Amnesty says executions almost double in 2008

Amnesty says executions almost double in 2008

au.news.yahoo.com

LONDON (Reuters) - Executions rose more than 90 percent to 2,390 last year, with China, Iran , Saudi Arabia , Pakistan and the United States responsible for over 90 percent of those, Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

China carried out 72 percent of all executions in 2008, according to Amnesty's figures which it said were drawn from governments, human rights groups, court records and media reports.

"The whole situation (in China) is shrouded in secrecy and the numbers might well be much, much higher," Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary general, told Reuters, noting that the rise in executions was due in part to a change in the judicial system in China where there was a backlog of cases.

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it looks like this is a really bad news article. reading through
you'll see only 25 of 59 countries that carry the death penalty in 2008.
a large portion of asia has abolished the death penalty. there is only 1 country left in europe still carrying out the death penalty.
its china's massive increase of 72% of 08 executions that have doubled the death rate.
perhaps they are just righting off suspicious government hits as executions to avoid inquest from Amnesty. or perhaps they were just getting rid of some financial liabilty with the massive cost of housing criminals.

au.news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)