Death Penalty News

If Bryan Kohberger successfully withdraws his guilty plea and goes to trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, it could lead to him being sentenced to death, experts told Newsweek . Kohberger, 31, filed a handwritten petition on Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, where he is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbings just over a year ago, a month before jury selection was set to start.

Like Gov. Mike DeWine, most agreed the death penalty is broken and does not deter crime, but not always with the same reasoning. Some people on Ohio’s death row praised Gov. Mike DeWine for having the courage to come out against the death penalty. Others said actions speak louder than words, and they want the governor to commute their death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. But all agreed with the governor on one thing: Ohio’s death penalty law is broken. DeWine said long delays in carrying out executions undermine its intended function as a deterrent. Condemned prisoners resoundingly said that the possibility of being executed never stopped anyone from committing murder.

It has been nearly 40 years since my mother, Marguerite, was murdered in a small town near Houston. It has been almost 19 years since the man who murdered her was executed. His death did not heal my pain — I still miss my mother every day — and it did not feel like “justice.” Instead, my personal experience with the death penalty left me firmly convinced that it is both a false promise to the families of murder victims and a failed public policy. That is why, as a current Kansas resident, I urge Gov. Laura Kelly to commute the death sentences of the nine men on Kansas’ death row to life without parole.

A man charged with the targeted killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in what prosecutors described as an act of political violence has pleaded guilty, avoiding a potential death penalty under a plea deal. Vance Boelter said he shot and killed Democrat Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their Minnesota home last June. Boelter also admitted to shooting state lawmaker John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, in their home. The couple survived the attack. Boetler, 58, pleaded guilty to six counts, which include murder and stalking, and is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Supreme Court says capital punishment can be awarded only when life imprisonment is unquestionably foreclosed; commutes death sentence in Uttarakhand double murder case to 25 years without remission. The Supreme Court recently observed that capital punishment can be awarded only when the alternative of life imprisonment is unquestionably foreclosed. Court explained that while deciding whether a convict deserves the death penalty, judges must carefully balance aggravating and mitigating circumstances, taking into account not only the nature of the crime but also the background of the offender, prior antecedents, socio-economic circumstances, and the possibility of reformation and rehabilitation.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has scheduled the execution of Jeffrey Lee by nitrogen suffocation for June 11, 2026, even though his capital jury voted 7-5 against the death penalty and chose a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. The trial judge overrode the jury’s verdict and sentenced Mr. Lee to death in 2000, relying on a unique Alabama practice that allowed judges to overrule jury verdicts in death penalty cases. Alabama is the only state where judges overrode jury verdicts of life to impose the death penalty routinely—in more than 100 cases since 1976. As a result, nearly 20% of the people currently on Alabama’s death row were sentenced to death by elected judges even after their juries chose life imprisonment without parole.

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband and was later found guilty of killing him finds out Wednesday how long she will spend in prison. Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing her husband’s cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. Prosecutors said Richins, a 35-year-old real estate agent with a house-flipping business, was millions in debt and planning a future with another man. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband Eric Richins without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million after he died.

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). 

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

Jerome Anderson shot and killed Antoine Melvin, 42, John Burch, 65, and Patrick Lassiter, 35, in 2023. A man pleaded no contest to a triple-murder in Daytona Beach and was sentenced April 20 to three consecutive life terms in prison as part of a plea deal in which he avoided a possible death sentence. Jerome Anderson, 41, was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the 2023 triple-slaying. Anderson pleaded no contest to the three first-degree murder charges April 20 and, in exchange, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak agreed not to continue to pursue the death penalty.

Senate bill would replace capital punishment with life without parole  Two Kentucky state senators have introduced legislation that would eliminate the death penalty in the commonwealth, replacing it with mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole or probation.  Senate Bill 350 was introduced by Senators Gerald Neal and Stephen Meredith. Neal, a Louisville Democrat, said he has been advocating for the measure since 2012. “Basically, it substitutes life without parole as opposed to the death penalty itself,” Neal said.

