Executions
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An execution is the act by which a state puts a condemned person to death. Hands Off Cain records the cases documented by public sources: press agencies, local newspapers, human rights organisations, official statements. The figure that results is a confirmed minimum, not an estimate of the real total: several states publish no data on executions, and in some countries they are not announced even to the families.
This page collects the news on the executions recorded by the association. The totals by country and by year are in the database.
Latest news
- JUNE 25, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Seven people in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous...
Seven people in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region were put to death by lethal injection, it was the first time the region had used such a method of execution
- JUNE 25, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Xie Zhonghua and Wu Jiang were executed after being...
Xie Zhonghua and Wu Jiang were executed after being convicted of murdering a police officer in Zhanjiang City, south China's Guangdong Province
- JUNE 22, 2003Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A Saudi Arabian man was beheaded after being convicted...
A Saudi Arabian man was beheaded after being convicted of beating to death a compatriot in a dispute over a plot of farm land
- JUNE 20, 2003PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Gulzar Rawal, 35, was hanged at in Central Jail in...
Gulzar Rawal, 35, was hanged at in Central Jail in Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan
- JUNE 19, 2003Sierra LeoneDEATH PENALTY
The Southern Regional High Court of Sierra Leone in...
The Southern Regional High Court of Sierra Leone in Bo District sentenced to death 6 people by hanging after convicting them of ritualistic murder
- JUNE 18, 2003OhioDEATH PENALTY
Ernest Martin, 42, was executed this morning at the...
Ernest Martin, 42, was executed this morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
- JUNE 17, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Zhuang Chunsheng, a 21-year-old man convicted of killing...
Zhuang Chunsheng, a 21-year-old man convicted of killing his parents, was executed in Beijing after being convicted by the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court
- JUNE 17, 2003Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
A Saudi citizen convicted of murdering a compatriot...
A Saudi citizen convicted of murdering a compatriot was beheaded by the sword in the capital Riyadh
- JUNE 16, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Two members of the Peoples Mujahedeen who have lived...
Two members of the Peoples Mujahedeen who have lived in Britain as political refugees for decades were recently arrested in Syria and handed over to the clerical regime in Tehran, the Iranian opposition movement said
- JUNE 16, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
Two members of the Peoples Mujahedeen who have lived...
Two members of the Peoples Mujahedeen who have lived in Britain as political refugees for decades were recently arrested in Syria and handed over to the clerical regime in Tehran, the Iranian opposition movement said
- JUNE 13, 2003ZimbabweDEATH PENALTY
Zimbabwe hanged four prisoners convicted of murder,...
Zimbabwe hanged four prisoners convicted of murder, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported
- JUNE 11, 2003TexasDEATH PENALTY
Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, was executed this evening
Kia Levoy Johnson, 38, was executed this evening
- JUNE 10, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
George Kelly, 27, who was executed for the murder of...
George Kelly, 27, who was executed for the murder of Leonard Thomas, the manager of a cinema in Liverpool, during a robbery in March 1949, had his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal
- JUNE 9, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Six people convicted of organizing a local mafia were...
Six people convicted of organizing a local mafia were executed in central China's Xuchang city, Henan province as part of an ongoing campaign aimed at cracking down on organized crime, state press reported
- JUNE 7, 2003EthiopiaDEATH PENALTY
The Ethiopian High Court sentenced Eshetu Shinkute...
The Ethiopian High Court sentenced Eshetu Shinkute Belete to publicly hang for his involvement in the extra-judicial executions of 27 people during the 1977-78 "Red Terror" period of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam
- JUNE 6, 2003Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
Salama bin Mteir al-Atwi, a Saudi citizen convicted...
Salama bin Mteir al-Atwi, a Saudi citizen convicted of murdering a compatriot, was beheaded by sword in the north-western province of Tabuk
- JUNE 5, 2003OklahomaDEATH PENALTY
Kenneth Charm, black, 37, was put to death at 6:05 p
Kenneth Charm, black, 37, was put to death at 6:05 p
- JUNE 3, 2003Puerto RicoDEATH PENALTY
Activists in Puerto Rico, whose constitution bans capital...
Activists in Puerto Rico, whose constitution bans capital punishment, protested an upcoming trial in US federal courts in the country in which two of their compatriots could face the death penalty
- JUNE 3, 2003North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Some Chinese newspapers cited North Korean defectors...
Some Chinese newspapers cited North Korean defectors as saying that the famine in the country had gotten so bad that human flesh was being sold on the black market
- JUNE 2, 2003YemenDEATH PENALTY
Three Yemeni men convicted of murder were executed...
Three Yemeni men convicted of murder were executed by firing squad, declared the Yemeni general prosecutors office
- MAY 31, 2003VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Cao Duc Bao, a 42-year-old Vietnamese man, was executed...
Cao Duc Bao, a 42-year-old Vietnamese man, was executed by firing squad in Hanoi after being convicted of murdering his friend during a drunken quarrel
- MAY 30, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
Seven people were executed after the Shanghai No 1...
Seven people were executed after the Shanghai No 1 and No 2 Intermediate People's courts convicted them for robbery, rape and murder
- MAY 29, 2003VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Phan Hoai Linh, a 36 year old Vietnamese man convicted...
Phan Hoai Linh, a 36 year old Vietnamese man convicted of child rape, was executed by firing squad in Vietnam's central city of Danang
- MAY 28, 2003FijiDEATH PENALTY
Apisai Tora, a leading Fiji Government senator, called...
Apisai Tora, a leading Fiji Government senator, called for sex offenders to be stoned to death or castrated and banished
- MAY 27, 2003AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
The conservative Iranian daily Kayhan reported that...
The conservative Iranian daily Kayhan reported that Ghassem Abdollahi, a 47 year old Afghani, had been publicly hanged for murder in the south-western town of Poldokhtar
- MAY 27, 2003IranDEATH PENALTY
The conservative Iranian daily Kayhan reported that...
The conservative Iranian daily Kayhan reported that Ghassem Abdollahi, a 47 year old Afghani, had been publicly hanged for murder in the south-western town of Poldokhtar
- MAY 27, 2003ChinaDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that China executed an infamous criminal...
It was reported that China executed an infamous criminal duo known as the "brothers from hell"
- MAY 27, 2003OklahomaDEATH PENALTY
A man who killed at least 5 people was put to death...
A man who killed at least 5 people was put to death in McAlester for murdering a Noble County couple in 1990
- MAY 21, 2003UgandaDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court, acting as last court of appeal,...
The Supreme Court, acting as last court of appeal, ruled that the former Prime Minister of the western kingdom of Toro, John Sanyu Katuramu, must hang for murdering Prince Charles Happy Kijanangoma
- MAY 21, 2003ZambiaDEATH PENALTY
"Human rights campaigners in Zambia won a major victory...
"Human rights campaigners in Zambia won a major victory recently when President Levy Mwanawasa refused to sign scores of death sentences, commuting all the sentences to life imprisonment," reported the Inter Press Service