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Amnesty International recently released its annual report on capital punishment around the world, noting, “Developments in the worldwide use of the death penalty in 2013 confirmed that its application is confined to a small minority of countries.” As illustrated in the chart at left, over the past decade there has been an increase in the number of countries abolishing the death penalty and a decrease in countries carrying out executions. Because executions in China remain a state secret, Amnesty was not able to determine the number of executions worldwide. Of the known executions, almost 80% occurred in just three countries: Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Twenty-two countries recorded executions last year. No executions were carried out in Europe or Central Asia. The United States remained the only country in the Americas to carry out executions and had the fifth most executions of any country in the world. (Information from Syria and Egypt could not be confirmed.)
(“Death Sentences and Executions 2013,” Amnesty International, released March 27, 2014). See International and Studies.
