Capital punishment by country
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] In 2022[update], the five countries that executed the most people were, in descending order, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United States.
[11][12][13] In the United States, this ended in 2005 with the Supreme Court case Roper v. Simmons, in Nigeria in 2015 by law,[14] and in Saudi Arabia in 2020 by royal decree.
In 2018, Burkina Faso repealed the death penalty for civilian crimes, and the Gambia announced a moratorium as a first step towards abolition.
In Caribbean countries, the death penalty exists at least de jure, except in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which abolished it in 1969 and 1987, respectively.
China is the world's most active user of the death penalty; according to Amnesty International, China executes more people than the rest of the world combined, each year;[22] but the death penalty for all crimes do not apply to the two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau.
[32][33][34][35] Capital punishment has been completely abolished in all European countries except for Belarus and Russia, the latter of which has a moratorium and has not conducted an execution since 1996.
[36] Russia retains the death penalty in law, but there has been a moratorium since 1996, making it de facto abolitionist.
[37] The Kingdom of Tahiti (when the island was independent) was the first legislative assembly in the world to abolish the death penalty in 1824.
[69] Persons excluded from capital punishment are pregnant women, women with small children, teenagers who were under 18 at the time of the crime, and the mentally ill. Death penalty for murder; blasphemy; homosexuality; adultery; treason; rape; robbery; incest; assisting the suicide of a person legally unable to consent; perjury in a capital case causing wrongful execution; terrorism; terrorist acts; some military offences; sodomy;[121] kidnapping and practice of indigenous beliefs in states applying Shariah law.
Some Southern states of Nigeria are de facto abolitionist since they have imposed a moratorium on the death penalty since 2004,[123] while others continue to carry out executions.
[149] Five states and the Federal Government have imposed formal moratoriums, and three of them are classifiable as "abolitionist in practice" according to the United Nations criteria,[150] having passed a period of over ten years without executions.
[151] Despite this it was reinstated on several occasions: On 26 August 2008, a new Code of Military Justice was promulgated that abolished death penalty.
[163][164] The current Constitution of Brazil (1988) expressly forbids the use of capital punishment, except for military offences committed during a war duly declared by Congress.
[citation needed] On 25 July 2022, because of Myanmar's civil war between the military junta (who rule most areas of the country) and the civilian government it overthrew, the junta carried out executions making them the first executions since 1988, making the country retentionist in areas controlled by the Tatmadaw.
[201] Iraq also has a regional variety of retentionism and abolitionism, as Iraqi Kurdistan is de facto abolitionist for ordinary crimes[clarification needed] due to a moratorium that has been in place since 2007.
In 2019, Asia had the world's five leading practitioners of capital punishment: China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam.
[278] Prior to the military coup of 2021 Myanmar was regarded as "abolitionist in practice" by both Amnesty International[280] and Death Penalty Watch.
[281] On 9 April 2021 state broadcaster Myawaddy TV announced that 23 protesters had been charged with murder, and pursuant to s496 of the criminal code, would face execution.
Amnesty International now (2022) recognises Myanmar's retentionist status, but notes that "Following Myanmar military's issuance of Martial Law Order 3/2021, the authority to try civilians was transferred to special or existing military tribunals where individuals are tried through summary proceedings without right to appeal.
"[283] As of 3 June 2022, it was reported that a total of 113 people had been sentenced to death by the junta for their roles in the counter-military revolution.
[284] With the confirmation of the death warrant, responsibility to determine whether, how, and when to proceed to executions fell to the Prison Department.
Khit Thit Media reported via their Facebook page that the military handed down a further eleven death sentences on 30 November.
[287] Wa State imposes the death penalty only for murder[288] and executions are carried out by gunshot to the back of the head.
Of these: Abolition of death penalty is a pre-condition for entry into the European Union, which considers capital punishment a "cruel and inhuman" practice and "not been shown in any way to act as a deterrent to crime".
The countries in Europe that most recently abolished the death penalty are Bosnia and Herzegovina (2019), Latvia (2012), and Albania (2007).
[202][348] The self-proclaimed state of Transnistria, which is claimed by Moldova, still retains the death penalty but has observed a moratorium on executions since 1999.
The countries in Oceania that most recently abolished the death penalty are Papua New Guinea (2022), Nauru (2016), and Fiji (2015).
The table below lists in chronological order the 109 UN member or observer states that have completely abolished the death penalty.
From the 1960s onwards, abolition accelerated: 4 countries abolished capital punishment in the 1960s (a record up to that time for any decade), 11 in the 1970s, and 10 in the 1980s.
Dependent territories are considered being under the jurisdiction of their parent country – which leads to unexpectedly late abolition dates for the UK, New Zealand and the Netherlands, where Jersey (UK), the Cook Is (NZ), and the Netherlands Antilles, were the last territories of those states to abolish capital punishment, and all were later than the abolitions on the respective mainlands.
