Aggravated murder and crimes against the State or humanity are capital crimes.

Aggravated murder and crimes against the State or humanity are capital crimes.
The Penal Code of 1957 prescribes the death penalty "in cases of exceptional gravity" for genocide, crimes against humanity (Art. 281); war crimes against the civilian population (Art. 282); crimes against the wounded, sick or shipwrecked persons (Art. 283); war crimes against prisoners and interned persons (Art. 284); pillage, piracy and looting (Art. 285).
On May 9, 2005, Ethiopia introduced an Amended Penal Code under which a person who deliberately infected someone with HIV/AIDS by rape would face a maximum penalty of death.
Under Article 28 of the 1994 Constitution, the President is empowered to commute capital sentences to life imprisonment. Those condemned to death have the right to appeal to a higher court and to petition for presidential clemency.
Since 1994, Ethiopia has been conducting trials related to the ‘Red Terror’ orchestrated by Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in an attempt to wipe out opponents between 1977-1978. Mengistu fled Ethiopia in 1991 as the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front captured Addis Ababa. He was put on trial in absentia for genocide and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and forced disappearances concerning the death o about 150,000 people. Mengistu, resides in the Zimbabwean capital Harare and refuses to return to face accusations.
By the end of 2003, 1,070 people had stood trial, whilst 6,426 were awaiting judgement and over 3,000 people were still in exile.
Human rights organisations estimate around 50 people condemned to death during these trials.
Numerous reports have accused security forces of committing many extrajudicial killings, including some alleged political killings, in 2003. Security forces have also reportedly beaten, tortured, and mistreated detainees. At least one person died as a result of torture while in custody.
One execution took place in 2007, before that, the last known execution was carried out in 1998.
On 1 June 2011, Ethiopian government freed 23 former Derg regime high ranking officials from the death sentence imposed on them for committing genocide. According to President Girma Wolde Giorgis, who made the announcement to local media at the national palace, all the 23 prisoners on whom court has passed death sentence have now received pardon from the government and they are sentenced to life in prison. The former Derg regime high-ranking officials were in prison for the last 20 years. According to Ethiopian law, someone who is punished with a life sentence will not be imprisoned for more than 25 years.
Speaking at the event, “There is no half-forgiveness,” said Abune Paulos, Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch and member of the religious representatives who addressed the forgiveness request of the prisoners to the government. “In their pardon request, the prisoners urged the government to release them completely from prison so that they will spend the remaining few years of their life time with their children,” Abune Paulos noted. “I hope and believe that our government will fully release them from prison,” he said.
Indicating that the genocide committed during the Derg regime has knocked on the doors of millions of Ethiopians, including religious leaders, Sheikh Elias Redman, representing the Muslim community of the Country, also urged the government to consider releasing the prisoners with a full pardon.
In 2011 and 2012, there were no executions or new death sentences reported.
In 2009, the UN Human Rights Council under the Universal Periodic Review Process, has recommended the country to join the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, join resolutions for a moratorium on the death penalty and enact domestic laws prohibiting the death penalty. These recommendations are not supported by Ethiopia but  the Human Rights Council has recognized Ethiopia’s current efforts at limiting the application of the death penalty to exceptional cases.
On December 21, 2010 Ethiopia voted in favor of the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly but on December 20, 2012, it voted against.