Death Penalty News

The socialist president celebrated for abolishing the death penalty in France sent 45 condemned men to the guillotine when he was Minister of Justice. In French political history, François Mitterrand is the father of the historic victory of May 1981. He remains associated with one of the greatest moral laws of the Fifth Republic: the definitive end of capital executions, carried through with Robert Badinter in the autumn of 1981.

Tennessee Republican lawmakers are ready to change the state’s death penalty laws in the wake of two botched executions by lethal injection, including a renewed look at electrocution and firing squads. Republican Rep. Jody Barrett of Dickson confirmed this week he is considering sponsoring legislation in 2027 to make firing squads a method for putting people to death, even though one Democratic lawmaker called the practice “depraved.” Republican Sen. Tom Hatcher also said he is having a bill drafted that would either remove lethal injection from the execution process or reform it based on the results of a third-party investigation Gov. Bill Lee ordered after the failed execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike in September. Hatcher, a first-term senator from Maryville, acknowledged that eliminating lethal injection would leave electrocution as the only way allowed to put people to death.

Former top IDF lawyer Zana Modzgvrishvili will oversee trials of more than 400 suspected Hamas Nukhba terrorists under a new law allowing the death penalty for crimes committed during the October 7 massacre  Former chief military prosecutor Zana Modzgvrishvili has been appointed to lead the prosecution of Hamas Nukhba terrorists accused of participating in the October 7, 2023, massacre, in what is expected to become one of the most complex and sensitive legal undertakings in the country's history.  The proceedings are expected to involve hundreds of suspects who infiltrated southern Israel during the Hamas-led attack, along with an extraordinary volume of evidence, witness testimony, victims' accounts and investigative materials. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 25 October 2026: Javad Baranizadeh, a man on death row for murder, was executed in Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, a man was hanged in Ghezel Hesar Prison on 21 October 2026. His identity has been established as Javad Baranizadeh. He was arrested around three years ago and sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for murder by the Criminal Court.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar, who awarded 23 death sentences in 11 cases between April and September 2026, has been transferred from a fast-track court to a family court in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. Under an Allahabad High Court transfer order, Diwakar has been appointed Additional Principal Judge of the family court. Judge Shiv Kumari will take over as the Additional District and Sessions Judge at the fast-track court. The transfer comes after Diwakar questioned the withdrawal of 97 part-heard criminal cases, including murder cases and other serious offences, from his court through administrative orders issued by the then Muzaffarnagar District and Sessions Judge in August.

SINGAPORE – A 24-year-old Malaysian man was arrested at Tuas Checkpoint on Oct 21 for trying to smuggle over 2kg of drugs into Singapore on a motorcycle. In a statement on Oct 26, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said officers had directed the man’s Malaysia-registered motorcycle for more checks at the checkpoint. They found five bundles, suspected to contain controlled drugs, in a tote bag hidden under a raincoat in the top box of the vehicle.

Gov. Mike DeWine created a faster path to pardons and now opposes the death penalty. Some hope that means he'll grant them clemency before he leaves office in January Advocacy groups are urging Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to grant pardons and commutations before his term ends. Governors have the constitutional power to grant clemency, which includes pardons, commutations, and reprieves. Since 2019, DeWine has granted 396 clemency applications, many through an expedited project for non-violent offenders. Several high-profile inmates, including some on death row, are seeking clemency from the governor. With just three months left as Ohio governor, people are lobbying Mike DeWine for last-minute pardons and commutations.

Indonesia has not carried out an execution in a decade, yet it continues to impose death sentences and holds hundreds of people on death row under a new criminal code that reclassifies capital punishment as a measure of last resort. The country’s last executions occurred in 2016, when four people convicted of drug trafficking were put to death by firing squad. No further executions have taken place. The pause meets thresholds used by international organizations to describe a country as de facto abolitionist, even though the death penalty remains legal.

A U.S. Marine has been formally charged with killing and robbing a Japanese woman at a hotel in Okinawa’s capital, three weeks after his arrest prompted calls for changes to the status of forces agreement governing American military personnel in Japan. Lanc Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, was indicted Sunday on a charge of robbery causing death in the killing of Anna Yagi, 39, according to a copy of the indictment provided by the Naha Public Prosecutors Office. The Japanese legal system applies in this case.⁠

New details of IV team’s attempts to find a vein shared by Pike’s lawyer ‘shocked and disturbed’ practitioners Medical experts have expressed shock at the apparent incompetence shown by Tennessee’s execution team during the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike , the prisoner who survived a normally fatal dose of pentobarbital, which they say would be considered medical malpractice in any other setting.

