The Saudi legal system, which has convicted two British nurses of killing an Australian colleague, is based exclusively on Islamic sharia law, which lays down the death penalty for murder.
Convicted murderers, rapists, armed robbers and drug-traffickers are condemned to be beheaded by the sword. The victim's family can spare the lives of murderers of their relatives and settle for diya, or blood money.
The normal sum is 110,000 riyals ($29,000) for taking the life of a Muslim, half the amount for a non-Muslim man, and half again for a non-Muslim woman, or $7,250, according to a legal expert in Saudi Arabia.
The family's decision to accept diya can be taken right up to the time of execution. In particularly brutal cases, convicts are crucified after execution and the body is displayed in public.
Thieves have a hand chopped off and a leg can also be amputated in the case of repeat offenders. Such cases are rare because witnesses must come forward to testify.
Saudi Arabia does not have a penal code. In Islamic court, three judges are required to pass a death sentence or order an amputation. A death sentence automatically goes up for appeal before a court of cassation and then before a supreme justice council. The king has the last word, in a legal process that can take up to two years before execution.
Beheadings are carried out in public for men, normally after Muslim prayers on Fridays. But women are executed behind prison walls.
Saudi Arabia has carried out more than 100 executions so far this year, including one woman, from Africa. No Westerner has been beheaded in the Gulf state for several decades.