Arkansas Set To Execute 8 Inmates over 10 Day Period in April

A mistake. Doesn't change the fact that the number is far higher than acceptable.

Dayton is right about the math, which I assume Tuckerfan wrote too quickly without proofreading.

But that said, four percent is four percent too many when we're discussing the execution of human lives.

Especially when you consider the extent pro-lifers will go to oppose abortion because it "kills innocents." Shouldn't they extend the same level of restraint for things like the death penalty, because it does kill innocents. Or is killing a few innocents acceptable if it means you get to kill people who are actually guilty?

From that article that @MAohS posted, of those ten set to be executed, a good number of them are severely mentally disturbed.

Even for those who believe that fairy tale nonsense that crime is deterred with capital punishment, what's achieved by killing a man who barely even knows who he is?

Also, this.

Pro lifers don't care about the life once it's born and the mother is shamed for being a slut.

Funny we can find all kinds of money to kill people, but when it comes to things to save human lives like universal health care or programs to feed children? Nope, too much.

Death penalty 2015: Facts and figures
6 April 2016, 18:05 UTC
Global figures
At least 1,634 people were executed in 25 countries in 2015. This represents a stark increase on the number of executions recorded I 2014 of more than50%; in 2014 Amnesty International recorded 1,061 executions in 22 countries worldwide.

This is the highest number of executions recorded in more than 25 years (since 1989).

Most executions took place in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the USA – in that order.

China remained the world’s top executioner – but the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is considered a state secret; the figure of 1,634 excludes the thousands of executions believed to have been carried out in China.

Excluding China, almost 90% of all executions took place in just three countries – Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

During 2015, 25 countries, about one in 10 of all countries worldwide, are known to have carried out executions – a rise from 22 in 2014. This number has decreased significantly from two decades ago (39 countries carried out executions in 1996).

140 countries worldwide, more than two-thirds, are abolitionist in law or practice.

In 2015, four countries – Fiji, Madagascar, the Republic of Congo and Suriname – abolished the death penalty for all crimes. In total, 102 countries have done so – a majority of the world’s states. In 2015, Mongolia also passed a new criminal code abolishing the death penalty which will come into effect later in 2016.

Commutations or pardons of death sentences were recorded in 34countries in 2015. At least 71 people who had been sentenced to death were exonerated in six countries in 2015: China (1), Egypt (1), Nigeria (41), Pakistan (at least 21), Taiwan (1) and USA (6).

At least 1,998 death sentences were recorded in 61 countries in 2015, a decline from 2014 (at least 2,466 death sentences in 55 countries).

At least 20,292 people were on death row at the end of 2015.

The following methods of execution were used across the world: beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.

Reports indicated that at least nine people who were under 18 at the time of the crime for which they were sentenced to death were executed in 2015 – four in Iran and five in Pakistan.

In many countries where people were sentenced to death or executed, the proceedings did not meet international fair trial standards. In some cases this included the extraction of ‘confessions’ through torture or other ill-treatment, including in Bahrain, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

People continued to be sentenced to death and executed for offences that do not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold of “intentional killing” as set out in international law and standards. These offences included drug-related crimes in at least 12 countries in Asia and the Middle East, as well as committing “adultery” (Maldives, Saudi Arabia), economic crimes (China, North Korea, Viet Nam), “apostasy” (Saudi Arabia) and “insulting the prophet of Islam” (Iran).

Sub-Saharan Africa
At least 43 executions were carried out in four countries – compared to 46 executions in three countries in 2014.

Death sentences fell sharply from 909 in 2014 to 443 in 2015, mainly due to a decrease in Nigeria.

Chad, which had not executed anyone for more than a decade, resumed executions and put 10 people to death. The other three countries that carried out executions were Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Americas
For the seventh consecutive year, the USA was the only country to carry out executions in the Americas region with, 28 people executed in 2015 (seven fewer than in 2014). This was the lowest number of executions recorded in a single year since 1991. Six states executed in 2015 compared to seven the previous year. The number of death sentences decreased from at least 72 in 2014 to 52 in 2015, the lowest number recorded since executions resumed in 1977. Only one other country in the region, Trinidad and Tobago, imposed death sentences in 2015.

Asia-Pacific
At least 367 executions were carried out in 12 countries – a huge increase on the 32 executions in nine countries recorded in 2014, almost exclusively due to the rise in Pakistan. This figure does not include executions carried out in China, where executions were still in the thousands. . But the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as data is treated as a state secret.

Pakistan put 326 people to death in 2015 after the country lifted a six-year moratorium on the execution of civilians in December 2014, following the Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar. It is the highest number of executions Amnesty International has ever recorded for Pakistan.

Indonesia carried out 14 executions for drug-related offences, the first executions under President Joko Widodo.

It was impossible to confirm the real number of executions in North Korea.

Europe and Central Asia
Belarus - the only country in the region that executes – did not put anyone to death in 2015 but imposed two death sentences (compared to three executions and no death sentences in 2014).

Middle East and North Africa
At least 1,196 executions were carried out in eight countries – a rise of 26%from the 945 executions recorded in eight countries in 2014.

Iran alone accounted for 82% of all recorded executions in the region.

Saudi Arabia executed at least 158 people – a 76% increase on 2014 and the highest number recorded for Saudi Arabia since 1995.

Amnesty International could not confirm if executions took place in Syria.

