Amnesty International Releases 2010 Report on Death Penalty Statistics

Taking a moment aside from all the fun to speak on a topic near and dear to us all. The Amnesty International 2010 Report on death penalty statistics was recently released and although progress was made, I was still shocked to see some of these facts. Particularly shocking is the fact that the US is one of only 18 countries still employing the death penalty and that we were ranked 5th on the list of offending countries:

* In 2009, 139 countries were death penalty free in law or practice. (This is up from 16 countries in 1977, when Amnesty began working to abolish the death penalty.) Burundi and Togo joined the list in 2009.

* Executions happened in only 18 countries last year with five accounting for the lion’s share: China (thousands), Iran (388), Iraq (120), Saudi Arabia (69) and the US (52).

* We know of 718 executions that happened in 2009 in addition to thousands from China. And we know that at least 17,118 lived under sentence of death.

* Only one country in Europe retains the death penalty – Belarus. No one was executed in the continent last year.

Read the full article here: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/amnesty-international-releases-2010-report-on-death-penalty-statistics

Love your brothers and sisters, the only race is the human race...stay human y'all.