Death Penalty News

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

Tehran's prosecutor has launched legal action against an unspecified number of people for opposing the execution of detainees arrested during the January protests and defendants convicted in cases linked to the recent war, Iran's judiciary news outlet Mizan reported on Thursday. Mizan said the cases were opened after referrals from security and intelligence agencies and reviews of social media posts. It did not identify those targeted, specify the charges, or disclose how many people were under investigation. According to Mizan , the cases have been referred to court.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 29 July 2026: Branch 23 of the Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Court has sentenced 43-year-old Ali Esmaili to death on charges of intelligence cooperation with Israel in a case marred by due process violations. His wife and brother have also been sentenced to imprisonment and heavy fines in the same case. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, Branch 23 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Ali Esmaili to death on charges of “intelligence cooperation in favour of the hostile Zionist regime” which amounted to moharebeh (enmity against God) and esfsad-fil-arz (corruption on earth). In addition to the death penalty, the court sentenced Ali to three years of imprisonment for allegedly photographing military sites and ordered him to pay a fine equal to three times the value of a seized Starlink receiver.

The former doctoral student pled guilty in 2025 to the murders of four University of Idaho students. A legal expert has called Bryan Kohberger’s attempt to abandon his guilty plea “highly unlikely” to succeed after the convicted killer filed a petition for post-conviction relief in an Idaho court. Kohberger pleaded guilty in 2025 to killing four University of Idaho students, waiving his right to a trial and avoiding a possible death penalty conviction. He received four life sentences in prison. On July 27, Kohberger filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the Ada County District Court. He looks to withdraw his guilty plea and conviction and seeks a trial on the murder charges.

If Bryan Kohberger successfully withdraws his guilty plea and goes to trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, it could lead to him being sentenced to death, experts told Newsweek . Kohberger, 31, filed a handwritten petition on Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, where he is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbings just over a year ago, a month before jury selection was set to start.

At least four prisoners, Ali Rasouli, Eshaq Marrei, Shamseddin Afshari, and Faraj Yahyaei, were executed in recent days in Hamadan Central Prison, Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, and Zanjan Central Prison on separate convictions related to "premeditated murder," drug-related offenses, and rape. The execution of the Baloch prisoner in Mashhad was carried out in secret.

At Least 17 Executed for Non-Lethal Drug-Related Offenses in 2026 (Beirut) – Saudi authorities executed five Ethiopian migrants for nonlethal drug-related offenses on July 27, 2026, without due process, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities have executed at least 17 Ethiopian nationals since the beginning of 2026 on drug-related charges. At least 79 more remain at imminent risk of execution on similar charges. Saudi authorities have executed at least 116 people in 2026 as of July 27, according to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights.

Florida executes 2 men in a day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida's death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term.   STARKE, Fla. — Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, the last an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of killing a young girl.

Double execution: 1st of 2 inmates is put to death in Florida Florida has executed James Duckett, a 68-year-old former cop convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987. The state is set to execute an 80-year-old man 6 hours later for a 1986 murder.  Florida carried out the 1st double execution in more than 60 years, executing former police officer James Duckett and later scheduling the execution of 80‑year‑old Dominick Occhicone, amid Governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive push to increase death penalties in the state.  Florida has put to death the 1st of 2 inmates in the state's 1st double execution in more than 60 years amid an aggressive death penalty push by Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Hengaw – Tuesday, July 28, 2026—Iranian authorities publicly executed Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani, 23, and Amirhossein Safari Hosseinabadi, 29, two men arrested during the January 2026 protests, early Tuesday in Alikhani Square in Isfahan. Their executions were carried out in connection with the so-called “Alikhani Square case.” The whereabouts and condition of a third defendant, Alireza Sepahi, remain unknown. According to information obtained by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the two men were executed at dawn on July 28, 2026, under heavy security measures in Alikhani Square, Isfahan.

