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How much of the world still has the death penalty?

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How much of the world still has the death penalty?

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Out of 195 countries in the world, 58 countries still have the death penalty. This means that about 30% of the world still has the death penalty.

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China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the US, Pakistan, Yemen, Korea (North), Vietnam, and Libya are the 10 countries with the most executions.

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Once a key figure in the North Korean regime, Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of supreme leader Kim Jong-un, has been executed according to an announcement from state media. The former protector of the country's elite joins 105 other individuals to have been executed between 2007 and 2012 according to Amnesty International figures.

The decision comes in the same week that two men were hanged in Japan, sparking renewed controversy about the country's 'secret' executions. On Tuesday, a Bangladeshi supreme court postponed the execution of an opposition leader in order to review the case. Japan and Bangladesh are each estimated to have executed 33 and 28 individuals respectively in the five years to 2012.

Despite more countries abolishing the death penalty, its practice remains commonplace.

China, together with Iran, North Korea, Yemen and the US (the only G7 country to still execute people) carried out the most executions last year. Excluding China, the report says:

At least 1,722 people were sentenced to death in 58 countries in 2012. This is a decrease from 2011, when at least 1,923 people were known to have been sentenced in 63 countries worldwide, and a reduction for the second year running (2010: 2,024 death sentences in 67 countries).

Meanwhile, Latvia abolished the death penalty, meaning that there are nearly five times as many countries not executing prisoners as those that do in 2012.

Setting China aside, Amnesty said at least 680 executions were carried out last year - up by four on the previous year. Half of those took place in Iran (314). Iraq executed 129, Saudi Arabia 79 and the US 43. The minimum number of executions was down from at least 712 in 2009.

The Middle East saw 557 executions in six countries - the vast majority of the list. In Tunisia, 125 people on death row had their sentence commuted to life by the transitional government.

Methods of execution included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and various kinds of shooting (by firing squad, and at close range to the heart or the head). Public executions were known to have been carried out in Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. In Saudi Arabia, executions are usually beheadings with a sword. In one case recorded by Amnesty, a Sudanese man's head was sewn back onto his body and hung from a pole in a
public place.

Amnesty has given us the data, right back to 2007. You can download it below.

10 countries with the most executions

Download the data

* DATA: download the full spreadsheet

* SOURCE: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

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Death penalty statistics, country by country

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After the execution of Kim Jong-un's uncle, the brutality of North Korea's regime has once again come under the international spotlight. In a broader context, is the attention warranted? Find out who uses the death penalty today - and see how it compares to 2007

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21 Countries in the World Carried Out the Death Penalty Last Year

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21 Countries in the World Carried Out the Death Penalty Last Year

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The number of death penalties has decreased from the 28 countries that took part in it a decade ago.

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Amnesty International released their 2012 annual report on capital punishment this week, highlighting information on the differing ways countries handle execution around the world.
Here are five of the most interesting death penalty facts from last year:
1. The United States ranked fifth for the highest number of executions.
The U.S. takes a spot behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia for the most executions in the world last year, sitting ahead of Yemen and the Sudan.

This ranking comes as no surprise to Brian Evans, Amnesty International's acting director on the Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, who said the same countries are in the top eight every year. (See video: " Inside Death Row.")

But why is the U.S.-which seems like somewhat of an outlier politically, culturally, and geographically-always in the top five?

According to Evans, the U.S. has a strict attitude toward punishment in general. Having a severe attitude toward the death penalty is only natural when you consider that the U.S. leads the world in mass incarceration of prisoners and holds records for solitary confinement and sentences to life in prison.
2. Saudia Arabia saw the execution of one man by "crucifixion."
Methods of execution vary between regions based on culture and available technology, and they usually include standard tactics, such as hanging, beheading, firing squad, and lethal injection. In Saudi Arabia, however, one accused man was put on display after being beheaded in a practice known as crucifixion, according to the country's state news agency, SPA.

