The Death Penalty

Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 978 1 921507 16 8
Year 2010

Price: $20.95

  

The Death Penalty
Volume 306, Issues in Society

Although the world is gradually moving towards abolition of capital punishment, in 2008 an estimated 1,718 people were executed in 25 countries and at least 8,864 people were sentenced to death in 52 countries. Three quarters of those executions took place in Asia, with China carrying out more executions than the rest of the world’s nations put together. Since 1967 when the last Australian (Ronald Ryan) was hanged, the Australia has maintained a policy of opposition to the death penalty. This book details the countries which still promote execution by the state and presents a range of arguments which advocate the abolition of capital punishment. What is Australia doing internationally to help abolish the death penalty – a breach of the most fundamental human right, the right to life? Is the death penalty ever justified?

Glossary; Fast Facts; Web Links; Index



fast facts
FAST FACTS from this volume
  • As of 2009, fewer than 60 countries (less than a third of the total) actively retain the death penalty.
  • At least 8,864 people (and probably considerably more) were sentenced to death during 2008, and at the end of the year as many as 30,000 were on death row around the world – with the largest death row populations being in Pakistan (approximately 7,500) and the USA (over 3,000).
  • China carries out by far the greatest number of actual executions. While Amnesty International has confirmed at least 1,718 executions there during 2008 the true figure is certain to be much higher. Estimates suggest the annual figure may have been as high as 7,500 in recent years – although this may have dropped back since the Supreme People’s Court replaced local courts in the appeals process.
  • Outside China, at least 670 people were put to death in 24 countries during 2008, down slightly from 2007 – with Iran (346+), Saudi Arabia (102+), Pakistan (36+), Iraq (34+) and the USA (37) the main contributors.
  • Methods of state execution include: beheading, electro-cution, gassing, hanging, lethal injection, shooting, and stoning.
  • The death penalty is most commonly applied in cases of murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking. However, in China the list of offences which can result in execution includes (among many others) – tax evasion, fraud, bigamy, publication of pornographic material, and hacking and other cyber crimes. And blasphemy, apostasy, adultery, prostitution and homosexuality, among others, all attract the death penalty in a number of other states.
  • International law prohibits the execution of anyone who was under 18 years old at the time of the crime. However, a small number of countries, most notably Iran, continue to execute child offenders.
  • While it continues to be widely used, the death penalty has been in retreat across the globe over recent years. More than 90 countries have now outlawed the death penalty altogether, and more than two thirds of all states have abolished it either in law or in practice.
  • At the end of 2008, the United Nations General Assembly passed the second resolution in 12 months calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards total abolition. While the resolution is non-binding, it was passed by an even larger majority than in 2007 (106 votes for and 46 against) and adds further momentum to the abolitionist movement.
  • Most of the executions in 2008 were carried out in Asia, where 11 countries continue to practise the death penalty: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Singapore, and Viet Nam. China alone accounted for at least 1,718 executions – although the figure is believed to be much higher as statistics on death sentences and executions remain state secrets.
  • The Middle East and North Africa was the region with the second highest number of executions (508). In Iran, stoning and hanging were among the cruel and inhumane methods used, with at least 346 people put to death, including eight juvenile offenders. In Saudi Arabia, where execution is usually by public beheading, at least 102 people were executed.
  • In the Americas, only the USA consistently executes people, with 37 executions carried out in 2008 including more in Texas than in any other state. The release of four men from death row in the USA on grounds of innocence brings to more than 120 the number of such cases released since 1975. The only other country in the Americas to execute in 2008 was St Kitts and Nevis, the first Caribbean state to carry out an execution since 2003.
  • Europe would be entirely free of the death penalty if it were not for Belarus, where the death penalty is shrouded in secrecy: execution by a gunshot to the back of the head and no official information given relatives about the date of the execution or where the body is buried. The former Soviet country carried out four executions in 2008.
  • Only two officially recorded executions were carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2008 but at least 362 people were sentenced to death. In Liberia the death penalty was reintroduced for the crimes of robbery, terrorism and hijacking.
  • In total 59 countries retain the death penalty. More than two-thirds of the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty either in law or in practice (abolitionist states).
  • In 2008, at least 2,390 people were known to have been executed in 25 countries and is estimated that at least 8,864 people were sentenced to death in 52 countries around the world.
  • 13 countries are known to have carried out executions every year for the last 5 years: China, Bangladesh, Belarus, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Viet Nam, Yemen and the USA.
  • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 – recognises each person’s right to life (Article 3) and categorically states that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” (Article 5).
  • The UN reaffirmed and strengthened its position against the death penalty in December 2007 when the General Assembly passed a resolution calling upon member states to establish a moratorium on executions “with a view to abolishing the death penalty.”
  • Evidence from around the world has shown that the death penalty has no unique deterrent effect on crime. Many people have argued that abolishing the death penalty leads to higher crime rates, but studies in the USA and Canada, for instance, do not back this up.
  • In November 2009 the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 was introduced before the House of Representatives. The legislation fulfils Australia’s obligations under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – which requires Australia to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty. As a consequence, the death penalty will not be able to be re-introduced anywhere in Australia.
  • The 2007 Australian Election Study found that 44% of people thought that the death penalty should be re-introduced in Australia, while 38% disagreed and the rest were undecided. While the ANU survey has showed a marked decline in support for reintroduction, down from 65% in 1998, it demonstrates high levels of support for the idea.