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits. An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

Judge finds sufficient evidence for jury to hear case LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence for the indie pop vocalist known as D4vd to stand trial on charges he fatally stabbed and dismembered a 14-year-old girl who threatened to expose their clandestine relationship, a Los Angeles judge ruled on Monday. Judge Charlaine Olmedo found there was probable cause for a jury to decide the fate of David Anthony Burke, 21, whose breakout major-label music success as a recording artist named D4vd (pronounced “David”) was cut short by his arrest last year. He spent five days in a packed downtown courtroom shackled to his seat as prosecutors presented graphic testimony and crime-scene photos in support of their case.

⚠️ Some readers may find the following content distressing LOS ANGELES — A preliminary hearing could wrap up Monday in the case of singer D4vd, who is charged in the killing of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered remains were found last year in the trunk of his Tesla at a Hollywood tow yard. The first four days of testimony in the hearing have featured sometimes-graphic images and testimony in which prosecutors have contended that the now-21-year-old singer, whose real name is David Anthony Burke, killed Celeste Rivas Hernandez to prevent her from going public about his sexual relationship with the underage girl, potentially damaging or destroying his burgeoning music career. On Friday, Los Angeles Police Department Robbery-Homicide Detective Corey Farell testified that Burke had a series of sexually explicit photos on his cellphone of Celeste, with some images depicting him and the teen engaged in sexual activity. Farell also said he reviewed a series of text messages between the two...

Barring a last-hour intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, two Florida death row inmates will be executed within hours of each other Tuesday at Florida State Prison near Starke. James Aren Duckett, 68, is scheduled to be executed at noon. He has spent more than three decades on death row after being convicted of murdering 11-year-old Teresa McAbee in 1987. Six hours later, Dominick Occhicone is scheduled to be executed after being convicted of a double murder in 1987 of his girlfriend’s parents, Martha and Raymond Artzner. At 80, Occhicone would be the second-oldest man executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

HOLMES COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – In just three minutes, Johnny Mack “Sketo” Calhoun was sentenced to death for a second time Friday morning. “It is the order of this court that Johnny Sketo Mack Calhoun be sentenced to death in a manner prescribed by the state of Florida for the first-degree murder of Mia Chay Brown,” said Chief Judge Christopher Patterson. After the eight-day resentencing hearing in April, a jury recommended that Calhoun receive the death penalty for the 2010 murder of Mia Chay Brown.

Iranian authorities executed three prisoners at Gonbad-e Kavus Prison and Ardabil Central Prison after convicting them in separate cases of "premeditated murder." Two of those executed were Turkmen. According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the death sentences of Javad Mirhasani, 33, and Amirabbas Hatami, approximately 40, were carried out in the early hours of Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Gonbad-e Kavus Prison in Golestan Province. Sources familiar with the case said the two Turkmen prisoners, who were both held in Ward 3 of the prison, had been transferred to solitary confinement one day earlier in preparation for their executions.

The case of Rafael Andrés , a 61-year-old Cuban American sentenced to death for the second time on Friday by the judge of the Miami-Dade Circuit Court has brought attention to Cubans on death row in the United States. According to data from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), an organization based in Washington specializing in the analysis of this measure, there are five Cubans facing the death penalty in the United States, all of them in Florida. In the Sunshine State, there are a total of 12 foreign prisoners sentenced to death.

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

A Miami-Dade judge sentenced Rafael Andres, a 61-year-old Cuban, to death this Friday for the murder of Ivette Fariñas, a 31-year-old waitress, also Cuban, who worked at the La Carreta restaurant at Miami International Airport, a crime committed two decades ago. According to Telemundo 51, Judge Zachary James of the Miami-Dade Circuit Court followed the jury's recommendation, which voted 9 to 3 in favor of the death penalty last November after reviewing all the evidence in the case. The jury classified the crime as "atrocious, horrifying, or cruel," although they did not conclude that it was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner.

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.