And a new report from Amnesty International has determined at least 1,200 people were executed in the world last year. 88 percent of the executions took place in five countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States. Amnesty International’s Secretary-General Irene Khan said China remains the world’s top executioner.

Irene Khan: '’Well, we published today our annual death penalty statistics, and those statistics show that China is still the top executioner in the world, that Iran is one of the leading executioners. There are still too many executions, death penalty cases, in those countries. And last year we campaigned successfully to get the United Nations to call for a moratorium on the death penalty, and we would like to see the European Union to push that issue in its dialogue with China and Iran and countries like that.'’