The latest data from Amnesty International shows that the number of executions worldwide has reached its highest level in five years. An American convicted of murder is said to be the first person in the country to be executed with nitrogen gas. At the same time, a man in Japan was sentenced to hang for an arson attack that killed 36 people.
The worldwide application of the death penalty
According to Amnesty International, 55 countries had the death penalty in 2022. Nine of these countries only provide for punishment for serious crimes, such as multiple murders or war crimes. Another 23 adhere to the death penalty but have not used it in the past decade.
The global number of executions reached 883 in 2022, the highest level since 2017. However, this number is much lower compared to 1988, 1989 and 2015, when more than 1,500 people were executed in a single year.
Death penalty in different countries
In addition to China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the USA were the countries where the most people were executed. At least three public executions were recorded in Iran in 2022. The country is also accused of executing at least five people for crimes they committed as minors.
The death penalty and drug trafficking crimes
Regarding the death penalty for drug trafficking, Amnesty International recorded 325 executions worldwide in 2022. Of these, 255 took place in Iran, 57 in Saudi Arabia and 11 in Singapore. In 2023, the first woman in almost 20 years was executed in Singapore. Saridewi Djaman was convicted of heroin trafficking in 2018.
Capital punishment: abolition and methods of execution
As of 2022, six countries have fully or partially abolished the death penalty. Four of them Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic have completely abolished the death penalty. Saudi Arabia was the only country to list beheading as a method of execution in 2022. Other methods included hanging, lethal injection and death by shooting.
In Alabama, a convicted murderer named Kenneth Smith is scheduled to be executed using nitrogen gas. According to the US Death Penalty Information Center, he will be the first person in the world to be executed in this way.
Restrictions on access to drugs used in lethal injections have contributed to the decline in the use of the death penalty in the United States. The clandestine search for lethal drugs used in American executions has led the country to seek alternatives such as nitrogen gas.
Although countries such as Ghana have completely abolished the death penalty and new death sentences are being imposed in countries such as Bahrain, the Comoros, Laos, Niger and South Korea, where the death penalty has not been used for several years, the number of executions continues to rise worldwide.