Talk:Capital punishment by country

Older comments

Suggestion: add a list of which countries still execute children and the mentally retarded. It should be a short list.

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30. Iraq (Suspended in April 2003 after 2003 invasion; reinstated August 2004)

10. Israel (1962, 1954) - only one execution (Adolf Eichmann), which counted as an extraordinary crime

Should the caveats exist for Iraq and Israel? Someone could put such information being of equal relevance for every nation. To provide such information for only two select cases is biased.

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Removed from article: China

Iraq

Iran

USA

Saudia

This list is neither complete nor English. Also why can't this information be in the death penalty article. --rmhermen

Let the list complete, help it to complete, and put it back in the death penalty article. This kind of information has its place here. 62.212.103.37

Axel, YOU SUCK! I made the change to follow most closely the Amnesty info, in that countries on list 2 are more abolicionist than countries in list three. In particular, at least one of the countries would be in list their list 3 had it not abolished death penalty for common crimes recently.--AN

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What an ugly looking article. Can't we lower case the country names and put them into a bulleted list?! -- Zoe

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Please, go ahead. It's the result of dirty cut and paste.AN

I've de-uglified it a bit. --Brion

Thanks, Brion. I didn't feel like tackling it.  :-) -- Zoe

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I moved this page to "Use of death penalty worldwide". The new title is much less of a mouthful than the old one, although it is slightly less descriptive of the article content. -- SJK

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What does a numbered list provide here? The countries are just in alphabetical order. --Brion 00:01 Sep 11, 2002 (UTC)

Readers can be interested about the number of abolitionist countries, retentionist countries, etc. This is an easy way to see it. -- Juan M. Gonzalez 00:18 Sep 11, 2002 (UTC)

It might be worth mentioning in this article that although the United States as a whole has not abolished the death penalty, 12 states and the District of Columbia have abolished it. --soulpatch

...though the federal government may still execute people for federal crimes committed in those states. --Brion

The federal government can even execute people in states that do not have the death penalty for federal crimes commited in that state or another. --rmhermen

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As a prereq. for admission to the EU, Turkey is expected to abolish the death penalty for all crimes this year: its government signed a protocol. The change has to be approved by the parliament. Keep an eye on http://www.mfa.gov.tr for news of ratification. Once that is done Turkey can be moved to the list of countried that have abolished de jure. 209.149.235.241 00:02, 19 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Should we make a distinction between countries which really have abolished the death penalty, and countries which use it anyway despite their official pronouncements? I don't think relying on Amnesty International as a single source is a good idea. They've always been soft on totalitarian countries and rarely bothered to follow up on reports of huge numbers of exterminations (see genocide, democide, mass murder).

For example, if Cambodia kills one million people for non-conformance to goverment policy, is that capital punishment, genocide, crimes against humanity, or what? The classification system used lets this slip between the cracks. The genocide article can't call it "genocide" because it was only politicaly, not aimed at wiping out an ethnic group. And I guess the capital punishment article won't say anything unless their are court records showing that the people were convicted first.

A lot of so-called human rights groups are phonies. They trump up a lot of cases against free world contries but ignore crimes that are hundreds or thousands of times worse. This is way beyond holding America to a higher standard. It's about pure hypocrisy: not holding your political cronies to ANY STANDARD AT ALL. --Uncle Ed 16:30, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Czech Republic / Slovakia

Re Qertis's revert of my edit: you cannot logically claim that the Czech Republic and Slovakia conducted last executions in 1989 and abolished the death penalty in 1990, because neither country existed until 1993. The execution and abolition referred to happened in Czechoslovakia, which is why Czechoslovakia is relevant. The short explanation I added is in the same category as that given for Germany in the same list. Cambyses 14:43, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The last edit by Kulkuri seems fine to me. Qertis

Execution of minors

Removed this sentence from the legal form of punishment list:

Only Somalia and the United States allow the execution of minors

Actually, a number of the countries on the list execute minors (i.e. persons under age of 18). Somalia and USA are the only countries not to have ratified the UN convention on rights of the child, which bars execution of minors. However, some of the other countries which have ratified the convention have reserved exceptions to Article 37 (the ban on minor executions) and other have ratified the convention without reservation but continue with minor executions anyway. Ellsworth 20:36, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Amnesty International indicates 83 Abolitionist countries for all crimes NOT 86

The Amnesty International website on the death penalty states that there are 83 abolitionist countries and 13 abolitionist countries for ordinary crimes only. Their website was recently updated in January 2005 so I think wikipedia's article is incorrect in saying 86 abolitionist and 12 abolitionist for ordinary crimes. Check out Amnesty's website: http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-countries-eng

What is the point of this article?

As it stands, it's a simple mirror of Amnesty International's list. You may agree with their advocacy, but they are an advocacy group, and I haven't been able to find more information about their "classification scheme" for which crimes are "common" and which are "exceptional." In most of the U.S., capital punishment is reserved for the most heinous murder or for treason, so lumping it in the same category as Sudan, which executes people for being gay is POV; it seems to be contrived especially for the purpose of pointing to the U.S. and saying, "See? You're as bad as Sudan!" which is good and effective for an advocacy group but not really for an encyclopedia.

I think we should come up with our own classification for the list and trust Wikipedians with the knowledge of particular countries' laws to update it using verifiable sources other than (just) Amnesty International. Demi ^T/_{C 00:03, 2005 Apr 8 (UTC)}

Personally I think that some form of this list has a place on Wikipedia. It includes more than just a list of countries as we also have dates that are sometimes hard to find elsewhere. We also have several countries that aren't on the Amnesty list as they are self-governing territories. And on a more personal level I think that the death penalty is slightly more important than half the cruft that lurks around here.

