Death penalty: Top 5 countries to execute the most people - Pakistan - CSMonitor.com Death penalty: Top 5 countries to execute the most people Save for later Saved According to Amnesty International ’s annual Death Sentences and Executions report, at least 527 people were executed in 23 countries in 2010, plus thousands in China . The number of people executed worldwide since 2007 is more than 2,500. Here are the five countries registering the most executions since 2007: 5. Pakistan Pakistan made the Top 5 despite a moratorium on executions imposed by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party that prevented the government from executing anyone in 2009 or 2010. In 2007, 135 people were executed and 36 were in 2008.

Despite the moratorium on executions, Pakistan continued to sentence people to death – 276 in 2009 and 365 in 2010 – and thousands of people remain on death row from previous sentences, as noted by Monitor correspondent Issam Ahmed The 10 countries that execute the most people - Business Insider You have successfully emailed the post. The 10 countries that execute the most people Apr. 6, 2016, 5:09 PM 219,825 print AP Images According to Amnesty International , a London-based human-rights organization that strongly opposes the death penalty, executions were up by nearly 50% worldwide in 2015. Officially, at least 1,634 people were put to death last year, with just three countries accounting for about 90% of these killings. But only a few countries reliably report their executions. The US for example, makes court records and execution statistics public. Authoritarian regimes in places like North Korea, Russia, and China, on the other hand, closely guard these numbers. The list below represents Amnesty's best efforts to report state-sponsored executions around the world. 10.

Chad: 10 An image taken from video released in 2014 by Boko Haram.Boko Haram/AP In response to the rise of the vicious Boko Haram organization of ISIS-linked jihadists, the African nation implemented the death penalty and carried out 10 executions of suspected Boko Haram militants. Source: Amnesty International 9. Indonesia: 14 Indonesian President Joko Widodo at celebrations for Indonesia's 70th Independence Day at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.Thomson Reuters Indonesia carried out 14 drug-related executions, the first under President Joko Widodo. 8. Egypt: 22(+) AP Photo / Ahmed Ali In Egypt, at least 10 people were executed in the Asyut prison after being convicted of murder. Six more were executed for "terrorism." The (+) symbol next to Egypt's execution figure notes that Amnesty believes the true number was higher, but the group lacks the evidence to confirm them. 7.

Somalia: 25 A member of Somalia's al-Shabab rebel group seen after attending Eid al-Adha prayers north of Mogadishu.Thomson Reuters Somalia proper carried out 17 executions, with the rest occurring in the unofficial territories of Somaliland and Jubaland. Source: Amnesty International 6. Iraq: 26(+) Iraqi security forces with an Islamist State flag, which they pulled down at the University of Anbar, in Anbar province, on July 26.Reuters Iraq sentenced 26 men to death in 2015. Of those, 24 were executed under Iraq's 2005 anti-terrorism law for their suspected involvement in the killing of 1,700 military cadets from the Speicher military camp in 2014. The (+) symbol next to Iraq's execution figure notes that Amnesty believes the true number was higher, but the group lacks the evidence to confirm them. Source: Amnesty International 4.

Saudi Arabia: 158 A member of Amnesty International placing photos of prisoners in Saudi Arabia on the grass outside the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Mexico City during a 2015 demonstration for the release of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi from jail.REUTERS/Edgard Garrido Saudi Arabia carried out 158 executions in 2015, mostly by beheading but with some done by firing squad. That figure includes four women and citizens of other countries. Some of the bodies of the deceased were put on public display. 3. Pakistan: 326 Public Domain Pakistan executed a record 326 people in 2015. Amnesty International says 305 were executed for murder and five were under the age of 18. Pakistan also executed numerous prisoners for terrorism after lifting a 2014 moratorium on executions. 2. Iran: 977 A female prison guard in Tehran's Evin prison in 2006.Reuters Iran publicly announced 400 executions through official and semiofficial sources, but Amnesty International says credible sources have added an additional 577 to that count. The organization says 16 women and four juveniles were executed.

At least 58 executions were carried out publicly. Thanks to a new antinarcotics law, many of these prisoners were killed because of nonviolent drug offenses. 1. China: thousands AP China classifies its data on executions, and there is little opportunity for the state-run media to investigate in this area. What is known is that China oppresses political and religious minorities and has over 1.6 million prisoners and about 650,000 pretrial detainees. Even a conservative estimate of state-sponsored executions, or the number of citizens worked to death in labor and reeducation camps puts China firmly at the top of this list. The US executes more people every year than Yemen, Sudan and Afghanistan. | Public Radio International The US executes more people every year than Yemen, Sudan and Afghanistan. yemen_deathpenaltyg.jpg Today is International Human Rights Day. So here in the United States, it’s worth revisiting a debate that nearly every other developed nation has already sorted out: Is it a human right NOT to be legally murdered by your own government? The United Nations thinks so.

