Throughout the centuries, executions have been used to punish criminals and the most
serious of offenders.
We consider most executions to have occurred inside of bloody periods in history such as
the Medieval period and the Tudor Period when beheadings took place on sites of execution
such as Tower Hill.
During the Tudor era, King Henry VIII would execute 70,000 people and his daughter Mary
I would also burn protestants in bloody spectacles.
But the point of executing in the past in public was to deter people from conducting
serious offences and crimes and to keep the people in order.
Today there are still a number of countries that use the death penalty and have this,
but many of them such as the United States of America do this in private.
There are some who conduct executions in public, but these are today looked down upon for being
brutal and terrifying regimes.
Join us today as we look at, ‘What countries Still execute criminals and have the death
penalty?’
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The death penalty today is one of the most controversial topics around the world, and
when a serious and harrowing crime is committed, calls emerge in the Media again to consider
implementing it.
Those who support the death penalty often see it as cruel, but believe that it is a
necessary evil, and a way of keeping society safe and keeping people away from committing
the most sinister and shocking crimes.
Those who are against it often mention that it does not lower murder rates, and that taking
life for someone who took a life is a means to an end.
They also comment on the individuals who are wrongly convicted of crimes and how the death
penalty would not reverse this.
There have been many throughout history who have been removed from death row following
re-trials where they have been found innocent.
Today more than 70% of the countries inside of the world have abolished capital punishment,
and the most recent to date is Papau New Guinea, who abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
Others who had recently done so include Malawi, Kazakhstan, Sierra Leone, Chad and Burkina
Faso.
Malawi however is still debating the idea despite it being outlawed.
Statistics in 2020 state that 108 countries had abolished the death penalty in law for
all crimes, and 144 countries had abolished it in law or practice.
There are 28 who had effectively done this by now executing anyone in 10 years, and there
are around 50 who still use the death panty for ordinary crimes.
Amnesty Internationals 2020 report stated that in the world there were 1477 death sentences
issued, meaning that around 30,000 people were living in the world under the sentence
of death.
The numbers of execution have declined, but issues around the reporting of executions
do emerge.
There are countries who secretly put prisoners to death, and this means that thousands more
executions are probably carried out each year.
China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt it’s known each year execute possibly up
to 90% of the whole world’s figures, and inside of these countries things it is common
place.
Official data isn’t available for China’s death penalty statistics, and they are a state
secret.
The Chinese government are considered the leading executioners in the world who without
doubt put the most people to death.
It’s estimated that thousands are killed each year, and the Chinese judicial system
states that all death penalty executions must remain private and secret.
The families of those who are executed aren’t even told that their family member has been
killed until after the execution has been carried out.
Chinese executions are still carried out by shootings, and the state still employs firing
squads for this.
But they also use lethal injection, which is considered more humane and less painful
than a gunshot, and its claimed the Chinese government are heading towards using Lethal
Injection.
Execution Vans were also used across the state, and it said that this was a cost effective
way of killing prisoners as a special death row isn’t needed to carry out the sentence.
Iran also executes many people each year, often hundreds and most of the executions
are carried out in secret.
Iran often faces criticism for it’s use of torture in which confessions are extracted
from, and that the death sentence is often applied to crimes considered less serious.
Also Egypt utilises the death sentence and has seen an increase in executions, and there
are many human rights organisations that accuse the Egyptian government of conducting secret
and unfair trials and also using torture.
They say also that to reduce political dissent, executions also take place.
Iraq also uses it, and it does not restrict the sentence to just serious crimes.
Meaning that people who are found guilty of smuggling items, stealing or other offences.
The majority go executions in Iraq are based on hanging, and another nation that uses execution
is Saudi Arabia.
Shockingly in 2020, they were the only country known to have carried out an execution by
beheading, and in the past they executed for many more crimes than they do at the moment.
However the use of the death sentence remains a tenuous issue for the King of Saudi Arabia
and the government, as they try to shift towards being a country with more accepted values
in the Western World.
In March 2022 however, Saudi Arabia sparked international outrage when they executed 81
people en mass, the largest mass execution in the country’s history.
