United States

Missouri’s April 9th exe­cu­tion of Brian Dorsey, despite wide­spread sup­port for his clemen­cy, once again gar­nered con­dem­na­tion from the European Union, which described it as a inhu­man and degrad­ing prac­tice.” The EU’s state­ment high­light­ed the lack of the death penal­ty as a deter­rent and the irre­versibil­i­ty of the pun­ish­ment, not­ing that 197 death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers have been exon­er­at­ed. The EU con­tin­ues to call for the uni­ver­sal abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty and for States, that main­tain the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, to imple­ment a mora­to­ri­um and move towards abo­li­tion, in line with the world­wide trend,” the state­ment said. 

Democratic Republic of the Congo 

Last month the DRC lift­ed its decades-long mora­to­ri­um on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. President Félix Tshisekedi defend­ed this deci­sion on a recent vis­it to France, explain­ing in a press inter­view that Although the Democratic Republic of Congo wants to be res­olute­ly com­mit­ted to respect for human rights and to the rule of law, it can­not afford the lux­u­ry of any pas­siv­i­ty when its secu­ri­ty and that of its pop­u­la­tion is threat­ened.” Firmin Yangambi Libote, a for­mer death row pris­on­er, Congolese lawyer, and President of non­prof­it Paix Sur Terre (Peace on Earth) told EPCM, an inter­na­tion­al death penal­ty abo­li­tion group, that the DRC’s deci­sion was a sig­nif­i­cant set­back.” He elab­o­rat­ed, This deci­sion has noth­ing to do with com­bat­ing impuni­ty or strength­en­ing the capac­i­ties of the Congolese armed forces.” 

Iran 

On April 24, 33-year-old dis­si­dent rap­per Toomaj Salehi was sen­tenced to death by the Isfahan Revolutionary Court. Lawyer for Mr. Salehi, Amir Raeisian, said: In a move that is unprece­dent­ed in its kind, Branch One of the Isfahan Revolutionary Court did not imple­ment the Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Toomaj’s 2022 case, it sen­tenced Toomaj Salehi to the max­i­mum sen­tence for efsad-fil-arz charges, the death penal­ty.” The deci­sion has been met with wide­spread inter­na­tion­al con­dem­na­tion, with UN experts, pro­tes­tors across the world, and 80 Iranian-Kurdish fam­i­lies who have lost loved ones dur­ing the Women, Life, Freedom” protests call­ing for Mr. Salehi’s release.  

Mr. Salehi was orig­i­nal­ly charged on October 29, 2022 as part of the Women, Life, Freedom” protests that ensued fol­low­ing the death of Mahsa Jina Amini while in cus­tody of the moral­i­ty police. In July 2023, he was sen­tenced to a prison term of six years and three months by the Supreme Court. On November 18, 2023, Mr. Salehi was released on bail after 252 days in soli­tary con­fine­ment. A few days after pub­lish­ing a YouTube video in which he men­tioned the ill-treat­ment and tor­ture he sus­tained, Mr. Salehi was rear­rest­ed on November 30 for pub­lish­ing false infor­ma­tion and dis­turb­ing the pub­lic mind,” charges the Isfahan Revolutionary Court has ruled is with­in the juris­dic­tion of the Isfahan Criminal Court to decide. Prior to the Women, Life, Freedom” move­ment, Mr. Salehi had been arrest­ed in 2018 and 2021 for his music. 

As of May 1, 2024, Norway-based Iran Human Rights report­ed that at least 171 exe­cu­tions have been car­ried out in the coun­try since the begin­ning of this year. 

Japan 

On April 15, 2024, the Osaka District Court dis­missed a law­suit filed by two death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers chal­leng­ing the prac­tice of noti­fy­ing pris­on­ers only a few hours before their sched­uled exe­cu­tion and seek­ing $142,000 in dam­ages for men­tal suf­fer­ing due to the uncer­tain­ty. The peti­tion­ers argued that by fail­ing to pro­vide pris­on­ers with ade­quate notice, they were unable to object to the sched­uled exe­cu­tion before it occurred, there­by vio­lat­ing their rights to due process grant­ed under Article 31 of Japan’s Constitution. According to the Asahi Shimbun, the peti­tion­ers also argued that the short notice vio­lat­ed their con­sti­tu­tion­al right to human dig­ni­ty under Article 13. 

