It's rare for America to rank number one among Western nations in many categories, but they managed to come out on top as the only Western country to execute its own citizens according to Amnesty International's Global Execution Scale.
"The United States was again the only country in the Americas and the only member of the G8 group of leading economies to execute prisoners – 43 in 2011. Europe and former Soviet Union countries were capital punishment-free, apart from Belarus where two people were executed," according to the report.
America finished fifth in the world behind China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq. "If you look at the company we're in globally, it's not the company we want to be in," Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA, told The Associated Press.
Notably, America's total executions have gone down. According to the report, "In the USA, the number of executions and new death sentences dropped dramatically from a decade ago. Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty. A moratorium was announced in the state of Oregon. And victims of violent crimes spoke out against the death penalty."
Amnesty International makes clear that they oppose the death penalty in all cases:
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The death penalty violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
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