capital punishment

In the United States of America 143 death row prisoners have been released in the last four decades alone, after evidence emerged during their appeals process of the wrongful conviction. Most of these death row prisoners had spent more than a decade locked inside single tiny cages for 23 hours per day 7 days per week. Some had come within hours of being executed.

Legally killing people in public borders insanity in Iran.

The spike in the number of executions carried out so far this year in Iran is alarming and public executions continue to increase. Last month (January) the Iranian Government hanged 33 people in one week alone. In 2013, 625 people were executed, including at least 28 women and a number of political prisoners. But the actual number of executions is a state secret and the authorities permit only a proportion of executions to be reported to the public.

70 years ago, a 14-year-old black teenager named George Stinney, was executed by electrocution in the state of South Carolina, USA, for the murder of two young white girls,

It took the all-white jury only 10 minutes to decide whether the young quiet George Stinney was guilty. His defense lawyer made no effort to prove if George Stinney was innocent. No witnesses were called for his defense or no cross examination. His lawyer at the time would not file an appeal on behalf of Stinney.

George Stinney's family had to flee their home before the trial in 1944.

Adghanistan is considering bringing back stoning-to-death for adultery, Human Rights Watch and the justice ministry says, possibly restoring a punishment in force during the Taliban's brutal regime.

The penalty for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country's penal code being considered by the ministry of justice. Ashraf Azimi, the head of ministry's criminal law department, confirmed to AFP that stoning to death is included in the draft.