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The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, together with the Free Legal Assistance Group, the Commission on Human Rights, and other members of the Anti-Death Penalty Task Force, have launched a handbook opposing the capital punishment and the drug war.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Philippines
• Themes list Drug Offences, Death Penalty,

On 8 November, the 45-year-old mother of five children was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death under Section 295B and 295C of Pakistan’s Penal Code, for insulting the Prophet Muhammad, by a court in Nankana, around 75km (45 miles) west of the city of Lahore in Punjab province.

• Document type Legal Representation
• Themes list Networks,

Singapore recently amended its laws to replace the mandatory death penalty regime for murder and drug trafficking with a discretionary sentencing regime under certain conditions. One of the conditions with respect to drug trafficking was that the convicted trafficker had to be granted a certificate by the Public Prosecutor stating that the trafficker had provided substantive assistance that led to the disruption of drug trafficking activities. That decision is not subject to judicial review except under very narrow circumstances, protected in the same way as the constitutionally protected prosecutorial discretion.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Due Process , Fair Trial, Death Penalty,

Scott Panetti was accused of killing his parents in law and convicted. Scott suffered from severe mental illness for many years, Schizophrenia. He dismissed his legal counsel and represented himself at trial wearing a cow boy suit and asking irrelavent questions. This video tells the story of Scott Panetti’s case and questions whether he was mentally stable to attend trial and represent himself.

• Document type Legal Representation
• Themes list Networks,

In Louisiana in the late 50s, Moreese Bickham, who was the oldest living survivor of death row, killed two members of the Ku Klux Klan to save his own life. He was sentenced to death and believes he was lucky enough to even have a trial as a black man in the south. Due to mental toughness, a timely supreme court decision, and a lot of hope, Bickham survived his death sentence. Whether he knew it or not, after that day, his life was not going to get any easier

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Minorities, Death Row Conditions, Electrocution,

The Egypt Death Penalty Index is a joint initiative of Reprieve and the Daftar Ahwal Data Research Center. The Index tracks Egypt’s use of capital punishment between 25 Janurary 2011 and 23 Septembrer 2018.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

This is a guide for preparing events against the death penalty. It includes a “How to” guide for holding different types of events. It also provides a short factsheet on death penalty information in the United States.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Networks,

This report, Mass Injustice, presents the Egypt Death Penalty Index (“the Index”), a first-of-its-kind website and statisticaldatabase on Egypt’s application of thedeath penalty. The report provides background information on Egypt’s growing unlawful application of the death penalty, and explains how the Index was compiled.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

The number of death sentences reached a new peak in 2018 in India.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Public debate, Death Penalty, Statistics,

This work honours William A. Schabas and his career with essays by luminary scholars and jurists from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The essays examine contemporary, historical, cultural, and theoretical aspects of the many arcs of global justice with which Professor Schabas has engaged, in fields including public international law, human rights, transitional justice, international criminal law, and capital punishment.Table of Contents (regarding information on the death penalty)II. Capital PunishmentChapter 5: International Law and the Death Penalty: A Toothless Tiger, or a Meaningful Force for Change?Sandra L. BabcockChapter 6: The UN Optional Protocol on the Abolition of the Death PenaltyMarc BossuytChapter 7: The Right to Life and the Progressive Abolition of the Death PenaltyChristof Heyns and Thomas Probert and Tess BordenChapter 8: Progress and Trend of the Reform of the Death Penalty in ChinaZhao Bingzhi

• Document type Book
• Themes list International law, Death Penalty,

The Article highlights that statutory compensation schemes overlook the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004, of wrongful execution and the greater injustice it entails and urges that the statutes be amended in light of this grievous wrong that has come to the fore of American criminal justice systems.

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

This article explores how, capital punishment in the United States is a minority practice. This feature of American capital punishment has become more pronounced recently, and is especially clear when death sentences, which are merely infrequent, are distinguished from executions, which are exceedingly rare.

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

The case of Cameron Todd Willingham has become infamous and was enmeshed in the death penalty debate and the reelection of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who refused to grant a stay of execution. The governor has since attempted to derail an investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

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

We compare homicide rates in two quite similar cities with vastly different execution risks. Singapore had an execution rate close to 1 per million per year until an explosive twentyfold increase in 1994-95 and 1996-97 to a level that we show was probably the highest in the world. Hong Kong,has no executions all during the last generation and abolished capital punishment in 1993. Homicide levels and trends are remarkably similar in these two cities over the 35 years after 1973. By comparing two closely matched places with huge contrasts in actual execution but no differences in homicide trends, we have generated a unique test of the exuberant claims of deterrence that have been produced over the past decade in the U.S.

• Document type Article
• Countries list China
• Themes list Deterrence ,

Death qualification has been shown to have a number of biasing effects that appear to undermine a capital defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a fair jury. Attitudes toward the death penalty have shifted modestly but consistently over the last several decades in ways that may have changed the overall impact of death qualification. Specifically, the very large gap between black and white Americans’ current support for capital punishment raises the question of whether death qualification procedures disproportionately exclude African Americans from capital jury participation. In order to examine this possibility, we conducted two countywide death penalty attitude surveys in the California county that has the highest percentage of African American residents in the state. Results show that death qualification continues to have a number of serious biasing effects—including disproportionately excluding death penalty opponents—which result in the significant underrepresentation of African Americans. This creates a death‐qualified jury pool with the potential to be significantly more likely to ignore and even misuse mitigating factors and to rely more heavily on aggravating factors in their death penalty decision making. The implications of these findings for the fair administration of capital punishment are discussed.

• Document type Academic report

This book tells the story of Alfred Dewayne Brown, a man who spent over twelve years in prison (ten of them on Texas’ infamous Death Row) for a high-profile crime he did not commit, and his lawyer, Brian Stolarz, who dedicated his career and life to secure his freedom. The book chronicles Brown’s extraordinary journey to freedom against very long odds, overcoming unscrupulous prosecutors, corrupt police, inadequate defense counsel, and a broken criminal justice system. The book examines how a lawyer-client relationship turned into one of brotherhood.Grace And Justice On Death Row also addresses many issues facing the criminal justice system and the death penalty – race, class, adequate defense counsel, and intellectual disability, and proposes reforms.Told from Stolarz’s perspective, this raw, fast-paced look into what it took to save one man’s life will leave you questioning the criminal justice system in this country. It is a story of injustice and redemption that must be told.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Innocence, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,

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,

This article gives insight into the different opinions held by the US and Europe in terms of the death penalty. The interplay between terrorism, the death penalty and extradition is also examined.

• Document type Article
• Themes list Extradition, Terrorism,

Although the death penalty has a long history, it is not without debate and differing views. There appears to be a gap between Whites and Blacks in terms of their support of capital punishment. Students at a Midwestern university were surveyed to determine whether there were differences between the two groups of students in reasons to support or oppose the death penalty. In bivariate tests, there were significant differences between White and Black students on 15 of 16 measures for reasons for supporting or opposing capital punishment. These differences continued for 10 of the 16 measures even after multivariate analysis controlled for the effects of gender, age, and academic level. The results are discussed.

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

Forty-three years after the Supreme Court reversed course and reinstated the death penalty, reliable data on the individuals sent to death row is maddeningly difficult to obtain. The Intercept set out to compile a comprehensive dataset on everyone sentenced to die in active death penalty jurisdictions since 1976. The findings show that capital punishment remains as “arbitrary and capricious” as ever.

