- Richard Ramirez
Ricardo "Richard" Muñoz Ramirez aka The Nightstalker (born February 29, 1960 in El Paso, Texas) is a convicted serial killer awaiting execution on California's death row at San Quentin State Prison. Prior to his capture, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the news media as he terrorized California with a series of car and home abductions, rapes, and murders during the first half of 1985.
- John Allen Muhammad
John Allen Muhammad (b. December 31, 1960) is an American serial killer. With his younger partner Lee Boyd Malvo, he carried out the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks, killing 10 people. This was an apparent attempt to extort $10 million. Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, following tips from alert citizens. His trial for one of the murders (the murder of Dean Harold Meyers in Prince William County, …
- Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring was a German politician and military leader, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command of the Third Reich, and commander of the Luftwaffe. He was tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945-1946 and sentenced to death by hanging; however, he escaped the hangman's noose around two hours before his scheduled execution by taking his life through the use of potassium cyanide.
- Scott Peterson
Scott Lee Peterson (born 24 October, 1972) is a former fertilizer salesman convicted of the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, and unborn son Conner Peterson. Laci was eight months pregnant at the time of the murder. Peterson's case dominated the American media for many months. On March 16, 2005, Peterson was sentenced to death and currently resides on death row in San Quentin State Prison. Scott Peterson has not admitted any guilt.
- Richard Allen Davis
Richard Allen Davis (born June 2, 1954) is a convicted rapist and murderer, whose criminal record fueled support for passage of California's "Three strikes law" for repeat offenders. He is currently on death row in San Quentin State Prison, California. He was convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder and four special circumstances (robbery, burglary, kidnapping and a lewd act on a child) of 12-year-old Polly Klaas. Klaas was abducted October 1, 1993, from her Petaluma, …
- Jesse Timmendequas
Jesse Timmendequas (born April 15, 1961) was, on May 30, 1997, convicted of murdering his neighbor, seven-year-old Megan Kanka, in 1994. The murder led the Legislature of the U.S. state of New Jersey to pass "Megan's Law", which requires notification when a previously convicted sex offender moves into a neighborhood. He maintains that he is not guilty of the charges for which he was convicted in relation to Kanka's death.
- David Westerfield
David Alan Westerfield (born February 25, 1952), of San Diego, California was convicted, in 2002, and sentenced to death for the murder and kidnapping of seven-year-old Danielle Van Dam. He was a successful, self-employed engineer who owned a luxury motor home and lived two houses away from Van Dam. A divorced father of two college students, he is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.
- Myuran Sukumaran
Myuran Sukumaran (b. April 17, 1981), a London born Sri Lankan-Tamil-Australian martial arts expert from Auburn, New South Wales, Australia, is a convicted "ringleader" of the heroin smuggling operation from Indonesia to Australia known as the Bali Nine. Sukumaran was sentenced to execution by firing squad by the Denpasar District Court on 14 February, 2006. Sukumaran was unknown to police until his arrest in Indonesia on April 17, 2005.
- Alejandro Avila
Alejandro Avila is a convicted murderer who abducted, sexually assaulted and killed five-year-old Samantha Runnion in California in July 2002. He was sentenced to death and is currently imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison in California.
- Scott Erskine
Scott Thomas Erskine is an American serial killer convicted to death row for the murder of two California boys in 1993. He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.
- Michael Taylor
Michael Taylor Missouri prison inmate on death row, convicted of raping and murdering 15-year-old Ann Harrison after abducting her from a school bus stop in March of 1989, in Raytown, Missouri. Taylor was aided by Roderick Nunley, also currently on Missouri's death row for the same crime. Taylor and Nunley, by their own admissions in court, were under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime. Taylor was scheduled to be executed February 1, 2006, …
- Shoko Asahara
Shoko Asahara (麻原 彰晃 "Asahara Shōkō") (born Chizuo Matsumoto on March 2, 1955) is the founder of Japan's controversial Buddhist religious group Aum Shinrikyo (now known as Aleph). Asahara has been convicted of masterminding the 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway and several other crimes, and has been sentenced to death. His legal team appealed the sentence, but the appeal has been declined, and he is currently awaiting execution.
- Marcus Wesson
Marcus Wesson (b. 1946) is an American man convicted of nine counts of first-degree murder and 14 rape crimes, including the rape and molestation of his underage daughters. All of his victims were his own children, fathered by incestuous relationships with his daughters and nieces, as well as the children by his wife. It is to date Fresno, California's worst mass murder. After a March 12, 2004 standoff with police over a child custody issue, …
- Billy Ray Waldon
Billy Ray Waldon, also known as Billy Joe Waldon and Nvwtohiyada Idehesdi Sequoyah, is the creator of the constructed language Poliespo (Polisinteza Esperanto). He is on death row in California for murder. On May 16, 1986 he became the 399th fugitive listed by the FBI on the Ten Most Wanted List. A month later, he was arrested June 16, 1986 in San Diego, California after local police attempted to pull him over for a routine traffic citation.
