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This submission addresses the United States’ compliance with its human rights obligations with regard to its use of the death penalty. This submission concludes that the United States, in continuing to allow a sentence of death, does not guarantee its citizens adequate protection against cruel and unusual punishment, freedom from discrimination, rights to life, liberty and security of person, due process, and equal protection. It also is failing to provide an adequate remedy for those whose rights are violated.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Due Process , Right to life, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Innocence, Discrimination, Foreign Nationals, Lethal Injection, Country/Regional profiles,

This submission informs on Malawi’s international human rights obligations with regard to its use of the death penalty. This report will also examine and discuss the judicial process applied in cases involving punishment by the death penalty. Reports and commentary indicate that there is a serious problem of prison conditions and access to justice for the vast majority of individuals accused of crimes for which the death penalty is a possible punishment. This report has been compiled from a combination of sources, including the Malawi Penal Code, experts, news reports, non-governmental organizations, and other commentary. Further, this report makes recommendations that steps be taken to alleviate such conditions. These steps include both reducing the maximum possible sentence from death to one that is fair, proportionate and respects international human rights standards, complete abolition of capital punishment, universal access to adequate legal representation and provision of clean, safe, and appropriate prison conditions as well as regular monitoring.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Due Process , Death Row Conditions, Country/Regional profiles,

Human development is not simply about wealth and economic well-being, it is also dependent upon shared values that cherish the sanctity of human life. Using comparative methods, archival research and quantitative findings, this book explores the historical and cultural background of the death penalty in Africa, analysing the law and practice of the death penalty under European and Asian laws in Africa before independence. Showing progressive attitudes to punishment rooted in both traditional and modern concepts of human dignity, Aimé Muyoboke Karimunda assesses the ground on which the death penalty is retained today. Providing a full and balanced appraisal of the arguments, the book presents a clear and compelling case for the total abolition of the death penalty throughout Africa.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

DPIC’s 2014 Year-End Report. Death sentences were at a 40-year low and executions were at a 20-year low. Texas, Missouri, and Florida accounted for 80% of all the executions in the United States. There were 7 exonerations this year and it took an average of 30 years to discover their innocence.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Innocence, Statistics,

DPIC’s 2014 Year-End Report. Death sentences were at a 40-year low and executions were at a 20-year low. Texas, Missouri, and Florida accounted for 80% of all the executions in the United States. There were 7 exonerations this year and it took an average of 30 years to discover their innocence.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Innocence, Statistics,

With 35 executions this year, 2014 marks the fewest people put to death since 1994, according to this report by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The 72 new death sentences in 2014 is the lowest number in the modern era of the death penalty, dating back to 1974. Executions and sentences have steadily decreased, as Americans have grown more skeptical of capital punishment. The states’ problems with lethal injections also contributed to the drop in executions this year.Death sentences—a more current barometer than executions—have declined by 77% since 1996, when there were 315. There were 79 death sentences last year. This is the fourth year in a row that there have been fewer than 100 death sentences.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Mental Illness, Innocence, Intellectual Disability, Lethal Injection, Statistics,

This resource is for parliamentarians around the globe, currently working or thinking of working for the abolition of the death penalty. It is intended to provide some of the key arguments for abolition based on a series of case studies, showing how abolition has been achieved and is being achieved around the world. The resource also sets out the mini steps that can be taken toward abolition and some information on the development of parliamentary networks and there are a list of contacts where parliamentarians can find information and support.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Public debate, Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages Les parlementaires et l’abolition de la peine de mort – une ressource

This article discusses a new art exhibition in Los Angeles which aims to humanise condemned prisoners. It continues to situate the exhibition in the greater context of the depiction of the death penalty in art history. The conversation this article raises is the link the death penalty in art history has with creating a public discussion. From the sword to the electric chair, the death penalty has inspired challenging art, writes Jason Farago.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Public debate,

The fifth edition of this highly praised study charts and explains the progress that continues to be made towards the goal of worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The majority of nations have now abolished the death penalty and the number of executions has dropped in almost all countries where abolition has not yet taken place. Emphasising the impact of international human rights principles and evidence of abuse, the authors examine how this has fuelled challenges to the death penalty and they analyse and appraise the likely obstacles, political and cultural, to further abolition. They discuss the cruel realities of the death penalty and the failure of international standards always to ensure fair trials and to avoid arbitrariness, discrimination and conviction of the innocent: all violations of the right to life. They provide further evidence of the lack of a general deterrent effect; shed new light on the influence and limits of public opinion; and argue that substituting for the death penalty life imprisonment without parole raises many similar human rights concerns.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

This article addresses the effect of judge versus jury decision making through analysis of a database of all capital sentencing phase hearing trials in the state of Delaware from 1977-2007. Over the three decades of the study, Delaware shifted responsibility for death penalty sentencing from the jury to the judge. Currently, Delaware is one of the handful of states that gives the judge the final decision making authority in capital trials. Controlling for a number of legally-relevant and other predictor variables, we find that the shift to judge sentencing significantly increased the number of death sentences. Statutory aggravating factors, stranger homicides, and the victim’s gender also increased the likelihood of a death sentence, as did the county of the homicide. We reflect on the implications of these results for debates about the constitutionality of judge sentencing in capital cases.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,