Hands Off Cain Presents 2013 Report on the Death Penalty Worldwide

July 26, 2013: The presentation of Hands Off Cain's 2013 Report, ‘The Death Penalty Worldwide’, was held at the headquarters of HOC in Rome.

The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for more than fifteen years, was again confirmed in 2012 and the first six months of 2013.

There are currently 158 countries and territories that, to different extents, have decided to renounce the death penalty. Of these: 100 are totally abolitionist; 7 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 5 have a moratorium on executions in place and 46 are de facto abolitionist (i.e. Countries that have not carried out any executions for at least 10 years or countries which have binding obligations not to use the death penalty).

Countries retaining the death penalty worldwide declined to 40 (as of 30 June 2013), compared to 43 in 2011. Retentionist countries have gradually declined over the last few years: there were 42 in 2010, 45 in 2009, 48 in 2008, 49 in 2007, 51 in 2006 and 54 in 2005.

In 2012, executions were carried out in 22 countries, compared to 20 in 2011, 22 in 2010, 19 in 2009 and 26 in 2008.

In 2012, there were at least 3,967 executions, compared to at least 5,004 in 2011, at least 5,946 in 2010, at least 5,741 in 2009 and at least 5,735 in 2008. The decline of executions compared to previous years is justified by the significant drop in executions in China, estimated to be down from about 4,000 in 2011 to about 3,000 in 2012.

In 2012 and in the first six months of 2013, there were no executions in 3 countries where executions were carried out in 2011: Egypt, Singapore and Vietnam.

On the other hand, 8 countries resumed executions: Botswana (at least 1), Gambia (9), Japan (7), India (1) and Pakistan (1) in 2012; Indonesia (1), Kuwait (5) and Nigeria (4) in 2013.

Once again, Asia tops the standings as the region where the vast majority of executions are carried out. Taking the estimated number of executions in China to be about 3,000 (about a thousand less than in 2011), the total for 2012 corresponds to a minimum of 3,879 executions (97.8%), down from 2011 when there were at least 4,935 executions.

In the Americas, the United States of America was the only country to carry out executions (43) in 2012.

In Africa, in 2012, the death penalty was carried out in 5 countries (in 2011 there were 4) – Sudan (at least 19), Gambia (9), Somalia (at least 8), South Sudan (at least 5), and Botswana (at least 1) – where there were at least 42 executions. In 2011 there were at least 24 executions on the entire continent.

In Europe, the only blemish on an otherwise completely death penalty-free zone continues to be Belarus, where three men were put to death for homicide in 2012.

Source: Hands Off Cain, July 26, 2013

Former Florida officer who raped, murdered 11-year-old set to be executed

An execution date has been set for a former Mascotte police officer who, in May 1987, assaulted and murdered an 11-year-old girl. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for James Aren Duckett on Friday. He’s scheduled to be executed on March 31. It’ll be the state’s 5th execution this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Duckett was convicted in the murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee about a year after her death. According to officials, Duckett took the 11-year-old to a lake, where he sexually battered, strangled and drowned her.

‘Come on with it’: Arkansas inmate asks to hasten execution

A Faulkner County judge has scheduled an August hearing to determine whether a death row inmate can bypass his attorney’s advice, drop his remaining appeals, and hasten his execution. Scotty Ray Gardner, 65, is facing the death penalty for the 2016 killing of his girlfriend, Susan Heather Stubbs, in Conway. In letters sent to Circuit Judge Chuck Clawson and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Gardner said he wants to end his legal battles, writing that he is tired of prison life and skeptical he will receive a fair hearing. “It’s simple,” Gardner wrote in a September letter. “Come on with it.”

Florida executes Melvin Trotter

The execution of Melvin Trotter for the murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford in 1986 comes as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor questions Florida's 'deeply troubling' lethal injection record. Florida has executed its second inmate of the year even as a Supreme Court justice questioned the state's “deeply troubling" record on lethal injections and how it "shrouds its executions in secrecy." Melvin Trotter, 65, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, Feb. 24, for the 1986 murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford, a mother of 4 who was on the verge of retirement when she was stabbed to death in the corner grocery store that she owned for five decades. Trotter was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. ET.

