DAVID ADAMS looks at some of facts concerning the use of the death penalty around the world…
Capital punishment has been in the spotlight over the past few months in Australia and other countries around the world following the executions of eight people, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, in Indonesia late last month. Here’s some facts about the death penalty around the world…
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• In 2014, Amnesty International reported more than 607 executions were carried out in 22 countries – the number of executions was down 22 per cent on the previous year but the number of countries remained the same.
• Among the top executing nations in 2014 were China (number unknown but believed to be more than 1,000 – some estimates put the number at at least 3,000), Iran (at least 289), Saudi Arabia (at least 90), Iraq (at least 61) and the US (35). (Figures for North Korea are not available).
• Methods of execution used last year include beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. Executions were carried out in public in Saudi Arabia (the only country that uses beheading as a method of execution) and Iran.
• More than 2,466 people were sentenced to death in 2014, 28 per cent more than the previous year. These sentences were announced in 55 different countries.
• The countries which in which highest number of death sentences were handed down in 2014 included China, Nigeria, Egypt and Bangladesh.
• At least 19,094 people were under a sentence of death at the end of 2014.
• Offences which attract the death penalty around the world include murder, drug trafficking, and terrorism as well as offences like adultery, apostasy, blasphemy and sodomy.
• Amnesty International reported that there were commutations or pardons granted for death sentences in 28 countries during 2014 while 112 death sentence prisoners in nine countries were exonerated.
• UN data shows approximately 160 of the 193 member states have abolished the death penalty or introduced moratoriums, either in law or in practice, as of August last year.
• As of 30th April, 13 people had been executed in the US during 2015, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Sources: Amnesty International, Death Sentences and Executions, 2014, Moratorium on the use of the death penalty – Report of the UN Secretary-General (August, 2014), Death Penalty Information Center, International Commission Against Death Penalty, Death Penalty Worldwide – Cornell University Law School.