The reasoning behind executions also vary around the world. In Papua New Guinea, for example, a woman and her two daughters are currently being held captive with charges of sorcery and risk a death sentence. It's common in the Pacific country for those accused of sorcery, especially women, to face horrific acts of violence that often end in death.
3. China keeps its execution numbers secret.
The Chinese government is notorious for keeping statistics about their criminal executions secret, and in past years, Amnesty International was forced to rank China based on the minimum number of executions that researchers could confirm. Since that number was always drastically lower than the assumed reality, researchers now use reliable media sources and human rights groups-rather than official government sources-to estimate the number of executions in China.

Using this data, the 2012 report estimates that thousands of criminals were killed in China last year alone, while the tally for the rest of the world combined stands at 682.
4. Japan's executions actually increased in 2012 after a long hiatus.
While the global trend for the death penalty is actually declining around the world, Japan-and other notable countries such as India and Pakistan-resumed executing criminals after a long stint of being execution-free. At least seven death row inmates were killed in Japan last year, ending a 20-month period without executions.

Why the change? "It all depends on which political party is in power," Evans said. One prime minister will come into power and abolish the practice, then the next will just reinstate it, leaving the lives of criminals in the hands of changing political whims.
5. Just 21 countries in the world carried out the death penalty last year.
In the broad scope of things, only a fraction of the world's total countries (the total being 195 by National Geographic's count) actually used execution as a means of punishment last year. That number is down from 28 countries just a decade earlier, suggesting a downward trend in the global practice.

The few countries that do still practice execution are situated in "regional pockets" around the world, Evans noted. Just four countries in the Middle East, for example, are responsible for all the executions in the region. And in the U.S., death penalty laws differ by state, with hotbeds of execution in the U.S. South, Ohio, and Arizona.

In December 2012, 111 countries-or more than half the world's countries-voted in favor of a United Nations resolution that would declare a global moratorium on executions.

As for the other countries? "They'll come around when they take a longer look at their death penalties," Evans said, "but it'll be a while."

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5 Surprising Facts About the Death Penalty Worldwide

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Amnesty International released their 2012 annual report on capital punishment this week, highlighting information on the differing ways countries handle execution around the world. Here are five of the most interesting death penalty facts from last year: 1. The United States ranked fifth for the highest number of executions. The U.S.

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"On July 16, 2014, federal judge Cormac J. Carney of the United States District Court ruled that California's death penalty system is unconstitutional because it is arbitrary and plagued with delay. The state has not executed a prisoner since 2006."

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In the U.S. state of California, capital punishment is a legal penalty. However it is not allowed to be carried out as of March 2019, because executions were halted by an official moratorium ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. Prior to the moratorium, executions were frozen by a federal court order since 2006, and the litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Thus, there will be a court-ordered moratorium on executions after the termination of Newsom's moratorium if capital punishment remains a legal penalty in California by then.

The state carried out 709 executions from 1778 until 1972 when the California Supreme Court struck down California's capital punishment statute in the case People v. Anderson. California voters reinstated the death penalty a few months later, with Proposition 17 legalizing the death penalty in the state constitution and ending the Anderson ruling. Since that ruling, there have been just 13 executions, yet hundreds of inmates have been sentenced. The last execution that took place in California was in 2006. Two people condemned in California ( Kelvin Malone and Alfredo Prieto) have also been executed in Missouri and Virginia.

As of September 2021, official California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) records show that there are 697 inmates awaiting execution in California, the lowest it has been since 2011, primarily due to suicide, death from other causes, fewer juries willing to sentence people to death, and resentencings by newly elected district attorneys, among other things. 23 of those on death row are females, held at the female death row in the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, with the other 678 inmates awaiting execution being males that are housed throughout the state, although most males are housed in San Quentin State Prison.

California voters rejected two initiatives to repeal the death penalty by popular vote in 2012 and 2016, and they narrowly adopted in 2016 another proposal to expedite its appeal process. On August 26, 2021, the California Supreme Court upheld the state's death penalty rules.

