"Hot" religious topics Capital punishment: All viewpoints on the
death penalty About this section: This section of our website
deals with the execution of criminals found guilty of having
committed very serious crimes. used to be a universal practice
in North America. However, in recent decades, almost all
democracies in the world have abandoned the death penalty. The
U.S., Japan, and South Korea are the only exceptions. Of course,
most dictatorships and theocracies in the world retain the death
penalty as a terror weapon. In North America, as of 2013-MAY-03:
- 17 states and the country of Canada have abolished the death
penalty. - The Connecticut legislature voted to abolish the
death penalty except for the 11 inmates currently on death row.
The bill was signed into law during 2012-APR. This became the
fifth state in five years to abolish executions. - On
2013-MAY-02. Maryland became the 19th state and the first state
south of the Mason-Dixon line to abolish the death penalty. The
law goes into effect on OCT