the US state of California has cancelled the execution of Michael Morales over ethical issues surrounding the lethal injection method. The state told courts it could not comply with an order for a medical professional to administer a lethal dose of barbiturate to Morales. Morales was convicted of the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1981.

the Justice Ministry announced today it will review the possibility of replacing capital punishment with life imprisonment without parole or pardon to meet the rising number of calls on enhancing the protection of human rights.

Shoko Asahara, the former leader of the cult responsible for the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway moved a step closer to the gallows when a psychiatrist ruled that he was mentally fit to continue his appeal against the death penalty.

Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong commuted the death sentences imposed on two convicted Australian heroin traffickers to life imprisonment, Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.

a press conference took place at Hands Off Cain headquarters in Rome highlighting human rights violations in Iran and the case of Nazanin, the minor sentenced to death after being charged with killing one of the men who had attempted to rape her.

a judge at Tehran’s Appellate Court announced that the Islamic Republic would continue to issue death verdicts for juvenile delinquents “without considering other available options”.

California will comply with a court order and have two anesthesiologists at its next execution to make sure the prisoner is unconscious before lethal poisons are applied, officials said.

the lawyer for the only surviving alleged member of the Chechen commando unit responsible for the 2004 Beslan school massacre appealed for a "fair" verdict for his client.

Hojjat Zamani, a political prisoner and member of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran in Gohardasht prison in Karaj, west of Tehran was hanged.

an Iranian court sentenced seven individuals to death for allegedly playing a role in twin bombings in the south-western city of Ahwaz that occurred in January, the state-run daily Iran reported.

two men accused of murder were hanged in the southern city of Shiraz, the state-run news agency ISNA reported.

Convicted killer Clyde Smith was executed for fatally shooting a Houston cabdriver during a robbery in 1992.