Amnesty International: Mixed Global Trends on Death Penalty as More Nations Abolish and Record Few Conduct Executions, But Extreme Practices, Widespread Secrecy Reported in Outlier Nations

More coun­tries aban­doned the death penal­ty and a record low num­ber car­ried it out, but extreme prac­tices in a few out­lier nations caused glob­al exe­cu­tions to rise in 2021, accord­ing to the human rights group Amnesty International.

Amnesty found mixed trends in its annu­al report on death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions, as the glob­al geo­graph­ic ero­sion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment con­tin­ued, but a surge in exe­cu­tions in Iran and Saudi Arabia as pan­dem­ic restric­tions eased led to a glob­al increase of 20% in 2021. Extreme secre­cy made it impos­si­ble to track the esti­mat­ed thou­sands of exe­cu­tions in China, as well as exe­cu­tions in Vietnam, North Korea, and Iran. Still, Amnesty report­ed, the 579 doc­u­ment­ed exe­cu­tions was the sec­ond-low­est num­ber of record­ed exe­cu­tions since at least 2010, down 12% from the total for 2019. The 18 coun­tries that car­ried them out matched 2020 for the fewest num­ber of exe­cut­ing nations, Amnesty said.

Sierra Leone and Kazakhstan adopt­ed new laws abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty for all crimes, bring­ing to 108 the num­ber of nations that had end­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment by the close of 2021. Papua New Guinea began the leg­isla­tive process to repeal its death penal­ty laws, which cul­mi­nat­ed in its abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in January 2022. At years end, 144 coun­tries — more than two-thirds of the world’s nations — had abol­ished the death penal­ty in law or prac­tice, Amnesty said. 55 coun­tries still retained the death penal­ty and had car­ried out exe­cu­tions in the past decade.

Amnesty said that at least 28,670 peo­ple were on death rows around the world at the end of 2021, exclud­ing coun­tries such as China, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia, where a lack of trans­paren­cy made it impos­si­ble to ascer­tain how many peo­ple were impris­oned fac­ing pos­si­ble exe­cu­tion. Amnesty report­ed that 2,382 pris­on­ers were on U.S. death rows at the end of 2021, the fourth high­est record­ed total, behind Iraq (8,000+), Pakistan (3,800+), and Nigeria (3,036+).

Amnesty record­ed 2,052 death sen­tences imposed in 56 coun­tries in 2021, up 39% from the 1,477 in 54 coun­tries in 2020. The rise was fueled by ​“sharp increas­es” in report­ed death sen­tences in Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon. The 356 peo­ple sen­tenced to death in Egypt in 2021 was the high­est record­ed total in any nation, Amnesty said, although China was believed to have imposed thou­sands of death sen­tences. Yemen (298+), Bangladesh (181+), India (144), Pakistan (129+), Vietnam (119+), and Indonesia (114+), all imposed more than 100 death sen­tences, and at least five oth­er nations imposed more than 50 death sen­tences each. Nonetheless, death sen­tences were down from the 2,307 record­ed in 56 coun­tries in 2019.

The U.S. was no longer among the world’s most pro­lif­ic death sen­tencers, with its 18 new death sen­tences rank­ing 18^th among record­ed sen­tences. At least four oth­er coun­tries with unknown sen­tenc­ing totals, includ­ing North Korea, also like­ly imposed more. The 11 peo­ple put to death in the U.S. in 2021 placed the coun­try ninth in the num­ber of record­ed exe­cu­tions behind China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, and Yemen. The U.S. also like­ly exe­cut­ed few­er peo­ple than North Korea and Vietnam, whose exe­cu­tions are con­sid­ered state secrets.