Every day, prisoners are sentenced to death and capital punishment are given to criminals by the state with the intention to propagate a message to other criminals to stop crimes otherwise they will be treated in a same way. Countries with highest rates of executions usually take a stand that death penalty is the most effective way to deter criminals from committing crime. Most human right activist believe that death penalty is cruel, inhuman and degrading that does not deter crime but only depicts a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution to it moreover, it is also evident that the death penalty is not much effective in reducing crime than imprisonment that’s why today you can see most countries around the world have abolished execution in all cases but still death penalty is retained by several countries in the world where execution is mostly reserved for acts of terror and murder but in others it is widely used for minor crimes too. Some countries have unfair legal systems while executing the most prisoners and proceedings are not up to international fair trial standards causing prisoners gone through torture to make confession. Highest percentage of prisoners being executed are poor and minorities who fails to defend themselves due to scarcity of resources and lack of social links while putting political opponents to death penalty is also common in countries like Iran and Sudan.
In 2013, four countries started again executions and the number of prisoners being executed increased during the year, especially in Iraq and Iran significant increase in execution were observed however good news was that the overall trend was still firmly towards abolition but in 2014 some Asian and middle east countries used the death penalty to deal with most important issue of terrorism, crime or internal instability that collapse the overall trend.
According to the Dui Hua Foundation, a US-based rights group, China continued its highest use of the death penalty and 2,400 people were executed in 2013 and 2014, a 20% higher than 2012. In fact, China has more executions than the rest of the world put together. Excluding China, almost 80% of all known executions worldwide were recorded in only three countries: Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Amnesty International report 2014 put together countries who executed the most criminals. According to the report, 289 people were executed in Iran and Saudi Arabia put 90 to death while Iraq executed 61. The United States comes in fifth with a grand total of 35 executions for 2014. Amnesty International stopped publishing reports on total number of execution in China since 2009 due to difficulties in recording exact numbers as such figures are considered a state secret of China and official government sources completely hide it from outside world. Some countries also deliberately conceal death penalty proceedings; that makes true figures significantly higher that reported one. Below is list of top ten countries with highest rate of executions as per amnesty intentional report 2014.
| COUNTRY | REPORTED EXECUTIONS IN 2014 (Amnesty International) | REPORTED EXECUTIONS IN 2013 (Amnesty International) |
|---|---|---|
| China | 2,400 ( Rough Estimate ) | 2400 ( Dui Hua Foundation’s Estimate) |
| Iran | 289+ | 369+ |
| Saudi Arabia | 90+ | 79+ |
| Iraq | 61+ | 169+ |
| USA | 35 | 39 |
| Sudan | 23+ | 21+ |
| Yemen | 22+ | 13+ |
| Egypt | 15+ | — |
| Somalia | 14+ | 34+ (15+ by the Federal Government, and 19+ in Puntland) |
| Jordan | 11 | — |
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