The state that executes more people than any other by far is seeing its once rock-solid faith in capital punishment shaken by overturned convictions.

Ohio is set to resume executions using a single drug that has been used in the US to euthanise pets but never to put condemned prisoners to death.

Japan’s new government is under pressure to abolish the death penalty after Amnesty claimed the country’s death row inmates are being driven insane.

An Indian court on Thursday sentenced to death three people, including a married couple, for planting bombs that killed 52 in Mumbai in 2003.

Legal experts and human rights activists are criticising Egypt for an abrupt spike in death sentences in recent months.

A human rights group said on Wednesday that China retained its position as the world’s top executioner in 2008.