Amnesty International has released its annual report on the status of capital punishment around the world. Entitled “Amnesty International Global Report: Death Sentences and Executions 2017,” you can read it online in its pdf format.
2017 Report: Numbers Have to Be Higher than Reported
The 48-page report covers “the judicial use of the death penalty” as best it can. As we’ve discussed earlier, some countries — like China — consider state executions to be “state secrets” and there is no way to confirm the number of death penalty sentences carried out by these governments.
For more on how scary this can be, read about the China Death Vans in a series of posts published here several years ago, written by Lenamon Law legal intern Sin-Ting Mary Liu.
Other countries may not keep track. Some may have a tally but may not want to share their numbers with outside organizations (e.g., North Korea).
Amnesty International acknowledges these limitations as part of its report. With the information and data it was able to obtain and verify, there is much to learn and consider.
Death Penalty in the United States: 2017
Among those statistics are the following that pertain to executions and death sentences in the United States during the past year:
1. The United States is the only country in North, Central, or South America that carried out executions in 2017. This has been true for the past nine years.
2. There were 23 executions in the United States in 2017,
3. Forty-one (41) defendants were sentenced to death in the United States last year.
4. More states are carrying out executions. In 2017, eight (8) states executed people:
5. Fifteen states had defendants sentenced to death during the past year.
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