INDEX

Although there is no constitutional requirement that a jury participate in the death penalty process, most states do provide, through their capital punishment statutes, that a jury will participate in the decision. The preference for jury sentencing in these circumstances reflects a reluctance to leave power over life solely in the hands of one judge. Still, some scholars have long criticized juries for administering punishment.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Fair Trial,

The attitude of international law and practice to supreme penalties has evolved enormously over the past half-century. At Nuremberg, in 1946, capital punishment was imposed upon Nazi war criminals. But at the Rome Conference in 1998, when the international community provided for the establishment of the International Criminal Court, not only was capital punishment excluded, the text also limited the scope of life imprisonment. These changes were driven principally by evolving norms of international human rights law. The first changes became apparent in the early work of the International Law Commission on the Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind, during the 1950s. When criminal prosecution returned to the international agenda, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was widespread agreement to exclude capital punishment. But at the Rome Conference, a relatively small and geographically isolated group of States made an aggressive attempt to defend capital punishment. Ultimately unsuccessful, their efforts only drew attention to a growing rejection of both capital punishment and life imprisonment in international and national legal systems

• Document type Article
• Themes list Networks,

Capital punishment is not practiced by a majority of the world’s states. Anti-capital punishment domestic policies have led to an international law of human rights that emphatically prohibits cruel and inhuman punishment. International concern for the abolition of capital punishment has prompted Islamic states that still endorse and practice the death penalty to respond with equally compelling concerns based on the tenets of Islamic law. Professor William A. Schabas suggests that Islamic states view capital punishment according to the principles embodied in the Koran. Islamic law functions on the belief that all people have a right to life unless the administration of Islamic law determines otherwise. Professor Schabas emphasizes that capital punishment exists in the domestic law of all Islamic states, but the ways by which these states employ capital punishment are varied and inconsistent. Although Professor Schabas acknowledges that Islamic states correctly argue that capital punishment is an element of Islamic law, he maintains that Islamic states do not recognize the more limited role of the death penalty articulated by the Islamic religion.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Bangladesh
• Themes list Religion ,

In this Essay, Professor Thomas C. Berg examines how religious conservatives, especially Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants, have dealt with the recent concerns over the death penalty. Part I of the Essay documents how Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants traditionally approach the death penalty.Part II analyzes the particular theological arguments and practical concerns that will be most effective in persuading religious conservatives to oppose the death penalty.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Religion ,

Exactly what went wrong and why is the theme of this article. How and why did the Labour government, despite its massive majority in Parliament and a long-standing commitment to abolition, fail to get rid of the death penalty? Why was this “window of opportunity” to abolish capital punishment shut for another decade and a half? The answers to these questions will be sought primarily in the realm of government and Parliament.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United Kingdom
• Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

The article discusses the difficulties and controversies surrounding the 1999 Draft Resolution on the Death Penalty to the United Nations General Assembly.

• Document type Article
• Themes list Networks,

In its resolution 1999/35, the Commission on Human Rights requested the Special Rapporteur to continue monitoring the implementation of existing international standards on safeguards and restrictions relating to the imposition of capital punishment, bearing in mind the comments made by the Human Rights Committee in its interpretation of article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Second Optional Protocol thereto.

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages حالات الإعدام خارج نطاق القضاء أو بإجراء اتموجة أو تعسفاً تقرير المقرر الخاص اسمة جهانقير, مقدم مطابقا لقرار لجنة الحقوق الانسان 1999/35Внесудебные, суммарные и произвольные казни: Отчет специального докладчика Асмы Джахангир (Asma Jahangir) предоставленный в ответ на резолюцию 1999/35 Комиссии по правам человекаExécutions extrajudiciaires, sommaires ou arbitraires: Rapport de Mme Asma Jahangir, Rapporteuse spéciale, présenté conformément à la résolution 1999/35 de la Commission des droits de l'homme法外处决即审即决或任意处决: 特别报告员阿斯玛贾汉吉尔女士根据人权委员会第1999/35 号决议提交的报告Las ejecuciones extrajudiciales, sumarias o arbitrarias: Informe de la Relatora Especial, Sra. Asma Jahangir, presentado en cumplimiento de la resolución 1999/35 de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos

This report examines four key aspects of the administration of capital punishment in Virginia: prosecutorial discretion in the charging of capital crimes, quality of legal representation for the accused at trial, appellate review of trials resulting in the death penalty and race. During its preparation, another issue became apparent: the state’s record keeping.

• Document type NGO report

This is the fourth consecutive year that Hands off Cain is publishing its report on the death penalty. The events registered in 2000 reveal a positive trend towards abolition.As of 31/12/2000, there were 123 abolitionist countries of various types: 77 were fully abolitionist, 12 were abolitionist for ordinary crimes, 30 were de facto abolitionist (they haven´t carried out a death sentence in at least ten years), 2 were engaged in abolishing the death penalty as members of the Council of Europe, 2 had a legal moratoria on executions. Seventy three states retained the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : Sintesi dei fatti più rilevanti del 2000

As the Presidential elections approach in Ghana, Amnesty International is renewing its call for steps towards abolishing the death penalty, after seven years without any executions. This document describes the current use of the death penalty, giving details of those currently under sentence of death and describing the death penalty under Ghanaian law and international law

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages GHANA : Rapport sur la peine de mortGHANA : Informe sobre la pena de muerte