Quote:
Originally Posted by Hellmark
Based on what I've seen from a few sources ( http://www.antideathpenalty.org/statistics.html and http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-year being the easiest to sort through compared to the government sites), 42 in 2007, 37 people were executed last year, and 40 this year. Overall it is a downward trend, from 98 back in 1999. To date, since executions were reinstated in the US in 1976, 1176 people have been executed. Just under 1200 people in 32 years is pretty low. Compare that to highway workers, where in 2005 alone, 336 people were killed in the US ( http://www.nawic.org/images/nawic/Highvisibility.pdf). Going off last year's stats, 0.00001216% of our population was executed. Not a high number at all, especially when you start comparing to countries like China. |
I believe the numbers continue to look "good" even if you compare the number of executed not to the overall population but to the numer of people who received a death sentence and are awaiting its (i.e.: their) execution in prison.
But yeah... the US death penalty seems to be supremely poorly thought out... and almost certainly neither raises the quality (or even quantity) of justice nor provides a notable deterrent to any kind of crime.
- Ahi