Executions on the rise: Analysing the top 5 countries in 2024

Despite public uproar about the inhumane nature of death sentences, several countries in the world can't seem to let go of this practice.

A significant protest is the institution of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty by the European Union on October 9.

The top five countries with the highest number of executions in 2024 were Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, North Korea and the United States. Reports indicate that Iran alone was responsible for 74% of all documented executions.

Iran carried out at least 800 executions, with more than half related to drug offences. In protest, prisoners have continued the “No Death Penalty Tuesday” hunger strike, which began in January 2024.

Saudi Arabia on the other recorded its highest number of executions in history, carrying out 303 in total. Meanwhile, Iraq experienced a significant surge in executions, rising from 16 in 2023 to at least 94 in 2024, including two mass executions for terrorism-related offences.

North Korea and the US have the lowest numbers with North Korea accounting for 32 executions, while the US executed 25 prisoners in 2024.

Since 2007, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted 10 resolutions advocating for a global moratorium on the death penalty, with the most recent passed on December 17, 2024. The 2024 resolution received backing from 130 countries, while 32 opposed it and 22 abstained. The United States joined high-execution nations such as China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in voting against the measure.

Despite this trend towards abolition, the most recent executions were carried out in the USA in December 2024.

On December 18, an Indiana man, Joseph Corcoran, convicted of murdering four people, including his brother and his sister’s fiancé decades ago, was executed without any independent witnesses. This marked the state's first execution in 15 years and the 24th in the US in 2024.

Just a day later, a death row inmate in Oklahoma was executed by lethal injection, marking the 25th and final execution in the US in 2024. Kevin Ray Underwood was sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin, a crime driven by a cannibalistic fantasy.