live and loud: Death Penalty

Up Until July 1976 Canada, Had the use of the Death Penalty written into law, the last executions taking place in Canada were in 1962, In Toronto for separate convicted murderers. For all of Canada's capital punishment history, the method was by hanging, and for military offenders by firing squads. In Canada’s history 1481 people were sentenced to death, with 710 being executed. During the 1960s and 1970's opposition began to grow towards the law, over concerns of wrongful convictions and the penalty not really being a good deterrent for crimes of that magnitude. The Death Penalty was abolished by a narrow margin in a vote of confidence, 130-124 in 1976 and the death penalty still remained in military law but not practiced in Canada until 1998.

John Radclive was Canada’s first executioner starting in 1892, on the federal payroll as a hangman, he died in Toronto in 1911 from alcohol related disease. In the military the death penalty was administered by a firing squad, and if the victim was not killed on the first attempt they would receive an automatic life sentence and not be put to death. Many developed nations have abolished this form of punishment in recent history. Most Nations that still use the death penalty mostly utilize the lethal injection, sodium thiopental to make the condemned unconscious, pancuronium bromide to stop breathing, potassium chloride to stop the heart. Developed nations still employing this form of punishment include The United States, Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Cuba and Jamaica. In The United States over 60% of the populations still supports Capital punishment, However the United States has dropped its rate of Death penalty convictions dramatically in recent years

China tops out on the list with using the death penalty which has come under increasing worldwide public scrutiny in recent years, China has executed more than four times as many convicts as the rest of the world combined in the last year. China's Official numbers for execution are a State Secret, Amnesty International says the number could be as high as 8000 people per year compared with 60 in the U.S. There is also significant evidence the Chinese government is desecrating the bodies of victims and selling organs out of the bodies due to their high value, which is a sickening practice. In China 68 different crimes are punishable by death, with over half being non violent offences such as tax evasion, Theft, and piracy.

1962