also have to be tortured en-route to their final punishment. A death pena...