Capital Punishment

According to Amnesty International capital punishment was reported to have occurred at least 2,148 times in 2005 in 22 different countries. 94% of all executions occurred in four countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the US with 1,770, 94, 86, and 60, respectively. This map shows which countries have abolished the death penalty (blue), abolished the death penalty except for exceptional circumstances (yellow), abolished the death penalty in practice (orange), and retained the use of the death penalty (red).

We're in good company, huh?

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics from US Department of Justice we are moving towards less executions:


The Innocence Project states that 14 people so far have been exonerated from death row using post-conviction DNA evidence. One must immediately assume that many convicts sentenced to death are innocent now, and many convicts have been wrongfully put to death. At what percentage error is the irreversible state punishment of death acceptable?

Map from Wikipedia