Pre-Furman and pre-Anderson history

The first known death sentence in California was recorded in 1778. On April 6, 1778 four Kumeyaay chiefs from a Mission San Diego area ranchería were convicted of conspiring to kill Christians and were sentenced to death by José Francisco Ortega, Commandant of the Presidio of San Diego; the four were to be shot on April 11. However, there is some doubt whether the executions actually took place.

Four methods have been used historically for executions. Until slightly before California was admitted into the Union, executions were carried out by firing squad. Upon admission, the state adopted hanging as the method of choice.

Executions were moved to the state level in 1889 when the law was updated so that hangings would occur in one of the state prisons- San Quentin State Prison and Folsom State Prison. According to the California Department of Corrections, although the law did not require the trial judge to choose a specific prison, it was customary for recidivists to be sent to Folsom. Under these new laws, the first execution at San Quentin was Jose Gabriel on March 3, 1893, for murder. The first hanging at Folsom was Chin Hane, also for murder, on December 13, 1895. A total of 215 inmates were hanged at San Quentin and a total of 93 were hanged at Folsom.

California adopted the gas chamber as its sole method in 1937 (though two more hangings took place for people already sentenced). The first people to die in the San Quentin gas chamber (the only one in the state) were Albert Kessell and Robert Lee Cannon on December 2, 1938. Three more people had their death sentences carried out within two weeks. Up until 1967, 194 people were executed by lethal gas, including four women. The last person was Aaron Mitchell on April 12, 1967.

On April 24, 1972, the Supreme Court of California ruled in People v. Anderson that the state's current death penalty laws were unconstitutional. Justice Marshall F. McComb was the lone dissenter, arguing that the death penalty deterred crime, noting numerous Supreme Court precedents upholding the death penalty's constitutionality, and stating that the legislative and initiative processes were the only appropriate avenues to determine whether the death penalty should be allowed. The majority's decision spared the lives of 105 death row inmates, including Sirhan Sirhan ( assassin of Robert F. Kennedy) and serial killer Charles Manson. McComb was so outraged by the decision that he walked out of the courtroom during its reading.

The debate over capital punishment played out in a somewhat similar fashion on the national level. On June 29, 1972, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Furman v. Georgia, resulting in a moratorium on executions in the United States. On July 2, 1976, the Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, reviewing capital punishment laws enacted in response to its Furman decision, found constitutional those statutes that allowed a jury to impose the death penalty after consideration of both aggravating and mitigating circumstances. On the same date, the Court held that statutes imposing a mandatory death penalty were unconstitutional.

In a later decision in 1976, the Supreme Court of California again held the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional as it did not allow the defendant to enter mitigating evidence. A further 70 prisoners had their sentences commuted following this.[citation needed ] The next year, the statute was updated to deal with these issues. Life imprisonment without possibility of parole was also added as a punishment for capital offenses.[citation needed ] A later change to the statute occurred in 1978 after Proposition 7 was enacted. This gave an automatic appeal to the Supreme Court of California, which would directly affirm or reverse the sentence and conviction without going through an intermediate appeal to the California Courts of Appeal.

In 1983, The State Bar of California created The California Appellate Project as a legal resource center to implement the constitutional right to counsel for indigent persons facing execution. At around the time of its founding, Michael Millman became the director of CAP. Millman served as director of CAP for 30 years. CAP oversees the efforts to assist private lawyers representing the more than 700 people on California's death row.

On November 4, 1986, three members of the state supreme court were ousted from office by voters after a high-profile campaign that cited their categorical opposition to the death penalty.

This included chief justice Rose Bird, who was removed by a margin of 67 to 33 percent. She reviewed a total of 64 capital cases appealed to the court, in each instance issuing a decision overturning the death penalty that had been imposed at trial. She was joined in her decision to overturn by at least three other members of the court in 61 of those cases. This led Bird's critics to claim that she was substituting her own opinions and ideas for the laws and precedents upon which judicial decisions are supposed to be made.

