Death sentences
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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
APRIL 29, 2021OklahomaDEATH PENALTYUSA - Oklahoma. Court overturned the death sentences of Benjamin Robert Cole and James Chandler Ryder
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Citing McGirt
APRIL 29, 2021MalaysiaDEATH PENALTYMALAYSIA: WIDOWER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
A widower was sent to the gallows by the High Court of Kuala Lumpur on 22 April 2021 after he was found guilty of trafficking 149.5 grams of methamphetamine three years ago.
APRIL 29, 2021MalawiDEATH PENALTYMALAWI: SUPREME COURT RULES DEATH PENALTY IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Malawi's highest court on 28 April 2021 outlawed the death penalty and ordered the re-sentencing of all convicts facing execution.
- APRIL 28, 2021EgyptDEATH PENALTY
EGYPT: 17 PRISONERS EXECUTED FOR 2013 ATTACK ON POLICE
Egyptian authorities on 26 April 2021 hanged 17 people who were convicted of murder for an attack on a police station in 2013, lawyers representing their families have said.
APRIL 28, 2021IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: MADRAS HC COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE OF CONVICT TO LIFE
The Madras High Court on 26 April 2021 reduced the death sentence awarded by a lower court to life term in a sensational rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in Coimbatore in 2019, which sent shock waves in Tamil Nadu.
APRIL 27, 2021VietnamDEATH PENALTYVIETNAM: 19-YEAR-OLD ONLINE GAME ADDICT SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDERING, ROBBING WOMAN
A teenage boy from the north-central Vietnamese province of Thanh Hoa on 26 April 2021 was sentenced to death for murdering a woman and stealing her property last year.
APRIL 27, 2021EgyptDEATH PENALTYEGYPT: 9 MEN EXECUTED FOR 2013 ATTACK ON POLICE
Egyptian authorities on 26 April 2021 executed nine men, including an 82-year-old man, convicted of murder in an attack on a police station in 2013, security officials and a rights lawyer said. The assault resulted in the deaths of 15 people, including 11
APRIL 26, 2021VietnamDEATH PENALTYVIETNAM: HANOI DRUG TRAFFICKER SENTENCED TO DEATH
A Da Nang court sentenced one man to death and a woman to life imprisonment on 24 April 2021 for storing and transporting five kilos of drugs.
- APRIL 24, 2021VietnamDEATH PENALTY
VIETNAM: 2 SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR TRANSPORTING 31 KG OF METHAMPHETAMINE
A Ha Tinh court on 20 April 2021 sentenced two people to death and another to life imprisonment for transporting 31 kg of methamphetamine.
- APRIL 24, 2021IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN -Seyyed Sadrollah Fazeli Zare is the second man sentenced to death for "insulting the Prophet"
- APRIL 22, 2021IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Two men sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Muhammad
Only one of the men has been identified: Yousef Mehrad
APRIL 22, 2021IndonesiaDEATH PENALTYINDONESIA: SIX TERRORISTS GET DEATH PENALTY FOR DEADLY RIOT
The East Jakarta district court on 21 April 2021 sentenced to death six terrorists responsible for the deadly riot at a detention center outside Jakarta in May 2018.
APRIL 21, 2021TexasDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. TDCJ Revises Execution Protocol
To Permit Spiritual Advisers in Death Chamber
APRIL 19, 2021MalaysiaDEATH PENALTYSINGAPORE: NGO RELEASES SONG PENNED BY MALAYSIAN DEATH ROW INMATE TO SPREAD AWARENESS
A new Malaysian NGO, Sebaran Kasih has embarked on producing a song written by an inmate, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, who is in the Changi Prison in Singapore awaiting execution, the New Straits Times reported on 17 April 2021.
- APRIL 15, 2021TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
TAIWAN: HIGH COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR ARSONIST WHO CAUSED NINE DEATHS
The Taiwan High Court on 14 April 2021 upheld the death penalty handed down to Li Kuo-hui, an ethnic Chinese from Myanmar, for starting a fire in an apartment building in Zhonghe, New Taipei in November 2017 that resulted in the deaths of nine people.
