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
- MARCH 22, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
State media reported that two murderers, one who beat...
State media reported that two murderers, one who beat his parents to death with a metal bar and one who killed his wife with rat poison, were executed in the Chinese capital Beijing
- MARCH 22, 2003PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Muhammad Rafiq was sentenced to death and fined Rs...
Muhammad Rafiq was sentenced to death and fined Rs 50,000 by a Special Anti-Terrorism Court after being convicted of murder
- MARCH 21, 2003FijiDEATH PENALTY
A Fiji High Court judge said he could not sentence...
A Fiji High Court judge said he could not sentence two convicted coup plotters because he wasn't certain whether the South Pacific nation had formally abolished the death penalty as the government said it had
- MARCH 19, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two convicted armed robbers were publicly hanged in...
Two convicted armed robbers were publicly hanged in the western city of Khorramabad, the Persian daily Kayhan reported
- MARCH 19, 2003BangladeshDEATH PENALTY
Five people were sentenced to death in two separate...
Five people were sentenced to death in two separate murder cases by fast-track tribunals in Dhaka under the Woman and Child Repression Prevention Act
- MARCH 19, 2003IndonesiaDEATH PENALTY
The Cibinong District Court sentenced two men to death...
The Cibinong District Court sentenced two men to death for murdering a man and then mutilating his body to conceal their crime on 20 June 2002
- MARCH 18, 2003PakistanDEATH PENALTY
An anti-terrorist court sentenced to death three child...
An anti-terrorist court sentenced to death three child kidnappers
- MARCH 18, 2003QatarDEATH PENALTY
Marking a visit from Jordan's king, the leader of Qatar...
Marking a visit from Jordan's king, the leader of Qatar pardoned a Jordanian journalist who had been convicted of spying and sentenced to death, according to the official Qatari official news agency
- MARCH 18, 2003JordanDEATH PENALTY
Marking a visit from Jordan's king, the leader of Qatar...
Marking a visit from Jordan's king, the leader of Qatar pardoned a Jordanian journalist who had been convicted of spying and sentenced to death, according to the official Qatari official news agency
- MARCH 14, 2003BahamasDEATH PENALTY
Two men were handed death sentences in the Bahamas,...
Two men were handed death sentences in the Bahamas, at the end of separate murder trials in which the juries returned unanimous guilty verdicts
- MARCH 14, 2003VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A court in northern Vietnam sentenced six men to death...
A court in northern Vietnam sentenced six men to death for trafficking nearly 90 kilograms of heroin
- MARCH 13, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The People's High Court in the eastern province of...
The People's High Court in the eastern province of Zhejiang announced that Yan Liang, 31, an employee of China Unicom's Quzhou branch, had been executed on terrorist charges for sending a mail bomb that killed his boss
- MARCH 12, 2003KenyaDEATH PENALTY
Eight people were sentenced to hang for the vicious...
Eight people were sentenced to hang for the vicious murder of a land dealer in Kenya
- MARCH 12, 2003TürkiyeDEATH PENALTY
The European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey...
The European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey for violating the human rights of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan
- MARCH 11, 2003QatarDEATH PENALTY
Indian national Arun Abraham, sentenced to death by...
Indian national Arun Abraham, sentenced to death by Qatar's Sharia court for killing his Indian colleague, was executed by firing squad in Doha's central prison
- MARCH 10, 2003MalawiDEATH PENALTY
The High Court in Malawi sentenced two men to death...
The High Court in Malawi sentenced two men to death for the murder of a German tourist
- MARCH 7, 2003UgandaDEATH PENALTY
Eriabu Magala, 51, was sentenced to death by the High...
Eriabu Magala, 51, was sentenced to death by the High Court in Mpigi for stabbing to death Eriazari Lutwama, 60, on suspicion that he was a witchdoctor
- MARCH 7, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China has developed a "mobile execution vehicle" to...
China has developed a "mobile execution vehicle" to make capital punishment easier to deliver, state press said
- MARCH 6, 2003ArizonaDEATH PENALTY
A Mesa jury sentenced Robert Cromwell, 36, to death
A Mesa jury sentenced Robert Cromwell, 36, to death
- MARCH 6, 2003IllinoisDEATH PENALTY
An Illinois House committee voted to abolish the death...
An Illinois House committee voted to abolish the death penalty, raising the stakes in the long debate over how to respond to flaws in the state's capital punishment system
- MARCH 3, 2003VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The trial of twenty five defendants in the largest...
The trial of twenty five defendants in the largest drug trafficking ring to be detected in Vietnam's northern mountainous Lai Chau province began
- MARCH 3, 2003BangladeshDEATH PENALTY
A man named as Sumon was sentenced to death in absentia...
A man named as Sumon was sentenced to death in absentia and eight others to life term imprisonment in a double murder case
- MARCH 1, 2003VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong granted amnesty...
Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong granted amnesty to five people on death row, state media said
- FEBRUARY 28, 2003CameroonDEATH PENALTY
A military tribunal in the west African state of Cameroon...
A military tribunal in the west African state of Cameroon sentenced seven people to death for the murder of the police chief in the town of Bamenda, legal officials said
- FEBRUARY 27, 2003VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Three Vietnamese men were condemned to death in Vietnam's...
Three Vietnamese men were condemned to death in Vietnam's central province of Nghe An after being convicted of trafficking drugs from Laos, officials said
- FEBRUARY 27, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Four brothers who killed a person in a holdup with...
Four brothers who killed a person in a holdup with homemade guns were sentenced to death in south China's Guangdong Province
- FEBRUARY 26, 2003KenyaDEATH PENALTY
Three convicted bank robbers were sentenced to death
Three convicted bank robbers were sentenced to death
- FEBRUARY 26, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Eight Indian Muslims, including four who had been sentenced...
Eight Indian Muslims, including four who had been sentenced to death, were acquitted over the 1997 killing of a policeman that had led to deadly communal riots in southern India
- FEBRUARY 25, 2003IndonesiaDEATH PENALTY
Amroz, one of the key Bali bombing suspects, claimed...
Amroz, one of the key Bali bombing suspects, claimed that he was not afraid of a possible death sentence to be imposed upon him for his actions
- FEBRUARY 25, 2003KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA TAKES OVER 200 PRISONERS OFF DEATH ROW
February 25, 2003: President Mwai Kibaki ordered the release of 28 death row prisoners and commuted the death sentences of another 195 inmates to life in prison, following his campaign pledge to reform Kenya´s prison system, a senior official said.