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
- JANUARY 14, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Husseini is to appeal her sentence of death today
Safiya Husseini is to appeal her sentence of death today
- JANUARY 14, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
An Islamic court in northern Nigeria postponed an appeal...
An Islamic court in northern Nigeria postponed an appeal hearing on behalf of a woman sentenced to death by stoning for the crime of adultery
- JANUARY 14, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Safiya Hussaini won a temporary reprieve from death...
Safiya Hussaini won a temporary reprieve from death by stoning for adultery under Islamic sharia law
- JANUARY 13, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
Yousef Moini, a bank robber, was hanged in public in...
Yousef Moini, a bank robber, was hanged in public in the northeastern city of Mashhad
- JANUARY 13, 2002ChinaDEATH PENALTY
China, which executes more people than the rest of...
China, which executes more people than the rest of the world put together, held its first public discussion of the death penalty, where legal experts called for the abolition of the capital punishment
- JANUARY 12, 2002AfghanistanDEATH PENALTY
Afghanistan's chief justice says the divine law has...
Afghanistan's chief justice says the divine law has to be applied if proof of a crime is furnished
- JANUARY 11, 2002ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Execution of death row prisoners by lethal injection...
Execution of death row prisoners by lethal injection will begin in 2003 in Thailand
- JANUARY 10, 2002South AfricaDEATH PENALTY
Two Botswana fugitives were extradited back to the...
Two Botswana fugitives were extradited back to the Botswana from South Africa, the Department of Home Affairs said
- JANUARY 8, 2002North KoreaDEATH PENALTY
Kim Mun-song, vice trade minister and vice-chairman...
Kim Mun-song, vice trade minister and vice-chairman of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] Committee for the Promotion of External Economic Cooperation [CPEEC], was recently executed by shooting, the South Korean newspaper Choson Ilbo web sit
- JANUARY 8, 2002TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
Taiwan's parliament decided to abolish the Retribution...
Taiwan's parliament decided to abolish the Retribution Act for Bandits to better protect the human rights of Taiwanese people, including the scrapping of compulsory death sentencing for various violent crimes
- JANUARY 7, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Prison officials in Nigeria's Katsina state remained...
Prison officials in Nigeria's Katsina state remained tight lipped about why Sani Yakubu Rodi was executed by hanging instead of by machete as his sentence stipulated
- JANUARY 7, 2002ChinaDEATH PENALTY
The Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court is now...
The Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court is now considering replacing firing squads with lethal injections when carrying out the death penalty
- 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 6, 2002IraqDEATH PENALTY
Eight Iraqi citizens were executed in the province...
Eight Iraqi citizens were executed in the province of Basra on charges of links with opposition forces, said the human right[s] office of the Communist Party
- JANUARY 6, 2002IranDEATH PENALTY
An Iranian man was publicly hanged for murdering a...
An Iranian man was publicly hanged for murdering a woman and two others were hanged for rape, newspapers said
- JANUARY 3, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
A convicted murderer was hanged in northern Nigeria...
A convicted murderer was hanged in northern Nigeria in the country's first execution under Muslim sharia law, which has sparked riots in the West African country
- JANUARY 1, 2002IllinoisDEATH PENALTY
Illinois does not forbid the execution of the mentally...
Illinois does not forbid the execution of the mentally retarded but does forbid the execution of juvenile offenders
- 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, 2002PhilippinesDEATH PENALTY
The Philippine penal code says defendants over the...
The Philippine penal code says defendants over the age of 70 are exempted from capital punishment
- 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, 2002Palestinian TerritoriesDEATH PENALTY
In Palestine three types of legislation are applied
In Palestine three types of legislation are applied
- JANUARY 1, 2002ThailandDEATH PENALTY
According to Section 31 of the Constitution, "A person...
According to Section 31 of the Constitution, "A person shall enjoy rights and liberties in his/her life and person
- JANUARY 1, 2002MalaysiaDEATH PENALTY
More than 200 people have been hanged in Malaysia since...
More than 200 people have been hanged in Malaysia since a mandatory death penalty was introduced for convicted drug traffickers in 1975
- JANUARY 1, 2002United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The abolition of the death penalty begun in 1965 when...
The abolition of the death penalty begun in 1965 when hanging stopped being the punishment for murder
- JANUARY 1, 2002ThailandDEATH PENALTY
Thailand has executed 40 drug traffickers since the...
Thailand has executed 40 drug traffickers since the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra took office in January 2001
- JANUARY 1, 2002GhanaDEATH PENALTY
At least 155 people are listed as having been executed...
At least 155 people are listed as having been executed between 1984 and 1993, when democracy returned to the former British colony after Jerry Rawlings was elected as president, and was said to have headed an iron fisted military government
- JANUARY 1, 2002PhilippinesDEATH PENALTY
The Philippines has executed seven convicts since it...
The Philippines has executed seven convicts since it reinstated the death penalty in 1994
- JANUARY 1, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The last Australian to be legally executed was Michael...
The last Australian to be legally executed was Michael Denis McAuliffe, 38, who was hanged in Malaysia in 1993