Death Penalty News

Stephen Bryant pleaded guilty to killing three people during an eight-day crime spree in 2004 COLUMBIA — A death row inmate who killed three people 21 years ago as he taunted police with a message in blood, then beat up an officer after he was jailed, is scheduled for execution Nov. 14, according to a Friday death warrant. Stephen Bryant, 44, is slated to be the fifth person in the state put to death this year and the seventh total since executions resumed last September following an unintended 13-year hiatus. Bryant pleaded guilty in 2008 to a number of crimes, including three Sumter County murders, four years prior.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the case of Stacey Humphreys , who was sentenced to death in Georgia after a single juror “bullied” the others into voting for death. In an opinion joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson , Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the Court’s decision “allowing a death sentence tainted by a single juror’s extraordinary misconduct to stand.” Stacey Humphreys was charged with killing two women inside a model home after forcing them to undress and robbing them at gunpoint.

Fred Singleton couldn’t receive a death warrant because he was considered mentally incompetent COLUMBIA — South Carolina ’s longest-serving death row inmate died this week in a prison infirmary of natural causes, the Department of Corrections said Friday. Fred Singleton, 81, died Monday, according to an online post by the agency that oversees the state’s prisons. He was one of 25 inmates on death row at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia after executions resumed in September 2024.

The state of Arizona executed Richard Djerf by lethal injection on Oct. 17 in a prison facility in Florence.  His time of death was 10:40 a.m., and he had no last words, said John Barcello, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. Djerf was sentenced to death for the 1993 murders of Albert Luna Sr., his wife, Patricia Luna, and 2 of their children, Rochelle Luna, 18, and Damien Luna, 5, in Phoenix.

Zivan Radmanovic, 32, was killed shortly after midnight on June 14 after two armed assailants stormed his villa in Badung, Bali and opened fire. DENPASAR – Three Australians accused of fatally shooting a fellow countryman in Badung regency, Bali, earlier this year, have been charged with premeditated murder. A crime that carries the maximum penalty of death under Indonesian law. Badung Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Arif Batubara said that the trial of the suspects, Darcy Francesco Jenson, 27, Mevlut Coskun, 22, and Tupou Pasa I Midolmore, 26, can proceed as police have completed the investigation and handed over the case file to the Badung Prosecutor’s Office.

In the aftermath of the 12-day war and amid a surge in executions, Iran's parliament has passed one of the most extensive espionage laws in the country's history. Legal experts say the law could send citizens to the gallows for offenses as minor as owning satellite internet equipment or sharing images on social media. President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday signed the “Law on Intensifying Punishment for Espionage and Cooperation with the Zionist Regime and Hostile Countries,” giving it immediate effect.  Human rights advocates warn the measure could further increase Iran’s already high execution rate .

The archbishop of Tokyo, Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, is renewing calls for abolition of the death penalty  in Japan and for clemency for 2 men, 1 convicted of murder and already sentenced to death, the other awaiting sentencing.  In 2023, Masanori Aoki stabbed 2 women in the city of Nakano and then shot 2 policemen with a hunting rifle. His defense team asked for a lesser sentence, saying the man suffered from schizophrenia, but the sentencing court imposed the death penalty on Oct. 14. 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (October 15) said that the Centre appeared hesitant to replace hanging with lethal injection as a method of executing death row inmates. It was hearing a plea that argued execution by hanging is ‘inhuman and cruel’. India is among the few countries where capital punishment remains legal. What are the methods of execution used by other countries? India is debating the method of execution for death row convicts. The Supreme Court is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to provide an alternative to death by hanging.

Mississippi executes a man convicted of raping and killing a college student  A Mississippi man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 20-year-old community college student in 1993 was executed Wednesday.  Charles Crawford, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.  Crawford had spent more than 30 years on death row. His execution comes several months after the execution of Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate in a year of increasing executions nationwide. 

A state law shields its source of pentobarbital, the sedative used in lethal injections. But documents reviewed by NBC News offer a glimpse into its most recent supply. Texas, which historically drives the number of executions nationwide, is approaching a grim milestone of 600 people put to death by lethal injection since the early 1980s. But for the past 10 years, a shield statute meant to protect the safety of those participating in the execution protocol has allowed the state to withhold a telling piece of information: where Texas is finding pentobarbital, the hard-to-get drug it exclusively uses to carry out executions.

