Amnesty International’s monitoring of the global use of the death penalty recorded 1,153 known executions in 2023, an increase by 31% from 883 in 2022. However, there was a significant decrease in executing countries, from 20 in 2022 to 16 in 2023.

Countries used various methods to kill: hanging, shooting, lethal injection, beheading. They did this with cold efficiency, driving the number of executions up by more than half, compared to 2014.

This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2014. Amnesty International reports only on executions, death sentences and other aspects of the use of the death penalty, such as commutations and exonerations, where there is reasonable confirmation. In...

Every day, people are executed by the state as punishment for a variety of crimes – sometimes for acts that should not be criminalized. In some countries it can be for who you sleep with, in others it is reserved for acts of terror and murder.

This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2013. Four countries resumed executions and there was a significant rise in the number of people executed during the year compared with 2012, driven primarily by increases in Iraq and Iran. Despite these...

The 2012 figures on the use of the death penalty confirm that the overall trend globally is towards abolition: only one in 10 countries worldwide carried out death sentences. However, 2012 also saw setbacks: the resumption of executions especially in Gambia, India, Japan and Pakistan, as well as...

Developments on the use of the death penalty in 2011 confirmed the global trend towards abolition. The number of countries that were known to have carried out death sentences decreased compared to the previous year and, overall, progress was recorded in all regions of the world. In this report,...

In the last decade, more than 30 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Fifty-eight countries worldwide now retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes, and less than half of these carried out executions in 2010. This report analyzes some of the key developments in the...

This document summarizes Amnesty International’s global research on the use of the death penalty in 2009. More than two-thirds of the countries of the world have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. While 58 countries retained the death penalty in 2009, most did not use it....

Since the report “Death sentences and executions in 2009” (ACT 50/001/2010) was printed, developments were reported in cases in Belarus and Saudi Arabia. This document details these developments.

This document summarises Amnesty International’s global research on the death penalty. Information was gathered from various sources including official statistics (where available), non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, human rights defenders, the media and interviews with...

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