Death penalty

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Death penalty, also called capital punishment is when someone is killed by a government because he has done a crime.

It is a very disputed topic. Some people think it's right to kill criminals, others think it's wrong.

About half the countries in the world have a death penalty, the other half do not. The United States, The People's Republic of China and Japan are examples of countries that have a death penalty. Canada, Australia and most European countries are examples of countries without a death penalty.

Most of the countries that have a death penalty use it on murderers, and for other serious crimes such as rape or terrorism. Other countries, however, also use it for more minor crimes like theft, or for saying bad things about the government.

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