Death Penalty News

ATLANTA, Ga. — The man accused of stabbing and killing a 66-year-old woman on a MARTA train last Saturday has caught the attention of federal prosecutors. John Elijah Matthews, 25, faces a federal charge of committing an act of violence causing death on a mass transportation station, the District Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said on Tuesday. He was also charged with murder in Fulton County.

A court in Tay Ninh Province, southern Vietnam has sentenced a 23-year-old factory worker to death for murdering a roadside coffee shop owner during a robbery last year. Tran Van Quy, from Cai Doi Vam Commune, southern Ca Mau Province, was convicted of murder at a first-instance trial held by the Tay Ninh People’s Court on Wednesday. According to the indictment, Quy had been living with his wife’s parents in Tay Ninh while working as a factory laborer. Mounting debts and financial difficulties drove him to plan a robbery.

Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, could face execution if convicted as charged. Authorities are also investigating his use of ChatGPT. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for the man accused of murdering two University of South Florida graduate students, Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez’s office announced Friday. Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, is accused of stabbing Nahida Bristy and Zamil Limon to death before disposing their bodies in trash bags. The friends went missing on April 16. It took a week for Limon’s body to be found in a trash bag on the north side of the Howard Frankland Bridge. A kayaker found Bristy’s body in the water nearby a few days later.

Cumberland County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a Fayetteville man accused of slaughtering his grandmother, 13-year-old sister and 4-year-old cousin in an attack at the family home from which other children — including an 11-year-old who called 911 — escaped. The state's formal declaration that Mackendy Darbouze would be tried for his life came during a May 7 hearing in Cumberland County Superior Court. Darbouze, 26, a native of Haiti, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Feb. 21, 2025, deaths of Beatrice Desir, 77, Gloria Darbouze, 13, and Garmaelle Joseph, 4, according to court records. The night of his arrest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on him.

A Ugandan-American man was sentenced to death on Thursday over the murder of four young children he stabbed to death at a kindergarten in Uganda's capital. Christopher Okello Onyum was arrested on 2 April as he tried to flee the daycare centre in Kampala, where he killed the tiny children, aged between 15 months to two-and-a-half years. Prosecutors said Onyum, who holds Ugandan and US citizenship, confessed to the crime, believing the "human sacrifice" would help him become rich, although he eventually pleaded not guilty in court.

The Shubra El Kheima Criminal Court has sentenced the defendant in the killing of Mirna Gamal Abdel Tawab—widely known in the media as the “Khosous Girl”—to death by hanging.  The verdict was issued after receiving the opinion of the Dar Al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, which approved the implementation of the death penalty. The court concluded that the charges against the defendant were proven based on case files and official investigations, according to local reports.  The Public Prosecution charged the 26-year-old defendant, a ceramic tile worker identified as “K.N.D.” from the Khosous area, with premeditated murder. Investigations revealed that he had planned the crime after the victim’s family rejected his proposal to marry her. 

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

Masanori Aoki, now 34, stabbed two women who were taking a walk in the city of Nakano, then shot two policemen with a hunting rifle A Japanese court has sentenced to death a man who killed four people in a shooting and stabbing attack in 2023, rejecting the defence's argument that he has schizophrenia. Masanori Aoki, now 34, stabbed two women who were taking a walk in the city of Nakano and then shot two policemen - who arrived at the scene after receiving an emergency call - with a hunting rifle. Gun violence is rare in Japan, where strict firearms laws are in place. Even rarer is the shooting of multiple police officers. The last such incident happened more than 30 years ago.

According to the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes under South Korean law, the murder of a child under the age of 13 after abduction or enticement is punishable by death or life imprisonment. SEOUL – Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a teacher accused of stabbing a first grader to death at an elementary school in Daejeon this year. During a hearing at the Daejeon District Court, prosecutors argued that Myeong Jae-wan, the 48-year-old elementary school teacher, should face capital punishment for the murder of the student, Kim Ha-neul, on Feb. 10.

China singer-actor Zhang Yiyang was executed in 2024 for murder of teenage girlfriend, court confirms Chinese singer-actor Zhang Yiyang was sentenced to death by firing squad in December 2024 for the murder of his 16-year-old girlfriend in 2022, a recent investigation report from a Chinese court has confirmed. Zhang is said to be the first Chinese entertainer to be given the death penalty. The report from the Intermediate People's Court of Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, which has circulated in Chinese media, stated that Zhang and his then-girlfriend started dating in September 2021. But when she would propose to break up, Zhang would refuse and often threaten her with suicide.

