China most likely to hand death penalties to farmers, unemployed
China Judgements Online, after scrutinizing Supreme People's Court's official court verdict database found out that farmers and unemployed people were most often doled out death sentences in China. Between 2011 and 2016, 701 were meted out the death sentence. Farmers made up 55% of these capital sentences, and the unemployed made up for another quarter of those death sentences.
China's history of capital punishments
In 1921 China's Communist party, a year after it was founded announced that it would "abolish the death penalty, abolish corporal punishment". However, in 1949 Communists came to power and the death penalty was commonly used against Communist enemies. Within 3 years, during the "Campaign to Suppress Counter-revolutionaries" approximately 712,000 people were executed through capital punishments.
The mighty killers: China vs the rest of the world
Executions around the world have fallen 3 times to "1,032 across 23 countries in 2016, compared with 1,634 in 25 countries in 2015." Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan were positioned as the topmost countries in handing out capital-punishments. However, China with its 99.9% conviction rate is a different story. Human-rights activists believe suspects in China are often tortured and forced into admitting guilt.
Where does India stand in the death penalty arena?
According to the Amnesty International report, India had zero executions in 2016. It also mentioned that in 2016, "136 death sentences were imposed in India".
Amnesty International raises alarm over 'China's deadly secrets'
Amnesty International in its report revealed that China had shrouded the extent and the number of its death sentences. The report said that Beijing's 'elaborate secrecy system' hides the deadly secret of thousands of judicial deaths in China. The report titled "China's Deadly Secrets" said that "hundreds of documented death penalty cases are missing from a national online court database".
