Death Penalty News

Eichmann was hanged at midnight between May 31 and June 1, 1962. He was the only person executed in Israel after a full civilian judicial process Adolf Eichmann , one of the key architects of the Holocaust , was captured by Mossad agents on May 11, 1960, in Argentina and flown to Israel for trial. Originally born in Solingen, Germany, Eichmann moved with his family to Austria but later returned once the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. During his time as part of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) - the Nazi Security Service, he was involved in the surveillance of Jewish organizations. In 1937, he visited the British Mandate of Palestine to promote the Zionist emigration of Jews from Germany. This experience would later prove instrumental when he was appointed head of the Gestapo’s Jewish Affairs division at the outset of World War II.

Pam Bondi tells Florida pro-Israel conference that Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were ‘murdered because they were Jewish’  US Attorney General Pam Bondi said her office would seek the death penalty for Elias Rodriguez, who is accused of murdering Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim in Washington in May, the Miami Herald, reported Friday.  Bondi made the announcement in a speech at the Israeli American Council (IAC) National Summit in Florida on Friday. 

Naveed Akram, the surviving suspect in Sunday's mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act, the New South Wales Police say. His father Sajid Akram, 50, was killed in an exchange of fire with police at the scene. Fifteen people were killed and dozens of others were injured in the attack, which targeted Australia's Jewish community at an event celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. It was the country's deadliest shooting since 1996.

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.

Prosecutors said Elias Rodriguez, accused of killing two Israeli Embassy staff in Washington, had bought a body camera online and used it to record the attacks.    A man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington was wearing a body camera that captured video of the killings from his close-range perspective, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing on Friday. Elias Rodriguez purchased the body-worn camera online and arranged for it to be delivered to the hotel where he was staying in Washington before the May 21 shootings, according to the filing. Prosecutors said the transaction demonstrates the premeditated nature of the crime.

Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar believes authorities in the United States should pursue the death penalty against the alleged gunman responsible for last week’s murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, he told The Algemeiner on Tuesday. “I think this is an important message that all the antisemitic people should know — that there is a big price to pay if they do these kinds of actions,” Zohar said of his support for pursuing the death penalty against 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez. “I think this is maybe a good idea, to give a very, very hard penalty against this criminal. And I’m hoping that a strong action against him — or maybe against people that supported him or sent him to do that — will deliver a message that people should avoid this antisemitic way in the future.”

THE man suspected of shooting dead two Israeli embassy officials in Washington fired 21 shots and reloaded as his wounded victims crawled away, according to court documents. Elias Rodriguez, 31, appeared in court yesterday charged with murder - and could face the death penalty if convicted. The Chicago native was caught on camera unloading several rounds into Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, after pacing outside the Capital Jewish Museum, according to the arrest affidavit. The pair collapsed after being shot but the gunman continued his onslaught, the document says.

This will be the first time Creuzot has pursued capital punishment since taking office in 2019. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot confirmed to The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday morning that his office will seek the death penalty against Texas Seven escapee Randy Halprin. This will be the first time Creuzot has pursued capital punishment since taking office in 2019. He has opted not to seek death in other high-profile cases, like accused serial killer Billy Chemirmir, Yaser Said, who fatally shot his two teenage daughters and went on the run for more than a decade, or Nestor Hernandez, who murdered two hospital workers at Methodist Dallas Medical Center.

Convict’s relatives continue to threaten slain man’s family A judge in Pakistan sentenced to death a Muslim who murdered a 20-year-old Christian in the presence of his family, sources said.  Saima Riyasat, additional sessions judge of Pasrur, Sialkot District, handed the country’s maximum punishment for murder to Muhammad Zubair for killing Farhan Ul Qamar on Nov. 9, 2023, said Christian attorney Lazar Allah Rakha. The court also imposed a fine of 500,000 Pakistani Rupees ($1,785 USD), he said. 

We, the 3,800+ members of the group “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” wish to respond respectfully to Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Lieberman’s Feb. 15th Jerusalem Post op-ed entitled “Should Israel execute Hamas terrorists for war crimes on par with the Nazis?” In his thoughtful, powerful and nuanced essay, Rabbi Dr. Lieberman expresses how difficult it has been for him as a rabbi and physician to even ask this question, given the sanctity of life to which he has devoted his laudable career. We profoundly honor Rabbi Dr. Lieberman’s sacred callings, as well as his courage in sharing his feelings so openly and vulnerably in the public square. We also empathize with his suffering and understand and respect his position. Indeed, like Jews everywhere, we too have been shocked beyond belief by the horror and barbarity that continue to unfold in the wake of the Oct. 7th, 2023 pogrom. The mutilated bodies of the youngest members of the Bibas family that Hamas just released are a palpable remi...

