Global distribution

* While laws vary among U.S. states, it is considered retentionist because the federal death penalty is still in active use. **Russia retains the death penalty, but the regulations of theCouncil of Europe prohibits it from carrying out any executions.

See also: Use of capital punishment by country

A map showing the use of capital punishment in the US.

State uses death penalty

State doesn’t use death penalty

Since World War II there has been a trend toward abolishing the death penalty. In 1977, 16 countries were abolitionist. According to information published by Amnesty International in 2012, 97 countries had abolished capital punishment altogether, 8 had done so for all offences except under special circumstances, and 36 had not used it for at least 10 years or were under a moratorium. The other 57 retained the death penalty in active use.^[72]

According to Amnesty International, only 21 countries were known to have had executions carried out in 2012.^[73] In addition, there are countries which do not publish information on the use of capital punishment, most significantly China.^[74] At least 18,750 people worldwide were under sentence of death at the beginning of 2012.^[75]

Rank	Country	Number executed in 2012^[73]
1	People's Republic of China	4,000+Officially not released.
2	Iran	314+
3	Iraq	129+
4	Saudi Arabia	79+
5	United States
6	Yemen	28+
7	Sudan	19+
8	Afghanistan
9	Gambia
10	Japan
11	North Korea	6+
12	Somalia	6+
13	Palestinian Authority
14	Republic of China (Taiwan)
15	South Sudan	5+
16	Belarus	3+
17	Botswana
18	Bangladesh
19	India
20	Pakistan
21	United Arab Emirates

The use of the death penalty is becoming increasingly restrained in some retentionistcountries including Taiwan and Singapore.^[76]Indonesia carried out no executions between November 2008 and March 2013.^[77] Japan and 32 out of 50 states in the United States are the onlyOECD members that are classified by Amnesty International as 'retentionist' (South Korea is classified as 'abolitionist in practice').^[71] Nearly all of retentionist countries are situated in Asia, Africaand the Caribbean.^[71] The only retentionist country in Europe is Belarus. The death penalty was overwhelmingly practised in poor and authoritarian states, which often employed the death penalty as a tool of political oppression. During the 1980s, the democratisation of Latin America swelled the rank of abolitionist countries.

This was soon followed by the fall of Communism in Europe. Many of the countries which restored democracy aspired to enter the EU. The European Union and the Council of Europeboth strictly require member states not to practise the death penalty (see Capital punishment in Europe). Public support for the death penalty in the EU varies.^[78] The last execution on the present day territory of the Council of Europe has taken place in 1997 in Ukraine.^[79][80] On the other hand, rapid industrialisation in Asia has been increasing the number of developed retentionist countries. In these countries, the death penalty enjoys strong public support, and the matter receives little attention from the government or the media; in China there is a small but growing movement to abolish the death penalty altogether.^[81] This trend has been followed by some African and Middle Eastern countries where support for the death penalty is high.

Some countries have resumed practicing the death penalty after having suspended executions for long periods. The United States suspended executions in 1972 but resumed them in 1976, then again on 25 September 2007 to 16 April 2008; there was no execution in India between 1995 and 2004; and Sri Lanka declared an end to its moratorium on the death penalty on 20 November 2004,^[82] although it has not yet performed any executions. The Philippines re-introduced the death penalty in 1993 after abolishing it in 1987, but abolished it again in 2006.

In May 2013, Papua New Guinea lawmakers voted to introduce the death penalty for crimes such as rape, robbery and sorcery-related murder, and introduce punishments such as electrocution, firing squad and suffocation.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 2012, Japan and the US were the only countries in the G8 to have carried out executions; and the US was the only country to have carried out executions in the Americas.^[73] In 2012, there were 43 executions in the US, which have taken place in nine states: Arizona (6), Delaware (1), Florida (3), Idaho (1), Mississippi (6), Ohio (3), Oklahoma (6), South Dakota (2), Texas (15).^[73]

The latest country to move towards abolition is Mongolia. In January 2012, its Parliamentadopted a bill providing for the death penalty to be abolished.^[83]

For further information about capital punishment in individual countries or regions, see: Australia· Canada · People's Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) · Europe · India · Iran ·Iraq · Japan · New Zealand ·Pakistan· Philippines · Russia · Singapore · Taiwan · United Kingdom· United States

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