Death Penalty News

Federal prosecutors said Thursday they would seek the death penalty against a Washington state woman accused of fatally shooting a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a traffic stop in January after she was indicted by a grand jury on a murder charge.  Teresa Youngblut, 21, is accused of fatally shooting David Maland on Jan. 20 in northern Vermont. Police say she opened fire on agents during a traffic stop, sparking a shootout that also left her companion, Felix Baukholt, a German national, dead. The agent was identified as David C. Maland by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 14, 2025: Javad Esfandiari, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Hamedan Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Hamedan Central Prison on 13 August 2025. His identity has been established as Javad Esfandiari from Malayer. He was arrested around five years ago and sentenced to death on drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

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. 

As the Catholic Church marks the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Executive Director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network shares her hopes for the future abolition of the death penalty in the United States. By Vatican News August 14 marks the liturgical feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who gave his life in 1941 in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz to save the life of a young father. Now patron saint of the pro-life movement, the Polish priest provides a guiding light to Catholics who seek to abolish the death penalty, such as the Catholic Mobilizing Network, a nonprofit working for that goal in the United States.

Mass murderer Dylann Roof’s effort to remove the federal judge who presided over his trial from future steps in his appeal has been rejected. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said Aug. 13 it would not force the recusal of U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel in Charleston. Roof is seeking a new trial 10 years after he murdered nine African American parishioners at the historic Emanuel AME Church. Roof’s appeal is based on his attorney’s admission that he made several mistakes during the trial, including eliciting harmful testimony.

Over the past two weeks, two Florida death row pris­on­ers filed fresh chal­lenges to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ deci­sions to sign his tenth and eleventh death war­rants of 2025. On July 29, 2025, Kayle Barrington Bates (also known as Maud Dib Al Sharif) brought a civ­il suit against Gov. DeSantis alleg­ing Florida’s exe­cu­tion war­rant process ​“is infect­ed with racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al arbi­trari­ness.” Included in the claim is a sta­tis­ti­cal analy­sis show­ing that ​“95% of the exe­cu­tions that Governor DeSantis has autho­rized involved white victims.”

Government secrecy had as much to do with the botched execution of Byron Black as the toxic chemical Tennessee used to slowly and painfully take his life, death penalty abolitionist Stacy Rector said. “The state has a law shielding the government from having to tell the truth about its death penalty program, and people wonder why these executions keep getting messed up,” said Rector, executive director of Tennesseans Against the Death Penalty. “When you allow the state to take a person’s life with this kind of secrecy, you are setting yourself up for what we are seeing.”

India’s Supreme Court is showing marked restraint in death penalty cases in 2025, overturning or commuting most of the sentences it reviews.  In the first seven months of the year, it heard 14 death sentence appeals, fully acquitting seven and commuting four to life imprisonment — confirming none. This continues a pattern seen since June 2022, when the court last upheld a non-terror death sentence.  High courts are also pushing back; between 2016 and 2025, they rejected death sentences in 80% of cases referred for confirmation.

Aug. 12 (UPI) — Mexico has transferred 26 people suspected of leading drug cartels to the United States, both countries confirmed Tuesday, as President Donald Trump continues pressing the Mexican government on the criminal networks. Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Civilian Protection Omar Garcia Harfuch confirmed the transfer in a post on X, writing that the deal was reached “in bilateral coordination and with full respect for our sovereignty.” The U.S. Justice Department agreed to not seek the death penalty, Garcia wrote in his post.

Physicians should never have a role in making a prisoner more fit to be killed On August 5, 2025, the state of Tennessee executed prisoner Byron Black by intravenous injection of a large dose of pentobarbital. Witnesses to his execution reported that he was visibly in distress or discomfort. Before he died, he reportedly said, "I can't do this," and that it was hurting "so bad."  We cannot know specifically what he felt.

It has been 30 years since the shooting that put Bobby Hampton on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, and not only has the convicted felon's claim of innocence never changed, but there is evidence one of his co-defendants confessed. The anniversary of the crime committed at a Thrifty Liquor Store on the corner of Monkhouse Drive and Greenwood Road will be Tuesday, but Hampton has maintained he wasn't the man who shot and killed employee Russell Coleman. Court documents reveal he isn't the only person who told it that way.