We could just divide the countries into a list of "Has death penalty" and "Doesn't have death penalty" but then this also suffers from the same POV of lumping say Nauru, which has hasn't executed anyone since 1968 and the United States which has executed 13 people in 2005 [1]. And of course the US becomes complicated as this doesn't take into account individual states and then a federal level. Evil Monkey∴Hello 01:39, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

Such a binary categorization would also have the effect of showing less information than what's there now. And of course the subject of the death penalty is important. The cure is probably more information, not less. In fact--what about this: let's keep the existing categories for now, but instead of just a bulleted list with the occasional note of detail, have a table with columns for "law provides death penalty," "last executed," "number executed," "crimes eligible" and "notes?" Then, when sufficient detail exists in the table, better categorizations might suggest themselves.

Are you serious, I find these sorts of tables and maps very uesful, see List of countries with mains power plugs, voltages & frequencies for a similar one. —Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 02:23, 2005 Apr 9 (UTC)

This seems like a good task for Wikipedians since there's likely someone who knows these pieces of information for most of the countries on the list. Until better information is available, we can use the information from AI and approximate, so for example:

Country	Death Penalty?	Last Execution	Number executed (2004)	Crimes Eligible for Death Penalty	Notes
Nauru	Yes	never	0		No executions since independence in 1968
United Kingdom	No	1964	0		Abolished in 1998
United States	Yes	2005	59	Generally only premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances. Federal death penalty for certain murders as well as treason, espionage and major drug trafficking	Not all states have the death penalty, though federal law provides for it in all states
Saudi Arabia	Yes	2004 or later	33	Many violent and nonviolent offenses including murder, apostasy, drug offenses, witchcraft and sexual misconduct.

That's just a brief table to sketch the idea (I'm not very good with tables I'm afraid). Perhaps the whole table could be together, alphabetically, and the rows color-coded as the map is; or each category could be broken out with separate tables, as it is now.

Another piece of information that might be useful is method of execution. Nearly all of the U.S.'s executions were by lethal injection while Saudi Arabia's were by beheading, for example [2].

Anyway, thanks a lot for the discussion!

Demi ^T/_{C 17:02, 2005 Apr 8 (UTC)}

An excellent idea! Alphabetically may be a good idea as if you are looking for a particular country it saves you looking through four different categories. An important thing will of course be sources for all information especially number executed and the laws. I think we can just Amnesty for the basic info (ie I don't think they are lying about which countries do and do not have the death penalty). Another thing that should probably happen in the page be moved to Use of capital punishment worldwide to move it into line with the Capital punishment in the United States, Capital punishment in the United Kingdom pages. I've had a go below at the table. The colours probably need to be toned down a bit (need someone with some experience with html colours. Perhaps the methods could come under notes as most countries will only use one form. Evil Monkey∴Hello 23:00, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

Country	Death Penalty?	Last Execution	Number executed (2004)	Crimes Eligible for Death Penalty	Notes
Nauru	Yes	never	0		No executions since independence in 1968
Saudi Arabia	Yes	2004 or later	33	Many violent and nonviolent offenses including murder, apostasy, drug offenses, witchcraft and sexual misconduct.
United Kingdom	No	1964	0		Abolished in 1998
United States	Yes	2005	59	Generally only premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances. Federal death penalty for certain murders as well as treason, espionage and major drug trafficking	Not all states have the death penalty, though federal law provides for it in all states

Color Key:
Blue	Abolished for all crimes
Green	Abolished for Ordinary Crimes
Orange	Abolitionist in Practice
Red	Legal Form of Punishment

The table and key look great. The only thing I'd add (under the color key) is that these are the categories "according to Amnesty International" or something similar. I do think (part of) the eventual goal will be to come up with our own categories, which might number more or less than Amnesty's, but let's use these for now. I might take a whack at the article over the weekend if I have time--otherwise it might be a while. Demi ^T/_{C 23:50, 2005 Apr 8 (UTC)}

I just thought of something. The color-filled cells might end up looking kind of neon in a big table with all the countries in it--hard on the eyes. What if, instead, we used a nice big circle next to the "Yes" or "No?" I've edited the table above accordingly (and used the colorblind-friendly colors from Image:Death Penalty World Map.png too. Demi ^T/_{C 00:14, 2005 Apr 9 (UTC)}

Oh, and the rename would be good, too. Actually I think they should all refer to "death penalty" since "capital punishment" has the air of euphemism about it to me; but it makes sense to use the same term in the article titles. Demi ^T/_{C 00:29, 2005 Apr 9 (UTC)}

crimes in US-states

this website contains a list of the crimes punishable with the death panelty in order of states... maybe someone can put them as a footnote to the US? I have no idea how to do that.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=144&scid=10

map

did anyone noticed that the map and the list are nor compatible? Armenia for instance is listed as death-penalty-free but is colored green in the map... maybe someone could change these errors...

