Lots of data and a cool graphic concerning international use of the death penalty

Amnesty International recently published death penalty information for all countries in the world, and the folks at The Guardian have assembled and summarized the information effectively in this piece.  The piece includes the cool graphic spotlighted here, and this text:

Despite fewer countries executing prisoners than ever before, the death penalty is still alive and well around the world.  The latest statistics show that China executes thousands, said Amnesty International in its report on the death penalty worldwide.  Amnesty does not provide a precise figure of executions in China as Beijing keeps such figures secret.

China, together with Iran, North Korea, Yemen and the US carried out the most executions last year, the report says:

• Whilst 67 countries handed down sentences in 2010, only 23 countries actually carried out executions — just over a third
• The number of official executions reported fell from at least 714 people in 2009 to at least 527 in 2010, excluding China.
• We have also seen fresh steps towards abolition in countries including Belarus and Mongolia…

Setting China aside, Amnesty said at least 527 executions were carried out last year. Almost half of those took place in Iran (252).  North Korea executed 60, Yemen 53 and the US 46. The minimum number of executions was down from at least 714 in 2009.

Methods of execution included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and various kinds of shooting (by firing squad, and at close range to the heart or the head).  No stonings were recorded in 2010, but stoning sentences were reported in Nigeria, Pakistan and Iran, where at least 10 women and four men remain under stoning sentences.  At least 2,024 new death sentences were imposed during 2010 in 67 countries, including 365 in Pakistan alone, meaning it has some 8,000 people currently on death row.