^That means nothing. All it says is that Americans value human life so much that they are willing to demand the ultimate sanction for taking it in certain circumstances.

It isn't our fault that Europeans don't value human life.

And the arguments of our resident racist (Anna) is not to be taken seriously.

Perhaps, but I'd also figure that it wouldn't take much to work out that a 300lb person wouldn't need to be dropped 4'2" - 5' to attain between 830-1008 ft/lbs.

Americans value human life more like such human rights beacons like China, Iran, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia it seems.

Meaningless comparison between the U.S. which executes only people it believes guilty of gruesome murders and those nations that execute people for political or religious reasons.

Motives matter.

Actually, no. One of the reasons people in the US are executed is that it allows politicians to show that they are "tough on crime," and prosecutors have been willing to conceal exonerating evidence in order to secure a death penalty conviction. No doubt they figured it'd make it easier for them to get re-elected. As for executing people for religious reasons, not in recent years, no. But various state and local governments did sanction the killing of people for no other reason than they were Mormons in the 19th Century.

Whoa!!! More than a century ago.............

For religion. Not for politicians wanting to win re-election. You conveniently missed that part.

Oh, and it seems that there's some question as the guilt of one of the people about to be executed.

Hmm. Sounds like somebody's concealing evidence.

^Sevier County is where my wife is from and my in laws still live. My sister in law knew the woman the guy murdered (though they were not friends) . DNA evidence conclusively links the man you are referring to to the murder.

Both the Innocence Project and Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig are advocates who are pushing agendas. Hardly unbiased sources.

Find me something from a local prosecutor proclaiming the guy innocent and it would carry much more weight.

And be honest Tucker.

You would oppose the executions regardless of the persons guilt or supposed innocence.

So you have no credibility here.

Irrelevant.

Why not run the new tests? If the state's so certain they've got the right guy, then all it does is cement the case that much more. Failing to do that, will always give folks ammunition.

Yeah, saving lives. That's a pretty good agenda.

Given that they don't take every death penalty case, but only a handful of ones, and have won nearly 200 cases, I'd say they've got a pretty good idea of who's been wrongly convicted.

So, even though you admit to adopting a "go along to get along" attitude to keep your present job, you expect prosecutors to be different?

Until the state can prove that it has a foolproof method of determining a person's guilt or innocence, I am opposed to the death penalty, but I don't lose sleep over someone like Ted Bundy getting the chair.

No, you mean that because I disagree with you on the death penalty, you're not going to listen to me on the subject. As is your wont to do whenever someone disagrees with you.

Governments kill innocent people all the time. In warfare, via law enforcement, for that matter in mistakes made with structure inspections.

We don't stop authorizing military actions.
We don't stop allowing police to carry firearms.
We don't stop inspecting buildings and bridges.

We analyze what went wrong and try to do things better the next time.

No matter how much it offends your sensibilities, the deaths of innocent people happens no matter what is done to avoid it.

I notice Tucker conveniently forgets the killer in that group who was sentenced to life in prison, escaped and killed someone else, then caused the death of another person while trying to elude the police.

And they claim that the death penalty doesn't keep people from killing.........

To some extent, yes. But since the first death row inmate was exonerated thanks to DNA in 1993, nearly 350 people on death row have been freed because of DNA testing (this is ignoring the other people who've been exonerated for other reasons). How many states have halted executions and re-examined how they put people on death row? To my knowledge, Illinois has been the only state to do so.

True, but I would argue that more could be done to prevent such deaths. You, OTOH, seem to find it acceptable that we don't do more.

Of course, we've no way of knowing if he'd have stayed contentedly in jail, getting three squares a day, if he'd not been at risk of the death penalty. You keep putting 'em up, and I'll keep knocking them down. That's the way we play this game.

He wasn't at the risk of the death penalty then. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Learn to read.

That's one thing the Catholics have going for them. They believe in a 'Seamless Garment of Life' and are anti-Death Penalty and generally anti-War (see Just War Doctrine) as well as anti-abortion.

Excuse the fuck out of me for reading your post when I was sober. Now that I've had a snoot, let me ask you if we didn't have the death penalty do you think that it's possible that we might take prison security more seriously? Or, and I know that this is going to require you to stretch the few neurons you have almost to their breaking point to think about this, that without a death penalty our prisons might focus more on rehabilitating prisoners so they're less likely to commit other crimes in the future (lots of murderers have prior convictions, after all), than simply keeping them confined in a cell for a few years?

No and no

Given your inability of introspection and bloodlust, your answer is hardly surprising. Given that the Netherlands is having to close prisons due to a lack of inmates, and that they don't punish people for drug possession, it seems to me that we could learn a few things from them. But hey, fuck them, right? They're a bunch of socialist Europeans who don't know anything, despite the fact that they have a higher standard of living than we do and they live longer than we do. It's all good, so long as we can kill people in Daytonland!

IIRC, the Netherlands and most of western Europe is suffering a vastly reduced birthrate and thus far, far fewer young men entering the prime years that they are likeliest to become criminals.

And? The only reason the US is showing population growth is due to immigration. You going to blame our crime rate on immigrants?

It is no doubt a factor but despite what some claim, far, far from the major one.

What's the major one?

So, by your logic, we could also have a shrinking prison population, if we were to make some changes to the prison system.

The book "Murder Inc." (no I don't have a link to it) had a series of analysis on that and ironically it traces back to American concepts of equality and fair treatment.

We don't have a shrinking population Tucker.