PENALTY

were no reports of judicial executions carried out by stoning. In the
United Arab Emirates, one woman was sentenced to death by stoning
for committing “adultery” while married. Public executions were
carried out in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Justifications for the use of the death penalty
In 2014 an alarming number of countries used the death penalty to
respond to real or perceived threats to state security and public safety
posed by terrorism, crime or internal instability. This is not a new
phenomenon, but it has become a serious concern for the abolitionist
movement as we see more countries and politicians attempt to
defend the use, or resumption, of executions as a solution to crime
and terrorism. As this publication and others have made clear, there
is no evidence that the death penalty has a greater deterrent effect
on crime than imprisonment. When governments present the death
penalty as a solution to crime or insecurity, they are not only misleading
the public but also failing, in many cases, to take the necessary
action to prevent and respond to crime through robust and rights-respecting
criminal justice systems. 4
China, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan executed people convicted of terrorism
in 2014, while Cameroon and the United Arab Emirates expanded
the scope of the death penalty to include terrorism-related crimes.
On 17 December 2014, Pakistan lifted a six-year moratorium on
civilian executions for terrorism-related offences. The decision was in
response to a horrific attack the day before on a school in Peshawar
that left more than 149 people dead, including 132 children. Seven
people, all of whom had been convicted under an anti-terrorism law,
were executed in less than two weeks. The government also pledged
to execute hundreds of people on death row who had been convicted
of terrorism-related offences. By 28 April 2015, the country
had already executed 100 people.
Also in December 2014, Indonesia announced its intention to resume
executions for drug-related offences to confront what it called a
national emergency. On 19 January 2015, six people were executed
and the Indonesian authorities announced plans to put more people
to death throughout the year. On 28 April, eight people, including
Indonesian and foreign nationals, were executed by firing squad. All
of them had been convicted of drug trafficking. The executions went
ahead despite international calls for clemency.
China made use of the death penalty as a tool in the Strike Hard
campaign against terrorism and violent crime in the Xinjiang Uighur
Autonomous Region. Three people were sentenced to death in a
mass sentencing event that was held in an outdoor sports arena in
May 2014. Those sentenced had been convicted of terrorism, separatism
and murder. Between June and August, 21 people were executed
in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in relation to various
terrorist attacks.
Jordan resumed executions at the end of 2014 after an eight-year
hiatus, executing 11 men for murder. The executions followed the
establishment, weeks before, of a special committee of the Cabinet
to look into lifting the suspension on executions as a deterrent to
murder and in response to public demand.
The ongoing use of the death penalty in
contravention of international law
In 2014, as in the past, many of the states that retain the death penalty
continued to use it in contravention of international law and standards.
Unfair trials, “confessions” extracted through torture or other
ill-treatment, and the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders
and people with mental or intellectual disabilities and for crimes
other than intentional killing continued to be concerning features of
the use of the death penalty.
4 See Amnesty International, Not Making Us Safer: Crime, Public Safety and the Death Penalty
(London, Amnesty International, 2013), available from www.amnesty.org/en/documents/document/?indexnumber=act51%2f002%2f2013&language=en.
People with mental or intellectual disabilities were under sentence of
death in several countries including Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan,
Trinidad and Tobago and the United States.
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