Death sentences
Archive theme
A death sentence is not the same thing as an execution: years can pass between the two, and the sentence may be overturned on appeal, commuted, or never carried out. Counting them separately measures two different things: how far a state resorts to capital punishment, and how far it actually applies it.
This page collects the news on death sentences handed down around the world, on the later stages of appeal, and on the sentences upheld or overturned. Executions have a page of their own.
Latest news
- JANUARY 12, 2002VietnamDEATH PENALTY
A Vietnamese court handed down four death sentences...
A Vietnamese court handed down four death sentences for drug trafficking
- JANUARY 12, 2002GreeceDEATH PENALTY
Nigeria's embassy in Athens told a protest delegation...
Nigeria's embassy in Athens told a protest delegation that a Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning in the African country would be spared, Soula Panaretou, a member of the Coalition of the Left and Progress, said
- JANUARY 10, 2002BangladeshDEATH PENALTY
A court in Dinajpur gave the death penalty to a man...
A court in Dinajpur gave the death penalty to a man for throwing acid on a teen-aged girl in Hakimpur upazila, which left the girl blind
- JANUARY 9, 2002CubaDEATH PENALTY
Some 50 prisoners await execution in Cuba, though no...
Some 50 prisoners await execution in Cuba, though no death sentences have been carried out there since 2000, an independent human rights organization on the island said, adding that most of those convicts live under "subhuman conditions
- JANUARY 7, 2002ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China should halt the execution of Hong Kong residents...
China should halt the execution of Hong Kong residents convicted of capital offences, an alliance of civic groups fighting the mainland's death penalty said in a petition presented to the SAR [Special Administrative Region] Security Bureau
- JANUARY 7, 2002Hong Kong SAR ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China should halt the execution of Hong Kong residents...
China should halt the execution of Hong Kong residents convicted of capital offences, an alliance of civic groups fighting the mainland's death penalty said in a petition presented to the SAR [Special Administrative Region] Security Bureau
- JANUARY 7, 2002TürkiyeDEATH PENALTY
A Turkish court sentenced three men to death on charges...
A Turkish court sentenced three men to death on charges linked to the killings of prominent supporters of a secular state, including a former culture minister and an investigative journalist
- JANUARY 3, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Two men were sentenced to death in the Iranian city...
Two men were sentenced to death in the Iranian city of Kerman
- JANUARY 1, 2002Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Three Saudi nationals convicted of homosexuality were...
Three Saudi nationals convicted of homosexuality were beheaded in the south of the country on January 1
- JANUARY 1, 2002VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Courts sentenced 55 people to death in 2001 on drug-related...
Courts sentenced 55 people to death in 2001 on drug-related charges, according to government figures
- JANUARY 1, 2002Congo - KinshasaDEATH PENALTY
Capital crimes are: aggravated murder, aggravated robbery,...
Capital crimes are: aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, treason, political and military offenses and genocide
- JANUARY 1, 2002ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China still holds the record for executions
China still holds the record for executions
- JANUARY 1, 2002ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China also condemned to death and executed many people...
China also condemned to death and executed many people in accord with the national campaign against corruption, which was strengthened after March's annual session of the National People's Congress
- JANUARY 1, 2002Trinidad & TobagoDEATH PENALTY
Trinidad and Tobago is a British Independent Territory...
Trinidad and Tobago is a British Independent Territory for which the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council remains the last court of appeal
- JANUARY 1, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Pakistani judges handed down a total of more than 4,000...
Pakistani judges handed down a total of more than 4,000 death sentences, in trials that international rights groups complain were often miscarriages of justice
- JANUARY 1, 2002TajikistanDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is enforced for 41 offenses (27 peacetime...
The death penalty is enforced for 41 offenses (27 peacetime and 14 wartime) and in 1997 was extended to gangsterism
- JANUARY 1, 2002MoroccoDEATH PENALTY
Some 40 prisoners have been sentenced to death in Morocco...
Some 40 prisoners have been sentenced to death in Morocco in recent years, including five Islamic activists of Moroccan and Algerian descent who were involved in arms smuggling and other crimes, human right groups say
- DECEMBER 28, 2001EgyptDEATH PENALTY
A Cairo criminal court condemned to death a carpenter...
A Cairo criminal court condemned to death a carpenter found guilty of murdering his wife, her lover and his own four children
- DECEMBER 28, 2001MalaysiaDEATH PENALTY
A court in Malaysia sentenced three leaders of a Muslim...
A court in Malaysia sentenced three leaders of a Muslim sect to death by hanging after convicting them of armed rebellion to create an Islamic state in the multi-cultural nation
- DECEMBER 28, 2001IndonesiaDEATH PENALTY
A 24-year-old woman cried hysterically as a Jakarta...
A 24-year-old woman cried hysterically as a Jakarta court sentenced her to death for attempting to smuggle one kilogram of heroin from Thailand
- DECEMBER 27, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A Beijing court sentenced a former financial official...
A Beijing court sentenced a former financial official of Air China to death for embezzling public money
- DECEMBER 27, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
In China two men involved in a killing spree that left...
In China two men involved in a killing spree that left 14 people dead were sentenced to death, while an accomplice was jailed for life, AFP reported
- DECEMBER 26, 2001YemenDEATH PENALTY
Twenty six defendants were sentenced to death, and...
Twenty six defendants were sentenced to death, and 11 were acquitted according to a final verdict issued by the penal court in Sanaa
- DECEMBER 26, 2001Hong Kong SAR ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A south China court sentenced a Hong Kong drug lord...
A south China court sentenced a Hong Kong drug lord and his four associates to death following what is said to be the world's largest haul of "ice," local reports said
- DECEMBER 26, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A south China court sentenced a Hong Kong drug lord...
A south China court sentenced a Hong Kong drug lord and his four associates to death following what is said to be the world's largest haul of "ice," local reports said
- DECEMBER 21, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Four people were sentenced to death for the murder...
Four people were sentenced to death for the murder of Rajwinder Kaur's husband and in-laws
- DECEMBER 21, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A salesman who channelled millions of yuan into phony...
A salesman who channelled millions of yuan into phony bank accounts was recently sentenced to death by the Intermediate People's Court of Changchun City in northeast China's Jilin Province
- DECEMBER 21, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A bank director was sentenced to death by a court in...
A bank director was sentenced to death by a court in south China for embezzling 21
- DECEMBER 19, 2001JapanDEATH PENALTY
An appeal court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced...
An appeal court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a former newspaper deliveryman to death for murdering a woman and her elderly mother in Tokyo after they refused to lend him money
- DECEMBER 18, 2001ChinaDEATH PENALTY
A former official of a Communist Party school in Beijing...
A former official of a Communist Party school in Beijing was sentenced to death for having his nephew kill his boss, the People's Daily reported