The United States Is In Bad Company

The chart above was made from information provided by Amnesty International and printed in the British newspaper, The Guardian. One nation was left off of the chart -- China, because they are believed to have executed thousands of people in 2012 (and that would have made the chart unreadable).

Note that the United States had the fifth largest number of executions of any nation in the world last year (43) -- and was one of only eight countries to have a double-digit number of executions. And the state with the highest number of executions every year is Texas -- which has now executed 500 people since re-instituting the death penalty (and has several more executions scheduled this month).

Also note the company this puts the United States in. All of the nations with double-digit executions are nations that have terrible human rights reputations. Is this really the kind of company we want to keep? Why can't we join the growing list of civilized countries that realize killing is wrong -- even when it is done by a government?