The available methods were expanded to two in January 1993, with lethal gas as the standard but with lethal injection offered as a choice for the inmate. David Mason, the first inmate to have this choice, made no selection, so was executed by the lethal gas default in August 1993. Following a legal challenge and Ninth Circuit appeal court decision in 1996, lethal gas was suspended, with lethal injection becoming the only method. Serial killer William Bonin was the first person to be executed under these new laws, on February 23, 1996. Thirteen people have been executed in California since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, though 158 other people have died on death row from other causes (30 of them from suicide) as of February 27, 2022.

During the term of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor, the state carried out two prominent executions in less than five weeks, with Stanley Tookie Williams in December 2005 and Clarence Ray Allen in January 2006.

A month later, in February 2006, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy D. Fogel blocked the execution of convicted murderer Michael Morales because of a lawsuit against the lethal injection protocol. It was argued that if the three-drug lethal injection procedure were administered incorrectly, it could lead to suffering for the condemned, potentially constituting cruel and unusual punishment. The issue arose from an injunction made by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which held that an execution could only be carried out by a medical technician legally authorized to administer intravenous medications. The case led to a de facto moratorium of capital punishment in California as the state was unable to obtain the services of a licensed medical professional to carry out the execution.

Several victims' families testified to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice in opposition to capital punishment, explaining that whilst they had suffered great losses, they did not view retribution as morally acceptable, and that the high cost of capital punishment was preventing the solving of cold cases.

The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice in 2008 concluded after an extensive review that under the current death penalty system, death sentences are unlikely ever to be carried out (with extremely rare exceptions) because of a process "plagued with excessive delay" in the appointment of post-conviction counsel and a "severe backlog" in the California Supreme Court's review of death judgments. According to CCFAJ's report, the lapse of time from sentence of death to execution constitutes the longest delay of any death penalty state, and the Commission urged reform to expedite the appeal process.

Another study released in 2011 found that since 1978 capital punishment has cost California about $4 billion. A 2011 article by Arthur Alarcon, long-time judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and law professor Paula Mitchell, concluded that "since reinstating the death penalty in 1978, California taxpayers have spent roughly $4 billion to fund a dysfunctional death penalty system that has carried out no more than 13 executions."

Proposition 34, the SAFE California Act

A coalition of death penalty opponents including law enforcement officials, murder victims' family members, and wrongly convicted people launched an initiative campaign for the "Savings, Accountability, and Full Enforcement for California Act," or SAFE California, in the 2011-2012 election cycle. The measure, which became Proposition 34, would replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, require people sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole to work in order to pay restitution to victims' families, and allocate approximately $30 million per year for three years to police departments for the purpose of solving open murder and rape cases. Supporters of the measure raised $6.5 million, dwarfing the $1 million raised by opponents of Proposition 34.

The proposition was defeated with 52% against and 48% in favor.

On July 16, 2014, federal judge Cormac J. Carney of the United States District Court ruled that California's death penalty system is unconstitutional because it is arbitrary and plagued with delay. The state has not executed a prisoner since 2006. The judge stated that the current system violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment by imposing a sentence that "no rational jury or legislature could ever impose: life in prison, with the remote possibility of death."

However, on November 12, 2015, a panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the district court's ruling in a 3-0 published decision. The three judges held that the claim was not justiciable under federal habeas corpus.

In February 2015, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang ruled that state law compelled the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to develop a way to execute inmates by lethal injection. Later that year a new protocol providing a single-drug execution method was developed to comply with the ruling.

This was the result of a lawsuit brought by family members of murder victims. Supporters of capital punishment blamed the nearly three-year wait for a new protocol on "lack of political will" and attempt to render the death penalty "impractical and then argue for repeal on the grounds of practicality".

On November 8, 2016, California voted on two competing initiatives about capital punishment. Proposition 62 which, as Proposition 34, would have abolished the death penalty, was rejected by a 53-47 margin. The other initiative, Proposition 66, provides the streamlining of the capital appeal process, and also requires death-row offenders to work in jail and pay restitution to victims families, something they were previously exempted from. The measure passed 51-49. Its constitutionality was upheld 5-2 by the state supreme court on August 24, 2017, though the court held that one provision requiring it to decide direct appeals of capital cases within five years was directive rather than mandatory. The court ordered that Prop 66 take effect after this decision becomes final.

