Capital Punishment

Capital punishment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Death penalty," "Death sentence," and "Execution" redirect here. For other uses, see Death penalty (disambiguation), Death Sentence (disambiguation), or Execution (disambiguation). For the Big Pun album, see Capital Punishment (album).

Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offenses. Historically, the execution of criminals and political opponents was used by nearly all societies--both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent. Among countries around the world, almost all European and many Pacific Area states (including Australia, New Zealand and Timor Leste), and Canada have abolished capital punishment. In Latin America, most states have completely abolished the use of capital punishment, while some countries, however, like Brazil, allow for capital punishment only in exceptional situations, such as treason committed during wartime. The United States, Guatemala, most of the Caribbean and the majority of democracies in Asia (e.g. Japan and India) and Africa (e.g. Botswana and Zambia) retain it.

In most places that practice capital punishment today, the death penalty is reserved as punishment for premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy (the formal renunciation of one's religion). In many retentionist countries (countries that use the death penalty), drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offenses such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.[1]

Capital punishment is a very contentious issue in some cultures. Supporters of capital punishment argue that it deters crime, prevents recidivism, and is an appropriate form of punishment for the crime of murder. Opponents of capital punishment argue that it does not deter criminals more than life imprisonment, violates human rights, leads to executions of some who are wrongfully convicted, and discriminates against minorities and the poor.

The latest country to abolish the death penalty for all crimes was Rwanda in mid 2007[2], until the government of Gabon announced on September 14, 2007 that it, too, will no longer apply capital punishment.[3]

At least since World War II, there has been a consistent trend towards abolishing the death penalty. In 1977, 16 countries were abolitionist, while the figure has since now gone up to 133. Currently, 90 countries have abolished capital punishment for all offences, 11 for all offences except under special circumstances, and 32 others have not used it for at least 10 years. A total of 64 countries retain it. Among retentionist countries, several used capital punishment on juveniles (under 18). In 2006 Iran executed four child offenders and Pakistan one. The People's Republic of China performed more than 3,400 executions in 2004, amounting to more than 90% of executions worldwide. In China, some inmates are executed by firing squad, but it has been decided that all executions will be by lethal injection in the future. These lethal injections are often performed via mobile Iveco execution vans. Iran performed 159 executions in 2004.[4] In the United States, 12 states executed 59 prisoners in 2004[5] (Texas conducts more executions than any of the other U.S. states, with 400 executions between 1976 and 2007 and since the Death Penalty resumed in 1982).[6] Singapore has the highest execution rate per capita, with 70 hangings for a population of about 4 million and it also (with Japan) has the lowest murder rate.[7]

Executions are known to have been carried out in the following 25 countries in 2006:

Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, North Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Uganda, the United States of America, Vietnam, Yemen.[8]

In that year also, 91% of all known executions took place in six countries listed below:[9]

Most Executions carried out in 2006

1. China