Death Penalty News

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.

Kim Jong-un has erased a top military commander and another senior official from state photos after the North Korean leader was reportedly left fuming over a failed warship launch.  Navy Commander Admiral Kim Myong Sil and and shipyard boss Hong Kil Ho were airbrushed from images showing them with their leader back in March, sparking speculation that they may have been executed. Original snaps showed Admiral King and the shipyard boss gathered next to the North Korean leader as he inspected the ship.  But now, in a move reminiscent of Joseph Stalin's tactics to erase his enemies from Soviet history, the officials have seemingly disappeared from the photos that were originally broadcast on state television. 

From 2010 to 2015 I was incarcerated in Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the Tennessee prison that houses death row for the men’s system. On one side of a gate, 250 of us lived in a “support staff” unit working maintenance, landscaping, kitchen service or whatever else kept the facility operational. On the other side of the gate were maximum-security prisoners and those in protective custody, and a unit just for the condemned.

Backed by the public, the super-rich city-state is ignoring international outrage to hang more and more low level drug couriers from ethnic minorities. Singapore is pushing to execute a growing queue of drug offenders after carrying out three hangings in two weeks, experts have told VICE News. The south-east Asian city-state, one of the richest countries in the world, has so far hanged 16 people since resuming state executions in March last year.  All of those executed are low- to mid-level drug offenders convicted of trafficking amounts of drugs that would get relatively small punishments in the UK and US. Most are from Singapore's minority Indian and Malay communities. 

The following story was published on April 25, 2023, prior to the execution of Tangaraju Suppiah, a 46-year-old Singaporean convicted of conspiracy to traffick marijuana. The Singaporean government is very secretive about how it carries out the death penalty, so little is known about what death penalty inmates experience in the last few days before their executions.  As the state prepares to execute Tangaraju Suppiah , a 46-year-old Singaporean convicted of conspiracy to traffick marijuana, tomorrow at dawn, the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), a local activist group working to abolish the death penalty, recently posted some slides detailing how Tangaraju’s last few days have been spent based on information collected from his relatives. 

SINGAPORE: Death row inmate Nazeri Lajim beams at the camera, fingers raised in a “V” sign, wearing a shirt emblazoned with large motifs and showing no signs of his impending hanging. Taken days before his execution at Singapore’s Changi prison, the picture is among the last mementoes Lajim’s family has of the 64-year-old, who was executed on charges of drug trafficking. In the city-state, prison officials offer a photo shoot shortly before an inmate’s hanging, providing simple props like chairs and other items. “When I see his photograph, he’s (a) very healthy man, he’s very good looking man... his face shines,” Nazira Lajim Hertslet, his sister, told AFP. “I was very upset... that he was taken away just like that.”

In January, NPR aired excerpts from four tapes recorded behind the scenes during Virginia executions. It was only the second time in history that audio from inside an execution chamber had ever been published. The records revealed details about the last seconds of prisoners’ lives and indicated the Virginia Department of Corrections may have tried to cover up one of the state’s recent botched executions. A former employee donated the four tapes and hundreds of other execution documents to the Library of Virginia more than a decade ago. But shortly after NPR aired the audio, something unusual happened. A representative from the Department of Corrections requested that the library give the records back. Within a week, the library complied. The collection is once again behind prison walls.

Eighty years ago on Monday [June 17, 2019], a crowd gathered to watch what was to become the last public execution by guillotine in France — a grim spectacle that was captured on film. Onlookers lined up for hours to be in the front row to see the blade fall on the neck of convicted murderer Eugen Weidmann. His execution took place in front of the doors of the Saint-Pierre prison, in the centre of Versailles, on June 17, 1939. Executions were supposed to take place before sunrise, but dealing with the crowd delayed preparations and reporters were able to take photos and even film the event. The shocking images and the behaviour of the baying crowd led France to banish the use of guillotines to within prison walls until their final use, in 1977. Weidmann, a 31-year-old German with a string of previous criminal convictions, was sentenced to death for six murders committed in France with three accomplices.  Among their victims was an American dancer who had ...

TOKYO -- With its bare cells, the Tokyo Detention Center looks much like a high-security prison, but most of those who get incarcerated here, including former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, have not been convicted of any crime. Japan's system of refusing bail while suspects await trial, often for months, has drawn international criticism as "hostage justice." Foreign media got a rare tour of the austere, drab but orderly facility on Monday, but only of floors without inmates. Each solitary cell has only a toilet, folded bedding, a shelf and a sink. A window looks out into a bit of sky. Simple meals of rice and soup with a tiny portion of meat or fish are served from a sliding window. Ghosn, who spent 130 days at the facility over two separate detention periods, says he is innocent of financial misconduct allegations. He is out on bail, but 1,216 of the 1,758 current inmates have not been convicted and are awaiting trial. The solitary cells measur...

These photos are just in from our friends at Death Penalty Focus ​: Click here to thank Governor Newsom ​! RELATED | California death penalty: Governor Gavin Newsom to halt executions Source: medium.com/@deathpenaltyaction , March 13, 2019 ⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com . Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE! "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

The Ku Klux Klan rallying in support of a black man’s execution in Texas. The North Carolina death row warden wheeling a gurney into the execution chamber. Weeping family members at the moment of a loved one’s execution. These are just a few of the images captured in Scott Langley’s chilling death penalty documentary photography project, which is the most comprehensive collection of original death penalty photographs available from one source. The documentary includes execution vigils, inside an execution chamber, the hours leading up to an execution, portraits of exonerated death row prisoners, celebrities opposed to the death penalty, marches, demonstrations and candid emotional and prayerful moments in the context of the death penalty in the United States. The project started in 1999 and continues today, providing images to publications, educational institutions and national organizations in the work to educate about capital punishment. About the project Exe...

The Singapore High Commission today clarified that the photoshoot involving convicted drug trafficker Prabu N. Pathmanathan in the week before his execution was done at his request. In a statement, the Singapore High Commission said that the photos were given only to Prabu’s family. The commission denied earlier claims by lawyer N. Surendran who criticised the Singapore government for conducting a photoshoot the week before Prabu’s execution . “There have been media reports on the photoshoot of Mr Prabu. The High Commission would like to clarify that the photoshoot was carried out only upon Mr Prabu’s request and only Mr Prabu’s family was given the photos,” read the 6-paragraph statement. On October 26, Surendran slammed the Singapore government for taking Malaysian citizen Prabu to a photoshoot the week before the latter’s execution. He said the practice was “macabre”, and did not absolve Singapore from carrying out the capital punishment despite pleas for leni...

In Tokyo's red light district neighborhood of Kabukichi, Shinjuku, Chim↑Pom— a Japanese guerilla art collective — has opened a pop-up restaurant serving the last meals requested by famous death row inmates. Dubbed the Ningen Restaurant (translated as "human restaurant"), the pop-up, which operates until October 28, offers meals requested by convicted criminals such as Gary Mark Gilmore before they were executed. Gilmore, a serial criminal, was convicted on counts of armed robbery, assault, and two murders he had committed in Utah. His case gained international attention after he demanded to receive the death sentence for his crimes. RELATED :  “A Year of Killing” - A Photographer's Project For his last meal, Gilmore opted for a hamburger, mashed potatoes, a hard-boiled egg, and multiple shots of whiskey. According to Munchies, Gilmore requested Jack Daniels, though Chim↑Pom's version uses Maker's Mark instead. Chim↑Pom reportedly features the ...