Death Penalty News

BANGKOK — 22 September 2026, The Criminal Court has sentenced “Am Cyanide” to death in her eighth poisoning case, finding her guilty of premeditated murder in the death of Jantharat “Jum” in Phetchaburi province. The court also ordered Am, 39, to pay 60,000 baht in compensation to the victim’s husband, plus 5% annual interest from 15 August 2022 until payment is complete. The judgement was read today in courtroom 712 at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok, in black case No. A 856/2568. Prosecutors had charged Am with premeditated murder for financial gain, concealing another offence or avoiding punishment for another offence, and contaminating food, medicine or other consumer products in a way that caused death.

This is the seventh judgement among the 15 cases BANGKOK: The Criminal Court on Tuesday (Aug 25, 2026) sentenced Sararat 'Am Cyanide' Rangsiwuthaporn to death for the murder of Darinee 'Fah' Thepwi, marking the seventh judgement among the 15 cases brought against her. Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn is a Thai woman at the centre of a high-profile serial cyanide-poisoning case. She is accused of fatally poisoning multiple friends and acquaintances (mostly for financial motives linked to debts and fraud), with police linking her to about 15 poisonings (14 deaths and 1 survivor) across several provinces from around 2015 to 2023.  Police tied the pattern to heavy online gambling losses and large bank transactions. The cases all involve potassium cyanide allegedly mixed into food, drinks, or other consumables. 

Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Kim So-young, who was indicted and detained on charges including killing two people with drug-laced drinks, to death. On the 18th, according to legal sources, at the sentencing hearing for defendant Kim So-young in the "Gangbuk motel serial murder case," held before the Seoul Northern District Court Criminal Division 14 (Presiding Judge Oh Byung-hee, senior judge), prosecutors sought the death penalty. They also requested, among other measures, a 30-year electronic monitoring order.

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages.  The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

A man in Indonesia has been arrested for allegedly murdering his mother-in-law using satay laced with rat poison.  Police say Purwadi Wahyudi ordered chicken skewers on 18 May, dipped them in toxic chemicals, then couriered them to the alleged victim's house because he felt disrespected by her.  He tried to frame his sister-in-law, who discovered the 57-year-old woman's body, covered in vomit, at her home in Central Java the next day, detectives added.

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.

PARK CITY, Utah (DPN) — Kouri Richins, a Utah real estate agent who authored a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death, received a life sentence without the possibility of parole Wednesday for poisoning him with a fatal dose of fentanyl. Third District Judge Richard Mrazik imposed the maximum penalty on what would have been Eric Richins’ 44th birthday. Kouri Richins, 36, remained largely impassive as the judge delivered the ruling in a Park City courtroom.

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.

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (DPN) — Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against a Western North Carolina entrepreneur accused of poisoning her family during a Thanksgiving dinner and killing a man nearly two decades ago. During a mandatory Rule 24 hearing Thursday in Henderson County Superior Court, Assistant District Attorney John Douglas Mundy announced that the state will proceed with the case against Gudrun Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel, 52, as a non-capital matter. The decision removes the possibility of an execution, meaning the maximum penalty Casper-Leinenkugel now faces is life in prison without parole.

A woman in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam was sentenced to death on Thursday for killing family members including two young children in a series of cyanide poisonings that shocked her community. The Dong Nai People's Court found 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Bich guilty of murder and of illegally possessing and using toxic chemicals. Judges described her actions as "cold-blooded, inhumane and calculated," saying Bich exploited the trust of her victims and "destroyed every ethical bond within her family."

Iranian serial killer Kolsoum Akbari, a 58-year-old woman convicted of murdering 11 former husbands over about 20 years by poisoning, was sentenced to 10 death penalties, Iranian media reported. Born in 1967, Akbari allegedly used sedatives to kill her spouses, with the murders spanning the 1990s to the 2010s. Arrested in September 2023 for trying to murder her 82-year-old husband, he survived after becoming suspicious she was trying to kill him.

On Thursday, the High People's Court of Central China's Hunan Province rejected the appeal of Zhou Liren, who was found guilty in a high-profile intentional homicide case, and upheld the death penalty handed down by the court of first-instance.  The ruling has been submitted to the Supreme People's Court for approval in accordance with the law.  The first-instance trial found that Zhou, a master's degree student at Xiangtan University, harbored resentment toward his roommates over trivial disputes.  Leveraging his academic background, which involved knowledge of colchicine, Zhou purchased the toxic powder online in January 2024 and hid it in his dormitory wardrobe after downloading multiple documents on the substance. 

Kolsum Akbari, 56, reportedly killed 11 of her husbands over a period of 22 years with the deaths having gone undetected for decades due in part to how far away the victims were from one another A woman dubbed the "black widow" after she poisoned her 11 elderly husbands over the course of two decades now faces the possibility of being put to death in Iran. Kolsum Akbari, 56, married elderly men before administering blood pressure medications, diabetes drugs, sedatives and even industrial alcohol in order to inherit their property.  Her killings went undetected for 22 years due to her husbands' health conditions and old ages. She currently awaits sentencing. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 7, 2025: Ehsan Saeedi and Manouchehr Saeedi, two cousins and co-defendants on death row for an honour killing, were executed Gorgan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, two men were hanged in Gorgan Central Prison on 6 August 2025. Their identities have been established as 26-year-old Ehsan Saeedi and 28-year-old Manouchehr Saeedi who were sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Chisako Kakehi, a woman sentenced to death for the murders of three elderly men using cyanide compounds, has died, local media reported Thursday. The 78-year-old death row inmate was convicted of murdering the men — with the intent of inheriting their assets — in Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo prefectures between 2012 and 2013. Among the victims was her 75-year-old husband, Isao. The other two were men with whom she had entered common-law relationships.

A woman in Thailand has been sentenced to death in the first of a string of cases in which she is accused of murdering 14 friends with cyanide. The court in Bangkok found Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, 36, guilty of putting poison in a wealthy friend's food and drink while they were on a trip last year.

Iranian authorities, on Wednesday, executed four people convicted of selling contaminated bootleg alcohol that killed 17 people last year.  The defendants had been sentenced to death in September 2023 for selling the contaminated alcohol that killed at least 17 people and put more than 190 others into a hospital in the province of Alborz, west of Tehran.  “The death penalty against four defendants in the case of poisoning caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages was carried out at Karaj central prison,” the judiciary’s Mizan news agency said.

Deranged nurse escapes the death penalty as she admits to killing three patients - and has been connected to 14 more - by injecting them with lethal amounts on insulin A Pennsylvania nurse who administered lethal or potentially lethal doses of insulin to numerous patients avoided the death penalty after she pleaded guilty to three counts of murder.

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.

TOKYO — A couple arrested on suspicion of fatally poisoning their 4-year-old daughter were served fresh warrants by Tokyo police on Wednesday for allegedly killing the husband's 41-year-old sister six years ago in a similar way, investigative sources said. Kenichi Hosoya, 43, and his wife Shiho Hosoya, 37, are suspected of murdering his elder sister Minako Hosoya around April 29, 2018, by poisoning her with ethylene glycol, a toxic substance found in antifreeze.