China Tops World List of Executions

China executed more people than any other country in 2002 -- about two-thirds of the known world total of 1,526 -- and many of those cases violated international law, the human rights group Amnesty International has reported.

The group also said the United States was the only country that executed offenders who were under 18 when they committed their crimes. Three such offenders were executed in Texas last year.

The United States executed 71 people last year, up from 66 in 2001, the report said.

“This blight on our country’s human rights record belies our claim to be an international human rights defender,” said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

Amnesty International released its annual report Friday in Geneva to coincide with the meeting of the 53-nation Human Rights Commission, the top U.N. human rights body. The group opposes the death penalty in all cases.

At least 1,526 people were executed in 31 countries last year, the group said. China accounted for at least 1,060 of those, followed by Iran with 113, the London-based agency said.

However, the true number in both countries was believed to be much higher.

“Many cases were in blatant violation of international standards on the application of the death penalty,” Amnesty International said. “Prisoners were sentenced to death following unfair trials.”

The United States had the third-most executions.

Ray Krone spent 10 years in an Arizona prison -- nearly three of them on death row -- for the murder of a bar waitress before DNA evidence cleared him.

“I was naive, ignorant of how the system really worked. I believed innocence was protection.... I am proud of our country, but this is something that has to change,” said Krone, who was in Geneva to speak against the death penalty before the commission.