State is set to execute 4th U.S. vet during record-breaking year for number of executions in the Sunshine State. Aug. 11 (UPI) -- As Florida preps to execute its fourth U.S. veteran this year, more than 130 U.S. veterans in nearly every branch of service have requested for Gov. Ron DeSantis to end the state's executions of convicted vets. A coalition of American veterans will gather Wednesday morning in the state's capital of Tallahassee to issue a plea in a signed letter to DeSantis, imploring the two-term Republican to stop Florida's executions of American military service veterans.

Ending caning among ‘quick-win’ criminal law reforms proposed, says Azalina KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 12): The Criminal Law Reform Committee (CLRC) has identified several ‘quick-win’ reforms that can be implemented in the short term to deliver immediate benefits to the public. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said these include abolishing caning as a punishment, giving judges greater discretion in sentencing and improving the remand process. “Other measures involve expanding community service orders for minor offences as an alternative to imprisonment, strengthening the e-Plea of Guilt (e-PG) system, enhancing pre-trial document disclosure procedures and introducing fixed timelines for bail decisions.

Judge Abu Bakar Katar says the defence failed to raise a reasonable doubt. PETALING JAYA: Three men were today sentenced to death after the Johor Bahru High Court found them guilty of trafficking nearly 1.5 tonnes of methamphetamine six years ago in what was then the country’s largest drug bust. Judge Abu Bakar Katar ruled that the defence had failed to raise a reasonable doubt against all three accused at the end of its case, reported Berita Harian.

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. 

Guzman said his lawyer, Israel Encinosa, has been "battling" for 10 months to be granted access to Guzman Former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman allegedly sent a letter complaining about lack of access to his lawyer and conditions in the Colorado prison he is being held in. The letter was published by journalist Jesus Garcia and addressed to judge Brian Cogan of New York's East District Court. In it, he complains about the "psychological torment" of not being able to use the phone or go outside to "take in some sun."

Iranian political prisoner Babak Shahbazi faces an imminent risk of execution following a Supreme Court decision to uphold his death sentence, the Norway-based human rights organization Hengaw said on Monday. Hengaw said Shahbazi, a father of two, was convicted of “spying for Israel” and “corruption on earth” in proceedings it described as “grossly unfair and based on forced confessions extracted under severe torture.” Iranian authorities have not commented on the allegations. According to Hengaw, parts of the evidence cited in court included casual conversations Shahbazi had with friends, some of whom were also allegedly tortured into implicating him. It said the trial was marked by “contradictions” and a “lack of credible evidence.”

Palembang. A military court in Palembang, South Sumatra, on Monday sentenced Corporal Second Class Bazarsah to death for fatally shooting three police officers during a raid on an illegal cockfighting operation in Way Kanan, Lampung, earlier this year.  The court also ordered his dismissal from the Indonesian Army. “The court sentences the defendant to the death penalty as the main punishment and dishonorable discharge from military service as an additional punishment,” presiding judge Colonel Fredy Ferdian Isnartanto said while reading the verdict.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 9, 2025: Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar, Mohammad Taghavi, Pouya Ghobadi, Vahid Baniamerian and Babak Alipour, five death row political prisoners, were forcibly transferred from the Greater Tehran Penitentiary to the solitary confinement cells of Ghezel Hesar Prison*. Stressing that the majority of Tehran and Alborz province executions are carried out in Ghezel Hesar Prison, Iran Human Rights expresses concern that preparations may be underway to carry out the death sentences of these political prisoners. On 27 July, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, two political prisoners on death row for the same charges as the five political prisoners, were secretly executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); August 8, 2025: Babak Shahbazi, a prisoner on death row for espionage for Israel, has been transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison, where the majority of death row prisoners are executed in Alborz and Tehran provinces. On 5 August, IHRNGO published the profiles of 67 death row prisoners and warned of the risk of 22 of the defendants including Babak Shahbazi being executed. Of the 67, Rouzbeh Vadi was executed on 6 August. Iran Human Rights once again warns that without a strong public and international response, we may face a new wave of executions targeting political prisoners and espionage defendants in the coming weeks.