| The US citizens reject death sentenced as an option |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Friday, 15 June 2007 | |
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The Death Penalty Information Centre is a group that opposes capital punishment and carried out the survey to prove a point. The poll showed 62 per cent of those surveyed support executing convicted murderers. But 39 per cent of the 1000 people questioned in the survey, which had a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, said they thought they would be disqualified from serving in a jury in a capital murder case because of their moral beliefs. Death Penalty Information Centre said that the rate was higher than what they expected. The survey showed a majority of people did not think a possible death sentence would deter potential murderers. The poll also showed about 87 per cent believe that innocent people were executed in the last 15 years, and 58 per cent think there should be a moratorium on executions while wrongful convictions and wrongful death sentences are investigated. In the US, since 1973, 124 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence was uncovered. The number of death sentences and actual executions in the US has declined, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. The 38 states that have the death penalty executed 53 people in 2006, down from 98 in 1999, it says. According to the Amnesty International, China carries out the vast majority of the world's executions. The rights group said, China recorded 1051 people that it sentenced to death last year, although it believes the true figure is between 7000 and 8000. China and five other nations -Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the US are accounted for more than 90 per cent of judicial executions in 2006, Amnesty said in a report earlier this year. Share & Bookmark             |
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