Is the use of capital punishment increasing or declining? What would account for these trends?
Despite a global trend towards abolition, in 2013, the latest data available from Amnesty International, executions rose by almost 15% over the previous year. The spike of recorded, verifiable executions, according to the organization, were perpetrated by an “isolated group of entrenched executioners, mainly Iraq and Iran.”
Excluding China, for which figures are not known, Amnesty reveals that 778 confirmed executions were carried out in 2013.
However, despite an increase in numbers of executions as a whole, there is a general trend towards abolition, with an increasing number of territories and countries across the globe moving toward moratorium or abolition.
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However, foreigners often fall foul of some country’s laws — drug trafficking cases are often headline-grabbers — and in some high profile cases, despite diplomatic appeals, politicians choose to go ahead with executions in a bid to appear unwavering in the face of serious crime.
What are the arguments for and against the practice?
Advocates say it is a powerful deterrent against serious crime, while others point to the problems — and cost — of keeping violent offenders in general prison populations. In many countries, justice is seen as served due to the satisfaction of the victims or their families in seeing perpetrators put to death.
Opponents cite the arbitrariness of the death penalty, the fallibility of juries and the problems associated with wrongful conviction. In the United States, there are also claims that there are racial disparities and that African-Americans are overrepresented on Death Row.
