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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

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

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

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,

This report examines the sequence of recent events that has increasingly placed the death penalty in the international spotlight. Some of these events are direct challenges to the practice of capital punishment in the U.S. Others are changes in the balance of death penalty practices and attitudes around the world. The report looks at the ways in which the international community has sought to limit the application of the death penalty, and the U.S.’s response to these initiatives. It also explores the world-wide trend towards complete abolition of the death penalty and the U.S. reaction. Although much of the official U.S. response to international criticism has been denial, the report looks at some local and unofficial actions, which indicate a different direction. Finally, the report notes the present and potential costs the U.S. is facing for adhering to the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,

The Center on Wrongful Convictions is dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justice. The Center has three components: representation, research, and community services. Center faculty, staff, cooperating outside attorneys, and Bluhm Legal Clinic students investigate possible wrongful convictions and represent imprisoned clients with claims of actual innocence. The research component focuses on identifying systemic problems in the criminal justice system and, together with the community services component, on developing initiatives designed to raise public awareness of the prevalence, causes, and social costs of wrongful convictions and promote reform of the criminal justice system. In addition, the community services component helps exonerated former prisoners cope with the difficult process of reintegration into free society.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,

The attached Log gives available details of death sentences and executions occurring in China throughout 1999.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,

In China last year, approximately 17 people were sentenced to death each day, every day of the year. This report examines the record versus the rhetoric in 1996. It examines the death penalty in practice during this year’s “Strike Hard Anti-Crime Campaign” which highlights legal inadequacies and institutionalized abuses long discussed by domestic critics.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages RÉPUBLIQUE POPULAIRE DE CHINE: La peine capitale en Chine : nouveaux records et nouvelles transgressions de la loiREPÚBLICA POPULAR CHINA: La pena de muerte en China: Batir récords abatiendo vidas

The Guide should be useful to people in all sectors who wish to improve policies and programs through advocacy.

• Document type Lobbying
• Themes list Networks,

Article 1The States Parties to this Protocol shall not apply the death penalty in their territory to any person subject to their jurisdiction.

• Document type Regional body report
• Themes list International law,
• Available languages PROTOCOLO A LA CONVENCIÓN AMERICANA SOBRE DERECHOS HUMANOS RELATIVO A LA ABOLICIÓN DE LA PENA DE MUERTE

This paper is an attempt to cover developments during 1999 and provide information current at the end of the year concerning the death penalty worldwide, different aspects of its use and attempts to abolish it or reduce its application.

• Document type NGO report
• Available languages La peine de mort dans le monde: évolution en 1999LA PENA DE MUERTE EN EL MUNDO: NOTICIAS DE 1999

Many states fail to conduct, or even to permit, DNA testing of biological materials in circumstances in which the results might exonerate convicts under sentence of death. Senator Patrick Leahy thinks that Congress should enact a statute requiring states to provide for testing when it promises to reveal the truth. Leahy’s idea is sensible as a matter of policy. I mean in this Article to argue that it is also constitutionally feasible.

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

Occasionally, physicians’ personal values conflict with their perceived societal duties. One example is the case of lethal injection for the purpose of capital punishment. Some states require that such lethal injections be performed by physicians. At the same time, leading medical societies have concluded that physicians should avoid participating in capital punishment. Physicians’ attitudes toward involvement in capital punishment may depend on how they balance their responsibilities to individuals against their duties to society. Other factors may include a desire to provide a more painless death for the prisoner or concern over the competency of other health care personnel. In a previous survey, we found that a majority of physicians condoned involvement of their fellow physicians in capital punishment. For the current study, we conducted another survey to ascertain physicians’ attitudes about their own involvement in capital punishment, as well as factors associated with these attitudes.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Lethal Injection,

I offer an account of the ordeal of Earl Washington, who—having come within days of execution—was released from prison on February 12, 2001, after DNA evidence of his innocence finally proved conclusive to the Virginia authorities. I do so for two reasons. First, I believe, both as a member of his legal team and a scholar, that history deserves an accurate account of the events. Second, more broadly, I believe that the case exemplifies many of the phenomena that contribute to the injustice of the death penalty in America today.

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

Prior research on wrongful convictions in capital cases focused primarily on qualitative methods designed to provide in-depth descriptive analyses of these cases. In contrast, this study is a quantitative comparison between 76 documented cases from 1970 to 1998, in which prisoners were released from death row because of “doubts about their guilt,” and a matched group of inmates who were executed. Through the use of a logistic regression model, significant predictors of cases that result in a release from death row as opposed to an execution, are identified. The final section of this study focuses on policy implications that may decrease the risk of error in capital cases. Additional lines of research are suggested in an effort to increase understanding of miscarriages of justice in such cases.

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

The goal of our bill is simple, but profoundly important: to reduce the risk of mistaken executions. The Innocence Protection Act proposes basic, common-sense reforms to our criminal justice system that are designed to protect the innocent and to ensure that if the death penalty is imposed, it is the result of informed and reasoned deliberation, not politics, luck, bias, or guesswork. We have listened to a lot of good advice and made some refinements to the bill since the last Congress, but it is still structured around two principal reforms: improving the availability of DNA testing, and ensuring reasonable minimum standards and funding for court-appointed counsel.

