Tag: capital punishment

Congressman Tim Burchett Introducing ‘DROP Act’ to Bring Back Hanging Executions for Savage Killers

Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett is calling for the return of hanging as a federal execution method in response to one of the most depraved crimes in recent memory: the months-long torture, rape, and murder of 19-year-old Isabella Stroupe in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In a viral X post on Sunday, Burchett directly quoted a detailed account of Stroupe’s horrific death and asserted, “I have a bill to bring back hanging. Let’s see if all the tough talk by Congress holds up. Support the Drop Act.”

Stroupe, 19, was found dead in an east Charlotte apartment in early May.

According to court affidavits and police reports, she had been bound to a bed with a tow strap, wearing minimal clothing, and subjected to months of torture inside the residence she shared with her boyfriend.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police arrested 24-year-old Thomaz Kenon Hamilton on May 5. He faces charges of first-degree murder and first-degree rape.

Hamilton initially called 911, claiming Stroupe was not breathing, but investigators uncovered overwhelming evidence of prolonged abuse, including weapons, blood-stained items, and cell phones at the scene.

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Trump Describes Executions to Kids, While MAGA Bans Lessons Causing “Discomfort” 

Seated behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office in early May, Donald Trump delivered a disturbing lecture to a group of children huddled around him — most of them not yet even teenagers. They had been brought to the White House for what was supposed to be a celebratory event marking the reinstatement of the Presidential Fitness Test, dressed in brightly colored T-shirts bearing the government emblem of the rebooted program.

Flanked by a group including cabinet secretaries Linda McMahon, Pete Hegseth, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump turned the White House into his schoolhouse. Casting himself as a master teacher, he launched into an improvised lesson — part contemporary issues, part history, part geography, and all MAGA mythology.

During his lesson, Trump exposed a central contradiction at the heart of his politics. States and school districts across the country have enacted MAGA education policies — such as the Florida Stop WOKE Act — that prohibit teaching content that might cause students “guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress.” But Trump himself showed no such restraint. During what amounted to an advanced course in authoritarian education, he immersed children in a grotesque curriculum of graphic executions, nuclear annihilation, and the threat of entire societies being wiped out — paired with nationalist triumphalism and the scapegoating of transgender people.

The premise of the event itself rested on the fear that the U.S. has become weak and soft, which could only be remedied by making the country aggressively masculine again. Trump framed the return of the Presidential Fitness Test not merely as a health initiative, but as part of a broader struggle for national strength and power. Warning in a statement to the press that declining youth fitness weakens “our economy, military readiness, academic performance, and national morale,” he cast physical toughness as a prerequisite for a nation prepared for war.

This is not education. It is spectacle, coercion, indoctrination, and the normalization of violence.

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Bold New Billboard Warns Violent Criminals: ‘Welcome to Mississippi – Where the Firing Squad Is Legal. Think Twice’

A new billboard has gone up in Mississippi, warning would-be criminals crossing the state line from Tennessee that firing squads are legal there.

The billboard is on I-55 southbound, where drivers enter Mississippi from Memphis, and was put up by DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton.

“WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. WHERE THE FIRING SQUAD IS LEGAL. THINK TWICE,” the billboard states.

The billboard is part of Barton’s aggressive public campaign to deter violent crime.

It directly references Mississippi’s 2017 law that authorizes execution by firing squad as a legal method of carrying out the death penalty when lethal injection drugs are unavailable.

Mississippi is one of only a handful of states that still permits this method, alongside electrocution and, more recently, nitrogen hypoxia.

District Attorney Barton is not mincing words in his reasoning for putting up the billboard.

“This campaign has one purpose: deterrence,” Barton told the Desoto Times. “We are going to be loud and clear that DeSoto County does not coddle violent criminals. If you bring violence across our state line, we are going to prosecute you aggressively and hold you accountable.”

“People on death row are the losers of life’s lottery,” Barton said. “If violent criminals are looking for a state that coddles crime, Mississippi is not it. They better think twice before they act here.”