In February, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said , “Capital punishment is inconsistent with the mission of the United Nations to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and the dignity and worth of the human person.” The UN has long pushed for global abolition of capital punishment. Since 2007, the General Assembly has approved four separate resolutions calling on member states to accept an international moratorium. Of the 190-plus member states, about 150 have eliminated the death penalty or no longer practice it. Even Russia has a moratorium that’s been in effect since 1996. And that leaves the rest — the countries that shoot, hang, lethally inject, and behead people as punishment for their alleged crimes. Amnesty International documents capital punishment around the globe and publishes its findings in an annual report that ranks the world's states by the number of people they execute annually. The most recent report came out in April and covered the calendar year of 2012. We will have to wait a few months for the new report to tell us all about state murder in 2013. For now, here are the most up-to-date statistics on capital punishment across the globe.

In 2012, 21 countries executed people. Here are the top 10 killers. 1) China The remains of South African Janice Linden, a woman executed in China after a drug smuggling conviction in 2011 (Getty Images) Executions: 3,000 (estimate) Executions are considered state secrets in China, so it’s difficult to estimate statistics. Amnesty doesn’t even try anymore, except to say that the number is in the thousands. NPR reported the number for 2012 at about 3,000. That’s a huge number, but it’s better now than in the 1990s, when China executed an average of 15,000 people per year. In addition to capital sentences for murder, many of the sentences were for drug trafficking and financial crimes. 2) Iran Iranian-Kurds protest the execution of Kurdish rebels in Iran, in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil, on Oct. 31.

(Getty Images) Executions: 314+ (the “+” indicates that Amnesty suspects the number might be much higher) Iran is one of several countries that Amnesty singles out for using torture to extract confessions that often lead to execution. Some of these “confessions” are broadcast on state television. 71 percent of the state-acknowledged executions in 2012 were for drug charges. Other non-murder executions were for adultery, sodomy, apostasy, and crimes against the state. Two men received death sentences for third offenses involving drinking alcohol. The election of President Hassan Rouhani has some in the west hoping for better foreign relations with Iran and for more attention to human rights at home. The latter’s not looking so good. The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center estimates that Iran has so far executed 529 people in 2013. Three hundred of them took place after Rouhani came to power. Iran’s use of the death penalty attracted global attention of an offbeat sort in October of this year, when a man identified only as “Alireza” survived his prescribed hanging. The Iranian judiciary decided to spare him a second execution attempt.

3) Iraq An Iraqi man walks past a billboard depicting the fall of executed dictator Saddam Hussein. (Ahmad al-Rubaye/Getty Images) Executions: 129+ Another lasting triumph of the US invasion... If civil society means executing people, as it does in the United States, then perhaps we can say “Mission Accomplished” when it comes to Iraq. Executions in Iraq nearly doubled in 2012 from 2011. This year, as of early November, Iraq has already executed 132 people according to official state-issued numbers. That includes 42 executions over a span of two days in early October. Like Iran and some other countries on this list, Iraq has a serious torture problem. Amnesty reports that Iraqi interrogators in 2012 beat suspects with cables, suspended them by their arms, burned their faces with cigarettes, and administered electric shocks. Whatever gets the confession. Again, some confessions are televised. And then the confessors are executed.

4) Saudi Arabia Lebanese activists protest outside the Saudi embassy in Beirut on April 1, 2010 (Anwar Amro/Getty Images) Executions: 79+ Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the United States and a fellow fan of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia’s claim to fame when it comes to capital punishment is that most of its prisoners are executed by public beheading. Amnesty describes one 2012 case in which a Sudanese man was beheaded, his head sewn back onto his body, and then his body hung from a pole. Non-murder executions in 2012 included sorcery, rape, and aggravated robbery. Defendants rarely received legal counsel or representation. The Saudi execution of foreign nationals is an especially troubling trend for observers. Twenty-seven of the 79 people executed in 2012 were foreign nationals. Foreign maids are a particularly at-risk group. They are isolated, have few financial or political resources, and remain trapped in massively imbalanced power relationships with their employers. In January, Saudi Arabia beheaded a 24-year-old domestic worker from Sri Lanka named Rizana Nafeek . The charge was for murdering an infant that was under her care.

She insisted until her death that the infant had choked to death. 5) United States Demonstrators wait as they call for Georgia state officials to halt the scheduled execution of Troy Davis. (Getty Images) Executions: 43 What's there to say? Some lowlights: Amnesty notes the “discriminatory application” of capital punishment in the United States. As we know, you're more likely to be put to death if you are a person of color and/or poor. In 2012, the United States was the only country in the Americas to execute prisoners. Japan and the United States were the only member countries of the G8 to execute prisoners in 2012. And 174 of the 193 member states of the United Nations did not execute a prisoner. Texas led the way with 15 executions, followed by Oklahoma (6), Mississippi (6), Arizona (6). At the time of the report, there were 3,170 people on death row. Things look mixed going forward. Only nine states carried out executions in 2012 compared to 13 in 2011.

