Death Watch

Rev. Rehash on www.rehashinate.com has a little banner in support of two Iranian bloggers whose government has denied their right to freedom of expression and detained them without trial. Reading the story and doing a little research led me – as these things often do – to investigating the death penalty. Specifically, which countries have abolished the death penalty and when they did it.

The top five makes surprising reading. I never knew that Venezuela and Costa Rica were so progressive.

The full table is quite encouraging.

The doddery old United Kingdom, a little slow on the uptake, bless her, only got around to banning state-endorsed killing of her own citizens by the latter part of the 20th century: 1973 to be precise. Oh well, a century behind our oldest allies the Portuguese isn’t too bad. And down I scanned, looking to check the status of my current country of residence. Bastion of Western Values^tm, Land of the Free^tm, Home of the Brave^tm. As we all know, it’s not even on the list.

The USA exectued 59 people last year. Syringe-happy Texas topped the table with 23 executions. Whilst many states are rightly squeamish about using the death penalty (many death sentences are commuted), it remains an option in the majority. There are several methods of inmate disposal and different states offer different combinations. Permissive California authorises two forms of death: lethal injection or lethal gas. You can still be killed by firing squad in Idaho, Oklahoma and Utah, while death by hanging is de rigeur in Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington. In progressive Alabama, inmates put on death row before 1st July 2002 are actually offered the scintillating choice of either lethal injection or electrocution. Can you imagine actually choosing electrocution?

“Oh yes, I always thought a painful end would be rather fun. Stick me in the chair and fry me, please.”

Ah, the joys of freedom of choice!

I also stumbled across the Observer’s human rights index. It’s a league table of human rights infringers with the harshest countries at the top and the most humane at the bottom. It was published in 1999 so it’s rather out of date, and like all non-sporting league tables its usefulness as a reflection of reality is limited, but it’s a yardstick of sorts. Out of 195 countries the USA kicks ass coming in 86th (top 44 percent!). As usual The UK lags behind in 148th place. Considering all that’s transpired since 1999 I expect a 2004 edition would show a significant improvement from both countries.

There’s still a lot of work to do before either country can challenge for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s heavyweight title, but at least we’re lording it over such pussies as Norway, San Marino, Slovenia and Tuvalu. I mean, who’s even heard of Tuvalu?