Amnesty: At least 19 000 people on death row

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Mail and Guardian/AFP

Amnesty: At least 19 000 people on death row

Rome, Italy

27 April 2007 01:37

Judicial executions dropped sharply in 2006, but at least 19 000 people remained on death row at the end of the year, Amnesty International said in its annual report published on Friday.

A total of 1 591 people were executed, most of them in China, down from 2 148 in 2005, the London-based rights group said.

Amnesty unveiled the report in Italy, whose government is spearheading a campaign at the United Nations for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.
(snip)

After China, Iran was in second place with at least 177 executions, Pakistan with at least 82, Iraq and Sudan with at least 65 each and the United States with 53 in 12 states.

The US is the only country in the Americas that has carried out any executions since 2003, while many countries are abolishing the death penalty.



Read more: http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=306063

[Doctor_J]

1. If Illinois is a barometer, then 9500 of them are innocent

When George Ryan suspended the death penalty in IL, half of the people sentenced to death here didn't commit the crimes they were on death row for. Not that that matters to some people.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. what scares me is I think Illinois was probably doing better than most to begin with,