Death Penalty News

D4vd secures another court delay in his murder case, pushing the probable cause hearing to July 21 as his legal team reviews mounting evidence. D4vd walked into the Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday in an orange jail uniform and waist shackles, his legal team already preparing for another delay in what’s becoming a pattern of postponements in his murder case. The platinum-selling “Romantic Homicide” singer, 21, received his third hearing delay after his defense team requested additional time to review evidence, pushing the probable cause hearing from June 29 to July 21 with a status conference scheduled for July 7.

The request comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Jeffrey Weisheit’s case, ending years of state and federal appeals. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Wednesday asked the Indiana Supreme Court to schedule the execution of death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit. The filing came just eight days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in Weisheit’s case. He was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murders of 5-year-old Caleb Lynch and his 8-year-old sister, Alyssa Lynch, who were killed in a Vanderburgh County house fire in 2010.

Ohio’s attorney general says he will continue to uphold the state’s death penalty law, in spite of a call for abolishment of the capital punishment yesterday from Gov. Mike DeWine, who appointed him AG. Andy Wilson said in an interview he respects the opinion of DeWine, who appointed him as AG last month. While DeWine has asked the Ohio legislature to abolish executions for good, Wilson supports the use of capital punishment, as a former prosecutor who tried four death penalty cases. "I believe that the death penalty is a tool that should be available for prosecutors in the criminal justice system in a very limited set of cases when dealing with these most serious crimes," Wilson said.

The Iranian Judiciary has carried out the executions of at least three prisoners in recent days, including two Baloch men, Aref Barahoui and Hossein Keshani, as well as Hassan Fatemi. They had been sentenced to death on charges of "drug-related offenses" and "premeditated murder." According to reports received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the execution of Aref Barahoui (Eidozehi), a 34-year-old Baloch man from Zahedan, was carried out in the early hours of Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at Zabol Prison. Barahoui was married and the father of three children. He was arrested in Zabol in 2022 on drug-related charges and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of the city.

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have secured a superseding indictment against the Afghan national accused of fatally shooting a West Virginia National Guard soldier and seriously wounding another Guardsman near the White House last year, adding charges that could make him eligible for the death penalty. A federal grand jury returned a 17-count superseding indictment Tuesday against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 30, in connection with the Nov. 26, 2025, attack that killed Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and seriously injured Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe of Martinsburg.

Mike DeWine spent years quietly opposing thedeath penalty in Ohio without ever saying so out loud – largely by ensuring no one was executed in the seven-plus years he has been governor. Even though most people could see how he felt, he still had a big moment Tuesday when he formally announced his opposition. One reason the announcement had weight, Today in Ohio podcast hosts said on Wednesday, is that he was the author of the state’s death penalty law 45 years ago. But podcast hosts also said the announcement landed with a bit of a thud, because it was so unsurprising and because DeWine did not do the one thing that would have had a big impact: commute all existing death sentences.

As Gov. DeWine calls for Ohio to end capital punishment, the state’s last execution remains the one I witnessed in 2018 Inside Ohio's death house, there is a room for executions and separate witness rooms: one for those connected to the victim and another for those connected to the inmate. Windows separate the death chamber from those watching, the condemned from the living. I was there on July 18, 2018 – during Ohio’s most recent execution. Robert Van Hook was put to death that day for killing David Self in 1985. He sat on death row for three decades. I was one of three media witnesses to the execution.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Gov. Mike DeWine Tuesday morning called on Ohio to abolish the death penalty, citing data that he said proves it is no longer a deterrent to violent crime. “For the state to take a human life, there must, in my opinion, there must be evidence that in doing so it will help protect the public, that the threat of that action will deter someone from committing murder,” DeWine said. “I do not believe that argument today can be successfully made.” DeWine cited data showing a decline in the last four decades of executions being carried out and an increase in the time inmates spend on death row.

The Iranian Judiciary has executed Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saeedi, two men arrested in connection with the January protests, amid a continuing surge in political executions and the authorities’ ongoing campaign of reprisals against protesters. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the executions of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saeedi were carried out in the early hours of Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at Shahroud Central Prison in Semnan Province. The executions were announced by Mizan News Agency, the official media outlet of the Iranian Judiciary.

A series of executions and arrests have been reported across Iran, alongside cases involving protest-related sentencing and charges linked to social media activity and religious expression, according to rights groups including HRANA, HANA and Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO). Executions The foreign-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that on 15 June, authorities at Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan executed three prisoners on charges of murder and drug-related offences, News.Az reports.

SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. (WBRC) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up an Alabama death-penalty case involving Michael Anthony Powell, leaving in place a state appeals court decision that threw out Powell’s conviction. Two justices — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — said the Court should have stepped in. In a written dissent, Alito argued the Alabama appeals court misapplied U.S. Supreme Court precedent about what prosecutors can and can’t say during closing arguments.

TEHRAN – The Iranian authorities on June 16 executed two men after convicting them for their alleged role in anti-government protests that peaked in January, the judiciary said. “The death sentences of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi, armed leaders of the January 2026 coup attempt, were carried out,” the judiciary’s official outlet Mizan Online reported. The executions were carried out after the pair were convicted of “moharebeh” – waging war against God – and “corruption on earth”, both capital offences.

Charles Flores argued that his conviction was improperly based on testimony from a witness who changed her recollection after hypnosis by an investigator. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Texas death row inmate Charles Flores’ efforts to force the state’s highest criminal court to reconsider his appeal. The Supreme Court denied the petition without comment. Flores argued that his 1999 conviction should be overturned under the Texas “junk science” law because testimony from a key witness was improperly influenced by hypnosis performed by a police officer who was investigating the murder of 64-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Black in Dallas County.

For Iran’s Kurdish population, the death penalty is not only a criminal-justice issue. It is part of a larger architecture of state control, political intimidation, and national-security repression that has followed the Kurdish question since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Kurdish activists, religious prisoners, protesters, and ordinary prisoners are pulled into a judicial system where the state often controls the accusation, the interrogation, the confession, the court narrative, and, finally, the rope.

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the federal death penalty trial of Payton Gendron, who is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty in state court to carrying out the racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in 2022 that killed 10 Black people and injured three others. The upcoming proceedings relate to separate federal charges, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, and jurors could ultimately decide whether Gendron is executed or remains in prison for life. Here are three key takeaways as the next phase of proceedings gets underway:

Iranian authorities have carried out the executions of five prisoners, including an Arab prisoner and a Turkish prisoner. The prisoners have been identified as Seyed Akbar Bani Hashem, Jan Mohammad Saadati, Manouchehr Nikoukhalgh, Mohammad Akbarpournia, and Amir Abbas Dekavand. The men had previously been sentenced to death in separate cases involving drug-related offenses and premeditated murder. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Seyed Akbar Bani Hashem and Amir Abbas Dekavand were executed at dawn on Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 9 June 2026: Azad Shushtari, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Mashhad Central Prison after his family failed to raise the blood money sum demanded by the victim’s family. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Mashhad (Vakil Abad) Central Prison on 4 June 2026. His identity has been established as Azad Shushtari who was arrested around four years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for an unpremeditated murder that took place after a street fight.

The Supreme Court these days is generally in the business of helping executions go forward. But on Thursday night, the court did something notable: It told Alabama no. Even then, the court wasn't unanimous. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the refusal to let the nitrogen gas execution of Jeffery Lee proceed. What prompted the rare rejection? In line with the typical shadow docket practice, the court didn't explain itself. Nor did the dissenters, who merely noted their disagreement. But a deeper look at the case helps us understand why a majority of the court was unwilling to help the state this time.

Jeffery Lee, who successfully challenged his scheduled Thursday execution by nitrogen gas, argued that execution by firing squad would be less painful. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office Friday sought to put an Alabama death row inmate to death by lethal injection a day after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed the state’s attempt to execute him by nitrogen gas. In a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court Friday afternoon, the state sought an expedited motion to set a new execution date for Jeffery Lee, 49. The state said that with a permanent injunction in place against nitrogen gas, the method by which the state intended to execute Lee on Thursday, it could execute him by lethal injection or the electric chair.

The death sentence of Mehdi Barahimi, a police officer convicted of “premeditated murder” in connection with the fatal shooting of a suspect during an operational mission, was carried out in Bandar Abbas Central Prison. According to information received by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Barahimi, an officer with the Bandar Abbas police force, was executed on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, after spending several years in prison and failing to secure the consent of the victim’s family. Informed sources told Hengaw that seven years ago Barahimi was dispatched to respond to a domestic dispute. During the operation, he opened fire on a man who had allegedly been involved in an altercation with members of his family. The shooting proved fatal.