The Death Penalty

As of 2009, fewer than 60 countries (less than a third of the total) actively retain the death penalty.

At least 8,864 people (and probably considerably more) were sentenced to death during 2008, and at the end of the year as many as 30,000 were on death row around the world - with the largest death row populations being in Pakistan (approximately 7500) and the USA (over 3000).

China carries out by far the greatest number of actual executions. While Amnesty International has confirmed at least 1718 executions there during 2008 the true figure is certain to be much higher. Estimates suggest the annual figure may have been as high as 7,500 in recent years - although this may have dropped back since the Supreme People's Court (SPC) replaced local courts in the appeals process.

Outside China, at least 670 people were put to death in 24 countries during 2008, down slightly from 2007 - with Iran (346+), Saudi Arabia (102+), Pakistan (36+), Iraq (34+) and the USA (37) the main contributors.

While murder is the most common crime to attract the death penalty - a wide range of other offences can also lead to execution.

However, more than 90 countries have outlawed the death penalty altogether, and more than two thirds of the world have abolished it either in law or in practice.

And at the end of 2008, the United Nations General Assembly passed the second resolution in 12 months calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards total abolition. While the resolution is non-binding, it was passed by an even larger majority than in 2007 (106 votes for and 46 against) and adds further momentum to the abolitionist movement.

More facts...

This month's fact-focus is the United Arab Emirates (UAE).



The UAE executed one person last year and adultery, apostasy and drug trafficking are among numerous capital offences there.

Most supporters of the death penalty believe that it is justified one or more of the following grounds: (i) as a means of retribution; (ii) as a deterrent to others; (iii) to prevent any danger of re-offending; (iv) because it's cheaper than keeping people in prison.

Opponents object to the death penalty on one or more of the following grounds: (i) killing someone is always wrong, and two wrongs can never make a right; (ii) there is no evidence of a deterrent effect (indeed the available evidence seems to show there is no such effect*); (iii) life without parole is just as effective a way to prevent someone reoffending as executing them; (iv) saving money can never be a justification for taking someoene's life; and (v) mistakes are bound to happen, and that means people being put to death for a crime they didn't commit.

More on the arguments for & against...
Join the debate on Squidoo...

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* In the US over recent decades, for example, the murder rate has tended to be higher in periods of fewer executions, and lower in years when more executions have been carried out. But the murder rate in executing states tends to be higher than in non-executing states - while the homicide rate in Canada has closely tracked that of the US in recent years even though it abolished the death penalty altogether in the 1970's.

Evidence in favour of deterrence...
Evidence against a deterrent effect...

"God alone can take life because He alone gives it..." "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
Mahatma Gandhi - "Father of India", political and spiritual leader


"What you do to these men [on California's Death Row], you do to God."
Mother Teresa of Calcutta - Roman Catholic nun & Nobel Peace Laureate


"The state must not claim the right to take human life away, which belongs only to the Almighty."
Vladimir Putin - Russian leader and noted liberal (not!)


"I am completely against any form of violence...And in the case of the death penalty we are actually faced with killing that is decided and carried out by a country's justice system. I think this quite immoral and wrong."
Tenzin Gyatso - Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist leader)


"[the death penalty] is both cruel and unnecessary", "...the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil."
Pope John Paul II - former leader of the Catholic Church

Both of these diarists proclaim their innocence of the crimes for which they have been convicted. Whatever the truth of the matter, their diaries give a real insight into life on death row.

Death Row Diary [William Van Poyck]


Dead Man Talkin' [Dean Carter]

Capital punishment is deadly serious - this online hangman game, Hang Monkey, is not!

Use your skill to save a life. Win, and the frog goes free. Lose, and he croaks!

Play the game...

Death Watch International is a not-for-profit group dedicated to helping to promote the campaign against the death penalty worldwide.

Death Watch International