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

There have been at least sixty-seven postconviction DNA exonerations in the United States. Our Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law has either assisted or been the attorney of record in thirty-nine of those cases, including eight men who served time on death row. For all of these men, existing appellate remedies failed to catch the mistakes and correct the injustice. In one third of the exonerations, bad lawyering contributed to their convictions yet in only one case was ineffective assistance of counsel recognized by an appellate court. Mistaken eyewitness identification was a critical factor in almost 90% of the unjust convictions yet not a single trial or appellate court found the eyewitness testimony to be unreliable.

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

In the last five years, the death penalty has become a frequent topic of discussion. While discussion of such an emotive topic is not unusual for any period in history, the tenor of the recent dialogue is unusual. For the most part, the discussion centers around the problems with capital punishment, particularly its inaccuracy and unfairness. This Article begins in Part II with a discussion of recent claims about the frequency of errors in capital cases. Part III enumerates and discusses the factors generally thought to be the cause of the errors. Part IV details new rules recently adopted in one jurisdiction in an effort to eliminate the errors. Part IV also suggests that these new rules, though worthwhile, are actually a reiteration of long-standing ethical obligations of judges and lawyers, the breach of which is responsible for many of the errors. Part V recommends additional remedies which the bench and the bar must take if there is a true commitment to providing a fair, just, and reliable system for determining who the government is entitled to kill.

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

The use of the death penalty has resulted in a number of studies attempting to determine if its application is consistent with the guidelines established by the United States Supreme Court. In particular, many studies have assessed whether there are racial disparities in the imposition of death sentences. This study examined the imposition of death sentences in Ohio, a state largely ignored by previous research and that, until 1999, had not executed an inmate since 1963. Drawing from previous studies that have examined the issue in other states, this study assessed the likelihood that a particular homicide would result in a death sentence, controlling for race of defendant and victim and other relevant factors. Results indicated both legal and extralegal factors (including race of victim) were significant predictors of a death sentence, supporting many previous studies that concluded that race plays a role in the imposition of the death penalty.

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

Is capital punishment just? Does it deter people from murder? What is the risk that we will execute innocent people? These are the usual questions at the heart of the increasingly heated debate about capital punishment in America. In this bold and impassioned book, Austin Sarat seeks to change the terms of that debate. Capital punishment must be stopped, Sarat argues, because it undermines our democratic society.Sarat unflinchingly exposes us to the realities of state killing. He examines its foundations in ideas about revenge and retribution. He takes us inside the courtroom of a capital trial, interviews jurors and lawyers who make decisions about life and death, and assesses the arguments swirling around Timothy McVeigh and his trial for the bombing in Oklahoma City. Aided by a series of unsettling color photographs, he traces Americans’ evolving quest for new methods of execution, and explores the place of capital punishment in popular culture by examining such films as Dead Man Walking, The Last Dance, and The Green Mile.Sarat argues that state executions, once used by monarchs as symbolic displays of power, gained acceptance among Americans as a sign of the people’s sovereignty. Yet today when the state kills, it does so in a bureaucratic procedure hidden from view and for which no one in particular takes responsibility. He uncovers the forces that sustain America’s killing culture, including overheated political rhetoric, racial prejudice, and the desire for a world without moral ambiguity. Capital punishment, Sarat shows, ultimately leaves Americans more divided, hostile, indifferent to life’s complexities, and much further from solving the nation’s ills. In short, it leaves us with an impoverished democracy.The book’s powerful and sobering conclusions point to a new abolitionist politics, in which capital punishment should be banned not only on ethical grounds but also for what it does to Americans and what we cherish.

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

This guide was created because of the growing flaws in the adminstration of the death penatly, it provides a guide to the death penalty administration process and vulnerable populations in death row administration.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,

Written in the spirit of “Dead Man Walking,” this book by Antoinette Bosco conveys both the powerful personal experience of a mother whose son was murdered and a wealth of information about the criminal justice system in America. (Orbis Books, 2001)

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Public opinion, Murder Victims' Families, Death Penalty,

It turns out that voir dire in capital cases is woefully ineffective at the most elementary task—weeding out unqualified jurors.Empirical evidence reveals that many capital jurors are in fact unqualified to serve. Moreover, the ineffectiveness of the process is far from even-handed. A juror is not “death-qualified” if she would always vote against a death sentence, regardless of the circumstances, and a handful of the jurors who actually serve in capital cases are in fact unqualified for this reason.

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

Article 61. Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.2. In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime and not contrary to the provisions of the present Covenant and to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court.3. When deprivation of life constitutes the crime of genocide, it is understood that nothing in this article shall authorize any State Party to the present Covenant to derogate in any way from any obligation assumed under the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.4. Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted in all cases.5. Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women.6. Nothing in this article shall be invoked to delay or to prevent the abolition of capital punishment by any State Party to the present Covenant.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law,
• Available languages العهد الدولي الخاص بالحقوق المدنية والسياسيةМеждународный пакт о гражданских и политических правахPacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques公民权利和政治权利国际盟约Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos

• Document type Book
• Themes list Beheading, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Italian : Riflessioni sulla pena di morteRéflexions sur la guillotine思索斷頭台

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.” Article 3 – Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law, Right to life,
• Available languages المتحدة الإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسانВсеобщую декларацию прав человекаDéclaration universelle des droits de l'homme世界人权宣言Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos

This is a highly thought-provoking work where Beccaria-Bonesana has explained his ideas against the use of torture and capital punishments. He has produced a humanitarian spirit in the dispensation of laws. This work is important as the views expressed here, were not regarded either in his times or now.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages German : Über Verbrechen und StrafenItalian : Dei delitti e delle pene-Consulte criminaliDes délits et des peines论犯罪与刑罚De Los Delitos Y De Las Penas

The States Parties to the present Protocol,Believing that abolition of the death penalty contributes to enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights,Recalling article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on 10 December 1948, and article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted on 16 December 1966,Noting that article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights refers to abolition of the death penalty in terms that strongly suggest that abolition is desirable,Convinced that all measures of abolition of the death penalty should be considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life,Desirous to undertake hereby an international commitment to abolish the death penalty,Have agreed as follows:Article 11. No one within the jurisdiction of a State Party to the present Protocol shall be executed.2. Each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law,
• Available languages البروتوكول الاختياري الثاني الملحق بالعهد الدولي الخاص بالحقوق المدنية والسياسية بهدف العمل علي إلغاء عقوبة الإعدامВторой Факультативный протокол к Международному пакту о гражданских и политических правах, направленный на отмену смертной казниDeuxième protocole facultatif se rapportant au Pacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques, visant à l'abolition de la peine de mort第二任择议定书的公民权利和政治权利国际公约，其目的在废除死刑Segundo Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos, destinado a abolir la pena de muerte

Article 37States Parties shall ensure that:(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list Juveniles, International law,
• Available languages اتفاقية حقوق الطفلКонвенция о правах ребенкаConvention relative aux droits de l'enfant儿童权利公约Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Japan
• Themes list Hanging, Death Penalty,

Approved by Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50 of 25 May 19841. In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, capital punishment may be imposed only for the most serious crimes, it being understood that their scope should not go beyond intentional crimes with lethal or other extremely grave consequences.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list Fair Trial, International law, Most Serious Crimes,
• Available languages الضمانات التي تكفل حماية حقوق الذين يواجهون عقوبة الإعدامМеры, гарантирующие защиту прав тех, кому грозит смертная казньGaranties pour la protection des droits des personnes passibles de la peine de mort关于保护面对死刑的人的 权利的保障措施Salvaguardias para garantizar la protección de los derechos de los condenados a la pena de muerte

ARTICLE 4Human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right.ARTICLE 5Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being and to the recognition of his legal status. All forms of exploitation and degradation of man, particularly slavery, slave trade, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment shall be prohibited.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law,
• Available languages Charte Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples

Article 4. Right to Life1. Every person has the right to have his life respected. This right shall be protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law, Right to life,
• Available languages CONVENCION AMERICANA SOBRE DERECHOS HUMANOS "PACTO DE SAN JOSE DE COSTARICA"

Do black jurors view a crime or its appropriate punishment differently than their white counterparts? Are their perspectives influenced by the race of the defendant or victim? Are blacks on white-dominated capital juries intimidated or coerced into voting for the death penalty?

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

Questions regarding the jury’s inability to reach a unanimous decision are often asked of judges and similar uninformative responses are generally given. Is ignoringjuror concerns the proper method for handling jury inquiries about the result of juror non-unanimity in capital sentencing? Or should courts inform capital juries up-front of the consequences of their failure to reach a unanimous verdict?

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

The worldwide situation to date: The worldwide situation concerning the death penalty has once again registered a trend towards abolition in the past year. The countries or territories that to different extents have decided to give up the practice of capital punishment total 133, including the first months of 2004. Of these 81 have abolished the death penalty completely; 14 have abolished it for ordinary crimes; 1, Russia, as a member of the Council of Europe is committed to abolish it and in the meanwhile apply a moratorium on executions; 5 are observing moratoriums and 32 countries are de facto abolitionist, not having carried out executions for at least 10 years.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : I FATTI PIU´ IMPORTANTI DEL 2003 (e dei primi mesi del 2004)

In October 2002 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held that “a norm of international customary law has emerged prohibiting the execution of offenders under the age of 18 years at the time of their crime” and that “this rule has been recognized as being of a sufficiently indelible nature to now constitute a norm of jus cogens”. This paper examines the evidence supporting the conclusion that the use of the death penalty against child offenders (people convicted of crimes committed under the age of 18) is prohibited under customary international law and as a peremptory norm of general international law (jus cogens).

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Juveniles, Statistics,
• Available languages La non-application de la peine de mort à des mineurs délinquants en droit international généralLa exclusión de los menores de la pena de muerte con arreglo al derecho internacional general

Despite the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations’ efforts towards improving the defence system, Japanese prisoners – especially those sentenced to death – do not receive a fair trial.The Daiyo Kangoku practice is one amongst several practices which allows suspects to be detained in police stations for 23 days, contravening the rules of a fair trial. Confessions, which can be obtained through strong pressure, give police the basis for accusation. Furthermore, the conditions on death row themselves amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments: Once the death sentence has been delivered, the prisoner is held in solitary confinement. Detainees have extremely limited contact with families and lawyers and meetings are closely monitored. Above all, prisoners live with the constant fear of never knowing if today will be their last day. The prisoner is informed that the execution will take place on the very same day, and family members are notified the following day.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Japanese : 死刑民主主義国家にあるまじき行為La peine de mort au Japon, une pratique indigne d'une démocratie