If countries with no executions for at least 10 years are in the abolished in practice category, Cameroon, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines should all be in that category. With more detail about the most recent execution, a few more might belong to that category as well (Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Dominica). Could someone familar with creating Wikipedia maps adjust this accordingly please? SimonX (talk) 17:32, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

People's Republic of China

In China capital crimes are: murder (art. 232), rape (art. 236, general rape, not only rape of children), kidnapping (discretionary, but mandatory if the hostage is killed), endangering national security (art. 113 punished by death any act of endangering national sucurity, no only crimes elencated above), arson (art 115), breaches a dam (art. 115), causing explosion (art.115), spread poison (art. 115), causing destructions (art. 115), using dangerous methods to harm public secutity, especially if the death or injury of another is caused (art 115), sabotage of facilities (art. 119), sabotage of infiammable equipment (art. 119), jailbreak, teaching criminal methods, using cult or fedual superstition to harm legal order, violence, causing injury or wounding (art. 232), theft of public or private property or habitual theft, speculation, production, selling or expostition of pornographic material, smuggling of precious metal (art. 151), smuggling of rare species or rare species product (art 151), smuggling of cultural relics (art. 151), smuggling with evasion of over 500.000 yuan (art. 153), attempted murder and other attempted crimes, manslaughter, hooliganism (not deleted), causing trouble, possession, selling or manufacturing gun, ammunition or explosives, piracy, pimping, human trafficking, killing rare species, crimes against cultural relics and other crimes. Francesco

"Only in the constitution"

I believe that the notices "Only in the constitution" next to many of the countries are misleading. I don't know whether or not the constitution of (for example) Russia mentions death penalty; even if it does, death penalty is not only in the constitution: it wasn't abolished from the criminal law, it is just not being carried out [3]. - Mike Rosoft 00:33, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Russian Constitution does; it says Capital execution could be set by federal law as an exceptional means of punishment for hardest crimes against life, in condition that accused has right to be treated by lay people (sorry my bad English). Execution in Chechnya was done nod by Russia, but by independent Ichkerian authorities; its mention here is arguable. KonstKaras 18:34, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Biocide?

Tajikistan lists (correctly from the source) biocide as a capital offence... Rich Farmbrough. 22:38, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia lists biocide solely as a material used to kill things (okay - I'm paraphrasing!). The act of biocide would presumably mean the termination of the life of any living thing, without exception. Presumably the inhabitants of Tajikistan incur the death penalty hundreds of times every day. The source may cite the term, but that is no reason to propogate the ludicrous misnomer. Please, what is meant by biocide in this context? Let someone who knows change the offending term to a generally understood one. Thanks. King Hildebrand 12:24, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Turkmenistan

It's abolished by their constitution, but that is meaningless. The leader has people executed for speaking badly about him. 64.131.176.162 01:50, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Can someone verify this?

I have discovered that in Switzerland you may ONLY be executed during wartime and ONLY if you have commited high treason (in other words, only if you have tried to kill a government member and have succeded/failed in doing so or if you have spied against Switzerland). Can some verify this information? User talk:Booksworm Booksworm 16:54, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Dear Booksworm,

you asked this question before and as it seems you don't believe me here is the link to the Swiss "Strafgesetzbuch" which has a life term for "most heinous murder":

http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/311_0/index.html

Another link about death penalty in Switzerland is http://www.todesstrafe.ch/ where it says that the death penalty in military law was abolished. Since 1. January 2000 the death penalty is constitutionally forbidden. Sorry its all in German but as you are a citizen of the world ... ;-) (And sorry i can only falsify ...)

--Susu the Puschel 23:25, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I just want to point out one thing. Norway has not stepped totally away from death penalty. In the time of war, it is still allowed. Could someone fix this (I don't know so much about editting Wikipedia :) ) 217.149.124.183 17:33, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Where did you get that from?

Please see (e.g.)

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-countries-eng

http://www.handsoffcain.org/bancadati/schedastato.php?idstato=8000061&idcontinente=20

http://www.norway.org/News/archive/2003/200305capitalpunishment.htm

--Susu the Puschel 15:18, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Israel

Israel has the civil death penalty for two crimes. One is the special law under which Eichmann was tried and executed. This law still exists and in principle could be used again. There is no "only in wartime" requirement. The other is in Section 99 of the Crimes Act: "A person who, with intent to assist an enemy in war against Israel, commits an act calculated so to assist him, is liable to the death sentence or to imprisonment for life." This crime does specifically state "in war" but to interpret that you have to realise that Israel considers itself to have been continuously at war from the day of its creation until today. So for example this law could be used (in principle) to execute someone who sold state secrets to Syria. Some in the Israeli government wanted to use it against Mordechai Vanunu, but he was charged with a non-capital offense instead. In summary, the situation with Israel is that the death penalty is very rare, but it still exists as a penalty that could be used today in principle. Incidentally, the article linked to says "in military law, the death penalty for murder has been imposed but never implemented" but that is quite wrong. In a very famous incident in June 1948, a soldier Meir Tubiansky was executed for "spying for the British" after a summary court-martial. I don't know if there have been other military executions (such things tend to be kept secret). 17:25, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Granted, but if death penalty is only an option for treason and crimes against humanity, it constitutes "only for exceptional crimes" (at least, according to Amnesty International [4]). I have attempted to clarify the table. - Mike Rosoft 19:11, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough. McKay 23:28, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

United States

"Federal law provides the death penalty for drug trafficking, although no prosecution has ever been brought under that provision." Is it really true, and if so, wasn't it effectively abolished by the Supreme Court decision that rape cannot be punished with death? - Mike Rosoft 09:31, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