The Supreme Court acquitted ten prisoners who had been on death row, the highest number of such acquittals in the past decade. The Supreme Court of India has not confirmed a single death penalty in the last three years, according to an annual statistics report on death penalties in India published by The Square Circle Clinic, a criminal justice initiative at the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. In fact, in 2025, the top court acquitted ten prisoners who had been on death row, the highest number of such acquittals in the past decade.  The report, which examined death penalty trends across India over the last ten years, found that the Sessions Courts handed down 1,310 death sentences nationwide between 2016 and 2025. “Despite growing judicial scepticism at higher levels,” the lower courts sentenced 128 individuals to death in 2025 alone, the report said. 

After about 4 hours of deliberations, jurors on Friday recommended Harrel Braddy should be sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of 5-year-old Quantisha Maycock.  A South Florida man who dropped off a 5-year-old child in the Everglades to be eaten alive by gators nearly 3 decades ago was given a second chance at life as jurors recommended he should spend the rest of his life behind bars instead of being sent to death row. After about four hours of deliberations, jurors on Friday recommended Harrel Braddy should be sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of 5-year-old Quantisha Maycock. 

A bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Rohit Kapoor allowed the appeal filed by the two convicts and commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has commuted to life imprisonment the death penalty of two men convicted for kidnapping and murdering a minor boy for ransom in 2005 on the grounds of their illegal solitary confinement and the state’s delay in deciding mercy petitions. A bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Rohit Kapoor allowed the appeal filed by the two convicts and commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment for the remainder of their natural lives without any commutation or premature release.

More than two decades after Laci Peterson vanished from her Modesto, California, home, the murder case that captivated the nation continues to draw legal challenges, public debate and renewed attention. As the year comes to a close, Scott Peterson, convicted in 2004 of murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son Conner, remains behind bars, serving life without the possibility of parole. His wife disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002, and a few months later, the remains of Laci and Conner were found in the San Francisco Bay.

Dec. 19 (Asia Today) -- Japanese prosecutors have asked the Nara District Court to sentence Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, to life in prison for the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, opting not to seek the death penalty. At a hearing Thursday, prosecutors condemned the killing as an attack on the rule of law, arguing that violence aimed at changing society cannot be excused regardless of motive. In closing arguments, prosecutors cited four factors supporting a severe sentence: the brutality of the method, extensive premeditation, the magnitude of social impact and what they called the irrationality of the motive.

When something goes wrong, prison staff absorb the consequences. Florida’s execution pace is testing the limits of the law — and its workforce. I spent years inside Florida’s execution chamber as warden of Florida State Prison, personally overseeing three executions. I know what it takes to carry out a death sentence, and it permanently changed my view of capital punishment. That experience is why a recent lawsuit filed by death row inmate Frank Walls in advance of his scheduled execution Thursday should concern every Floridian.

The board said he can next be eligible for parole in three years. Erik Menendez was denied parole during his first-ever parole hearing on Thursday, 36 years and one day after he and his brother killed their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. Erik Menendez, 54, attended the nearly 10-hour hearing via video from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. The board said he can next be eligible for parole in three years.

Jennifer Herron is the daughter of Maurine Hunsaker, who was murdered by Utah death row inmate Ralph Menzies. I am the oldest daughter born to Maurine Hunsaker, who was murdered by Ralph Menzies in 1986. She was 17 years old at the time of my birth. She was on welfare and barely getting by having one child before me, and for that and other reasons I was placed for adoption. Unlike my older brother, I don’t recall meeting my birth mother, but it is possible that I did. My grandmother was a friend of the family that adopted me, which is how the adoption was arranged.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided federal appeals court on Friday threw out an agreement that would have allowed accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to plead guilty in a deal sparing him the risk of execution for al-Qaida’s 2001 attacks. The decision by a panel of the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., undoes an attempt to wrap up more than two decades of military prosecution beset by legal and logistical troubles. It signals there will be no quick end to the long struggle by the U.S. military and successive administrations to bring to justice the man charged with planning one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States.