And Connecticut abolished the death penalty, making it the 17th abolitionist state, and the 5th state since 2007. Still, the United States has executed 36 prisoners so far in 2013, making it unlikely to match last year's total but still killing more than its global share. Most recently killed was Jerry Martin , an inmate sentenced to death for killing a guard while attempting a prison escape in 2007. Martin had been serving a 50-year sentence for attempted murder. He became the 16th prisoner executed this year in the state of Texas. Yemeni policemen prepare Yahia al-Raghwa for execution in Sanaa on July 6, 2009. (Getty Images) Executions: 28+ Yemen, along with Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia accounted for 99 percent of all executions in the Middle East. Amnesty is especially critical of Yemen for executing prisoners who were juveniles at the time of their crimes.

Yemen is a signatory to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil Political rights, international agreements that say no-one who committed a crime before the age of 18 can be sentenced to death. That hasn’t stopped the country from executing juveniles. Many defendants have a hard time proving their age. About 80 percent of Yemenis have no birth certificate, and even in cases where a birth certificate was available, prosecutors and judges have ignored the law and imposed the death sentence. 7) Sudan Mary Serezina, 45, a Sudanese death-row inmate sentenced for the killing of a relative (Getty Images) Executions: 19+ Sudan has a proclivity for executing political activists, according to Amnesty. It also made news in 2012 when two women were sentenced to death by stoning after having been convicted of adultery. The convictions were eventually overturned and the women were released." Mugshots of Afghans executed in prison in 2012. (Getty Images) Executions: 14 Afghanistan executed one-third of the prisoners the United States did in 2012. Remarkable, in a way.

Like Iran and Iraq, Afghanistan has a serious torture problem. Non-murder executions in 2012 were for rape, kidnapping, and treason. Hamid Karzai’s government was in the news just last week, when a draft revision of Afghanistan’s penal code revealed that stoning would be the official punishment for adultery. After days of global outcry, the justice ministry announced that the sentence had been considered for the code but rejected. Protesters outside the Gambian embassy in Senegal on Aug. 30, 2012. (Seyllou/Getty Images) Executions: 9 Gambia renewed executions in 2012 for the first time in 27 years after its president, Yahya Jammeh, announced plans in August to execute every one of the country's 47 death-row prisoners by mid-September. Soon after, nine prisoners were executed by firing squad on the same day, in secret. Authorities didn't notify families. They didn't return the bodies. They didn't even reveal where the bodies were buried. The location remains unknown. Global condemnation was swift. President Jammeh reinstated the moratorium on capital punishment before executing any of the remaining death-row prisoners.

An execution room at the Tokyo detention house in Tokyo, 2010. (Jiji Press/Getty Images) Executions: 7 Like Gambia, Japan carried out death sentences in 2012 after a period of hiatus. Japan's break was just 20 months, but it was enough to stir hopes that the country was shifting away from capital punishment. That was until Japan hanged three men convicted of multiple murders. Since then, the country has executed 13 more people, and Amnesty is concerned about the escalation . So, curious where your country stands?

Countries with no death penalty Albania, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote D'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niue, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome And Principe, Senegal, Serbia (including Kosovo), Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Timor-Leste, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom

, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela.

Countries that are "abolitionist in practice" (no executions for 10 years or more) Algeria, Benin, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo (Republic of), Eritrea, Ghana, Grenada, Kenya, Laos, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nauru, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation74, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tonga, Tunisia, Zambia.

Countries with the death penalty Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Botswana, Chad, China, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad And Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States Of America, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe. While you are here... The work we do has never been more important — whether it’s because of “news” that might not be news at all or healing the deep divides in our country. Now more than ever, we need conversation, perspective and diverse voices. Will you support PRI in our efforts to create a more informed empathetic world? What Country Executes the Most People?

This Map Shows the Death Penalty Stats Around the World What Country Executes the Most People? This Map Shows the Death Penalty Stats Around the World Share on Twitter Amnesty International reports that at least 98 countries have abolished the death penalty, as of late 2013. The number has gone up significantly from 1977, when only 16 countries didn't allow it. In conjunction with Amnesty International, The Guardian published an interactive world map on its website. The map tallies the number of death sentences and the number of executions in the last seven years. Several notable and surprising numbers come up on the map. Credit: The Guardian The number of death sentences and executions in China varies wildly from year to year. For example, in 2007, China sentenced 1,860 people to death and executed 470. One year later, in 2008, it sentenced 7,003 people to death, executing 1,718. After 2008, the information is less reliable. China often conceals the number of executions it performs—specifically after 2008.

