Death Penalty News

Two for­mer California death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers, Ernest Dykes and Curtis Ervin , have filed law­suits against Alameda County, accus­ing the District Attorney’s office of ​“set[ting] out to rig the juries” in their cap­i­tal cas­es. Both men were released from prison after their death sen­tences were reduced because of the dis­cov­ery of uncon­sti­tu­tion­al pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct dur­ing each of their jury selec­tions in the 1990s. The law­suits allege that the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office (ACDAO) had a long-stand­ing prac­tice of engag­ing in racial dis­crim­i­na­tion dur­ing jury selec­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es. ​“The evi­dence shows that the errors were com­mit­ted know­ing­ly and not in iso­la­tion, but rather, borne from the prod­uct of a pat­tern and prac­tice rein­forced by those with super­vi­so­ry author­i­ty with­in the ACDAO,” the suits state. Both law­suits accuse the ACDAO of vio­lat­ing the men’s right to a fair tri­al by uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly...

A Japanese man has appealed against his life sentence for fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a district court spokesperson said on Wednesday. Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, sent shockwaves through Japan after he shot and killed its longest-serving prime minister with a homemade gun in July 2022, while Abe was delivering a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. “An appeal was filed,” said the spokesperson. The Osaka High Court will review the appeal. Yamagami was sentenced to life in prison by the Nara District Court on January 21, 2026, after admitting to the murder, using a homemade gun during Abe's campaign speech in Nara.

When Lance Shockley was exe­cut­ed in Missouri in October 2025, he request­ed the pres­ence of his daugh­ter, an ordained min­is­ter, in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber as his spir­i­tu­al advis­er. The Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC) denied his request, and Mr. Shockley was exe­cut­ed. His case rep­re­sents one exam­ple of how states have applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 rul­ing in Ramirez v. Collier , a deci­sion that acknowl­edged the reli­gious rights of death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers at the time of their exe­cu­tion. In its 8 – 1 rul­ing, the Supreme Court held that John Ramirez, a death-sen­tenced pris­on­er in Texas, had the right to have a spir­i­tu­al advis­er touch him and pray aloud dur­ing his exe­cu­tion. The Court based this deci­sion on both the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and urged states to adopt clear poli­cies for allow­ing spir­i­tu­al advis­ers into execution chambers.

NARA, Japan — More than three years after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stunned Japan and reverberated around the world, the man who killed the country’s longest-serving leader was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. The ruling brings formal closure to one of the most shocking crimes in Japan’s postwar history, while leaving unresolved questions about political accountability, religious influence, and the rare eruption of gun violence in a nation defined by its absence.

During Lance Shockley's final moments in Missouri's execution chamber in October 2025, he wanted his daughter, an ordained minister, by his side as his spiritual adviser. A few years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had expanded religious rights for the condemned, saying spiritual advisers could accompany them into the execution chamber and could touch them while praying aloud. But the Missouri Department of Corrections refused Shockley his chosen spiritual adviser, and he died alone.

Murder vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers hold a wide range of views about what jus­tice means. For some, the death penal­ty holds the promise of clo­sure, while for oth­ers, it is a source of con­tin­ued trau­ma and uncer­tain­ty. In two recent cas­es, vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers have pub­licly expressed their oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty, cit­ing their reli­gious views and need to forgive.

July 2 (UPI) -- Religious leaders across Florida have penned a letter asking Gov. Ron DeSantis to pause executions after more prisoners were put to death in a single year since the death penalty was reinstated half a century ago. The letter will be sent to DeSantis on July 8, when hundreds of faith leaders are expected to gather at First Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee before marching to the State Capitol to deliver the letter. The demonstration will be livestreamed beginning at 11 a.m. local time. The demonstration comes after Florida scheduled its eighth and ninth executions for the year. Last month, Florida executed its seventh prisoner of the year, Thomas Gudinas, who was convicted for the 1994 rape and murder of a woman outside an Orlando bar.

Convict’s relatives continue to threaten slain man’s family A judge in Pakistan sentenced to death a Muslim who murdered a 20-year-old Christian in the presence of his family, sources said.  Saima Riyasat, additional sessions judge of Pasrur, Sialkot District, handed the country’s maximum punishment for murder to Muhammad Zubair for killing Farhan Ul Qamar on Nov. 9, 2023, said Christian attorney Lazar Allah Rakha. The court also imposed a fine of 500,000 Pakistani Rupees ($1,785 USD), he said. 

