About once a week, a convicted murderer is put to death in a state penitentiary, most often in Texas

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-death_bdapr08,1,3702527.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Resistance to death penalty growing
Questions about justice, expense undermining political support for capital punishment

By Tim Jones
Tribune national correspondent
Published April 8, 2007


About once a week, a convicted murderer is put to death in a state penitentiary, most often in Texas, where all but one of this year's 12 executions have occurred.

But around the U.S., capital punishment is under siege. Since the first of the year, individual states have acted on long-festering questions about the equity of capital punishment and made bold moves aimed at repealing the death penalty, slowing the practice or temporarily halting it because of rising costs.

The Nebraska Legislature last month came within one vote of repealing its death penalty law. The new governor of Maryland called for the outright repeal of capital punishment. Most of Georgia's 72 capital cases have been stopped because the state's public defender system has run out of money. New Jersey lawmakers are drafting a bill to repeal that state's death penalty. And last month the governor of Virginia, a state whose 96 executions since 1976 are exceeded only by those in Texas, vetoed five bills that would have expanded the use of capital punishment.

"I do not believe that further expansion of the death penalty is necessary to protect human life or provide for public safety needs," said Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine, an opponent of capital punishment.

[MADem]

1. They're still fourth-place pikers, though, behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Of the countries that still permit the death penalty, only five use lethal injection, the most common method of execution in the United States. Seventy-three of those countries use firing squads, 58 hang condemned criminals, six stone them, and three still use beheading (Congo, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). http://www.infoplease.com/spot/deathworld1.html

EXECUTIONS AROUND THE WORLD

In 2005, there were at least 2,148 executions in 22 countries around the world. China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States were responsible for 94 percent of these known executions. The following countries executed defendants in 2005 (most figures are only of confirmed executions):

Most Executions in 2005

1. CHINA (At least 1,770 Executions)

2. IRAN (At least 94)

3. SAUDI ARABIA (At least 86)

4. UNITED STATES (60)


5. Pakistan (31)

6. Yemen (24)

7. Vietnam (21)

8. Jordan (11)


9. Mongolia (8)

9. Singapore (6)



SOURCE: Amnesty International
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=127&scid=30

It's good that there's more opposition in this country. It would be nice if China, the worst offender, would get the spirit too.

[Turbineguy]

2. Yes but in China

they execute corrupt politicians and officials.

That would certainly drive up the tally in the US.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Millionaires too. That doesn't happen here n/t

[MADem]

5. I'm hoping you're trying to be funny.

That doesn't justify execution, even if the people are odious.

If you're a good 'match' though, for some party official who needs a new kidney, you could find yourself swinging on the end of a rope...though they claim they've stopped doing that (yeah, right).

I'm sorry, this shit is just sick. Two wrongs don't make a right, and there are sixty eight reasons why you can be murdered by the state in China, everything from drug use to petty theft.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1425570.stm

China has put people to death not just for violent crimes, but also for offences such as bribery, embezzlement and stealing gasoline. ....only a fraction of death sentences and executions in China are publicly reported and the actual number of people put to death is far higher, the group said.

....Most executions in China take place after sentencing rallies in front of massive crowds in sports stadiums and public squares.

Prisoners are also paraded through the streets past thousands of people on the way to execution by firing squad in nearby fields or courtyards, it said.

That shit is just sick. They're being a bit more circumspect of late because they don't want to spoil their OLYMPICS events. But odds are excellent what we do NOT know would appall us.

In Iran, of course, they drive a drott crane into the town square and hang 'em high from it. No need to waste scarce wood building a scaffold.

[kwolf68]

4. Holy cow

Look a the countries we are in league with.

GOD BLESS THE USA. But we better ratchet it up if we want to catch Saudi Arabia in 3rd place.