Entries by Nina Motazedi

2025 marked the high­est num­ber of drug-relat­ed exe­cu­tions world­wide since Harm Reduction International (HRI) began report­ing num­bers in 2007. In its new report, The Death Penalty for Drug Offenses: Global Overview 2025, HRI explains that a​“small but res­olute group of coun­tries” are respon­si­ble for a record 1,212 exe­cu­tions, which is like­ly an under­count due to secre­cy laws in the high appli­ca­tion nations of China, North Korea, and Vietnam pre­vent­ing disclosure of…

Iran hanged three men — Saleh Mohammadi, Saeed Davodi, and Mehdi Ghasemi — in the city of Qom on March 19, 2026, the day before the nation’s new year. According to the judi­­­ci­a­ry-affil­i­at­ed Mizan News Agency, the three men, who were accused of par­tic­i­pat­ing in the killings of two police­men dur­ing protests, were hanged​“in the pres­ence of a group of peo­ple.” This marked the first exe­cu­tion of pro­tes­tors fol­low­ing the recent wave of nation­wide protests, which began on…

On March 5, 2026, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christopher McDowell​“for­mal­ly vin­di­cat­ed” death-sen­­­tenced exoneree Derrick Jamison, allow­ing him to seek mon­e­tary com­pen­sa­tion from the state for his wrong­ful incar­cer­a­tion 21 years after pros­e­cu­tors dropped charges. Mr. Jamison, who was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion six times while impris­oned, filed a law­suit seek­ing a for­mal dec­la­ra­tion of wrong­ful impris­on­ment in 2024. With this for­mal dec­la­ra­tion, he can…

A bipar­ti­san group of 19 Republicans and 28 Democrats nar­row­ly defeat­ed a mea­sure to add the fir­ing squad as an exe­cu­tion method in an Indiana House floor vote on January 28, 2026. HB 1119 received 48 in favor and 47 against, falling three votes short of pas­sage, with two leg­is­la­tors not vot­ing and three absent. Although the mea­sure could have been brought for a sec­ond vote before February 2, it was not. A sim­i­lar Senate bill (SB 11) to add the fir­ing squad stalled in…

[update: On February 19, 2026, the Seoul Central District Court sen­tenced for­mer President Yoon Suk Yeol to life.] If con­vict­ed, for­mer South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a pos­si­ble death sen­tence, life impris­on­ment with labor, or life impris­on­ment with­out labor for his failed attempt to impose mar­tial law in December 2024. On January 13, 2026, spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor Cho Eun-suk’s team rec­om­mend­ed a death sen­tence for Mr. Yoon in the first insur­rec­tion trial of…

On December 21, 2025, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) report­ed that Saudi Arabia car­ried out 347 exe­cu­tions in 2025, mark­ing a new high for the nation, after a record-break­ing 345 exe­cu­tions in 2024. The major­i­ty (79%) of exe­cu­tions in 2025 were for crimes fail­ing to meet the inter­na­tion­al legal thresh­old of a​“most seri­ous crime” and pre­dom­i­nate­ly includ­ed exe­cu­tions for drug-relat­ed charges (69% of all exe­cu­tions). Due to a lack of…

On December 15, 2025, the Death Penalty Information Center will release its annu­al Year End Report detail­ing nation­wide death penal­ty trends, includ­ing exe­cu­tions, new death sen­tences, leg­is­la­tion, pub­lic opin­ion, and the legal chal­lenges in the Supreme Court. This arti­cle high­lights the leg­is­la­tion intro­duced this year to mod­i­fy exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols. This year, leg­is­la­tors in more than half of states that retain the death penal­ty pro­posed changes to their…

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) has report­ed that at least 1000 peo­ple have been exe­cut­ed in Iran between January 1 and September 23, 2025 — a thir­ty year high. This is the fifth con­sec­u­tive year that Iran has expe­ri­enced an increase in exe­cu­tions, with the biggest year-over-year increase (43%) occur­ring in 2023, in the after­math of the​“Women, Life, Freedom” nation­wide protests. Most exe­cu­tions con­tin­ue to be car­ried out for offens­es that do not meet the…

30 years ago, the new­ly formed Constitutional Court of South Africa issued a land­mark deci­sion abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty and pri­or­i­tiz­ing the core con­sti­tu­tion­al rights to life and dig­ni­ty above all else. Published on June 6, 1995, the Court’s opin­ion in S v. Makwanyane drew on inter­na­tion­al legal frame­works, as well as death penal­ty debates in oth­er coun­tries, such as the United States. The Court weighed inher­ent issues in the appli­ca­tion of the death…

As of July 3, 2025, the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) pro­gram has run out of funds for the cur­rent fis­cal year, threat­en­ing the qual­i­ty and avail­abil­i­ty of fed­er­al defense coun­sel for the over­whelm­ing major­i­ty of crim­i­nal defen­dants who can­not afford to hire their own lawyers. The bud­get Congress approved for the CJA pro­gram in March is $129 mil­lion less than what was request­ed by the Federal Judiciary. As a con­se­quence, CJA appoint­ed defense teams have been denied…