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 16, 2021NigeriaDEATH PENALTYNIGERIA: DISMISSED SARS OFFICER SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLING
A State High Court in Benin City, Edo Sate, on 12 February 2021, sentenced a police constable, Joseph Omotosho, to death for conspiring with four other constables, said to be at large, to kill a car dealer in 2015.
FEBRUARY 16, 2021Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTYSAUDI ARABIA: SAUDI NATIONAL HANDED DEATH PENALTY FOR MURDER OF BANGLADESHI WOMAN
A criminal court in Riyadh on 14 February 2021 handed a Saudi national the death penalty for the murder of a Bangladeshi domestic worker.
FEBRUARY 16, 2021BangladeshDEATH PENALTYBANGLADESH: COURT SENTENCES 5 TO DEATH FOR KILLING US BLOGGER AVIJIT ROY
A court in Bangladesh on 16 February 2021 sentenced five men to death and one to life in jail for hacking a secular blogger to death six years ago in Dhaka.
FEBRUARY 13, 2021Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTYSAUDI ARABIA: EGYPTIAN ALI ABU AL-QASIM’S DEATH SENTENCE REDUCED TO 25 YEARS IN PRISON
Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Criminal Court sentenced on 11 February 2021 Egyptian engineer Ali Abul-Qasim to 25 years in prison after cancelling a death penalty over his conviction in a drug trafficking case.
- FEBRUARY 11, 2021BangladeshDEATH PENALTY
BANGLADESH: EIGHT ISLAMISTS TO HANG OVER MURDER OF PUBLISHER
Eight Islamic extremists were on 10 February 2021 sentenced to death in Bangladesh for the murder of a publisher, as the Muslim-majority nation grapples with tensions between religious hardliners and secularists.
FEBRUARY 9, 2021IsraelDEATH PENALTYTHAILAND: ISRAELI ON DEATH ROW TO BE TRANSFERRED TO ISRAEL
After being sentenced to death and managing to survive in one of the harshest prisons in Thailand — and after a long legal battle in the Israeli Supreme Court led by Adv. Nechama Tzivin — Israeli citizen Yigal Makhlouf will soon be transferred to Israel a
FEBRUARY 9, 2021BotswanaDEATH PENALTYBOTSWANA: TWO MEN HANGED FOR MURDER
Botswana on 8 February 2021 hanged two men convicted of murder.
FEBRUARY 9, 2021BangladeshDEATH PENALTYBANGLADESH: 4 SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR ARMY SOLDIER MURDER
A Cumilla court on 8 February 2021 sentenced four people to death and another to ten years jail in a case filed over murder of an army soldier in 2016.
FEBRUARY 9, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Pennsylvania. Christopher Williams Released From Prison After Being Cleared of Another Murder
In 1989 he was charged with 6 murders, none of which he committed
FEBRUARY 8, 2021Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTYSAUDI ARABIA: THREE YOUTHS GET PRISON SENTENCE INSTEAD OF DEATH
Three young Saudi men who faced death sentences for acts they were accused of committing as minors have been handed a 10-year prison sentence instead, the Saudi Human Rights Commission said on 7 February 2021.
FEBRUARY 8, 2021PakistanDEATH PENALTYPAKISTAN: SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE OF MAN WHO RAPED, MURDERED 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL
Pakistan’s top court on 5 February 2021 dismissed an appeal filed by a man convicted to death for the rape and murder of an 8-year old girl in Punjab’s southern district Vehari.
FEBRUARY 8, 2021TexasDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. Harris County DA Seeks to Vacate Sentence for Raymond Riles
Nation’s Longest-Serving Death-Row Prisoner
FEBRUARY 6, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: SERIAL KILLER AND RAPIST EXECUTED IN HEBEI
High-profile serial killer Wang Shujin, 53, was executed in Hebei province on 2 February 2021 after his death sentence for rape and intentional killing was approved by the Supreme People's Court.
