Death Penalty: China first place in 2008, 1718 people killed
(March 24, 2009) China has won a sad first place as the nation which carried out
most executions in 2008. Amnesty International’s report into the death penalty has
revealed that last year the Beijing government killed a total of 1718 people, well
over half of the 2390 executions carried out worldwide. 93% of all death sentences
involve 5 nations. Alongside China are Iran (346), Saudi Arabia (102), the USA (37)
and Pakistan (36). The continent with the highest number of executions is Asia with
1838 death sentences handed down by 11countries which still legally use capital punishment:
Pakistan (36), Vietnam (19), Afghanistan (17), North Korea (15), Japan (15), Indonesia
(10) and Bangladesh (5). To be added to these numbers the death sentences sill to
be carried out, totalling 8864. In China alone the number of prisoners on death row
is estimated to be at least 7 thousand, a number that Beijing shares along with Islamabad.