Dubai: A 28-year-old Kuwaiti man is currently on trial in Kuwait's Criminal Court, facing charges of fatally stabbing his mother and seriously injuring his 10-year-old brother in the Sabah Al Salem district. The accused has confessed, stating that he was under the influence of crystal meth at the time of the attack. He claimed he assaulted his mother after she refused to give him money to buy more drugs. According to his statement, the refusal "drove him crazy," prompting the fatal stabbing. When his younger brother witnessed the attack, the accused allegedly turned the knife on him, inflicting serious injuries.

Hadi Matar, the man who severely injured novelist Salman Rushdie in a 2022 stabbing attack, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison — the maximum for attempted murder. Matar, 27, was found guilty of second-degree attempted murder in February for his attack on the author at the nonprofit Chautauqua Institution in New York state in August 2022. A knife-wielding Matar leapt onto the stage where Rushdie was about to give a lecture, stabbing the author multiple times in the face, neck, arm, abdomen and eye.

Hong Kong – China has executed a man over the fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen, southern China, in September last year, it was learned Monday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry informed the Japanese Embassy in Beijing the same day of the execution of Zhong Changchun, but did not provide details, such as when and where the punishment was carried out, diplomatic sources said. The stabbing, which took place on Sept. 18, 2024, occurred as the 10-year-old boy was walking to a local Japanese school.  The boy was stabbed in the stomach with a knife and died the following day.

Beijing, April 17 (Jiji Press)--A man sentenced to death in China over an attack on two Japanese people that left a Chinese woman dead has been executed, people familiar with relations between Japan and China said Thursday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry informed the Japanese Embassy in China of the execution on Wednesday.  The specific date and time of the execution remain unknown. The man, Zhou Jiasheng, was convicted of intentional murder over the incident last June, in which he attacked with a knife a Japanese woman and her child waiting at a bus stop for a Japanese school bus in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, eastern China.

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A New Jersey man was convicted Friday of attempted murder for stabbing author Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage in 2022. Jurors delivered the verdict after deliberating for less than two hours, also finding Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of assault for wounding a man who was on the Chautauqua Institution stage with Rushdie at the time. Matar ran up to Rushdie as he was about to speak on Aug. 12, 2022, and stabbed him more than a dozen times before a live audience. The attack left the 77-year-old prizewinning novelist blind in one eye.

Taipei, Feb. 19 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court on Wednesday upheld a life sentence for a man who stabbed a convenience store clerk to death over being asked to wear a face mask. Taoyuan resident Chiang Chia-kai (蔣嘉凱) was originally given the death penalty for the November 2021 murder, which occurred during Taiwan's strict mask mandate due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Taoyuan District Court's December 2022 sentence was reduced when the case was automatically sent for appeal to the Taiwan High Court, in accordance with Article 344 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The man charged with stabbing writer Sir Salman Rushdie is facing trial in the US, with jury selection starting on Tuesday. Hadi Matar is charged with attempted murder and assault over the August 2022 incident that left Mr Rushdie blind in one eye. Mr Matar, 27, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial at Chautauqua County Court in New York state, which was delayed twice, will reportedly see Mr Rushdie give evidence and face the accused in court.

The sentence for the knife attack in the southern city of Shenzhen in September was handed down on Friday, according to Japanese media reports A Chinese man has been sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy, in a case that sparked concern among Japanese expats living in China. The sentence for the knife attack in the southern city of Shenzhen in September was handed down on Friday, according to Japanese media reports.

China on Monday executed a man who killed 35 people in a car rampage in the southern city of Zhuhai in November, in the country's deadliest mass attack in years. On November 11, Fan Weiqiu, 62, deliberately drove a small SUV through crowds of people exercising outside a sports complex, also injuring 45 in China's worst such crime since 2014. He was sentenced to death last month , with a court saying his motives "were extremely vile, (and) the nature of the crime extremely egregious". State broadcaster CCTV said Monday a Zhuhai court "executed Fan Weiqiu in accordance with the execution order issued by the Supreme People's Court".

19th September 2024 – (Qingdao) A 25-year-old man, Li Mouyong, was sentenced to death by the Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court on October 18 for the brutal murders of two kindergarten teachers in Pingdu, Shandong Province.  The court found Li guilty of intentional homicide, stripping him of his political rights for life. The tragic incident occurred on 11th December, when Li forcibly entered the rented accommodation of the two teachers, fatally stabbing one, Li Moufei, before proceeding to kill another teacher, Liu.