On March 27, Amnesty International released its annu­al sur­vey on the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment world­wide, titled Death Sentences and Executions 2011. The report illus­trat­ed that the use of the death penal­ty has con­tin­ued to decline around the world. At the end of 2011, there were 140 coun­tries con­sid­ered abo­li­tion­ist in law or prac­tice, while only 20 coun­tries were known to have put pris­on­ers to death in 2011. The United States was the only coun­try in the Western hemi­sphere or among the G8 nations to car­ry out exe­cu­tions, and was the fifth coun­try in terms of known exe­cu­tions car­ried out in the world, behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. China report­ed­ly con­ducts thou­sands of exe­cu­tions in a year, but the exact num­ber is not known. With 13 exe­cu­tions, Texas would have ranked 7th as an inde­pen­dent coun­try, between North Korea and Somalia. The report nev­er­the­less high­light­ed signs of sub­stan­tial­ly reduced sup­port for the death penal­ty in the U.S., includ­ing the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in Illinois, a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Oregon, a sig­nif­i­cant decline nation­al­ly in death sen­tences, and a small­er decline in exe­cu­tions in 2011.

(“Death Sentences and Executions in 2011,” Amnesty International, March 2012). For an in-depth review of the death penal­ty in the United States in 2011, see DPIC’s 2011 Year End Report. See International and Studies.

Citation Guide