Governor Gavin Newsom promulgated Executive Order N-09-19 on March 13, 2019. Executive Order N-09-19 orders that:

1. An executive moratorium on the death penalty shall be instituted in the
form of a reprieve for all people sentenced to death in California. This
moratorium does not provide for the release of any person from prison or
otherwise alter any current conviction or sentence.
2. California's lethal injection protocol shall be repealed.
3. The Death Chamber at San Quentin shall be immediately closed in light of
the foregoing.

The Executive Order granted everybody sentenced to death under California law a reprieve while also eliminating any mechanism that the state could use to execute an individual by repealing the lethal injection protocol adopted by the State of California. If the Executive Order was rescinded and all lawsuits challenging the use of capital punishment in the state are resolved executions would not resume immediately since the state would need to adopt a new execution protocol which requires time to do so. The Executive Order also closed the Death Chamber at San Quentin State Prison. The Death Chamber was subsequently dismantled by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Although some pro-death penalty advocates have stated otherwise, no person sentenced to death in California was released or had their conviction or sentenced altered due to the promulgation of the Executive Order.

People v. McDaniel and possible striking down of capital punishment

Donte McDaniel, a condemned inmate, was sentenced to death in 2004 and has challenged his death sentence by challenging California's sentencing statutes that only require convictions to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and to be unanimous but not requiring either for sentencing decisions. Therefore, under current law, a defendant needs to be found guilty by all jurors beyond a reasonable doubt but the jury does not need to be unanimous to find true any aggravating circumstances that makes one eligible to be sentenced to death, nor does the jury have to find those circumstances to be true beyond a reasonable doubt. If the Supreme Court of California rules in McDaniel's favor, hundreds of death sentences would be overturned and the court may strike down capital punishment in the state in its entireity. McDaniel has received the support of Governor Gavin Newsom along with the county district attorney's of Contra Costa, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Joaquin, and Santa Clara counties, along with former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti in an amicus curiae brief filed with the court.

On December 7, 2020, Assembly members Marc Levine (D- 10) and David Chiu (D- 17) introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 2 in the California State Legislature. The constitutional amendment would amend the constitution to prohibit the use of capital punishment as a punishment for any violations of law. The amendment is coauthored by Assembymembers Laura Friedman (D- 43), Mike Gipson (D- 64), and Mark Stone (D- 29), along with state senator Scott Wiener (D- 11). The resolution needs a 2/3 majority of each house of the Legislature before the resolution can be placed before the voters during the 2022 California elections. If more voters vote Yes than No on the question in 2022, the state constitution will be amended to prohibit the use of capital punishment in California as a punishment for any violations of law. Currently, the resolution is pending before the Committee on Public Safety.

On August 26, 2021, efforts to overhaul California's death penalty were weakened after the California state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that current state law provided little legal support for any overhaul in the case of People v McDaniel.

When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the judge and the jury must be unanimous.

Executions are carried out by lethal injection, but an inmate sentenced before its adoption may elect to be executed by gas inhalation instead. If one of these two methods is held invalid, the state is required to use the other method.

California has one of America's broadest lists of capital crimes and capital circumstances. The Penal Code provides for the possibility for a sentence of death for:

Crimes against the person

first-degree murder with special circumstances

train wrecking which leads to a person's death

fatal assault by a person under a life sentence, subject to the year and a day rule.

aiding, abetting, counseling, commanding, inducing, soliciting, requesting, or assisting in the commission of a felony enumerated in above in enhancement 17, with reckless indifference to human life and as a major participant, which results in a death, even if the defendant is not the actual killer.

Due to the amount of capital circumstances in California, almost every first-degree murder is punishable by death.

