The DP Country Club - of which the US is a proud member

Key:

* Blue: Abolished for all crimes
* Green: Abolished, except for crimes committed under certain circumstances (such as crimes committed in time of war)
* Orange: Abolished in practice
* Red: Legal form of punishment

The twelve countries with the most executions in 2004:
1 Kuwait
2 China
3 Iran
4 Singapore
5 Saudi Arabia
6 Vietnam
7 Belarus
8 Yemen
9 United States
10 Pakistan
11 Egypt
12 Bangladesh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty#Around_the_present_world

As an American, I don't want to be in the same club as China or Singapore. Maybe some of you do.
Flame away

Thses are small, small countries! They must be blanking shoplifters and tax cheats!

a fascistic oligarchy for 50 years, which took power during their national struggle (when they were allied with what is now Malaysia) to 1) throw off the yoke of colonialism and 2) avoid falling to a communist insurgency. They had no qualms about doling out summary executions to anyone thought to be a Commie, and they seem to have carried that over into their peacetime laws. The government really believes that anything less harsh would be the death of their civilization. They have the populace browbeaten into compliance: young Singaporeans don't dare get involved in politics because it would permanently ruin their careers (being an opposition politician is effectively illegal), and quite possibly get them thrown in prison.

You don't want to go into a Singaporean prison.

Kuwait is another matter. I haven't read a lot about it, but from when I worked there in the early 90s and just recently, I think it's a hangover from their harsh desert heritage (Bedouins without a pot to piss in, prior to the discovery of oil), and perhaps because Kuwaiti society is highly stratified, with citizens substantially outnumbered by guest workers, transients, and expats, so they reserve the right to hand out the ultimate punishment from a position of weakness.

Just guessing on that one though.

They executed a 25-year-old Australian of Vietnamese descent last week over four pounds of heroin.
Amnesty International estimates they've killed 400 or so people since 1990, most of them on drug charges.

Another reaction to their position in colonialist times? Opium shoved down Chinese throats still rankles, even in Asian societies that are only partly ethnic Chinese.

China is the undisputed champion with something like 3500 last year.

Click on the link

But prior to Bush, the death penalty was the single factor that made me ashamed to admit being an American.

We only use the death penalty "for crimes committed under certain circumstances".

But I understand why the US isn't green. We use the DP in times other than war.

I just saw the key saying "(such as in times of war)" and didn't take that to be exclusive to war...but I understand what you're saying.

Not a nice regime.

I wonder if we will eventually have a Chop Chop Square.

Public beheadings - that's some entertainment.

One step at a time.

if it means I get a chauffeur.

In Saudi Arabia, a judge will commute the death penalty if the family of the victim publically forgives the murderer. I'm not sure, but I think the murderer is then allowed to go free, rather than serving a prison sentence.

Can you even imagine that happening over here? The bloodlust of our 'enlightened' populace would never allow it.

Allowing the family of the victim to determine justice is nothing but tribalism. To hell with that.

I hadn't looked at it that way;

I still think allowing the family to commute a sentence of death is progressive.

that we had a hand in bringing to power?

It's not just the Death Penalty.

On other issues like universal health care, the Iraqi invasion, and adopting UN standards to curb climate change, the U.S. boldly cuts against the grain of the rest of the pinko-commie Western world.