Death will come soon for Jiang Yong. A corrupt local planning official with a taste for the high life, Yong solicited money from businessmen eager to expand in China's economic boom.
Showering gifts on his mistress, known as Madam Tang, the unmarried official took more than ￠G1 million in bribes from entrepreneurs wanting permission to build skyscrapers on land which had previously been protected from development.
國際特赦組織（Amnesty International, AI）總部於2009年3月24日公佈《2008年全球死刑現狀報告》(Death Sentences and Executions in 2008)。AI的報告中顯示，台灣已經連續第四年零死刑執行，但仍然在保有死刑的國家行列，中國則在2007年至少執行470位死刑犯，2008年底超過4倍數成長為1718個。
New Mexico Becomes the 15th State to Eliminate the Death Penalty Other States Consider Taking Similar Action to Ease Budget Concerns by Death Penalty Focus March 18, 2009
On March 18, 2009, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed H.B. 285, which is a bi-partisan bill that replaces the death penalty with permanent imprisonment. New Mexico is the fifteenth state to abandon capital punishment and the second state to do so legislatively in the last two years. New Jersey's legislature passed a similar bill in December 2007. At least ten other states have considered similar measures this year citing the significant savings that could result from ending the death penalty: Montana, Nebraska, Maryland, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Kansas are among them. Earlier this year, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley called on his state's legislature to end the death penalty citing both financial and ethical concerns.