- Scott Rush
Scott Anthony Rush (born December 3, 1985) is a former Australian labourer from Chelmer, Queensland, a western suburb of Brisbane, arrested on April 17, 2005 at Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali, Indonesia with heroin weighing 1.3 kg taped to his legs under his clothing. It was Rush's first trip to Bali. Rush was 19 at the time of his arrest. He is currently studying the Indonesian language.
- Wayne Adam Ford
Wayne Adam Ford (born December 3, 1961) is an American serial killer. He was arrested after he walked into the Humboldt County Sherrif Department in Eureka, California in November 1998 with a woman's severed breast in his pocket. He confessed to having killed four women, and is thought to have killed others. He was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder on June 27, 2006, and was sentenced to death on August 11.
- Cory Maye
Cory Maye, sometimes spelled Corey Maye (born September 9, 1980) is a prisoner in the U.S. state of Mississippi. He was convicted of murder in the 2001 death of Prentiss, Mississippi police officer Ron W. Jones during a drug raid on the other half of Maye's duplex. Maye has said he thought that the intruders were burglars and did not realize they were police. He pleaded not guilty at his trial, citing self-defense.
- John Couey
John Evander Couey (born September 19, 1958) was convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering nine-year old Jessica Lunsford in February 2005, in Florida. Lunsford's disappearance and Couey's subsequent confession and trial received extensive media coverage. A jury recommended that Couey recieve the death penalty. Couey maintains that he is innocent.
- George Rivas
George Rivas (born May 6, 1970) was the ringleader of the infamous Texas 7 criminal group. Rivas, a career criminal, is on Texas' death row. He was born in El Paso, Texas and raised by his grandparents from age six, after his parents divorced. In high school, Rivas dreamed of being a police officer, but his interest in money and guns helped shape him into a criminal. He named his dogs Ruger and Beretta, after two gun brands.
- Andrew Chan
Andrew Chan (b. January 12, 1984), is an Australian from Enfield, New South Wales. Chan is the "godfather" of the Bali Nine, found guilty of attempted drug trafficking of heroin into Australia from Indonesia. Prosecutors recommended Chan be given the death penalty and on 2006-02-14 Chan was sentenced to death by the Denpasar District Court. Chan was 21 at the time of his arrest on 2005-04-17.
- Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is the convicted assassin of United States Senator Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy. He is currently serving a life sentence at the state penitentiary in Corcoran, California.
- Joseph Paul Franklin
Joseph Paul Franklin(born April 13, 1950) is an American serial killer who may have killed as many as 20 people between 1977 and 1980. He has been convicted of several murders, and has confessed to the attempted assassinations of two prominent people: the 1978 shooting of magazine publisher Larry Flynt and Flynt's attorney, and the 1980 shooting of Vernon Jordan. Franklin has not been convicted in either of those cases.
- Kenny Richey
Kenneth (‘Kenny’) T. Richey is a UK-US dual citizen, born to a Scottish mother and American father, who was raised in Scotland but moved to Ohio to join his father in late 1982. He has been on death row for 20 years in Ohio, USA, after being convicted in 1987 of murdering two year-old Cynthia Collins by arson in 1986.
- Matthew Norman
Matthew Norman (b. September 17, 1986) is an Australian from New South Wales, known as a member of the Bali Nine. Norman was arrested at the Melasti Hotel in Kuta on April 17, 2005 at the time he was aged 18 with Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Myuran Sukumaran and Si Yi Chen. Police claim the group were in possession of 350 grams of heroin and other items indicating involvement in a plan to transport the drugs to Australia.
- Edgar Smith
Edgar Smith (1934-) is an American who was once on death row for the murder of Vickie Zielinski, though his sentenced was reduced through appeal. He was later released, only to be incarcerated for a second time for the kidnapping and attempted murder of Lefteriya Ozbun.
- Kevin Cooper
Kevin Cooper of Nevada, Iowa is a deathrow inmate in California's San Quentin Prison. He was convicted of the the 1983 hatchet and knife murder of three members of a Chino Hills family and their young houseguest, Christopher Hughes. Cooper, a repeat criminal who escaped from a nearby prison two days before the killings, claims he is innocent and that sheriff's investigators framed him for crimes committed by three white men. He was scheduled to be executed on February 10, …
- Robert Franklin Stroud
Robert Franklin Stroud (January 28 1890 - November 21 1963), known as the Birdman of Alcatraz, was a prisoner in Alcatraz who supposedly found solace from segregation in raising and selling birds. Despite his nickname, he never kept birds in Alcatraz, running his business until transferred to Alcatraz from Leavenworth.