Baron explained that “Safety is achieved through enforcement.”

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Pakistan: Professor Sentenced to Death Following Blasphemy Charges

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are among the world’s most egregious tools of religious repression. They enable abuse, mob violence, and the targeting of individuals and religious minorities (including Christians) for criminal prosecutions that carry life sentences and death penalties.

Pakistani professor Junaid Hafeez, for instance, is imprisoned and sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. 

In 2013, police in Punjab Province arrested Hafeez, who was then an academic in his twenties. The professor has remained incarcerated ever since.

In 2019, a court sentenced Hafeez to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws following a trial whose delays spanned several years. The trial finally took place inside a high-security prison amid fears of mob violence. Hafeez’s appeal has yet to be heard.

According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), 

In March 2013, authorities arrested Hafeez, a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University, after his students accused him of blaspheming Islam on social media. In 2014, authorities placed him in solitary confinement after other prisoners repeatedly attacked him. That same year, two gunmen shot to death Hafeez’s lawyer, Rashin Rehman, in his office.

In December 2019, a district and sessions court in Multan sentenced Hafeez to death for “insulting the Prophet Muhammad” (Sec. 295-C PPC). He was also sentenced to life in prison for “desecrating the Qur’an” (Sec. 295-B PPC) and 10 years’ imprisonment for “intending to outrage religious feelings” (Sec. 295-A PPC). United Nations experts swiftly condemned Hafeez’s sentence.

Prior to his arrest, Hafeez received a master’s degree in the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship. He specialized in American literature, photography, and theatre.

On February 26, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement about Hafeez’s case. In it, HRW said:

“Junaid Hafeez’s case is emblematic of the unjust and abusive nature of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should quash Hafeez’s conviction and safely release him and others held under the blasphemy laws.”

The blasphemy laws, section 295-C, and other provisions of Pakistan’s penal code carry what is effectively a mandatory death sentence. Although there have been no executions, several people are currently on death row, while dozens are serving life sentences for related offenses. Hundreds have been charged under the law in the past three decades.

On February 27, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) submitted an official contribution to the U.N. Special Rapporteur regarding summary, extrajudicial, or arbitrary executions in Pakistan. In it, the ECLJ denounces the mandatory and automatic imposition of the death penalty for blasphemy against Islam in the country:

Those accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are sentenced to death by hanging. The death penalty, let alone by hanging, is egregious and disproportionate in blasphemy cases. It clearly amounts to torture. Notably, the Pakistani government has never carried out the death sentence in blasphemy cases. However, the accused spend years on death row. Additionally, many accused, their families, and communities have faced mob violence…

The authorities have also failed to stop mob attacks by private actors, such as fundamentalist individuals and organizations in blasphemy cases. In many cases, mobs gather and attack the accused, their families, and their communities. Where the accused are arrested and tried, fundamentalist organizations continue to pack the courtrooms to intimidate judges. As a result, trial courts rarely acquit the accused, leaving their fate up to the higher courts.

Even an accusation of blasphemy can provoke mob violence against victims, as well as their families and the wider Christian community. On Aug. 16, 2023, allegations of blasphemy against two Christian residents in Jaranwala (Faisalabad district of Punjab Province) led to a Muslim mob vandalizing and destroying over 20 churches and more than 80 Christian houses.

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DOJ Approves Firing Squads for Federal Death Penalty Cases

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has authorized firing squads, electrocution, and gassing as a means of execution in federal cases.

In a press release on April 24, the department said it was directing the Bureau of Prisons to expand its execution protocol to include firing squads, lethal injection with pentobarbital, and other methods. It’s part of a broader report on the death penalty following President Donald Trump’s executive order to reinstate capital punishment at the federal level.

President Joe Biden had instituted a moratorium on executions and commuted the death sentences of almost all federal death-row inmates before he left office.

