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Originally Posted by Penguin
the hairsplitting German in me can't help but to correct  :
To make a fair comprehension you should only use the numbers from US states which have capital punishment; the murders that fall under the jurisdiction of said states. Then you also have to put the the murder rate into the calculations: 1/100000 for SA, 5/100000 for the US. Maybe only compare Texas and Saudi Arabis, as they both have a similar population size: this would be interesting.
Oh, and there are indeed some other offenses in the US other than murder, which can let you fry: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deat...s-other-murder
Personally, I know in which country I'd prefer to be on trial, better a dysfunctional justice system than a system where you can get convicted by "the testimony of two male witnesses" (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital...n_Saudi_Arabia)
PS: good to see you again on here, tater  , greetings from the Penguin who thinks capital punishment in every country is barbaric, though the reasons in some are nuttier than in others. |
Yeah, I'd had forgotten about the repeat child sex offender laws. Castration would be a more fitting sentence for them, and not the chemical kind.
As for life in solitary confinement,
Finney v. Hutto says :
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confinement in punitive isolation for more than thirty days is cruel and unusual punishment and thus impermissible
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As for the amount of homicides in the US has been continually dropping annually is the good news. The bad news is the clearance rate nationwide is down to the 60% range. Compare that to 84% in the late 60's.