International Death Penalty News 2024, Issue 32: Iran, Singapore, United States of America

Iran

On Wednesday, July 24, 2024, 32-year-old Ramezan Gholamian and 38-year-old Mousa Najar were executed in Mashhad Central Prison.  Both men were convicted of murder and sentenced to qisas, that is, retribution in kind.  Mousa was convicted of stabbing a motorcyclist to death during a fight in July 2021.  Ramezan was convicted of murder about two years ago.  Neither execution has yet been reported by state officials or the media.  

On Tuesday, July 30, 2024, 61-year-old Nabi Bakhsh Molazehi, a Blauch ethnic minority, was executed in Minab Prison.  He was convicted and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.  State officials and the media have not yet reported the execution.

On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, 30-year-old Fazl Ahmad Fatehnia was executed in Zahedan Central Prison.  He was convicted of murdering his father about two years ago and sentenced to qisas, that is, retribution in kind.  Under Iranian law, all killings are considered intentional murder and mitigating evidence is rarely taken into consideration. After conviction, the family of the victim chooses between granting forgiveness, demanding diya (blood money), or qisas.   State officials and the media have not yet reported the execution.

On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, 35-year-old Kazem Fatehi was executed in Isfahan Central Prison.  Before his arrest, Kazem first worked as a hairdresser, then switched to making car batteries.  He was convicted of a murder that occurred during a group fight and was sentenced to qisas, that is, retribution in kind.  Under Iranian law, all killings are considered intentional murder and mitigating evidence is rarely taken into consideration. After conviction, the family of the victim chooses between granting forgiveness, demanding diya (blood money), or qisas.  State officials and the media have not yet reported his execution.

On Thursday, August 1, 2024, two men were executed in Khorramabad Central Prison.  The men have been identified as Zabih Zahedi and Hamed Parseh.  Both men were convicted on drug-related charges.  Their executions have not yet been reported by state officials or the media.

On Saturday, August 3, 2024, 35-year-old Malek Ashtar and 47-year-old Ahmadreza Touni were executed in Khorramabad Central Prison.  Both men were convicted and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.  Their executions have not yet been reported by state officials or the media.

On Saturday, August 3, 2024, 30-year-old Hossein Salehi and 37-year-old Morteza Seifzadeh were executed in Tabriz Central Prison.  They were convicted and executed on drug-related charges.  State officials and the media have not yet reported their executions.

On Saturday, August 3, 2024, 35-year-old Javad Amiri, 40-year-old Naghi Ghorbani, and 32-year-old Reza Rostami were executed in Shiraz Central Prison.  All three were convicted and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.  their executions have not yet been reported by state officials or the media.

On Sunday, August 4, 2024, a man only identified as Hoy Atef was executed in Bushehr Prison.  Hoy was convicted of murdering a 23-year-old female student working as a photographer, four years ago and sentenced to qisas, that is, retribution in kind.  Under Iranian law, all killings are considered intentional murder and mitigating evidence is rarely taken into consideration. After conviction, the family of the victim chooses between granting forgiveness, demanding diya (blood money), or qisas.  Hoy’s execution has not yet been reported by state officials or the media.

On Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 40-year-old Akbar Gohari was executed in Sabzevar Prison.  He was convicted of murder and sentenced to qisas.  Akbar was a father of one and worked on an animal farm before his arrest about three years ago.  State officials and the media have not yet reported his execution.

On Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 42-year-old Aminollah Naruei, 28-year-old Hamzeh Garavand, and 45-year-old Azad Abdollahi were executed at Bandar Abbas Prison.  Naruei was arrested in 2021 and convicted on drug-related charges.  Garavand was also convicted on drug-related charges after his arrest in 2022.  Abadollahi was convicted, along with another prisoner, of committing a murder about 19 years ago.  

On Tuesday, August 6, 2024, the execution of 36-year-old Reza Rasayi was secretly carried out in Kermanshah Central Prison.  Reza was executed by hanging, which is the common method of execution in the nation.  He was convicted of getting violent at a protest in 2022, which resulted in the death of at least one police officer.  Allegedly, Reza confessed to the crime, however, he recanted his confession saying he was tortured into making it.  Reza’s family was not informed of his execution until it had already occurred.  His family was also not permitted to bury his body in his hometown and was instead buried along a remote road under tight security.  

