A new Constitution abolished the death penalty in 1987,...

A new Constitution abolished the death penalty in 1987, but gave Congress the option of restoring it for "heinous" crimes. Alarmed by a rise in crime, lawmakers did just that in 1994. Forty-six crimes have been made subject to the death penalty by the 1994 law, including 21 for which capital punishment is mandatory. This number goes against the standards of the UN Human Rights Committee which considers 11 capital crimes a "high number."