This could be due to numerous factors, not the least of which might be the need to cover up potential human rights violations. Al Jazeera America reports : “...death row inmates in China are subjected to unfair trials and convicted for non-lethal crimes like drug trafficking and economic offenses.” The Washington Post reports even the State-run outlet China Daily admitted fault: "It has not been rare for higher authorities to exert pressure on local public security departments and judiciary to crack serious murder cases...Nor has it been rare for the police to extort confessions through torture. And suspects have been sentenced without solid evidence except for extorted confessions.'' Iran, on the other hand, remains staggeringly consistent, handing out few sentences, but executing roughly the same amount of people every year. From 2007 to 2013, Iran averaged 335 executions per year, with a high of 388 in 2009, and an aberrant low of 252 in 2010. Amnesty International states that, with the exception of China, 80 percent of known executions take place in the Middle East. Most happen in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran—all nations known for strict laws.

The United States remains the only nation in the Americas to execute prisoners, executing 39 in 2013. However, several South American countries handed out death sentences in 2013, including Guyana, and the Bahamas. Excluding the outlier of China, Amnesty International's calculations show a loss of popularity for the death penalty worldwide. This downward trend seems poised to continue. Credit: Amnesty International Amnesty International, which supports ending the death penalty in all countries, totaled at least 778 executions for 2013. Death penalty statistics, country by country | visualisation and data | World news | theguardian.com Blog home Death penalty statistics, country by country After the execution of Kim Jong-un's uncle, the brutality of North Korea's regime has once again come under the international spotlight. In a broader context, is the attention warranted? Find out who uses the death penalty today - and see how it compares to 2007 • North Korea executes Kim Jong-un's uncle as traitor Amnesty International data on executions around the world.

Click image to enlarge Once a key figure in the North Korean regime, Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of supreme leader Kim Jong-un, has been executed according to an announcement from state media . The former protector of the country's elite joins 105 other individuals to have been executed between 2007 and 2012 according to Amnesty International figures. The decision comes in the same week that two men were hanged in Japan , sparking renewed controversy about the country's 'secret' executions. On Tuesday, a Bangladeshi supreme court postponed the execution of an opposition leader in order to review the case. Japan and Bangladesh are each estimated to have executed 33 and 28 individuals respectively in the five years to 2012. Despite more countries abolishing the death penalty, its practice remains commonplace. China , together with Iran , North Korea , Yemen and the US (the only G7 country to still execute people) carried out the most executions last year. Excluding China, the report says: At least 1,722 people were sentenced to death in 58 countries in 2012.

This is a decrease from 2011, when at least 1,923 people were known to have been sentenced in 63 countries worldwide, and a reduction for the second year running (2010: 2,024 death sentences in 67 countries). Meanwhile, Latvia abolished the death penalty, meaning that there are nearly five times as many countries not executing prisoners as those that do in 2012. Setting China aside, Amnesty said at least 680 executions were carried out last year - up by four on the previous year. Half of those took place in Iran (314). Iraq executed 129, Saudi Arabia 79 and the US 43. The minimum number of executions was down from at least 712 in 2009. The Middle East saw 557 executions in six countries - the vast majority of the list. In Tunisia, 125 people on death row had their sentence commuted to life by the transitional government. Methods of execution included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and various kinds of shooting (by firing squad, and at close range to the heart or the head).

Public executions were known to have been carried out in Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. In Saudi Arabia, executions are usually beheadings with a sword. In one case recorded by Amnesty, a Sudanese man's head was sewn back onto his body and hung from a pole in a public place. Which country executes the most people? Map reveals China and Iran put more people to death than anybody else | The Independent Which country executes the most people? Map reveals China and Iran put more people to death than anybody else China executes almost four times as many people each year than anybody else Monday 4 January 2016 16:45 BST Click to follow Indy Politics This chilling new map shows the number of executions carried out by countries around the world The number of executions carried out by countries around the world has been revealed in a chilling new map. While Saudi Arabia’s brutal mass beheading of 47 people continues to dominate headlines and outrage opponents of capital punishment around the world, it may come as something of a surprise to learn that the Sunni kingdom doesn’t even come close to topping the global execution chart.

