International Death Penalty News 2025, Issue 14: DR Congo, India, Iran, United States of America

DR Congo

Three Americans, 21-year-old Marcel Malanga, 21-year-old Tyler Thompson, Jr., and 36-year-old Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun were convicted and sentenced to death last year for their alleged participation in a botched coup attempt.  Now, President Felix Tshisekedi has commuted their death sentences to life in prison.  Malanga and Thompson testified that they were forced to join the attempted coup.

India

On Thursday, April 3, 2025, the Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted the death sentence of a man convicted of raping and murdering his six-year-old daughter in 2020.  His sentence has been commuted to life in prison without remission for 30 years.  In its ruling, the court found that the crime, while brutal and heinous, did not meet the “rarest of rare” requirement necessary to secure a death sentence.  

Iran

On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Ahmad Yarmohammadi was executed by hanging in Doroud Prison.  He was convicted of murder and sentenced to qisas, that is, retribution in kind.  Under Iranian law, all killings are considered intentional murder and mitigating evidence is rarely considered.  Following conviction, the family of the deceased chooses between granting forgiveness or demanding qisas or diya (blood money).  There is no limit to the amount of diya that can be demanded and if the convicted cannot pay, they are often executed.  State officials and the media have not yet reported Ahmad’s execution.

On Saturday, March 15, 2025, 28-year-old Heidar Safdari and 30-year-old Sohrab Niazi were executed by hanging in Qazvin Central Prison.  Both men were convicted and sentenced to death on separate drug-related charges.  Heidar was arrested about two years ago and Sohrab was arrested about three years ago.  State officials and the media have not reported either execution.

On Saturday, March 29, 2025, 32-year-old Morteza Saadatpour Zeini was executed by hanging in Tabriz Central Prison.  He was convicted and sentenced to death on drug-related charges.  State officials and the media have not yet reported his execution.  

On Saturday, March 29, 2025, 28-year-old Abbas Fatehi was executed by hanging in Gorgan Central Prison.  He was convicted of murdering his cousin four years ago and sentenced to qisas, that is, retribution in kind.  Before his arrest, Abbas worked as a real estate agent.  Under Iranian law, all killings are considered intentional murder and mitigating evidence is rarely considered.  Following conviction, the family of the deceased chooses between granting forgiveness or demanding qisas or diya (blood money).  There is no limit to the amount of diya that can be demanded and if the convicted cannot pay, they are often executed.  State officials and the media have not yet reported Abbas’ execution.

On Saturday, March 29, 2025, 40-year-old Ali Soufian was executed by hanging in Isfahan Central Prison.  He was convicted on drug-related charges and sentenced to death.  His execution has not yet been reported by state officials and the media.  

On Saturday, March 29, 2025, Yasser Roshani was executed by hanging in Arak Central Prison.  He was arrested about four years ago and convicted of murder.  He was sentenced to qisas, that is, retribution in kind.  Under Iranian law, all killings are considered intentional murder and mitigating evidence is rarely considered.  Following conviction, the family of the deceased chooses between granting forgiveness or demanding qisas or diya (blood money).  There is no limit to the amount of diya that can be demanded and if the convicted cannot pay, they are often executed.  State officials and the media have not yet reported Yasser’s execution.

On Saturday, March 29, 2025, 24-year-old Mahnaz Kakayi was executed by hanging in Isfahan Central Prison.  Mahnaz was arrested about four years ago.  She was convicted of murdering her fiancé, whom she did not want to marry. She was sentenced to qisas, that is, retribution in kind. Under Iranian law, all killings are considered intentional murder and mitigating evidence is rarely considered.  Following conviction, the family of the deceased chooses between granting forgiveness or demanding qisas or diya (blood money).  There is no limit to the amount of diya that can be demanded. If the convicted cannot pay, they are often executed.  Mahnaz is the seventh woman executed so far this year.  Her execution has not yet been reported by state officials or the media.

United States of America

Federal prosecutors have not yet decided if they will seek the death penalty for 72-year-old Rafael Caro Quintero, a notorious drug lord who is accused of arranging the torture and murder of DEA Agent Enrique “Kike” Camarena in 1985.  Rafael and his cousin, Ismael Quintero Arellanes are both standing trial.  Ismael was Rafael’s right-hand man and both were found members of the Guadalajara Cartel, the predecessor of the Sinaloa Cartel.  The murder of Agent Camarena was depicted in the Netflix show “Narcos.”  Rafael was arrested in 2022.

