“Don’t let them kill us.” This was the last message that Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi sent clandestinely from an Iranian prison days before being executed by hanging in May 2023. The three men had been sentenced to capital punishment, Amnesty International unjustly denounces , accused of moharebehor “enmity with God” for “acquiring and using firearms against the people and the police, which generated terror in society and resulted in the intentional homicide of three people,” the authorities of that country justified. In total, Iran executed 853 people last year, 48% more than in 2022, which increased the global number of death penalty executions by 30% to 1,153, the NGO counts in its annual report published this Wednesday. The number, however, could be much higher, since it does not include “the thousands” that the organization estimates were carried out in China, Vietnam and North Korea, but which it does not include in its statistics due to lack of reliable data.
From the highest peak in 2015 of recorded executions (1,634) in the last decade, the number fell until 2020, when 483 were carried out. “With the pandemic, crimes and sentences decreased, and many of the processes in which the prisoner was awaiting execution were paralyzed,” explains Beatriz Martos, head of the campaign against the death penalty at Amnesty International. Since then, the number has only increased, especially among those convicted of drug-related crimes. In 2023 alone, 40% of executions in the world were related to this type of crime. “The crisis triggered by Covid-19 has increased inequality and poverty in the world, and many more people find a way to make a living in micro-drug trafficking,” the expert develops. Executing them for this, which is not considered “extremely serious,” Martos emphasizes, is contrary to international law. Although the NGO rejects the death penalty in any case, she clarifies. “It is killing a person in cold blood, in the name of the State, who is already in custody and does not represent a danger to society.”
Of the countries for which data is available, Iran heads the list, with the aforementioned 853 executions, 74% of the total last year; followed by Saudi Arabia (172, 15% of all recorded executions), Somalia (at least 38) and the United States (24). “Countries like China, Iran or Saudi Arabia want to make a show of force and control, it is not even to do justice,” analyzes Martos. China is the largest executor in the world, although the magnitude of the practice is unknown because it is considered a state secret. “However, the media constantly reminds us that bribery or drug trafficking are crimes that can carry the death penalty,” which shows how widespread it is, explains the Amnesty International specialist. North Korea, another of the countries for which reliable data is not known, has established in 2023 that not speaking the native language is a capital crime, adds the expert.
Of the death sentences carried out by Iran, at least 545 were carried out “illegitimately” for acts that, according to international law, should not carry the death penalty such as robbery, espionage or drug crimes, the authors of the study indicate. . In that country, the NGO denounces, the authorities are not only trying to instill fear among the population after the demonstrations of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, between September and December 2022, triggered by the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini when She was in police custody because her hijab did not cover her hair, but they have intensified a “war on drugs” policy that has a disproportionate impact on poor and marginalized communities. According to the study data, executions for drug crimes increased by 89% compared to 255 in 2022. In addition, at least five people were killed for crimes that had been committed when they were under 18 years old, which which also contravenes international law.
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The “torture” of death row
At the end of 2022, there were 27,687 people in the world awaiting execution on death rows. And the number of them increases every year. In 2023 alone, 2,428 capital sentences were imposed, 20% more than the previous year. The conditions of isolation and cruel methods of execution constitute in themselves “a form of torture,” Amnesty emphasizes. And torture is, Martos recalls, a violation of human rights.
“Being on death row causes incredible trauma. In Alabama they are isolated in their individual cells most of the day. They are numbers, they do not have a name. It is a dehumanizing space,” details American lawyer Kacey Keeton. In that State, in addition, nitrogen asphyxiation has begun to be used. She tried Kenneth Smith earlier this year, just 14 months after subjecting him to a failed execution attempt.
In the corridor of a prison in the State of Alabama, in the United States, the inmate Rocky Myers, who is black and has an intellectual disability that was diagnosed when he was 11 years old, has been awaiting execution since 1994, when he was sentenced to death accused of killing his neighbor, a white woman, in 1991. In 2007, Keeton took on his case after his previous representative had abandoned him and legal avenues for recourse had been almost completely exhausted. The lawyer is convinced of the innocence of her representative. Her case reveals that “the system is broken in many ways,” she defends. For example, he ignored his disability and the judge sentenced him to capital punishment even though the jury had recommended life imprisonment. But today he has no hope left other than the clemency of the state governor, the only one who can grant him a pardon.
“The United States has a long tradition of extrajudicial lynchings of people of color. That the death penalty is maintained is simply a continuation of that system,” Keeton, visiting Madrid, strongly reproaches. “There is no data to support the idea that the death penalty reduces the commission of crimes. If we’re honest, it’s just revenge. Even executing those who did commit crimes will not stop them from being committed on the streets,” she reasons. “In Alabama there are 167 people on death row today and we don’t see that by putting more people there, crime will go down.”
More isolated performers
Although they kill more, fewer countries execute: 16 in 2023, the lowest number recorded by Amnesty International. “They are increasingly isolated, that is the path,” says Martos. According to his data, 112 countries do not contemplate capital punishment and another 32 do not apply it even when it is included in their penal codes. In the chapter on progress, Pakistan repealed the death penalty for drug crimes, the report highlights. In Sri Lanka, the president confirmed that he did not intend to sign execution orders. In sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya, Liberia and Zimbabwe are considering bills to abolish it. And Ghana’s Parliament voted in favor of its elimination, although at the end of the year, the law had not yet been passed.
The death penalty will be re-examined at this year’s UN General Assembly. Appointment in which Amnesty International will once again urge all governments to end its use “in a vital demonstration of commitment to human rights.”
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