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
- JULY 17, 2006BulgariaDEATH PENALTY
LIBYA. QADDAFI COULD GRANT BULGARIAN NURSES AMNESTY
Libyan court will confirm the death sentences of Bulgaria's five nurses, a newspaper has said citing anonymous sources.
- JULY 14, 2006South CarolinaDEATH PENALTY
SOUTH CAROLINA, USA. MAN EXECUTED FOR RAPE, MURDER OF BOY
making no final statement and keeping his eyes trained on the ceiling, William "Junior" Downs was put to death by lethal injection for the 1999 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 6-year-old South Carolina boy.
- JULY 14, 2006ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA. COURT SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR KILING SIX BOYS
a Chinese court sentenced Gong Runbo to death for killing six boys. Gong, 33...
- JULY 11, 2006TexasDEATH PENALTY
Derrick Sean O'Brien was executed in the Texas death chamber this evening for the torture...
Derrick Sean O'Brien was executed in the Texas death chamber this evening for the torture, rape and strangling of 2 teenage girls 13 years ago. O'Brien was 1 of 6 members of a fledgling street gang arrested in the slayings of Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jenni
- JULY 11, 2006IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA. DEATH PENALTY FOR MAN CONVICTED OF KILLING FELLOW INMATE
a District and Sessions Court in Sagar, India, sentenced to death one person and awarded life imprisonment to two others charged with a murder that took place in Sagar central jail.
- JULY 10, 2006ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA. SIX PROTESTANT PASTORS CONDEMNED TO DEATH
The Chinese justice system has condemned six Protestant leaders to death for homicide and fraud.
- JULY 6, 2006PakistanDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN. MURDER CONVICT EXECUTED
a murder convict was hanged to death in Balochistan’s Machh Jail this morning.
- JULY 6, 2006ArizonaDEATH PENALTY
Philip Bocharski will die for the May 1995 stabbing death of 84-year-old Freeda Brown.
Philip Bocharski will die for the May 1995 stabbing death of 84-year-old Freeda Brown.
- JULY 6, 2006MissouriDEATH PENALTY
a man tried 5 times for the slaying of a woman 15 years ago was sentenced to death...
a man tried 5 times for the slaying of a woman 15 years ago was sentenced to death by Judge Joseph Dandurand
- JULY 4, 2006IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN. MAN SENTENCED TO 10 TIMES EXECUTION
a court in southern Iran has sentenced a man to ten times execution, the official news agency reported.
- JULY 4, 2006PakistanDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN. FIVE PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER
the Sialkot Additional District and Sessions Court, Pakistan, sentenced five men to death...
- JULY 3, 2006BangladeshDEATH PENALTY
BANGLADESH. FIVE MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER
five men were sentenced to death in absentia in Narayanganj, Bangladesh, for the murder of local law and order committee adviser at Fatullah.
- JULY 1, 2006IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA. THREE PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR TEMPLE RAID
an Indian court sentenced three men to death for masterminding a militant attack on the Akshardham Hindu temple that killed 35 people in 2002, including the attackers.
- JUNE 30, 2006FloridaDEATH PENALTY
Ricardo Gill got what he asked for: a death sentence.
Ricardo Gill got what he asked for: a death sentence.
- JUNE 29, 2006BangladeshDEATH PENALTY
BANGLADESH. MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RAPING TEENAGE GIRL
Mominul Islam was sentenced to death in Rangpur, Bangladesh...
- JUNE 29, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. PSYCHIATRIST BACKS SHOKO ASAHARA
Shoko Asahara, the Aum Supreme Truth founder sentenced to death over a 1995 nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway, is mentally unfit and shows no reaction to his children, psychiatrist Haruo Akimoto said.
- JUNE 26, 2006MissouriDEATH PENALTY
MISSOURI, USA. FEDERAL JUDGE HALTS EXECUTIONS
a federal judge halted executions in Missouri until the state makes sweeping changes to ensure that inmates do not suffer excruciating pain when they are put to death.
- JUNE 26, 2006ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA. OILFIELD FIRM CHIEF SENTENCED TO DEATH
China sentenced to death Li Rongxing, the former president of a firm connected with the country's number-two oil field, for taking bribes and embezzling nearly 37 million yuan ($4.62 million).
- JUNE 25, 2006ChinaDEATH PENALTY
CHINA. TWO MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG MAKING IN NORTHWEST CHINA
two people were sentenced to death for manufacturing illegal drugs in northwest China.
- JUNE 25, 2006SyriaDEATH PENALTY
SYRIA. COURT COMMUTES MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MEMBER'S DEATH SENTENCE
a Syrian court sentenced a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death, but then commuted the verdict to a 12-year prison term, The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said
- JUNE 23, 2006UzbekistanDEATH PENALTY
KYRGYZSTAN. PRO-UIGHUR 'EXTREMIST' SENTENCED TO DEATH
Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court sentenced to death Otabek Akhadov, an Uzbek citizen, after he was found guilty of several murders connected to what officials describe as an ethnic-Uighur extremist group active in neighbouring China, the man's lawyer Nina Zotov
- JUNE 22, 2006VietnamDEATH PENALTY
VIETNAM. SENTENCES TWO MEN TO DEATH FOR HEROIN DEALING
Bui Xuan Thai and Nguyen Van Chinh were sentenced to death after being convicted in a one-day trial in Vietnam’s Thai Binh province, about 100 kilometers southeast of Hanoi, said presiding judge Tran Van Loan.
- JUNE 20, 2006IndiaDEATH PENALTY
KUWAIT. INDIAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER
an Indian national in Kuwait was sentenced to death by a criminal court for killing his lover and later trying to commit suicide.
- JUNE 20, 2006PennsylvaniaDEATH PENALTY
the state Supreme Court ruled that Thomas Jeffrey Gorby...
the state Supreme Court ruled that Thomas Jeffrey Gorby...
- JUNE 18, 2006PakistanDEATH PENALTY
UAE. GARDENER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF WOMAN
the Sharjah Sharia Court of First Instance sentenced a Pakistani gardener to capital punishment for stabbing a newly-wed woman to death in Sharjah, UAE. The Sharjah Public Prosecution charged the 22-year-old, identified only as “S.K.”, with the premeditat
- JUNE 15, 2006PakistanDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN. 34 DISMISSED, 24 AWARDED CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR FINANCIAL ANOMALIES IN POST OFFICES, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TOLD
34 employees were dismissed and 24 others awarded capital punishment during the last two years for their involvement in 49 embezzlement cases and financial irregularities in the General Post Office (GPO) and other Post Offices.
- JUNE 15, 2006JapanDEATH PENALTY
JAPAN. MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF 2 IN FUKUSHIMA
the Fukushima District Court's Koriyama branch sentenced 57-year-old Minoru Watanabe to death for the murder of two people in 2001 in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. The court said Watanabe played a leading role in the murders, dismissing his argument that
- JUNE 14, 2006PakistanDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN. DEATH PENALTY FOR SUNNI MILITANT
Mohammad Aslam, also known as Muawia, was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan after being found guilty of killing six Shia Muslims during an attack in 1995. He had pleaded not guilty.
- JUNE 14, 2006IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN. FOUR ARABS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR TERRORISM
four Arabs convicted of unrest in Iran's southeastern oil city of Ahwaz were sentenced to death.
- JUNE 12, 2006United StatesDEATH PENALTY
UNITED STATES. COURT ALLOWS INMATE APPEAL ON LETHAL INJECTION
US Supreme Court ruled that a death row inmate can bring a challenge under a federal civil rights law to the method of execution that uses a lethal three-chemical cocktail.