Death Penalty News

The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a man who was handed down death penalty for repeated sexual assault of three minor girls aged between six and eight. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Augustine George Masih and Sandeep Mehta passed the order while hearing a plea filed by the man challenging a verdict in June this year of the Madras High Court's Madurai bench which confirmed his conviction and death sentence given in the case. The high court had said that three minors were sucbjected to aggravated penetrative sexual assault repeatedly over a period of one year and they were aged six, seven and eight respectively. It had said the convict did not deserve any leniency.

William Reaves is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on Oct. 20th. It's the 18th death warrant Gov. DeSantis has signed this year. Reaves shot Deputy Sheriff Richard Raczkowski in September 23, 1986. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his 18th death warrant of the year Friday. William Reaves, convicted of the 1986 killing of an Indian River County Sheriff's deputy, is set to be executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke on Oct. 20.

Convicted murderer Stacey Humphreys was not executed Wednesday night as scheduled after the Georgia Supreme Court upheld a Cobb County judge’s order temporarily halting the execution. The pause is for Humphreys to receive a hearing under the Georgia Survivor Justice Act, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last year. The state law is intended to allow abuse victims to petition for reduced sentences if their abuse led them to commit a crime. “Given the important and novel questions regarding the newly enacted SJA raised by this litigation, this appeal will be considered in the ordinary course of business and according to a forthcoming scheduling order,” the justices wrote in an order Wednesday. “We leave undisturbed the stay order issued by the Cobb County Superior Court.”

A man convicted in the shooting deaths of three people is set to be executed Wednesday in Texas. Meanwhile, another execution that was scheduled for the same time in Georgia has been halted by a judge. This would be the fifth execution in Texas, while Georgia has yet to put anyone to death this year. The nation’s busiest death chamber is in Florida, which accounted for more than half the 25 executions already carried out in the U.S. this year.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An attorney who was present for the planned execution of Tony Carruthers in Tennessee on Thursday said it was called off after officials struggled to find a vein for an hour. Maria DeLiberato, an attorney for Carruthers, said she saw Carruthers “wincing and groaning” and called it “horrible” to watch. Carruthers was in pain as the executioners tried to find a vein and there was a lot of blood, one of his attorneys, Amy Harwell, told the newspaper in a text message from a state prison on Thursday, May 21.

Thursday’s execution was blocked by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “pending further order” from the court. A federal appeals court has temporarily halted Thursday’s scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Edward Busby, citing concerns over his eligibility for capital punishment because of intellectual disability. The 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is in place “pending further order” of the court. Busby argued that a federal district court improperly denied the inmate’s request for funding to test him for intellectual disability. The appeal also provided two new tests from experts, including one provided by the state, that his lawyers argue prove Busby is intellectually disabled.

FLORIDA — The Florida Supreme Court has ordered additional DNA analysis in the decades-old death penalty case of James Duckett, a decision that could delay his execution further and renew questions about the conviction. Reporting from the Tampa Bay Times indicates the ruling comes more than a month after Duckett had been scheduled for execution in connection with the 1987 rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee. Previous reporting by the Tampa Bay Times discussed how Duckett was convicted in 1988 in Lake County and has maintained his innocence for decades. The case has drawn increased scrutiny in recent months after a death warrant was issued and later paused amid ongoing disputes over DNA testing that defense attorneys argue could be critical to determining guilt or innocence.

On 13 April 2026, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court stayed a death sentence awarded to three convicts in a case from Dakshina Kannada. A trial court had convicted them and sentenced them to death in October 2024 for rape and murder under the penal code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 . A death sentence awarded by a trial court is not executable until it is confirmed by a High Court. On 6 February 2026, a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court confirmed the trial court’s decision. The Supreme Court left the conviction of the appellants untouched and reopened the sentencing question on two grounds: the High Court loosely engaged with the mitigation question in a single paragraph, and a third form of punishment—viewed as an alternative between ordinary life imprisonment and death penalty—was unconsidered.

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — The execution of a former Florida police officer convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl was temporarily halted Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court. The court issued a stay in execution for 68-year-old James Aren Duckett, who was scheduled to receive a three-drug injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. Duckett was sentenced to death in 1988 after being convicted of first-degree murder and sexual battery.

