Monday Map: The World Death Belt

Today's map, via Good Magazine and Amnesty International, shows the 59 countries that still have the death penalty in 2009. There are 128 counties that have abolished the death penalty in either practice or law. You can see which way the balance is tilting.

The black band of the world death belt includes only a few democracies and many countries rife with human rights violations. Additionally, many countries colored black on this map haven't executed anyone in years. The five most frequent executors in 2008 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Pakistan.

Among the countries considering an end to the death penalty is Nigeria. But the debate there shows how hard it can be to abolish this ingrained punishment that has outlived its time.

The Nigerian House of Representatives is considering a proposal to abolish the country's death penalty, but Islamic leaders spoke out last week against the move, saying ending the death penalty contradicts Shari'ah (Islamic law).

"We would like to remind our fellow Muslims at the House that they should know that they are representing Muslim communities and by extension the interest of Islam. It is therefore a fundamental Islamic duty on them to first and foremost, protect and preserve the tenets of the religion before any other interest," said Alhaji Tijjani, the chairman of the Jigawa State chapter of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah.

Religious and personal convictions in support of the death penalty are hard to break, even if a majority of voters in any nation were to support abolishment. But the time has come to look at this inhuman and unequal punishment for what it is. It's not only in the U.S. that the poorest and most vulnerable are more likely to receive death sentences and to see them carried out. Regardless of religious teachings, it's wrong to have our harshest punishment reserved for our most vulnerable, and that's what the death penalty does.