We're Number 5...In Executions

Amensty International just out with its annual survey of death penalty usage around the globe.  Some good news (see excerpt below) but again the "exceptionalism" of USA stands out, especially in the West. (My recent ebook on the death penalty in our country.)

Progress towards abolition was recorded in all regions of the world. Although the USA remained the only country in the Americas to carry out executions in 2013, the number of executions in the country continued to decrease. Maryland became the 18th abolitionist US state in May. No executions were reported in Europe and Central Asia last year. Constitutional and legal review processes in several West African countries created real opportunities for the abolition of capital punishment. For the first time since Amnesty International began keeping records there were no prisoners on death row in Grenada, Guatemala and Saint Lucia.

Pakistan suspended once again its application of the death penalty, and no death sentences were implemented in Singapore, where six people had their cases commuted following the review of the country's mandatory death penalty laws in 2012. In China, the Supreme People's Court issued legal guidelines aimed at ensuring greater procedural protections in death penalty cases.