The death penalty for all crimes was abolished on December 10, 1998.

The death penalty for all crimes was abolished on December 10, 1998. The abolition bill was voted by an overwhelming majority in the Bulgarian Parliament. The death penalty was replaced by a non-commutable sentence of life imprisonment not applicable to persons under 20 years of age and women who are pregnant at the time of the offence or the judgment.
The Bulgarian Vice-President commuted the 21 death sentences passed between 1990 and 1998 to life imprisonment upon the abolition of the death penalty in December 1998. Bulgarian courts had continued to pass death sentences up to abolition in 1998, but none of these were executed due to a moratorium.
A moratorium on executions imposed by Parliament was in place between July 20, 1990 and December 10, 1998. On February 13, 2003 Bulgaria deposited with the Council of Europe the instrument of ratification of Protocol No 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms banning the death penalty in all circumstances.
On December 18, 2007 Bulgaria co-sponsored and voted in favour of the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.