London, England – Despite the global trend towards abolishing the death penalty, the number of executions worldwide is on the rise.
According to recent data compiled by Amnesty International, there were 883 recorded executions across the globe in 2022, marking an increase from previous years. China, although not releasing detailed statistics on its executions, is believed to be a prominent executor, with thousands of executions occurring annually.
In addition to China, other countries with high execution rates include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United States. These nations, alongside a handful of others, consistently carry out executions each year, as pointed out by the Amnesty International report.
The use of the death penalty varies in methods, with countries like Saudi Arabia relying on beheading as the primary form of execution. Other methods such as hanging, lethal injection, and death by shooting are also employed across different regions.
Countries like the US have faced challenges in sourcing the necessary drugs for lethal injections, leading to alternative methods like nitrogen gas for executions like that of convicted murderer Kenneth Smith in Alabama. This scarcity of drugs has contributed to the decline in the use of the death penalty in the US.