APRIL 15, 2021Myanmar (Burma)DEATH PENALTYMYANMAR: REGIME HANDS MENTALLY ILL MAN DEATH SENTENCE
A person who suffers from mental illness was sentenced to death along with 18 other people by Myanmar’s military regime on 8 April 2021 after being accused of banditry and murder in North Okkalapa Township, Yangon, in late March.
APRIL 14, 2021Myanmar (Burma)DEATH PENALTYMYANMAR: SEVEN MORE PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH BY COURT-MARTIAL
Myanmar's state-run television reported on 13 April 2021 that seven people had been sentenced to death by court-martial for their roles in the killing of a woman who purportedly cooperated with the military.
APRIL 13, 2021VietnamDEATH PENALTYVIETNAM: NIGERIAN DRUG TRANSPORTER SENTENCED TO DEATH
The People’s Court of the southwestern province of Tay Ninh on 13 April 2021 sentenced Unachukwu Chiluba Paulinus, a Nigerian man born in 1996, to death for illegally transporting narcotic substances under Clause 4, Article 250 of the 2015 Penal Code.
APRIL 13, 2021PakistanDEATH PENALTYPAKISTAN: MAN, SON SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER MURDER
A Mardan court on 1 April 2021 awarded a death sentence to a man and his son for stabbing to death his wife.
APRIL 12, 2021Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTYSAUDI ARABIA: 80% OF PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH AS MINORS STILL FACE EXECUTION
Anti-death penalty group Reprieve said on 9 April 2021 that 80% of those sentenced to death for crimes in Saudi Arabia while minors still face execution despite reforms announced in 2020.
APRIL 12, 2021IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ: ISIS LEADER HANDED DEATH SENTENCE FOR 2014 ANBAR MASSACRE
An Iraqi court sentenced an Islamic State(ISIS) leader to death on 12 April 2021 for committing a massacre against a Sunni tribe in Anbar province in 2014.
- APRIL 11, 2021IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Amnesty International has called on Iran to halt the execution of Farhad Salehi Jabehdar
Aentenced to death for the rape of a minor
- APRIL 10, 2021Myanmar (Burma)DEATH PENALTY
MYANMAR: 19 SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING ASSOCIATE OF OFFICER
Nineteen people have been sentenced to death in Myanmar for killing an associate of an army captain in a district of Yangon, the military owned Myawaddy television station said on 9 April 2021.
- APRIL 10, 2021IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: MAN GETS DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLING PREGNANT WIFE
Mahila Sessions Court Judge G. Prathibha Devi on 8 April 2021 awarded the death penalty to Bathula Nambiar alias Sujith, who killed his wife, Sailaja (29) by setting her ablaze.
- APRIL 8, 2021IndonesiaDEATH PENALTY
INDONESIA: DRUGS GANG OF 13 SENTENCED TO DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD
Indonesia on 6 April 2021 handed death sentences to a gang of 13 drug traffickers, including an Iranian couple and a Pakistani man, the prosecutor’s office said.
APRIL 8, 2021PakistanDEATH PENALTYPAKISTAN: COURT AWARDS DEATH PENALTY, LIFE TERM IN MURDER CASE
Sargodha additional district and Session Judge, Khalid Wazir on 6 April 2021 awarded death sentence to a man and another to life imprisonment of 32-year in a murder case in Factory Area police limits.
APRIL 8, 2021OhioDEATH PENALTYUSA - Ohio. Jonathan Mann, Son Of Victim, Opposes Death Penalty
Urges Legislature To End It Quickly
APRIL 7, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: UIGHUR FORMER-GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR 'SEPARATISM'
Two Uighur ex-government officials in China's Xinjiang have been handed death sentences for carrying out "separatist activities", a court said.
APRIL 7, 2021ThailandDEATH PENALTYTHAILAND: PAROLED SERIAL KILLER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR 2019 MURDER
The Khon Kaen Provincial Court on 17 March 2021 passed the death sentence on paroled serial killer Somkid Phumphuang for the murder of a woman in 2019 in Kranuan district.
- APRIL 4, 2021VietnamDEATH PENALTY
VIETNAM: MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR TRAFFICKING NEARLY 40KG OF DRUGS FROM CAMBODIA
A court in southern An Giang Province sentenced two men to death on 1 April 2021 for trafficking almost 40kg of drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam in May last year.