Death Penalty News

The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments to the Criminal Code significantly increasing penalties for drug-impaired driving, including raising the maximum prison term from three to five years and allowing capital punishment for repeat offenders who cause death within 10 years. The amendments passed with support from opposition lawmakers, who hold a majority in the legislature, following a joint motion by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to separate penalties for drug-impaired driving from those for drunk driving.

Thirty years ago while on probation for fracturing an infant’s skull, Andrew Lukehart inflicted at least five blows to the head of another baby, then concocted a story that she was abducted before eventually leading authorities to her body in a swamp area.  At 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, the 53-year-old from Jacksonville is set to become Florida’s eighth man on death row to be executed in 2026. He will become the 36th under Gov. Ron DeSantis after a record 19 inmates were executed by the state in 2025, including another from Duval County: Michael Bell.

DeCarlos Brown, accused of stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train, has been found mentally unfit for trial, stalling death penalty proceedings. DeCarlos Brown Jr., accused of fatally stabbing 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train in August 2025, has been found mentally incapable of standing trial, according to a court motion filed 7 April in Mecklenburg Superior Court. A 29 December 2025 report from Central Regional Hospital, a state psychiatric facility in Granville County, concluded that Brown was "incapable to proceed to trial," according to the motion filed by his attorney, Daniel Roberts. The evaluation was ordered after Brown's defense raised concerns about his mental state.

A campaign manager for Hannah Tamaki's Coalition New Zealand Party [ Hannah Tamaki has become the leader of a new political party, Coalition New Zealand. It is not a Christian party but it is strong on "family values" - DPN] has called for the Government to introduce involuntary euthanasia for pedophiles who are repeat offenders. Jevan Goulter, who told the Herald his personal views don't necessarily represent the political party's stance, says its time for New Zealand to discuss the death penalty and involuntary euthanasia, alongside David Seymour's End of Life Bill after passing its 2nd reading. The campaign manager originally took to social media stating he wanted the euthanasia bill killed and the reintroduction of the death penalty for pedophiles who are repeat offenders. "Kill the Euthanasia Bill, reintroduce the 1961 death penalty for third time offenders," he said in a video. "If we're already talking about euthana...

President Maithripala Sirisena is gearing to carry out the first hanging in the near future raising fresh concerns within the diplomatic and rights activists.  According to sources in Presidential Secretariat, “it has been put in motion”, to carry out the first hanging in the near future, but not as “early as next week, as rumoured”. The President decided to carry out executions on repeated drug offenders who are on death row, proposing the move as an effective deterrent to address the drug trafficking in Sri Lanka. The move will end a 43-year-long moratorium on the death penalty, where the country has not carried out executions although the death penalty has been given by court rulings. The Sri Lankan Government voted to maintain its moratorium at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in December 2018.    The Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorala or the Commissioner of Prisons T.M.J.W. Thennakoon were not able to confirm the decision.  Earlier t...

Under an amendment to section 376 (e) of the IPC, repeat offenders in rape cases faced life imprisonment or a death penalty. The Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the Constitutional validity of an amended section of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) under which repeat offenders in rape cases can be awarded life imprisonment or death penalty. A division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite Dere dismissed petitions filed by three convicts in the Shakti Mill gangrape case challenging Constitutional validity of the legal provisions under which they were sentenced to death in 2014. Under an amendment to section 376 (e) of the IPC, repeat offenders in rape cases faced life imprisonment or a death penalty. The amendment was made after the gangrape of a 23- year-old woman in Delhi in 2012. Source: PTI, Staff, June 3, 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 re...

TAIWAN: Taiwan plans to ramp up punishments for those who cause a fatal accident while drink driving, including the death penalty for the most egregious cases, sparking an outcry from abolition and rights groups. The cabinet on Thursday (Mar 28) approved a draft amendment to the Criminal Code that would make death by drink driving an indictable murder offence, potentially punishable by death if the deed is deemed "intentional", officials said. The proposal needs parliamentary approval but comes after a spate of high profile deaths that have generated widespread outrage. Currently the maximum sentence in Taiwan for causing a death while drink behind the wheel is 10 years. The new proposal would increase jail sentences for repeat offenders who commit a new offence within five years of their first conviction. They face up to a life sentence for causing a death and 12 years for grave injuries. "Cases of drunk driving leading to death are rampant .....

In a speech yesterday, President Rodrigo Duterte compared prisoners to “monsters,” in an effort to reiterate his position against restorative justice. “Those western countries believe in the positivism. You can make useful human beings out of him when he gets out. It has been debunked as negative,” he told a crowd yesterday at the 23rd anniversary of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). “I know this. I was a prosecutor for nine years. My cases were like that,” he said. Before being appointed mayor of Davao City in 1987 after the People Power Revolution toppled the Marcos Dictatorship, Duterte worked as a prosecutor for the Philippine government. “No matter what kind of skills you [TESDA] give them, they are always looking for trouble,” Duterte said. “They will hold up again, and they won’t mind going back to prison,” he added. Going to prison turns you gay He also mentioned — without explaining how it’s related to the justice sy...

With increasing public concern regarding repeat criminal offenders, critics and experts have been divided as to what approach would deter former convicts from committing crimes again after being released from jail. Many public members – often angry with perpetrators of high-profile crimes including rape-murder or mass killing – have called for execution of convicted offenders, instead of life imprisonment or lengthy jail sentences. However, there is a consensus among experts in criminology and the justice system that harsh penalties like life imprisonment and capital punishment have been proven ineffective at deterring repeat crimes, a recent seminar heard. The seminar, entitled “The role of probation in tackling the problem of repeat criminal offences”, was organised by the Department of Probation earlier this month. Law professor Prathan Watanavanich, an expert in criminology and justice procedures, citing findings of a research study, said that imprisonment was no...