China Ranks First in State Executions

China has been ranked at the top of a new list of countries conducting state-sponsored executions. According to Foreign Policy magazine, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, more than 1,000 executions were carried out by the Chinese government in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available. However, the magazine notes, the 1,000 execution statistic is the official number provided by the Chinese government. Outside estimates for Chinese executions range all the way up to 15,000. Amnesty International notes that Chinese executions account for the vast majority of all executions worldwide, with a total of 1,591 carried out in 2006.

According to the Amnesty International web site, the 2006 total represents a 25 percent decrease in the total number of executions from 2005, when the official tally was 2,148. More than 90 percent of all executions worldwide took place in just six counties, Amnesty International says. Those countries were China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the United States.

Second on the list was the Islamic Republic of Tehran, with 177 official executions in 2006. Foreign Policy says that the number of executions in Iran is expected to be around 250 this year, marking a sizeable increase over the 2006 total and a continual rise since the 2005 total reached 94. Iranians can be executed by the state for a wide variety of offenses, including drug smuggling, murder, adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, armed robbery, blasphemy, and political violence.

Pakistan came in third with 82 state-sponsored executions in 2006 for offenses including murder, arms trading, hijacking, robbery, rape, blasphemy, sex outside marriage, drug smuggling and trafficking, and child smuggling. Pakistan was ranked fifth in 2005 with only 31 state executions, Amnesty International says. Foreign Policy also says that Pakistan is home to almost a full third of all individuals in the world waiting to be executed.

Fourth in the rankings was Iraq, with an official total of 65 executions in 2006, including the much-publicized hanging of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Iraq did not appear on Amnesty International's 2005 list of states with the highest number of executions. Rounding out the top five is the United States, with 53 executions in 2006. The number of executions in the United States dropped to 42 in 2007, a continuing decrease from the 2005 total of 60, according to Amnesty International. The United States generally gives the death penalty for murder convictions, although Foreign Policy notes that some states include other offenses such as child rape.

Source: Foreign Policy Magazine web site and Amnesty International web site