With more than 1,000 state-organised executions in 2014 alone, China puts almost four times as many people to death each year than its nearest challenger Iran. While the shock of China’s extraordinary execution figures may be dampened somewhat when its population of 1.3 billion people is taken into account, Iran is only the 16th most populous country in the world – making the 289 plus executions there in 2014 totally disproportionate to its population. The charts have been created for the Independent by Statista Ironically Iran has also led global outrage of the recent Saudi executions – largely because the controversial Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr was among those killed. When it comes to its own executions, however, Iran has defiantly resisted requests to introduce more lenient punishments. Read more Three countries join Saudi Arabia in severing ties with Iran With more than 90 state executions in 2014, Saudi Arabia comes in at number three on the list, closely followed by Iraq, where at least 61 people were killed.

The figures only relate to officially recorded, state-organised executions, however, meaning there are no reliable figures for those “executed” by territory-holding militant groups such as Al Qaeda, Islamic State or Boko Haram, or for those executed amid the chaos of the Syrian and Libyan civil wars. In fifth position on the chart is the United States, where 35 people were sent to their deaths by the government in 2014. That news is made all the more remarkable when you realise the American government executes more people every year than Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan combined. Iran has led global outrage against the recent Saudi executions of 47 people, with the country's head of state Ayatollah Khamenei going as far as tweetting this comparison between Saudi Arabia and Isis. Iran actually executed more than twice as many people as Saudi Arabia in 2014. Sixth, seventh and eighth positions are held by Sudan, Yemen and Egypt respectively, while the only European nation to retain capital punishment is Belarus, where three people were put to death in 2014, according to the Amnesty International figures.

Where most executions were carried out in 2014 Where most executions were carried out in 2014 1/10 1. China (1000+) 3/10 3. Saudi Arabia (90+) Getty stumbleupon Email Comment Most progressive people today recognize capital punishment as an ugly tradition, and not one necessarily conducive to 21st century ideals. The countries that still kill their own citizens continue to hold the belief that it deters crime, despite the extensive evidence that suggests otherwise. Luckily, executions seem to be on the decline globally. At the end of last year 98 countries had officially outlawed the death penalty, up from 85 in 2004. But the frequency of executions within the practicing countries remains erratic, unpredictable and often unsettling. 2013 saw nearly 15% more executions around the world than in 2012, mostly driven by political destabilization in certain parts. That sounds some alarm bells: The concern is not just that capital punishment fails to solve any problems, but that the practice itself can —and often does, in these countries — create a new monster.

Corruption, unfair trials and high secrecy continue to surround the pretense of “lawful execution” as shoddy governments use it to erase political opponents, desecrate free speech and ultimately violate universal standards of human rights. And still today, Amnesty International identifies cases of death sentences issued for crimes committed by minors. Where’s the attempt at rehabilitation in such cases, or the correction? When you see which nations execute the most people you might not be able to help but feel that these essential questions get overlooked by ritual and regressive political thought. We assembled a list of the 9 countries that executed the most people in 2013 using data from Amnesty International. From the highly developed to the war torn, these 9 countries continue to carry the torch of this ugly tradition. Warning: Graphic descriptions follow. 9. Japan: 8 executions Via aljazeera.com Being a developed world power doesn’t make you immune from fostering utterly sketchy institutions. Last December the country saw its fourth round of a so-called “secret execution” program — a crime policy that reads like a cruel, unfunny joke.

Death row inmates, who typically spend years and sometimes decades waiting for their fateful moment, receive the news just hours before their hanging, while the state makes a point of keeping their lawyers and relatives uninformed until after the killing is carried out. The scariest part? The way Japan convicts such criminals in the first place. Closed interrogations without lawyers have been known to last days and authorities even resort to less euphemistic forms of torture to elicit a confession. Meanwhile executions retain 80% public support, so pressure from groups like Amnesty falls on the state’s deaf ears. 8. Yemen: 13+ executions Via theatlantic.com Yemen is one of four countries that still allow capital punishment for minors. Criminals as young as 15 may be put on death row without any attempt at rehabilitation by Yemeni courts wearing corruption and bias on their sleeves. Traditionalist attitudes allow judges to ignore official legislation and adopt personal standards, and even break the law to issue a biased kill verdict. To make matters more depressing, Yemeni culture retains staunchly traditional, extremist standards: Adultery, homosexuality and apostasy (renouncing your religion) can land you in front of the firing squad. 7.

Sudan: 21+ executions Via ranker.com Sharia law keeps capital punishment enshrined in Sudanese culture. The country’s Criminal Act outlines a barbaric scope of punishments including flogging, amputation, stoning and public crucifixion, and like Yemen, crimes like apostasy and adultery stand next to murder and armed robbery as punishable by blood. The UN has condemned the civil war-torn country for its leadership’s flagrant abuses of death penalty legislation: hundreds of rebels from southern Sudan are subjected to torture, forced confession and public execution by “special” courts that fail to meet even minimal justice standards. And while Amnesty could confirm 21 executions last year, a lack of disclosure and process means Sudan’s real number could well be far higher. 6. Somalia: 34+ executions Via 3.bp.blogspot.com A woman having extramarital sex in Somalia runs the risk of being dragged out of her home, buried up to her neck and stoned to death in a public spectacle. Much like Sudan and Yemen, Somalia’s execution culture borders on the medieval. The UN has called for the former Italian colony to remove the practice completely as it routinely issues verdicts within days and minimal judicial discretion.

