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
JANUARY 23, 2026TexasDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. Death Penalty for Cody Pritchard
JANUARY 22, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 14 men executed from January 19 to 22
JANUARY 21, 2026NigeriaDEATH PENALTYNIGERIA: COURT HANDS DEATH PENALTY TO 33-YEAR-OLD FOR ROBBERY, SEXUAL ASSAULT IN CROSS RIVER
A High Court of Cross River State sitting in Calabar has sentenced a 33-year-old man, Okon Effiong, to death for armed robbery, rape and aggravated assault, The Guardian reported on January 21, 2026.
JANUARY 20, 2026ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: WOMAN EXECUTED FOR ABUSING AND KILLING STEPDAUGHTER
A woman who abused and killed her stepdaughter was executed on January 20, 2026 in Fujian province after the top court approved her death sentence, local authorities said.
JANUARY 20, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Soldier sentenced to death for refusing to shoot protesters
Javid Khales
JANUARY 19, 2026IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: GUJARAT COURT DELIVERS DEATH PENALTY WITHIN 40 DAYS IN CHILD RAPE CASE
A Rajkot special court on January 17, 2026 delivered a rarest-of-rare judgment with unprecedented speed, sentencing 30-year-old Remsinh Dudwa to death for the sexual assault of a minor girl in Atkot’s Kanpar village.
JANUARY 18, 2026JapanDEATH PENALTYJAPAN: COURT REJECTS INMATES' CALLS TO HALT HANGING ON INHUMANE GROUNDS
A Japanese court rejected on January 16, 2026 three death-row inmates' demands against the state to halt their executions by hanging as an inhumane practice in violation of an international convention prohibiting cruel punishment.
JANUARY 17, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Trump’s vendetta against federal death row inmates
Sends prisoners who received commutations to “Alcatraz of the Rockies”
JANUARY 16, 2026ArizonaDEATH PENALTYUSA - Arizona. Execution protocol under scrutiny after Richard Djerf’s autopsy
JANUARY 15, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Judiciary: Erfan Soltani not sentenced to death
JANUARY 15, 2026MoroccoDEATH PENALTYMOROCCO: DEATH PENALTY REAFFIRMED FOR DUTCH HITMEN IN CAFÉ LA CRÈME SHOOTING
Two Dutch nationals convicted over the 2017 Café La Crème shooting in Marrakech have again been sentenced to death in Morocco,
JANUARY 15, 2026EgyptDEATH PENALTYEGYPT: DEATH PENALTY HANDED TO ABDUCTOR FOR HORRIFIC ASSAULT OF MINOR
The Public Prosecution has called for the execution of a defendant known as Mohamed al-King following a violent assault on a young girl named Shaimaa, Women of Egypt reported.
JANUARY 13, 2026MalaysiaDEATH PENALTYMALAYSIA: NIGERIAN MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF STEP-GRANDSON
The Kuala Lumpur High Court in the Malaysian capital on January 8, 2026 sentenced a Nigerian national to death by hanging after finding him guilty of murdering his step-grandson by throwing the four-year-old child from the third floor of an apartment in t
JANUARY 13, 2026TexasDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. Report Highlights Decline of New Death Sentences and Executions
JANUARY 13, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 4 men executed on January 13IRAN 4 men executed on January 13
Mostafa Hemmati, Abbas Sharifi, Seyed Mohammad Attari, Moharram Sarchami
JANUARY 12, 2026FloridaDEATH PENALTYUSA - Florida. Marking a Decade Since Hurst v. Florida
Non-unanimous death sentences
- JANUARY 9, 2026IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN Iran-HRS Year End Report: 2228 executions
The Bloodiest Year in the Past Four Decades
JANUARY 6, 2026DEATH PENALTYUSA - 2025 Was Not a Good Year for Clemency in Capital Cases
JANUARY 5, 2026DEATH PENALTYUSA - Florida. Marcelle Waldon, 42, Black, sentenced to death
- JANUARY 3, 2026DEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN: TWO BROTHERS SENTENCED TO DEATH IN DOUBLE MURDER CASE
The District and Sessions Court Jacobabad on January 3, 2026 sentenced two brothers to death in a double murder case.
JANUARY 1, 2026DEATH PENALTYUSA - Oklahoma. Why Is Richard Glossip Still in Jail?
DECEMBER 31, 2025DEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHR report on widespread and systematic drug executions
- DECEMBER 28, 2025IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ HANDS DEATH SENTENCE TO EX-BAATH OFFICER OVER BARZANI CRIMES
Iraq’s High Criminal Court on December 28, 2025 sentenced former Baath-era security commander Shaker Ghafour Al-Douri to death after convicting him of participating in mass executions targeting Kurdish Barzani civilians.
DECEMBER 28, 2025AfghanistanDEATH PENALTYAFGHANISTAN: TALIBAN COURT OVERTURNS DEATH SENTENCE AGAINST TEACHER IN PAKTIKA
A Taliban court in Paktika province has overturned the death sentence against Abdul Alim Khamosh, a teacher who had been detained on charges of “insulting the prophet of islam,”
DECEMBER 26, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Karim Khojasteh Sentenced to Death for Hanging a Protest Banner
DECEMBER 26, 2025ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING HIS CHILDREN
A man was sentenced to death for tricking his two children into drinking pesticide, causing their deaths, the Zunyi Intermediate People's Court in Guizhou province said on December 26, 2025.
DECEMBER 24, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - Yaghoub Karimpour sentenced to death for “espionage for Israel"
DECEMBER 23, 2025NigeriaDEATH PENALTYNIGERIA: S’COURT UPHOLDS MARYAM SANDA’S DEATH SENTENCE, OVERRULES TINUBU’S CLEMENCY
The Supreme Court on December 12, 2025 upheld the death sentence imposed on Maryam Sanda, daughter-in-law of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, over the killing of her husband, Bilyamin Bello.
DECEMBER 23, 2025NigeriaDEATH PENALTYNIGERIA: ADAMAWA GOVERNOR PARDONS FARMER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING HERDER
Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri on December 23, 2025 granted a full pardon to Sunday Jackson, a farmer who was sentenced to death in 2019 for killing a herder during a confrontation on his farmland.
DECEMBER 22, 2025IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - 8 men executed in various prisons on December 22