| Method | Description |
| Lethal injection | The most prevalent method due its extensive use in China. Used in China, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. |
| Hanging | The second most prevalent method due to its extensive use in Iran. Applied in two ways:
- By short-drop, which involves a much shorter drop to cause death by asphyxia. Used only in Iran and usually carried out by suspension from cranes or tank barrels.
- By long-drop, which uses a calculated drop to cause death by fracture of two of the cervical vertebrae. Used in Afghanistan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Botswana, Burma, Egypt, India, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Singapore, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria.
|
| Decapitation | The third most prevalent method due to its extensive use in Saudi Arabia. Used at various points in history in many countries. One of the most famous methods was the guillotine. Used only in Saudi Arabia with a sword. |
| Shooting | The fourth prevalent method mostly due to its use in Yemen. Applied in two ways:By a single shot. Used in Belarus, Burma, China, Sudan, Taiwan, and Yemen.By firing squad. Used in parts of Bahrain, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, the Capital punishment in [the United Arab Emirates|United Arab Emirates], and the United States. |
| Gas inhalation | The fifth most prevalent method due to its limited use in the United States. Legal in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. Last used on 23 10 2025. |
| Electrocution | The sixth most prevalent method due to its very limited use in the United States. Legal in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Last used on 20 02 2020. |
| Stoning | The seventh most prevalent method due its lack of legal use for decades but with a retention in statutes. The victim is battered by stones thrown by a group of people, with the injuries leading to death. Legal in Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen. |
| Method | Description |
| Asphyxia |
|
| Avulsion | By ungulates. In medieval Europe and Imperial China or camels as in West Asia. |
| Blunt trauma | By breaking wheel. Also known as the Catherine wheel, after Catherine of Alexandria who was apparently executed by this method.By falling. The victim is thrown off a height or into a hollow. The Athenian generals condemned for their part in the battle of Arginusae were thrown into the Barathron in Athens.By mazzatello. Italian method of execution by inflicting head trauma using club or other blunt weapons.By spinal fracture. Some Mongolian executions are said to have done this to avoid spilling blood on the ground. The Mongolian leader Jamukha was probably executed this way in 1206.By trampling with animals. Al-Musta'sim, the last Abbasid caliph was executed using horses in Baghdad. Trampling by elephant is also attested in India. |
| Burning | By boiling. Carried out using a large cauldron filled with water, oil, tar, tallow, or even molten lead.By pouring molten metal. Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pavlo Pavliuk were supposedly killed this way. The execution method is associated with counterfeits or traitors.By restraining to a stake. Infamous as a method of execution for heretics and witches. A slower method of applying single pieces of burning wood was used by Native Americans to torture their captives to death. |
| Decapitation | By hanging, drawing, and quartering. English torturous method of execution for high treason. The convicted was fastened by the feet to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn behind a horse to the place of execution, where they were then hanged, emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered. |
| Environmental exposure | By crucifixion. Roping or nailing to a wooden cross or similar apparatus and leaving to perish. The crucifixion of Jesus is the most notable instance of this method.By gibbeting. The victim is placed in cage hanging from a gallows-type structure in a public location and left to die to deter other existing or potential criminals.By immurement. The confinement of the victim by walling in. Though this was also used as a form of imprisonment for life, in which case, the victim was usually fed and watered. |
| Laceration | By animal bites, as in damnatio ad bestias, as well as alligators, piranhas, scorpions, sharks and venomous snakes.By flaying. The removal of the entire skin.By impalement. The penetration of the body by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by complete or partial perforation of the torso.By sawing. Practised by sawing or cutting a victim in half, either sagittally, or transversely.By slow slicing. The methodical removal of portions of the body over an extended period of time, usually with a knife, eventually resulting in death. Sometimes known as "death by a thousand cuts".By waist chop. A large blade affixed by a hinge to a board was aligned with the waist of the condemned; the knife was brought down, resulting in a hemicorporectomy. The condemned would typically die slowly of blood loss. Used in China up until the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor in the 18th century. |
| Poisoning | Before modern times, sayak was the method used for nobles and royals during the Joseon Dynasty in Korea due to the Confucianist belief that one may kill a seonbi but may not insult him. Poisoning by drinking an infusion of hemlock was used as a method of execution in Ancient Greece. |
| Shooting | By blowing from a gun. Convicts were tied to the mouth of a cannon, which was then fired.By machine gun. |