One of the first actions to be taken is to readopt the lethal injection protocol used during the first Trump administration. Trump also rescinded Biden administration policies the press release describes as “efforts to erode the death penalty.”

In addition to establishing a moratorium on federal death penalties and commuting the death sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row, the Biden administration discontinued lethal injection because it carried the risk of “unnecessary pain and suffering.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which opposes capital punishment, did not respond to a request for comment on this story. However, on its website it stated its opposition to Trump’s plans.

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Egyptian Christian Could Face Death Penalty on Terrorism Charges for Criticizing Islam

Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek (also spelled Saeid Mansour Abdulraziq) is an Egyptian Christian convert from Islam currently on trial in Cairo on terrorism-related offenses. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty. Under Egypt’s counterterrorism law, founders and leaders of terrorist organizations are subject to the death penalty or life imprisonment.

He converted to Christianity in 2016 and joined the Russian Orthodox Church in Egypt, enduring family rejection, societal hostility, and police intimidation for sharing his faith publicly.

In 2018, he traveled to Russia, where he sought asylum and began publicly criticizing Islam. His online posts angered segments of Russia’s Muslim community, leading to his arrest and a one-year prison sentence. Russia then revoked his asylum and deported him to Egypt in 2024.

That deportation violated international law: the UNHCR had previously determined Abdelrazek qualified for international protection, and a Russian court had issued a binding order on July 17, 2024, prohibiting his deportation. Rights advocates condemn the move as illegal refoulement.

Upon arrival in Egypt, Egyptian authorities held him incommunicado for approximately ten days, then interrogated him about his religious beliefs, pressured him to reconsider his faith, asked him to monitor other converts, and ordered him to delete his social media accounts. Authorities released him with instructions not to speak publicly or proselytize.

In July 2025, he asked a lawyer to help him obtain new identification documents reflecting his Christian faith. He was arrested on July 15 at the Al-Matareiah police station in Cairo. On July 22, Egypt’s State Security Court charged him with “joining a terrorist organisation,” “stirring unrest,” and “spreading false news.”

His trial opened April 21, 2026, before Egypt’s First Criminal Terrorism Circuit in Badr. His legal team submitted motions requesting time to prepare a full defense; the court granted the adjournment and scheduled the next hearing for June 15.

Prosecutors accused Abdelrazek of establishing and leading an unlawful group, joining a banned organization, financing it, promoting beliefs deemed harmful to national unity and social peace, showing contempt for Islam, and challenging its fundamental principles. Apostasy, leaving Islam for another faith, is not formally codified as a crime in Egypt, but is often prosecuted under broadly defined security charges. The pattern spans multiple cases and years.

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Trump says Iran won’t execute 8 women after he demanded their release

President Trump announced Wednesday that Iran will no longer execute eight women after he pleaded Tuesday for their freedom — calling it “very good news” in a social media post.

“I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed. Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution.”

The announcement came hours after Trump extended a two-week cease-fire with Iran as US negotiators await Tehran’s reply to the latest American offer to end the nearly two-month conflict.

Iran’s judiciary denied that the eight women were ever set for execution, claiming that “Trump was misled once again by fake news” and that “some of them have been released, while others face charges that, if convictions are upheld, would at most result in imprisonment.”

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‘Rapists should be hung’ – US lawmaker

A Republican member of US House of Representatives has called for rapists to be hanged, but insisted he wasn’t talking about fellow Congressmen who resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Democrat Eric Swalwell and Republican Tony Gonzalez announced on Monday they will step down from Congress following reported accusations by former staffers.

“Rapists should be hung, period. No questions,” Andy Ogles told influencer Benny Johnson when asked about the allegations against Swalwell, insisting, however, that he wasn’t talking about the California Democrat.

“I don’t want the Secret Service to come, I’m not talking about Eric Swalwell, I’m not threatening a member of Congress,” he added.

Last week, media reports detailed accusations of sexual assault by a former aide against Swalwell and cited three women who accused the lawmaker of separate instances of sexual misconduct. Swalwell, first elected to Congress in 2013, denied the allegations, claiming they were part of an effort to derail his campaign.

