Hangmen

By The Economist online

Which countries made most use of the death penalty last year?

UP UNTIL 1868, when the practice was abolished, public executions were a common entertainment in Britain. Last year only four countries carried them out: Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea and Somalia. It took Britain a century between abolishing public executions and getting rid of hanging altogether. This slow revolution in public morality has not, however, been repeated everywhere else. Amnesty International's report on the use of the death penalty in 2011, which uses data drawn from publicly available sources and therefore substantially undercounts many countries (such as China and Iran), notes a worldwide trend towards abolition. But, as the map below shows, there are still plenty of countries that impose the death penalty behind closed doors.