How many countries have capital punishment?
Capital punishment means condemning a criminal to death, regardless of the method of execution used. Execution by the state has a long history, and legislation around the issue is still changing. Amnesty International keeps an updated tally of countries with and without death penalty laws. The organization also notes which countries have a moratorium on capital punishment or haven’t had executions in many years. Currently, 87 countries have completely abolished the death penalty, and another 27 countries do not use capital punishment in practice. One of the earliest death penalty bans was in Venezuela in 1863. The most recent was the Philippines in June of 2006. All
