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 8, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Mahabub Subhani was given a death sentence by the Guntur...
Mahabub Subhani was given a death sentence by the Guntur district court for the murder of seventeen year-old-student Prasanna Lakshmi in her classroom on October 29, 1999
- FEBRUARY 6, 2001FloridaDEATH PENALTY
An Army veteran diagnosed as suffering from Gulf War...
An Army veteran diagnosed as suffering from Gulf War illness was sentenced to death for killing 3 children with a shotgun
- FEBRUARY 1, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Yoshio Iwamoto,...
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Yoshio Iwamoto, a 56-year-old man to death for committing two murder-robberies in 1996 and 1999 in Tokyo
- JANUARY 31, 2001CaliforniaDEATH PENALTY
A gang member convicted of killing 2 teenagers (Mike...
A gang member convicted of killing 2 teenagers (Mike Murillo and Bryan Molina) in Whittier was sentenced to death
- JANUARY 31, 2001CaliforniaDEATH PENALTY
A man whose November 1999 crime spree resulted in the...
A man whose November 1999 crime spree resulted in the deaths of 2 people was sentenced to die
- JANUARY 29, 2001PhilippinesDEATH PENALTY
PHILIPPINES
January 29, 2001: 12 people sentenced to death for kidnapping, by a a judge on the central island of Bohol.
- JANUARY 27, 2001IranDEATH PENALTY
Judge Mohammad Reza Aqiqi of the Tehran military court...
Judge Mohammad Reza Aqiqi of the Tehran military court gave death penalty to Ali Roshani, Mahamoud Jafarzadeh and Ali Mohseni three former government agents for the murder of two elderly nationalists, Darioush and his wife Parvaneh Forouhar, and two write
- JANUARY 19, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Liao Buhuang and Wu Tongzhu, two men who abducted 154...
Liao Buhuang and Wu Tongzhu, two men who abducted 154 women and two children and made 840,000 yuan from selling them to people in the richer eastern provinces were also executed
- JANUARY 19, 2001South DakotaDEATH PENALTY
A judge sentenced an Alaska man to death by lethal...
A judge sentenced an Alaska man to death by lethal injection for last year's brutal slaying of 19-year-old Chester A
- JANUARY 17, 2001North CarolinaDEATH PENALTY
A condemned inmate whose picture, taken by Oliviero...
A condemned inmate whose picture, taken by Oliviero Toscani, was part of a Benetton campaign against capital punishment received a stay of execution
- JANUARY 13, 2001Palestinian TerritoriesDEATH PENALTY
After putting 2 men before firing squads, a military...
After putting 2 men before firing squads, a military court heard no witnesses and deliberated less than an hour before sentencing two Palestinians to death and two others to life in prison on similar charges of treason
- JANUARY 12, 2001TajikistanDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court of Tajikistan sentenced to death...
The Supreme Court of Tajikistan sentenced to death Maqsatullo Abdulhaqov, A
- JANUARY 11, 2001VirginiaDEATH PENALTY
A federal judge for the 1st time has ordered new DNA...
A federal judge for the 1st time has ordered new DNA testing for a Virginia death row inmate, ruling that Brian Lee Cherrix needs the lab work to verify his claim that he was wrongfully convicted of killing a pizza delivery woman
- JANUARY 9, 2001TajikistanDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court of Tajikistan sentenced to death...
The Supreme Court of Tajikistan sentenced to death the leader of a criminal armed group, (Murodali Bozorov), and two of his accomplices, (Abror Sulaymonov) and (Kiyemiddiyen Fayzullayev) for murder, banditry and also with taking several servicemen of the
- JANUARY 9, 2001FloridaDEATH PENALTY
A month after a Florida death row inmate was cleared...
A month after a Florida death row inmate was cleared of a murder by a drop of his blood, Gov
- JANUARY 6, 2001GhanaDEATH PENALTY
Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, pardoned Kwame Pianim,...
Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, pardoned Kwame Pianim, an old political foe convicted of treason against his then military government in 1982, who served 10 years in prison after a death sentence
- JANUARY 4, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
In accordance with law regarding a large smuggling...
In accordance with law regarding a large smuggling case the Jiangmen City Intermediate People's Court held a public trial on Huang Guolin, a dismissed worker of customs, Fu Zhijian and Hu Yingcong, former staff members of the Taishan customs and sentenced
- JANUARY 1, 2001AlabamaDEATH PENALTY
A private investigator is teaming up with University...
A private investigator is teaming up with University of South Alabama students to probe old death-penalty cases
- JANUARY 1, 2001Congo - KinshasaDEATH PENALTY
Capital crimes are: aggravated murder, aggravated robbery,...
Capital crimes are: aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, treason, political and military offenses and genocide
- JANUARY 1, 2001Sierra LeoneDEATH PENALTY
Murder, aggravated robbery and treason are capital crimes
Murder, aggravated robbery and treason are capital crimes
- JANUARY 1, 2001Trinidad & TobagoDEATH PENALTY
Trinidad and Tobago is a British Independent Territory...
Trinidad and Tobago is a British Independent Territory for which the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council remains the last court of appeal
- JANUARY 1, 2001PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Pakistani judges handed down a total of more than 4,000...
Pakistani judges handed down a total of more than 4,000 death sentences, in trials that international rights groups complain were often miscarriages of justice
- JANUARY 1, 2001TajikistanDEATH PENALTY
The Tajik Supreme Court and its military collegium...
The Tajik Supreme Court and its military collegium passed death sentences on 33 people in 2000
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China also condemned to death and executed many people...
China also condemned to death and executed many people in accord with the national campaign against corruption, which was strengthened after March's annual session of the National People's Congress
- JANUARY 1, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International believes that in actual fact...
Amnesty International believes that in actual fact the number of death sentences and executions is much higher than the figures in their possession; this is because the Chinese authorities never publish statistics on the death penalty as they are consider
- DECEMBER 22, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A court in central Vietnam sentenced 43-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel...
A court in central Vietnam sentenced 43-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel Le Van Luen a former senior police officer, to death by firing squad for dealing in heroin, bringing the number of people sentenced to death for drug trafficking in 2000 to at least 49
- DECEMBER 18, 2000KazakhstanDEATH PENALTY
An army sergeant was sentenced to die by firing squad...
An army sergeant was sentenced to die by firing squad after being convicted of murder by a military court in the southern Kazakh Zhambyl region
- DECEMBER 7, 2000FranceDEATH PENALTY
French President Jacques Chirac wrote a letter to his...
French President Jacques Chirac wrote a letter to his US counterpart Bill Clinton asking him to suspend the execution of a murderer who was condemned to death by a US federal court
- DECEMBER 6, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
The Vietnamese journal An Ninh Thu Do (Police Journal)...
The Vietnamese journal An Ninh Thu Do (Police Journal) reported that during November the police division in charge of drug prevention and control of Hanoi City worked closely with public security units in districts and precincts to successfully handle 150
- NOVEMBER 23, 2000CanadaDEATH PENALTY
Lai Changxing, 46, the alleged mastermind behind the...
Lai Changxing, 46, the alleged mastermind behind the Xiamen smuggling racket who was arrested in Canada on 23 November, is almost certain to face the death penalty if sent back to China