Capital punishment, also referred to as capital punishment, is considered to be the ultimate type of punishment anyone can receive for a crime. It is usually reserved for the most extreme crime cases, such as felonies, first-degree murder, drug trafficking, and occasionally non-violent drug-related and economic crimes. The death penalty was also occasionally used to punish individuals for offenses such as adultery, apostasy, and blasphemy. However, these are actions that Amnesty International should not in any way criminalize.
Capital punishment, which has been historical practices in almost all parts of the world, is in decline, and a growing number of countries have abolished it in recent decades, after strong support for Amnesty International’s complete abolition. However, there are still some countries where the death sentence persists, despite pleas from international humanitarian organizations. Some countries, despite not having implemented it in the last 10 years, have still not completely phased it out.
In 2012, 21 countries used the death penalty and 5 of them were African countries including Sudan, Gambia, Somalia, South Sudan and Botswana. Methods of execution included decapitation, execution, firing squad, and the use of lethal injections. Based on the latest research by Amnesty International, here is the list of ten countries with the death penalty, including two African countries:
10. Japan
Japan is one of the countries with the death penalty where it is absolutely a legalized form of punishment. Federal crimes such as murder and treason are the only crimes for which the death penalty is statutorily prescribed, and are usually imposed in multiple murders involving aggravating factors. At a time when the world is moving towards abolition of the death penalty, two gangsters were hanged in Japan on April 26, 2013. Katsuji Hamasaki, 64, and Yoshihide Miyagi, 56, were executed after being convicted of killing rival gang members. More executions are expected under new Prime Minister Abe, who is a strong supporter of the death penalty, and with more than 130 people on death row in Japan, the death toll is expected to increase.
In Japan, persons on death row are not housed in prisons and are not classified as prisoners by the country’s judicial system. The level of rights afforded to such people is insignificant compared to other Japanese prisoners. Only 2 training periods per week and none are allowed in their cells. They don’t have access to digital entertainment such as televisions and may only own three books. It is noteworthy that between 1946 and 1993 Japanese courts sentenced 766 people to death, of whom 608 were executed.
9. Gambia
The Gambia recently made the news when 9 death row prisoners were executed in late 2012, with more than 35 other inmates convicted and sentenced to the death penalty. However, the numbers have fallen compared to 2009 and 2010 figures, when 13 prisoners were executed in each of those years. Following harsh criticism of the execution, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh approved a conditional moratorium on the execution of death row inmates, largely dependent on changes in the country’s crime rate, with the death penalty to be imposed if the crime rating does not drop.
8. Afghanistan
Afghanistan is the country with the highest death penalty deaths, where the death penalty is still legal and supported. Although the frequency of such punishments has been declining, and the Afghan government has only implemented punishment every few years since the 2001 toppling of the Taliban (who were known to routinely execute people in public) in 2001, 14 inmates in Kabul’s penitentiary prevailed . Charkhi prison was recently hung on Tuesday (20/11/2012) and Wednesday (21/11/2012) for various crimes including murder, kidnapping, rape and terrorism.
Due to the wide support of this law in Afghanistan, other inmates are likely to suffer the same fate in the near future. In Afghanistan, before the death penalty can be carried out, the president must personally sign the death penalty order. There are certain types of offenses that carry such a death penalty under Islamic law, including murder, apostasy, homosexuality, rape, terrorism, drug trafficking and adultery. According to military law, it can be used in cases of treason and desertion by either of the two methods permitted by Afghan law – death by hanging or by firing squad.
7. Sudan
In 2011, Sudan was the leading executioner of the death penalty in Africa. Recently, however, efforts have been made to abolish the law. At least 13 people were executed in 2010 and 10 others were sentenced to death. The following year (2011) at least 7 people were executed and 13 others were sentenced to death. At least one person was sentenced to death in 2012. It is estimated that nearly 300 people had been sentenced to death as of July 2012, and most of them were charged in 2006.