See 18 U.S.C. 3591(b). That was enacted I believe by the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, well after Coker v. Georgia. That case held that rape was not a serious enough offence to justify the death penalty; but is large scale drug trafficking a sufficiently serious offence to justify it? Well, its hard to say which way the Supreme Court would go on that question, until they actually are presented with one. I think the assumption is that the law is probably unconstitutional -- part of the evidence which the court considered was the paucity (compared with murder) of laws providing for the death penalty for rape, and the paucity of prosecutions/sentences/executions, which would be the same case here -- in any case, the assumption of unconstitutionality at least in part explains the absence of prosecutions. But that sets up a catch-22 -- so long as its assumed to be unconstitutional, prosecutors won't seek the death penalty; but so long as they don't seek the death penalty, there will be no cases for the Supreme Court to consider, so there won't be a ruling on whether it is unconstitutional or not. (I swear I have answered this before.) --SJK 13:44, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

South Korea

The modification of the 'picture'(worldwide map) is needed. In south korea, the last excution was held in 1997, so ten years ago. And I am quite sure that there wouldn't be more excution in our lifetime although the abolition will not be done soon. So it's 'Abolitionist in Practice' for South korea, not 'Legal Form of Punishment'. - 06 july 2006.

• If the last execution in South Korea took place in 1997, it is less than ten years ago. You should wait until the next year. But I agree that it will have to be recategorized; contrary to what you say, we may see abolition of death penalty fairly soon (see [5]). - Mike Rosoft 19:11, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Careful with sources

Please note that the overuse of Amnesty sources may contradict WP:NPOV. Stifle (talk) 00:01, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Amnesty International may offer a useful way to categorize countries, but I believe we don't have to be a slave to their exact system, otherwise we risk just being an AI mirror site. Specifically, I propose a change to the "abolitionist in practice" category. According to the AI site:

Countries which retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes such as murder but can be considered abolitionist in practice in that they have not executed anyone during the past 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. The list also includes countries which have made an international commitment not to use the death penalty.

(emphasis added)

The bolded part I think strays into the realm of judgement call. I propose that countries that have had no executions in the last 10 years and/or countries that have issued a statement (or similar) to not use the death penalty be placed in this category. This would make it clearer who should and shouldn't be in the category. Others appear to have similar feelings(see the Caribbean and Swaziland comments below).

What does everyone think of this?SimonX (talk) 15:11, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Australia

Australia has not used the death penalty since 1967, but it is still possible to be used for treason. There has been talk that David Hicks may recieve it if he is tried there.

I've seen that claim mentioned once or twice in the media, but I suspect it's mistaken. At the federal level, the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 (the relevant section of which is viewable here) is quite explicit: "A person is not liable to the punishment of death for any offence." The state-level laws also seem to be fairly solid. Also, Australia has ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which requires that "each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction" (and explicitly addresses the issue of federal versus state law, too, saying that "the provisions of the present Protocol shall extend to all parts of federal States without any limitations or exceptions".) Assuming that the Australian government isn't going to blatantly lie about what its published laws say, I think we can assume that they've abolished the death penalty. The other sources I've seen (Amnesty International and so forth) indicate that the death penalty does not exist in Australia for any crime. (Perhaps the mistake is based on the fact that one state, New South Wales, did indeed retain the death penalty for treason for thirty years after it abolished the death penalty for murder). I see that Evil Monkey has amended the page back, anyway. -- Vardion 02:20, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I think part of the confusion may be that, as I understand, when abolishing the death penalty they did not amend the text of every extant piece of legislation which provided for it, they simply passed a general provision that "whenever a law provides for the death penalty, treat it as if it provided for life imprisonment instead." They did this because they wanted to abolish it for everything, but did not want to have to identify every ancient piece of legislation (remembering that British legislation, including centuries old legislation, up to a certain date is part of Australian law until a State or Federal parliament repeals it). Thus, a number of (esp. old) laws providing for the death penalty did remain in force, but read in conjunction with the later law they no longer provided for the death penalty even if their texts still said that they did. --SJK 13:27, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Updated Asia page

I updated Iraq in the Asia page, because I have news that Taha Yassin Ramadan was executed by hanging today. More info on this link here.--Angeldeb82 20:02, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

New Chart?

