Foreword
Although more than 110 countries have laws that provide for capital punishment as part of their criminal justice systems only 31 countries carried out death sentences in 2002. China ranked first in executions with at least 1,060, followed by Iran, with 113. The United States was a distant third that year with 71 executions, but as the sole Western country regularly practicing capital punishment, it has been the focus of a great deal of international protest. In February 2000, for instance, the European Union — for which the abolition of the death penalty is a requirement for membership — released…