- Derrick Todd Lee
Derrick Todd Lee (born in 1968 in St. Francisville, Louisiana, USA), dubbed the Baton Rouge Serial Killer, has been linked by DNA to the deaths of seven women in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas in Louisiana. Newspapers have suggested a link with other unsolved murders in the area, but the police lack DNA evidence to prove these connections. The murder method has varied with nearly each case.
- Charles Ng
Charles Chi-Tat Ng (Chinese: 吳志達, Cantonese, Pinyin: Wú Zhìdá; born December 24, 1960) is an American serial killer who committed his crimes with Leonard Lake. He was born to wealthy parents in Hong Kong and partly educated in England. As a child he was harshly disciplined by his father at every opportunity. Ng eventually moved to the United States and briefly served in the Marine Corps before he was dishonorably discharged for theft, …
- Billy Ray Hamilton
Billy Ray Hamilton is an American convicted murderer who conspired with Clarence Ray Allen to murder eight witnesses to a crime committed by Allen in 1974. Hamilton met Allen in Folsom Prison in 1979. Allen befriended Hamilton and allegedly offered to pay him $25,000 to carry out the murders. At Folsolm Prison, Allen used to refer to Hamilton as his "good dog", though at the time of Allen's trial, he claimed to only have met Hamilton three or four times.
- Johnny Paul Penry
Johhny Paul Penry is a Texas Death Row convict who is said to be mentally retarded. He was sentenced to death for raping and stabbing Pamela Moseley Carpenter who died of her wounds. His lawyer claims that he has the reasoning capability of a 7-year old. His death sentence has been overturned three times by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, 2001 and 2006.
- William Richard Bradford
William Richard Bradford is an American murderer who is currently incarcerated in San Quentin Prison for the 1984 murders of his 15-year-old neighbor Tracey Campbell and barmaid Shari Miller. In July 2006, the Los Angeles Police Department released a compilation of photos found in Bradford's apartment in the 1980s, depicting 54 different women in modelling poses. As Bradford had used the promise of a modelling career to lure his victims, …
- George Banks
George Banks is a Pennsylvania mass murderer, given a death sentence but later declared by the court to be too psychotic to execute. Banks, a former Camp Hill prison guard, gunned 13 people to death in 1982 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, including five of his own children. Banks said he killed his children because he felt they'd be tormented by the cruelty of racial views against mixed race children.
- Brandon Wilson
Brandon Wilson (c. born in 1978) is currently incarcerated, on deathrow at San Quentin State Prison for a murder he committed November 14, 1998. Wilson was 20 years old when he followed 9-year-old Matthew Cecchi into the men's washroom at a local park in Oceanside, California. Cecchi, who was at a family event, was escorted by his aunt to the washroom. She stayed outside near the door waiting for him.
- Cool C
Christopher Roney (born December 15, 1969 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), known by the stage name Cool C, is an American rapper whose musical career peaked in the late 1980's. He is perhaps best known today for the notoriety surrounding his involvement in the murder of a Philadelphia Police officer in a bank robbery in January 1996. He is currently incarcerated in a Pennsylvania state prison awaiting execution.
- Michael Morales
Michael Angelo Morales (born October 17, 1959) is a convicted murderer who was scheduled to be executed by the State of California at 7:30 p.m. on February 21, 2006. But, two hours before the scheduled execution, the State of California notified the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that they could not comply with a lower federal judge's ruling that the execution must be carried out by a medical professional due to the chemical used in the execution.
- Sarah Balabagan
Sarah Balabagan (born August 16, 1979) (her surname phonetically pronounced as Ba-la-BAH-gan) was a Filipina prisoner in the United Arab Emirates during 1994-96 whose case caused a good deal of controversy. Her story was made into a controversial film in 1997.
- Antoinette Frank
Antoinette Frank (born 30 April 1971) is a former New Orleans police officer who was convicted of one of the most notorious crimes in recent New Orleans history: the robbery of a restaurant where she worked as a security guard, and the murders of three people, including her partner on the police force, who was also a security guard at the restaurant. Frank is one of two women on Louisiana's death row at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel, …
- Joe Cahill
Joe Cahill (Irish: Seosamh Ó Cathail) was a prominent Irish republican and former Chief of Staff of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Joe was known for his comment. "I was born in a united Ireland, I want to die in a united Ireland"
- Faye Copeland
Faye Copeland (1921 - 28 December 2004) and her husband Ray were the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States at the age of 69 and 75, respectively. Faye was the oldest woman on death row, until her sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1999. Their modus operandi was to hire unskilled drifters as farm hands, involve them in a scheme to obtain loans for non-existent cows, and then kill them.