Ten thousand people gather at a rally for the public sentencing of 11 men convicted of theft, rape, and murder, after which the 11 are taken away for immediate execution.
Poison is injected into the arm of a woman convicted of murder.
A drug dealer is machine-gunned on national television.
An 18-year-old is hanged six days after his crime.
Crowds stone an adulterer to death.
Two thousand volts of electricity surge through the body of a man convicted of murder, only it doesn't kill him the first time; another surge, stronger and longer lasting, is administered.
These events happened recently in China, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria, Thailand, and the United States, among others. In each case the government executed people according to the law, but no matter how it is carried out or what the legal process, the death penalty is always cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. The death penalty is an assault on human dignity and a violation of human rights. The United Nations states in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that every individual has a right to life and under no circumstances shall anyone be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment. Human rights, by definition, apply to all people, even those whose acts are condemned by society.
Amnesty International works for the abolition of the death penalty as part of its continuing efforts to protect human rights around the world. It seeks the release of all prisoners of conscience, fair and prompt trials for all political prisoners, and an end to torture and executions. In more than 25 years' experience documenting human rights abuses, Amnesty International has gathered evidence that the death penalty does nothing to make society safer. A people's security is threatened when government shows its abhorrence of violence by perpetrating violence.
In recent years many countries have recognized this and abolished the death penalty: Canada in 1976, France in 1981, and East Germany in 1987. In fact, the United States is the only Western industrialized nation that still practices capital punishment.
Amnesty International reported that at least 1,903 people in 35 countries were executed in 1988. Because this figure includes only executions publicly announced, the actual number is much higher.
In the United States, several people each month are legally killed. Today, more than 2,200 men and women await their end on death row, more than the total number of people reportedly executed worldwide last year.
People who favor the death penalty often believe it helps reduce violent crime. This would be true only if the person considering homicide makes a rational decision with the expectation of arrest, conviction, a death sentence, and finally execution. In fact, this is not true. Most people who murder do not
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