#	Country	Last Execution	Abolished in	Notes
	Algeria	August 1993		Treason and espionage; attempts to change the regime or actions aimed at incitement; destruction of territory, sabotage to public and economic utilities; massacres and slaughters; participation in armed bands or in insurrectionary movements; counterfeiting; murder; acts of torture or cruelty; kidnapping; aggravated theft
	Angola		1992 (by Constitution)
	Benin	1987		Armed robbery ; Murder ; traffickers involved in "labor exploitation"
	Botswana	19 September 2003		Murder; Treason; Attempt on the life of the head of state; Mutiny; Desertion in the face of the enemy
	Burkina Faso	1988		Treason
	Burundi	2000 or later		Murder
	Cambodia Cameroon	January 1997		Secession; espionage; incitement to war
	Cape Verde	1835	1981 (by Constitution)
	Central African Republic	1981		Treason; espionage; charlatanism; witchcraft; assassination; murder
	Chad	2003		Murder
	Comoros	1996 or later
	Democratic Republic of the Congo	2003
	Republic of the Congo	1982
	Côte d'Ivoire	None since independence	2000
	Djibouti	None since independence	1995
	Egypt	2004 or later		Rape, only if accompanied by kidnapping of the victim. Murder. Treason. Organized Drug Trafficking.
	Equatorial Guinea
	Eritrea
	Ethiopia
	Gabon	1981
	The Gambia	1981		Treason. Abolished 1993 but was reinstated by Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council in August 1995
	Ghana	1993		Murder; Treason; Armed robbery
	Guinea-Bissau	1986	1993 (by Constitution)
	Guinea	2001		Murder
	Kenya	1984		Murder and armed robbery
	Lesotho
	Liberia	1995	September 16, 2005	Liberia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, completely abolishing the death penalty
	Libya	2005		High treason; attempt to forcibly change the form of government; premeditated murder
	Madagascar	1958
	Malawi	1992
	Mali	1980
	Mauritania	1987		Sodomy; Apostasy (Although apostasy is a capital offense there are no recorded executions for it).
	Mauritius	1987	1995
	Morocco	1993		Terrorism. An abolition law project is being presented to the Parliament of Morocco in spring 2007. Main article: Human rights in Morocco § Capital punishment
	Mozambique	1986	1990 (by Constitution)
	Namibia	1988	1990 (by Constitution)
	Niger	1976
	Nigeria	2001		Sodomy . Each of the 36 states have their own laws. In the north of the country the legal system used is Sharia (Islamic law)
	Rwanda		1998	Genocide
	São Tomé and Príncipe	None since independence	1990 (by Constitution)
	Senegal	1967	10 December 2004
	Seychelles	None since independence	1993 (by Constitution)
	Sierra Leone	1998		Treason; Murder; Aggravated robbery. Under the Special Court for Sierra Leone the death penalty is not a punishment for war crimes
	Somalia	2 May 2006		After the breakdown of de jure government, most regions reverted to Islamic law
	Somaliland
	South Africa	31 January 1991	1997	On 25 May, 2005 the Constitutional Court ordered that all remaining death sentences in the country be set aside and the prisoners resentenced. This last execution occurred in the internationally unrecognised Black "homelands". The last execution in Pretoria Central Prison was on November 14 1989.
	Sudan	2004		Sodomy; Waging war against the state; Apostasy; Prostitution; Treason; Acts which may endanger the independence or unity of the state; Murder; Armed robbery; Weapons possession and smuggling
	Eswatini	1983		Murder ; treason
	Tanzania	1994		Murder; Treason
	Togo	1978		Premeditated murder; plots against the security of the State
	Tunisia	1991		Murder; violence and aggression; attacks against the internal security of the State; attacks against the external security of the State
	Uganda	2003		Treason; Terrorism; Murder; Rape; Defilement; Aggravated robbery; Aggravated kidnapping. On June 14, 2005 the Constitutional court ruled that although the death penalty was constitutional, its use as a mandatory punishment for certain crimes was not.
	Western Sahara	1976		The Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic explicitly outlaws the death penalty; Article 13, from the 1991 revision reads "The death penalty is banned" (translated into English from the Arabic.)
	Zambia	1997		Murder; Aggravated robbery; High treason. President Levy Mwanawasa stated in 2004 that "For as long as I remain President, I will not execute a death warrant."
	Zimbabwe	June 2003		Treason; Murder; Mutiny

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Mnw2000 (talk • contribs) 14:26, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

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A few reference pages are not currently available, and should be removed or updated.

There are a few reference pages currently not available. They occured 404 errors when I visited them. The content of this article should never have unavailable pages as references. They should be removed (and remove the related content at the same time) or updated, as soon as possible.

I do not currently have a list of unavailable reference pages, but I am sure the reference list needs checking. The list of unavailable reference pages will be posted here by me as soon as I have time, but I don't gurantee I will have time for this. I also urge the administrators to check these pages.

--Knightk 03:32, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Rwanda (update needed)

Rwanda abolished capital punishment two days ago. [6] Someone familiar with the chart needs to update it. - Am86 17:57, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Hungary

The last execution was in 1980 when Imre Soós was executed by hanging for several murders. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.225.127.130 (talk) 09:39, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Swaziland

Swaziland seems to be a bit difficult to classify. For example [7] mentions that a number of people are on death row and the last execution was in 1983. It also suggests the government is reluctant to carryou out executions for fear of the outcry. However it's not quite clear what's the longest someone has been on death row. On the other hand, this [8] rather old reference and not really reliable admitedly says they are looking for a hangman or perhaps planning to amend the law to allow lethal injections. (Of course perhaps this was a ploy by the government to satisfy those wanting the death penalty.) This hardly sounds like a country that doesn't practice the death penalty. It appears our current classification system is based on AI's system. Should we perhaps provide an additional category 'uncertain' where the country has does not have either a clear moratorium (including things like the president or whoever refusing to sign orders) or a clear statement indicating they won't practice the death penalty but hasn't carried out an execution in a while either. Alternatively at least mention it in the table. A better reference is needed in any case Nil Einne 23:06, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

That being the case, there are also several other nations in the same situation but many are following the method done under AI. I'm sure if AI is contacted on this, they may give a better reason as to why it's listed as such. That-Vela-Fella 14:55, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

American Human Rights Convention

The American Human Rights Convention forbids the enactment and/or extention of the death penalty, thus making illegitimate to impose the penalty to new crimes or to re-enact it once it has been abolished (even partially). This means that there is an important constraint to the American states to apply the death penalty and that sould be mentioned. Of course this is only the case for those states who are part of the convention, which excludes the USA and other countries such as Cuba, but includes Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

I believe that the European Human Rights Convention doeas the same.--Wgarciamachmar (talk) 18:04, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Some mention could be added or just linked to the articles under American Convention on Human Rights (mostly in the 2nd protocol) & the European Convention on Human Rights has already been mentioned (listed under it's protocols 6 & 13). That-Vela-Fella (talk) 23:20, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Tables!

