Death sentences
Archive theme
A death sentence is not the same thing as an execution: years can pass between the two, and the sentence may be overturned on appeal, commuted, or never carried out. Counting them separately measures two different things: how far a state resorts to capital punishment, and how far it actually applies it.
This page collects the news on death sentences handed down around the world, on the later stages of appeal, and on the sentences upheld or overturned. Executions have a page of their own.
Latest news
FEBRUARY 4, 2025Sri LankaDEATH PENALTYSRI LANKA: ELEVEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER AFTER 20 YEARS
Eleven accused who stood indicted with murder were found guilty and sentenced to death by Uva Province High Court Judge Prasanna Alwis, Daily Mirror reported on January 31, 2025.
FEBRUARY 3, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Manouchehr Fallah has been sentenced to death
A Gilak political prisoner held in Lakan Prison in Rasht
FEBRUARY 3, 2025IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ: NINE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council announced that the Central Criminal Court has sentenced nine Iraqi drug traffickers to death after convicting them of smuggling and distributing illicit substances across the country, Kurdistan24 reported on January 29, 202
FEBRUARY 3, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hasani transferred to political prisoners’ ward
Following extensive domestic and international protests
JANUARY 31, 2025CaliforniaDEATH PENALTYUSA - California. Death row population decreased by 63 in 2024
Without any executions
JANUARY 30, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHR Calls for the Revocation of 6 Political Prisoners’ Death Penalty
Babak Alipour, Vahid Baniamerian, Pouya Ghobadi, Abolhassan Montazer and Ali Akbar Daneshvarkar and Mohammad Taghavi
JANUARY 30, 2025NigeriaDEATH PENALTYNIGERIA: 22-YEAR-OLD JAMIU SENTENCED TO DEATH BY HANGING FOR KILLING SEX WORKER
An Abeokuta High Court on January 22, 2025 sentenced 22-year-old Jamiu Malomo to death by hanging for stabbing a sex worker to death.
JANUARY 29, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - The Death Penalty in 2024
New Monthly Podcast from the DPIC
JANUARY 28, 2025NigeriaDEATH PENALTYNIGERIA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR STABBING FRIEND OVER PHONE CHARGER
A High Court in Bauchi State has sentenced Usman Abdullahi to death by hanging for the murder of Zaidu Adamu Kofar Dumi.
JANUARY 27, 2025PakistanDEATH PENALTYPAKISTAN: 4 PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR BLASPHEMY
A Pakistani court on January 25, 2025 sentenced four people to death for blasphemy
JANUARY 25, 2025SingaporeDEATH PENALTYSINGAPORE: MAN EXECUTED FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
Singapore carried out on January 23, 2025 the hanging of a convicted drug trafficker.
JANUARY 25, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Iran accuses EU of ‘meddling’ after parliament condemned death penalties
JANUARY 24, 2025TexasDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. Texas Death Penalty Declining in Use — 2024 in Review
JANUARY 24, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Former death row prisoners may be heading to Florence, Colorado
The ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies’
JANUARY 22, 2025BangladeshDEATH PENALTYBANGLADESH: THREE TO BE HANGED FOR 2013 MURDER IN SAVAR
A court in Dhaka sentenced three people to death on January 16, 2025 for the murder of a man in Savar about 12 years ago over previous enmity.
JANUARY 22, 2025IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: 5 MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RAPE-MURDER OF CHHATTISGARH GIRL
A fast-track court in Korba district of Chhattisgarh has sentenced five men to death for gang-raping and killing a 16-year-old girl and murdering her two family members in 2021.
JANUARY 22, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Lawyer of Pakhshan Azizi: Execution Temporarily Halted
JANUARY 22, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Trump suggests state death penalty for those commuted by Biden. Is that possible?
"Highly unlikely", legal experts say
JANUARY 21, 2025OklahomaDEATH PENALTYUSA - Supreme Court Makes Historic Decision
Rules in Favor of Woman on Death Row, Confirming Admission of Prejudicial, Gendered Evidence Can Violate Due Process Rights
JANUARY 19, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Court sentences pop star Tataloo to death for blasphemy
JANUARY 18, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Two Iranian supreme court judges shot dead
Ali Razini and Mohammad Moghisseh
JANUARY 18, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - A third man, Iouri Mikhel, rejects Biden's pardon
JANUARY 17, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Saman Yasin arrives in Germany
Iranian-Kurdish rapper once on death row
- JANUARY 14, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Agofsky and Davis can't legally object to Biden's death row commutations
DOJ argues
- JANUARY 13, 2025MalaysiaDEATH PENALTY
MALAYSIA: DEATH SENTENCE OF EX-LORRY DRIVER CONVICTED OF RAPE-CUM-MURDER OF ELDERLY WOMAN COMMUTED TO 40 YEARS IMPRISONMENT
A former lorry driver who murdered an 85-year-old woman after raping and sodomising her in 2019 has his death sentence commuted to 40 years in prison by the Federal Court on January 13, 2025.
JANUARY 13, 2025PakistanDEATH PENALTYPAKISTAN: MAN, SON AWARDED DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLING RELATIVE, HIS DAUGHTER OVER ‘HONOUR’
Jamshoro’s additional sessions court on January 10, 2025 sentenced a man and his son to death after they were found guilty of murdering a young woman and her father in the name of honour.
- JANUARY 11, 2025IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Pakhshan Azizi is one step away from execution
JANUARY 9, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - List of 54 Political and Security Prisoners on Death Row
- JANUARY 7, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Two death row inmates reject Biden’s clemency
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis
- JANUARY 6, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Why Does the United States Bother to Impose Death Sentences?
Editorial by Professor Austin Sarat, Amherst College