Amnesty International has released figures on worldwide use of the death penalty in 2010. The U.S. clocks in at number 5 in terms of the sheer number of executions, ahead of Saudi Arabia and behind Yemen. These are absolute numbers, though, not per capita figures. The BBC has a helpful graph here. Although the article

South Korean Constitutional Court (barely) upholds the death penalty
By a 5-4 vote, South Korea’s Constitutional Court has upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty, per this report in the Hankyoreh. Notably, two of the justices in the majority called for legislative modification or abolition of the death penalty. The Korean Bar Association’s statement in response to the ruling describes “the prestige of the