Capital crimes are: treason or espionage in wartime (Art. 89);

Capital crimes are: treason or espionage in wartime (Art. 89); spying activities undertaken by a foreigner or displaced person (Art. 91); crimes against humanity (Art. 313); murder, parricide, poisoning (Art. 324); castration provoking death (Art. 313); aggravated theft causing bodily harm or death (Art. 453).
The death penalty was carried out for the first time in 1960, the same year the country gained independence from the UK/ and for a second time in June 1984, after a military court found seven people guilty of plotting against the state. The last executions took place in 1988, when seven people were put to death for killing an army officer and his wife.
Though executions are not being carried out, courts have continued to pass death sentences.
On April 1, 2003, the Criminal Chamber of the Ouagadougou Court of Appeal condemned to death in absentia Pierre Soulgané and Mahamady Congo for the murder and mutilation of an expatriate Belgian woman, Monique Meyer, in May 2002.
Burkina Faso abstained on the vote on the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 20, 2005.