This paper covers significant events concerning the death penalty during the year 2002. Other subjects covered in this paper include significant judicial decisions; important studies; the use of the death penalty against the innocent; reductions in the scope of the death penalty; moratoria and commutations; and moves to restrict appeals in capital cases.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages La peine de mort dans le monde : Evolution en 2002La pena de muerte en el mundo: noticias del 2002

This doument summarizes each of the 16 ECOWAS countries’ legislation on the death penalty, provides information on the most recent executions and convictions and notes the view currently taken by the governments concerned. Two thirds have already abolished the death penalty

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages AFRIQUE DE L’OUEST : Il est temps d’abolir la peine de mort

The worldwide situation to date: The practice of the death penalty has drastically diminished in the past few years. Today the countries or territories that have abolished it or decline to apply it number 130. Of these: 78 are totally abolitionist; 14 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 2 are committed to abolition as members of the Council of Europe and in the meanwhile observe a moratorium; 6 countries are currently observing a moratorium and 30 are de facto abolitionist, not having executed any death sentences in the past ten years.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : I FATTI PIU´ IMPORTANTI DEL 2002

In April of 2000, the ACLU of Virginia published its first report on the status of the death penalty in Virginia. Since that time, a remarkable number of changes have taken place on this issue both in Virginia and throughout the country, which necessitated a second edition of the report. The first report examined four 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 the role of race. This report will look at those four areas and also add several other issues: the problem of prosecutorial misconduct in capital cases, the problem of executing mentally retarded offenders, the question of executing juvenile offenders and the danger of executing wrongfully convicted persons, as shown by the growing number of individuals who have been exonerated while on death row.

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

Reviews the use of the death penalty on juveniles in light of contemporary standards.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Juveniles,

The purpose of the Report is to assist the Honourable Court by describing the criminal justice process in Trinidad as it applies to those accused of murder. As a criminal defence and constitutional law attorneys in Trinidad, we have been asked to address, in particular, some of the shortcomings apparent in the Trinidadian criminal justice system and certain related constitutional issues. The Report deals with the following issues: a. The constitutional history and sources of law in Trinidad; b. The law of murder in Trinidad; c. An overview of criminal procedure; d. The stages of the criminal process in murder cases; e. The mandatory death penalty; f. The prerogative of mercy.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,

European executions obeyed a complex model that the author proposes to call ‘the supplice pattern’. The term supplice designates tortures and tormented executions, but it also includes their cultural background. The European way of executing used religious deeds, aesthetic devices and performing arts techniques which themselves called for artistic representations through paintings, theatre, etc. Moreover, Christian civilisation was unique in the belief that the spectacle of a painful execution had a redemptive effect on the criminals and the attendants as well. Chinese executions obeyed an entirely different conception. They were designed to show that punishment fitted the crime as provided in the penal code. All details were aimed to highlight and inculcate the meaning of the law, while signs of emotions, deeds, words, that could have interfered with the lesson in law were prohibited. In China, capital executions were not organized as a show nor subject to aesthetic representations, and they had no redemptive function. This matter-of-fact way of executing people caused Westerners deep uneasiness. The absence of religious background and staging devices was interpreted as a sign of barbarity and cruelty. What was stigmatised was not so much the facts that their failure to conform to the ‘supplice pattern’ that constituted for any Westerner the due process of capital executions.

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

Part I of this Article will discuss the Court’s prior decisions in Booth and Gathers, and Parts II and III will briefly attempt to clarify the parameters of the Payne holding. Part IV of this Article will survey the current legal landscape of state and federal practice regarding the admissibility of VIE and argument. Finally, this Article will offer in conclusion some brief perspectives on several unresolved issues in this particularly thorny (and misguided) area of capital punishment jurisprudence.

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

The thesis of this paper is that lawyers who have represented clients in capital murder cases at trial and appeal—not unlike all criminal trial and initial appeal counsel, but more urgently because of the circumstances—continue to owe important obligations to their former clients. These obligations have been just recently included in the latest version of the American Bar Association’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death PenaltyCases: In accordance with professional norms, all persons who are or have been members of the defense team have a continuing duty to safeguard the interests of the client and should cooperate fully with successor counsel. This duty includes, but is not limited to: A. maintaining the records of the case in a manner that will inform successor counsel of all significant developments relevant to the litigation; B. providing the client’s files, as well as information regarding all aspects of the representation, to successor counsel; C. sharing potential further areas of legal and factual research with successor counsel; and D. cooperating with such professionally appropriate legal strategies as may be chosen by successor counsel. It is my hope that this article will demonstrate that these Guidelines reflect not just best practice, but actual ethical mandates that trial counsel, like Bryan Saunders, owe their former clients as those clients negotiate the jurisprudential maze known as habeas corpus.