(NewsNation) — Death penalty attorney Dale Baich says allegations that medical staff warned multiple times about issues during Christa Pike’s execution attempt raise serious constitutional concerns and should have prompted officials to stop the procedure. “Well, the affidavit that was filed by her lawyers is chilling. And what’s interesting is, this was so predictable,” Baich said. “The lawyers went into court, laid out the problems that would occur during the execution, and they were just sort of blown off by the state’s attorneys.”

What we know about the executions of Suety Akhter and Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir in Saudi Arabia and the diplomatic fallout it's created  Clutching a picture of his daughter, Fazal Mia is still in shock that he was not told that his child, Suety Akhter, would be executed in Saudi Arabia.  After leaving Bangladesh to work in the Gulf kingdom, Akhter sent money home for the first 5 months before calling her family one day to say she had been imprisoned.  The family then found out from news reports that their daughter was handed the death penalty, alongside another Bangladeshi citizen, Nazrul Islam Abdul Basir.

A Death Row inmate from the Florida Keys who tied up and strangled a pregnant third-grade teacher and her husband after breaking into their home more than three decades ago may soon be executed. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed a death warrant for Thomas Mitchell Overton, 70, who was convicted and condemned to die for the Aug. 22, 1991, murders of Susan “Missy” MacIvor, 29, and Michael MacIvor, 30. The MacIvors were expecting their first child, planning to name him Kyle Patrick. Overton’s execution is scheduled for Nov. 19 at Florida State Prison in Raiford. It’s scheduled to be the 20th execution in the state so far this year and the first involving a case out of Monroe County. Last year, Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed for murdering a Miami Herald employee he carjacked and sexually assaulted in the Keys in 2000.

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against a woman charged with murder in the 2025 deaths of her twin toddlers. Andrea Shaw, 23, has pleaded not guilty and has said the 18-month-old twins became sick and died after receiving flu shots and routine childhood vaccinations. But Payette County Prosecutor Mike Duke wrote in court documents that an autopsy revealed symptoms consistent with smothering and wrote that suffocation “is the only conceivable explanation” for their deaths.

Records reveal Tennessee spent at least $1.175 million in recent years on lethal injection drugs, but their source and cost per dose remain secret. The state of Tennessee has spent $1.175 million on lethal injection chemicals in recent years while failing to carry out two of its three recent executions. Nearly all other details about the lethal injection drugs, like where they came from, remain hidden from the public. An attorney who represents people on death row said there is "absolutely no transparency" around the chemicals.

A 28-year-old Tampa rapper convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child has asked a Florida judge to sentence him to death, waiving his lawyers’ mitigation arguments. Billy Adams III’s unusual request—and the jury’s split recommendation—sets up a complex sentencing hearing on December 1. Billy Adams III, a 28-year-old Tampa rapper known professionally as Ace NH, has asked a Florida judge to sentence him to death following his conviction for the January 2023 killings of his pregnant girlfriend, Alana Sims, and her unborn child. His request, made in a handwritten letter filed with the court on October 12, 2026, comes after a jury recommended life imprisonment for Sims’ murder but voted 8–4 in favor of execution for the death of her unborn child.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Tuesday that she has commuted the death sentence of Toforest Johnson, 53, to life imprisonment without parole, citing concerns about the reliability of the evidence against him. Mr. Johnson has long maintained his innocence in the 1995 shooting death of a Jefferson County deputy sheriff who was moonlighting as a security guard at a Birmingham hotel. “In the 27 executions I have overseen, I have said we review each case with careful consideration, taking into account all the facts,” the governor said in a press release. “When presented with Mr. Johnson’s case, I had concerns there was not enough direct evidence to carry out the most serious punishment, death.”

Jeffrey Weisheit set his house on fire in 2010, killing his girlfriend’s two young children he was watching.  The Indiana Parole Board will now make a recommendation in the coming days to Governor Mike Braun on whether to grant clemency to condemned killer Jeffrey Weisheit.  Jeffrey is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Nov. 5 for the 2010 murder of his girlfriend's 2 children in Vanderburgh County. 

The failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee calls attention to Ohio’s own death penalty laws, as the high-stakes governor race has the potential to end Gov. Mike DeWine’s almost eight-year-long freeze on any death penalty executions.  According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are currently 112 inmates on death row in Ohio, with the last execution occurring in 2018.  DeWine has held an over 7-year-long, unofficial moratorium on state executions throughout his governorship by repeatedly issuing reprieves, which are temporary delays on executions. On Aug. 7, DeWine did so for 3 executions set to happen next year, pushing all of them to 2030.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 19 October 2026: Authorities at Ghezelhesar Prison have verbally notified drug death-row prisoners in Unit 2 that those from provincial towns and cities are to be transferred to their home jurisdictions, a move detainees fear is intended to facilitate their executions. This push to disperse the ward follows two successful strikes staged by Unit 2 prisoners in October 2025 and July 2026, which forced authorities to temporarily halt drug-related executions at the prison.