30 July 2009 :

the positive evolution around the world over the last ten years towards the abolition of the death penalty has been confirmed again in 2008 and in the first six months of 2009.
9 countries changed status after 2007, and another 5 did so in 2008 and in the first six months of 2009.
This was emphasised in the Hands Off Cain Report, presented in Rome on occasion of the "Abolitionist of the Year 2009" award. The award was given this year to two Americans from the state of New Mexico, Governor Bill Richardson and Parliamentarian Gail Chasey. On March 18, 2009, New Mexico abolished the death penalty.
Uzbekistan passed from retentionist to abolitionist on the 1st of January, 2008. In 2008, Sierra Leone passed ten years without applying the death penalty and therefore is considered abolitionist in practice. On August 6, 2008, Argentina, already abolitionist for ordinary crimes, abolished the Code of Military Justice and removed the last trace of the death penalty from the country’s laws. In April 2009, Burundi adopted a new penal code that abolished the death penalty. In June 2009, the parliament of Togo unanimously voted in the law that abolished the death penalty.
Therefore, today 151 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty either in law or in practice. Of these, 96 countries are totally abolitionist; 8 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 5 have a moratorium on executions; and 42 countries are abolitionist in fact (they haven’t carried out capital sentences for more than ten years or are internationally committed to abolish the death penalty).
The number of countries that still employ the death penalty dropped to 46, down from 49 in 2007, 51 in 2006 and 54 in 2005.
In 2008, 26 countries employed capital punishment, the same as in 2007. Executions were at least 5,727, down from the at least 5,851 in 2007.
On the terrible podium of the three countries that held the most executions in the world in 2008 are, as in 2007, three authoritarian countries: China, with at least 5,000 executions (around 87,3% of the global total); Iran, with at least 346 and Saudi Arabia with 102.
Once again, Asia is the continent where almost all of the global executions are carried out: at least 5,666 executions (98.9%).
The Americas would be a continent practically free of the death penalty, if it wasn’t for the United States and Saint Kitts & Nevis, the only two countries on the continent that held executions in 2008: 37 in the USA (there were 42 in 2007 and 53 in 2006) and 1 in Saint Kitts (after ten years of de facto moratorium).
In Africa, the death penalty was carried out in only 5 countries in 2008 (there were 7 in 2007). There were at least 19 executions held across the entire continent, compared to the at least 26 in 2007 and 87 in 2006.
In Europe, Belarus continued to be the only exception in a continent otherwise totally free of the death penalty. In 2008, there were at least 4 executions carried out.
Of the 46 countries retaining the death penalty, 36 are dictatorial, authoritarian or illiberal countries. In 20 of these countries, there were at least 5,662 executions in 2008, approximately 98.9% of the global total. There are 10 retentionist countries that we can define as liberal democracies, 6 of which practiced the death penalty in 2008, carrying out 65 executions, or approximately 1.1% of the global total: United States (37), Japan (15), Indonesia (at least 10), Botswana (at least 1), Saint Kitts and Nevis (1). Executions could have also occurred in Mongolia, even if there is no official data.