There are not just 5 or 7 countries that have the death penalty

[NewJeffCT]

I'm opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances, and have been for as long as I can remember.

However, I keep hearing on here the past few days that the US is one of only 5 or 7 countries that have the death penalty, including China, Yemen, North Korea and a few other places. And, we're the only "civilized" country that has it, too. This is not true.

If you're going to oppose the death penalty, please oppose it with facts and not by comparing the US to only a handful of tyrannical governments.

These countries still have the death penalty:
Japan
Korea
Singapore
Taiwan
India

23 countries carried out executions in 2010, and 9 so far this year:

2010 - The following 23 countries carried out executions in 2010: Bahrain (1), Bangladesh (9+), Belarus (2), Botswana (1), China (2000+), Egypt (4), Equatorial Guinea (4), Iran (252+), Iraq (1+), Japan (2), Libya (18+), Malaysia (1+), North Korea (60+), Palestinian Authority (5), Saudi Arabia (27+), Singapore (1+), Somalia (8+), Sudan (6+), Syria (17+), Taiwan (4), USA (46+), Vietnam (1+), Yemen (53+).<2>

2011 - As of 5 May 2011 executions have been reported in the following 9 countries during 2011: Bangladesh, China, Iran, North Korea, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, UAE, USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_capital_punishment_by_country

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html

http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/abolitionist-and-retentionist-countries

[Scuba]

1. Tasty bunch we're mixed with, huh?

[Harmony Blue]

16. I understand the OP was trying to offer a balance discussion

but the truth is we are not exactly in good company.

[NewJeffCT]

20. agreed

it's not good company to be in at all. However, I've seen several posts on DU over the past week that indicated that the US was one of only a handful of countries (5 or 7) that use the death penalty when that is just not true.

[sadbear]

2. We're certainly the only Western nation that still "legally" murders it's own citizens

[NewJeffCT]

3. If you count the "West" as Europe & Canada then yes

However, much of the Caribbean still allows the death penalty.

And, if you include "West" to mean Australia & New Zealand, too, then you should also count South Korea and Japan in that group, and both still have the death penalty.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Australia and New Zealand are culturally "Western"; South Korea and Japan are not.

So no, you can't include either of them in that group. Australia and New Zealand have majority populations of European, mostly British, ancestry, and British cultural and legal traditions from the days of colonial settlement, and closer ties to Britain and the US by virtue of language and culture. "Western" is a cultural label, not a geographic one. Historically and geographically the West is Europe west of the Dardanelles, the dividing line upon a time between Christian Europe and the Muslim-dominated Near East.

[patrice]

4. Okay, so I get a total of 31 countries that have executed people, but what's the difference between

to "have the death penalty" and to have "carried out executions"?

................................


P.S. I also have been against Capital Punishment ever since I first became aware of it.

[NewJeffCT]

6. People on DU have been tossing out "only 5 countries"

like it is a fact. Or "only 7 countries," or "only civilized country"

However, Japan, Taiwan and others carried out executions last year and over 100 people are on death row in Japan.

And, Amnesty International's list of countries that is 58 that still have the death penalty.

>
Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Botswana, Chad, China, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad And Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States Of America, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe

http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/abolitionist-and-retentionist-countries

[patrice]

9. Actually, how much of anyone else doing or notdoing something isn't the appropriate standard anyway.

[NewJeffCT]

10. agreed

Plus, saying how Europe does it isn't going to sell to most in the US.

[Richard D]

11. The 5 countries

do 90% of the executions.

[MicaelS]

12. Japan executes people, and I almost NEVER read anyone

Saying anything about it. Japan kills marine mammals and the world goes apeshit. Japan kills people, and no one even notices. Most Anti-DP advocates never even MENTION Japan as a country that has the DP. Notice that bold quote below, FOUR men executed on Christmas Day 2006. Just IMAGINE if that happened in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Japan

As of late January 2009, there were 95 people awaiting execution in Japan. Tsutomu Miyazaki and two others were hanged on June 17, 2008. A total of nine convicted murderers were executed in 2007. Three men were executed on August 23, 2007, four men were executed on December 25, 2006, one execution was carried out in 2005 and two in 2004.

According to media reports, 4 death-row inmates were executed in Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuoka in January 2009. A further 3 were hanged on July 31 bringing the total to 7 in 2009. Two inmates were executed in July 2010.

Having signed both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which forbid any execution for crimes committed under the age of 18, Japan sets the minimum age for capital punishment at 18 (Juvenile Law § 51). Although death sentences for minors (defined in Japan as those under age 20) are rare, those who commit capital crimes at age 18 or 19 may be legally sentenced to death.

Nine juvenile criminals have received death sentences that were finalized since 1966: Misao Katagiri, Kiyoshi Watanabe, Mitsuo Sasanuma, Fumio Matsuki, Sumio Kanno, Tsuneo Kuroiwa, Norio Nagayama, Teruhiko Seki and Takayuki Mizujiri. Seven of them have already been executed. Watanabe and Seki, both of whom killed four people when they were 19 years old, are still on death row.

[Upton]

7. What difference does it make?

We have the DP. The majority of Americans support the DP. Lets continue to carry it out where warranted..

[NewJeffCT]

8. I think the death penalty should be outlawed

however, I posted my info because people keep saying how the US is barbaric because it's the only civilized nation that allows the death penalty, or one of only a handful that carry out the death penalty.

[Bluebear]

21. Barbaric.

[former9thward]

13. China has the highest execution rate in the world.

I don't know why that fact is not mentioned by those who claim there are just a few DP countries.

[NewJeffCT]

14. is it execution rate, or total number of executions?

China executing 2,000 for a population of 1.3 billion
or Oklahoma executing 96 people with a population of 3.7 million?

[newspeak]

15. I love the countries we're comparing ourselves with.

You're correct at looking at the number of executions to ratio of population. Of course when it comes to incarceration, doesn't US beat China?

[NewJeffCT]

17. On further review, however

China executed 2,000+ people in one year alone.

The 96 Oklahoma has killed has been over 22 years.

Over 22 years or so, China's 2,000/year becomes 45,000, and possibly higher. (who knows how many were secretly killed?)

So, in comparing 96 killings for 3,700,000 vs 45,000 killings and 1,300,000,000, and OK has 0.26 per thousand and China has 0.35 per thousand. Neither has anything to be proud about.

(I picked OK because their rate of state-sponsored killing is even higher than Texas, but they only have 1/7 the population, so the total number is less.)

[former9thward]

18. You like to make up things, don't you?

Oklahoma has executed 11 people since 2007 or about 3 a year.

[NewJeffCT]

19. see post 17

OK has the highest execution rate in the country over the last 20 years.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1984278&mesg_id=1985631

http://executions.justsickshit.com/about/