The death penalty is rarely applied in the UAE...

The death penalty is rarely applied in the UAE, also because the law requires that a panel of three judges agree on the decision of a sentence to death, which can be commuted if the family of the victim forgives the murder, accepting financial compensation for the crime. When a family accepts blood money, a court can jail a murderer to a minimum of three years and a maximum of seven years.
Capital crimes under the constitution are: murder, rape, treason, aggravated robbery, adultery and apostasy. Drug-trafficking, environmental pollution and terrorism were later added as capital offences.
Under a 1995 law, drug traffickers in the UAE face the death penalty, although no executions are known to have taken place.
The Federal Environment Law effective from February 1, 2000 provides the death penalty and fines ranging from Dh1 million to Dh10 million for pollution both on land and at sea.
On April 6, 2000, a Ras al-Khaimah sharia court ruled that anyone found guilty of employing a magician to cast a spell on others will be sentenced to death because the practice violates Islamic law and is therefore blasphemous.
Under Islamic Sharia law applied in the Gulf Arab state, a victim's family can ask for the death penalty if the court finds the defendant guilty of murder. The victim's family is also entitled to waive such a right and demand "blood money" in its stead.
On July 28, 2004 the UAE enacted its first counter-terrorism law. The law allows the death penalty for people convicted of setting up, participating in or managing any group with the intention of committing terrorist acts. It describes as "terrorism" any act that spreads terror or harms the public or heads of states or government officials or seeks to destabilise the general order of society. Imprisonment for life or shorter periods would be passed on anyone guilty of aiding terrorist groups with funds, weapons or shelter either inside or outside the UAE and anyone guilty of receiving military or security training by terrorist groups.
During the Universal Periodic Review of human rights, in 2009, some members of the Human Rights Council recommended that the United Arab Emirates establish a moratorium on death sentences and executions, encourage a national debate on the death penalty, and abolish the death penalty.
Under the Maliki School of Islamic legal thought, officially adopted in UAE courts, a Muslim who murders a non-Muslim cannot face execution. But the Court of Cassation, in precedent-setting decision, on 29 December 2010, ordered to treat the murder of a non-Muslim the same as that of a Muslim, under an alternative Islamic school of legal thought, Hanafi, which is the only Sunni school of jurisprudence that calls for the death penalty if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim. Hanafi scholars note that an Islamic text that prohibits the killing of a Muslim for taking a non-Muslim life was meant to be applied only in times of war.
In February 2011, the United Arab Emirates resumed executions after three years of suspension. The UAE’s last execution was in February 2008.
On December 20, 2012, United Arab Emirates abstained on the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.