A Nazi executioner in an infamous World War II photograph has been unmasked for the first time after 80 years, using Artificial Intelligence .  The man holding a pistol to the head of a kneeling Jewish victim in the harrowing photo known as 'The Last Jew of Vinnytsia' has been identified by a historian as Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Jakobus Onnen , who was 33 at the time of the killing. The heart-wrenching photograph, long regarded as one of the most haunting images of World War II, shows a German soldier in spectacles aiming his weapon at a man kneeling beside a mass grave while several other soldiers look on.

The prosecution says the punishment is legal as it is provided for in the Penal Code and the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Three convicts are seeking to have their whipping sentences set aside by the Federal Court, following the death of Zaidi Abdul Hamid at Pokok Sena prison in Kedah last week. PUTRAJAYA: The prosecution urged the Federal Court today to dismiss an application by three convicts seeking exemption from whipping, arguing that their reliance on the recent death of another prisoner was purely speculative and without basis. Deputy public prosecutor Afzainizam Abdul Aziz said the trio’s review applications were influenced by media coverage surrounding the death of Zaidi Abdul Hamid at Pokok Sena prison in Kedah last week.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); October 13, 2025: Mohammadreza Akhbari, a man on death row for drug-related offences, was executed in Yasuj Central Prison. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Yasuj Central Prison on 11 October 2025. His identity has been established as Mohammadreza Akhbari who was sentenced to death on drug-related charges. At the time of writing, his execution has not been reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.

KOBE – Public prosecutors on Wednesday sought the death penalty for Hideaki Nozu, who has been charged with killing three members of his family with a crossbow at his home in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, in June 2020. At a hearing at Kobe District Court, the defense called for a prison sentence of 25 years to be given to the 28-year-old defendant. Sentencing will take place on Oct. 31. The prosecution said that Nozu's autism spectrum disorder did not significantly affect his motivation and that his acts were planned.

Missouri executes death row inmate who maintains innocence in state trooper's murder 20 years ago  A death row inmate in Missouri was executed Tuesday night after the state's governor denied his clemency petition.  The Missouri Department of Corrections said in a statement that 48-year-old Lance Shockley was executed at the Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. local time. Officials had previously said he would be executed by lethal injection. 

Florida executes Plant City’s ‘Deacon of Death’ for murders of 2 women  The state on Tuesday executed a Plant City man known as the “Deacon of Death” for the murders of 2 women in 1996.  Samuel Lee Smithers, 72, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison, near the city of Starke in northeast Florida. He did not have a final statement.  Smithers was the 14th person executed by the state this year as Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a record number of death warrants. Smithers was also the second convicted killer from Hillsborough County put to death this year following the execution of Glen Rogers in May. 

Two French nationals have been handed lengthy prison sentences by a court in Iran after being convicted of espionage, Iranian state media reports. The reports do not name the defendants but they are believed to be Cecile Kohler, 40, and her partner Jacques Paris, 72, the only French nationals being held in Iran. They were arrested in May 2022 during a tourist trip. The pair have been found guilty of spying on behalf of both France and Israel, the reports say. The announcement comes more than a month after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a deal to exchange French detainees for an Iranian woman held in France was nearly complete.

Horrifying footage has emerged which shows Palestinians being executed by Hamas, sparking fears that the Gaza peace deal is already at risk of collapsing as the terror group tries to cling to power.  In disturbing footage circulating on social media, a group of men can be seen kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their backs.  Armed militants - some wearing Hamas-style headbands - stand behind the victims with their faces covered before gunshots ring out and the seven kneeling men fall to the ground, apparently lifeless.  Cheering crowds scream 'Allah Akbar,' or 'God is great', and brand the executed men 'collaborators' while filming the scenes on their phones. A Hamas source confirmed the authenticity of the video.

Prisoners released after Hamas frees the last 20 living hostages; among those released are dozens of high-profile terrorists sentenced to life in jail; 154 of the worst offenders deported to Egypt Israel on Monday freed nearly 2,000 Palestinians — including hundreds of terror convicts serving life terms — from its prisons as part of a deal to reach a ceasefire and release the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip . Shortly after 20 living hostages were freed, Israel put 1,968 Palestinian prisoners on buses that departed for the West Bank and Gaza.

Masanori Aoki, now 34, stabbed two women who were taking a walk in the city of Nakano, then shot two policemen with a hunting rifle A Japanese court has sentenced to death a man who killed four people in a shooting and stabbing attack in 2023, rejecting the defence's argument that he has schizophrenia. Masanori Aoki, now 34, stabbed two women who were taking a walk in the city of Nakano and then shot two policemen - who arrived at the scene after receiving an emergency call - with a hunting rifle. Gun violence is rare in Japan, where strict firearms laws are in place. Even rarer is the shooting of multiple police officers. The last such incident happened more than 30 years ago.