“They are absolutely false. They did not happen,” Swalwell said in a video on X on Friday, posting later that he was “deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past.”

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The Islamic State Spreads Images of Christian Executions in An Naba from Northern Nigeria and Issues Ultimatum of Conversion, Taxes or Murder to the Infidels

A publication attributed to the Islamic State (ISIS) has appeared in its weekly magazine An Naba with graphic and textual material that documents the execution of at least two people shot at close range in northern Nigeria. The victims, according to the jihadist propaganda, were immobilized on the ground and executed with no possibility of defense.

The same bulletin claims responsibility for the death of 17 Christian civilians and four Nigerian soldiers in additional operations, along with the burning of two entire localities in the region.

One of the actions described took place in the village of Kautekari, where terrorists armed with automatic rifles burst into a residents’ meeting and opened fire.

The jihadist text does not limit itself to boasting about the massacres. It includes an explicit doctrinal justification: “Islamic law gives Christian infidels two options among three options: Islam, a tax, or murder.” The victims, according to the terrorists, “chose their fate.”

This rhetoric reproduces the classic dhimmi ultimatum that ISIS applied in Iraq and Syria: forced conversion, payment of the jizya (the humiliating protection tax) or death. The propaganda also includes images of beheadings of Nigerian Christians and mentions kidnappings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, all framed in a narrative of Islamic supremacy and holy war.This is not an isolated event.

The African branch of ISIS, known as the Islamic State in the West Africa Province (ISWAP), has been consolidating its presence in northeastern Nigeria for years, where it competes with Boko Haram in brutality against Christian communities.

Thousands of the faithful have been murdered, churches burned, and entire villages razed in what religious freedom defense organizations describe as systematic persecution. ISWAP itself has claimed responsibility in the past for executions of Christians, offering them precisely the same three “options” that it now repeats in An Naba.

The Western left and much of the mainstream media continue to maintain a deafening silence in the face of this reality. While they mobilize for any narrative that fits their ideological agenda, the genocide of Christians in Africa and the Middle East barely deserves a paragraph.

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Knesset passes law mandating death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted of terrorism

The Knesset votes 62-48 to pass a controversial law mandating the death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted of carrying out deadly terror attacks.

The vote is a major victory for far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, which has long lobbied for the measure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voted for the bill.

“This is a day of justice for the victims and a day of deterrence for our enemies. No more revolving door for terrorists, but a clear decision. Whoever chooses terrorism chooses death,” says Ben Gvir in a statement.

the West Bank, November 18, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The Knesset votes 62-48 to pass a controversial law mandating the death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted of carrying out deadly terror attacks.

The vote is a major victory for far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, which has long lobbied for the measure. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voted for the bill.

“This is a day of justice for the victims and a day of deterrence for our enemies. No more revolving door for terrorists, but a clear decision. Whoever chooses terrorism chooses death,” says Ben Gvir in a statement.Promoted: Jewish Crossroads, Roya HakakianKeep Watchin

The law, approved after nearly 12 hours of debate, mandates death by hanging as the default punishment for West Bank residents convicted of deadly terrorist acts by military courts. While judges can opt for life imprisonment under vaguely defined “special circumstances,” the death penalty would otherwise be mandatory.

The sentence would require a simple majority of judges rather than a unanimous decision, while eliminating any right of appeal.

The law will not apply retroactively, including to the perpetrators of the October 7 attacks, for which a separate bill is being advanced.

The law effectively enshrines capital punishment for Palestinians alone, as it explicitly excludes Israeli citizens or residents, and Palestinians alone are tried in military courts. Israelis are tried in civilian courts.

Though a separate provision allows courts to impose the death penalty on anyone, including Israeli citizens, it applies only to those who “intentionally cause the death of a person with the aim of denying the existence of the State of Israel” — a definition that in practice excludes Jewish terrorists.

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