Presiding Judge Noriko Yokota said that the plain­tiffs are in a posi­tion to accept the exe­cu­tion accord­ing to the cur­rent leg­is­la­tion on death penal­ty,” and denied them com­pen­sa­tion, but did not rule on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of same-day exe­cu­tion noti­fi­ca­tions, which has con­sis­tent­ly drawn wide­spread inter­na­tion­al crit­i­cism. Previously, pris­on­ers were pro­vid­ed a few days of notice, but that pol­i­cy was changed after some pris­on­ers com­mit­ted sui­cide fol­low­ing knowl­edge of their sched­uled exe­cu­tion date. According to the Asahi Shimbun, Japan had 109 death row pris­on­ers at the end of March 2024. 

Russia 

An April 2024 tele­phone sur­vey car­ried out by Russian Field, an inde­pen­dent poll­ster, found that 53% of par­tic­i­pants were in favor of rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty, 39% are opposed, and 7% found the ques­tion dif­fi­cult to answer. Of the 1,631 respon­dents, sup­port for the death penal­ty was more like­ly among respon­dents liv­ing in small towns or vil­lages, men, and old­er aged indi­vid­u­als. The crimes of pedophil­ia (57%), mur­der (56%), and ter­ror­ism (46%) gar­nered the most sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Lifting the 28-year mora­to­ri­um on the use of the death penal­ty has become a sub­ject of pub­lic debate fol­low­ing the March attack on Crocus City Hall. 

Saudi Arabia 

On April 29, 2024, 27 inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions released a joint state­ment express­ing grave con­cern” for the con­tin­ued exe­cu­tion of minors despite Saudi Arabia’s nar­ra­tive that it has halt­ed juve­nile death sen­tences.” In par­tic­u­lar, the let­ter rais­es con­cern for the immi­nent exe­cu­tion of Yousif Al-Manasif and Ali Al-Mubaiouq, who were con­vict­ed large­ly on the basis of their own con­fes­sions and sen­tenced to death for crimes com­mit­ted from the age of 14 to 17; the Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal upheld their death sen­tences this month and referred their case to the Supreme Court for final review. If the Saudi lead­er­ship gen­uine­ly wants to be seen as a rights-respect­ing coun­try, it needs to imme­di­ate­ly halt all exe­cu­tion orders and com­mute all death sen­tences, includ­ing the egre­gious cas­es of al-Manasif and al-Mabyook,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. 

On April 22, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) raised con­cern over these two juve­niles and the lives of six oth­er minors at risk of exe­cu­tion. ESOHR believes that Saudi Arabia’s pre­vi­ous prac­tices of exe­cut­ing sen­tences with­out noti­fy­ing fam­i­lies, com­bined with a lack of trans­paren­cy, make it impos­si­ble to pre­dict the time­frame between the refer­ral of a case to the Supreme Court, its con­fir­ma­tion, and the exe­cu­tion time. However, the cas­es pre­vi­ous­ly mon­i­tored con­firm that the lives of the eight minors are in immi­nent dan­ger,” said the report. 

Taiwan 

In response to a peti­tion filed by 37 death row pris­on­ers, the Constitutional Court heard five-hours of oral argu­ments regard­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the death penal­ty on April 23, 2024. Lawyers for the peti­tion­ers and anti-death penal­ty activists argued that the death penal­ty vio­lates the con­sti­tu­tion­al right of exis­tence” and the prin­ci­ple of pro­por­tion­al­i­ty, as there is a lack of evi­dence to sup­port a deter­rent effect, and it vio­lates the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Taiwan cod­i­fied into domes­tic law in 2009. Lawyers for the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) coun­tered that the con­sti­tu­tion allows for restric­tions” to the right of exis­tence” and the depri­va­tion of life” is pro­por­tion­al for seri­ous crimes and can be con­sid­ered one such restric­tion; the MOJ also inter­pret­ed the ICCPR to encour­age lim­it­ing, but not abol­ish­ing, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The MOJ point­ed to a 2024 opin­ion poll they com­mis­sioned show­ing 80% sup­port for the death penal­ty amongst the pub­lic; the lawyers for the peti­tion­ers high­light­ed that an MOJ poll in 2008, which men­tioned replac­ing the death penal­ty with life with­out parole, gar­nered 56% in favor of abo­li­tion. The MOJ also argued that the Constitutional Court should not make this deci­sion, as it should be under the purview of the leg­isla­tive branch. The Court could make a deci­sion with­in three months, with a two-month exten­sion avail­able if need­ed. 