- FEBRUARY 4, 2021South CarolinaDEATH PENALTY
USA - South Carolina. State Supreme Court delays execution of Brad Sigmon
No lethal drugs
FEBRUARY 3, 2021BangladeshDEATH PENALTYBANGLADESH: TWO SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RAPING, KILLING MINOR GIRL
A Shariatpur court on 3 February 2021 sentenced two people to death for killing a minor girl after rape at Sakhipur village under Bhedarganj upazila, three years back.
FEBRUARY 2, 2021VietnamDEATH PENALTYVIETNAM: SIX PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
A court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh city sentenced six members of a transnational gang to death on 29 January 2021 for trafficking 100 kg of drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam, VNExpress reported.
- JANUARY 30, 2021IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN - Javid Dehghan-Khold executed in Zahedan Central Prison on January 30
Baluch prisoner sentenced to death on political and security charges
JANUARY 28, 2021PakistanDEATH PENALTYPAKISTAN: COUPLE SENTENCED TO LIFE AND DEATH FOR SEXUALLY ASSAULTING, FILMING 45 GIRLS
A local court in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on 25 January 2021 sentenced a couple to life and death for kidnapping, sexually assaulting, blackmailing and also recording inappropriate videos of dozens of girls.
- JANUARY 25, 2021TexasDEATH PENALTY
USA - Texas. Supreme Court Rules Favorably Toward Ruben Gutierrez
Inmate Requesting Priest at Execution
JANUARY 23, 2021PakistanDEATH PENALTYPAKISTAN: FRONTIER CORPS MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING STUDENT IN TURBAT
A sepoy of the Frontier Corps was sentenced to death on 20 January 2021 over killing of a Karachi University student in August last year.
JANUARY 22, 2021PennsylvaniaDEATH PENALTYUSA - Pennsylvania. Anthony Fletcher has been released from prison
28 years after he was sent to death row
- JANUARY 21, 2021IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: GHAZIABAD MAN GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPING, MURDERING FRIEND'S 2-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER
A special POCSO court sentenced a man to death on 20 January 2021 for raping and murdering a two-year-old girl in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), the verdict coming within a month of the crime.
- JANUARY 21, 2021EgyptDEATH PENALTY
EGYPT: 14 SENTENCED TO DEATH IN TWO DIFFERENT CASES
Fourteen people were sentenced to death in two different cases, Egypt Today reported on 19 January 2021.
JANUARY 21, 2021ChinaDEATH PENALTYCHINA: MAN WHO KILLED JUDGE OVER DIVORCE TRIAL SENTENCED TO DEATH
A man in China was sentenced to death on 18 January 2021 for killing the judge who presided over his divorce.
- JANUARY 20, 2021ThailandDEATH PENALTY
THAILAND: BANYIN GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER OF CHUWONG
Former deputy commerce minister Banyin Tangpakorn on 20 January 2021 was sentenced to death for the premeditated murder of construction tycoon Chuwong Sae Tang that he tried to pass off as a car accident six years ago.
JANUARY 20, 2021BangladeshDEATH PENALTYBANGLADESH: 5 SENTENCED TO DEATH IN MANIKGANJ FOR KILLING UP MEMBER
A Manikganj court on 18 January 2021 sentenced five people to death and acquitted thirteen others in a case filed over the murder of union parishad member Ashraf Ali in Ghior upazila of Manikganj in 2013.
- JANUARY 18, 2021PakistanDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN: BANNED OUTFIT’S HITMAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING THREE
An antiterrorism court on 17 January 2021 awarded death sentence to a hitman, said to be associated with the banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, for killing three people during an attack on a shrine, the Dawn reported.
JANUARY 18, 2021BangladeshDEATH PENALTYBANGLADESH: THREE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING MOTHER-SON IN KAKRAIL
A Dhaka court on 17 January 2021 sentenced three people to death in the case filed over the murder of a woman and her son in Dhaka’s Kakrail area on 1 November 2017.
- JANUARY 16, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA Dustin Higgs was executed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana
He was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. EST on January 16.
JANUARY 16, 2021BelarusDEATH PENALTYBELARUS: MAN RE-SENTENCED TO DEATH AFTER RETRIAL
A court in Belarus on 15 January 2021 re-sentenced a man to capital punishment on murder charges, Minsk-based human rights center Viasna said.