Overview of the death penalty worldwide in 2009.

The reported use of the death penalty worldwide diminished somewhat during 2009, there being at least 542 executions in 14 countries (down from 582 executions in 22 countries during 2008).  These are reported and verified judicial executions, but there were almost certainly unreported ones in China and North Korea. Details of executions are very hard to verify in these countries because of the official secrecy surrounding them.  Figures for Iran are also hard to verify, with some sites listing around 276 total executions. 
Quasi judicial executions, including by stoning to death, have taken place in parts of
Somalia controlled by Islamic extremists but these are excluded from the above figures.

The U.SA executed 52 men in 11 states during 2009, up from 35 in 2008, due to the Supreme Court challenge to the constitutionality of lethal injections which meant that there were no executions until May of 2008.  Lethal injection was used in 51 of these and the electric chair chosen by the inmate in one instance.  106 people were sentenced to death in the USA this year, the lowest number since 1976.

Togo and New Mexico abolished the death penalty during 2009 and Russia re-affirmed its moratorium on executions.  45 countries still retain the death penalty, although many of these do not use it.

The countries in which verifiable judicial executions took place during 2009 were (method in brackets) :

Country

Totals

America (USA) (LI+E)

52

Bangladesh (H)

3

Botswana (H)

1

China (LI + S)

55 +

Indonesia

13

Iran (H)

239

Iraq (H)

77*

Japan (H)

7

Saudi Arabia (B)

67

Singapore (H)

1

Sudan (H)

9

Thailand (LI)

2

Vietnam (S)

9

Yemen (S)

7

 

542

* It is thought that 77 executions were carried out in Iraq in 2009 of which 46 were not previously reported. This figure comes from a statement the released by the head of the Iraqi court Medhat al-Mahmud in January 2010.

Method

Beheading (B)

Electric chair (E)

Hanging (H)

Lethal injection (LI)

Shooting (S)

Totals

67

1

337

53+ China

20+ China

Executions by stoning have been reported from Iran and Sudan.  For the monthly update of the names, dates and crimes of those executed click here

Methods used.
Executions by shooting were carried out in Indonesia, Vietnam and Yemen.  Indonesia and Vietnam uses conventional firing squads whilst Yemen lays the prisoner on the ground and a single executioner shoots them with an automatic rifle. Some provinces in China continue to use shooting which is carried out by a single bullet to the back of the head but more than half of China has moved to lethal injection.  Lethal injections are carried out either in purpose built execution chambers or in execution mini-busses. Generally the execution method is not reported. 

Hanging accounted for at least 337 executions with 327 men and ten women being hanged in seven countries. These being Bangladesh, Botswana, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Singapore and the Sudan. 
Public and private hangings took place in Iran, all the rest being in private.  Iran uses either a short drop or hoists the prisoner into the air with a hydraulic crane jib (used at least for public hangings).  It is not known what method Sudan uses.  The other five countries listed gave the prisoner a calculated drop.
Japan hanged 7 murderers during 2009, down from 15 in 2008 but the new Democratic government has in effect placed a moratorium on further executions pending abolition. Some 100 prisoners remain on death row.

Saudi Arabia publicly beheaded 65 men and two women for murder and drug offences during 2009, down from 102 in 2008. Saudi Arabia is the only country that uses beheading. 

Lethal injection was used for 51 executions in America, from 5th May, following a decision by the Supreme Court in 2008 that this method was not unconstitutional.
It used in some Chinese cities and provinces, around half of the 404 Intermediate Peoples’ Courts have now adopted this method, although no figures are available and where executions are reported, the method used generally is not.  Beijing plans to move to lethal injection in early 2010.
Guatemala, Taiwan and Thailand are the only other countries that use lethal injection, of these Thailand carried out 2 executions in 2009. 

Larry Bill Elliott in the US state of Virginia elected execution in the electric chair.  (17th November 2009). Once again there were no executions by lethal gas in the US in 2009.

Women.
At least 17 women were reported executed in five countries during 2009. Ten were hanged in Iran, one shot in Yemen and two beheaded in Saudi Arabia.  1 unnamed woman was reported to have been shot in North Korea for distributing the bible.  1 unnamed woman may have been among a group of prisoners hanged in Iraq in June.  China executed three woman, the method not being disclosed.
Click here for details of females executed in 2009.

Juveniles.
It is thought that five juveniles (four male and one female) have been hanged in Iran during 2009. Two 17 year old men were beheaded in Saudi Arabia in May.

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