Amnesty International’s most recent death penal­ty report, ​“The Death Penalty Worldwide: Developments in 2005,” revealed a sub­stan­tial drop in record­ed exe­cu­tions around the world, as well as a grow­ing num­ber of nations that have aban­doned the death penal­ty. According to the report, four nations account­ed for 94% of the 2,148 record­ed exe­cu­tions car­ried out around the world in 2005, a total that is sig­nif­i­cant­ly less than the 3,797 exe­cu­tions record­ed in 2004 (how­ev­er, in many coun­tries the exact num­ber of exe­cu­tions is unknown):

COUNTRY /​NO. OF EXECUTIONS IN 2005:
China 1,770
Iran 94
Saudi Arabia 86
United States 60

Other coun­tries that car­ried out exe­cu­tions in 2005:
BANGLADESH, BELARUS, INDONESIA, IRAQ, JAPAN, JORDAN. KOREA (North), KUWAIT, LIBYA, MONGOLIA, PAKISTAN, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, SINGAPORE, SOMALIA, TAIWAN, UZBEKISTAN, VIETNAM, YEMEN.

Only 22 coun­tries car­ried out exe­cu­tions in 2005, down from 25 in 2004. This is the fourth straight year this fig­ure has dropped and it has halved in the last 20 years.

Number of coun­tries that have aban­doned the death penal­ty in law or in prac­tice:
YEAR — NO. OF ABOLITION COUNTRIES
1996 — 101
1997 — 103
1998 — 106
1999 — 109
2000 — 109
2001 — 112
2002 — 112
2003 — 118
2004 — 120
2005 — 123

Read Amnesty International’s report ​“The Death Penalty Worldwide: Developments in 2005.” See International Death Penalty.

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