Michael Radelet , professor of sociology, is an expert on the use of the death penalty in ŷڱƵ and the United States. He has documented all of ŷڱƵ’s executions and notes that ŷڱƵ abolished the penalty between 1897 and 1901, came within one vote of abolishing it again in 2009 and has executed only one person since 1967. “We've always debated the death penalty in ŷڱƵ, and the general thrust of our history is in the direction of abolition,” he said.