Death Penalty News

The case of Lin Qi's murder by poisoning highlights corporate rivalry and the high stakes of intellectual property rights. The execution of a former Chinese gaming executive and lawyer convicted of poisoning billionaire entrepreneur Lin Qi has reignited attention around one of China's most shocking corporate murder cases, linked to the global Netflix hit 3 Body Problem . Chinese authorities confirmed that Xu Yao was executed on 21 May 2026 after being found guilty of murdering Lin, founder of gaming company Yoozoo Games, through poisoning in late 2020. Lin died on Christmas Day that year at the age of 39 after reportedly suffering acute symptoms following the consumption of poisoned food.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lyle Menendez was denied parole Friday, a day after his younger brother Erik received the same recommendation by a California state board. Their separate hearings this week come nearly 30 years after the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder for the 1989 killings of their parents. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996. But after a Los Angeles judge reduced their sentences to 50 years to life in May, they immediately became eligible for parole under California law because they were under age 26 when they committed their crimes.

Decades after they were sentenced to life without parole for murdering their parents, the Menendez brothers may have a route to freedom. But what is their case, is there new evidence and why has a decision been delayed? The Menendez brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, will soon find out if they can be released from prison. Lyle Menendez, 56, and his 53-year-old brother Erik are serving life in prison without parole for the shotgun murders of their father and mother - Jose and Kitty Menendez.

More than three decades after Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of the murders of their parents and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the brothers now see a path to their potential release. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón on Friday will recommend that a judge resentence the siblings – a decision that was the culmination of a review that came after defense attorneys said in 2023 they had new evidence pointing to abuse by their father.

The convictions of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were jailed more than three decades ago for the murder of their parents in the US, are set to be reviewed. The brothers shot Jose and Kitty Menendez at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, in what prosecutors said was a plot to inherit their father's fortune. On Thursday, LA County district attorney George Gascon said there was "a moral and an ethical obligation" to review evidence submitted by the brothers last year, which claimed they were sexually abused by their father and acted in self-defence.

Face to Face with Scott Peterson has landed on Peacock, placing renewed focus on his efforts to get a new trial. The new docu-series is worlds apart from American Murder: Laci Peterson , which dropped on Netflix earlier this month and looked at the many disturbing details that led to Scott’s conviction for the 2002 murder of his wife Laci and their unborn child Conner.

A former executive at Yoozoo Games was sentenced to death on Friday in the 2020 poisoning of the founder of the high-profile Chinese gaming company, which has links to Game of Thrones and the new Netflix series, "The Three-Body Problem." Xu Yao poisoned the food of company founder Lin Qi in December 2020 because of a dispute over the running of the business, the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court said.  The Hollywood Reporter, citing local media, reported at the time Lin was allegedly sickened by a cup of poisoned pu-erh tea.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is currently incarcerated at the so-called “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” A decade after the fatal 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, a new Netflix true-crime docuseries is revisiting the unprecedented investigation and pursuit of the two home-grown terrorists that paralyzed the New England city. American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing centers on the tense, terrifying days that followed the April 15, 2013 tragedy, culminating with the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the arrest of his then-19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The Tsarnaev brothers planted and detonated two homemade pressure-cooker bombs near the marathon’s finish line, killing three and wounding hundreds. Following his arrest days later, Dzhokhar was indicted for 30 crimes, including 17 capital offenses. In 2015, a jury found Dzhokhar guilty of all 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer. Though D...

Under the Saudi interpretation of Islamic law, consensual same-sex sexual conduct is punishable by death or flogging, depending on the perceived seriousness of the case. Gulf Arab states have demanded that Netflix remove all content deemed to violate "Islamic and societal values and principles", Saudi media report. Recent material, including that made for children, contravened regulations, Saudi and Gulf Co-operation Council media watchdogs warned in a statement. It did not provide any further details. But Saudi state TV showed blurred clips from animated show Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous , in which two teenage girls confess they love each other and kiss. Footage from the controversial French film Cuties also featured in the report by Al Ekhbariya TV, along with a caption accusing Netflix of being "cinematic cover for immoral messages that threaten the healthy upbringing of children". Another video on Al Ekhbariya's website alleged that the streaming service...

I Am A Killer is a docuseries that gives a nuanced account of murders from multiple points of view. As a psychologist, especially one who has spent a large portion of my career in forensics, it’s not a huge surprise to me that I enjoy memoirs, documentaries, and docuseries. Real-life stories give us access to the incredible diversity of human experience. When Netflix and Crime +Investigation UK released the docuseries I Am A Killer , I was intrigued, but the premise of I Am A Killer is (deceptively) simple and I admit I was initially skeptical. The summary on Netflix states “Death row inmates convicted of capital murder give firsthand accounts of their crimes in this documentary series.” Because American culture, and TV media in general, tends to sensationalize stories and depict them in largely binary terms–good versus evil–I wondered if this might be just another dehumanizing depiction of a bad guy. Or equally as bad, an overly sentimental, no-accountability view of people who com...