• Document type International law - Regional body
• Themes list Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

In the run up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, intemational criticism of China’s human rights record has highlighted the use of the death penalty. Although global activists may try to intemationalise China’s use ofthe death penalty, capital punishment is a domestic issue.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Public debate, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Country/Regional profiles,

This Handbook represents a stand alone, single-volume practionners’ handbook for the use of psychiatrists and psychologists, sollicitors, barristers, prosecuting authorities and the courts, who are required to deal with homicide, and other cases, in jurisdictions and circumstances where the death penalty can apply.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Mental Illness,

This publication includes perspectives from a broad range of victims. While some of them are family members of crime victims, others are victims of human rights violations in application of the death penalty, of its brutality and traumatic effects. Victims’ perspectives, taken holistically, make a compelling case against the death penalty. When it comes to the death penalty, almost everyone loses. The perspectives of the victims on the death penalty as reflected in this book are likely to provoke tough discussions. This may be a welcome challenge. The publication was launched at a high-level event on 21st September at the UN in New York.The full recording of the event and the programme is available at: texte

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list Innocence, Murder Victims' Families, Death Penalty,

A survey on Singaporeans’ opinion on the death penalty, which was led by Assoc Prof Chan Wing Cheong from the NUS Faculty of Law, found that most Singaporeans are in favour of the death penalty but less so for certain cases. Fewer support the death penalty for drug trafficking and firearms in cases where no one dies or is injured and there is also less support for the mandatory death penalty. The survey polled 1,500 Singapore citizens aged 18 to 74 between April and May 2016.For a free summary of the study: http://news.nus.edu.sg/highlights/11231-death-penalty-support-not-clear-cut

• Document type Article
• Countries list Singapore
• Themes list Public opinion, Public debate, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

This report details the administration of the death penalty in Taiwan. It discusses Taiwans obligations under international law, how executions are carried out, the profile of the condemned, discrimination in the sysem and discusses placing a moratorium on executions in Taiwan.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages 重啓死刑執行 廢死之路大倒退- 2010台灣死刑報告

The story is based on the conviction Dhananjoy, accused for the gruesome murder of Hetal Parekh, which took place in the year 1990. On the basis of circumstantial evidence and on the basis of the deceased mother’s statement, Dhananjoy Chatterjee- a security guard, was executed and hanged to death on the early hours of 15th August 2004, after serving imprisonment for 14 long years and after having appealed to all levels of court in the country; and finally, to the President of India.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list India
• Themes list Public opinion, Innocence, Death Row Conditions, Discrimination, Death Penalty,

To assess support for the death penalty in Mexico and South Korea, surveys were administered to students at institutions of higher education. The majority of respondents in Mexico (52.3%) and South Korea (60.8%) supported the death penalty. Given that the Mexican and South Korean governments have histories of using criminal justice agencies to suppress democratic reform, the high level of support for the death penalty indicates that a history of authoritarian governance may not inculcate widespread opposition to the punishment. Concomitantly, regression analyses of the data indicate that beliefs about the treatment afforded to criminal suspects do not significantly affect support for capital punishment. Contrary to research conducted in the United States, which has consistently shown support for capital punishment is lower among females than among males, regression analyses of the data show that gender has no impact on support for the death penalty; findings that call for a reexamination of the thesis that the gender gap in support for the death penalty in the United States is the result of a patriarchal social structure.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Mexico
• Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

Lapan lembaran kes (meliputi China, India, Indonesia, Jepun, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Urdu : آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)Thai : แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)Tagalog : Eight kaso sheet (sumasakop sa China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan)Japanese : 八ケースシート（カバー中国、インド、インドネシア、日本、マレーシア、パキスタン、シンガポール、台湾）Indonesian : Delapan kasus lembar (meliputi Cina, India, Indonesia, Jepang, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)Hindi : आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)八个案例张（包括中国，印度，印度尼西亚，日本，马来西亚，巴基斯坦，新加坡，台湾）

Chiou Ho-shun, a death row inmate in Taiwan, may be executed at any time. He said, ‘ I hope you can save me, but if it’s too late, please scatter my ashes in the Longfeng harbour, and buy a meatball, come and see me.’

• Document type Legal Representation
• Themes list Torture,

The authors gathered information on 1665 death-eligible cases nationwide for three years at decade intervals: 1994, 2004, and 2014. In 517 cases death sentences were imposed; in 311 cases sentences spared the defendants from death sentences, and in 837 cases prosecutors spared defendants from death sentences.

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

This resource website displays data concerning death sentencing in the United States from 1990 to present. Research using these data includes a book, “End of its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice” published by Harvard University Press in Fall 2017. This research was conducted by Professor Brandon L. Garrett with the support of the University of Virginia School of Law.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Death Penalty, Statistics,

This article presents a legal and political analysis of the 2003 – 2005 effort of Governor Mitt Romney to make the death penalty available as a sentencing option in Massachusetts.

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

Video “It is the potential of this documentary to move us toward a more enlightened society that excites me about this work.” Benjamin Jealous, former NAACP PresidentAs wrongful convictions, botched executions, and a broken justice system inch further into the spotlight, we must consider: What is justice? What part should the death penalty play?

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Mental Illness, Innocence, Death Penalty,

Informations and survey findings about the public opinion on the death penalty in Singapore

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty,

Failures of justice in trials which result in an execution cannot be rectified. In the Asia-Pacific region, where 95 per cent of the population live in countries that retain and use the death penalty, there is a real danger of the state executing someone in error following an unfair trial.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Fair Trial,

More people are executed in the Asia-Pacific region than in the rest of the world combined. Add to this the probability that they were executed following an unfair trial, and the gross injustice of this punishment becomes all too clear.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Fair Trial,
• Available languages Korean : 아시아에서의 치명적 불의 불공정 재판을 멈춰라, 사형집행을 중단하라.Thai : การประหารชีวิตที่อยุติธรรม ในภูมิภาคเอเชีย ยุติการพิจารณาคดีที่ไม่เป็นธรรม ยกเลิกการประหารชีวิตUrdu : یفاصناان کلہم ںیم ایشیا ںیرک متخ توم ےازس ،دنب تامدقم ہنافصنمریغTagalog : NAKAMAMATAY NA KAWALAN NG KATARUNGAN SA ASYA Itigil ang Di Makatarungang paglilitis, Itigil ang PagbitayMongolian : АЗИ ТИВ ДЭХ ЭНЭРЭЛГҮЙ ШУДАРГА БУС ЯВДАЛ Шударга бусaap шүүх явдлыг зогсоож, цаазын ялыг халъяJapanese : 不当に奪われる生命 ～アジアにおける不公正な裁判を止め、 死刑執行の停止を～Hindi : एशिया में घातक अन्याय: समाप्ति अनुचित परीक्षण, सज़ाएँ बंद करोIndonesian : KETIDAKADILAN YANG MEMATIKAN DI ASIA Akhiri peradilan yang tidak adil, hentikan eksekusi亚洲的致命不公: 终止不公审判，停止处决

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,

The report covers the period from January to December 2010, though some key events in early 2011 have also been included. It highlights the important progressbeing made, serious concerns that we have, and what we are doing to promote our values around the world. It will rightly be studied closely by Parliament, NGOs and the wider public. There is a chapter dedicated to the death penalty, as well as 2010 figures on the death penalty in target countries.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Afghanistan
• Themes list Networks,

There is a lack of research on attitudes toward capital punishment in China, and there is even less research on cross-national comparisons of capital punishment views. Using data recently collected from college students in the United States and China, this study finds that U.S. and Chinese students have differences in their views on the death penalty and its functions of deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. This study also reveals that the respondents’ perspectives of deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution, and incapacitation all affect their attitudes toward the death penalty in the United States, whereas only the first three views affect attitudes toward capital punishment in China. Furthermore, retribution is the strongest predictor in the United States, whereas deterrence is the strongest predictor in China.

