Despite a sharp drop in exe­cu­tions, the United States ranked sixth among the world’s exe­cu­tion­ers in 2016 behind only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Pakistan, accord­ing to a report by the British-based inter­na­tion­al human rights group, Reprieve. Maya Foa, a direc­tor of Reprieve, said “[i]t is alarm­ing that coun­tries with close links to the UK and [European Union] con­tin­ue to occu­py the ranks of the world’s most pro­lif­ic exe­cu­tion­ers in 2016.” Questions of inno­cence, exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, and use of the death penal­ty for non-lethal drug offens­es were among the top world­wide prob­lems in the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty cit­ed by Reprieve in the report. “[W]e have found chil­dren on death row, inno­cent peo­ple hanged, drugs offences dealt with as cap­i­tal crimes, and tor­ture used to extract false con­fes­sions,” Foa said. ​“Countries that oppose exe­cu­tions must do more in 2017 to ensure that their over­seas secu­ri­ty assis­tance does not con­tribute to oth­ers states use of the death penal­ty.” Reprieve’s analy­sis of glob­al exe­cu­tions in 2016 found that China con­tin­ues to car­ry out the most exe­cu­tions of any coun­try, though the exact num­ber is a state secret. Nearly half of the more than 500 pris­on­ers exe­cut­ed in Iran were killed for com­mit­ting drug offens­es. In Saudi Arabia, those exe­cut­ed includ­ed juve­nile offend­ers and polit­i­cal pro­tes­tors. The ongo­ing armed con­flict in Iraq made infor­ma­tion on the coun­try’s exe­cu­tions dif­fi­cult to obtain. Pakistan lift­ed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in 2014, osten­si­bly in response to ter­ror­ism. But Reprieve found that 94% of those exe­cut­ed had noth­ing to do with ter­ror­ism. The Pakistan Supreme Court found in 2016 that two men who had been hanged were inno­cent. The Reprieve report also raised con­cerns about Egypt’s high rate of death sen­tenc­ing — more than 1,800 peo­ple have been sen­tenced to death in that coun­try in the last three years.

(“Global exe­cu­tions in 2016,” Reprieve, December 29, 2016.) See International.

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