Crimes against the state

treason against the state of California, defined as levying war against the state, adhering to its enemies, or giving them aid and comfort

perjury or subornation of perjury causing execution of an innocent person

Additionally, the Military and Veterans Code provides for possible capital punishment in either of the following if such act or acts, or failure to act, results in a death:

intentionally and maliciously destroying, impairing, injuring, interfering, or tampering with real or personal property with reasonable grounds to believe that such act will hinder, delay, or interfere with the preparation of the United States or any of the states from preparing for war, or any foreign nation which assistance by the United States is in connection with that nation's defense; or

intentionally and maliciously making or causing to be made or intentionally and maliciously omitting to note on inspection any defect in any article or thing with reasonable grounds to believe that such article or thing is intended to be used in connection with the preparation of the United States or any state for defense or for war, or for the prosecution of war by the United States, or with the rendering of assistance by the United States to any other nation in connection with that nation's defense, or that such article or thing is one of a number of similar articles or things, some of which are intended so to be used.

Men condemned to death in California must (with some exceptions) be held at San Quentin State Prison, while condemned women are held at Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla. San Quentin also houses the state execution chamber. Women executed in California would be transported to San Quentin before being put to death.

As of September 2021, official California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) records show 697 inmates sentenced to death in California, the lowest it has been since 2011, primarily due to suicide, death from other causes, fewer juries willing to sentence people to death, and resentencing's by newly elected progressive district attorneys, among other things. 23 of those on death row are women, held at the female death row in the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla.

As of June 2021, Black people constitute a plurality of inmates sentenced to death, with 35.58% of inmates sentenced to death being Black. The second largest group of people sentenced to death are White (31.85%), while Hispanics/Mexicans are the third largest group of people sentenced to death (25.04%).

In 2008, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice criticized the high number of aggravating factors as giving to local prosecutors too much discretion in picking cases where they believe capital punishment is warranted. The Commission proposed to reduce them to only five (multiple murders, torture murder, murder of a police officer, murder committed in jail, and murder related to another felony). Columnist Charles Lane went further, and proposed that murder related to a felony other than rape should no longer be a capital crime when there is only one victim killed.

The Field Research Corporation found in February 2004 that when asked how they personally felt about capital punishment, 68% supported it and 31% opposed it (6% offered no opinion). This was a decrease from 72% support two years previous, and an increase from 63% in 2000. This poll was asked about the time that Kevin Cooper had his execution stayed hours before his scheduled death after 20 years on death row. When asked if they thought the death penalty was generally fair and free of error in California, 58% agreed and 32% disagreed (11% offered no opinion). When the results were broken down along ethnicity, of the people who identified themselves as African American, 57% disagreed that the death penalty was fair and free of error.

A poll in March 2012 found that "61% of registered voters from the state of California say they would vote to keep the death penalty, should a death penalty initiative appear on the November 2012 ballot" An August 2012 poll found that "support for Prop 34, which would repeal California's death penalty, fell from 45.5% to 35.9%."

A PPIC poll from September 2012 showed that 55% of all adults and 50% of likely voters prefer life in prison without the possibility of parole over the death penalty when given the choice.

A Field Poll in September 2014 showed that 56% support the death penalty, down from 69% three years earlier. Support for the death penalty in California had not been at this low a level since the mid-1960s.

Number of death sentences per county as of June 2021. There are 703 inmates awaiting execution but there are 711 death sentences since some inmates have received multiple death sentences.

County of conviction

Inmates sentenced to death awaiting execution

Notes

Los Angeles

222

George Gascón, the District Attorney of Los Angeles County, has pledged to resentence all inmates sentenced to death in Los Angeles County to life imprisonment. He has also pledged to never seek capital punishment for any present and future cases while he is in office.

Number of condemned per ethnicity as of June 2021.

Number of condemned per age as of June 2021.

List of the year when each one of the people currently on death row were received by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as of June 2021.

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Capital punishment in California - Wikipedia

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In the U.S. state of California, capital punishment is a legal penalty. However it is not allowed to be carried out as of March 2019, because executions were halted by an official moratorium ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom.

