Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Human Rights in Iran and the Dealth Penalty in the U.S.
I was burning some time earlier today when I found a site dedicated to the human rights issues in Iran, which is a fantastic site and offers much need publicity for some of the things going on in Iran. However, one of the most striking things to me was the execution counter - right on the home page. Now, being from the States I had heard that the U.S. government is mentioned in the company of Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia as one of the world's top executioners. Executions fly under the radar in the U.S. and not many people talked about it, so I started digging.
As it turns out the United States government does not execute as many people as Iran, but there exists the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), which publishes a rather chilling calendar. And according to the DPIC, the U.S. executed 52 people in 2009. This compares to 388 for Iran in 2009 and 714 people in 18 countries - excluding China. As one could image the statistics for certain things are hard to find, but the consensus elsewhere seems to be slightly north of 1,000 executions for 2009 in China. All for what?
As it turns out the United States government does not execute as many people as Iran, but there exists the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), which publishes a rather chilling calendar. And according to the DPIC, the U.S. executed 52 people in 2009. This compares to 388 for Iran in 2009 and 714 people in 18 countries - excluding China. As one could image the statistics for certain things are hard to find, but the consensus elsewhere seems to be slightly north of 1,000 executions for 2009 in China. All for what?
# posted by jn @ 1:52 PM 
