The Status of Modern Methods of Executing Capital Punishments under Iranian law

Despite the movement for abolishing capital punishment, several countries have been bound to these punishments. In recent decades, however, the way how to reduce the agony resulting from execution of capital penalty has been the center of focus with criminal policymakers these countries; an issue which led the legislator of the United States to substitute hanging by death by electrocution (1888). Subsequently, gas chamber(1924) and death by lethal injection(1977) were enacted which were a response to the ineffectiveness of the preceding methods and a measure to soften death penalty in the United States; the methods which are gradually penetrating in the countries with capital punishment. Under Iranian penal system, there are different points of view from the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence; some argue that outdated methods are fixed and oppose any change or substitution thereof, while others emphasize on the replacement of these methods by modern ones. That being said, these modern methods of capital punishment have been accepted under Iranian law and the legislator has ratified them.