Uganda 

On April 3, 2024, the Constitutional Court upheld the Anti-Homosexuality Act, passed last year, which allows aggra­vat­ed homo­sex­u­al­i­ty” to be pun­ished with a death sen­tence, but void­ed cer­tain pro­vi­sions. The court said that the Act was over­whelm­ing­ly passed on the basis of those views of the Ugandan people’s par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tives, who would know the sen­ti­ments of the peo­ple that they rep­re­sent on the sub­ject,” there­fore not in vio­la­tion of any par­lia­men­tary rules or pro­ce­dures, and the court did not find it to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al as an exist­ing colo­nial era rule had already crim­i­nal­ized homo­sex­u­al­i­ty. The court did void cer­tain pro­vi­sions that were incon­sis­tent with [the] right to health, pri­va­cy and free­dom of reli­gion,” and said that mem­bers of this com­mu­ni­ty should not face dis­crim­i­na­tion when seek­ing med­ica­tion.  

… Uganda’s Constitutional Court has come down on the side of hate, vio­lence, and dis­crim­i­na­tion instead of stand­ing up for fun­da­men­tal rights for all,” said Larissa Kojoué, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. The rul­ing will have a detri­men­tal impact on all Ugandans, includ­ing LGBT peo­ple, fam­i­lies, and com­mu­ni­ties who con­tin­ue to suf­fer the stig­ma that the Anti-Homosexuality Act enshrined into law.” 

Vietnam 

Truong My Lan, chair of real estate com­pa­ny Van Thinh Phat, was sen­tenced to death on April 11, 2024, after being found guilty of com­mit­ting $12.5 bil­lion in fraud – the nation’s largest ever finan­cial fraud case. The court also direct­ed her to com­pen­sate Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) $26.9 mil­lion for the $27 mil­lion loss expe­ri­enced under her 10-year con­trol. According to state media VnExpress, the judg­ment explained that her actions not only vio­late the prop­er­ty man­age­ment rights of indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions but also push SCB into a state of spe­cial con­trol; erod­ing people’s trust in the lead­er­ship of the Party and State.” According to the Associated Press, a for­mer State Bank of Vietnam offi­cial accused of accept­ing $5.2 mil­lion in bribes, as well as anoth­er 84 alleged accom­plices, are also being pros­e­cut­ed. 

Zimbabwe 

In hon­or of 44 years of inde­pen­dence, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa grant­ed clemen­cy to 4,000 pris­on­ers on April 18, 2024. Among those pris­on­ers grant­ed clemen­cy were death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers whose death sen­tences had been com­mut­ed and who had already served at least 20 years. Female pris­on­ers, juve­nile pris­on­ers, and blind or oth­er­wise dis­abled pris­on­ers who had served a third of their term were released, as well as pris­on­ers 60 years of age or old­er who had served a tenth of their term. Death row pris­on­ers who had served at least 10 years had their sen­tences com­mut­ed to life in prison. 

The National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs and the Senate’s Thematic Committee on Human Rights have sched­uled pub­lic hear­ings from May 6 to May 10 to dis­cuss a death penal­ty abo­li­tion bill that was intro­duced last year. 

