“If death penalty is not a deterrent, and it is not, and if the death penalty does not make us safer, and it does not, then it is only high-cost revenge .” – Charles M. Harris, senior judge, Florida

China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the US – these are the five countries that led the world in executions in 2012. A report from the human rights group Amnesty International was published on Wednesday, showing that 682 people were executed in 2012 in all countries other than China. There, it is estimated that more than 1,000 people were given the death penalty. Regardless of the numbers, Amnesty said, we are getting closer to a world without capital punishment.

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Following China at second place was Iran, with 314 people executed, then Iraq, with 129. Saudi Arabia came in fourth with 79. The US holds the fifth place with 43 executions and is the only country in the Americas which practices the death penalty.





Capital punishment in Kuwait (Photo: AFP)

“Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The organization campaigns for the total abolition of capital punishment,” the report stated.





Death by hanging, Iran (Photo: AFP)

A senior US judge strengthened their stance saying, “If death penalty is not a deterrent, and it is not, and if the death penalty does not make us safer, and it does not, then it is only high-cost revenge.”



Electric chair, US (Photo: AP)





Lethl injection, US (Photo: AFP)

The international human rights group said that it is possible the death penalty was being practiced in Syria as well as in Egypt, where dozens of people received capital punishment sentences several weeks ago, for their part in violence that left some dead, after a soccer game in Port Said

Amnesty said that at least 1,722 people were sentenced to death in 58 countries throughout the world in 2012. They said that last year’s numbers are a decrease over 2011, which saw 1,932 known in 63 countries.

The report also listed methods of execution employed: in Saudi Arabia, convicted offenders were decapitated. In Iran, Iraq and Japan, and also in some of the executions carried out by the Hamas government in Gaza, offenders were hanged.

China and the US used lethal injections and Belarus, North Korea and Hamas also used firing squads.

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