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

Determinants of the Death Penalty seeks to explain the phenomenon of capital punishment – without recourse to value judgements – by identifying those characteristics common to countries that use the death penalty and those that mark countries which do not. This global study uses statistical analysis to relate the popularity of the death penalty to physical, cultural, social, economical, institutional, actor oriented and historical factors. Separate studies are conducted for democracies and non-democracies and within four regional contexts. The book also contains an in-depth investigation into determinants of the death penalty in the USA.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Networks,

This report catalogs the emergence of innocence as the most important issue in the long-simmering death penalty debate. The sheer number of cases and the pervasive awareness of this trend in the public’s consciousness have changed the way capital punishment is perceived around the country. The steady evolution of this issue since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 has been accelerated in recent years by the development of DNA technology, the new gold standard of forensic investigation. This science, along with a vigorous re-investigation of many cases, has led to the discovery of a growing number of tragic mistakes and freed inmates. The evidence in this report presents a compelling case for many Americans that the risks associated with capital punishment exceed acceptable bounds. One hundred and sixteen people have been freed from death row after being cleared of their charges, including 16 people in the past 20 months. These inmates cumulatively spent over 1,000 years awaiting their freedom. The pace of exonerations has sharply increased, raising doubts about the reliability of the whole system.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Innocence,

This report — the first-ever national survey of women currently on Death Row — found that women who have been sentenced to death are often subjected to harsh living conditions, including being forced to live in virtual isolation, and many are sentenced for crimes that don’t result in a death sentence for men.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Women,

The first part of the paper looks at the national law governing the death penalty vis-à-vis international standards; the second part of the paper identifies the problems one encounters at the pretrial, trial and post trial stages and examines the attempts to solve some of these problems; the final part looks at present trends in the application of the death penalty and draws tentative conclusions as to the future prospects of the death penalty in Lesotho.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Due Process ,

Article 51. Every human being has the inherent right to life.2. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.Article 6Sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes inaccordance with the laws in force at the time of commission of the crime and pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court. Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence.Article 71. Sentence of death shall not be imposed on persons under 18 years of age, unlessotherwise stipulated in the laws in force at the time of the commission of the crime.2. The death penalty shall not be inflicted on a pregnant woman prior to her deliveryor on a nursing mother within two years from the date of her delivery; in all cases, the best interests of the infant shall be the primary consideration.

• Document type Regional body report
• Themes list International law, Right to life, Most Serious Crimes,
• Available languages الميثاق العربي لحقوق الإنسانCHARTE ARABE DES DROITS DE L’HOMME

This article examines the situation of the death penalty in Africa. It does so byaddressing three main questions: First, to what extent is the death penalty inAfrica in fact an issue about which one should be particularly concerned?Second, what are the restrictions on the death penalty in Africa? Third, whatis to be done to strengthen the restrictions on the death penalty in Africa? Inaddition, the article examines the question whether article 4 of the AfricanCharter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its related provisions will inspirethe abolition of the death penalty. It is suggested that challenging mandatorydeath sentences, advancing procedural challenges, open debate onalternatives to the death penalty, and improving the national criminaljustice system will strengthen restrictions on the death penalty in Africa. Thearticle concludes that positive criminal justice reform rather than moralisticcondemnation is the most effective route to the eventual abolition of thedeath penalty in Africa.

• Document type Article
• Themes list Networks,

Empirical studies of the death penalty continue to find that the race and gender of homicide victims are associated with the severity of legal responses in homicide cases even after controlling for legally relevant factors. A limitation of this research, however, is that victim race and gender are examined as distinct and independent factors in statistical models. In this study, we explore whether the independent examination of victim race and gender masks important differences in legal responses to homicides. In particular, we empirically test the hypothesis that defendants convicted of killing white females are significantly more likely to receive death sentences than killers of victims with other race-gender characteristics. Findings indicate that homicides with white female victims were more likely to result in death sentences than other victim race-gender dyads. We posit that this response may be unique and result in differential sentencing outcomes.

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

This important book is sure to foster informed public discussion about the death penalty by deepening readers’ understanding of how religious beliefs and perspectives shape this contentious issue. Featuring a fair, balanced appraisal of its topic, Religion and the Death Penalty brings thoughtful religious reflection to bear on current challenges facing the capital justice system.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Religion ,

This book contains contributions from judges, attorneys, and academicians on both sides of the death penalty question. The grounds advanced for justification of capital punishment–including deterrence, retribution, and closure for victims’ families–are considered. Whether life imprisonment is adequate to address these concerns is also debated. Other issues include whether racial minorities or indigent defendants are disproportionately executed, whether the penalty is otherwise arbitrarily applied, and what risks exist regarding the execution of an innocent person.

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

The editors of this study isolate the core issues influencing legislation so that they can be incorporated into strategies that advise governments in changing their policy on capital punishment. What are the critical factors determining whether a country replaces, retains or restores the death penalty? Why do some countries maintain the death penalty in theory, but in reality rarely invoke it? These questions and others are explored in chapters on South Korea, Lithuania, Georgia, Japan and the British Caribbean Commonwealth, as well as the U.S.

• Document type Book
• Countries list Georgia
• Themes list Networks,

Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the field, Bedau addresses topics such as strong public suppport for the death penalty, wrongful convictions, the disappearance of executive clemency, constitutional arguments surronding the Eight Amendment, and procedural reforms under consideration that move toward abolition.

