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 14, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Zhuo Xiaojun, a Hong Kong national, was sentenced to...
Zhuo Xiaojun, a Hong Kong national, was sentenced to death for murder by the Fuzhou City's Intermediate People's Court
- JANUARY 14, 2000FloridaDEATH PENALTY
The electric chair has ended its days as Florida's...
The electric chair has ended its days as Florida's sole means of execution after a decade that sometimes saw macabre spectacles in the state's death chamber
- JANUARY 12, 2000VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Four businessmen had their death sentences upheld by...
Four businessmen had their death sentences upheld by the Ho Chi Minh City Supreme People's Court
- JANUARY 10, 2000Congo - KinshasaDEATH PENALTY
A military court set up in Kinshasa by Kabila sentenced...
A military court set up in Kinshasa by Kabila sentenced Sammy Hachim and Khalil Algadba, two Lebanese men, to death for currency trafficking and spying for rebels holding the eastern half of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
- JANUARY 1, 2000ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International believes that in actual fact...
Amnesty International believes that in actual fact the number of death sentences and executions is much higher than the figures in their possession; this is because the Chinese authorities never publish statistics on the death penalty as they are consider
- JANUARY 1, 2000ChinaDEATH 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, 2000MaliDEATH PENALTY
Death sentences are given in Mali for serious crimes...
Death sentences are given in Mali for serious crimes such as assassinations, betrayals, sedition, spying, arsons and destruction with explosives of public buildings, plots against the state and embezzlement of public funds whose amount is equal to or more
- JANUARY 1, 2000Bosnia & HerzegovinaDEATH PENALTY
War crimes and genocide are capital crimes
War crimes and genocide are capital crimes
- JANUARY 1, 2000Congo - 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, 2000RwandaDEATH PENALTY
In 1999, 116 people were sentenced to death
In 1999, 116 people were sentenced to death
- JANUARY 1, 2000Sierra LeoneDEATH PENALTY
Murder, aggravated robbery and treason are capital crimes
Murder, aggravated robbery and treason are capital crimes
- JANUARY 1, 2000TajikistanDEATH PENALTY
The Tajik Supreme Court and its military collegium...
The Tajik Supreme Court and its military collegium passed death sentences on 33 people in 2000
- JANUARY 1, 2000MalaysiaDEATH PENALTY
The Kidnapping Act 1961 (Act 365) makes it mandatory...
The Kidnapping Act 1961 (Act 365) makes it mandatory for kidnappers on conviction to receive "death, imprisonment for life and shall, if he is sentenced to death, also be liable to whipping"
- JANUARY 1, 2000Trinidad & TobagoDEATH PENALTY
On May 26, 1998, the Trinidad and Tobago Government...
On May 26, 1998, the Trinidad and Tobago Government withdrew from the first Optional Protocol to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with effect from 26 August 1998
- JANUARY 1, 2000PhilippinesDEATH PENALTY
Under legislation passed in 1993, seven people have...
Under legislation passed in 1993, seven people have been executed by lethal injection for various "heinous crimes
- JANUARY 1, 2000PakistanDEATH 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
- DECEMBER 30, 1999UgandaDEATH PENALTY
On December 30, Condemned prisoner Ronald Gabula said...
On December 30, Condemned prisoner Ronald Gabula said over 50 death convicts would soon go to the gallows if President Museveni did not pardon them immediately
- DECEMBER 28, 1999TajikistanDEATH PENALTY
On December 28, Tajikistan's courts sentenced 5 men...
On December 28, Tajikistan's courts sentenced 5 men to death and several to jail for their role in a foiled military coup
- DECEMBER 15, 1999JapanDEATH PENALTY
On December 15, prosecutors urged the Tokyo District...
On December 15, prosecutors urged the Tokyo District Court to pass the death sentence on Satoru Hashimoto, 32, the "home affairs minister" of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, who is charged with murdering a lawyer and his family and with involvement in the sar
- DECEMBER 5, 1999IraqDEATH PENALTY
On December 6, Iraqi sources confirmed that the death...
On December 6, Iraqi sources confirmed that the death sentence was carried out on Shaykh Muhammad al-Nu'mani, who was related by marriage to well-known Islamic intellectual Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, executed along with his sister, Bint al-Huda, in 1980 for
- DECEMBER 2, 1999TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
On December 2, a Chinese court sentenced 2 Taiwan citizens...
On December 2, a Chinese court sentenced 2 Taiwan citizens to death and jailed 2 others for trying to smuggle out 44
- NOVEMBER 15, 1999EthiopiaDEATH PENALTY
On November 15, the second criminal bench of the Federal...
On November 15, the second criminal bench of the Federal High Court sentenced second Lt
- NOVEMBER 11, 1999AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
On November 11, Ala Rahman was publicly executed in...
On November 11, Ala Rahman was publicly executed in Laghman Province for murder by the heir of his victim
- NOVEMBER 8, 1999ChinaDEATH PENALTY
On November 8, Sun Yanbiao, the deputy mayor of the...
On November 8, Sun Yanbiao, the deputy mayor of the southern city of Ningbo from 1993 to 1998 was sentenced to death for taking bribes
- NOVEMBER 4, 1999ThailandDEATH PENALTY
On November 4, the High Court sentenced to death Helen...
On November 4, the High Court sentenced to death Helen Ayoromi, 30, a businesswoman from the Republic of Benin
- OCTOBER 7, 1999GuatemalaDEATH PENALTY
On October 7, a Guatemalan court sentenced Carlos Chen,...
On October 7, a Guatemalan court sentenced Carlos Chen, Pedro Gonzalez and Fermin Lajuj, 3 former right-wing paramilitaries, to death for the killing of 2 women in the Rio Negro village massacre, some 40 miles north of the capital, in which 70 women and 1
- OCTOBER 1, 1999Sri LankaDEATH PENALTY
In October, security has been tightened in the country's...
In October, security has been tightened in the country's two main jails amid signs of unrest among the prisoners sentenced to be executed by hanging, following earlier announcements that the death penalty would be carried out in future
- SEPTEMBER 24, 1999ThailandDEATH PENALTY
On September 24, Visanu Chokthavee Sarp, 42, a Thai...
On September 24, Visanu Chokthavee Sarp, 42, a Thai businessman convicted of cheating a state firm of about US$176,000 assets by the Vietnamese Appeal Court on July 2, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment following intervention by the Thai
- SEPTEMBER 20, 1999ChinaDEATH PENALTY
On September 20, Yili Prefectural Intermediate People's...
On September 20, Yili Prefectural Intermediate People's Court held a public trial in Yining County to pass judgment on 22 terrorists guilty of "violent terrorist activities
- SEPTEMBER 17, 1999ZambiaDEATH PENALTY
On September 17, Captain Stephen Lungu alias Captain...
On September 17, Captain Stephen Lungu alias Captain Solo was sentenced to death together with 58 soldiers for plotting and executing the October 28, 1997 coup against President Frederick Chiluba's Government