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Death Penalty has been existing really a long time. With it, also the advocates and the abolitionists.
There are today 73 states, which have abolished Death Penalty at all. 13 states use Death Penalty only for exceptional crimes like war crime or some faults in accordance with the military rights. 22 states abolished Death Penalty in practise, but not in law.
Consequently 108 states don't use Death Penalty at all, but 87 still use it.
There's a movement for abolishing Death Penalty, and year-by-year the circle of the countries which abolish Death Penalty is getting larger. Since 1985 there have been 40 states all over the world which have abolished Death Penalty, unfortunately 4 states came back to Death Penalty in this period of time (Gambia, Nepal, Papua- Negaunee and the Philippines).
Regrettably the field of application of Death Penalty has got larger in a small number of states.
In Cuba someone could be executed since 1999 for dealing with drugs, corruption and for armed robbery.
In 1998 there were 2.327 people executed in 37 states, and 4.845 persons in 78 countries were sentenced to death. But these are only the numbers for the public, in fact there have been a lot more. Most of the executions have been in VR China, Congo (ex Zaire),the USA and in the Iran.
There are also death sentences for juveniles who are under 18, although it is forbidden in the human rights declaration. Since 1990, amnesty international knows 6 states which have executed juveniles: Iran, Jemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabian and the USA. According to the public facts, the USA has executed 12 juveniles since 1990.
Until today, there's no academic explanation if Death Penalty is a greater deterrence than any other sentence. A lot of people think that if Death Penalty were abolished, the crime rates would rise, but the latest statistics show, that in countries in which Death Penalty had been abolished, the crime rates slump.
There also exist three international agreements from states, which have made up their minds not to use Death Penalty.
As long as Death Penalty has been existing, there's always a risk to execute innocent people. According to a study, 23 people in the USA were killed innocently between 1900 and 1985.
Since 1972, 48 prisoners had to leave Death Row because their innocence could be proved.
In 1999, 98 prisoners were executed in the USA. 35 out of them in Texas and 14 in Virginia.
This is the greatest number of executions since 1951, as 105 people have lost their lives.
In 2000 there have been already 25 executions, 12 of them in Texas. At the end of 1999 there have been more than 3625 people who were waiting for execution in prisons in California, Texas and Florida. Among them, 63 who were juveniles at the time the crime was committed.
38 out of the 50 federal states in the USA use Death Penalty, and since 1972, 95 people could leave Death Row because their innocence could been proved.
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