INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT, 1 EASTON STREET, LONDON WC1X 8DJ, UNITED KINGDOM

Public

amnesty international

Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty

APRIL 2001 AI INDEX: ACT 50/002/2001 DISTR: SC/DP

The following document is regularly updated on the Amnesty International website, www.amnesty.org

1. Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries

Over half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

Amnesty International's latest information shows that:

1. 75 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes

2. 13 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes such as wartime crimes

3. 20 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice: they retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years or more making a total of 108 countries which have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

4. 87 other countries retain and use the death penalty, but the number of countries which actually execute prisoners in any one year is much smaller.

2. Progress Towards Worldwide Abolition

More than three countries a year on average have abolished the death penalty for all crimes in the past decade.

Over 30countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes since 1990. They include countries in Africa(examples include Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa), the Americas(Canada, Paraguay), Asia(Hong Kong, Nepal) and Europe(Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, Turkmenistan, Ukraine).

3. Moves to Reintroduce the Death Penalty

Once abolished, the death penalty is seldom reintroduced. Since 1985, over 40countries have abolished the death penalty in law or, having previously abolished it for ordinary crimes, have gone on to abolish it for all crimes. During the same period only fourabolitionist countries reintroduced the death penalty. One of them - Nepal - has since abolished the death penalty again; one, the Philippines, has resumed executions, but there have been no executions in the other two (Gambia, Papua New Guinea).

4. Death Sentences and Executions

During 2000, at least 1,457prisoners were executed in 28countries and 3,058people were sentenced to death in 65countries. These figures include only cases known to Amnesty International; the true figures are certainly higher.

In 2000, 88 per centof all known executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA. In China, the limited and incomplete records available to Amnesty International at the end of the year indicated that at least 1,000people were executed, but the true figure was believed to be much higher. In Saudi Arabia, 123executions were reported, but the total may have been much higher. Eighty-five people were executed in the USA. At least 75 executions were carried out in Iran. In addition, hundreds of executions were reported in Iraq but many of them may have been extrajudicial.

5. Use of the Death Penalty Against Child Offenders

International human rights treaties prohibit anyone under 18 years old at the time of the crime being sentenced to death. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child all have provisions to this effect. More than 110 countries whose laws still provide for the death penalty for at least some offences have laws specifically excluding the execution of child offenders or may be presumed to exclude such executions by being parties to one or another of the above treaties. A small number of countries, however, continue to execute child offenders.

Seven countries since 1990 are known to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of the crime - Congo (Democratic Republic), Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen. The country which carried out the greatest number of known executions of child offenders was the USA (14since 1990).

6. The Deterrence Argument

Scientific studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments. The most recent survey of research findings on the relation between the death penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and updated in 1996, concluded: "Research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment and such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole still gives no positive support to the deterrent hypothesis..."

(Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-wide Perspective, Oxford, Clarendon Press, revised edition, 1996, p. 238, paragraph 328)

7. Effect of Abolition on Crime Rates

Reviewing the evidence on the relation between changes in the use of the death penalty and crime rates, a study conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and updated in 1996 stated that "the fact that all the evidence continues to point in the same direction is persuasive a priorievidence that countries need not fear sudden and serious changes in the curve of crime if they reduce their reliance upon the death penalty".

Recent crime figures from abolitionist countries fail to show that abolition has harmful effects. In Canada, the homicide rate per 100,000 population fell from a peak of 3.09in 1975, the year before the abolition of the death penalty for murder, to 2.41in 1980, and since then it has declined further. In 1999, 23 years after abolition, the homicide rate was 1.76per 100,000 population, 43per cent lower than in 1975. The total number of homicides reported in the country fell in 1999 for the third straight year.

(Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-wide Perspective, Oxford, Clarendon Press, revised edition, 1996, p. 187, paragraph 253)

8. International Agreements to Abolish the Death Penalty

One of the most important developments in recent years has been the adoption of international treaties whereby states commit themselves to not having the death penalty. Three such treaties now exist:

5. The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has now been ratified by 43 states. Six other states have signed the Protocol, indicating their intention to become parties to it at a later date.

6. Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (''European Convention on Human Rights''), which has now been ratified by 39 European states and signed by three others.

7. The Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, which has been ratified by eight states in the Americas.

Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights is an agreement to abolish the death penalty in peacetime. The other two protocols provide for the total abolitionof the death penalty but allow states wishing to do so to retain the death penalty in wartime as an exception.

mult1 9. Execution of the Innocent

As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.

Since 1973 more than 90US prisoners have been released from death row after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death. Some had come close to execution after spending many years under sentence of death. Recurring features in their cases include prosecutorial or police misconduct; the use of unreliable witness testimony, physical evidence, or confessions; and inadequate defence representation. Other US prisoners have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts over their guilt.

The Governor of the US state of Illinois, George Ryan, declared a moratorium on executions in January 2000. His decision followed the exoneration of the 13thdeath row prisoner found to have been wrongfully convicted in the state since the USA reinstated the death penalty in 1977. During the same period, 12other Illinois prisoners had been executed.

Announcing the moratorium, Governor Ryan said: ''I cannot support a system which, in its administration, has proven so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state's taking of innocent life... Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate.''

10. The Death Penalty in the USA

8. 85 prisoners were executed in the USA in 2000, bringing to 683 the total number executed since the use of the death penalty was resumed in 1977.

9. Over 3,700 prisoners were under sentence of death as of 1 January 2001.

10. 38 of the 50 US states provide for the death penalty in law. The death penalty is also provided under US federal military and civilian law.

KEYWORDS: DEATH PENALTY1 / DEATH SENTENCE / EXECUTION / TRIALS / JUVENILES / USA