OK, maybe this is my homework, but I'm not asking you to do it for next weekend... Anyway, wouldn't it also it be useful to also have a table to tell which countries use capital punishment for a given crime? --212.149.216.233 (talk) 18:31, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

It would be useful, but I have no time to make it. By the way, the color-coded column will not sort.--Jusjih (talk) 03:19, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Pakistan no longer has death penalty

Death penalty in Pakistan has apparently been abolished, not sure if its de facto or de jure.

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=12678&size=

http://www.handsoffcain.info/news/index.php?iddocumento=10313597

Sparten (talk) 18:23, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I've been followin this issue over the past week, and its still not clear whether they're talking about an abolition in law, or simply a mass-commutation of sentences to celebrate Benezair Bhutto's birthday. Its also not clear whether the changes have actually been finalised yet (Cabinet approval is not the same as pardons being issued or a law being passed), or how far they go (they're stil talking about special provisions for spies), so it might be better to hold off on this for a while. --IdiotSavant (talk) 23:07, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

They intent to do away with the death penalty. Parliament has passed the relevent legislation, Musharrafs signature is going to make that official (I think it is still retained for treason). The commutation of sentences is a seperate issue, abolition won't affect penaltys already awarded, so it needs commutation.

Incidentally from 1972 to 1978 Pakistan did not have a death penalty.

Sparten (talk) 04:52, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

If its retained for treason (as opposed to treaosn by the military in time of war), then its not abolished, merely limited. But it would obviously result in a much shorter list in the "notes" column. Anyway, change it when its signed off by the President; should only take a few days, right? --IdiotSavant (talk) 05:27, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Argentina

Seems like someone had jumped the gun by changing its status & on the map! After checking as to why the update was not also done on the AI & Hands of Cain websites, I looked at the source given here as to the reason. When translated into English, I was surprised to see that it was only the 'deputies' that made and approved the change in the "Code" and that it was awaiting for the Senate to make it into law! To date I have not found any source stating that it was already done so. Till that time has come, I'll revert the status back. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 02:59, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Found a source now that it just passed on Aug. 6, but will be in force in 6 months time. Will change the status & note the time period. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 18:49, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Italy

Should the last executionn be in 1946?--AJ44 (talk) 19:25, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Why, if the last time it was done was in 1947, as shown here: Capital punishment in Italy? That-Vela-Fella (talk) 20:03, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

It was on march 4, 1947, at 07.45 a.m, by a firing squad, in Turin. Three men were executed having murdered ten persons in Villarbasse, an hamlet near Turin. This was the last execution in Italy. --Dedofreg (talk) 13:40, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Caribbean Islands

For some reason some Caribbean Islands are in red, when the death penalty in the countries have not been used in 10 years. Shouldn't they be in Orange?--Villa88 (talk) 21:39, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

August 2004 or May 2005?

I'm getting confused! Amnesty International USA claims that Iraq's death penalty was reinstated in August 2004, but sources say it was reinstated in May 2005! Which date of the death penalty reinstation in Iraq is correct? --Angeldeb82 (talk) 23:42, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

British Abolishment Date

Britan did not ratify the Abolition untill 2003. So why is it 1998?--Villa88 (talk) 23:41, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmm perhaps the best bet would be to do what entries like Switzerland has and list both 1998/2003. 1998 is when it was abolished, 2003 just made sure we cant change our minds about it with out leaving the council of europe or breaching its rules. BritishWatcher (talk) 23:56, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Beluras situation

I found the link were it says, "Beluras will eventually abolish the Death Penalty". Here is a link to the site [9]--Villa88 (talk) 23:07, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

It gave no time frame as how soon that would happen, just that it didn't need to be done by a referendum. I seen that site before, but unless concrete steps are taken, nothing soon would be changed. Being the last one in Europe will have a lot of pressure put on the state to follow the rest of the continent one day. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 11:31, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, it says it will be chosen by vote, so the abolishment can happen anytime.--Villa88 (talk) 00:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

New Discussion

A discussion has been started at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countries/Lists of countries which could affect the inclusion criteria and title of this and other lists of countries. Editors are invited to participate. Pfainuk talk 11:53, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Jumping the gun?

After reading the source concerning Burundi's recent activities, it only mentions that the lower parliament had approved to abolish the death penalty, yet I have not seen it officially become law by the Senate & President agreeing to it in any online source. Even the AI site has not listed the nation as an abolitionist state yet too. So until it's official, it should not be dated to have been abolished already. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 13:58, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Israel/PA

I couldn't help but notice some clear bias when comparing the Israel and Palestinian Authority sections. The Israel section referred to Meir Tobianski as a "traitor" even though he was later exonerated. Meanwhile, the PA section contained some POV material (presented within quotation marks, but not given any context) and information on extrajudicial killings by Hamas. Israel commits lots of extrajudicial killings as well, but this page is not about extrajudicial killings. I have corrected all of these issues. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.231.6.65 (talk) 15:57, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Timor-Leste

It says that the death penalty was abolished in East Timor in 1999. East Timor did not gain independence until 2002. Someone please find the real date. Reenem (talk)

That is the correct date, since the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor took control in 1999 & as stated here at AI's site. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 19:30, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

AI or Hands off Cain

There seems to be an unilateral edit of the figures that do not match with those shown on the Amnesty International website & those from the Hands Off Cain numbers. Those numbers conflict with the previous up-to-date ones on the AI site that are also sourced, while those from HoC are not the most recent as claimed by the editor. The HoC site states (updated to: April 28, 2009). Those numbers from AI on it's website was last updated on June 1, 2009 8:02:31 AM (from page info). If the HoC site is valid, then a note in the article could be added to it rater than changed to be in conflict with the other website numbers. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 15:57, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

The source said it updated the same day automatically. It is in contradiction with itself: it said that some countries such as Guyana and Antigua are retentionist although there were no executions during the last decade. The words "child offenders" are NPOV, and the number of execution (2580) is unreliable because AI said herself that is below the reality. 90.29.211.25 (talk) 20:06, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Again you changed it unilaterally from what it had been for months & without any input from others. The source from HoC is not based from any other aside from it's own. Please refrain from doing any more changes until it can be verified, otherwise an admin/mod would look into this matter.

