Death Penalty News

Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday after being found guilty of leading an insurrection during his declaration of martial law in December 2024. The ruling, delivered by Seoul Central District Court Judge Jee Kui-youn, was lighter than the death penalty prosecutors sought at the trial's final hearing in January. The ruling was aired live on South Korea's major broadcasters. Jee said in the verdict that Yoon led an insurrection and committed acts to subvert the country's constitutional order.

South Korea's beleaguered ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol has been found guilty of abuse of power, falsifying documents and obstructing justice when he tried and failed to impose martial law in the country in 2024. He has also been sentenced to five years in jail. Yoon is facing three other trials for charges ranging from insurrection to violating campaign law. The verdict comes more than a year after his short-lived decree threw South Korea into political turmoil, leaving it deeply divided.

SEOUL, South Korea — Special prosecutors on Tuesday asked a court to sentence former President Yoon Suk Yeol to death, labeling his short-lived 2024 martial law declaration an "act of insurrection" that brought the nation to the brink of constitutional collapse. The demand was made during closing arguments at the Seoul Central District Court, marking a dramatic climax to a trial that has gripped the country for months. Yoon, who was removed from office following the events of Dec. 3, 2024, faces charges of leading an insurrection and abuse of power.

"Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent tonight in U.S. v. Dustin Higgs will be remembered long into the future as one of the most thorough, resounding indictments of this administration’s reckless, immoral, illegal effort to execute as many people as possible, as quickly as possible." - Sister Helen Prejean (CNN) -- As the country focused on the aftermath of riots in the US Capitol and the unprecedented second impeachment of President Donald Trump, the liberal justices of the Supreme Court spent Trump's last full week in office battling his administration's long-term objective to execute 13 federal death row inmates in six months. Late Friday night, over the fiery objection of two Supreme Court justices, Dustin John Higgs became the 13th federal inmate to be put to death . It marked the last federal execution to take place under the Trump administration that announced in July 2019 that it was reinstating the federal death penalty after a nearly two-decade pause. Then-Atto...

Only five states carried out a total of seven executions across the United States last year. That is the fewest state executions in nearly 40 years. However, that is not the full story when it comes to the death penalty in America. In the second half of 2020, in the midst of a pandemic and a reelection campaign, the Trump Administration decided to get back into the act of executing federal prisoners. After going 17 years without carrying out an execution the federal government carried out 10 executions in less than six months. By the end of 2020, the federal government had conducted more executions in five months than any other presidency since the turn of the 20th century, and scheduled more executions during a presidential transition period than any other administration in the history of the United States - knowing President-elect Joe Biden campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty. Whether it was a ploy to bolster his tough guy bona fides or a lowbrow pitch to his “law and ...

The US Senate has confirmed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in a victory for President Donald Trump a week before the presidential election. Mr Trump's fellow Republicans voted 52-48 to approve the judge, overcoming the unified opposition of Democrats. Her appointment seals for the foreseeable future a 6-3 conservative majority on the top US judicial body. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden called the move rushed and unprecedented. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that by going ahead with the vote so close to the election the Republican majority was "lighting its credibility on fire". Justice Barrett, 48, took the oath of office at the White House alongside President Trump. Only one Republican, Senator Susan Collins, who faces a tough re-election battle in Maine, voted against the president's nominee in Monday evening's vote. The new justice is the third appointed by the Republican president, after Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Ka...

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Monday disputed claims that President Rodrigo Duterte's latest statement on extrajudicial killings could be a ground for impeachment and could boost the complaint against him before the International Criminal Court.    Presidential spokesman Harry Roque stressed that Duterte's remark that his only sin is EJK was not an admission of a crime.  "I’d like to reiterate that the context of what the president said is that EJK are the only criticisms labeled against him and that no one has ever accused him of corruption," Roque said in a press briefing.   "I don’t think this amounts to an admission because for it to be an admission, or a declaration against interest, he must have explicitly admitted to the crime of murder, which he has not," he added.  RELATED : Palace: Duterte ‘not serious’ when he said EJKs 'his only sin' Roque said former Ateneo School of Government dean Antonio La Viña was "...

Pulaski County circuit judge Wendell Griffen taking part in an anti-death penalty demonstration outside the state governor’s mansion, Arkansas. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen stood on the steps of the state Capitol on Friday and took aim at lawmakers and the Arkansas Supreme Court, accusing them of breaking the state's 2015 religious freedom law by scrutinizing his public displays of faith. Backed by a cadre of supporters who appeared at a rally on his behalf, Griffen told reporters that he planned to take his case to court if sanctions against him are not lifted. The circuit judge has been stripped of his power to hear death penalty cases since he appeared at a death-penalty protest at the Governor's Mansion in April , the same day he issued an order that temporarily halted the state's efforts to begin a series of executions. Griffen later said his decision to lie prostrate on a cot at that April rally -- which fell on Good Friday -- was me...

President Rodrigo Duterte The Philippines independent human rights watchdog has said it will investigate claims by President Rodrigo Duterte that he personally killed drug suspects while mayor of Davao. The Commission on Human Rights will also examine reports that so-called death squads killed several hundred people in the southern city. Mr Duterte confirmed to the BBC last week that he shot dead three men. Since being elected in May, he has waged a brutal anti-drugs crackdown. Critics say he has encouraged police, vigilantes and mercenaries to shoot suspected drug dealers and users on sight. Nearly 6,000 people are said to have been killed. Mr Duterte was mayor of Davao for two decades, during which time he earned a reputation for harshly suppressing crime and was accused of sponsoring death squads. On Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said Mr Duterte's claims "clearly constitute murder" and he called on...

Philippine President Duterte: "Looking for a confrontation so I could kill." Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte affirmed on Friday that he shot dead three people as mayor, dismissing any uncertainty and displaying no remorse. “I don’t really know how many bullets from my gun went inside their bodies,” he said. “It happened. I cannot lie about it.” His confirmation, reported by the Philippine Star, followed boasts to business leaders on Monday that he killed criminal suspects as the Davao City mayor to set a precedent for his police officers. “I used to do it personally, just to show to the guys that if I can do it, why can’t you?” he said, according to a video posted by the Star. “I’d go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets looking for trouble,” he said. “I was really looking for a confrontation, so I could kill.” The president elaborated on the shootings Friday, calling them incidents with ...

Duterte risks impeachment after he admitted "personally" killing criminals. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte risks impeachment after he admitted "personally" killing criminals when he was the mayor of Davao City, said two Philippine senators. The firebrand leader boasted to business leaders on Monday that as Davao City mayor he used to prowl the streets on a big motorcycle looking for "an encounter to kill" just to show to local law enforcers he can do it. "I used to do it personally," Duterte said. "If I can do it why can't you?" More than 2,000 people have been killed in police anti-drug operations since Duterte became president in July. Almost all were shot when they resisted arrest. Another 3,000 deaths are under investigation, with critics calling them vigilante killings. Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte, said the president's admission could be a ground for impeachment. ...