Some areas of the country forego Western-style justice completely; instead, clan elders work to negotiate punishments through blood money. If families can work out a monetary solution, lives can be spared. But as is often the case, many families aren’t willing to compromise. 5. USA: 39 executions Some horrific images from Somalia that have made their way into the public forum show people half buried in the ground, tied to posts with their heads veiled and lying bloody and lifeless amid various rocks the size of softballs. Yet, contrastingly, an online search for information on America’s death penalty throws up endless maps, charts, graphs and statistics – with barely a gruesome image in sight. Besides reflecting a certain surgical nature to America’s capital punishment system, the wealth of study put into USA’s capital punishment institution suggests a country at stark odds with its own practices. On the decline, public death penalty support in America sits around 60% today. Yet, for the increasing masses of people who oppose it, charts, graphs and statistics often replace tangible steps to abolition. In coming years the push might come to shove, but for now here America sits, alongside countries that practice crucifixions and stone homosexuals to death. 4.

Saudi Arabia: 79+ executions Via deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com Three days ago Saudi Arabia beheaded four men for smuggling hashish. While you might ask on what planet anyone should be executed for a non-violent crime (one that Saudi princes themselves can apparently get away with), how about one where police have no concrete evidence against them? Saudi Arabia’s Sharia penal code considers confessions sufficient evidence for a death verdict; as you might have guessed, the victims in question claimed police tortured them and deprived them of sleep to get the confession in question. The most popular execution method by this US ally is beheading by sword, and crucifixion isn’t far behind. Three of the 79 known killings last year were juvenile offenders. 3. Iraq: 169+ executions Via gicj.org Iraqi “killing sprees” accounted for much of the global 15% rise in executions last year. 2013 saw the troubled country’s highest number of executions since the removal of Saddam Hussein eleven years ago, and according to Amnesty International, most killings surrounded vague charges related to anti-terrorism and suggested torture. Here, capital punishment has become a blatant tool of power and coercion.

While the Justice Ministry classifies the number of death sentences and the crimes for which they’ve been issued, families go uninformed of their loved ones’ state-sanctioned deaths, and corrupt officials barter with lives and money. 2. Iran: 369+ executions Via nationalpost.com In Iran the ugliness of capital punishment is stark: women are sentenced to death for attacking rapists in self defense, gay men for consenting sexual acts and writers for blasphemy. But to add a glimmer of hope to this list, while 2013 was a dark year for Iran’s executions, 2014 is shaping up to be a year of the pardon. One powerful moment came in April when news outlets circulated photographs of a mother sparing her teenager’s killer at the gallows seconds before his death (pictured above). In recent months these last-minute pardons have become more frequent. 1. China: Thousands of executions Via theatlantic.com Amnesty never includes an exact number for Chinese executions in its year totals because the state keeps the real number classified – but the country features at the top of the list by a long way. Is several thousand really that bad for a country of 1.3 billion?

If we take the Dui Hua Foundation’s estimate of 5,000 executions a year, that amounts to one in every 270,000 people; the US executed 1 in every 8.2 million. So yes, China kills a lot of its own people, and while the number is secret the reason why isn’t. For one, the courts often lack objectivity and due process. But this is secondary to the fact the red giant prizes economic progress and efficiency to such a level that financial crimes can call for the firing squad. White-collar criminals pay for corruption, embezzlement, bribery and substantial theft with their lives. 40 Shares Execution Is Up 15 Percent Globally, and These 5 Countries Do It Most | TakePart Execution Is Up 15 Percent Globally, and These 5 Countries Do It Most Chilling report finds that death sentences are being carried out more frequently. (Photo: Dennis K. Johnson/Getty Images) Mar 28, 2014· 2 MIN READ Solvej Schou writes regularly for TakePart, and has also contributed to the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, BBC.com, and Entertainment Weekly.

Bio In Saudi Arabia, five convicted men last May were publicly beheaded in the city of Jizan, their dangling, decapitated bodies strapped to a horizontal pole. In Iran, during just one weekend last October, authorities executed 20 people. The United States is the only country in the Americas to carry out legal executions ; last year it executed more people than Somalia or Sudan. Capital punishment around the world, from the Middle East and Asia to the U.S., remains an all-too-common reality, jumping a startling 15 percent in 2013, with the U.S. ranked fifth among those countries that put the most people to death, according to a new Amnesty International report released this week. Contributing to the rise was the restarting of executions in Indonesia, Kuwait, Nigeria, and Vietnam. Related Here's Why America Is Executing Fewer Death Row Inmates Even more alarming: Last year’s number of reported global executions—778 people in 22 countries—doesn’t include unconfirmed executions that took place in politically tumultuous Egypt or Syria, or thousands of executions in China, where the death penalty is a state secret, according to the report.

