The poor, the desperate, the people for whom drug sales represent survival
1,518 confirmed executions in 2024 represent a 32% increase from 2023, with Iran executing 972 people and Saudi Arabia doubling its executions to 345. Drug-related convictions drive executions disproportionately, affecting impoverished populations in drug trafficking rather than major traffickers, contrary to international law.
- 1,518 confirmed executions in 2024, a 32% increase from 2023 and the highest since 2015
- Iran executed 972 people; Saudi Arabia doubled executions to 345; Iraq saw them spike from 16 to 63
- 42% of all executions were for drug offenses—637 people, a 25% increase from 2023
- Bangladesh recorded zero executions in 2024 for the first time since 2018
- 145 countries are now abolitionist in law or practice, up from 16 in 1977
Global executions surged 32% to 1,518 in 2024, the highest since 2015, with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq leading. Drug-related offenses account for 42% of executions, violating international law.
The numbers climbed again in 2024, and this time the rise was steep. One thousand five hundred and eighteen people were executed across the world last year—a 32 percent jump from 2023 and the highest count since 2015, when capital punishment hit what appeared to be a peak before beginning a long decline. That decline has now reversed. The reversal is real, documented, and accelerating, according to Amnesty International's annual accounting of state executions released this week. And these are only the deaths we know about. China, which does not release execution data and actively obstructs independent verification, is believed to account for thousands more.
Iran led the documented toll. The country executed 972 people in 2024, a 14 percent increase from the 853 it killed the year before. Among them was Laila Ghaemi, hanged on October 2 after eight years on death row. She had been convicted of murdering her husband—she strangled him after discovering him raping their daughter. Her case illustrates a pattern that troubles human rights monitors: Iran executed 30 women in 2024, more than any other country, and at least 505 of its confirmed executions—52 percent of the total—were for drug-related offenses. Saudi Arabia nearly doubled its executions, moving from 172 in 2023 to 345 in 2024, the highest annual figure Amnesty has on record for that country. Iraq saw executions spike from 16 to 63, all of them people convicted in connection with terrorism.
The surge in drug-related executions is particularly troubling to international observers. Globally, 42 percent of all executions in 2024 were for drug offenses—637 people, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. International law permits capital punishment only for the most serious crimes: intentional murder. Drug trafficking, even large-scale trafficking, does not meet that threshold. Yet the people being executed are not the architects of trafficking networks. They are the poor, the desperate, the people for whom street-level drug sales represent a survival strategy. Beatriz Martos, who leads Amnesty's campaign against capital punishment, put it plainly: the executions penalize impoverished populations disproportionately, not the major traffickers who orchestrate the trade.
The reversal of the downward trend is recent and traceable. From 2015 onward, executions had fallen year after year—until 2020, when the pandemic arrived. Lockdowns halted trials, suspended executions, and reduced crime. When normal operations resumed, the machinery of capital punishment restarted too, and it has not stopped accelerating since. Iran's surge is particularly linked to a policy shift: in 2021, authorities resumed an aggressively punitive approach to drug offenses, intensifying their reliance on execution as a response to drug use and sales.
There are small lights in the darkness. Bangladesh recorded zero executions in 2024 for the first time since 2018, a change that coincided with the arrival of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who took power after the previous prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, was forced from office during student-led protests last summer. Sub-Saharan Africa showed a mostly positive trend, with judicial executions in the region falling from 38 in 2023 to 34 in 2024, despite announcements from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso that they plan to resume executions. Zimbabwe abolished capital punishment for ordinary crimes. Nigeria, by contrast, moved to reintroduce execution for drug offenses.
Two cases from recent years underscore the stakes. Iwao Hakamada, a Japanese man, was released and exonerated after 45 years on death row, his mental health permanently scarred by the experience. Rocky Myers, an American, had his death sentence commuted; he has an intellectual disability, and international law forbids executing people with disabilities. These cases, Martos argues, demonstrate that capital punishment is cruel, inhuman, and degrading—and illegal under international standards.
Progress has been made. In 1977, when Amnesty began its campaign against capital punishment, only 16 countries had abolished it. Today, 145 countries have done so in law or in practice. But Martos warns against complacency. The United States executed 25 people in 2024. President Joe Biden commuted 93 percent of federal death sentences before leaving office, but state-level executions are rising. Five states carried out executions in 2023; nine did in 2024. Alabama tripled its executions. And the incoming administration has made clear its intentions: Donald Trump has repeatedly invoked capital punishment as a tool to protect the public from what he calls violent rapists, murderers, and monsters. The machinery, once again, is accelerating.
Citações Notáveis
International law permits capital punishment only for the most serious crimes: intentional murder. Drug trafficking does not meet that threshold.— Beatriz Martos, Amnesty International
The executions penalize impoverished populations disproportionately, not the major traffickers who orchestrate the trade.— Beatriz Martos, Amnesty International
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does the number keep climbing now, after falling for so long?
The pandemic created an artificial pause. Courts closed, trials stopped, crime dropped. When everything reopened, the system came back online—but it came back harder. Iran especially shifted to a much harsher drug policy in 2021, and they've been executing at scale ever since.
But drug trafficking isn't supposed to be a capital crime under international law, is it?
It isn't. International law says you can only execute someone for the most serious crimes—intentional murder. Drug offenses don't qualify. Yet 42 percent of all executions last year were for drugs. And it's not the kingpins. It's poor people selling on the street to survive.
So the system is broken in a specific way—it's targeting the wrong people for the wrong reasons.
Exactly. It's a form of punishment that's supposed to be reserved for the gravest crimes, but it's being used as a blunt instrument against poverty and desperation. That's what makes it so alarming.
Are there any countries moving in the opposite direction?
Bangladesh just had zero executions for the first time in six years, after a change in government. Sub-Saharan Africa is mostly improving. Zimbabwe abolished it for ordinary crimes. But the United States is going the other way—executions are rising, and the new administration has made it clear they intend to use capital punishment more, not less.
What does that mean for the global trend?
It means we're at an inflection point. The decline that lasted from 2015 to 2020 is over. We're climbing again, and there's no clear sign we'll stop.