( CNN ) On May 28 , 2014 , some 7,000 people gathered in a stadium in China 's northwestern Xinjiang region . But they had not come to watch the local football team or any other grand sporting event . Instead , the authorities paraded scores of prisoners dressed in orange jumpsuits . Armed soldiers guarded the exits . In the patently unfair , open air trial that followed , 55 people were found guilty of a range of offenses linked to violent attacks in the region and jailed . Three were sentenced to death . The public mass sentencing was part a China 's `` Strike Hard '' campaign against unrest in Xinjiang , a campaign the government claims was launched to combat `` terrorism '' and `` separatism . '' But it was also indicative of a trend that was starkly evident last year around the world -- governments using the death penalty in a misguided , and often cynical , attempt to tackle crime and terrorism . Today , Amnesty International releases its annual review of the death penalty worldwide . Much of it makes for grim reading . In Pakistan , the government lifted a six-year moratorium on the execution of civilians in the wake of the horrific Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar in December . More than 60 people have been put to death since , and the government has threatened to send thousands more death row prisoners to the gallows . Iran and Iraq executed people for `` terrorism , '' and other countries expanded the scope of capital crimes in their penal codes . In a year when abhorrent summary executions by armed groups were branded on the global consciousness as never before , governments are themselves resorting to more executions in a knee-jerk reaction to terrorism . Other countries made use of executions in similarly flawed attempts to address -- or appear to address -- crime rates . Jordan ended an eight-year moratorium in December , putting 11 murder convicts to death , with the government saying it was a move to end a surge in violent crime . In Indonesia , authorities announced plans to execute mainly drug traffickers to tackle a public safety `` national emergency . '' Six people have already been executed this year . A sharp spike in death sentences recorded in 2014 -- up more than 500 on the previous year -- can also be attributed to governments using the death penalty as a political tool . The rise was largely because of developments in Egypt and Nigeria , where courts imposed hundreds of death sentences in the context of internal political instability or crime and armed conflict . The simple fact is that governments using the death penalty to tackle crime and security threats are deceiving themselves or the public or both . There is no evidence that the threat of execution is more of a deterrent to crime than a prison sentence , as United Nations and other studies have repeatedly confirmed . It is high time that world leaders stop using the death penalty as an easy way out when times get tough . At Amnesty International , we have campaigned for an end to the death penalty for decades . Thankfully , most of the world now appears to agree with us . The numbers speak for themselves . In 1945 when the United Nations was founded , only eight countries had abolished the death penalty . Today , 140 states are abolitionist in law or practice . Last year , we recorded executions in 22 countries , down by almost a half from 20 years ago . Despite the troubling developments we recorded last year , there was still much good news to be found . The number of executions recorded around the world dropped significantly in 2014 compared with the previous year , from 778 to 607 . This number does not include China , where more people are put to death than the rest of the world put together , but with death penalty statistics treated as a state secret , the true figure is impossible to determine . Executions were recorded in only three countries in sub-Saharan Africa -- Equatorial Guinea , Somalia and Sudan -- and the number of people put to death went down by more than a quarter . The Americas continued to be execution-free , apart from the United States . Those governments that still execute need to realize that they are on the wrong side of history . They must join the vast majority of countries which have dropped the ultimate cruel punishment . Fighting for an end to the death penalty remains an uphill task , but all of us must try to make the world free of this punishment . With determination , I know that we can achieve this goal .
Amnesty International releases its annual review of the death penalty worldwide ; much of it makes for grim reading . Salil Shetty : Countries that use executions to deal with problems are on the wrong side of history .