I would also point out another website that uses AI & not the HoC for it's source, that being on InfoPlease. If you read the sentence on the last line, it said at LEAST, meaning the minimum based from various sources AI has gotten. Also the words "child offenders" although were fine, but it was more clear to what you had, thus left as is now. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 22:09, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

In 2008 AI recorded at least 1718 executions in China, while Hand off cain recorded 5000 ones. That's funny!Cristiano Toàn (talk) 03:27, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes it is, because AI used official sources made available, yet they also state the number would be much more, closer to what HoC stated unofficially.That-Vela-Fella (talk) 13:28, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Never?

I noticed that some countries have 'never' listed for date of last execution. I removed the one for Bosnia and Herzegovina and replaced it with 'none since independence.' Then I noticed a lot more nations had 'never.' So I decided to bring the issue here... Anyone have any thoughts?

I think that 'never' gives almost an unfair characterization over other listings - surely some form of execution took place there at some point, but there are simply no records, etc... Pr0me7heu2 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 19:36, 3 June 2009 (UTC).

I was thinking it would be fine for those places to instead have N/A (to either signify Not Applicable OR Not Available) to make it not only as a general reference to cover it but also neutral. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 23:58, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Togo

Togo abolished the death penalty on the 23rd of june, 2009. I have changed the colour of the table to mark it as an abolitionist nation. --Île_flottant~Floating island (talk) 11:11, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Templates for deletion nomination of Template:Lists of countries

Template:Lists of countries has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. Cybercobra (talk) 07:09, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

In some countries such as Barbados, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Lesotho, Dominica, Sierra Leone have more than 10 years without a death penalty carried out. So you should take them in "de facto abolish" group Cristiano Toàn (talk) 13:34, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

"De facto abolitionist" requires not just an absence of executions, but a government policy of doing so. Secondly, the classification is by Amnesty International, so wejust go with what they say (otherwise, it would be Original Research, which is apparently a Bad Thing on Wikipedia) --IdiotSavant (talk) 20:38, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

I added in further clarity as to what places fall under that category with additional info from the AI site, it stating "and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions". That-Vela-Fella (talk) 08:58, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Capital punishment in Eritrea

The last known excution in Eritrea was carried out in 1989 when Eritrea is a part of Ethiopia. So the Eritrea's last execution cell is "none since independent" raplace blank cell because Eritrea de jure declare indepenpdent from Ethiopia in 1991. Cristiano Toàn (talk) 00:28, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

True, it should state that it's last one was in 1989, even though it wasn't fully independent yet. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 09:04, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Capital punishment in Liberia and Tajikistan

The last known excecution in Liberia and Tajikistan was carried out in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Up to now, two above countries have not yet spent over ten yaers of monatorium, so sort these countries in "retentionist"Cristiano Toàn (talk) 14:44, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

From what the descriptions states, it's OR a moratorium is in place, no matter if it's less than 10 years or more. So for Tajikistan, it's correct as the note on it explains. Now as far as Liberia is concerned, it did abolish it, but since the law was brought back for it last year, it has yet to be used in practice. That-Vela-Fella (talk) 08:48, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Guyana

Funny. the article says Guyana is red while the article on List of most recent executions by jurisdiction says Guyana is orange. Could someone clarify that? L'Etoile D'Ours —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.14.146.92 (talk) 11:27, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Amnesty International wrong in classification

I don't know the AI classifies both Barbados and the US in "retentionist countries". No execution were known in barbados since October 1984, while US have executed people every year since then and approx. 1000 people were carried out in this period. That is funny!Cristiano Toàn (talk) 16:51, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Not really, given that Barbados has less than 1/1000 inhabitants than the US. If they had had just one execution during this period, they would have been "worse" per capita than the US...--Roentgenium111 (talk) 01:02, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles

Could somebody add Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles? Even though they aren't independent countries, they are countries with their own independent capital punishment legislation, the Netherlands Antilles took until March 2010 to abolish the death penalty completely, while Aruba has been a complete abolitionist by constitution since its (incomplete) independence.ThW5 (talk) 11:52, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Map mistake

In the world map, Russia should be coloured orange, not blue, according to the claims in the article. --Roentgenium111 (talk) 20:48, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Algeria

This article says capital punishment was abolished in Algeria in November of 2010, which hasn't happened yet. Anyone clear this up? Czolgolz (talk) 03:13, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Myanmar

The only capital crime in Myanmar is high treason. It is eventually not a ordinary crime. Thus the status of Myanmar is "abolitionist in ordinary crime"Cristiano Toàn (talk) 09:48, 18 June 2010 (UTC).

