Poison is injected into the arm of a woman convicted of murder. A drug dealer is machine-gunned on national television. A draft resister is hanged.
Crowds stone an adulterer to death.
A firing squad shoots an armed robber. 2,000 volts of electricity surge through the body of a man convicted of murder who spent nine years on death row. T hese events happened recently in China, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria, Thailand, and the United States. In each case the government executed people according to the law, but no matter how it is carried out or what the legal process, the death penalty is always cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. The death penalty is an assault on human dignity and a violation of human rights.