The execution of a Georgia man scheduled for Wednesday has been suspended as the State Board of Pardons and Paroles considers a clemency application.  Stacey Humphreys, 52, would have been the state's first execution in 2025. As of December 16, 2025, Georgia has carried out zero executions in 2025. The state last executed an inmate in January 2020, followed by a pause due to COVID-19. Executions resumed in 2024, but none have occurred this year until now. Humphreys had been sentenced to death for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked.

A Texas court has halted the execution of a man convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter in a "shaken baby syndrome" case. Death row inmate Robert Roberson, who has always maintained the child died from complications linked to pneumonia, had been scheduled for execution on 16 October. The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome (SBS) refers to a serious brain injury resulting from forcefully shaking an infant or a toddler.

Today's hearing marks the latest chapter in P Pannir Selvam's ongoing legal battle against his death sentence in the city-state. SINGAPORE: Malaysian death row inmate P Pannir Selvam gained reprieve when the Singapore Court of Appeal reserved its judgment following the second hearing on his post-appeal application today. The Singapore home affairs ministry’s policy on the scheduling of executions came under scrutiny during the proceedings, as Pannir’s counsel and the Attorney-General’s Chambers addressed the content of affidavits they submitted after the first hearing on May 7.

A Tennessee death row inmate can be executed without deactivating his implanted defibrillator, the state's high court ruled on Thursday.  The ruling overturns a lower court's order and paves the way for Byron Black to be executed on Tuesday morning, as scheduled.  The Tennessee Supreme Court found that requiring that the device be deactivated “amounted to a stay of execution," which is not within the lower court's power. 

Roberts was convicted of a 1992 murder and sentenced to death, despite the jury's recommendation for life imprisonment. His lawyers and activists argue he suffers from severe mental illness, citing family history and documented psychosis. Alabama’s next execution is temporarily on pause in order to assess if the inmate in question is mentally competent enough to be put to death. David Lee Roberts, a now 59-year-old who was convicted of the 1992 murder of Annetra Jones, was set to be executed by nitrogen gas on Aug. 21 as of June 2025.

An Oklahoma appeals court on Wednesday ordered a stay of execution to be lifted for a man on death row, clearing the way for him to receive a lethal injection for killing a Tulsa woman in 1999.  John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, has been scheduled to be put to death Thursday, but a district court judge temporarily halted the execution this week after Hanson’s attorneys argued he didn’t receive a fair clemency hearing before the state’s Pardon and Parole Board. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that temporary stay of execution be lifted.

Hanson was transferred to Oklahoma custody in March by federal officials following through on President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma judge granted a temporary stay of execution Monday to a man whose transfer to death row was expedited by the Trump administration and who was scheduled to receive a lethal injection this week. John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, was set to die Thursday for killing a Tulsa woman in 1999. Hanson’s lawyers have argued that he did not receive a fair clemency hearing last month before the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board. They claim board member Sean Malloy was biased because he worked for the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office when Hanson was being prosecuted.

BATON ROUGE, La. — A federal judge has halted Louisiana's first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was scheduled to take place next week. U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, stopping the state from immediately moving forward with the execution, which would have been Louisiana's first in 15 years. Attorney General Liz Murrill said the state will immediately appeal the decision.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week over the killings of six girls and young women found buried in the desert near El Paso. It was the second scheduled execution in the U.S. halted on Tuesday after a federal judge stopped Louisiana’s first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was to take place next week. In Texas, the order was another reprieve for David Leonard Wood, who in 2009 was about 24 hours away from execution when it was halted over claims he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.

SINGAPORE, Feb 19 (Bernama) -- Singapore Court of Appeal on Wednesday has granted Malaysian death row inmate Pannir Selvam Pranthaman a stay of execution just hours before he was scheduled to be executed on Thursday (Feb 20). Judge of the Appellate Division Woo Bih Li, in his judgment, said the stay was granted pending the determination of Pannir Selvam’s Post-Appeal Applications in Capital Cases (PACC) application.

After surviving a botched execution attempt in February, Thomas Creech (pictured) was scheduled for  execution a second time on November 13 in Idaho. On Wednesday, November 6, a federal district court issued a stay of execution to allow more time to consider Mr. Creech’s legal claims. The Idaho Department of Corrections announced that “execution preparations have been suspended” and the execution warrant will expire.