Data was culled from available sources, including official government figures, media reports, and civil society organizations. Here are the top five countries that Amnesty International ranked as legally executing the most people in 2013: China While Amnesty International says it has stopped publishing estimates on China’s use of the death penalty since 2009 owing to concealment of that data, the report still ranks the country as the world's top executioner. Despite exact numbers, China has carried out the death penalty more frequently than the rest of the world combined based on available information, the report said. Carried out by lethal injection and shooting, the ultimate penalty was also imposed without fair trials for less serious crimes such as drug-related and economic-based offenses, according to the report. Iran Excluding China, Amnesty states that almost 80 percent of all known executions worldwide were recorded in just three countries: Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. There were more than 369 officially acknowledged executions in Iran last year, an 18 percent increase from 2012—but hundreds more were not officially recognized, according to the report.

Even after last June’s election of a new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, who promised more political openness, death penalty procedures didn’t change, according to the report. People in Iran were executed for crimes such as murder, drug trafficking, espionage, rape, and “waging war against God,” a vague area of Islamic sharia law that can include anything from heresy to protests by ethnic minorities. Iraq For the third year in a row, according to Amnesty, there’s been a swift rise in executions in Iraq. At least 169 known people were executed last year, a more than 30 percent increase from 2012. Most convictions leading to capital punishment fell under a 2005 antiterrorism law, which covers committing or supporting others in committing terrorism, the report states. Sectarian violence has surged in the Middle Eastern country over the past year. Saudi Arabia More than 79 executions were recorded in Saudi Arabia for crimes ranging from murder to nonlethal drug offenses, armed robbery, and adultery. Judicial executions have been especially brutal in this country, carried out by beheading or firing squad, and many times in public.

Amnesty also noted that foreign nationals, especially migrant Asian and African workers, have been targeted. According to Amnesty’s data, of at least 2,017 people executed between 1985 and 2013, at least half of them, 991, were foreign nationals with little to no knowledge of Arabic, the language used during trial hearings. United States While Amnesty reports that the number of executions in the U.S. fell 10 percent, from 43 executions in 2012 to 39 last year, the death penalty remains a hotly debated issue. Of the executions carried out in nine states—using electrocution and lethal injection —82 percent of them were Southern states, and Texas alone accounted for 41 percent of all American court-ordered deaths. Still, the use of capital punishment in the U.S. has decreased over the past decade, with 80 death sentences imposed in 2013 compared with 138 in 2004.

“It is not a matter of whether, but rather, when the death penalty will end in the United States,” said Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty . About Us TakePart is the digital news and lifestyle magazine from Participant Media , the company behind such acclaimed documentaries as CITIZENFOUR, An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. and feature films including Lincoln and Spotlight. Death Sentence | RealClearWorld Posted on 04.16.13 6:26 PM CDT Death Sentence An estimated 682 people in 21 countries were executed in 2012, according to Amnesty International's latest Death Sentences and Executions report. That figure excludes China, which, the NGO noted, "accounts for more executions than the rest of the world combined," but on which there is little hard data. Of this official figure, just three countries were responsible for three-quarters of the deaths: Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. While many serious crimes merited the ultimate punishment, many states deployed the death penalty at political opponents and for crimes such as apostasy and sorcery.

However, the global trend line is toward the abolition of the death penalty as punishment for even the most serious of crimes, according to Amnesty. As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated last year, "the balance has shifted between a substantial majority of states that maintained the death penalty to these states becoming a minority." These abolitionist states, Ban noted, "represent different legal systems, traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds." These are the states that executed the most people in 2012. (AP Photo) Comment Global executions report by Amnesty International shows big increase but where does US rank - CBS News CBS News CBS/AP April 6, 2016, 11:23 AM Which countries executed the most people in 2015? The death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, seen in a November 2005 file photo. death penalty, capital punishment, execution, death row, prison, jail, justice, AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato Amnesty International reports that there was a dramatic 54 percent increase inexecutions globally in 2015.

The human rights organization said at least 1,634 people were executed last year -- up from 1,061 in 2014. It was the highest number of executions documented by the group in any year since 1989. There is one country that stands well apart from the rest, and the next three on the list account for almost 90 percent of the documented total. So which countries ended the most lives in the name of justice last year? Click the next button below to see the figures. China The mother (C) of Nie Shubin, executed by firing squad in 1995 at the age of 20 for rape and murder, leaves the court of Jinan on December 22, 2014. Nie was executed 20 years ago for a murder to which another person later confessed. FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images The figures reported by Amnesty International do not include executions in China , where data on the death penalty is considered a state secret. A series of photos from 2003 of female prisoners on death row in China has begun making the rounds on the internet.