Mongolia

I have updated Mongolia from red to orange as it has a current moratorium on capital punishment. Hands Off Cain has re-categorized it also. Wllmevans (talk) 20:28, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Map Inconsistencies

There are inconsistencies between the map and the main body for Bolivia, Sierra Leone, Lesotho and now Mongolia. I have commented on each in turn on the map discussion page but feel the map is wrong in each case rather than the main article.Wllmevans (talk) 20:28, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Gabon

On 15 Feb 2011 Hands Off Cain was reporting that Gabon has abolished the death penalty. The President signed the change into law in Feb 2010 but the news was only released yesterday. This needs to be updated. Wllmevans (talk) 20:31, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Jamaica

I have updated Jamaica from red to orange as no executions have taken place since 1988. Hands off Cain supports this change of status. Wllmevans (talk) 19:21, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Guatemala

I have updated Guatemala from red to orange as no executions have taken place since 2000. Hands off Cain currently records Guatemala as having a moratorium on capital punishment. Wllmevans (talk) 19:21, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Updated Article Lead in Summary Totals

I have updated these to reflect the position of each state within the body of the article. The figures I replaced were taken from an Amnesty International summary that is from 2009 and is now very out of date - why Amnesty haven`t got around to updating this is anyones guess. Hands off Cain have a more up to date global summary which is current to June 2010 - but this Wikipedia page need not be constrained by this - we can update as information comes in and be the most up to date reference - which is after all what Wikipedia should strive to be. Also I have clarified which states we are counting - ie the 193 UN members or Observers (to latter to catch the Vatican). For some reason Amnesty in their summary figures include two non-independent territories (Cook Is & Niue - but ignore countless others) and two non-UN limited recognition states (Taiwan & Palestine but ignore the other 8 such states). Hands Off Cain in their figures also count a couple of non-independent Territories (Bermuda & Cook Is) and two non-UN limited recognition states (Taiwan & Palestine). So each are counting a sligtly different 197 'states'. Neither organisation`s scope is particularly logical or consistent - so please keep this in mind when comparing this pages figures with any new updated figures from Amnesty or Hands Off Cain. At least Wikipedia can be consistent and logical in terms of what state entities our summary figures cover. We could of course add an additional summary outlining the position of the 10 Non-UN Limited Recognition States - but logically we should include all of them not just two - most of them are already in the body of the article anyway. I do not think this page should concern itself too deeply with non-state territories which are probably best dealt with in articles covering capital punishment within specific countries. Anyway grateful for any comments or thoughts. Wllmevans (talk) 23:17, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Table Suggestions

Does anyone else feel the table would be more useful as a single unit instead of separate tables for each continent? One mass table could include a "Continent" column, in case readers wanted to view the information organized in such a manner...

Does anyone else feel that the "Freedom Status" column is irrelevant to the subject of this article? The only purpose that I can see is to draw a POV correlation between a country's "Freedom Status" and its use or abolition of capital punishment. The "Freedom Status" is a completely different unrelated subject....

Useful additions to the table might include (for countries who maintain the death sentences) number of executions in the past year, and in the current year; and the same numbers expressed as a percentage or a per cent mille of that country's total population. For example, China and the USA are at the top of the list. But they also have the world's largest and third largest populations respectively.

Lastly (apart from the tables), I suggest that citing a very politically motivated and biased organization such as Amnesty International in the article's first paragraph paragraph creates an unbalanced POV in the article. Should the article to be centered on by-country use of capital punishment, or should it be based on opposition to the death penalty? I would suggest the former.

What say the masses? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lacarids (talk • contribs) 21:24, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Comments on the Table Suggestions above.

1. Merge all the Tables. DISAGREE. I like geographical split - there do seem to be a very distinct regional attitudes towards capital punishment, and to be able to view the data in regional tables allows flexible and discreet comparison with regional neighbours, as well as allowing regional analysis/commentary before each table. It would be more unwieldy on one huge table. Having said this I think there are too many tables and would like to see North & South America merged into a unified Americas table. And Asia and Oceana merged into an Asia-Pacific table.

2. Remove Freedom Status. DISAGREE. This column provides factual information on the nature of the governments in each country and at the very least can answer the often asked question about which democracies (free coutries) still practice the death penalty. I do not think it completely unconnected - a wide ranging freedom index based on political and civil rights is at least in the same ball-park as the specific human rights issue of capital punishment. There does in any case seem to be a correlation between freedom within countries and the likelihood of countries practicing the death penalty - whether there is a causal link is another question. But I do feel that including this data is more factual than POV. There is no commentary within the article about this so readers can make up there own minds.

3. Useful Additions - AGREE. I like your three suggested new columns - number of executions in the in the current year; number of executions in the previous year; and number of executions per population. Space might be a issue but definately worth looking into.

4. Removing Opening Amnesty International Reference - AGREE. Amnesty International perhaps should not be in the opening line as it could give the impression that the article is unbalanced - which in general I do not think is the case. Perhaps a more neutral phraseology could be used along the lines of 'State usage of Capital Punishment is usually broken into the four categories set out below' I assume your suggestion is not to jetison the rather useful and widely used four category system - which I would certainly not support.

I would be interested to know what other feel on these topics too..........62.25.109.197 (talk) 18:53, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Remove Freedom Status - have to agree it is very distracting in the table doesnt appear to be relevant to the subject and is clearly not a Neutral POV. MilborneOne (talk) 16:14, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Running total

The running total implies that 24+2=27, at one point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.145.71.46 (talk) 10:41, 30 March 2011 (UTC) This is in the paragraph entitled "Abolition Chronology".