Amnesty reveals global surge in executions with the US alone in the America's

                                               

 Executions rise in 2013, China tops the list   :Executions by beheading, electrocution, firing squad, hanging and lethal injection rose by almost 15 percent in 2013 on the previous year, the organization said in its latest report on the death penalty released Thursday. 

China executed more people than any other country last year. Although Chinese authorities treat official execution statistics as a state secret, Amnesty International estimates thousands are killed under the death penalty every year, more than the rest of the world combined.Excluding China, executions rose to at least 778 last year, up from 682 in 2012. Iran came in second, with at least 369 put to death by the state, followed by Iraq (169), Saudi Arabia (79), and the United States (39).

Death penalty information center, "executions in the United States"


Executions by state
State 2011 2010
Texas 13 17
Alabama 6 5
Ohio 5 8
Georgia 4 2
Arizona 4 1
Oklahoma 2 3
Mississippi 2 3
Florida 2 1
Virginia 1 3
South Carolina 1 0
Missouri 1 0
Delaware 1 0
Idaho 1 0
Louisiana 0 1
Utah 0 1
Total 43 46


I've said it before but many of us have a moral problem with the death penalty in light of the many recently highlight cases of those put to death who were railroaded and were innocent.. Plain and simple, it's barbaric. Illinois recently joined the ranks of those outlawing the death penalty aand now Connecticut too! I am glad for the historic drop but why can't the entire US at least use the death penalty only in obvious deserved necessary cases?

China, Iran, North Korea, Yemen, and the United States lead the world in carrying out the most death sentences. Amnesty International: US in top 5 that’s quite the company to be proud of isn't it?

What do you think about the death penalty? My thoughts below; Thirty-three states, including Virginia and Maryland, allow capital punishment. All use lethal injection, and, until recently, most had used a three-drug cocktail: sodium thiopental to render the condemned unconscious, pancuronium bromide to paralyze the prisoner and potassium chloride to stop the heart. They can no longer get their hands on it. What do you think about the death penalty? My thoughts below

states with the death penalty

Alabama Missouri
Arizona Montana
Arkansas Nebraska
California Nevada
Colorado New Hampshire
North Carolina
Delaware Ohio
Florida Oklahoma
Georgia Oregon
Idaho Pennsylvania
Indiana South Carolina
Kansas South Dakota
Kentucky Tennessee
Louisiana Texas
Maryland Utah
Mississippi Virginia
Washington
Wyoming
US military
US Government


States now without the death penalty


Alaska
Connecticut
Hawaii
Illinois
Iowa
Maine
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Dakota
Rhode Island
Vermont
West Virginia

Wisconsin
Dist. of Colombia

If you read my stories in the past on this you know I have mixed feelings on the death penalty. Often times a person may be arrested and sentenced to death knowing they were innocent just to further someone's career or to quell the public. Now that we have DNA testing we are finding too often we have the wrong man. We have seen it too often

I do believe the death penalty is justified as in the case of the Fort Hood shootings and the Jared Loughner's shootings where they should be put to death immediately with no trial. They should not have a venue to plead their case. Sane or insane they did it wantonly and publicly, that is all that matters. Cases like those aside I am no longer comfortable with the death penalty being justified because of the horror of the crime because we can not be certain we have the right person unless we actually see them do the deserved crime.

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com