6. Yemen
Yemen has one of the highest execution rates in the world. The country still allows public executions and is one of four on earth that still allows the death penalty for minors. In one of the most recent cases, Mohammed was murdered on Saturday, March 9, 2013 after shooting dead an intruder at his home in the central Yemeni city of Tiaz in 1999. The man later died of his wounds. Various judges, including the one who made the initial decision, determined that the killing was in self-defense and that Muhammad was a minor at the time of the crime.
Capital punishment in the southern Arabian country is widely used for a variety of offenses such as rape, murder, terrorism and in some cases under Sharia law for Islamic offenses such as prostitution, adultery, sexual misconduct and apostasy. The list of offenses can also include kidnapping, drug trafficking, robbery, homosexuality and treason. The death penalty in Yemen is usually carried out by shooting. However, there is still legal sanction for stoning, which is a viable option for adultery charges, although it has not been used for centuries.
5. United States of America
USA is one of the leading countries in support of the death penalty. In 2012, 43 prisoners were executed, 3,146 were on death row in the US. The death penalty has been in use in the US since 1608, when the first death sentence in the then British North American colonies of the United States was executed on a victim named Captain George Kendall, who was facing a firing squad for allegedly spying for the Spanish government.
Changes have been made throughout history, and today it is limited under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and is used only for aggravated murders of mentally sound adults. It is currently a legal punishment in 32 states of America. Various methods are used, varying widely by jurisdiction, including the most commonly used lethal injection.
4. Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is the 4th highest executioner ofThe death penalty based largely on Sharia law and usually imposed by public beheading makes the country one of the last 5 inmates to be publicly executed Deera Square also known as “Justice Square” or “Chop Square” known in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where public executions (usually by beheading) take place. In some cases, another crucifixion of the already decapitated body is ordered in public. This was typically seen in 2009 when the Saudi Gazettereported that “an Abha court sentenced the leader of an armed gang to death with a three-day crucifixion (public display of the decapitated body) and at the same time six other gang members were beheaded for their role in jeweler robberies in Asir sentenced.
Aside from the country’s capital base of punishment, Saudi Arabia also supports “an eye for an eye” or “qisas” or retaliation, meaning the victim can demand that the offender suffer the same punishment they caused. For example, 24-year-old Ali al-Khawahir was sentenced to paralysis for a crime he committed when he was 14. After ten years in prison, he was found guilty by the Saudi court of stabbing to death a childhood friend who was paralyzed from the waist down after the attack.
3. Iraq
Iraq hadn’t seen the level of executions since after the days of Saddam Hussein and it managed to pass that legacy on to the government that succeeded him. The US interim administration suspended the death penalty on June 10, 2003, after Saddam Hussein left office. However, on August 8, 2004, the death penalty was reintroduced, which, under the country’s laws, requires the execution of a convicted person within 30 days after all legal avenues have been exhausted. In March 2013, 33 people were executed and the government still plans to kill another 150 people. A UN statement on the situation said: “To have executed people in such numbers is obscene. It’s like processing animals in a slaughterhouse. “
2. Iran
Iran carried out the second largest number of executions on capital punishment in 2012. In addition to 314 official executions in the Islamic Republic of Iran, there were reports of as many as 230 additional executions being carried out clandestinely. Crimes punishable by death in Iran include murder, child abuse, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, bestiality, drug trafficking, terrorism and treason. “Enmity against God,” a vague charge, was also used in the Iranian state for political attacks against government opponents and minorities.
1. China
China is the number 1 country with the death sentence. According to Amnesty International, there were at least 682 confirmed executions worldwide in 2012 and it is suspected that China carried out far more executions than was reported, with numbers reaching into the several thousand people, and that the actual number of executions officially recorded executions far exceeded exceed. Government secrecy makes it impossible to confirm the exact numbers. In 2009, the Dui Hua Foundation estimated that 5,000 people were executed in China – far more than all other nations combined. The exact number of executions is considered a state secret.
Research has shown that abolition of the death penalty is no more effective method of discouraging people from committing crime than other forms of punishment worldwide.