Similarly to China, Japan also uses execution and the dates are not announced to the public.
Usually a prisoner is isolated from other inmates hours before the execution occurs,
and then after this the prison officials and guards inform the press and the public what
has happened.
In Japan they use hanging to take lives, and the condemned are placed in a hood before
they release the trapdoor.
Most of the cases in Japan involving the death penalty revolve around those murderers who
have killed many people or are serial killers.
Japan executes the most heinous of offenders.
South Korea utilises execution also, and they use the hanging method with a rope.
If a criminal has been found guilty of an offence that affects the military, they are
then shot by a military firing squad.
There are dozens of prisoners on death row in South Korea, awaiting their execution.
However the most famous country that still uses the death penalty is the United States
of America.
Different states have different laws on the issue, and some use it and so do not.
Texas is the state that leads with 573 executions in 2021, followed by Oklahoma with 116 and
113 in Virgina.
There are more states that have abolished the death penalty and as of February 2022,
it is legal in 27 states.
There are around 2500 prisoners sitting on death row for various serious crimes, from
terrorism offences to mass murder.
The US has used since 1976 five different methods of execution.
Most prisoners select lethal injection which is the default method, but still in law electrocution,
hanging, lethal gas and firing squads may be used.
But Lethal Injection is considered the most painless despite there being a number of times
where it has been botched.
There are many countries who have issued a moratorium or a pause on execution which is
considered a first step towards abolition.
In Africa the countries who use the death penalty are Algeria that still uses firing
squad, Botswana who uses hanging, Cameroon that uses shooting and hanging, the central
african republic, Comoros, Egypt that has a high figure of killings, Equitorial Guinea,
Eritrea, Swaziland, ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania
which has a huge list of crimes that carry the death penalty, Morrocco, Niger, Nigeria,
Somalia that still uses stoning as a method of execution, South Sudan, Sudan that uses
the Garrotte or strangulation as a method of killing, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia
and Zimbabwe.
A number of these countries are currently investigating the usefulness in terms of crime
prevention that the death penalty has, and a number have not executed someone for decades.
In the Americas, those countries that still have capital punishment are, Antigua and Barbuda,
the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil that still carry out executions for military personnel
and Chile also does this too, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana who execute for crimes ranging
from terrorism to piracy, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines, Trinadad and Tobago and of course the USA.
In Asia, Afghanistan use hanging shooting and stoning, Bahrain use the penalty, as do
Bangladesh, Brunei, China, India, Indonesia who execute people for a large amount of crimes.
There is a moratorium on execution in the country but there are no plans to abolish
the penalty.
Iran also use it and also use stoning, Iraq has a large amount of executions, It’s still
used in the military in Isrrael and the last execution to take place there was of Adolf
Eichmann the architect of the Holocaust.
Japan also executes, as does Jordan, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar,
North Korea who it’s claimed still use decapitation.
It’s also claimed that North Korea use public executions.
Oman still has the death sentence, as does Pakistan, Palestine, where Hamas perform vigilante
executions, Qatar who use firing squad, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka,
Syria, Taiwan.
In Taiwan they use gunshot to the heart at close range as a method, where the condemned
lies on a mattress where a doctor marks where the heart is.
The executioner then shoots at the marker.
If the condemned is an organ donor, they are shot in the head instead.
Tajikistan also executes criminals, as does Thailand, the UAE, Vietnam and Yemen.
In Europe, Belarus is the only country that practices the death penalty.
Inside the country the laws allow capital punishment for a number of crimes, including
genocide, murder with aggravating circumstances, intention to provoke international tension
and law or terrorist offences.
Russia does retain the death penalty, however it is rarely used and even though it still
exists in law, authorities don’t tend to use it.
In Oceania, there is only one country that uses capital punishment too and that is Tonga,
who have not used it since 1982 but it still exists in law.
So still today there are thousands of executions carried out each year inside of different
countries.
Many different methods even including beheading and stoning are used, but most countries tend
to use hanging or lethal injection or even firing squads.
There are many people around the world who want the death penalty re-instating in lands
around the world, but there are also others who want to abolish it all over.
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