Introduction As 2005 comes to a close, governments around the world are about evenly split on whether or not their countries should have capital punishment (See Tables 1-2 and Figure 1). According to Amnesty International, 86 countries have abolished the death penalty completely, 85 still have the death penalty and 25 have the death penalty but have not used it for several years.1 The current situation can be viewed clearly on a map (See Figure 1). The arguments driving the debate …showed first 75 words of 3642 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3642 total…groups in society preventing them from getting a fair trial. The exposure of these flaws and the intense publicity has led many diehard defenders of the death penalty to publicly question their beliefs. If the current momentum is maintained by the elites of the world, it is likely that in not to many years the death penalty will be abolished in most countries even though the majority of their citizens will probably still want it.