A jury in Fort Worth, Texas, has sentenced former FedEx driver Tanner Horner to death for the 2022 murder of seven-year-old Athena Strand, whom he kidnapped while delivering her Christmas gift. Jurors listened to an audio recording of the girl’s final moments inside his van before determining his punishment. Horner had pleaded guilty to capital murder at the start of his trial last month. Speaking after the sentence, the victim’s uncle described an “emptiness that can never be filled” and told Horner he would “feel the wrath of God.” The execution date has yet to be set.

Across the Atlantic, in Australia’s Northern Territory Supreme Court, a jury is weighing a strikingly different case. Braden Jentian, 38, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 22-year-old partner, referred to as Ms Ashley for cultural reasons. Her body was found on a Katherine street in 2024 with a fractured skull, deep facial cuts, and internal bleeding. Prosecutors allege she died from multiple blunt-force injuries. The defence, however, contends she was killed by “something or someone else,” as the trial continues for a second week. The couple had appeared “madly in love” before the violence, the court heard.

Further south, in Queensland, another murder trial is underway. Clinton Gordon Sutcliffe is charged with killing Dale Aaron McKenna, 22, during a car chase on a rural road in 2023. The jury heard recordings of phone calls in which Sutcliffe allegedly told his mother, six days before the crash, that he would “kill him” after learning McKenna was seeing his former partner. “He’s a dead man, that c**t,” Sutcliffe said on the recording. The trial before Justice Lincoln Crowley continues.

Viewed from Canada, a remarkable piece of evidence has emerged in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Supreme Court. A recording of a statement from Derick Hillier, who died in 2020, was played for the jury in Dean Penney’s first-degree murder trial. Penney is accused of killing his estranged wife, Jennifer Hillier-Penney, on November 30, 2016. He confessed to an undercover police officer during a Mr Big operation. The dead man’s voice, now an “alternate suspect,” adds an unusual twist to a case already reliant on covert police tactics.

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Ryan “Todd” Crawley is set to go to trial next May for the 2019 death of April Arnett. Authorities allege he abducted and killed her, wrapped her body, stored it under his trailer, and later dumped it by the roadside. He has pleaded not guilty to murder and kidnapping but previously pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse.

Analysts in London note that these disparate cases, spread across three continents, share a common thread: the use of unconventional evidence—audio recordings, confessions extracted undercover, and statements from the deceased. As courts increasingly grapple with digital and forensic complexities, the outcomes of these trials will likely shape procedural norms for years to come.