A Very Exclusive Club

IMPORTANT CORRECTION BELOW (5/19/08)

Sorry for the recent lack of postings. The kids were visiting from Atlanta last week, and I was trying to juggle spending time with them and keeping up with work. We had a great week -- lots of fun. I'll be blogging about the kids and our experiences together once I have some breathing space.

In the meantime, here's a fun little fact I saw in the news.

What do the following countries all have in common: China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the USA and Yemen.....?

Hmmm...do you give up?


Those are all the countries that have executed children for criminal offenses since 1990.

Don't you feel special, knowing that we are in such good company, with those human rights champions, Sudan and Pakistan.

[UPDATE/CORRECTION -- The information in the preceding four paragraphs about the US executing offenders under 18 is misleading and inaccurate. My apologies for posting it. Thanks to my brother Greg for catching this. I no longer have the link to the site where I found the information, which I think was an Amnesty International report I read. The truth is that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the execution of minors who commit crimes in 2005 in a 5-4 decision. So, we are no longer in the club for executing juveniles. The Washington Post article states that between 1976 and 2005 there were 22 executions of juveniles, 13 of them in Texas. So, I guess we have seen the light on that issue.]


Here's the list of all the countries that still retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes: Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, China, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic), Cuba, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea (North), Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saint Christopher & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad And Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States Of America, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe

Again, what good company we are in.

You might be asking, where are Great Britain, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, etc.

Well, I don't need to tell you. They have all abolished the death penalty.

Hmmm...what do those countries know that we don't?

Ah, but we can't talk about that, because doing so might suggest that the United States isn't the greatest country that has ever existed, and we know that is blasphemy.

I can just hear Lee Greenwood in my head, "Well I'm proud to be an Americaaaaaaahn, where at least I know aaahm free!"