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Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the execution of a legally imposed sentence of death upon an individual as punishment for a crime often called a capital offence or a capital crime. Later it was shortened to the "execution" of the criminal rather than the sentence and remains in common usage now that the person was 'executed.' Historically, the judicial execution of criminals and political opponents was a phenomenon of nearly all societies, and it was often also used as a means to suppress political dissent. Among democratic countries around the world, most Western and Latin American ones have abolished capital punishment (except the United States, Guatemala and most of the Caribbean), while democracies in Asia and Africa, with the exceptions of South Africa and Namibia, retain it. Among nondemocratic countries the use of the death penalty is common.

In most places that practice capital punishment today, the death penalty is reserved as a punishment for certain murders, espionage, or treason or part of military justice. In some majority-Muslim countries, certain sexual crimes, including adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty. In many countries, drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world, courts-martial have sentenced capital punishments also for cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.

Capital punishment is a contentious issue. Supporters of capital punishment argue that capital punishment deters crime, saves innocent lives by preventing future murders, and that the death penalty is justified because allowing murderers to live while the victims cannot is unjust. Opponents of capital punishment state that capital punishment has not been shown to deter crime more than life imprisonment, frequently violates the most fundamental human rights with wrongful executions, and discriminates against minorities and the poor. Statistical studies have failed to show that capital punishment deters crime any more or less than revocable methods of punishment.

The death penalty worldwide

Global distribution of death penalty

Reports from NGOs opposed to the death penalty tend to publicise the view that abolition is a global trend. In 1977, 16 countries were abolitionist, while the figure was 122 for the end of 2005. In more detail, 86 countries have abolished capital punishment for all offences, 11 for all offences except under special circumstances, and 25 have not used it for at least 10 years. However, Sri Lanka recently declared an end to its moratorium on the death penalty. A total of 74 countries retain it. Among retentionist countries, 8 use capital punishment for juveniles (under 18). China performed more than 3400 executions in 2004 and these amount to more than 90% of executions worldwide. In China, some inmates are executed by firing squad, but it has been decided that all executions will be in the form of lethal injections in the future. Iran performed 159 executions in 2004 . This included several executions for the crimes of "homosexual acts" and "adultery" (which includes victims of rape). The United States performed 60 executions in 2005. Texas conducts more executions than any other State, with 359 executions between 1976 and 2006. Singapore has the highest execution rate per capita, with 70 hangings for a population of about 4 million.

In demographic terms, many retentionist countries have large populations and high population growth. When the relative demographic proportion between retentionist and abolitionist countries is taken into account, this may indicate an underlying trend of increase in retentionist population, which is seemingly shifted in favour of the number of abolitionist countries when new countries switch to being abolitionist. However, it is important to note that use of the death penalty is becoming more restrained in retentionist countries, which is often masked by the population growth because it may nonetheless increase the number of executions being carried out. Japan and the U.S. were the only fully developed and democratic countries to retain the death penalty. The death penalty was overwhelmingly practiced in poor, undemocratic, and authoritarian states, which often employed the death penalty as a tool of political oppression. During the 1980s, the democratisation of Latin America (with its long history of progressive and Catholic tradition) swelled the rank of abolitionist countries. This was soon followed by the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, which then aspired to emulate neighbouring Western Europe. In these countries, the public support for the death penalty is low and/or decreasing. The European Union and the Council of Europe both strictly require member states not to practice the death penalty. The only European country to do so is Belarus - this is one of the reasons that Belarus is excluded from the Council of Europe. On the other hand, democratisation and rapid industrialisation in Asia have been increasing the number of retentionist countries that are democratic and/or developed. In these countries, the death penalty enjoys strong public support, and the matter receives little attention from the legislature. This trend has been followed by partial democratisation in some African and Middle Eastern countries where the support for the death penalty is high.

Public opinion

Support for the death penalty varies widely. It is a highly contentious political issue in the U.S., because it is a part of culture war over the ongoing debate over the response to high crime rate. In other democracies, this is not the case. In democracies both in