(RNS) — When 67-year-old Brad Sigmon was put to death on March 7 in South Carolina for the murder of his then-girlfriend's parents, it was the first time in 15 years that an execution in the United States had been carried out by a firing squad. United Methodist minister Hillary Taylor, Sigmon's spiritual adviser since 2020, said the multifaceted, months long effort to save Sigmon's life, and to provide emotional and spiritual support for his legal team, and the aftermath of his execution has been a "whirlwind" said Taylor, the director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

In a three-day span from March 18 to March 20, four men were exe­cut­ed in four dif­fer­ent states. Two of the men put to death, in Louisiana and Arizona, were the first exe­cut­ed in their state in years. While the close tim­ing of the exe­cu­tions result­ed from inde­pen­dent state-lev­el deci­sions and indi­vid­u­al­ized legal devel­op­ments rather than any coor­di­nat­ed nation­al effort, all four exe­cu­tions raised seri­ous constitutional concerns.

Who suffers the most through decades of appeals? Who suffers the most when justice delayed turns into justice denied? The families who were victimized.  Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, represents Ohio’s 3rd senate district and is the vice chairperson of the senate judiciary committee. Reynolds is also on the host committee of the council of state governments midwestern legislative conference and the vice chair of the conference’s criminal justice and public safety committee.

In a July podcast episode from Deeper Dive with Dara Kam, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush spoke about his beliefs on capital punishment and his regrets about not having enough time to reform Florida’s death penalty process.  Gov. Bush, who oversaw 21 executions during his eight years in office, said that “it’s one of those things that would probably be unpopular to do, but figuring out a way to reform the system given the existing laws that we have now, I think would be appropriate.” He added that in his “last year, [he] certainly considered it,” but ran out of time. 

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Utah's next execution is days away, when convicted murderer and death row inmate Taberon Honie will died by lethal injection at the state prison. Honie was sentenced to die for the murder of Claudia Benn, his ex-girlfriend's mother, in the mid '90s. Leading up to Thursday, when Honie's sentence is scheduled to be carried out at 12:01 a.m., a group opposing capital punishment is holding a series of events that began Friday at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City.

Family members of Claudia Benn, the woman murdered by Honie, said they want the execution to move forward. Abe Bonowitz, a national advocate against the death penalty, asked a group of Utahns to name the words carved into the face of the U.S. Supreme Court building. “Equal justice under the law,” a couple audience members said quietly as they were sitting in the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church’s parish center on Sunday. They were there for a public conversation about the next steps for those opposed to the execution scheduled to take place this week in Utah.

Missouri executed four people in 2023. Amber McLaughlin, Michael Tisius, Johnny Johnson and Leonard Taylor, who maintained that he was innocent, all died by lethal injection. The state is one of five in the country that carried out executions last year.

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho's longest-serving death row inmate is scheduled to be executed this week. Thomas Creech, 73, was sentenced to death for killing a fellow inmate inside a state prison in 1981. He has been convicted of five murders from several decades ago. Ahead of Wednesday's execution, local faith leaders are protesting the death penalty, calling for Creech to live out the rest of his life in prison.

Controversy has erupted in Iran after hardliners demanded specifically designed gowns conforming to hijab rules to be made compulsory in hospitals and operating rooms. Twelve versions of Islamic surgical gowns have been designed for female patients in the operating room to comply with Sharia rules, announced Mohammad-Hossein Taheri-Akerdi, the secretary of a state body responsible for promotion of Islamic standards, whose main concern has always been promotion of hijab.

Saving souls, destroying bodies Since late 2021, Texas has been working to rehabilitate death row inmates through a new project known as the Faith-Based Program. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice writes that the Faith-Based Program “is based on the belief that individuals, no matter their past, can change if given the right tools and opportunity to do so.” Inmates and their attorneys have praised the program. They say it’s helping to improve relationships on death row. But that success hasn’t had any noticeable effect on executions. In fact, from late October until mid-November, TDCJ has scheduled lethal injections for three of the Faith-Based Program’s enrollees.

The case of prison convert Will Speer shows the significance of ‘peers’ leading ministry behind bars. The first death row prisoner to help lead a death row ministry in Texas’s Allan B. Polunsky Unit, a state prison with maximum security units, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday, October 26. On Tuesday, Texas denied Will Speer ’s application for clemency, meaning his execution will go forward.

Texas offers religious education to the condemned but rarely values spiritual growth when considering clemency requests. Every day at 6 a.m., Will Speer’s testimony is broadcast across the airwaves on the Polunsky Unit’s radio station. He talks to his fellow prisoners about redemption, salvation, and faith.  He is scheduled to be executed October 26.   Speer was convicted and sent to prison for the murder of his friend’s father when he was 16 years old. While incarcerated at the Telford Unit, he killed fellow prisoner Gary Dickerson in an attempt to gain membership to a prison gang. He was sentenced to death.