In two videos circulating on social networks and authenticated by the site Verify.sy, the minister, a former Islamic judge in the Idlib region then under the control of al-Nosra, supervised the killing of women accused of "prostitution." The images are chilling. In one video, a man with a thick beard, wearing a chechia and qami, the traditional Muslim dress, pronounces a death sentence “for corruption and prostitution” next to a woman in  a black niqab  , on her knees. In another, the same man appears next to a woman also in a full veil, on the ground, who implores clemency. A fighter recites  verses from the Quran  and claims that there is “proof” that she committed adultery and prostitution, thus spreading “corruption on earth” . A third man then draws a handgun and shoots her in the head.

A Texas appeals court has ordered a new trial for Randy Halprin because of antisemitic bias by the judge in his case A Texas appeals court ordered a new trial Wednesday for a Jewish man on death row — who was part of a gang of prisoners that fatally shot a police officer in 2000 after escaping — because of antisemitic bias by the judge who presided over his case. Lawyers for Randy Halprin have contended that former Judge Vickers Cunningham in Dallas used racial slurs and antisemitic language to refer to him and some of his co-defendants.

Arvin Netanel Ghahremani's relatives claim he did not receive adequate defense. Authorities in Iran on Monday executed a Jewish man, Arvin Nathaniel Ghahremani, who had been sentenced to death for murder, Iranian media reported. “The sentence of retribution was executed this morning,” said Hamidreza Karimi, the prosecutor for Kermanshah in western Iran, according to the Mehr news agency.

A young Jewish man on death row for an alleged murder in Iran is at imminent risk of execution, according to human rights sources. The Islamic Republic's Supreme Court has rejected Arvin Ghahremani's appeal, who is imprisoned in Kermanshah Central Prison, for the second time. Ghahremani, 20, was sentenced to death for an alleged murder that took place during a street fight when he was 18.

A murderer-for-hire who has been on death row for the past 33 years must be retried or released, a judge ruled, after it was found that some jurors were illegally excused based on their race or ethnic identity during the trial Because of prosecutorial misconduct in the selection of the jury in the trial of a convicted death row murderer-for-hire, a judge ruled that the man must now be freed or, at the very least, retried. The Alameda County prosecutor's office now has just 60 days to retry 71-year-old Curtis Lee Ervin or set him free, a California judge ruled at the request of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Ervin was found guilty of a murder-for-hire in 1986 and has been on California's death row ever since.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); May 24, 2024: Arvin Ghahremani, a young Jewish man on death row for murder, is at imminent risk of execution in Kermanshah Central Prison after his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court. His relatives say key errors in the case were intentionally ignored and Arvin’s actions to save the victim were not mentioned in the indictment.

Arvin Nathaniel Ghahremani’s family and international human rights groups fight to commute his death sentence, highlighting Iran’s severe judicial practices and discrimination The Iranian government has postponed the execution of Arvin Nathaniel Ghahremani, a 20-year-old Jewish man from the Iranian city of Kermanshah, initially scheduled for Monday, May 20, 2024. Convicted of murdering a Muslim man, Ghahremani’s case has drawn significant attention from international human rights organizations and his family, who have been tirelessly advocating for clemency. The mounting global pressure is urging relatives of the deceased to accept a payoff [ blood money ] to commute the death sentence.

Opponents of the bill, including Gov. Jeff Landry, bucked Jewish faith leaders who said nitrogen gas evokes the Holocaust. A few months after Louisiana lawmakers legalized executing death row prisoners by nitrogen gas suffocation, an effort backed by Jewish faith leaders to remove that method from state law has died for the current legislative session.

U.S.-based Persian Jews are fundraising to secure last-minute reprieve for young Jewish man scheduled for execution by hanging. The Iranian regime is gearing up to execute a young Jewish man convicted of murder on Monday, barring a last minute reprieve from the victim’s family.

A 20-year-old Jewish man is scheduled to be executed by Iranian authorities on Saturday, according to Iranian media reports. The young man has been sentenced to death following his involvement in a fatal altercation with a local non-Jewish Iranian.