Citation Guide
Sources

Additional Resource: Execution Monitor, Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide 

Democratic Republic of the Congo 

Staff Writer, Tshisekedi Defends Return Of Death Penalty, Taarifa, April 30, 2024; MAÎTRE YANGAMBI LIBOTE: REGARDLESS OF THE CRIME, HUMANITY SHOULD NOT BE SACRIFICED,” EPCM, April 2024

Iran 

80 Kurdish Families Join Calls For Release Of Iranian Rapper Toomaj Salehi, Iran International, April 30, 2024; Iran rap­per banned from phone calls after death sen­tence: sup­port­ers, The Citizen/​Agence French-Presse, April 30, 2024; Patrick Wintour, ran’s death sen­tence for rap­per sparks protests and under­mines crit­i­cism of US, The Guardian, April 29, 2024; Iran: UN experts alarmed by death sen­tence imposed on rap­per and song­writer, Toomaj Salehi, OHCHR, April 25, 2024; Outrage Over Death Sentence For Dissident Iranian Rapper, Iran International, April 24, 2024; IHRNGO Condemns Rapper Toomaj Salehi’s Death Sentence and Calls for International Reaction, Iran Human Rights, April 242024 

Japan 

CHAD DE GUZMAN, Japanese Court Dismisses Death Row Inmates’ Lawsuit Challenging Short Notice of Executions, Time, April 15, 2024; ISSEI YAMAMOTO, Court rejects inmates’ suit on same-day notice for death penal­ty, The Asahi Shimbun, April 15, 2024; KARIN KANEKO, Death-row inmates’ law­suit tar­get­ing same-day noti­fi­ca­tions of exe­cu­tions dis­missed, The Japan Times, April 152024

Russia 

Camilla Jessen, Death Penalty in Russia: Survey Finds Over 50% Support Its Return, MSN, April 252024

Saudi Arabia 

Saudi Arabia: Halt Executions of Child Offenders, Human Rights Watch, April 29, 2024; Escalating Concerns Over the Lives of Minors Threatened With Death in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch, April 29, 2024; Final Death Sentences and Others Pending Before the Supreme Court Against Minors: Saudi Arabia Crushes Commitments and Promises, ESOHR, April 222024

Uganda 

RISDEL KASASIRA, Ugandan court upholds anti-gay law that allows the death penal­ty in some cas­es, Associated Press, April 3, 2024; Uganda: Court Upholds Anti-Homosexuality Act, Human Rights Watch, April 4, 2024; Ugandan court upholds anti-LGBTQ law but says some rights infringed, Reuters, April 32024

Taiwan 

Teng Pei-ju, Key argu­ments from con­sti­tu­tion­al court’s debate on death penal­ty, Focus Taiwan, April 30, 2024; Yuchen Li, Taiwan’s death penal­ty and debate over con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, DW, April 24, 2024; Wu Cheng-feng, Constitutional Court to hear argu­ments on death penal­ty, Taipei Times, January 282024

Uganda 

RISDEL KASASIRA, Ugandan court upholds anti-gay law that allows the death penal­ty in some cas­es, Associated Press, April 32024

United States 

US: Statement by the Spokesperson on the exe­cu­tion in Missouri, April 10, 2024; Edward Helmore, Missouri death row inmate exe­cut­ed despite wide­spread calls for clemen­cy, April 9, 2024; Missouri’s First Execution of 2024 Scheduled for Man Whose Trial Lawyers Had Conflicts of Interest and Who Has Unprecedented Support for Clemency, DPIC, April 5, 2024; Edward Helmore, More than 150 peo­ple call on Missouri gov­er­nor to for­give Brian Dorsey’s death penal­ty, April 32024

Vietnam 

ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL, Vietnam sen­tences real estate tycoon Truong My Lan to death in its largest-ever fraud case, Associated Press, April 12, 2024; ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL, A Vietnamese prop­er­ty tycoon accused of embez­zling $12.5 bil­lion begins her tri­al, Associated Press, March 5, 2024; Vietnamese Real Estate Tycoon Facing Trial in Embezzlement Case, VOA, February 52024

Zimbabwe 

Public Hearings on Death Penalty Abolition, The Herald, April 29, 2024; FARAI MUTSAKA, Zimbabwe frees pris­on­ers, includ­ing those sen­tenced to death, in an inde­pen­dence day amnesty, Associated Press, April 182024