MAP: These 5 Countries Lead The World In Executions
Amnesty International has published a report detailing death sentences and executions carried out around the world in 2013.
China far and away topped the world in the number of executions it carried out. Although the exact number is a state secret, it is estimated that it was in the thousands. In 2013, China executed more people than the rest of the world combined.
There was a reported 15% increase in executions in 2013 over 2012, mostly due to an increase of executions in Iran and Iraq. Excluding China, due to the inability to find a concrete number of executions, about 80% of all executions worldwide took place in Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
Despite these setbacks, Amnesty International maintains in the report that the global trend is towards abolition of the death penalty.
The number of executions in the U.S., the country with the fifth highest rate of executions worldwide, continued to decline in 2013.