• Document type Article
• Countries list China
• Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

For the past seven years, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have quietly financed investigations to help free Jason Baldwin, Jesse Misskelley Jr., and Damien Echols, known as the the West Memphis Three, who were wrongly convicted in 1994 of murdering three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis , Arkansas. This piece provides and in-depth look into Peter and Fran’s involvement with the investigattion, the creation of ‘West of Memphis’ as a way to expose key developments in the infamous murder case and Jackson’s main goal, to exonerate the West Memphis Three and help find the real killer.

• Document type Academic report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Innocence,

The death penalty is a subject that, in the words of Justice Adrian Saunders of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, “invariably elicits passionate comment.” Such comment is particularly so within the states that make up the Commonwealth Caribbean, where rising rates of violent crime have led to strong public clamor for a swift and final response. The involvement of foreign courts and quasi-judicial international tribunals in limiting the actual use of the death penalty in the Caribbean has made the issue even more politically charged, leading to a strongly held perception that the judgments of these foreign bodies are unacceptable challenges to the very exercise of Caribbean national sovereignty.

• Document type Article
• Themes list Mandatory Death Penalty,

Executionhas also (1) had a powerful negative influence on the substantive criminal law; (2) promoted the practice of using extreme penal sanctions as status rewards to crime victims and their families; (3) provided moral camouflage for a penalty of life imprisonment without possibility of parole, which is almost as brutal as state killing; and (4) diverted legal andjudicial resources from the scrutiny of other punishments and governmental practicesin an era of mass imprisonment. This chapter discusses these four latent impacts of attempts to revive and rationalize the death penalty in the United States.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Arbitrariness,

After its national release in October, “Incendiary: The Willingham Case” is now available on DVD and through Apple’s iTunes Movie Store.The film examines the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham in Texas for the murder of his children by arson and centers around evolving standards of scientific evidence and the notion that an innocent man was executed

• Document type Legal Representation
• Themes list Innocence,

What would you do if someone you love was raped, tortured, or murdered? How would you seek justice? The very thought evokes horror— we shudder to even consider it. But it is a reality faced by Vicki and Syl Scheiber after their daughter’s rape and murder; faced by Karen Brassard in the traumatic aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing; faced by former Virginia state executioner Jerry Givens after performing 62 executions.As wrongful convictions, botched executions, and a broken justice system inch further into the spotlight, we must consider: What is justice? What part should the death penalty play?In the Executioner’s Shadow allows a glimpse into Jerry’s rarely seen world of death row and execution. It explores Karen’s moral conflict as she attends the accused bomber’s trial, a young man the same age as her son. It defies our perception of justice as Vicki and Syl fight for the life of their daughter’s murderer.In the Executioner’s Shadow illuminates the oft hidden realities entangled in death row, the death penalty, and the U.S. Justice system at large.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Provides a comprehensive statistical assessment of how the death penalty has been applied over the entire modern period, 1976 to present

• Document type Book
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Penalty, Statistics,

The conviction of Amina Lawal in Nigeria for committing adultery and sentence of death by stoning created an international outcry of support to overturn her sentence. The support she received is a reflection of the outrage many around the world feel toward this particular method of execution, and in a larger context the growing social norm that the death penalty should be abolished. As more of the world looks upon the death penalty as unfair, or cruel and unusual, or as torture, arguably, a jus cogens norm prohibiting the death penalty has developed in international law, and will ultimately be the vehicle by which the death penalty will be abolished worldwide. Part I of this comment will detail the plight of Amina Lawal, and how her situation is indicative of the globalization of human rights norms. In Part II, this comment will examine the meaning of a jus cogens norm and how it can be established in the context of capital punishment. Using human rights treaties, the law and practice of other nations, and international tribunal decisions, Part III will assert, citing other contexts, such as the “right to life,” and the already entrenched jus cogens norm prohibiting torture, that a jus cogens norm abolishing the death penalty has arguably already been established. Finally, Part IV will assess what the effect of the establishment of a jus cogens norm prohibiting capital punishment.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Nigeria
• Themes list Stoning,

This article draws on two original empirical research projects that explored judges’ opinions on the retention and administration of capital punishment in India and Bangladesh. The data expose justice systems marred by corruption, incompetence, abuses of due process, and arbitrary and inconsistent treatment of defendants from arrest through to conviction and sentencing. It shows that those with the power to sentence to death have little faith in the integrity of the criminal process. Yet, a startling paradox emerges from these studies; despite personal knowledge of its flaws, judges have trust in the death penalty to deter crime and to realise other sentencing aims and feel retention benefits society. This is explained by reference to utilitarian values. Not only did our judges express strongly utilitarian justifications for sentencing people to death, in terms of their erroneous belief in its deterrent effect, but some also articulated utilitarian justifications for misconduct in pre-trial processes, suggesting that it was necessary to break the rules to secure convictions when the system was dysfunctional and ineffective.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Bangladesh
• Themes list Arbitrariness, Death Penalty,

The study results indicate that when test subjects, many of whom are likely retributivists, are presented with information about the problem of innocence, the drop in support for capital punishment spans all points on the Likert scale. Our study suggests that more rigorous testing may demonstrate that an individual’s knowledge of the “innocence problem” can generate more profond changes in attitudes toward the death penalty than indicted by previous studies of the marshall Hypotheses.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Public opinion, Innocence,

On May 16, 2001, the federal government carried out its first execution for a criminal offense in over 38 years (Timothy McVeigh). This article (part of a symposium issue) examines recent developments in the administration of the federal death penalty, in the legislative, judicial, and executive (Department of Justice) arenas. While not an abolitionist, the author expresses misgivings about federal capital punishment as it is currently administered, updating statistics regarding racial and geographic disparity from his 1999 article “The Federal Death Penalty: History and Some Thoughts About the Department of Justice’s Role,”. The article also explains “What the Supreme Court Got Wrong in Jones,” (1999). Finally, the international implications of the first execution by the federal government in two generations are explored. No longer can the United States shift its internationally isolated position regarding capital punishment onto its constituent states under a theory of independent federalism. Note: This is a description of the paper and not the actual abstract.

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

Authors David Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, utilize their research to identify the critical factors affecting the future of the death penalty in Asia. They found that when an authoritarian state experienced democratic reform, such as in Taiwan and South Korea, the rate of executions dropped sharply. Johnson and Zimring also found that politics, instead of culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of capital punishment in Asia.

• Document type Book
• Countries list China

• Document type Book
• Themes list Death Penalty,

Para completar e reforçar as disposições da carta Africana dos direitos humanos e dos povos,o artigo 66 da carta autoriza a adopção de protocolos ou acordos particulares. É com estefundamento que a Comissão Africana dos Direitos Humanos e dos Povos (CADHP) – organismoda União Africana (UA) encarregado da promoção e protecção dos direitos humanos em Africa– propôs à UA a adopção de um protocolo específico sobre a abolição da pena de morte queprecisa que “o direito à vida é o fundamento de todos os outros direitos”, e que “a abolição dapena de morte é essencial à protecção eficaz” deste direito.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Leaflet on the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Abolition of the Death PenaltyBrochure sur le Protocole additionnel à la Charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples portant sur l’abolition de la peine de mort en Afrique

اس رپورٹ کو ترتیب دیتے ہوئے کئی مقدمات کا دوبارہ جائزہ لیا گیا جس سے سزائے موت پر عمل درآمد سے پیدا ہونے والے اصل خطرات ظاہر ہوئے ہیں۔ آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Thai : แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)Tagalog : Eight kaso sheet (sumasakop sa China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan)Japanese : 八ケースシート（カバー中国、インド、インドネシア、日本、マレーシア、パキスタン、シンガポール、台湾）Indonesian : Delapan kasus lembar (meliputi Cina, India, Indonesia, Jepang, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)Hindi : आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)Lapan lembaran kes (meliputi China, India, Indonesia, Jepun, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)八个案例张（包括中国，印度，印度尼西亚，日本，马来西亚，巴基斯坦，新加坡，台湾）

In this article, the authors examine how the debate over women’s executions during the nineteenth and early twentieth century funneled and in various ways processed the contrary demands of gender and capital justice. They show how encounters with capital punishment both reflected and reinforced dominant interpretations of womanhood and as such contributed to the intricate web of normative strictures that affected all women at the time. At the same time, however, the often heated debates that accompanied such cases pried open some of the contradictions inherent in the dominant interpretations and, as a result, came to challenge the boundaries that separated not only women from men but also women from each other. Rather than viewing gender as a unidirectional influence on capital punishment, the authors argue that gender is best approached as an evolving social category that gets reconstructed, modified, and transformed whenever it is implicated in social practices and public debates.