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

The purpose of this resource guide is to provide judges who are assigned capital cases with information about how other judges have handled these cases and an idea of what to expect as the case proceeds. The guide does not prescribe how such cases should be handled, and any examples of case-management approaches discussed should be considered illustrative.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,

Meditations on Capital Punishment, Recent Works by Malaquias Montoya features recently created silkscreen images and paintings, and related research dealing with the death penalty and penal institutions.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Death Row Conditions,

Drawing from televised debates over capital punishment on CNN’s Crossfire from February 2000 to June 2002, I argue that Teles’s (1998) theory of “dissensus politics” is useful in understanding the U.S.’s preservation of capital punishment as well as current divisions in death penalty sentiment within the U.S. I pose the retention of capital punishment as the product of rival elites who are unwilling to forsake capital punishment’s moral character (and often the political benefits it offers), and who consequently ignore an American public that appears to have reached a measured consensus of doubt about the death penalty.

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

Lawyers are generally familiar with the ethical rule forbidding frivolous arguments, principally because of sanctions imposed under rules of civil procedure for making such arguments. Not all lawyers are aware, however, of two ways in which the prohibitions of frivolous arguments are restricted in both the rules themselves and in their enforcement. First, the ethical rules have express limitations with respect to arguments made on behalf of criminal defendants, and courts are generally loath to sanction criminal defense lawyers. Second, the term “frivolous” is narrowed, even in civil cases, by the way it is defined and explained in the ethical rules and in court decisions.

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

One major goal of these recommendations is to create additional safeguards against the endemic tendency of decision-makers in the criminal justice system to “pass the buck.” The system is far too lax in catching errors and injustices in part because many of those who might catch these errors and injustices do not fully understand their own duty to ensure that a death sentence is the appropriate punishment. Several of these recommendations are addressed to those who occupy critical roles in the capital punishment system, including the defense attorney, the prosecutor, the jury, the trial judge, and the reviewing courts. They emphasize that each, individually, has the responsibility to ensure, to the best of his or her ability, that justice is done.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,

Paralegals are becoming an increasingly important part of the criminal justice system in developing countries. By ensuring more people are aware of their rights within the prison system and can therefore represent themselves and follow up on their cases, paralegals contribute towards a reduction in numbers in pre-trial detention.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

This report has been prepared for Governor Ryan’s Commission on Capital Punishment to provide additional information on those who have been wrongfully convicted of murder and subsequently incarcerated. It is hoped that this information is useful in the Commission’s consideration of possible improvements in the way criminal justice agencies and allied entities meet the needs of those who have been wrongfully convicted.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,

This paper covers events around the exercise of the death penalty during the year 2000, including such subjects as significant national and international court cases and decisions; important studies; the use of the death penalty against the mentally ill and those with mental retardation; its use against the `innocent’ and against women; medical and religious perspectives and public opinion polls and surveys.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages العقوبة الاعدام في العالم : تطورات في العام ٢٠٠٠La peine de mort dans le monde : évolution en 2000La pena de muerte en el mundo: noticias del 2000

This report aims at focusing attention on the country’s use of the death penalty, particularly as Zambia does not apply international standards for fair trials in its use of the death penalty.

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

This paper attempts to summarise the issues arising from the practice of executing prisoners who have mental retardation. It draws mainly on the US experience but makes reference to other jurisdictions.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Intellectual Disability,

Twenty-five U.S. states still permit the execution of offenders with mental retardation and should pass laws to ban the practice without delay. The United States appears to be the only democracy whose laws expressly permit the execution of persons with this severe mental disability.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Intellectual Disability,

The Paralegal Advisory Service (PAS) trainers manual for conducting paralegal aid clinics (PLCs) inside prison has been written for paralegal facilitators who will conduct PLCs in prisons aimed principally at remand prisoners

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

Twelve states and the District of Columbia do not impose the death penalty. The authors, all sociology professors at American universities, use the case-study method to examine why this is so. The factors they consider include murder rates, the history of executions, economic circumstances, public opinion, mass media, population diversity, and each state’s abolition of the death penalty. They also examine the role of a state’s social, cultural, and economic leaders in public debate on capital punishment. The states studied are Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, and West Virginia, though there is also some discussion of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. Media reports and government documents were reviewed and legislators, civil servants, journalists, death-penalty activists, and others interviewed. Throughout, the authors express an abolitionist point of view, stating “We hope this book will provide practical information to those interested in furthering death penalty abolition in the United States and throughout the world.”

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

The fundamental task of the mitigation specialist is to conduct a comprehensive social history of the defendant and identify all relevant mitigation issues. The 2003 revised edition of the American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases recognizes the mitigation specialist as an “indispensable member of the defense team throughout all capital proceedings.” What are the particular responsibilities and contributions of a mitigation specialist and what makes them so essential to the capital defense team as to warrant this long overdue recognition by the ABA Guidelines?

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

The ABA has long been concerned with the provision of effective counsel for all criminal defendants, especially for those facing the death penalty. In 1989, the ABA first published its Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, which detailed the kind of competent, effective legal representation that all capital defendants were entitled to receive. Earlier this year, after a two-year effort drawing upon the expertise of a broad group ofdistinguished and experienced judges, lawyers, and academics, the ABA House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved revisions to those Guidelines to update and expand upon the obligations of death penalty jurisdictions to ensure due process of law and justice. “These Guidelines are not aspirational.” They articulate a national standard of care and the minimum that should be required in the defense of capital cases.

