Death Penalty News

On Sept. 11, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant for William Thompson, convicted of the 1976 kidnapping, rape, and murder of 23-year-old Sally Ivester. Thompson, now 74, and another man were staying in a Miami Beach hotel room with Ivester and another woman, according to court records. After Ivester was unable to get money from her mother, the men beat and tortured her, prosecutors said. She died from internal bleeding and multiple injuries. Thompson was convicted in 1978 of kidnapping, rape, and first-degree murder.

In Florida’s 15th execution this year, man put to death for killing linked to ‘Hog Trail Murders’  A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death Thursday, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year.  Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. after receiving a 3-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He had been sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded southwest Florida area where authorities found the remains of at least 6 people over a 3-year span.

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County jury has recommended the death penalty for a 65-year-old man who was found guilty last week of raping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Sentencing for Jeffrey Crum was held this week. Crum abducted Odom in 1993 after she stepped off her school bus in Pasco County. Her body was found in a Hernando County orange grove six days later.

Three prisoners, including a Kurdish man and a woman, have been executed at Karaj Central Prison in separate cases.  Two of the prisoners, Sajjad Shirzadi and Farshad Safari, had been sentenced to death by the Iranian judiciary on charges of “premeditated murder.” According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a woman was executed at Karaj Central Prison on Sunday morning, August 23, 2026. Her identity remains under investigation by Hengaw.

Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Michael Caruso, a former Republican state legislator who previously backed the death penalty for adults convicted of sexually battering children under 12, was arrested Tuesday on five felony child sex abuse charges. The 67-year-old married father of seven who was appointed by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faces five felony counts: kidnapping, child molestation, lewd exhibition, luring or enticing a child, and child abuse causing mental injury, an arrest affidavit shows.

A Tarrant County judge has denied Tanner Horner’s request for a new trial after he was sentenced to death for the 2022 murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand.  Judge George Gallagher declined to sign an order granting Horner’s motion, which automatically resulted in the request being denied.  Horner’s attorneys argued that extensive media coverage surrounding the case affected potential witnesses and prevented him from receiving a fair trial. The defense claimed the publicity caused key witnesses to refuse to testify. 

HOLMES COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – In just three minutes, Johnny Mack “Sketo” Calhoun was sentenced to death for a second time Friday morning. “It is the order of this court that Johnny Sketo Mack Calhoun be sentenced to death in a manner prescribed by the state of Florida for the first-degree murder of Mia Chay Brown,” said Chief Judge Christopher Patterson. After the eight-day resentencing hearing in April, a jury recommended that Calhoun receive the death penalty for the 2010 murder of Mia Chay Brown.

The defense argues that extensive media coverage prevented Horner from receiving a fair trial Defense attorneys for Tanner Horner, the former FedEx contract delivery driver sentenced to death for the 2022 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand, are asking a judge to grant him a new trial. The motion argues that extensive media coverage surrounding the case prevented Horner from receiving a fair trial. Defense attorneys said some potential witnesses declined to testify because of the publicity. Horner's trial was moved from Wise County to Tarrant County because of widespread attention the case received, including on social media.

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The state will seek the death penalty against a Tampa man charged with first-degree murder and accused of stabbing his girlfriend 65 times, the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office said. State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit Court Suzy Lopez told 8 On Your Side the aggravating factors that are necessary for the death penalty are present in this case. “The state legislature gives us enumerated aggravators. And here in this case, this crime was perpetrated in a very heinous, atrocious, and cruel way. Those are actually the words the legislature has given us,” she said.

Dubai: Kuwait has executed five men convicted of murder and other serious crimes after their death sentences were upheld by the country's highest courts and ratified by the Emir, the Public Prosecution said. The executions were carried out by hanging at the Central Prison after all legal procedures had been completed, according to a statement carried by local media. The public prosecution said the convicts had been granted all constitutional guarantees, including the right to defense and appeal throughout the investigation and trial process. 

Gov. Kay Ivey announced the execution window for Jeremy Williams Thursday. Williams will be executed during a window from August 13 to 14 by lethal injection. Williams was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 5-year-old Kamarie Holland from Georgia. He was given four death sentences for his crime. Russell County Circuit Court Judge David Johnson handed down the sentence.

