Amnesty International: Long-term, worldwide decline in executions Paul "the Peace Walker" attends a rally against the death penalty on the 30th anniversary of Gregg v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court upheld laws written to reinstate the death penalty, in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on June 30, 2006. UPI Photo/Eduardo Sverdlin LONDON, April 10 (UPI) -- Setbacks in some countries did not reverse the global trend toward becoming death penalty-free, an Amnesty International review indicated Wednesday. There were 682 executions worldwide in 2012, two more than in 2011, the report said. The number of countries that were recorded as carrying out executions in 2012 was 21, the same as the year before, but down from 28 countries in 2003. The number of newly imposed death sentences, though, decreased in 2012, with 1,722 new sentences in 58 countries compared to 1,923 sentences in 63 countries the year before. The regression we saw in some countries this year was disappointing, but it does not reverse the worldwide trend against using the death penalty. In many parts of the world, executions are becoming a thing of the past," said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International. India, Japan, Pakistan and Gambia resumed carrying out executions after long moratoriums on capital punishment, the report said. Meanwhile, Singapore observed a moratorium on the death penalty, Mongolia committed to abolishing the death sentence and Ghana plans to abolish it in its new constitution. Governments still executing have run out of arguments to justify themselves. There is no evidence whatsoever to indicate that the death penalty works as a special deterrent against crime," Shetty said.