Category Archives: Capital punishment

Rate of executions in Saudi Arabia almost doubles under Mohammed bin Salman

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Last six years among bloodiest in kingdom’s modern history despite push to modernise

The rate of executions carried out by Saudi Arabia has almost doubled under the rule of the de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, with the past six years being among the bloodiest in the Kingdom’s modern history, a report has found.

Rates of capital punishment are at historically high levels, despite a push to modernise with widespread reforms and a semblance of individual liberties. Activist groups say the price of change has been high, with a total crackdown on the crown prince’s political opponents and zero tolerance for dissent.

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Top Tennessee pair fired after damning review of state’s execution protocol

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Report revealed multiple executions in recent years carried out without proper testing of lethal injection drugs

Two top Tennessee officials have been fired by the corrections department after an independent report revealed striking errors in the state’s lethal injection execution protocol.

According to official documents reviewed by the Tennessean newspaper, the deputy commissioner and general counsel, Debra Inglis, was fired, as well as inspector general Kelly Young, on 27 December.

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Transgender Missouri inmate executed for fatal stabbing

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Two members of Congress campaigned for Amber McLaughlin’s sentence to be commuted over alleged shortcomings in trial

A Missouri inmate has been put to death for a 2003 killing, becoming what is believed to be the first transgender woman executed in the US.

Amber McLaughlin was put to death on Tuesday night, hours after the Republican governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, declined a clemency request. McLaughlin was convicted in 2006 of killing a former girlfriend in suburban St Louis in 2003.

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Actor, doctor, engineer: stories of Iranians sentenced to death over killing at protest

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Five men apparently unknown to each other were probably forced to give false confessions

An actor, a radiologist, a poultry business employee, a karate champion, an engineer – these are five men sentenced to death in Iran for alleged crimes linked to anti-regime protests. The charges raised against them included murder. With court hearings held largely in secret, their trials have been widely condemned as a sham.

All are due to be executed in connection with the killing of an agent from the country’s feared paramilitary forces, the Basij. The court says Ruhollah Ajamian, 27, was stripped naked and murdered on 3 November. But the circumstances of Ajamian’s death are opaque. The alleged attack occurred at a protest commemorating a demonstrator, Hadis Najafi, who had been shot dead by security forces at a rally demanding rights for women.

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‘Surreal spectacle’: US botched 35% of execution attempts this year

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Annual review reveals that seven of the 20 execution attempts carried out this year were visibly problematic

As 2022 draws to a close, a new grim distinction can be attached to it: in America it was the year of the botched execution.

In its annual review of US capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals the astonishing statistic that 35% of the 20 execution attempts carried out this year were visibly problematic.

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US federal judge denies 19-year-old’s request to attend her father’s execution

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Judge upholds Missouri law that bars anyone under 21 from witnessing an execution

A federal judge in the US has denied a request from a 19-year-old woman to allow her to watch her father’s death by injection, upholding a Missouri law that bars anyone under 21 from witnessing an execution.

Kevin Johnson is set to be executed Tuesday for killing Kirkwood police officer William McEntee in 2005. Johnson’s lawyers have appeals pending that seek to spare his life.

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Australian among 40 foreign nationals held in Iran’s jails amid escalating protests

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Regime refuses to provide consular access as it does not recognise dual nationality, Dfat says

An Australian citizen is among at least 40 foreign nationals now held in Iranian jails amid pro-democracy protests across the country – and an escalating violent response by regime forces.

A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Iranian-Australian dual national had not been arrested for taking part in the anti-regime protests but confirmed that Australian officials had been refused access to assess the person’s welfare.

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Saudi execution spree continues as fears rise for Jordanian on death row

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David Davis asks foreign secretary and Saudi ambassador to intervene in reprieve for Hussein Abo al-Kheir

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed two more Saudi citizens for drug offences, taking the total number of executions in the past fortnight to 17.

The kingdom had previously given a commitment it would not impose the death penalty for drug offences, but has suddenly gone back on its word, executing seven Saudi and 10 foreign nationals. Saudi Arabia has already executed 130 people this year.

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Iran issues first death sentence over protests

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Unnamed person faces execution for alleged arson as part of crackdown on unrest triggered by death of Mahsa Amini

Iran has issued a first death sentence over protests that have mounted a fierce challenge to four decades of hardline clerical rule, as rights groups warn that a wave of executions may follow as leaders try to end nearly two months of sustained nationwide dissent.

The execution was ordered for an unidentified person for allegedly setting fire to a government building. It followed 272 of Iran’s 290 lawmakers voting earlier this month to implement the death penalty for serious crimes against the state, and repeated demands by some officials to take a harder line against unrest that shows little sign of abating.

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Richard Branson refuses Singapore invitation to debate death penalty

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UK entrepreneur turns down live TV debate and says government should instead engage with local activists

The British entrepreneur Richard Branson has rejected an invitation from Singapore’s home affairs minister to debate the death penalty, urging him to instead engage with local activists who oppose the “inhumane, brutal practice”.

Branson had been invited by the ministry of home affairs to debate capital punishment live on TV, after he described it as “a serious stain on Singapore’s reputation”, and condemned the execution earlier this year of Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam.

