Facts & Figures
• 76 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes.

• 15 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes such as wartime crimes.

• 21 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 and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions.

• A total of 112 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

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

• Once abolished, the death penalty is seldom reintroduced. Since 1985, over 50 countries 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 four abolitionist countries reintroduced the death penalty.

• During 2002 at least 1,526 prisoners were executed in 31 countries and at least 3,248 people were sentenced to death in 67 countries. These figures include only cases known to Amnesty International; the true figures are certainly higher.

• In 2002, 81 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran and the USA. In China, the limited and incomplete records available to Amnesty International at the end of the year indicated that at least 1,060 people were executed, but the true figure was believed to be much higher. At least 113 executions were carried out in Iran. Seventy-one people were executed in the USA.

• Since 1973, 107 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death.

• 71 prisoners were executed in the USA in 2002, bringing the year-end total to 820 executed since the use of the death penalty was resumed in 1977.

• In the USA over 3,700 prisoners were under sentence of death as of 1 January 2003.

• In the nineteenth century in Australia, many prisoners were hanged every year for crimes such as burglary, sheep stealing, forgery, sexual assaults and even in one case, being illegally at large, as well as for murder and manslaughter.

• Australia, in common with all Western countries (excluding the United States) officially abolished capital punishment nationwide in 1985. The Death Penalty Abolition Act was passed in 1973 and came into power on the day of its Royal Assention. The date of assent was September 18, 1973. The Abolition Act states – “a person is not liable to the punishment of death for any offence”.

• The last person to be executed in Australia was in the state of Victoria on Friday 3 February, 1967. Ronald Joseph Ryan was hanged at 8.00am in Pentridge Prison.

• Since abolition, the sentence of life imprisonment (in some states ‘penal servitude for life’, ‘strict security life imprisonment’, ‘for the term of his natural life’, or ‘life without parole’) has become the most severe sanction authorised by Australian law.

• Queensland was the first state to abolish capital punishment in 1922. The last execution in Queensland was in 1913.

• New South Wales abolished capital punishment in 1955. The last execution in NSW was in 1940.

• Tasmania abolished capital punishment in 1968. The last execution in Tasmania was in 1946.

• The Australian Capital Territory abolished capital punishment in 1973. No executions were recorded.

• The Northern Territory abolished capital punishment in 1973. The last execution in the Northern Territory was in 1952.

• Victoria abolished capital punishment in 1975. The last execution performed in Victoria (and Australia) was in 1967.

• South Australia abolished capital punishment in 1976. The last execution in South Australia was in 1964.

• Western Australia was the last state to abolish capital punishment in 1984. The last execution in Western Australia was in 1964.

• Quantum Australia SCAN conducted a survey just after the Bali bombing, which showed for the first time in five years of polling that a majority of Australians favoured the death penalty. The figure of 51 per cent for, with 31 per cent against and 18 per cent saying don’t know, compared with an average over the previous five years of 44 per cent in favour, and 31 per cent against, and 25 per cent saying they had no opinion. The proportion in favour in both the United States and Britain is about 75 per cent.

• In a poll conducted in August 2003 by Newspoll, 56 per cent of respondents answered affirmatively the question: “Would you personally be in favour or against the introduction of the death penalty in Australia for those found guilty of committing major acts of terrorism?’’.