Executions around the world surged as coronavirus restrictions imposed on countries' judicial processes eased, according to Amnesty International's annual review of the death penalty.
The report, which was published Tuesday and reviewed data from 2021, states a total of 579 people were put to death last year, which the human rights group called a "worrying" rise of 20% compared with the year before.
The executions were tracked across 18 countries including Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and the United States -- and the methods included beheading, shooting, hanging and lethal injection.
In the pandemic's first year, the number of people subject to capital punishment decreased as coronavirus lockdowns and other restrictions halted or slowed legal systems and pending executions, making 2020 the year with the lowest number of executions that Amnesty has tracked in more than a decade.
"Instead of building on the opportunities presented by hiatuses in 2020, a minority of states demonstrated a troubling enthusiasm to choose the death penalty over effective solutions to crime," Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said in a statement, adding that the surge showed "a callous disregard for the right to life."
Iran was responsible for the most executions, with at least 314 people put to death in 2021, the country's highest total since 2017, the report found, citing a crackdown on drug-related offenses for the rise.
In Saudi Arabia, the total more than doubled last year, from 27 to 65. The trend showed no signs of slowing this year, with the country carrying out one of its largest known mass executions, killing 81 men in March.
Human rights groups and activists said the executions indicated that Saudi Arabia was backtracking on promises to curb its use of the penalty. Those killed had been convicted of an array of offenses, including armed robbery and murder, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior said.
Amnesty noted that some governments -- including China's, which it labeled the world's "lead executioner" -- remain unwilling to share data.
"China, North Korea and Vietnam continued to shroud their use of the death penalty behind layers of secrecy, but, as ever, the little we saw is cause for great alarm," the organization said.
The details within the data showed that some nations, including the United States, appear to be pivoting away from the practice.
Despite the increase, the total of executions across the 18 countries last year was "the second-lowest figure, after 2020," that Amnesty International has recorded since at least 2010.
In the United States, 11 people were put to death last year, marking the country's lowest total since 1988.
In 2021, Virginia became the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty, after 400 years of using it for more prisoners than any other state.
"Signing this new law is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do," Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam said at the time, saying he believed the system to be "fundamentally flawed."