“It's never too late to right a wrong,” wrote Martina Davis-Correia in 2009. She was the sister of Troy Davis, a man on death row for a crime he and many around the world said he couldn't have committed. She spent the last 22 of her 44 years fighting to prevent his execution and to end the death penalty worldwide. Davis-Correia died of cancer weeks after Davis’ execution in September 2011. But, over a decade later, her fight still rages on.
Executions spiked by 30% globally in 2023, “the deadliest year in nearly a decade.” The United States isn’t the only country at fault here. But after killing 24 people by execution, the U.S. is the world’s fourth-largest perpetrator of capital punishment.
The main contributors to this grim statistic are the states of Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. However, executions don’t have to be normal. Other countries have proved it.
Though executions rose overall, the number of countries carrying out executions fell to the lowest ever recorded by Amnesty International. Pakistan and Zimbabwe are among the countries moving to change their death penalty legislation; in 2023, Ghana abolished it completely.
In contrast, the U.S.’ commitment to execution is an even clearer commitment to violence and injustice — and that doesn’t even include those of us executed by police. But this global context offers us hope in fighting for a future without this violence.