DPIC Page: Foreign Nationals on United States' Death Rows

Some of those on death row in the U.S. are citizens of other countries, raising human rights issues and issues of U.S. compliance with international treaties.

Cornell Law School: International Death Penalty Database

Maintained by the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide (Cornell Law School)

Overview

More than 70% of the world’s countries have abolished capital punishment in law or practice. However, the death penalty continues to exist in many parts of the world, especially in countries with large populations and those with authoritarian rule. In recent decades, there has been a clear trend away from capital punishment, as many countries have either abolished the death penalty or discontinued its use. The U.S. remains an outlier among its close allies and other democracies in its continued application of the death penalty.

While international law does not prohibit the death penalty, most countries consider it a violation of human rights. The use of the death penalty worldwide is relevant in evaluating U.S. standards of decency and what should be considered cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Some Justices of the Supreme Court have referred to international law as further affirmation of their own conclusions about the death penalty, particularly as it may apply to specific classes of defendants such as juvenile offenders.

At Issue

There are a number of disagreements that may arise between countries that impose the death penalty and those that do not. Countries without the death penalty are particularly concerned when one of their citizens faces execution in the U.S. Some countries refuse to extradite individuals to the U.S., or even to provide incriminating evidence, if the defendant could face the death penalty. In addition, many countries and international bodies consider the death penalty to be a human rights issue and various U.S. death-penalty practices have been criticized as violating U.S. treaty obligations and international human rights law. The concern for human rights around the world has always been important in U.S. diplomacy, but the U.S. is often challenged because of its use of the death penalty and the protection that affords to other countries that use it in particularly abusive ways.

What DPIC Offers

International research on the use of the death penalty owes particular gratitude to Amnesty International, which has regularly monitored and reported on capital punishment around the world. DPIC passes this information on with attribution through its website and makes an effort to highlight those areas where international norms and practices reflect on the death penalty in the U.S. DPIC has issued one report focusing on this topic and regularly highlights relevant research and developments that occur around the world.

Apr 10, 2019

Amnesty International 2018 Global Report: Executions Worldwide Fall to Lowest Level in a Decade

Executions worldwide have fallen to their lowest levels in a decade, according to a new report released April 9, 2019 by Amnesty International. In its annual

News & Developments

Jun 22, 2020

DPIC Report—At least 1,300 Prisoners are on U.S. Death Rows in Violation of U.S. Human Rights Obligations

At least 1,300 prisoners have been imprisoned on U.S. death rows for more than two decades, in violation of U.S. human rights obligations, a Death Penalty Information Center report on death-row incarceration practices has found. The number represe…

Apr 22, 2020

Amnesty International Report: Confirmed Executions and Death Sentences Continue Global Decline, But Secrecy Hinders Accurate Assessment of Trends

Executions across the globe fell 5% worldwide in 2019 to the fewest in more than a decade, despite a record number of executions in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International reported in the human rights organization’s

Apr 14, 2020

World Death Penalty News — Report: Saudi Arabia Carries Out 800th Execution Under King Salman

NEWS (4/14/20) — Saudi Arabia: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has carried out its 800^th execution under the five-year reign of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, according to reports by the human rights groups European-Saudi Organisation for Human Ri…

Apr 03, 2020

World Death Penalty News — Pakistani Appeals Court Overturns Death Sentence, Acquits Men Convicted of Murdering Journalist Daniel Pearl

Pakistan (4/3/20) — The Sindh High Court, the highest court of the Pakistani province of Sindh, has overturned the conviction and death sentence of al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh for the graphic murder of Wall Street Journal repor…

Mar 26, 2020

United Kingdom Supreme Court Rules Britain Cannot Provide Evidence to U.S. for Use in Death-Penalty Cases

In a decision that exposed the deep divide between the United States and its European allies on capital punishment issues, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously ruled that the British government unlawfully provided i…

Dec 24, 2019

Political Application of Capital Punishment on Prominent Display in Pakistan and Middle East

The use of the death penalty as a political weapon was on display in late December 2019 in an extraordinary series of four unrelated cases in Pakistan and the Middle East.In Pakistan, a special tribunal tried and convicted …

Oct 16, 2019

Mixed Signals From Uganda as Officials Advocate, then Disavow, Death Penalty For LGBTQ Conduct

Facing a potential backlash from major aid donors, Uganda’s president has attempted to distance his government from legislative efforts to reintroduce a bill that would make consensual same-sex acts punishable by the death penalty and criminalize …

Apr 25, 2019

Saudi Arabia Condemned for Mass Execution of 37 People, Including Juveniles, After Unfair Trials

In an action condemned by the United Nations and human rights groups as a flagrant violation of international law, Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 people, including juvenile offenders, in six separate locations on April 23, 2019. It was …

Apr 03, 2019

Discriminatory Use of Death Penalty Against Gays Raises Concerns Globally and in the U.S.

As human rights activists raise alarms about a new law in Brunei that would punish homosexuality by death by stoning, the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to hear a case in which jurors who exhibited anti-gay bigotry sentenced…

Feb 27, 2019

7th World Congress Against Death Penalty Opens in Brussels, Belgium

An estimated 1,500 government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations from more than 140 countries gathered in Brussels, Belgium on February 26, 2019 for the opening of the Seventh World Congress Against the Death Penalty. …

In This Section

European Union Death Penalty Archive

The Delegation of the European Union to the United States has made available to the public an online archive of European Union engagement with the United States and individual states in past death-penalty cases. The archive features letters from EU Ambassadors to the United States to the State Department, to state governors, and to pardons boards; official European Union statements and pronouncements on death penalty concerns; and amicus briefs filed by the European Union in court cases in the U.S.; among other materials.

World Congress Against the Death Penalty Renews Call for Global Moratorium, Pope Sends Message of Support

Delegates to the Sixth World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Oslo, Norway from June 21 to June 23, 2016, have renewed the organization's call for a global moratorium on capital punishment. The event, attended by more than 1300 representatives from 80 countries, featured discussions by death penalty stakeholders from around the world.

On the Issues

International

Executions of Juveniles Outside the U.S.

Policy discussion of the execution of juveniles and listing of recorded executions of juveniles outside the U.S.

Death Penalty Stories

View Amnesty International’s animated slideshow “Death Penalty Stories” narrated by Colin Firth, for stories about the death penalty around the world.