Capital punishment also known as death penalty is a punishment the state can give to a convict if the crime is bad enough. The crimes that are “bad enough” is called capital crimes or capital offenses. At the moment you can be sentenced with death penalty in 58 nations all around the world, but that number was much higher earlier. Around 90% of all executions takes place in Asia. China was the country with most executions in 2012 the number was above 4000. That is a huge number compared with the other numbers; Iran is number two with 314 executions in 2012. The United States is number five with 43 executions in 2012.
Throughout the history, people have tried to do the executions more humane. In the 18th century, France developed the guillotine for a faster and also a more humane way to kill the convict. Later introduced Shah of Persia throat cutting and a gunshot as quick and painless alternatives. Nowadays the most used executioner is lethal injection, but some countries still uses slow methods as beheading by sword or stoning.
Eighteen states in the United States and Canada have abolished capital punishment. In 2012, Californian voted either to preserve capital punishment or to replace it with life imprisonment. The final vote was 52.8% in favor of preserve capital punishment. If the vote have gone the other way, the state could have saved about $100 million a year.
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