Execution on the Grounds of What??

The recent execution of an Iran woman has caused wide spread controversy amongst human rights groups. After being on death row for 5 years, 26 year old Reyhaneh Jabbari was hanged for the killing of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former intelligence ministry employee, in 2007. It is reported from Amnesty International that she was not only kept in solitary confinement for two months without seeing a lawyer or her family but also tortured before her death. Many Iranians saw injustice in her sentence to death since the killing of Sarbandi was a result of attempted rape. Aside from that, Jabbari was convicted of murder after an unfair trial and the disregarding of evidence after a confession was made. Jabbari's actions were those of self defense but even when the community rallied together to beg for her pardon, the public outcry was disregarded and the execution was not called off. This case and these specific circumstances have emphasized the United Nation's disapproval with the death penalty. Iran has executed at least 170 people this year after setting a record last year of the most people executed in any country. Human rights groups look towards first year president Hassan Rouhani as suspected cause for the amount of executions. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated in July that the death penalty has no place in the 21st century. The morality of it all has become a main focus. Members of the UN confirm that such unfortunate actions towards the convicted impede on the process of building international trust.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/25/world/meast/iranian-woman-execution/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

This was a very unfortunate sequence of events that, in my opinion, took a turn for the worse when Reyhaneh Jabbari was executed. Even after an unfair trial in which presented evidence that could have possibly spared her life was not taken into consideration, she was still hung. While I have never been in favor of the death penalty, this specific case makes it so much more horrible. One would think that self defense could exempt a person from being put to death. The startling frequency of executions shows how easy it is to be convicted and put on death row. I agree with Ki-moon, in such an affluent and quickly advancing world, killing as a punishment should no longer be allowed. It is very uncivilized and primitive. There are other forms of punishment that do not end lives. Sarbandi was only 26 years old and if at some point the evidence needed to exempt her is properly examined, it will be too late. So many executions in Iran does in fact make the nation appear more on the aggressive side, not something that helps promote international peace. Hopefully, what people take away from this is the favorable concept of abolishing the death penalty in all nations.