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

In general, Muslim nations recognize the validity of the death penalty, and many frequently impose it. According to Amnesty International, between 1985 and mid-1988, Saudi Arabia executed 140 prisoners for the crimes of murder, robbery with violence, drug smuggling or distribution, and adultery. During the same period, Pakistan executed 115, primarily for the crime of murder. Hundreds every year faced the firing squad in Iraq for murder, desertion, treason, sabotage, and economic corruption. At the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed more than 743 inmates for murder, drug crimes, political offenses, prostitution, adultery and other “moral offenses,” including “being corrupt on earth” and “being at enmity with God.” In face of the widespread acceptance of the death penalty within the Muslim world, this essay explores the contours of an Islamic argument against capital punishment. The argument is not, and cannot be, an appeal for the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances. It does call into question, however, the legitimacy – indeed, the legality in accordance with the principles of classical Islamic law, or the Shari’ah – of capital punishment as it is practiced in the era of Islamization.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Religion , Capital offences, Most Serious Crimes,

This article provides a brief history of the study of miscarriages of justice in America. It analyzes the field of wrongful conviction scholarship as three distinct genres: the big-picture studies, the specialized-causes literature, and the true-crime genre. It also analyzes what these literatures have contributed to knowledge about miscarriages as well as their limitations. This article attempts to rethink the study of miscarriages of justice to systematically develop a more sophisticated, insightful, and generalizable criminology of wrongful conviction.

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

For the first time in a long time, the Supreme Court’s most important death penalty decisions all have gone the defendant’s way. Is the Court’s new found willingness to protect capital defendants here to stay? Or is it a passing fancy that will dissipate in less hospitable times? At first glance, history allows for optimism. Furman v. Georgia, the 1972 landmark that invalidated the death penalty, provides a seemingly perfect example of the Court’s ability and inclination to protect capital defendants when no one else will. Furman looks countermajoritarian, scholars have claimed it was countermajoritarian, and even the Justices saw themselves as playing a heroic, countermajoritarian role in the case. But the lessons of Furman are not what they seem. Rather than proving the Supreme Court’s ability to withstand majoritarian influences, Furman teaches the opposite – that even in its more countermajoritarian moments, the Court never strays far from dominant public opinion, tending instead to reflect the social and political movements of its time. This Article examines the historical context of Furman v. Georgia and its 1976 counterpart, Gregg v. Georgia, to highlight a fundamental flaw in the Supreme Court’s role as protector of minority rights: its inherently limited inclination and ability to render countermajoritarian change. In theory, the Court might protect unpopular minorities, but in practice it is unlikely to do so unless a substantial (and growing) segment of society supports that protection. Even then, Furman reminds us that the Court’s “help” may do more harm than good. If the past truly is a prologue, Furman portends that the Court’s current interest in restricting the death penalty will not last forever. Like the fair-weather friend, the Court’s protection will likely be there in good times but gone when needed the most.

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

ในรายงานฉบับนี้ มีการทบทวนคดีต่างๆ ที่เกิดขึ้นซึ่งสะท้อนให้เห็นอย่างชัดเจนถึงอันตรายร้ายแรงของการใช้โทษประหารชีวิต การตัดสินว่าใครจะถูกประหารและใครที่จะรอด มักไม่ แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Urdu : آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)Tagalog : Eight kaso sheet (sumasakop sa China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan)Japanese : 八ケースシート（カバー中国、インド、インドネシア、日本、マレーシア、パキスタン、シンガポール、台湾）Indonesian : Delapan kasus lembar (meliputi Cina, India, Indonesia, Jepang, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)Hindi : आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)Lapan lembaran kes (meliputi China, India, Indonesia, Jepun, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)八个案例张（包括中国，印度，印度尼西亚，日本，马来西亚，巴基斯坦，新加坡，台湾）

Sa pagbuo ng ulat na ito, nirepaso ang ilang kaso na malinaw na nagpapakita ng tunay na panganib sa pagsasagawa ng parusang kamatayan. Eight kaso sheet (sumasakop sa China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan)

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Urdu : آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)Thai : แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)Japanese : 八ケースシート（カバー中国、インド、インドネシア、日本、マレーシア、パキスタン、シンガポール、台湾）Indonesian : Delapan kasus lembar (meliputi Cina, India, Indonesia, Jepang, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)Hindi : आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)Lapan lembaran kes (meliputi China, India, Indonesia, Jepun, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)八个案例张（包括中国，印度，印度尼西亚，日本，马来西亚，巴基斯坦，新加坡，台湾）

本報告書をまとめるに際し、死刑を適用することが現実に危険であるということを明らかに示す事例を検討した シート（カバー中国、インド、インドネシア、日本、マレーシア、パキスタン、シンガポール、台湾）

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Urdu : آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)Thai : แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)Tagalog : Eight kaso sheet (sumasakop sa China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan)Indonesian : Delapan kasus lembar (meliputi Cina, India, Indonesia, Jepang, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)Hindi : आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)Lapan lembaran kes (meliputi China, India, Indonesia, Jepun, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)八个案例张（包括中国，印度，印度尼西亚，日本，马来西亚，巴基斯坦，新加坡，台湾）

Saat penyusunan laporan ini, sejumlah kasus sudah ditinjau lagi yang secara jelas menunjukkan bahaya nyata penerapan hukuman mati. Delapan kasus lembar (meliputi Cina, India, Indonesia, Jepang, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Urdu : آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)Thai : แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)Tagalog : Eight kaso sheet (sumasakop sa China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan)Japanese : 八ケースシート（カバー中国、インド、インドネシア、日本、マレーシア、パキスタン、シンガポール、台湾）Hindi : आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)Lapan lembaran kes (meliputi China, India, Indonesia, Jepun, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)八个案例张（包括中国，印度，印度尼西亚，日本，马来西亚，巴基斯坦，新加坡，台湾）

इस रिपोर्ट संकलन में मामलों की संख्या की समीक्षा की गई है जो स्पष्ट रूप से मौत की सजा को लागू करने के बहुत असली खतरों का प्रदर्शन. आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Urdu : آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)Thai : แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)Tagalog : Eight kaso sheet (sumasakop sa China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan)Japanese : 八ケースシート（カバー中国、インド、インドネシア、日本、マレーシア、パキスタン、シンガポール、台湾）Indonesian : Delapan kasus lembar (meliputi Cina, India, Indonesia, Jepang, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)Lapan lembaran kes (meliputi China, India, Indonesia, Jepun, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)八个案例张（包括中国，印度，印度尼西亚，日本，马来西亚，巴基斯坦，新加坡，台湾）

