The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective

Despite growing pressure for the death penalty's abolition, the year 2000 saw over 1000 people executed in China, some 123 in Saudi Arabia, 75 in Iran, and 85 in the United States of America (figures: Amnesty International). In this new edition of his classic study Roger Hood, the acknowledged world authority on death penalty legislation, assesses the global status of capital punishment at the start of the new millennium.The author explores the many changes that have taken place in the twelve years that have elapsed since the publication of the widely acclaimed first edition of The Death Penalty. The picture he reveals is a mixed one. The number of countries which have abolished the death penalty has increased at an unprecedented rate, although a few have subsequently re-introduced it. The range of offences subject to the death penalty has contracted in many countries, but expanded in others. There are new facts to report on the number of executions carried out: much more is known about the extent to which states abide by the United Nation's Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty; and much has been published, particularly in the United States of America on the legal, ethical and practical aspects of administering capital punishment and on public attitudes towards it. The time is therefore ripe for this new revised and updated edition.