In Squid Game‘s first season, a mysterious organization recruits 456 broke contestants to play children’s games to win approximately $38.5 million. Losers, however, receive the death penalty for their punishment. Netflix’s most-viewed series ever, Squid Game, is slated for a second season according to CEO and chief content officer, Ted Sarandos. This is no surprise, considering that Netflix subscribers streamed 1.65 billion hours of the show only 28 days after its release. Sarandos declared that the Squid Game universe “has just begun” and believes that the South Korean thriller/drama has potential for reaching media outside the streaming service such as games, merchandise and live experiences. Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk had previously said that he has a vision for season 2. “There’s been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season. So I almost feel like you leave us no choice,” he said. “But I will say there will indeed be a second season. It’s in my ...

A North Korean nan is to be executed for bringing back a copy of Netflix's Squid Game into the country.  The smuggler, a student, is said to have returned from China with a digital version of the hit South Korean series stored on a hidden USB flash drive. But after selling copies to several people including fellow students he was caught out by the country's surveillance services. It is understood he will now be executed by firing squad - one of the grim methods by which characters in the series are also killed. RELATED | 'Squid Game' is even being watched in North Korea; viewers could face hard labor, death penalty It is believed that the arrests took place in the country's North Hamgyong province which borders with China over the last week. Radio Free Asia reported that one student who bought a copy of the drive has since received a life sentence, while six others who watched the show have been sentenced to five years hard labor. North Korea has a strict ban on mat...

Residents of the reclusive country say Squid Game is being smuggled in via USB drives, according to Radio Free Asia. Last month North Korean propaganda decried Squid Game, Netflix's latest smash hit series, as an indictment on South Korea's capitalist system. It's slightly embarrassing, then, that some North Koreans are watching the show in spite of the government's best attempts to censor and block cultural exports from the south. "Squid Game has been able to enter the country on memory storage devices such as USB flash drives and SD cards, which are smuggled in by ship and then make their way inland," a North Korean resident told Radio Free Asia, a US-funded radio service in Asia. RELATED |  North Korea | Anyone caught with media from South Korea, the U.S. or Japan now faces death penalty The resident said Squid Game speaks to both North Korean's (few) wealthy citizens, who are themselves trapped in a life-or-death situation where the spectre of imprison...

The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea is Netflix's latest true-crime documentary that you don't want to miss. The gripping three-part series documents the crimes of Yoo Young-chul, who killed 20 people, many of whom were sex workers or elderly and wealthy. The documentary features new footage and features exclusive interviews with investigators and families of the victims to help catalog the crimes that rocked South Korea in the 2000s. On July 15, 2004, Yoo was arrested by Seoul police after several massage parlor employees and the police staged an impressive sting. He initially confessed to murdering 19 people between September 2003 and July 2004, but the true number of his victims was revealed to be 20. Yoo also admitted to committing acts of cannibalism. On December 13, 2004, Yoo received the death penalty. The last time the death penalty was carried out in South Korea was in 1997 and the sentence has sparked a debate over the death penalty in the country. In So...

Netflix is now the premier purveyor of true-crime nonfiction, and few of those offerings are more binge-worthy than Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist , writer/director Barbara Schroeder and co-director Trey Borzillieri’s four-part series about 2003’s “Pizza Bomber Heist.” That crime was committed by 46-year-old Brian Wells, who robbed an Erie, Pennsylvania, PNC Bank with a shotgun made to look like a walking cane and a collar around his neck that was attached to a bomb. When that device went off, it begat a tale of intrigue and insanity that soon came to involve a corpse stuffed into a freezer in the garage of 59-year-old Bill Rothstein, who claimed he’d put it there on the orders of his 54-year-old girlfriend, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong—an intelligent and cunning woman with severe mental-health issues who, two decades earlier, had gotten away with killing a boyfriend. And that, believe it or not, isn’t even the half of it. Featuring an am...

Beginning April 15, 2020, two television series — one a new program from Netflix and the other new episodes of a returning series from CNN — will highlight stories of wrongful convictions, including some death-penalty cases. The new Netflix documentary series, The Innocence Files , will debut on April 15, with its first episode featuring the case of Texas death-row exoneree Alfred DeWayne Brown.  The fifth season of CNN’s series, Death Row Stories , will premiere on April 19 with an episode that will tell the story of Ohio death-row prisoner Tyrone Noling, who has maintained his innocence throughout the nearly 30 years he has spent on death row. The Innocence Files The Innocence Files will spend nine episodes exploring eight wrongful convictions through the themes of junk science, false eyewitness testimony, and prosecutorial misconduct. It features the work of the Innocence Project, tracing 8 stories of people exonerated with the help of the organization. A tea...