아시아∙태평양 지역에서는 세계 나머지 모든 곳을 다 합친 것보다 더 많은 사람이 사형을 당한다. 게다가 불공정한 재판을 받고 사형당할 가능성까지 감안하면 사형이 얼마나 부당한 제도인지 명백히 드러난다. 공정한 재판을 받지 못한 채 사형이 집행된 후에는 이를 되돌이킬 방법이 전혀 없다.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Fair Trial,
• Available languages Thai : การประหารชีวิตที่อยุติธรรม ในภูมิภาคเอเชีย ยุติการพิจารณาคดีที่ไม่เป็นธรรม ยกเลิกการประหารชีวิตUrdu : یفاصناان کلہم ںیم ایشیا ںیرک متخ توم ےازس ،دنب تامدقم ہنافصنمریغTagalog : NAKAMAMATAY NA KAWALAN NG KATARUNGAN SA ASYA Itigil ang Di Makatarungang paglilitis, Itigil ang PagbitayMongolian : АЗИ ТИВ ДЭХ ЭНЭРЭЛГҮЙ ШУДАРГА БУС ЯВДАЛ Шударга бусaap шүүх явдлыг зогсоож, цаазын ялыг халъяJapanese : 不当に奪われる生命 ～アジアにおける不公正な裁判を止め、 死刑執行の停止を～Hindi : एशिया में घातक अन्याय: समाप्ति अनुचित परीक्षण, सज़ाएँ बंद करोIndonesian : KETIDAKADILAN YANG MEMATIKAN DI ASIA Akhiri peradilan yang tidak adil, hentikan eksekusiLethal Injustice in Asia: End unfair trials, stop executions亚洲的致命不公: 终止不公审判，停止处决

Chivalry – that set of values and code of conduct for the medieval knightly class – has long influenced American law, from Supreme Court decisions to substantive criminal law doctrines and the administration of criminal justice. The chivalrous knight was enjoined to seek honor and defend it through violence and, in a society which enforced strict gender roles, to show gallantry toward “ladies” of the same class, except for the women of the knight’s own household, over whom he exercised complete authority. This article explores, for the first time, whether these chivalric values might explain sentencing outcomes in capital cases. The data for the article comes from our original study of 1299 first degree murder cases in California, whose death penalty scheme accords prosecutors and juries virtually unlimited discretion in making the death-selection decision. We examine sentencing outcomes for three particular types of murder where a “chivalry effect” might be expected – gang murders, rape murders and domestic violence murders. In cases involving single victims, the results were striking. In gang murders, the death sentence rate was less than one-tenth the overall death sentence rate. By contrast, in rape murder cases, the death sentence rate was nine times the overall death sentence rate. The death sentence rate for single-victim domestic violence murders was roughly 25% lower than the overall death sentence rate. We also examined, through this study and earlier California studies, more general data on gender disparities in death sentencing and found substantial gender-of-defendant and gender-of-victim disparities. Women guilty of capital murder are far less likely than men to be sentenced to death, and defendants who kill women are far more likely to be sentenced to death than defendants who kill men. We argue that all of these findings are consistent with chivalric norms, and we conclude that, in the prosecutors’ decisions to seek death and juries’ decisions to impose it, chivalry appears to be alive and well.

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

The Miranda conundrum runs something like this: If the Miranda decision represents true constitutional interpretation, and all unwarned statements taken during custodial interrogation are compelled” within the meaning of the self-incrimination clause, the impeachment and “”fruits”” exceptions to Miranda should fall. If it is not true constitutional interpretation, than the Court has no business reversing state criminal convictions for its violation. I offer here what I hope is a satisfying answer to this conundrum, on both descriptive and normative levels, that justifies not only Miranda but a host of similar Warren, Burger, and Rehnquist Court decisions as well. In Part I, I introduce and define the terms “”constitutional prophylactic rule,”” “”constitutional safe harbor rule,”” and “”constitutional incidental right,”” and attempt to legitimate their use. I further demonstrate that constitutional criminal procedure is so flush with such prophylactic and safe harbor rules and incidental rights that trying to eliminate them now, by either reversing a large number of criminal procedure cases or “”constitutionalizing”” all of those holdings, would do more harm than good. I propose that we accept the fact that these rules and rights are a fixed part of our constitutional landscape, and focus instead on minimizing their risks and maximizing their benefits”

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

The news about the astounding accuracy of felony convictions in the United States, delivered by Justice Scalia and Joshua Marquis in the passage set out epigrammatically above, would be cause for rejoicing if it were true. Imagine. Only 27 factually wrong felony convictions out of every 100,000! Unfortunately, it is not true, as the empirical data analyzed in this article demonstrates. To a great extent, those who believe that our criminal justice system rarely convicts the factually innocent and those who believe such miscarriages are rife have generally talked past each other for want of any empirically-justified factual innocence wrongful conviction rate. This article remedies at least a part of this problem by establishing the first such empirically justified wrongful conviction rate ever for a significant universe of real world serious crimes: capital rape-murders in the 1980’s. Using DNA exonerations for capital rape-murders from 1982 through 1989 as a numerator, and a 406-member sample of the 2235 capital sentences imposed during this period, this article shows that 21.45%, or around 479 of those, were cases of capital rape murder. Data supplied by the Innocence Project of Cardozo Law School and newly developed for this article show that only 67% of those cases would be expected to yield usable DNA for analysis. Combining these figures and dividing the numerator by the resulting denominator, a minimum factually wrongful conviction rate for capital rape-murder in the 1980’s emerges: 3.3%. The article goes on to consider the likely ceiling accompanying this 3.3% floor, arriving at a slightly softer number for the maximum factual error rate of around 5%. The article then goes on to analyze the implications of a factual error rate of 3.3%-5% for both those who currently claim errors are extremely rare, and those who claim they are extremely common. Extension of the 3.3%-5% to other capital and non-capital categories of crime is discussed, and standards of moral duty to support system reform in the light of such error rates is considered at length.

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

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996 was drafted, enacted, and signed in an atmosphere of anger and fear. The legislation, which includes substantial cutbacks in the federal habeas corpus remedy, was Congress’s response to the tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing. During the congressional hearings on the bills that culminated in AEDPA, the proponents of the legislation claimed that its habeas corpus restrictions and other provisions were necessary to fight domestic terrorism. The Senate bill was approved by the House on April 18, 1996, the day before the one-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. President Bill Clinton invoked the bombing in a statement he issued at the time of the Senate’s passage of the legislation and again when he signed the legislation into law. Even at the time of the debates, some courageous legislators were willing to denounce the fallacious connection that the bill’s proponents drew between the bombing and the broader issues of the scope and availability of habeas corpus review. Many of the habeas corpus restrictions ultimately built into AEDPA had been under consideration by Congress since 1990, though none had been adopted. The congressional proponents of these restrictions seized upon the Oklahoma City tragedy as a means of accomplishing their longstanding goal to scale back federal habeas corpus review.

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

As our society’s enduring marriage to the death penalty prepares to enter yet another century, it is a marriage that places the children in danger. Why is it that we continue to impose the death penalty for crimes committed by juvenile offenders? As questionable as the death penalty is in general, might we not at least place an “adults only” label on it? The rest of the world has already done so. Only in America need children fear execution by their own government.

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

In the past several years, there has been a marked change in the climate with regard to public discourse about the death penalty in the United States. This is partly due to advances in DNA technology. This Article, in Part II, will address the impact that DNA testing has had on public discourse on capital punishment. In Part III, it will discuss the overall context in which public discourse has changed, and its likely impact on judges, prosecutors and governors dealing with capital cases. Finally, in Part IV, it will consider the broader implications of this change in climate, in leading to a moratorium on executions in Illinois, consideration of moratoria elsewhere, and potentially to abolition of capital punishment in this country.

