INDEX

In the judicial discourse on the relationship between human sacrifice and punishment in criminal law, there are glaring errors. Looking closely at the Supreme Court’s judgment in Ishwari Lal Yadav v State of Chhattisgarh, the deviation from the principle of individualised sentencing and the consequences of ignoring evidence on the complex anthropological and psychological dimensions of human sacrifice are reflected upon.

• Document type Article
• Countries list India
• Themes list Hanging,

The racial dimensions of the death penalty are well-documented. Many observers assume this state of affairs derives from bias—often implicit and occasionally explicit—against black defendants in particular. Research points to an even more alarming factor. The race of the victim, not the defendant, steers cases in the direction of death. Regardless of the perpetrator’s race, those who kill whites are more likely to face capital charges, receive a death sentence, and die by execution than those who murder blacks. This short Essay adds a contemporary gloss to the race-of-victim effect literature, placing it in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement and showing how it relates to the broader, systemic devaluation of African-American lives.

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

This review addresses four key issues in the modern (post-1976) era of capital punishment in the United States. First, why has the United States retained the death penalty when all its peer countries (all other developed Western democracies) have abolished it? Second, how should we understand the role of race in shaping the distinctive path of capital punishment in the United States, given our country’s history of race-based slavery and slavery’s intractable legacy of discrimination? Third, what is the significance of the sudden and profound withering of the practice of capital punishment in the past two decades? And, finally, what would abolition of the death penalty in the United States (should it ever occur) mean for the larger criminal justice system?

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

The ‘Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics’ attempts to create a comprehensive year-by-year documentation of movements in the death row population in India. The publication tracks important political and legal developments in the administration of the death penalty and the criminal justice system in the year 2019.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Death Penalty, Statistics,

In Abolishing the Death Penalty: Why India Should Say No to Capital Punishment, Gopalkrishna Gandhi asks fundamental questions about the death penalty. Is taking another life a just punishment or an act as inhuman as the crime that triggered it? Does having capital punishment in the law books deter crime? His conclusions are unequivocal: Cruel in its operation, ineffectual as deterrence, unequal in its application in an uneven society, liable like any punishment to be in error but incorrigibly so, these grievous flaws that are intrinsic to the death penalty are compounded by yet another—it leaves the need for retribution unrequited and simply makes society more bloodthirsty.Examining capital punishment around the world from the time of Socrates onwards, the author delves into how the penalty was applied in India during the times of Asoka, Sikandar Lodi, Krishnadevaraya, the Peshwas and the British Raj, and how it works today.

• Document type Book
• Countries list India
• Themes list Public debate, Deterrence , Trend Towards Abolition, Right to life, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Энэхүү илтгэлийг боловсруулахдаа хэд хэдэн хэргийг тоймлон бичсэн ба тэдгээр нь цаазын ялыг хэрэгжүүлэхийн бодит аюулыг ил тодорхой харуулж байна.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States

• Document type NGO report
• Available languages التقرير العالمي لمنظمة العفو الدولية: أحكام وعمليات الإعدام في 2019Condenas a muerte y ejecuciones 2019گرارش جهانی : مجازات اعدام در سال 2019Condamnations à mort et exécutions 2019Cмертные приговоры и казни 2019

• Document type NGO report / Regional body report
• Available languages Carta conjunta con la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos sobre el 30º aniversario del Protocolo a la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos sobre la Abolición de la Pena de MuerteLettre conjointe avec la Commission interaméricaine des droits de l'homme à l'occasion du 30ème anniversaire du Protocole à la Convention américaine relative aux droits de l'homme traitant de l'abolition de la peine de mort

• Document type NGO report