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

The revised ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases require that an agency “independent of the judiciary” be responsible for “ensuring that each capital defendant in the jurisdiction receives high quality legal representation.” This independent agency “and not the judiciary or elected officials should select lawyers for specific cases.” These mandates reflect two realities that have become overwhelmingly clear: (1) judges—whether initially elected, subject to retention elections, or appointed—are subject to political pressures in connection with capital punishment cases; and (2) lawyers whom judges have appointed in capital punishment cases have frequently been of far lower quality than could have been selected.

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

This short article will explore some additional issues regarding the relationship between international law and the death penalty. First, it will discuss some additional aspects of the representation of foreign nationals in capital cases. Second, it will discuss additional instances in which defense counsel can make international law arguments, regardless of the client’s nationality. Third, because international law issues are new to most lawyers in the United States, even those who are seasoned in capital litigation, it will suggest some alternative ways in which international law arguments can be made. The conclusion will put theUnited States experience with the death penalty into the broader context of world practice on the death penalty.

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

Law professor Stuart Banner tells the story of how, over four centuries, dramatic changes have taken place in the ways capital punishment has been administered and experienced. Banner moves beyond the debates, to give us an unprecedented understanding of capital punishment’s many meanings. As nearly four thousand inmates are now on death row, and almost one hundred are currently being executed each year, the furious debate is unlikely to diminish. The Death Penalty is invaluable in understanding the American way of the ultimate punishment.

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

This manual is a resource for those who deliver training and workshops on human rights in prisons. It explores the fundamentals of good prison management, focusing specifically on international standards for the treatment of prisoners and the special needs of vulnerable categories of prisoner.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages حقوق بشر و زندانیها اسیب پزیرManuel de formation n°1 Droits humains et détenus vulnérablesManual de Capacitación No. 1 Derechos Humanos y Prisioneros Vulnerables

The report indicates that most of the people sentenced to capital punishment, especially the poor and indigent, did not benefit from a fair trial, and that the conditions of detention – which is very long – constitute “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments”. Furthermore, the FIDH fears that the possible moratoriums on the executions considered by several States only aims at improving the criminal procedures prior to the executions.

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

This extensively revised third edition covers developments since publication of the second edition in 1997. It includes consideration of the UN human rights system, international humanitarian law, European human rights law and Inter-American human rights law. New chapters address capital punishment in African human rights law and international criminal law. An extensive list of appendices contains many of the essential documents for the study of capital punishment in international law.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Networks,

This report gives details of the national picture of the execution of juveniles, looking particularly at how two key decisions of the US Supreme Court have widened the gap between the USA and most other countries on this issue. The report examines the arguments used by those who oppose the execution of juvenile offenders and provides an overview of the international situation on the use of the death penalty against child offenders.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Juveniles,

This report seeks to answer the arguments put forward by the proponents of capital punishment in the English Speaking Caribbean and examines the shortcomings in the administration of the death penalty in the region.The paper primarily focuses on Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the two countries with the largest death row populations in the region. However, details of other counties are given and the themes and problems illustrated in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are prevalent in the other nations of the ESC.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,

The document details cases of child offenders executed since 1990 and cites the relevant international standards. Two tables are appended: a list of cases and a table of the 113 countries which provide for the death penalty but exclude its use of the death penalty against child offenders. There are also appendices giving the text of the resolution on “The death penalty in relation to child offenders” adopted by the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in August 2000 and extracts from the resolution on “The question of the death penalty” adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights in April 2002.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Juveniles, Statistics,
• Available languages LES MINEURS FACE À LA PEINE DE MORT : Les exécutions recensées dans le monde depuis 1990LOS MENORES Y LA PENA DE MUERTE : Ejecuciones en el mundo desde 1990

The year 2001 has confirmed the accelerated trend towards the abolition of the death penalty on course for the past ten years. In 2001 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became totally abolitionist, Chile abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes, Ireland removed all references to the death penalty from its constitution, Burkina Faso joined the group of de facto abolitionists not having carried out any executions for more than ten years, and Lebanon has imposed a moratorium on executions.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : I FATTI PIÙ IMPORTANTI DEL 2001

This report details the reasons for the Japan Federation of Bar Associations recommendation that an immediate moratorium on death sentences takes place.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Japanese : 死刑制度問題に関する提言

This paper discusses some case law on detention issues by the Human Rights Committee (HRC) that supervises the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as well as HRC case law on the so-called “death row phenomenon,” which involves forcing a person to live under conditions that spawn intense fear, distress, and the virtual destruction of the personality while awaiting execution.

• Document type Article
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Phenomenon,

Despite the interest in the death penalty, no statistical studies have isolated the social and political forces that account for the legality of this punishment. Racial or ethnic threat theories suggest that the death penalty will more likely be legal in jurisdictions with relatively large black or Hispanic populations. Economic threat explanations suggest that this punishment will be present in unequal areas. Jurisdictions with a more conservative public or a stronger law and order Republican party should be more likely to legalize the death penalty as well. After controlling for social disorganization, region, period, and voilent crime, panel analyses suggest that minority presence and economic inequality enhance the likelihood of a legal death penalty. Conservative values and Republican strength in the legislature have equivalent effects; A supplement time-to-event analysis supports these conclusions. The results suggest that a political approach has explanatory power because threat effects expressed through politics and effects that are directly political invariable account for decisions about the legality of capital punishment.

