Death Penalty in America

We are about to execute another murderer tonight. Presumably we sometimes put to death innocent people -- or so cases have indicated.

As the site below indicates we are seventh behind not the most to be admired nations in this practice -- the only democracy in the lot.

The only good thing we have accomplished is halting several years back executing juveniles. Our numbers are declining.

Bush as Governor of Texas presided over half our number one year -- 37 of 74 with not one commutation by him.

Is it not about time we joined civilized nations in abolishing this practice?

It has been a hard day for me, so I am going to leave it here as a question for us to answer both together and individually.

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# 1 China: 470 executions
# 2 Iran: 317 executions
# 3 Saudi Arabia: 143 executions
# 4 Pakistan: 135 executions
# 5 Congo, Democratic Republic of the: 100 executions
# 6 Egypt: 48 executions
# 7 United States: 42 executions

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_exe-crime-executions
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]