Overview of the death penalty worldwide in 2013.

The reported use of the death penalty worldwide increased during 2013, there being at least 888 executions in 19 countries (up from 743 executions in 18 countries in 2012, a 19% increase). These are reported and verified judicial executions, but there will have been unreported ones in China, North Korea and Yemen. Details of executions are very hard to verify in these countries because of the official secrecy surrounding them.

Iran hanged at least 493 people during 2013, up from 426 in 2012. However precise figures are hard to verify, with some websites listing far more executions than those announced in the Iranian media, from which my information comes, e.g. The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran claims that 660 people were executed there during 2013.

Iraqi executions increased from 129 in 2012 to 169 in 2013.

Saudi Arabia publicly executed 77 men and one woman for murder, armed robbery, incest and drug offences during this year.

The USA executed 39 men in 9 states during 2013, down from 43 in 2012. 80 people were sentenced to death in the USA this year, three more than in 2012.

Quasi judicial executions have taken place in the parts of Afghanistan still controlled by the Taliban and in Somalia controlled by rebel forces but these are excluded from the above figures.

The countries in which verifiable judicial executions took place during 2013 were (method in brackets) :

Country	Totals
America (USA) (LI & EC)	39
Bangladesh (H)	1
Botswana (H)	1
China (LI + S)	21
India (H)	1
Indonesia (S)	5
Iran (H)	493
Iraq (H)	169
Japan (H)	8
Kuwait (H)	5
Nigeria	4
North Korea (S)	20
Palestine (H)	3
Saudi Arabia (B)	78
Somalia (S)	22
Sudan (Darfur) (H)	8
Taiwan (S)	6
Vietnam (LI)	2
Yemen (S)	2
	888

Method	Beheading (B)	Electric chair (E)	Hanging (H)	Lethal injection (LI)	Shooting (S)
Totals	78	1	693	40+ unknown for China	55+ unknown for China, North Korea, Yemen

For the monthly update of the names, dates and crimes of those executed click here.

Countries with and without the death penalty.
At the end of 2012, 58 countries retain the death penalty, although only 18 of them used it during the year. 96 countries have abolished it completely, while a further 44 are abolitionist in practice, having had no executions in the preceding decade. No executions have been reported in Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore or Vietnam during 2012, all of which retain the death penalty and have prisoners on death row. Singapore has undertaken a review of its laws relating to capital punishment which allow the 32 prisoners on death row to have their cases re-examined. Vietnam switched its execution method from shooting to lethal injection in mid 2011 but has been unable to obtain the necessary drugs to re-start executions and is now announced that it is to produce its own drugs.

Methods used.
662 men and 31 women were hanged in ten countries, see table above. Iraq carried out 169 hangings during 2013, including those of three women (up from 129 in 2012).
Public and private hangings took place in Iran, all the rest were in private. Iran uses either a short drop or hoists the prisoner into the air with a hydraulic crane jib (used for many public hangings). It is not known what method Afghanistan and Sudan use. The other countries listed gave the prisoner a calculated drop.

Saudi Arabia publicly beheaded 77 men and one woman for murder, armed robbery, incest and drug offences during 2013, up from 73 men and three women in 2012. It is claimed that seven of these men were executed by shooting (which is lawful in Saudi Arabia), but this cannot be verified.

All but one of the US executions in 2013 were carried out by lethal injection, the remaining one being by electrocution at the prisoner’s election. China also uses lethal injection, carried out either in purpose built execution chambers or in specially equipped mini-busses. However it appears that shooting has been retained as well and is used for more heinous offenders. Normally the execution method is not reported in China.

Vietnam has resumed executions and at least two men have been put to death by lethal injection during 2013.

Executions by shooting were carried out in China, Indonesia, North Korea, Somalia, Taiwan and in Yemen.

Women.
At least 37 women were reported executed in five countries during 2013. At least 31 women were hanged - 28 in Iran, and three in Iraq. One was beheaded in Saudi Arabia and one each shot in the Somalia and North Korea. At least two women were executed by lethal injection in China and one in the USA.
Click here for details of females executed in 2013.

Juveniles.
There is at least one report of a judicial execution of a juvenile in 2012. On the 9th of January, Saudi Arabia beheaded Rizana Nafeekat for the murder of her employer’s baby. She entered Saudi on a forged passport but her true age at the time of the crime was probably 17. There are juveniles on death row in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and it is thought that Iran has hanged several young men and Saudi Arabia and Yemen have executed at least one each during 2013. Juveniles are defined as persons under 18 at the time the crime was committed who are exempted from the death penalty under International Law.

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