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

The issue of whether innocent people have been executed is now at the center of the debate concerning the legitimacy of capital punishment. The purpose of this research was to use data collected by the Gallup Organization in 2003 to investigate whether Americans who believed that an innocent person had been executed were less likely to support capital punishment. We also explored whether the association varied by race, given that African Americans are disproportionately affected by the death penalty. Our results indicated that three-quarters of Americans believed that an innocent person had been executed for a crime they did not commit within the last five years and that this belief was associated with lower levels of support for capital punishment, especially among those who thought this sanction was applied unfairly. In addition, our analyses revealed that believing an innocent person had been executed had a stronger association with altering African American than white support for the death penalty.A key claim of death penalty advocates is that a high proportion of the public supports capital punishment. In this context, scholars opposing this sanction have understood the importance of showing that the public’s support for executing offenders is contingent and shallower than portrayed by typical opinion polls. The current research joins this effort by arguing that the prospect of executing innocents potentially impacts public support for the death penalty and, in the least, creates ideological space for a reconsideration of the legitimacy of capital punishment.

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

This paper seeks first to show that persons who are convicted of crimes can be perceived as either remorseful or as lacking in remorse. This division establishes a moral hierarchy that has profound implications for the characterization and disposition of persons who are so designated. Second, using both Canadian and American cases, it looks at how inclusion in the category of the unremorseful affects the characterization and disposition of those who have been wrongfully convicted. Finally, it suggests that remorse is a major site of conflict between persons who are wrongfully convicted and officials within the criminal justice system, conflict that involves the use of institutional pressure to encourage the expression of remorse, on the one hand, and the mobilization of individual resources to resist those expressions.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Canada
• Themes list Networks,

The ABA’s revised Guidelines have squarely addressed the importance of seeking and negotiating dispositions in capital cases as a core component of effective representation in matters of life and death. Pleas have been available in the overwhelming majority of capital cases in the post-Furman era, including the cases of hundreds of prisoners who have been executed. There are no precise empirical data on this question. Plea negotiations are typically confidential, with both parties maintaining a posture of plausible denial if negotiations fail. The prosecutor may find it harder to argue to jurors that justice in a particular case requires a sentence of death if they know that he had offered the defendant a life sentence only weeks before. Defense counsel may not want to advertise her willingness to plead to first-degree murder if the case proceeds to trial and she is arguing to the jurors that the proof supports only second-degree. In addition, there are cases where a plea was acceptable to both sides, but negotiation never began because each side waited for the other to initiate discussions.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Legal Representation,

This Article analyzes the factors that influence the decisions of South Carolina prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Professor Unah and Mr. Songer employ statistical methods to examine the legal and nonlegal factors that shape this decision-making process. Controlling for political factors, this Article finds that the race of the victim, gender, and rural crime locations are significant considerations in the decision to seek the death penalty. Further, Professor Unah and Mr. Songer argue that these nonlegal factors undermine the legal guidelines that are intended to channel and steer the decision-making process. This Article highlights the arbitrary nature of the decisions that result from these considerations, and it concludes by challenging the legitimacy of a process influenced by these factors.

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

If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed.

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

In this Article, I will review the matrix in which executive decisions in women’s capital clemency cases are made, a matrix supplied by modern equal protection law, the nature and scope of the clemency power, gender politics, and contemporary death row. I will then conduct two thought experiments. Each invented case tests the relevance of gender in legally and politically acceptable contemporary clemency decisions. The goal is to understand the politics and law of granting or denying that very rare boon-commutation of sentence – to a female death row prisoner. The exercise offers support for two conclusions. In the age of formal equality, women cannot be granted clemency simply because they are women. The rhetoric of chivalry is untenable for the contemporary executive. A governor who is courageous and rhetorically skillful, however, can sometimes successfully defend the commutation of the death sentence of a woman as a proper use of the power to grant mercy, done for her sake, the class she exemplifies, the conscience of the governor, and the public.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Women, Clemency,

The landscape of the American death penalty is diverse. Though death penalty attitudes show a remarkable and increasing degree of homogeneity by region, race, gender, religion, and other factors, the actual practice of the death penalty varies substantially from region to region, and even from state to state. While these variations are widely recognized, they are not widely studied or understood. The lack of attention paid to the actual practice of the death penalty in different states and regions, the patterns that contribute to its use, and the factors associated with these patterns represents a substantial and troubling gap in our knowledge of an issue as widely studied as the death penalty.

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

This article explores why women are rarely executed and examines the execution of four women in the Post-Furman Era, focusing on the execution of Karla Faye Tucker. The execution of Karla Faye Tucker in 1998, the second of the four women to be executed, occured in hte midst of relentless publicity. The Tucker execution revived interest in gender equity in the administration of capital punishment.

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

Based on the review of capital cases from various jurisdictions involoving issues of competence to stand trial, this article examines the standards, literature, and varying practices associated with competence assessments and adjudications. The author, who is an experienced criminal defense lawyer with capital trial and postconviction litigation experiece, examines the implications of disparities in the approaches and definitions used in dealing with competence assessments and suggests solutions to improve the standards of practice related to these important assessments.

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

Since July 1978, when Maryland’s capital punishment statute took effect, the State has been plagued by charges that the imposition of the death penalty is influenced by the race of the defendant and the legal jurisdiction in which the homicide occurred. Most critics use the characteristics of condemned inmates on Maryland’s death row, which reveal possible racial motivations. However, the authors argue that simply relying on the characteristics of condemned inmates reveals little about the underlying mechanisms of the imposition of the death penalty. The recent history of capital punishment in Maryland is reviewed, followed by a brief description of the legal structure of capital punishment under Maryland law. In order to empirically measure whether the imposition of capital punishment in Maryland is discriminatory, the authors examined 1,311 death eligible cases in Maryland from July 1, 1978 to December 31, 1999. Death eligible cases were defined as those cases in which the State’s attorney filed a notice of intention to seek a death sentence, the facts established that first degree murder was committed, the defendant was the principle in the first degree murder, the murder included at least one statutory aggravating circumstance, and the defendant was eligible for capital punishment at the time of the offense. The statistical strategy focused on determining the influence of race of victim, race of defendant, and geography on the imposition of the death penalty. Findings suggest that race and geography indeed play an important role in the Maryland justice system. Race and geography exert their most influence at the death notification and death notice retraction stages of the process. Thus, it is prosecutorial discretion that is the most apparent in the possible discriminatory application of capital punishment in Maryland. The findings from this study are unsurprising and are in line with similar studies from other States. The author cautions that overt racism is not necessarily the reason beyond the disproportionate application of capital punishment.

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

This Article aims to provide an examination: An analysis of the state procedures that prisoners may employ after trial to litigate innocence claims grounded on newly discovered non-DNA evidence. Ultimately, the result of this examination is far from sanguine. Little-altered in decades beyond the trend toward recognizing the benefits of DNA testing, the structure of most state procedures means that a prisoner’s quest for justice may turn on the fortuity that a biological sample was left at the crime scene and preserved over time. The fact that DNA testing provides a modicum of certainty to an innocence claim does not imply that claims lacking the possibility of such certainty are spurious; on the contrary, DNA has unearthed holes in the criminal justice system, holes that are likely also prevalent in cases without biological evidence.

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

Drawing on in-depth interviews with the relatives of convicted murderers, this article interrogates the concept of stigma through an everyday notion of familial toxicity and commonsense understandings of murder. Identifying moments of stigmatizing strain, the article examines moments of opportunity for managing stigma through three metatactics: management of space, information, and self-presentation. However, due to the problems in carrying out sensitive research with a hidden population, there are limits to how far arguments made can be generalized. Therefore, the article concludes by raising questions for future research.