Amnesty International's Secretary General Salil Shetty told several reporters on Tuesday that for China "our estimate is that they execute as much as the rest of the world." He said China is currently reviewing crimes punishable by the death penalty so there is "a slim ray of hope" that the number of executions may be reduced. In 2013, China executed four foreigners, following a live nationwide broadcast showing them being led to their deaths. In 2011, a U.S. human rights group said that China executes about 4,000 people a year, the most in the world but half the number it did before ordering Supreme Court reviews of all death penalty cases in 2007. Iran Blindfolded Mahmoud Asgari, 16, left, and another unidentified teenager are set to be publicly hanged, in Mashhad, Iran, on charges of raping boys, July 19, 2005. Advocacy groups say homosexuality is often punished by execution in Iran. AP Photo Executions in Iran rose 31 percent to 977, according to Amnesty International.

Amnesty said it received information that both Iran and Pakistan executed people in 2015 who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed. Earlier this year, the London-based group found that Iran has executed at least 73 juvenile offenders between 2005 and 2015, including at least four last year. Most executions overall in Iran are carried out for drug smuggling. The country straddles a major narcotics trafficking route linking opium-producing fields in Afghanistan to Europe. Pakistan Supporters of Pakistan's Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) shout slogans during a protest against the execution of convicted murderer Mumtaz Qadri in Karachi on March 1, 2016. Pakistan hanged Qadri who had killed a provincial governor for seeking reform of the blasphemy law, angering Islamist supporters who had feted him as a hero and threatened violence if he was executed. Getty The 326 executions in Pakistan were the highest ever recorded by Amnesty International. Amnesty said it received information that Pakistan, as well as Iran, executed people in 2015 who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed.

Pakistan's government lifted a six-year ban on the execution of civilians in December 2014, after Taliban militants raided a military-run school in Peshawar , killing 148 people, most of them children. In September, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that authorities had hanged 236 people since lifting the 2008 moratorium on executions. Saudi Arabia An execution in Saudi Arabia, in a photo released by Amnesty International. The death penalty is mainly carried out by beheading in the kingdom. Amnesty International According to the report, the number of executions recorded in Saudi Arabia increased by 76 percent to 158. Saudi Arabia executed 47 people in the country's largest mass execution since 1980. News of a prominent cleric's inclusion in the group sparked a... Amnesty has said that beheadings in Saudi Arabia reached their highest level in two decades last year, and there was a parallel rise in executions for non-lethal offenses that judges have wide discretion to rule on, particularly drug-related crimes.

Saudi Arabia's execution last year of a cleric from the country's Shiite Muslim minority, along with more than 50 other convicts, touched off a diplomatic crisis with Iran and other Shiite-dominated regimes in the Middle East. The combined executions in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran represent almost 90 percent of the total documented last year of 1,634. United States In this June 18, 2010, file photo, the firing squad execution chamber at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, is shown. AP In the United States , 28 people were executed in 2015, nearly half in Texas, the most active death penalty state, which put 13 people to death, the report said. 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker and producer Bill Whitaker explain why they wanted to interview men on death row – and what they learned. Missouri executed six people, Georgia five, Florida two and Oklahoma and Virginia one each. Amnesty said 60 percent of those executed were black or Hispanic, double their percentage in the population.

Amnesty also pointed out the governor of Pennsylvania establishing a moratorium on executions last year and the legislature in Nebraska overriding the governor's veto of a bill abolishing the death penalty. The rights group said the U.S. was the only country to carry out executions in the entire Americas region for the seventh year in a row. "Overall trend" Joe Kebartas of South Boston protests the death penalty outside of the entrance to the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse during the first day of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial on March 4, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts. Getty Amnesty International's Secretary General Salil Shetty said four countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2015 -- Republic of Congo, Fiji, Madagascar and Surinam -- bringing the global total of countries now banning executions to 102. Other countries have also made progress: Mongolia is set to abolish the death penalty this year, China and Vietnam reduced the number of offenses that can be punished by death, and Malaysia announced legislative reforms to review the country's mandatory death penalty laws, Amnesty said. In addition, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Kenya and South Korea considered legislation to abolish the death penalty, it said.

When Amnesty International began campaigning against the death penalty in 1977, only 16 countries had fully abolished the death penalty. "The overall trend is very clear," Shetty said, "more than half the world's nations have abolished the death penalty."

Question: Which country executes the most people?
Answer: China