Man convicted in 1986 murder set to become Florida's second execution of 2026

STARKE, Fla. (DPN) — A man convicted of stabbing and strangling a grocery store owner during a robbery nearly 40 years ago is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening, becoming the second person executed in Florida this year. Melvin Trotter, 65, is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection beginning at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Trotter was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1986 killing of Virgie Langford, 70, who owned Langford’s Grocery Store in Palmetto, in southwest Florida's Manatee County.

India | POCSO Court awards death penalty to UP couple for sexual exploitation of 33 children

A special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda on Friday sentenced a former Junior Engineer (JE) of the Irrigation Department and his wife to death for the sexual exploitation of 33 minor boys — some as young as three — over a decade, officials said. The POCSO court termed the crimes as “rarest of rare” and held Ram Bhawan and his wife Durgawati guilty of systematically abusing children between 2010 and 2020 and producing child sexual abuse material. Convicting the duo under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the court sentenced them to death for offences including aggravated penetrative sexual assault, using a child for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, and abetment and criminal conspiracy, they said.

North Carolina | DA won't seek death penalty against woman accused of poisoning family

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (DPN) — Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against a Western North Carolina entrepreneur accused of poisoning her family during a Thanksgiving dinner and killing a man nearly two decades ago. During a mandatory Rule 24 hearing Thursday in Henderson County Superior Court, Assistant District Attorney John Douglas Mundy announced that the state will proceed with the case against Gudrun Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel, 52, as a non-capital matter. The decision removes the possibility of an execution, meaning the maximum penalty Casper-Leinenkugel now faces is life in prison without parole.

Twenty Years Since the Last Scheduled Execution in California and a Focus on the Participation of Physicians in Executions

February 21, 2006, a California court’s decision effectively halted the planned execution of Michael Angelo Morales, marking the start of California’s 20-year moratorium on execution scheduling and throwing into the spotlight the tension between physician participation in executions and their pledge to show “ the utmost respect for life .” " The events surrounding Morales’s impending fate brought to the surface the long-running schism between law and medicine, raising the question of whether any beneficial connection between the professions ever existed in the execution context. History shows it seldom did. Decades of botched executions prove it. " — Professor Deborah Denno, The Lethal Injection Quandary: How Medicine Has Dismantled the Death Penalty

Oklahoma Ends Indefinite Death Row Solitary Confinement

Every year, thousands of prisoners in the U.S. are placed in solitary confinement, where they endure isolation, abuse, and mental suffering . This practice might soon become rarer for some inmates in Oklahoma, thanks to the efforts of activists in the state. Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oklahoma announced that the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester had ended the practice of indefinite solitary confinement for "the vast majority" of death row prisoners.

Chinese courts conclude trials of 2 criminal gangs from northern Myanmar, 16 sentenced to death

Chinese courts have concluded the trials of 2 major criminal groups based in northern Myanmar involved in telecom and online fraud, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Thursday. At a press conference held by the SPC, it was revealed that by the end of 2025, courts across the country had concluded first-instance trials of over 27,000 cases related to telecom fraud operations in northern Myanmar, with more than 41,000 returned suspects sentenced. Notably, among the trials of the so-called "4 major families" criminal gangs -- which had drawn widespread domestic and international attention -- those of the Ming and Bai groups have completed all judicial proceedings.

Florida | Governor DeSantis signs death warrant in 2008 murder case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Michael L. King, setting an execution date of March 17, 2026, at 6 p.m. King was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2008 kidnapping, sexual battery and murder of Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old North Port mother. On January 17, 2008, Michael Lee King abducted 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee from her North Port home by forcing her into his green Chevrolet Camaro. He drove her around while she was bound, including to his cousin's house to borrow tools like a shovel. King took her to his home, where he sexually battered her, then placed her in the backseat of his car. Later that evening, he drove to a remote area, shot her in the face, and buried her nude body in a shallow grave. Her remains were discovered two days later. During the crime, multiple 9-1-1 calls were made, but communication breakdowns between emergency dispatch centers delayed the response. The case drew national attention and prompted w...

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