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

The story focuses on Tessie Hutchinson, who was selected by the communal lottery for execution; her only sin was to live in a village that had the tradition of stoning one of its inhabitants each year. This paper suggests some ways that the life of America’s death penalty mirrors the art of “The Lottery.” The author comments on the “masking of evil,” the execution of the innocent, the arbitrariness in selecting those who die, the search for justification, and the brutality of the death penalty. In “The Lottery,” the tradition of the stoning was so embedded in tradition and its administration was so formal and precise that the ultimate outcome of the tradition, the killing of a fellow human being, was sanitized and unexamined. In America, the net effect of the bureaucratization of executions is to give those who implement them and those who receive reports of them a sense of sterility and mundaneness that should never accompany the state’s killing of its own. Although proponents of capital punishment in America argue that the chances that an innocent person will be executed are slim, history shows that it has occurred. It was no comfort to Tessie Hutchinson that she was to be the only member of her village to be stoned that year. So it is no comfort to the innocent who are executed that each is only one of a small number of innocent people who have been killed by the state. The arbitrariness of the lottery in selecting who will be executed may not be so obvious in the selection of those who will be killed by the state in America. Still, random and arbitrary circumstances impact who is selected to be executed, circumstances such as the race and wealth of the defendant, the race of the victim, the quality of the defense counsel, the particular trial judge, and the State in which the crime occurs. Although there is no unequivocal evidence that the death penalty achieves some monumentally positive benefit for American society, support for it by the community persists, along with its brutality and cruelty. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that a “thinly veiled cruelty keeps the custom alive.”

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

Cruel and unusual punishment, as prohibited by the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, encompasses punishment that amounts to torture and barbarity, cruel and degrading punishment not known to the common law, and punishment so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the moral sense of the community. Thus, contained in the Eighth Amendment is a fundamental respect for humanity. For the imposition of a death sentence, the trier is constitutionally mandated to take into account the character and record of the individual offender and the circumstances of the particular offense. What constitutes cruel and unusual punishment?

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Electrocution,

ในเอเชียแปซิฟิกมีจ

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Fair Trial,
• Available languages Korean : 아시아에서의 치명적 불의 불공정 재판을 멈춰라, 사형집행을 중단하라.Urdu : یفاصناان کلہم ںیم ایشیا ںیرک متخ توم ےازس ،دنب تامدقم ہنافصنمریغTagalog : NAKAMAMATAY NA KAWALAN NG KATARUNGAN SA ASYA Itigil ang Di Makatarungang paglilitis, Itigil ang PagbitayMongolian : АЗИ ТИВ ДЭХ ЭНЭРЭЛГҮЙ ШУДАРГА БУС ЯВДАЛ Шударга бусaap шүүх явдлыг зогсоож, цаазын ялыг халъяJapanese : 不当に奪われる生命 ～アジアにおける不公正な裁判を止め、 死刑執行の停止を～Hindi : एशिया में घातक अन्याय: समाप्ति अनुचित परीक्षण, सज़ाएँ बंद करोIndonesian : KETIDAKADILAN YANG MEMATIKAN DI ASIA Akhiri peradilan yang tidak adil, hentikan eksekusiLethal Injustice in Asia: End unfair trials, stop executions亚洲的致命不公: 终止不公审判，停止处决

This Article addresses the issue of whether a criminal defendant may waive the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments by selecting an unconstitutional punishment over a constitutional punishment. The Article begins with a discussion of the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, followed by a discussion of areas where the Court has allowed defendants to waive Eighth Amendment protections in various contexts. Then, the Article discusses court decisions that have addressed whether one may waive Eighth Amendment protections by choosing a cruel and unusual punishment. Generally, this issue has arisen in three contexts: (1) where defendants are given the punishment option of banishment; (2) where sex offenders are given the punishment option of castration; and (3) where capital defendants are given an execution method option that violates the constitution. The Article explains that at least in the context of punishment type, a defendant’s choice should not waive Eighth Amendment protections. First, the ban on cruel and unusual punishments is a right that differs significantly from other constitutional criminal rights because it serves a broad societal purpose. Second, the waiver of this right differs from the waiver of other criminal rights because such waivers do not benefit the individual or society. Finally, to allow such waivers would strip the Eighth Amendment of meaning by permitting legislatures to create any punishment options it desired. Therefore, the Article concludes that the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishments cannot be waived by an individual.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment,

In the past thirty years, American attitudes towards those convicted of crimes have followed a devastating progression toward the dehumanization of criminal defendants. The evolution of law and policy has mirrored these changing attitudes. The philosophies behind incarceration have shifted from “facilitat[ing inmates’] productive re-entry back into the free world” to “using imprisonment merely to punish criminal offenders by … “containing’ them behind bars … for as long as possible.” 4 Rather than preventing crime or rehabilitating offenders, incarceration has become a means to satisfy society’s desire for vengeance and retribution. Responding to this push to punish, prosecutors in their haste to obtain a conviction are more likely to stress the heinousness of crimes rather than questioning the circumstances surrounding …

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

Lebih banyak orang yang dieksekusi mati di kawasan Asia-Pasifik dibandingkan dengan gabungan jumlah hukuman mati di kawasan lain di dunia. Ditambah lagi adanya kemungkinan bahwa mereka dieksekusi hukuman mati setelah melalui sebuah peradilan yang tidak adil, maka ketidakadilan yang sangat besar dari hukuman ini menjadi semakin jelas.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Fair Trial,
• Available languages Korean : 아시아에서의 치명적 불의 불공정 재판을 멈춰라, 사형집행을 중단하라.Thai : การประหารชีวิตที่อยุติธรรม ในภูมิภาคเอเชีย ยุติการพิจารณาคดีที่ไม่เป็นธรรม ยกเลิกการประหารชีวิตUrdu : یفاصناان کلہم ںیم ایشیا ںیرک متخ توم ےازس ،دنب تامدقم ہنافصنمریغTagalog : NAKAMAMATAY NA KAWALAN NG KATARUNGAN SA ASYA Itigil ang Di Makatarungang paglilitis, Itigil ang PagbitayMongolian : АЗИ ТИВ ДЭХ ЭНЭРЭЛГҮЙ ШУДАРГА БУС ЯВДАЛ Шударга бусaap шүүх явдлыг зогсоож, цаазын ялыг халъяJapanese : 不当に奪われる生命 ～アジアにおける不公正な裁判を止め、 死刑執行の停止を～Hindi : एशिया में घातक अन्याय: समाप्ति अनुचित परीक्षण, सज़ाएँ बंद करोLethal Injustice in Asia: End unfair trials, stop executions亚洲的致命不公: 终止不公审判，停止处决

The past several decades have seen the emergence of a movement in the criminal justice system that has called for a greater consideration for the rights of victims. One manifestation of this movement has been the “right” of victims or victims’ families to speak to the sentencing body through what are called victim impact statements about the value of the victim and the full harm that the offender has created. Although victim impact statements have been a relatively noncontroversial part of regular criminal trials, their presence in capital cases has had a more contentious history. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned previous decisions and explicitly permitted victim impact testimony in capital cases in Payne v. Tennessee (1991). The dissenters in that case argued that such evidence only would arouse the emotions of jurors and bias them in favor of imposing death. A body of research in behavioral economics on the “identifiable victim effect” and the “identifiable wrongdoer effect” would have supported such a view. Using a randomized controlled experiment with a death-eligible sample of potential jurors and the videotape of an actual penalty trial in which victim impact evidence (VIE) was used, we found that these concerns about VIE are perhaps well placed. Subjects who viewed VIE testimony in the penalty phase were more likely to feel negative emotions like anger, hostility, and vengeance; were more likely to feel sympathy and empathy toward the victim; and were more likely to have favorable perceptions of the victim and victim’s family as well as unfavorable perceptions of the offender. We found that these positive feelings toward the victim and family were in turn related to a heightened risk of them imposing the death penalty. We found evidence that part of the effect of VIE on the decision to impose death was mediated by emotions of sympathy and empathy. We think our findings open the door for future work to put together better the causal story that links VIE to an increased inclination to impose death as well as explore possible remedies.

