The United States has 2.3 million people behind bars, making it the world leader in the number of residents we incarcerated. China is a distant second.
Felons who are considered physically unattractive receive 50 percent longer jail sentences on average than those deemed attractive.
Approximately 25 percent of wrongful convictions are made because of incriminating statements and false confessions. In more than a third of these, defendants were developmentally disabled and under the age of eighteen.
Taser stun guns are extremely dangerous according to Amnesty International. The group reports that more than 330 Americans have died as result of Taser attacks.
15 percent of cases were later overturned by DNA evidence relied on informants or "snitches." Most snitch testimony is considered unreliable, since it is often offered in return for dropped charges and other deals.
Laws that prohibit convicted felons from casting a ballot deny an estimated 5.3 million Americans the right to vote.
Pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa tripled in 2008. Somali pirates assaulted more than a hundred ships and captured at least forty, extorting up to $150 million in ransom from ship owners around the world.