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Equatorial Guinea abolishes death penalty, state television reports

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President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo signs new penal code for central African country

Equatorial Guinea, one of the world’s most authoritarian countries, has abolished the death penalty, according to state television, which cited a new law signed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

Capital punishment was “totally abolished” in the oil-rich central African country after the president signed a new penal code, the vice-president tweeted on Monday.

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Oklahoma governor grants Richard Glossip 60-day stay of execution

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Court considers Glossip’s case after independent investigation raised questions about guilt in 1997 killing

Oklahoma’s governor has granted Richard Glossip a 60-day stay of execution while a state appeals court considers his claim of innocence.

Kevin Stitt signed an executive order on Tuesday delaying Glossip’s execution for the 1997 killing of Glossip’s boss, Barry Van Treese, a motel owner, that was scheduled for 22 September.

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Alabama subjected prisoner to ‘three hours of pain’ during execution – report

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Lethal injection of Joe Nathan James Jr may have taken longer than any other recorded in US history, according to an analysis

Alabama’s execution of Joe Nathan James Jr last month may have taken longer than any other lethal injection in recorded American history, and no death penalty ever administered in the US may have taken quite as long, according to an analysis by a human rights organization.

An examination by Reprieve US of James’s execution estimates that it took Alabama officials between three and three-and-a-half hours to carry out the lethal injection, a duration that the organization argues violates constitutional protections against inhumane punishments.

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Oklahoma lawmakers urge pause amid fears innocent man to be executed

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Bipartisan group calls for new hearing over lack of evidence in case of Richard Glossip, 59, as state rushes to speed up executions

A letter signed by 61 Oklahoma lawmakers – most of them pro-death penalty Republicans – has been sent to the state’s attorney general calling for a new hearing in the case of Richard Glossip, a death row inmate scheduled to be executed next month.

Forty-four Republican and 17 Democratic legislators, amounting to more than a third of the state assembly, have written to John O’Connor pleading for the new hearing.

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‘We can’t play God’: daughter opposes death penalty for mother’s killer

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Terryln Hall was just six when Joe Nathan James Jr shot her mother, Faith, in Alabama but 30 years on is asking for mercy

Terryln Hall was just six years old when her mother, Faith, was fatally shot by a former boyfriend.

Now, nearly 30 years later, Hall and her sister – along with their uncle – oppose Alabama’s plan to execute the man who killed their mother. Unless a judge or the governor intervenes, Joe Nathan James Jr, 49, will die by lethal injection on Thursday evening at a south Alabama prison.

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Myanmar executions: US presses China to rein in junta, saying it cannot be ‘business as usual’

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State department says military government in Yangon has not faced enough economic and diplomatic pressure, amid global outrage at killings

A senior US official has urged China to do more to rein in Myanmar’s military after its execution of four people, saying that “it cannot be business as usual with the junta”, as the killings drew widespread international condemnation.

State department spokesperson Ned Price told a briefing: “Arguably, no country has the potential to influence the trajectory of Burma’s next steps more so than the PRC [People’s Republic of China]”, noting that the junta “has not faced the level of economic and in some cases diplomatic pressure that we would like to see”.

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Executed Myanmar activist visited Australia in 2012 to complete a political advisers’ course

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Phyo Zeya Thaw met then prime minister Julia Gillard when he was brought to Australia by AusAid

Phyo Zeya Thaw hadn’t been out of jail long when he came to Australia to do a political advisers’ course 10 years ago.

The Myanmar hip-hop artist turned politician – who eventually turned hip-hop artist again – was one of four people executed by the military junta following accusations of terror acts that many considered unfounded.

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Myanmar junta executes democracy activists in first such killings in decades

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Democracy figures, including former lawmaker in Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, executed after being accused of carrying out ‘terror acts’

Myanmar’s junta has executed four prisoners including a former politician and a veteran activist, drawing shock and revulsion at the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades.

Junta-controlled media reported on Monday that four men, including Phyo Zeya Thaw, a rapper and former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, and the prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, known as Jimmy, had been executed. They were accused of conspiring to commit terror acts and were sentenced to death in January in closed trials.

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Texas death row inmate asks to delay execution so he can donate kidney

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Lawyers for Ramiro Gonzales, who is set to die by lethal injection on 13 July, requested 30-day reprieve so he can provide donation

A Texas man set to be executed in less than two weeks asked to delay his execution so he can donate a kidney.

Ramiro Gonzales, 39, who is set to die by lethal injection on 13 July, has submitted formal requests to postpone his execution so he can provide a kidney donation for someone urgently needing a transplant.

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Oklahoma to execute death row prisoners nearly every month

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State set execution dates on Friday for six inmates and plans for executions to take place about once a month through 2024

Oklahoma is planning to execute a prisoner on death row nearly every month starting in August through 2024 in a move that is likely to cause outrage among opponents of the death penalty.

The Oklahoma court of criminal appeals set the execution dates on Friday for six inmates, who have all exhausted their appeals, and plans for executions to take place about once a month. The inmates’ capital punishments were on hold because of a lawsuit over botched lethal injections, which led to a more than five-year execution moratorium.

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