After the Cabinet’s decision in February to abolish the death sentence to conform with international standards, Zimbabwe’s parliament has started nationwide consultations.
There are signs that public opinion is turning against execution, even as some US states explore new methods to carry out the death penalty. As international calls to abolish the death penalty rise, VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias looks at the arguments for and against the death penalty in the United States.
Malaysia’s parliament on Monday voted to scrap the mandatory death penalty and reduced the number of offenses punishable by hanging, saying capital punishment as a deterrent had not lowered crime.
Amnesty’s figures do not include China, where the number of executions, believed to be in the thousands, remains classified. Other major executing countries, including Iran, North Korea and Viet Nam, continued to hide the full extent of their use of the death penalty by restricting access to death penalty information