How Death Row Is Different Around The World
3. Iran
While a distant second to China in terms of overall numbers, Iran is thought to execute the most people per capita. The official numbers hit triple figures without fail, and the actual numbers are often thought to be closer to 1,000.
The most common method is hanging, and in particularly crude fashion, too. Rather than a gallows with a long drop intended to dole out a quick death, prisoners are commonly stood on a stool and lifted with a noose on a crane, causing a protracted death by strangulation. While stoning is in theory a thing of the past, there are reports of such sentences as recently as 2012.
Iranian law grants murder victims’ families the right to demand death, as well as to pardon the perpatrators. While public support for capital punishment is on the wane, Iran remains steadfast in some of its particularly shocking policies, including executing individuals whose capital crimes occured as minors. Amnesty International estimates that there are 90 such prisoners within Iranian death rows.