Amnesty Hails Decline in Executions

US death penalty sentences fell to a historic low last year and executions also dropped sharply, contributing to a global slump of over a third from 2015, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Salil Shetty, secretary general of the London-based international human rights watchdog, said the US decline was “a sign of hope for activists who have long campaigned for an end to capital punishment”. The debate is clearly shifting,” he said in the group’s annual global review of the death penalty, which showed a 37 percent decline overall. The report also noted sharp drops in the number of executions in Iran – down 42 percent to at least 567 – and Pakistan – down 73 percent to 87. There were also fewer executions in sub-Saharan Africa, although the number of death sentences handed down more than doubled to 1,086, largely due to a rise in Nigeria to 527 from 171. The report further stated that the five biggest executioners in 2016 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. Egypt came in sixth place with a doubling of executions to 44 in 2016 from 22 in 2015.