Virginia on Wednesday became the first southern US state to abolish the death penalty and the 23rd state in the country to end capital punishment.

Avocats Sans Frontières France (ASF France), also known as Lawyers Without Borders, yesterday, joined the global call for an end of death penalty.

A group under the aegis of Amnesty International has called on the government to abolish death penalty, noting that the practice is inhuman.

Chad on Tuesday abolished the death penalty for terrorist activities, Justice Minister Djimet Arabi told AFP.

The Osun State House of Assembly yesterday held a public hearing session on a bill for a law to prohibit kidnapping, banditry, ritual killings and other related offences, and recommended death penalty for kidnappers.

Following her conviction by an FCT High Court over the alleged killing of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, Maryam Sanda has approached the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division

The Senate has reintroduced a bill it abandoned under pressure last year through which it sought to impose the death penalty on “any person found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person.”

Lawyers have adduced reasons why kidnapping remains a lucrative “business” across the country despite the prescription of death penalty for the offence in some states.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte urged lawmakers on Monday to bring back the death penalty as part of his internationally-condemned crackdown on narcotics in which police have already killed thousands.

Sri Lanka's president said Monday he had rejected a telephone appeal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to reconsider his push to reintroduce the death penalty after 43 years.

Malaysia's cabinet has agreed to abolish the death penalty, a senior minister said Thursday, in a decision hailed by rights groups.

Pope Francis has declared the death penalty "inadmissible" in an update of Catholic believers' most important guide to Church teaching, the catechism, the Vatican announced Thursday.