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

Working with the United Nations Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society is addressed to the civil society actors who, every day in every part of the world, contribute to the promotion, protection and advancement of human rights. Developed following a survey among users of the first edition of the Handbook—Working with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: A Handbook for NGOs (2006)—this comprehensively updated and revised second edition puts United Nations human rights bodies and mechanisms at its centre. Speaking to all civil society actors, including but not only non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the Handbook explains how civil society can engage with various United Nations human rights bodies and mechanisms. It is the hope of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that this Handbook will enable more people to enjoy and make claim to their human rights through these bodies and mechanisms.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Как работать по Программе ООН в области прав человека Справочник для гражданского обществаTravailler avec le Programme des Nations Unies pour les Droits de l’Homme: Un Manuel pour la Société Civile参与联合国人权事务 民间社会手册Trabajando con el Programa de las Naciones Unidas en el ámbito de los Derechos Humanos Un manual para la sociedad civil

This handbook is divided into five tabbed sections. The first section provides some general guidelines to assist trial counsel in properly preserving issues for appellate review. Sections 2-4 address the following topics: (2) pre-trial issues; (3) jury selection and juror misconduct issues; (4) the substantive admissibility of evidence; and, (5) the solicitor’s closing argument.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,

Report from PRI that analyzes how there has been a global trend towards the universal abolition of the death penalty and a restriction in the scope and use of capital punishment over the last fifty years.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

This report shows that atheists, humanists and other nonreligious people are discriminated against by governments across the world, sometimes facing death.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Minorities, Religion ,

Conditions surrounding the death penalty and its application necessitate examination and recognition of the tortuous experience endured by death row inmates, as it culminates in the onset of the death row phenomenon

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Death Row Phenomenon,

In providing specific examples of financial and material support provided by UN and international donors for drug control efforts, and human rights concerns raised by such support, the report compels readers to think critically about government efforts to meet their ‘shared responsibility’ to address drug use and drug-related crime

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Drug Offences,

The Darkest Hour: Stories and Interviews from Death Row by Nanon M. Williams emerged from a deep and dark despair in a place where the thought of suicide often holds more appeal than the thought of living

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions,

Ever since California added the death penalty to its penal code in the 1870s, supporters have argued that the threat of executions would make potential murderers think twice before committing heinous crimes.

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

This Index of Paralegal Services in Africa is the latest resource in PRI’s paralegal series. It lists paralegal services, paralegal networks and university legal clinics in 21 African countries and, where the information was available, provides contact details, a summary of the main services offered, a list of donors and examples of important results achieved.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Fair Trial,

The American Bar Association recently published The State of Criminal Justice 2012, an annual report that examines major issues, trends and significant changes in America’s criminal justice system.

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

Resolution adopted by the Economic and Social Council [on the recommendation of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (E/2012/30 and Corr.1 and 2)]

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law,
• Available languages Japanese : 联合国关于在刑事司法系统中获得法律援助机会的 原则和准则"مبادئ الأمم المتحدة وتوجيهاا بشأن سبل الحصول على /٢٠١٢ المساعدة القانونية في نظم العدالة الجنائية"Принципы и руководящие положения Организации Объединенных Наций, касающиеся доступа к юридической помощи в системах уголовного правосудияPrincipes et lignes directrices des Nations Unies sur l’accès à l’assistance juridique dans le système de justice pénalePrincipios y directrices de las Naciones Unidas sobre el acceso a la asistencia jurídica en los sistemas de justicia penal

The Ride tells the true story of one of the most gruesome crimes in recent memory—the 1997 abduction and murder of ten-year-old Massachusetts resident Jeffrey Curley—and how his father, Bob Curley, managed to heal the deep wounds of rage and emerge to become an outspoken critic of the death penalty.In vivid, compelling prose, Boston Globe reporter Brian MacQuarrie recounts the brutal crime that shocked New England and chronicles what transpires after Jeffrey’s death, which is nearly as shocking as the crime itself. At the heart of this deeply touching story is the way Bob Curley summons the almost superhuman courage to reject the death penalty. In tracing his personal journey, The Ride presents an appealing everyman hero forced into the spotlight by unfathomable circumstances, and compelled to confront the consequences of his fury.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Public opinion, Murder Victims' Families, Death Penalty,

This video explains the role of consular officers in protecting their nationals when they face the death penalty abroad.

• Document type Lobbying
• Themes list Foreign Nationals,

The death penalty is a violation of the right to life; however, its use in the DPRK has, overthe years, been particularly extensive and substantially different from other countries. Thisis partly due to the DPRK’s totalitarian system, characterized by widespread and systematichuman rights violations that aim at maintaining social order and political control.While the government of the Republic of Korea (also known as South Korea) has retained thedeath penalty, it is considered to be abolitionist in practice, having carried out no executionssince December 1997. By contrast, the DPRK has consistently used the death penalty, and hasnever allowed any organization to investigate the matter. Nevertheless, information derivedfrom witness observations and the few existing reliable reports, reveal thousands of executionssince the 1950s, with the largest numbers in the 1990s and the 2000s. Since 2010, dozens ofpeoplehavebeenexecuted.TheDPRK’sintensesecrecyjustifiestheconclusionthattheselargenumbersarelowerthantheactualfiguresinreality.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages La peine de mort en Corée du Nord : dans les rouages d’un État totalitaire