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Where is the death penalty illegal in the United States?

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Where is the death penalty illegal in the United States?

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Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Colombia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin

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32 States with the Death Penalty and 18 States with Death Penalty Bans - Death Penalty - ProCon.org

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How many executions does the US partake in compared to other countries?

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How many executions does the US partake in compared to other countries?

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The United States is ranked 5th for the highest number of executions. The US takes a spot behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia for the most executions in the world last year.

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Amnesty International released their 2012 annual report on capital punishment this week, highlighting information on the differing ways countries handle execution around the world.
Here are five of the most interesting death penalty facts from last year:
1. The United States ranked fifth for the highest number of executions.
The U.S. takes a spot behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia for the most executions in the world last year, sitting ahead of Yemen and the Sudan.

This ranking comes as no surprise to Brian Evans, Amnesty International's acting director on the Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, who said the same countries are in the top eight every year. (See video: " Inside Death Row.")

But why is the U.S.-which seems like somewhat of an outlier politically, culturally, and geographically-always in the top five?

According to Evans, the U.S. has a strict attitude toward punishment in general. Having a severe attitude toward the death penalty is only natural when you consider that the U.S. leads the world in mass incarceration of prisoners and holds records for solitary confinement and sentences to life in prison.
2. Saudia Arabia saw the execution of one man by "crucifixion."
Methods of execution vary between regions based on culture and available technology, and they usually include standard tactics, such as hanging, beheading, firing squad, and lethal injection. In Saudi Arabia, however, one accused man was put on display after being beheaded in a practice known as crucifixion, according to the country's state news agency, SPA.

The reasoning behind executions also vary around the world. In Papua New Guinea, for example, a woman and her two daughters are currently being held captive with charges of sorcery and risk a death sentence. It's common in the Pacific country for those accused of sorcery, especially women, to face horrific acts of violence that often end in death.
3. China keeps its execution numbers secret.
The Chinese government is notorious for keeping statistics about their criminal executions secret, and in past years, Amnesty International was forced to rank China based on the minimum number of executions that researchers could confirm. Since that number was always drastically lower than the assumed reality, researchers now use reliable media sources and human rights groups-rather than official government sources-to estimate the number of executions in China.

Using this data, the 2012 report estimates that thousands of criminals were killed in China last year alone, while the tally for the rest of the world combined stands at 682.
4. Japan's executions actually increased in 2012 after a long hiatus.
While the global trend for the death penalty is actually declining around the world, Japan-and other notable countries such as India and Pakistan-resumed executing criminals after a long stint of being execution-free. At least seven death row inmates were killed in Japan last year, ending a 20-month period without executions.

Why the change? "It all depends on which political party is in power," Evans said. One prime minister will come into power and abolish the practice, then the next will just reinstate it, leaving the lives of criminals in the hands of changing political whims.
5. Just 21 countries in the world carried out the death penalty last year.
In the broad scope of things, only a fraction of the world's total countries (the total being 195 by National Geographic's count) actually used execution as a means of punishment last year. That number is down from 28 countries just a decade earlier, suggesting a downward trend in the global practice.

The few countries that do still practice execution are situated in "regional pockets" around the world, Evans noted. Just four countries in the Middle East, for example, are responsible for all the executions in the region. And in the U.S., death penalty laws differ by state, with hotbeds of execution in the U.S. South, Ohio, and Arizona.

In December 2012, 111 countries-or more than half the world's countries-voted in favor of a United Nations resolution that would declare a global moratorium on executions.

As for the other countries? "They'll come around when they take a longer look at their death penalties," Evans said, "but it'll be a while."

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5 Surprising Facts About the Death Penalty Worldwide

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Amnesty International released their 2012 annual report on capital punishment this week, highlighting information on the differing ways countries handle execution around the world. Here are five of the most interesting death penalty facts from last year: 1. The United States ranked fifth for the highest number of executions. The U.S.

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when the death penalty started
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/part-i-history-death-penalty