Editing Capital punishment (section)

===Contemporary era===
By continent, all European countries but one have abolished capital punishment;{{NoteTag|name=Belarus.|content=[[Capital punishment in Belarus|Belarus]]}} many Oceanian countries have abolished it;{{NoteTag|content=including [[Capital punishment in Australia|Australia]] and [[Capital punishment in New Zealand|New Zealand]].|name=ANZ}} most countries in the Americas have abolished its use,{{NoteTag|content=Most Latin American countries and [[Capital punishment in Canada|Canada]] have completely abolished capital punishment, while a few such as [[Capital punishment in Brazil|Brazil]] and [[Capital punishment in Guatemala|Guatemala]] allow for it only in exceptional situations (such as treason committed during wartime).|name=Americas}} while a few actively retain it;{{NoteTag|content=The [[Capital punishment in the United States|United States]] and some Caribbean countries.|name=US&Carib.}} less than half of countries in Africa retain it;{{NoteTag|content=For example [[Capital punishment in South Africa|South Africa]] abolished the death penalty in 1995, while [[Capital punishment in Botswana|Botswana]] and [[Capital punishment in Zambia|Zambia]] retain it.|name=Africa}} and the majority of countries in Asia retain it, for example, [[Capital punishment in China|China]], [[Capital punishment in Japan|Japan]] and [[Capital punishment in India|India]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Duggal |first1=Hanna |last2=Ali |first2=Marium |title=Map: Which countries still have the death penalty? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/16/map-which-countries-still-have-the-death-penalty-2023 |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref>

Abolition was often adopted due to political change, as when countries shifted from authoritarianism to democracy, or when it became an entry condition for the EU. The United States is a notable exception: some states have had bans on capital punishment for decades, the earliest being [[Michigan]], where it was abolished in 1846, while other states still actively use it today. The death penalty in the United States remains a contentious issue which is [[Capital punishment debate in the United States|hotly debated]].

In retentionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived when a miscarriage of justice has occurred though this tends to cause legislative efforts to improve the judicial process rather than to abolish the death penalty. In abolitionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived by particularly brutal murders, though few countries have brought it back after abolishing it. However, a spike in serious, violent crimes, such as murders or terrorist attacks, has prompted some countries to effectively end the moratorium on the death penalty. One notable example is [[Capital punishment in Pakistan|Pakistan]] which in December 2014 lifted a six-year moratorium on executions after the [[2014 Peshawar school massacre|Peshawar school massacre]] during which 132 students and 9 members of staff of the Army Public School and Degree College Peshawar were killed by [[Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan]] terrorists, a group distinct from the [[Afghan Taliban]], who condemned the attack.<ref name="IBT">{{cite news |last=Sridharan |first=Vasudevan |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/peshawar-massacre-afghan-taliban-condemn-un-islamic-pakistan-school-carnage-1479853 |title=Afghanistan: Afghan Taliban condemned 'un-Islamic' Pakistan school carnage |work=International Business Times |date=17 December 2014 |access-date=17 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622032821/https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/peshawar-massacre-afghan-taliban-condemn-un-islamic-pakistan-school-carnage-1479853 |archive-date=22 June 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Since then, Pakistan has executed over 400 convicts.<ref>{{cite web |title=465 prisoners sent to gallows since 2014, says report |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/1451615/465-prisoners-sent-gallows-since-2014-says-report/ |publisher=tribune.com.pk |access-date=19 July 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706181850/https://tribune.com.pk/story/1451615/465-prisoners-sent-gallows-since-2014-says-report/ |archive-date=6 July 2017 |date=6 July 2017}}</ref>

In 2017, two major countries, [[Capital punishment in Turkey|Turkey]] and the [[Capital punishment in the Philippines|Philippines]], saw their executives making moves to reinstate the death penalty.<ref name="dpnythouse">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/world/asia/philippines-death-penalty.html|title=Philippines Moves Closer to Reinstating Death Penalty|first=Felipe|last=Villamor|date=1 March 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302103805/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/world/asia/philippines-death-penalty.html|archive-date=2 March 2017|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> In the same year, passage of the law in the Philippines failed to obtain the Senate's approval.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Romero|first1=Alexis|last2=Romero|first2=Paolo|title=Death penalty dead in Senate – Drilon|url=https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/04/27/1689114/death-penalty-dead-senate-drilon|access-date=10 October 2020|website=philstar.com}}</ref>

On 29 December 2021, after a 20-year moratorium, the Kazakhstan government enacted the 'On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the Abolition of the Death Penalty' signed by President [[Kassym-Jomart Tokayev]] as part of series of Omnibus reformations of the Kazak legal system 'Listening State' initiative.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-29 |title=Kazakhstan's President Signs Law Abolishing Death Penalty and Law on Commissioner for Human Rights |url=https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/308223?lang=en |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222112551/https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/308223?lang=en |archive-date=2022-02-22 |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=Government of Kazakhstan |language=}}</ref>