Death penalties by country
In 92 countries, there is a death penalty imposed by law. Of these, 8 countries apply the death penalty only to particularly serious crimes such as, war crimes. It has also been discontinued in 28 countries for at least 10 years - although there can still be penalties with pending executions.In 2020 alone, 2400 people were sentenced to death and at least 1475 were actually executed. In addition, there is a larger number of unreported cases from individual countries, which cannot be estimated due to government restrictions.
Death penalties by country in 2020
no death penalty
only on serious crimes
death penatly abolished in practice
death penalty imposed and enforced
only on serious crimes
death penatly abolished in practice
death penalty imposed and enforced
The following table contains the countries where a death penalty was legally possible in 2020. All data are provided by Amnesty International, where only registered and evaluated cases have been listed.
| Country | Status | Executions | Death sentences |
|---|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | active | 0 | 4 |
| Algeria | abolished in practice | 0 | 1 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | active | 0 | 0 |
| Bahamas | active | 0 | 0 |
| Bahrain | active | 0 | 3 |
| Bangladesh | active | 2 | 113 |
| Barbados | active | 0 | 0 |
| Belarus | active | 0 | 3 |
| Belize | active | 0 | 0 |
| Botswana | active | 3 | 1 |
| Brazil | only for serious crimes | 0 | 0 |
| Brunei | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Burkina Faso | only for serious crimes | 0 | 0 |
| Burma | abolished in practice | 0 | 1 |
| Cameroon | abolished in practice | 0 | 1 |
| Central African Republic | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Chile | only for serious crimes | 0 | 0 |
| China* | active | 1,000+ | 1,000+ |
| Comoros | active | 0 | 1 |
| Cuba | active | 0 | 0 |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | active | 0 | 20 |
| Dominica (2016) | active | 0 | 0 |
| Egypt | active | 107 | 264 |
| El Salvador | only for serious crimes | 0 | 0 |
| Equatorial Guinea | active | 0 | 0 |
| Eritrea | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Eswatini | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Ethiopia | active | 0 | 0 |
| Gambia | active | 0 | 1 |
| Ghana | abolished in practice | 0 | 3 |
| Grenada | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Guatemala | only for serious crimes | 0 | 0 |
| Guyana | active | 0 | 0 |
| India | active | 4 | 77 |
| Indonesia | active | 0 | 117 |
| Iran | active | 246 | unknown |
| Iraq | active | 45 | 27 |
| Israel | only for serious crimes | 0 | 0 |
| Jamaica | active | 0 | 0 |
| Japan | active | 0 | 3 |
| Jordan | active | 0 | 2 |
| Kazakhstan | only for serious crimes | 0 | 0 |
| Kenya | abolished in practice | 0 | |
| Kuwait | active | 0 | 2 |
| Laos | abolished in practice | 0 | 9 |
| Lebanon | active | 0 | 1 |
| Lesotho | active | 0 | 0 |
| Liberia | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Libya | active | 0 | 17 |
| Malawi | abolished in practice | 0 | 2 |
| Malaysia | active | 0 | 22 |
| Maldives | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Mali | abolished in practice | 0 | 30 |
| Mauritania | abolished in practice | 0 | 1 |
| Morocco | abolished in practice | 0 | 1 |
| Niger | abolished in practice | 0 | 3 |
| Nigeria | active | 0 | 58 |
| North Korea | active | unknown | unknown |
| Oman | active | 4 | 0 |
| Pakistan | active | 0 | 49 |
| Palestine | active | 0 | 17 |
| Papua New Guinea | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Peru | only for serious crimes | 0 | 0 |
| Puerto Rico | active | 0 | 0 |
| Qatar | active | 1 | 4 |
| Russia | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | active | 0 | 0 |
| Saint Lucia | active | 0 | 0 |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | active | 0 | 0 |
| Saudi Arabia | active | 27 | 8 |
| Sierra Leone | abolished in practice | 0 | 39 |
| Singapore | active | 0 | 8 |
| Somalia | active | 11 | unknown |
| South Korea | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| South Sudan | active | 2 | 6 |
| Sri Lanka | abolished in practice | 0 | 16 |
| Sudan | active | 0 | 10 |
| Syria | active | unknown | unknown |
| Taiwan | active | 1 | 5 |
| Tajikistan | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Tanzania | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Thailand | active | 0 | 35 |
| Tonga | abolished in practice | 0 | 0 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | active | 0 | 2 |
| Tunisia | abolished in practice | 0 | 8 |
| Uganda | active | 0 | 0 |
| United Arab Emirates | active | 0 | 4 |
| United States | active | 17 | 18 |
| Vietnam | active | unknown | 54 |
| Yemen | active | 5 | 269 |
| Zambia | abolished in practice | 0 | 119 |
| Zimbabwe | active | 0 | 6 |
* Note on China
The data for China correspond to those of Anmesty International, but at the same time it is pointed out that these are only of a symbolic nature. Due to the secrecy of the actual case figures, it is not possible to give correct values. Amnesty International and other human rights organisations speak of several thousand executions per year.
Death penalty in the United States
The legal situation varies among the individual states. The death penalty has been formally abolished in 22 of the 50 states, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In other states, it is still imposed but no longer carried out. Independent of state legislatures, federal courts can still impose a death sentence in cases of federal crimes.Through the media, the electric chair is probably the best-known method of execution in the US. In fact, it has been used only 163 times since 1979. With over 1300 cases, injection of a poison is considerably more common. The state with significantly the most executions in the past 40 years is Texas. It is followed by Virginia, Oklahoma and Florida.
Types of executions
Executions always depend on the laws of the country in question. The most common species since the turn of the millennium:- Electric chair (mainly in the USA)
- Decapitation (mainly in Saudi Arabia)
- Hanging (mainly Muslim countries, as well as Japan and Singapore)
- Shooting (USA, China, North Korea, Somalia, Vietnam, etc.)
- Stoning to death (due to the Islamic Sharia in Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia)
- Lethal injection or gas chamber (China, USA, Thailand, etc.)