I read recently that the punishment for DWI in San Salvador was death - seemed a little extreme to me, so I got to thinking, is there a site somewhere that would tell me which countries punish by death for which crime? I’d hate to burn a spleef in, say, Uruguay, and get sent to the gallows…
I’s start with Amnesty International. If you dig around their site long enough, I’m sure you’ll find something approaching a comprehensive list.
If you’re looking for anecdotal reports, I’ll tell you what I know:
[ul]
[li]In the U.S., you can be executed for murder depending upon the conditions under which you committed the crime and in which state. There are a host of other factors to consider, too, but that’s the gist of it. But you already knew that.[/li][li]IIRC, you can technically be put to death in the U.S. for treason, but I doubt that it’s actually happened to anyone since, oh, WWII.[/li][li]I’m pretty sure you can be put to death in Israel for “crimes against humanity,” but again, I don’t know if anyone has actually been executed there (in accordance with official jurisprudence, that is).[/li][/ul]
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the early 1950’s for revealing atomic secrets to the Soviets, but technically their convictions were for espionage, not treason. I’m not aware of any treason executions since WWII.
I’m fairly sure that Israel has executed a Nazi or two for crimes against humanity.
San Salvador is not a country, but a city in El Salvador. There have been no legal executions in El Salvador since the 1970s.
This page has as good a summary of the laws as I could find: http://host001.stm.it/colosseo/uk/rapporto.html
The closest thing to the death penalty for DWI that I could find was Libya, where you can be put to death for smuggling alcohol, but not for driving under its influence.
Dunno where you got your info from, Dooku. According to Amnesty International’s death penalty page (you can find it at rastahomie’s link - I wasn’t able to link to it directly), as of June 1 2001 El Salvador had the death penalty only for exceptional crimes (a category that presumably does not include DWI).
According to Amnesty international, 75 countries do not have the death penalty at all, 14 more have it only for exceptional crimes (e.g. treason), 20 others have it but have not executed anyone in more than 10 years. Eighty-six countries have the death penalty. Very few Latin American countries have the death penalty for ordinary crimes - about the only ones are Cuba and Guatemala.
In Afghanistan, a lot of things will get your head chopped off in the Kabul soccer stadium (literally). I’ll oversimplify and generalize:
- Promoting or idolizing any religion other than Islam.
- Women, driving, walking without a male, not wearing a burqa, going to school
- Playing non-Islamic religious music
- Watching television
- Watching films
- Theft
- Murder
- Anything that ticks off Mullah Omar (the head honcho) or one of his underlings at the Ministry of Virtues and Prevention of Vice
- The list goes on…
Thanks bibliophage, that’s exactly the type of link I was looking for.
Colibri, thinking back, I think I got that from some DWI class we had to take in High School, many years ago, so I’d say either I remembered wrong or they tried to scare us. Seeing as how I didn’t even remember the name of the country correctly, I’d lay money on the former. ô¿ô
Here’s a link on what you can be executed for in the US-
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/capitaloffenses.html
–tygre
Israel has only put to death one Nazi war criminal - Adolph Eichmann: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/eichmann.html
In Saudi Arabia they often have many executions a week. These are public beheadings like in Afghanistan, but I don’t think the list of offences is as comprehensive. When I was there I would always check the daily executions column, here are the things I recall seeing listed as reasons for execution:
Adultery*
Murder
Drug Smuggling** (might include alcohol, which is forbidden by Islamic law)
It was also fairly common to read about amputations for theft; these thefts were invariably committed in Mecca on hajim, who were dressed for their pilgrimage and carrying cash. I think this is why such a severe reaction for theft, and was also told they wouldn’t normally do this on a first offence.
There was one surgical removal of a man’s eye during one of my visits. The man had thrown acid at another man while in a rage and blinded him in one eye. He later offered a large sum of money as restitution but the court enforced the removal anyway. Don’t know if a blind person was given the good eye.
The people being punished were often foreigners who had gained entrance to the country during a pilgrimage or as guest workers. (Its pretty tough to get a visa to enter Saudi if you are not a religious pilgrim, and nigh on impossible for women who are unaccompanied)
**I was told by the people I worked with in Saudi that this is exceedingly rare, as there is some requirement like four witnesses to the adulterous act. But they also have much lower standards for what is adulterous, than say, the ex-president of the USA. Also of interest on this note, IIRC, women will be put to death, men are given 50 lashes (which can cause death). Infidels (non-Muslim men) can be put to death for having an affair with a Muslim woman.
**Many of the drug smugglers were very poor people from countries such as Pakistan. I was told this was because the drug smugglers would find poor, elderly men, and then pay for them to visit Saudi on pretense of a pilgrimmage. They were used as mules to carry in drugs, and their families were financially taken care of even if they were caught. This was kind of a retirement program for them, in a way.
In much of SE Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore) you can get the death penalty for drug trafficking. In fact 19 folks were just sentenced to die in Thailand for just that. From what I know though you have to be carrying a whole lot to get capital punishment–like 80 kilos of heroin or 100,000 pills. Anything less you’ll get jail time–not a very pleasant thing either.
In China, the world leader in executions (alert Texas! They’re losing the Irrational State Vengeance contest to a bunch of yeller furr’ners!) you can receive the death penalty for corruption, bribery, fraud, racketeering, and landing spy planes without clearance from the tower. (Okay, I’m kidding about that last one).
Wow, I checked that link out and I was surprised to see that you can actually get the death penalty for drug trafficking in Florida! That’s insane!
Oh, and I read that 2 computer hackers were recently put to death in China, anyone else remember this?
Is it just me, or do most of the nations which have abolished the death penalty also now have some of the highest crime rates in the world? Several are listed among those committing the most acts against Human Rights, along with America who gets dunned consistently because of her prisons.
I have doubts there because there are many nations with prison systems one step above the 5th level of hell that do not seem to get dunned for Human Rights violations because of them.
Is it just me or are you trying to get this thread sent to Great Debates ASAP?
Warning to 1st degree murderers. “Don’t come to Texas, they only execute you and they are good at it”.
For the rest of the country, you will get a stiff fine and some Jail time. So stay in NY and get your 3 strikes.
Still waiting on my DNA test,
Cletus
Sethdallob, please don’t make out that the Taleban remove peoples’ heads for each and every offence.
Taleban authorities recently arrested 24 people for this crime. This from today’s copy of ‘The Times’:
‘German negotiators expressed deep concern and frustration at Taleban’s refusal to divulge what fate lies in store for the four German, two American and two Australian aid workers. If convicted, they could face anything from a lengthy spell in jail to simple deportation. A far grislier fate may await the 16 Afghan aid workers arrested alongside their Western colleagues. Under Islamic law, Afghans found guilty of abandoning their faith face death by stoning and Taleban sources suggested that they would almost certainly receive such a punishment.’
See? They won’t have their heads chopped off after all. They are only going to be stoned to death.