Although in 2022, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty announced that since 2007, at least 8,000 people were executed in China per year. The Chinese government has taken effective measures in order to limit use of the death penalty, proclaiming that it is doing this with the aim of completely abolishing it.
Article 48 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (PRC) provides that “the death penalty is only to be applied to criminal elements who commit the most heinous crimes”. It also provides that if immediate execution is not necessary, a two-year suspension on the death penalty may be announced.
Based on our experience as lawyers in China and interviews with lawyers, judges and prosecutors, we roughly estimate that in the more than 20 years up to 2007, at least 12,000 people were executed every year. At least 8,000 people have been executed every year since 2007.
Countries still using the death penalty include China, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan and the United States of America where thirty of the fifty states still exercise capital punishment. So far in 2022 the United States have executed three people by lethal injection.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation carried out the death penalty intermittently, with up to 10 or so officially a year. In 1996, pending Russia's entry into the Council of Europe, a moratorium was placed on the death penalty, which is still in place as of 2021.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty for murder in Japan, and is applied in cases of multiple murder or aggravated single murder. Executions in Japan are carried out by hanging, and the country has seven execution chambers, all located in major cities.
China is the world's most active death penalty country; according to Amnesty International, China executes more people than the rest of the world combined each year. However, not all of China is retentionist, as Hong Kong and Macau have abolished it for all crimes before their handover to China.
If someone steals in China, he/she may be sentenced to public surveillance as the least serious penalty or life imprisonment as the most serious penalty, depending on the seriousness of the crime he/she commits.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Saudi Arabia. Death sentences are almost exclusively based on the system of judicial sentencing discretion (tazir), following the classical principle of avoiding Sharia-prescribed (hudud) penalties when possible.
Article 33 The principal punishments are as follows: (1) public surveillance; (2) criminal detention; (3) fixed-term imprisonment; (4) life imprisonment; and (5) the death penalty. Article 34 The supplementary punishments are as follows: (1) fine; (2) deprivation of political rights; and (3) confiscation of property.
North Korea has held at least 27 public executions during the 10-year reign of Kim Jong Un, a report published by a South Korean human rights organization said Wednesday.
There have been no executions in the country since December 1997. On August 27, 2015, the Supreme Court sentenced a man called 'Jang Jaejin' to death for multiple murder and rape.
With the exception of individuals with hunting permits and some ethnic minorities, civilian firearm ownership is restricted to non-individual entities. Law enforcement, military, paramilitary, and security personnel are allowed to use firearms. Police are to use issued pistols only to stop serious or dangerous crimes.
Life imprisonment in China is legal for a variety of crimes. It is an indeterminate punishment, is the second most serious punishment in China, and may last for the remainder of the convict's life. Those sentenced to life imprisonment are eligible for parole after serving 13 years of the original sentence.
In the mid-1980s rural parents were allowed to have a second child if the first was a daughter. It also allowed exceptions for some other groups, including ethnic minorities. In 2015, the government removed all remaining one-child limits, establishing a two-child limit.
All prisoners including criminals, political prisoners, and prisoners of conscience are subjected to torture and other forms of violence. The prisoners are subjected to forced labor, often under harsh and violent conditions.
Iran's Islamic penal code says theft "on the first occasion" is punishable by the amputation of four fingers of the right hand. Iranian authorities have defended amputation as the best way to deter theft despite protests by international human rights organisations. However, reports of such punishments are rare.
Capital punishment in Germany has been abolished for all crimes, and is now explicitly prohibited by constitution. It was abolished in West Germany in 1949, in the Saarland in 1956 (as part of the Saarland joining West Germany and becoming a state of West Germany), and East Germany in 1987.
Capital punishment in Mexico was officially abolished on 15 March 2005, having not been used in civil cases since 1957, and in military cases since 1961. Mexico is the world's most populous country to have completely abolished the death penalty.
The last execution in the UK took place in August 1964, and the death penalty has been abolished in the UK for over 50 years. Nevertheless, there are still numerous petitions for the government to bring back the death penalty, and YouGov data reveals many Britons support capital punishment.
Abolition in France
The death penalty was abolished in France under the Act of 9 October 1981 which was born of the commitment of Robert Badinter, Minister of Justice at the time, and his speech before the National Assembly.
Capital punishment in Thailand is enforced by lethal injection. The death penalty is not imposed immediately. There is a delay because a convict can appeal to two more courts and can apply for King's pardon. The death punishment is carried out in the Bang Kwang Prison in Bangkok (also known as “Bangkok Hilton”).
In Asia-Pacific Bangladesh, China, India, North Korea, Taiwan and Viet Nam are known to have carried out executions in 2020.
Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine on July 12 lifted a moratorium on the death penalty weeks after sentencing three foreigners who were captured on the battlefield to death.