On Wednesday, August 7, 2024, a group of 26 men were executed in Ghezelhesar Prison and three other men were executed in Karaj Penitentiary.  Two of those executed were Afghan nationals convicted of rape.  Seven other men were convicted and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.  Seventeen men were convicted on murder charges.  Two of those executed were allegedly women.  Only a few of those executed have been identified by name.  It is unusual to have such a large mass execution, with the last occurring in 2009.  

Singapore

On Friday, August 2, 2024, an unnamed 45-year-old was executed in Changi prison.  He was convicted and sentenced to death for trafficking pure heroin.  His name has not been released at the request of his family who want privacy.  The man was convicted in February 2019.

On Wednesday, August 7, 2024, a 59-year-old unnamed man was executed.  The man was convicted and sentenced to death for trafficking pure heroin, over double the minimum amount required for a mandatory death sentence.  His appeals and request for clemency from the president had already been denied.  

United States of America

On Wednesday, August 7, 2024, Arthur Burton was executed in Texas. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 pm local time inside the Walls Unit execution chamber at the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. Fifty-four-year-old Arthur was convicted of murdering Nancy Adleman on July 29, 1997, in Harris County, Texas. 

On Thursday, August 8, 2024, Taberon Honie was executed by the state of Utah.  He was convicted of murdering 49-year-old Claudia Benn on July 9, 1998, in Cedar City, Utah, the tribal headquarters of the Paiute Indian Trips of Utah, of which Claudia was a respected leader. 

On Thursday, August 8, 2024, Clarence Goode, Jr., was scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma.  His execution has been stayed and he is awaiting a new execution date.  Forty-eight-year-old Clarence is convicted of murdering Tara Burchett-Thompson, her 10-year-old daughter Kayla, and Mitch Thompson in Tara’s home in Owasso, Oklahoma on August 25, 2005. 

Shortly after announcing a plea deal had been reached with three September 11 suspects that removed the death penalty as an option, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that he had revoked the plea deal.  When the plea deal was announced, national outrage occurred, especially from families of the victims of September 11, 2001.  Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the planning for the attacks, was one of those who would have benefitted from the plea deal.  The other two involved were Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.  The plea deal would have had the men pleading guilty to numerous crimes, including the murder of 2,976 people, in exchange for removing the death penalty as an option.  The trial for the three men has been stalled for about 20 years.  The men have confessed to the crimes, however, the confessions are inadmissible as they were obtained through the use of waterboarding, torture, and coercive questioning.  The American Civil Liberties Union has announced it plans to challenge the revocation of the plea deal.

For the last 33 years, Curtis Lee Ervin, now 71 years of age, has resided on death row in California.  Now, a California judge has ordered that he be retried within 60 days or released.  Ervin was sentenced to death in 1991 after being found guilty of murdering 43-year-old Carlene McDonald in 1986.  Carlene was the wife of Robert McDonald, Ervin’s co-defendant in the case.  Both men were found guilty and Robert later died in prison.  The judge found that during Ervin’s trial, prosecutors unlawfully dismissed potential jurors based on their sex, race, and ethnic identities.  More death row cases are being looked into for similar reasons.  Many of these cases are decades old, making it extremely difficult to retry as witnesses have died or no longer remember and evidence has been lost or damaged.  The Alameda County prosecutor’s office has 60 days to decide if they will retry the case or free Ervin from prison.

Thirty-three-year-old Chad Doerman will not be sentenced to death in Ohio.  Chad was accused of murdering his three sons, 7-year-old Clayton, 4-year-old Hunter, and 3-year-old Chase Doerman, on June 15, 2023.  To avoid being sentenced to death, Chad pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  While the prosecutor had been vocal in the past about seeking a death sentence against, Chad, he agreed to a plea deal to spare the boy’s mother, Chad’s ex-wife, and their daughter, the trauma and pain of a trial.

On Monday, August 5, 2024, the attorney general for Alabama announced it had reached an agreement with Alan Miller and his attorneys that will allow the nitrogen gas execution to move forward in September.  The agreement is confidential, however, Miller and his attorney had asked for several changes to be made to the nitrogen gas execution protocol including the use of medical-grade nitrogen, having a trained professional supervise the gas flow, and the use of a sedative before the execution. It is unknown at this time if any or all of the changes were agreed to.