PENALTY

Several countries continued to hand down death sentences and
execute people for crimes that did not involve intentional killing
and therefore did not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes”
prescribed by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which is widely understood to mean crimes involving
intentional killing. The death penalty was imposed or implemented
for drug-related offences in China, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Saudi
Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and
Viet Nam.
Other capital crimes that did not meet the standard of “most serious
crimes” but for which the death penalty was imposed in 2014
included economic crimes such as corruption (China, North Korea
and Viet Nam), armed robbery (Democratic Republic of the Congo),
committing adultery while married (United Arab Emirates), rape
that resulted in death (Afghanistan), rape committed by a repeat rape
offender (India), rape (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates), kidnapping
(Saudi Arabia), torture (Saudi Arabia), insulting the prophet of
Islam (Iran), blasphemy (Pakistan), and witchcraft and sorcery (Saudi
Arabia).
Finally, acts described as treason, acts against national security, collaboration
with a foreign entity, espionage, participation in an
insurrectional movement, terrorism and other crimes against the state,
whether or not they led to a loss of life, were punished with death
sentences in Lebanon, North Korea, Palestine (in the West Bank and
in Gaza), Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
Amnesty International recorded at least 46 executions in three countries
in sub-Saharan Africa in 2014, compared to 64 in five countries
in 2013. The countries known to have executed people were Equatorial
Guinea, Somalia and Sudan. Sub-Saharan Africa also saw several
positive developments with states taking steps towards abolition, as
discussed in the next section.
The number of judicial executions confirmed in the Middle East and
North Africa decreased from at least 638 in 2013 to at least 491 in
2014. However, it should be noted that obtaining complete and reliable
data on the use of the death penalty in the region is particularly
difficult, especially for countries such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and
Yemen. The internal armed conflict in Syria meant that information
on the use of the death penalty in the country could not be
confirmed.
In the Americas, the United States remained the only country to
carry out judicial executions. However, the number of executions
dropped from 39 in 2013 to 35 last year, reflecting a steady decline in
executions over the past years. 5 Only seven states executed in 2014
(down from nine in 2013), with four (Texas, Missouri, Florida and
Oklahoma) responsible for 89 per cent of all executions. The state of
Washington imposed a moratorium on executions in February 2014.
The overall number of death sentences decreased from 95 in 2013 to
77 in 2014.
Amnesty International recorded 32 executions in the Asia-Pacific
region (excluding China), compared to 37 in 2013. The number of
death sentences recorded in 2014 decreased by 335 compared to
2013 (from 1,030 to 695—again, excluding China). Pakistan and
Singapore resumed executions in 2014, and Indonesia announced its
intention to end a moratorium on civilian executions—acting on this
statement of intent in 2015, as noted above.
The Pacific continued to be the world’s only virtually death-penalty-free
zone, although the governments of both Papua New Guinea
and Kiribati took steps to resume executions or introduce the death
penalty.
In Europe and Central Asia, Belarus—the only country in the region
that executes people —put at least three people to death during the
year, ending a 24-month hiatus. The executions were marked by
secrecy; family members and lawyers were informed only after the fact.
5 Death Penalty Information Center, “Executions in the United States,” available from www.
deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-united-states; Amnesty International, “Death penalty,” www.
amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/.
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