2007 world death penalty statistics published

In a new report published on 15 April, Amnesty International revealed that at least 1,200 people were executed in 2007 and expressed deep concern that many more were killed by the state, in secret, in countries including China, Mongolia and Vietnam.

The report Death Sentences and Executions in 2007 says that at least 1,252 people were executed in 24 countries and at least 3,347 people were sentenced to death in 51 countries. Up to 27,500 people are estimated to be on death row across the world.

China -- the world’s top executioner -- classifies the death penalty as a state secret. As the world and Olympic guests are left guessing, only the Chinese authorities know exactly how many people have been killed with state authorization.

Eighty-eight per cent of all known executions in 2007 took place in five countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the USA. Saudi Arabia had the highest number of executions per capita, followed by Iran and Libya. Amnesty International can confirm at least 470 executions by China - the highest overall figure. Lack of transparency and limited access to information about the number of executions in China means that the true figure is undoubtedly much higher.

The figures also show an increase in executions in a number of countries. Iran executed at least 317 people, Saudi Arabia 143 and Pakistan 135 – in comparison to 177, 39 and 82 executions respectively in 2006.

"Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally and in all cases," said Amnesty International Australia’s National Director, Claire Mallinson.

"The secretive use of the death penalty must stop. We demand that China, Vietnam, Mongolia and others must at the very least publicly admit how many people they execute," she added.

During 2007, many countries continued to execute for crimes not commonly considered criminal, or after unfair procedures. Among them:

In July, father of two Ja’Far Kiani was stoned to death for adultery in Iran.

In October, a 75 year-old North Korean factory manager was shot by firing squad for failing to declare his family background, investing his own money in the factory, appointing his children as its managers and making international phone calls.

In November, Mustafa Ibrahim, an Egyptian national, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for the practice of sorcery.

In Texas, USA, Michael Richard was executed on 25 September after a state courthouse refused to stay open an extra 15 minutes to allow the filing of an appeal based on the constitutionality of lethal injections. Richard’s attorneys had been unable to file the appeal on time because of computer problems - which they had already brought to the court’s attention. The US Supreme Court then refused to stop the execution. Earlier in the day, however, it had agreed in a Kentucky case to review the lethal injection issue, a decision that led to a de facto moratorium on all other lethal injection executions around the country. The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected later this year.

Three countries -- Iran, Saudia Arabia and Yemen -- carried out executions for crimes committed by people below 18 years of age, against international law.

Despite these statistics, 2007 was also the year in which the United Nations General Assembly voted – by 104 to 54, with 29 abstentions – to end the use of the death penalty. Australia voted in favour of the resolution.

"The UN General Assembly took the historic decision to call on all countries around the world to stop executing people. That the resolution was adopted in December with such a clear majority shows the global abolition of the death penalty is possible," said Claire Mallinson.

“The taking of life by the state is one of the most drastic acts a government can undertake. We are urging all governments to follow the commitments made at the UN and abolish the death penalty once and for all.”

Read the report Death sentences and executions in 2007

2007 death penalty cases

China

In July 2007, Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration, was executed for taking bribes and dereliction of duty. Executions are commonly carried out by a bullet to the back of the head and, increasingly, lethal injection. Many of China’s capital crimes, around 68 in total, are non-violent, including tax evasion, smuggling and organising prostitution.

Saudi Arabia

Mustafa Ibrahim was executed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for alleged practice of sorcery, witchcraft and desecration of the Quran. Official reports state that they had received complaints from a man who alleged that Mustafa Ibrahim was practising sorcery upon him in order to separate him from his wife. The reports state that he had confessed to all these charges. He was sentenced to death in May and his beheading took place in November. In a letter addressed to the President of the Saudi Arabian Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International expressed concern that he was convicted and sentenced to death on the basis of a confession obtained under torture, and that he was denied access to legal assistance and legal representation. The organisation called for commutation of the death penalty against Mustafa Ibrahim and other prisoners but received no response.

Vietnam

British citizen Le Manh Luong, born 1960, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment last month, March 2008, by Vietnamese president Nguyen Minh Triet. Le Manh Luong was facing execution by firing squad after being sentenced to death in November 2006 for heroin trafficking, a sentence upheld on final appeal in April 2007. While on death row, he had reportedly been shackled by the wrists and ankles. Following a war injury he sustained as a child, Le Manh Luong is suffering from brain damage. Reports suggested he had difficulty understanding the court proceedings against him.

Uganda

Mpagi Edward Edmary spent 18 years on death row in Uganda. He was arrested at the age of 27 in 1981 and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of a neighbour. But there was no murder. It transpired that the neighbour was still alive but that his family held a grudge against Edward’s parents and had staged the murder to hurt them. This was confirmed in 1989 but Mpagi remained on death row for a further 11 years before finally being released. While on death row he counted 52 fellow inmates taken for execution.

USA

Since 1976, more than 120 people have been released from US death rows on grounds of innocence. Three such cases were added to the list during 2007, and the most recent occurred this month, April 2008, when Glen Chapman walked free in North Carolina.

He had spent more than a dozen years on death row for two 1992 murders before a judge granted him a retrial in 2007. On 2 April 2008, prosecutors dismissed charges against him. The 100th such case, as recorded by the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, DC, was that of Ray Krone in Arizona. He was arrested on New Year’s Eve in 1991, aged 35, for the rape and murder of a woman in Phoenix. He had no criminal record. He was convicted on circumstantial evidence and after an expert witness testified that Krone's teeth matched bite marks on the victim. Three years after he was sentenced to death, he received a new trial, but was again convicted and this time sentenced to life imprisonment. He continued to maintain his innocence and in 2001 there was a breakthrough when DNA testing excluded Krone and implicated another man as the assailant. Ray Krone was released on 8 April 2002.

Japan

Sakae Menda was the first prisoner on death row to be exonerated in Japan – 34 years after he was sentenced to death for the murder of two people. He was arrested in 1949, aged 22, but his release only finally came in 1983. While on death row he says he saw about 35 inmates taken away for execution.