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

The purpose of this article is (1) to establish that increasing punitiveness characterizes criminal justice policies in Japan and (2) to explain this trend in terms of the penal populism promoted by crime victims and supporting politicians. This article first examines newspaper articles to illuminate the increasingly punitive character of recent criminal justice policies in Japan in terms of both legislation and judicial decisions. The next section discusses the main contributing factors behind this trend and its public acceptance. The next two sections discuss two related issues: the public’s subjective sense of security, and the lack of a role for empirical criminologists in criminal justice policy making in Japan. The concluding section compares the Japanese and Anglo-American situations and argues that the same penal populism seen in Anglo-American countries is rapidly rising in Japan, and that public distrust of government has ironically increased the state’s investigative, prosecutorial, and sentencing powers in Japan. This article closes with the conjecture that police, prosecutors, and judges are unlikely to relinquish their increased power in the event that they gain the public’s trust and equally unlikely in the event of a change of the ruling party.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Japan
• Themes list Networks,

The most recent executions in South Korea took place in December 1997, when 23 people were executed at short notice on the same day. Similarly, nineteen executions occurred in 1995 and 15 in 1994, in each instance occurring all on the same day. These group executions seem to reflect cultural factors that monthly statistics alone do not capture. No executions have occurred since 1998, but this de facto suspension has not been reinforced by law. Since 1999, lawmakers have thrice endorsed a bill favoring life imprisonment without parole in place of the death penalty, but each time the proposal has stalled and failed to move forward. The need remains to develop a culturally appropriate pro-abolition argument that could persuade the Korean public that the death penalty is unworkable and wrong. On 21 January 2007, in the Inhyeokdang case, the Korean Court acquitted 8 persons who had been executed 32 years earlier. The hope is that, in light of strong arguments based on the risk to innocent persons and the irreversibility of capital punishment, Korea will effectively transition from de facto to formal abolition.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Republic of Korea
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

On December 10, 1998, the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, former President William J. Clinton signed Executive Order No. 13107 stating, “It shall be the policy and practice of the Government of the United States, being committed to the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, fully to respect and implement its obligations.

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

संयुक्त दुनिया के बाकी की तुलना में एशिया – प्रशांत क्षेत्र में और अधिक लोगों को क्रियान्वित कर रहे हैं. इस संभावना है कि वे एक अनुचित परीक्षण के बाद मार डाला गया जोड़ें, और इस सज़ा के सकल अन्याय सब भी स्पष्ट हो जाता है.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Fair Trial,
• Available languages Korean : 아시아에서의 치명적 불의 불공정 재판을 멈춰라, 사형집행을 중단하라.Thai : การประหารชีวิตที่อยุติธรรม ในภูมิภาคเอเชีย ยุติการพิจารณาคดีที่ไม่เป็นธรรม ยกเลิกการประหารชีวิตUrdu : یفاصناان کلہم ںیم ایشیا ںیرک متخ توم ےازس ،دنب تامدقم ہنافصنمریغTagalog : NAKAMAMATAY NA KAWALAN NG KATARUNGAN SA ASYA Itigil ang Di Makatarungang paglilitis, Itigil ang PagbitayMongolian : АЗИ ТИВ ДЭХ ЭНЭРЭЛГҮЙ ШУДАРГА БУС ЯВДАЛ Шударга бусaap шүүх явдлыг зогсоож, цаазын ялыг халъяJapanese : 不当に奪われる生命 ～アジアにおける不公正な裁判を止め、 死刑執行の停止を～Indonesian : KETIDAKADILAN YANG MEMATIKAN DI ASIA Akhiri peradilan yang tidak adil, hentikan eksekusiLethal Injustice in Asia: End unfair trials, stop executions亚洲的致命不公: 终止不公审判，停止处决

American officials have indicated that extra efforts will be used to ensure that captured terrorist suspects face the death penalty. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has stated that the U.S. military will “try to prevent enemy leaders from falling into the hands of peacekeeping troops from allied nations that might oppose capital punishment.” Americans should be troubled to learn that the United States is out of step with an emerging worldwide consensus that the death penalty, even for the most heinous terrorist, “has no legitimate place in the penal systems of modern civilised societies.” As of July 2004, 117 nations were abolitionist in law or in practice, while only 80 retained the death penalty. The entire Council of Europe–45 nations ranging from Iceland to Russia–now constitutes a death penalty free zone.

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

For the third time in a span of five years, a country has brought suit against the United States in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) in capital cases. 1 And, for the third time, the ICJ has issued an order of provisional measures. The most recent order indicates that: “the United States shall take all measures necessary to ensure that [three named Mexican defendants] are not executed pending final judgment in these proceedings.” (Avena case)

• Document type Article
• Countries list Mexico
• Themes list Foreign Nationals,

Twenty-three years of murder and death sentence data show how murder demographics help explain death row populations. Nevada and Oklahoma are the most death-prone states; Texas’s death sentence rate is below the national mean. Accounting for the race of murderers establishes that black representation on death row is lower than black representation in the population of murder offenders. This disproportion results from reluctance to seek or impose death in black defendant-black victim cases, which more than offsets eagerness to seek and impose death in black defendant-white victim cases. Death sentence rates in black defendant-white victim cases far exceed those in either black defendant-black victim cases or white defendant-white victim cases. The disproportion survives because there are many more black defendant-black victim murders, which are underrepresented on death row, than there are black defendant-white victim murders, which are overrepresented on death row.

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

Em decorrência de certos crimes de grande repercussão que abalam a sociedade e da impotência do Estado frente à criminalidade, ressuscitam vozes e projetos solicitando a aplicação da pena de morte entre nós. O tema é de abordagem complexa, polêmica e controversa.Os partidários da supressão do homem sustentam que a presença da pena de morte na legislação teria por escopo de definitivamente banir ou diminuir o crescente índice de criminalidade em nosso país, além de desestimular homicídios, latrocínios, crimes sexuais violentos, seqüestros etc.Mas será que a pena de morte, como têm sido defendido por alguns setores da sociedade, seria a solução para os problemas de violência e da criminalidade, que estão sendo vivenciadas pela população brasileira?

• Document type Article
• Countries list Brazil
• Themes list Networks,

When a woman is raped and then murdered, it is among the most horrifying of crimes. It is also, often, among the most sensational, notorious, and galvanizing of cases. In 1964, Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered in Queens, New York. Her murder sparked soul-searching across the country because her neighbors heard her cries for help and did not respond: it made us question whether we had become an uncaring people. During the 1970s and 80s a number of serial killers raped and murdered their victims: including Ted Bundy in Florida and William George Bonin, the “Freeway Killer,” in Southern California. In the 1990s, the sexual assault-murder of seven- year-old Megan Kanka in New Jersey contributed to a firestorm of states passing sex offender notification statutes. Rolando Cruz was released from Illinois death row in 1995, after serving eleven years for a crime he did not commit: the rape and murder of ten-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. The crime itself sent shock waves through the Chicago metropolitan area and pressure to quickly solve it contributed to Cruz’s arrest and conviction. In each instance the rape- murder terrified us and made us want to impose the severest of punishments. This explores the crime and punishment of those convicted of committed rape .murder

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

This docu-series investigate the fallibility of the death penalty in the United States.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Penalty,

This article reports the results of a two-part investigation of psychological assessments proposed as expert evidence in legal context.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Mental Illness, Death Penalty,