Capital punishment by country
Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as a punishment for a crime. It has historically been used in almost every part of the world. By the 2010s, many countries had either abolished or discontinued the practice.The 193 member states of the United Nations, and the two observer states, are usually divided in four categories based on their use of capital punishment. As of 2023:
54 (28%) maintain the death penalty in both law and practice. 22 (11%) permit its use for ordinary crimes, but have abolished it de facto, namely, according to Amnesty International standards, they have not used it for at least 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions.