This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December
2014.
As in previous years, information is collected from a variety of sources, including:
official figures; information from individuals sentenced to death and their families and
representatives; reporting by other civil society organizations; and media reports. Amnesty
International reports only on executions, death sentences and other aspects of the use of
the death penalty, such as commutations and exonerations, where there is reasonable
confirmation.
In many countries governments do not publish information on their use of the
death penalty, making confirmation of the use challenging. In Belarus, China and Viet Nam,
data on the use of the death penalty is classified as a state secret. During 2014 little or no
information was available on some countries – in particular Eritrea, Malaysia, North Korea and
Syria, due to restrictive state practice and/or political instability.