The Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994

In pre-1833 France, before jury were allowed to find mitigating circumstances to
felonies, death penalty was the only available sentence for capital offenses.
In Hong Kong, murder carried a mandatory death sentence until 1993 when capital
punishment was legally abolished. However, the last execution was in 1966; since then
all death sentences were automatically commuted into life imprisonment.
In India, murder committed by a convict serving a life sentence carries a mandatory
death sentence. The mandatory death penalty provided in Section 31A of India Law is in
the nature of minimum sentence in respect of repeat offenders of specified activities and
for offences involving huge quantities of specified categories of narcotic drugs. As of
August 2005, aircraft hijacking also mandates use of the death penalty.
In Japan, the only crime punishable by a mandatory death sentence is instigation of
foreign aggression.
In Malaysia and Singapore, there is a mandatory death penalty for certain offences,
most notably murder and possession of a certain amount of controlled drugs
(see Capital punishment in Singapore and Capital punishment for drug trafficking).
In Taiwan, there used to be a large number of offenses that carried a mandatory death
penalty; by 2006 all these laws have been relaxed to permit judicial discretion.
In the United Kingdom, crimes punishable by a mandatory death sentence included
murder (until 1957; from 1957 to 1965, only if certain aggravating criteria were met),
treason (until 1998), sedition and espionage.
In the United States, mandatory death sentences have been unconstitutional
since Woodson v. North Carolina; they were mainly used for murder and assault by life
convicts.
Other
Denmark has mandatory minimum sentences for murder (five years to life)
and regicide (life in prison § 115), deadly arson is punished with imprisonment from 4
years to life, and for an illegal loaded gun one year in state prison.
The state of Florida in the United States has a very strict minimum sentencing policy
known as 10-20-Life, which includes the following minimums: 10 years' imprisonment
for using a gun during a crime, 20 years' imprisonment for firing a gun during a crime,
and 25 years' imprisonment in addition to any other sentence for shooting somebody,
regardless of whether they survive or not.
In Canada and Ireland, life imprisonment is mandatory for murder if committed, at the
time of the offence, as an adult. Parole ineligibility periods vary, but under Irish and
Canadian law, are not less than 7 and 10 years, respectively.
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