Executions
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An execution is the act by which a state puts a condemned person to death. Hands Off Cain records the cases documented by public sources: press agencies, local newspapers, human rights organisations, official statements. The figure that results is a confirmed minimum, not an estimate of the real total: several states publish no data on executions, and in some countries they are not announced even to the families.
This page collects the news on the executions recorded by the association. The totals by country and by year are in the database.
Latest news
- SEPTEMBER 16, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said she was still...
Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said she was still convinced that the death penalty should be retained in Japan, days after she approved the third execution of a death row inmate while she was in office
- SEPTEMBER 13, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Yuan Gang, a convicted police killer, was put to death...
Yuan Gang, a convicted police killer, was put to death in eastern China's Zhejiang province immediately after the provincial high court issued the execution order, state press reported
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2003JapanDEATH PENALTY
Shinji Mukai, a 42 year old Japanese man convicted...
Shinji Mukai, a 42 year old Japanese man convicted of murdering three people, including a mother and her child, was executed by hanging in what was Japan's first execution in a year
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Eight members of a gang specializing in highway robberies...
Eight members of a gang specializing in highway robberies were executed in central China's Henan province, state media said
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2003North CarolinaDEATH PENALTY
Henry Lee Hunt, 58, was pronounced dead at 2:17 a
Henry Lee Hunt, 58, was pronounced dead at 2:17 a
- SEPTEMBER 10, 2003TexasDEATH PENALTY
Larry Hayes, 54, was executed tonight for the 1999...
Larry Hayes, 54, was executed tonight for the 1999 murders of his wife and another woman
- SEPTEMBER 9, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Nasser Shiragha, the head of a convicted gang of armed...
Nasser Shiragha, the head of a convicted gang of armed robbers, was hanged in Tehran, the official Iran paper reported, adding that 11 other members of the group would also soon be executed
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Hui Jinbo and Li Junlin, two Chinese men who drowned...
Hui Jinbo and Li Junlin, two Chinese men who drowned seven people in bath tubs after robbing a Beijing bath house, were executed
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Huang Xiaojun and Li Meisheng were executed after taking...
Huang Xiaojun and Li Meisheng were executed after taking part in the ransacking of three tombs on land belonging to the Guo museum in central Henan province, according to the People's Court Daily
- SEPTEMBER 3, 2003FloridaDEATH PENALTY
Paul Jennings Hill died today by lethal injection in...
Paul Jennings Hill died today by lethal injection in the Florida State Prison
- AUGUST 23, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Iran hanged 10 drug smugglers and armed robbers in...
Iran hanged 10 drug smugglers and armed robbers in the southern province of Kerman, the conservative Jam-e Jam newspaper reported
- AUGUST 22, 2003North CarolinaDEATH PENALTY
William Quentin Jones, 34, was executed today
William Quentin Jones, 34, was executed today
- AUGUST 22, 2003Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Mashari bin Omair al-Shahrani, a Saudi national, was...
Mashari bin Omair al-Shahrani, a Saudi national, was beheaded for stabbing his father to death inside a mosque
- AUGUST 21, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Three Iranian men were hanged in prison in Karaj, western...
Three Iranian men were hanged in prison in Karaj, western Tehran, for drug trafficking, a government-sponsored daily reported
- AUGUST 20, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
"The argument for capital punishment against terrorists...
"The argument for capital punishment against terrorists fails on three counts," said The Australian daily newspaper
- AUGUST 19, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
A statement from the Kerman province judiciary said...
A statement from the Kerman province judiciary said that "Mohammad-Zaman-Q
- AUGUST 17, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Jail authorities in the eastern Indian state of Orissa...
Jail authorities in the eastern Indian state of Orissa suspended their search for a hangman after the death sentence of Dayanidhi Bishnoi, 35, was commuted to life imprisonment
- AUGUST 13, 2003SudanDEATH PENALTY
Sudanese national Idriss bin Adam bin Ali was publicly...
Sudanese national Idriss bin Adam bin Ali was publicly executed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, after being found guilty of smuggling hallucinogenic tablets into the kingdom
- AUGUST 10, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian Law Commission said that public opinion...
The Indian Law Commission said that public opinion on the mode of executing prisoners on death row favoured an amendment to the law, which stipulated hanging as the method of execution
- AUGUST 8, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Jiang Wei and Du Shaolin were executed after being...
Jiang Wei and Du Shaolin were executed after being sentenced to death by the Henan Provincial Higher People's Court
- AUGUST 7, 2003AlabamaDEATH PENALTY
Tommy Jerry Fortenberry died in silence in the death...
Tommy Jerry Fortenberry died in silence in the death chamber at Holman prison for the murders almost 19 years ago of 4 people shot down during a robbery
- AUGUST 7, 2003ThailandDEATH PENALTY
"The new execution law will be effective from October...
"The new execution law will be effective from October 19, requiring lethal injection to replace the firing squad," Thai correction Department officials told AFP
- AUGUST 1, 2003Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Rashed bin Modhesh al-Dosari, a Saudi national convicted...
Rashed bin Modhesh al-Dosari, a Saudi national convicted of shooting a compatriot to death following an argument, was executed in the Riyadh region by public beheading
- AUGUST 1, 2003BotswanaDEATH PENALTY
"The execution of a convicted murderer last month has...
"The execution of a convicted murderer last month has re-opened the controversy over the administration of the death penalty in Botswana," said an All Africa editorial
- JULY 30, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two Iranians convicted of murder were hanged in Tehran's...
Two Iranians convicted of murder were hanged in Tehran's Ghasr prison, the government daily Iran reported
- JULY 29, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Li Feng, an elementary school teacher in Tonghua city,...
Li Feng, an elementary school teacher in Tonghua city, in northeast China's Jilin Province, was sentenced to death and executed for raping and molesting 19 girl students under the age of 14
- JULY 29, 2003OklahomaDEATH PENALTY
In McAlester, Harold Loyd McElmurry III was executed
In McAlester, Harold Loyd McElmurry III was executed
- JULY 24, 2003TexasDEATH PENALTY
In Huntsville, a convicted hit man was executed this...
In Huntsville, a convicted hit man was executed this evening for fatally shooting a 14-month-old boy in his crib more than 24 years ago as part of a murder-for-hire scheme that also left the child's parents shot dead
- JULY 24, 2003OklahomaDEATH PENALTY
In McAlester, Jackie Lee Willingham, 33, was executed...
In McAlester, Jackie Lee Willingham, 33, was executed for a 1994 murder
- JULY 23, 2003VirginiaDEATH PENALTY
Bobby Wayne Swisher, 27, was executed by injection...
Bobby Wayne Swisher, 27, was executed by injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, six years after he kidnapped and raped 22-year-old Dawn McNees Snyder on Feb