Even with the large number of capital offenses in many countries, in recent years only about 30 countries carry out executions.
China was believed to have executed about 1,000 people annually until the first decade of the 21st century, when estimates dropped dramatically.
The number of executions worldwide fluxuates year to year, some countries—including Belarus, Congo,, Iran, Jordan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Yemen—execute criminals regularly. Japan and India also have retained the death penalty and carry out executions from time to time.
In the early 21st century there were more than 50 capital offenses in China.
The importation and possession for sale of certain drugs is a capital offense in more than 30 countries.
Iran, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines have a mandatory death sentence for the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs.
In Singapore, which has the highest rate of execution per capita of any country, about three-fourths of people executed in 2000 had been sentenced for drug offenses.
Sexual offenses of various kinds are punishable by death in about two dozen countries, including most Islamic states.
About 20 countries impose the death penalty for various economic crimes (bribery and corruption of public officials, embezzlement of public funds, currency speculation, the theft of large sums of money, etc.)
US states that still use the death penalty
US stats
state statistics
methods
exonerations
There were 165 death row exonerations between 1973 and 2018 (average of 5 per year.) Twenty-nine of them are from the state of Florida.
From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3 exonerations per year. From 2000-2011, there was an average of 5 exonerations per year.
A new study shows that 1 in every 25 people — or 4.1 percent — sentenced to death did not commit the crime that they are charged with.
As a percentage of all death sentences, the 165 death row exonerations is only 1.6 percent. But the innocence rate is 4.1 percent, more than twice the rate of exoneration.
racial stats
Jurors in WA are 3x more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case.
In Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher when the victim was white than when the victim was black.
A study in CA found that those convicted of killing a white person were more than 3x as likely to be sentenced to death as those convicted of killing an african-american, and more than 4x more likely as those convicted of killing Latinos.
A comprehensive study of the death penalty in NC found that the odds of receiving a death sentence rose by 3.5x among defendants whose victims were white.
In 96% of states where there have been reviews of race and the death penalty, there was a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or both.
Over 75% of the murder victims in cases resulting in an execution were white, even though nationally only 50% of murder victims generally are white.