This week, the prosecution in the case of a murder of a 17-year-old girl in Hokkaido came out with its sentencing recommendation. Japanese social media reacted by clamoring for the accused woman’s blood. But, while the facts of the case are heinous, the prosecutor’s decision not to seek the death penalty is grounded in long-standing precedent. Murdered for looking at the accused wrong Uchida Riko (内田梨瑚), 23, and her friends stand accused of murdering 17-year-old Murayama Runa (村山瑠奈) in Hokkaido’s Asahikawa. Prosecutors say the dispute began after Murayama posted a photo of Uchida to social media. They say Uchida’s group abducted the girl, made her undress, and then forced her to jump from a bridge.

Convicted child killer Tanner Horner has now taken up residence in one of the most brutal death row prisons after being sentenced to die by a Texas jury last month. Horner is incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit, an infamously restrictive prison outside Houston where the state's death row inmates are housed in an all-solitary confinement wing and spend at least 22 hours a day in their 60-square-foot cells. The former FedEx deliveryman, 34, was booked at the notorious prison on May 5 within hours of being sentenced for the gruesome murder of Athena Strand, 7, whom he admitted strangling while delivering a Christmas gift to her home in November 2022.

Texas puts man to death for a retired professor's killing in its 600th execution since 1982  A man who experts for both prosecutors and defense attorneys had said was intellectually disabled became the 600th person executed in Texas since 1982, put to death Thursday evening for the killing of a retired 77-year-old college professor.  Edward Busby Jr. was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m. local time following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, hours after a divided Supreme Court lifted a stay over his disabilities claims. The execution followed a series of last-minute legal efforts by Busby's attorneys in a bid to spare his life after the nation’s high court lifted a stay hours earlier.

20 years after being sentenced to death for the 2004 murders of Mikiala “Miki” Martinez and Darren Wornkey in Barton County, Sidney Gleason is asking the governor to commute his sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Gleason has applied for executive clemency.  Anyone wishing to comment should send information in writing to the Prisoner Review Board, Jayhawk Walk, 714 SW Jackson, Suite 300; Topeka, KS 66603-3722.  The Federal Public Defender’s office will publish a legal notice in the May 12 Great Bend Tribune and written comments should be submitted within 15 days of publication (May 27). 

The capital murder trial of Tanner Horner is over, but for Athena Strand's family, the grief and trauma are far from done. After weeks of emotional testimony and graphic evidence, Horner was sentenced to death this week for the murder of 7‑year‑old Athena Strand. The case that shook North Texas now moves into a new phase, one legal experts say could last for years. Christy Jack, a partner at Varghese Summersett who has handled multiple death penalty cases, said cases involving children carry a weight unlike almost any other.

DALLAS (AP) — A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old girl he took from her Texas home while delivering a Christmas gift. Jurors in a Fort Worth courtroom decided on Tanner Horner's punishment after hearing about a month of testimony and evidence that included audio of Athena Strand's last moments from inside his delivery van. Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder last month in the 2022 killing just as his trial began. Athena's body was found two days after she was reported missing from her home in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth.

Horner, 35, pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping The sentencing trial of former FedEx driver Tanner Horner enters its final week Monday in a Tarrant County courtroom in Fort Worth as jurors prepare to decide whether he will receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole for the 2022 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Horner, 35, pleaded guilty to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping on April 7, 2026, just as jury selection wrapped and testimony was set to begin. 

Tanner Horner apologised to Athena Strand's loved ones for 'taking their little angel away' in a two-page letter Athena Strand's killer penned a letter to her family apologising for 'taking their little angel away' - before chillingly claiming he 'wasn't the only one involved' in another addressed to investigators. Tanner Horner, 34, confessed to abducting and murdering the seven-year-old on 30 November, 2022, after delivering a parcel to her dad's home in Paradise, Texas. Jurors - who were left in tears after listening to distressing audio of the little girl's final moments last week - must now decide if the former FedEx driver should face the death penalty or life in prison.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Attorneys for death row inmate Tony Carruthers filed a motion in Shelby County Criminal Court seeking immediate DNA testing on evidence they claim will prove his innocence in a 1994 triple murder.  Carruthers is scheduled for execution on May 12. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murders of 24-year-old Marcellos Anderson, 17-year-old Delois Anderson, and 21-year-old Frederick Scarborough. Prosecutors at trial alleged the victims were buried alive in a Memphis cemetery as part of a drug-related robbery.