INDEX

The ABA concluded in 1997 that pervasive unfairness in capital punishment regimes warranted a halt to executions unless all of the systemic problems the ABA identified were corrected. Four years later, with those problems still pervasive, the ABA’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities issued protocols designed to facilitate the evaluation of the fairness—or lack thereof—of a jurisdiction’s capital punishment system. The protocols are particularly timely because many state legislative bodies are authorizing, or considering authorizing, studies of death penalty implementation. The protocols provide an overview, a list of questions to consider, and recommendations with regard to each topic area they cover. While these are not exhaustive, and are not fully applicable in every death penalty jurisdiction, they should prove invaluable to any group seeking to seriously evaluate the manner in which capital punishment is actually administered today.

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

This report, which includes policy recommendations, is the culmination of a long effort to identify and document the bias on the part of some prosecutors, judges, and members of the victims’ services community against victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Murder Victims' Families,

Official secrecy surrounds the death penalty in Tajikistan. The picture that Amnesty International has been able to build is incomplete, yet alarming. With random and relentless cruelty, prisoners are executed in secret after unfair trials, with no warning to their families. According to the evidence gathered by Amnesty International, none of the prisoners sentenced to death in Tajikistan received a fair trial. Most, if not all, were tortured. Several different prisoners have given detailed accounts naming the same investigator, but no action has apparently been taken to investigate the truth of these allegations. Testimony extracted under torture has been admitted as evidence and used to condemn prisoners to death.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Tajikistan
• Themes list Transparency, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages ТАДЖИКИСТАН: СМЕРТЕЛЬНЫЕ ТАЙНЫ

The attached report analyses the use of the death penalty in China in 2000 and examines sentencing patterns and the legislation behind the death penalty in China.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list China
• Themes list Networks, Statistics,

The Death Penalty Log gives available details of death sentences and executions occurring in China throughout 2000.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list China
• Themes list Statistics,

The first section below describes how, for many jurors, the decision about guilt appears to be so overwhelming that it prevents truly separate decision making about punishment. The second section focuses on the degree to which jurors feel constrained by what they view as a requirement to impose death if certain aggravating factors are present in the case. And finally, the third section explores the way in which mitigating evidence, even when it appears to have been extensive and credible, is ignored, devalued, or discredited.

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

This article will first briefly describe the current situation in the two Koreas and the local anti-death penalty movement before turning to an examination of an ancient Korean precedent for abolition based on an understanding of Buddhist teachings.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Democratic People's Republic of Korea
• Themes list Networks,

This article outlines some of the main arguments against the death penalty in Japan.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Japan

This document examines the death penalty in Saudi Arabia and how it is sustained by a mixture of legal, judicial and political factors, whose redress requires a strong political will from the Saudi Arabian government together with a consistent concern and assistance by the international community.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Saudi Arabia
• Themes list Religion , Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages السعودية :تحدي الاتجاهات العالميةالاستخدام الواسع لعقوبة الإعدام في السعوديةArabie Saoudite: Un recours massif à la peine capitale

This report analyses the use of the death penalty in China and examines sentencing patterns and the legislation behind the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list China
• Themes list Networks, Statistics,
• Available languages République Populaire de Chine: La peine de mort en 1999