Ethics Newsline®

LONDON
Contending that the death penalty is an unfair and anachronistic form of punishment, Amnesty International last week released a report charting a nevertheless near-record level of nearly 3,800 executions last year.

Last year’s total of at least 3,797 executions is the second highest recorded since the global human rights group began tracking the number 25 years ago. Only 1996 had more known executions — 4,272.

The group’s report attributed at least 3,400 of last year’s executions to China, 159 to Iran, 64 to Vietnam, and 59 to the United States.

In the report, Amnesty International noted growing opposition to the death penalty, with Bhutan, Greece, Samoa, Senegal, and Turkey abolishing it last year, and Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, South Korea, and Tajikistan imposing moratoriums.

Amnesty International says the death penalty is too often imposed after trials that are unfair or employ evidence that is flawed or unreliably extracted under torture, reported the Associated Press.

The report notes that the United States last year released the 115th death row prisoner convicted on evidence subsequently proved wrong by DNA testing.

Amnesty International also contended that China and Iran executed three people who were juveniles at the time of their conviction, violating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which both countries are signatories. Only Somalia and the United States have refused to ratify the convention, which bars the execution of juveniles.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution of people convicted as juveniles was unconstitutionally cruel, ending the practice within the United States.