Pam Bondi, the US Attorney General has announced that federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against 26-year-old Luigi Mangione.  Mangione is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by shooting him in the middle of the street.  Bondi has described Mangione’s actions as “premeditated,” “cold-blooded,” and “an act of political violence.”  In addition to the federal charges against him, Mangione is also facing state charges in New York, where the shooting occurred.  New York does not have the death penalty.  Currently, Mangione is scheduled to first face trial in New York, before being tried in federal court.

Sixty-year-old John Fitzgerald Hanson has been given a new execution date of June 12, 2025, in Oklahoma.  Hanson has been convicted of kidnapping and murdering 77-year-old Mary Bowles in 1999.  Hanson was serving a life sentence in federal prison for an unrelated bank robbery, however, it was requested that he be returned to Oklahoma to schedule an execution. The request was approved days after President Donald Trump was inaugurated.  Hanson is seeking clemency.

Attorneys for Payton Gendron are seeking to move his trial from Buffalo, New York, to New York City to ensure a diverse and impartial jury.  Gendron, who is white, is accused of murdering 10 Black individuals at a supermarket in East Buffalo, New York, which is a predominantly black area, in May 2022.  The attack and area of attack were deliberately planned and is considered a hate crime.  Gendron has already been sentenced to live in prison without the possibility of parole after facing state charges.  The current case against him is a federal case.  His attorneys are also attempting to argue that he should be exempt from the death penalty because he was only 18 years of age at the time of the crime.

On March 22, 2025, former Tennessee death row inmate Paul “Greg” House died.  He was 63 years of age.  His cause of death was complications from pneumonia, which resulted from living with multiple sclerosis.  In 1986, Paul was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering his neighbor Carolyn Muncey in Union County, Tennessee.  Throughout his trial and appeals, Paul maintained that he did not commit the murder and, in 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that it was unlikely Paul would have been convicted if the recently-emerged DNA evidence had been presented at his initial trial.  Prosecutors planned to retry him and he was eventually released on bond and placed under house arrest.  In May 2009, all charges against him were dropped, making Paul a free man.

On Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 31-year-old Kendreen Banks pled guilty to the 2020 murder of his wife, Geneva Jordan, in Oklahoma.  In exchange for pleading guilty, Banks was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  He was facing the possibility of being sentenced to death.  Three children were in the home at the time of the murder, after which, Banks fled the state.  He was arrested in Texas a few days after Geneva’s body was discovered.

On Tuesday, April 1, 2025, officials announced that 68-year-old Bruce Ward died while on death row in Arkansas.  His death was from natural causes, and further information has not been released due to confidentiality.  Ward was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 18-year-old Rebecca Lynn Doss in Little Rock, Arkansas, on August 11, 1989.  At the time of his death, Bruce was the longest-serving death row inmate in the state.

On Tuesday, April 1, 2025, the California Supreme Court overturned the conviction and death sentence of 51-year-old Timothy Joseph McGhee.  McGhee was convicted and sentenced to death on three counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder during five gang-related shootings.  The shooting occurred in Los Angeles between October 1997 and November 2001.  At the time of his arrest in 2003, McGhee was a high-ranking member of the Toonerville gang.  His sentence and conviction were overturned after the court found that a juror was improperly dismissed from the case.  The juror had expressed that he found some of the prosecution’s witnesses and evidence to be unreliable.  A few days after he was replaced, McGhee was convicted.

Brad Little, Governor of Idaho, has signed a bill into law that permits prosecutors to seek the death penalty for individuals convicted of lewd conduct with children under the age of 12.  The bill will go into effect on July 1, 2025.  The bill also increases punishments for other sexual crimes against children and youths.  

The Supreme Court of the United States has denied an appeal by Nidal Hasan.  Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was sentenced to death for the murder of 13 people at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), Texas on November 5, 2009.  Thirty-one other individuals were injured during his shooting rampage.  Hasan had planned to die after killing as many people as possible, viewing himself as a martyr.  Instead, he was shot and paralyzed from the chest down by two military police officers.  No clear motive for the attack has been given, although, many have speculated that he was radicalized.