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Document(s)

THE STATE OF AFRICAN REGIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS BODIES AND MECHANISMS 2018-2019

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

The report presents a comprehensive review of the current state and performance of the African regional human rights system in the period between 1 January 2018 and 30 June 2019. It appraises the functioning, working methods, outputs and impact of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR); the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC); and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACtHPR) during the reporting period.

Document(s)

Oral Statement: 56th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights

By FIACAT, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article


More details See the document

During the 56th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul, Gambia, 21 April – 7 May 2015, the FIACAT made an oral statement as they would like to would like to congratulate on the actions taken by the Committee for the prevention of torture in Africa since the 55th Ordinary Session of the ACHPR. Nevertheless, FIACAT remains greatly concerned by the number of cases of torture documented by its members (ACATs) and the impunity which torturers enjoy.

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

Document(s)

The ‘Mumia Exception’

By Free Mumia Abul Jamal Coalition (NYC), on 1 January 2009


2009

Legal Representation


More details See the document

In 1981, Mumia worked as a cab driver at night to supplement his income. On December 9th he was driving his cab through the red light district of downtown Philadelphia at around 4 a.m. Mumia testifies that he let off a fare and parked near the corner of 13th and Locust Streets. Upon hearing gunshots, he turned and saw his brother, William Cook, staggering in the street. Mumia exited the cab and ran to the scene, where he was shot by a uniformed police officer and fell to the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. Within minutes, police arrived on the scene to find Officer Faulkner and Mumia shot; Faulkner died. Mumia was arrested, savagely beaten, thrown into a paddy wagon and driven to a hospital a few blocks away (suspiciously, it took over 30 minutes to arrive at the hospital). The trial began in 1982 with Judge Sabo (who sent more people to death row than any other judge) presiding. Mumia wished to represent himself and have John Africa as his legal advisor, but before jury selection had finished, this right was revoked and an attorney was forcibly appointed for him. Throughout the trial, Mumia was accused of disrupting court proceedings and was not allowed to attend most of his own trial.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

The Prejudicial Nature of Victim Impact Statements: Implications for Capital Sentencing Policy

By Edith Greene / Bryan Myers / Psychology, Public Policy and Law, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

Victim impact evidence is presented during sentencing hearings to convey the harm experienced by victims and victims’ relatives as a result of a crime. Its use in capital cases is highly controversial. Some argue that the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the admission of victim impact statements (VIS) during capital sentencing proceedings (Payne v. Tennessee, 1991) invites prejudice and judgments based on emotion rather than reason. Others reason that it provides an important voice for survivors and affords the jury an opportunity to learn about the victim. The authors outline the chief psychological issues that arise in the context of VIS, including their relevance to jurors’ judgments of blameworthiness, concerns that the social worth of the victim will influence jurors’ sentencing decisions, and issues related to the emotional appeal of VIS. Psycholegal research on the influence of VIS on mock jurors is reviewed, and implications of this work for capital sentencing policy and suggested directions for future research are discussed.

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

Document(s)

Executing the Insane: The Story of Scott Panetti

By The Texas Defender Service / Google videos, on 1 January 2007


2007

Legal Representation


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Identifying and (Re)formulating Prophylactic Rules, Safe Harbors, and Incidental Rights in Constitutional Criminal Procedure

By Susan R. Klein / Michigan Law Review, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Handbook of Forensic Psychiatric Practice in Capital Cases

By The Death Penalty Project / Nigel Eastman / Richard Latham / Marc Lyall / Sanya Krljes, on 1 January 2018


2018

Working with...


More details See the document

The Death Penalty Project and Forensic Psychiatry Chambers have released two new publications, together providing an authoritative guide on the application of mental health law in capital cases. The resources respond to the knowledge that, in many countries that retain the death penalty, mental health issues are not being sufficiently addressed by the courts, leading to miscarriages of justice and putting vulnerable individuals at risk.This Handbook guides the reader through the role of the forensic psychiatrist in criminal proceedings and key principles of mental health law.

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

Document(s)

Showing Remorse: Reflections on the Gap between Expression and Attribution in Cases of Wrongful Conviction

By Richard Weisman / Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

Canada


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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,

Document(s)

The Constitution in Crisis Pt 4

By The New School / Fora TV, on 1 January 2007


2007

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

Bryan Stevenson discusses criminal justice in the United States. He discusses the influence of race in the outcome of criminal justice cases and uses social statistics to give the listeners a broader view of why the US state prisons are comprised of more of one race or another. Between chapter 4 and 8 Stevenson discusses the seemingly inherent racial bias to the administration of capital punishment in the United States.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list Minorities, Discrimination,

Document(s)

DEATH ROW PHENOMENON VIOLATES HUMAN RIGHTS

By Human Rights Advocates, on 1 January 2012


2012

NGO report


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Sentenced to Death: A Report on Washington Supreme Court Rulings In Capital Cases

By American Civil Liberties Union / Washington, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report


More details See the document

The ACLU conducted an analysis of court rulings in the 25 Washington cases in which the death sentence has been imposed since 1981, when the current death penalty statute took effect. That analysis of almost two decades of death sentences and executions makes it clear that the system by which we impose and review death sentences in Washington is fundamentally flawed.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Detailed Fact Sheet: Progress Made in 10 years and Challenges Ahead

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty / Detailed Fact Sheet, on 1 January 2012


2012

Campaigning


More details Download [ pdf - 251 Ko ]

This Fact Sheet details the progress made in the past 10 years and challenges ahead, stressing the fact that Death Sentences and Executions Have Decreased, there is a Growing Use of a Moratorium, a Growing Restrictions on the Scope of the Death Penalty: Elimination of Mandatory Death Sentences, Growing Restrictions on the Scope of the Death Penalty, Growing Support for the UN General Assembly Resolutions Calling for a Moratorium, Increasing Ratifications of the Protocols to Abolish the Death Penalty, Growing International Statements and a Growing Abolitionist Movement.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Document(s)

Japan : 111 th Session of the Human Rights Committee

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty / The Advocates for Human Rights / Center for Prisoners' Rights / Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), on 1 January 2014


2014

Multimedia content

Japan


More details See the document

This report examinesprison conditionsandthe imposition of the death penalty in Japan in light of international human rights standards.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list Japan
  • Themes list Due Process , International law, Death Row Conditions,

Document(s)

Counting the Condemned

By Justice Project Pakistan, on 1 January 2018


2018

NGO report


More details See the document

Counting the Condemned contains some shocking revelations. There has been almost a 35 percent reduction in Pakistan’s death row population, but we still account for 26 percent of the world’s death row. Every 8th person executed in the world is a Pakistani. And convictions are often so wrongful, an appellate bench of the Supreme Court has overturned a whopping 85 percent of death sentences since 2014.

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

Document(s)

Myanmar: The Administration Of Justice – Grave And Abiding Concerns

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Myanmar


More details See the document

This report discusses Amnesty International’s concern about political imprisonments in Myanmar. Arbitrary arrests; torture and ill-treatment during incommunicado detention; unfair trials; and laws which greatly curtail the rights to freedom of expression and assembly continue as major obstacles to the improvement in the State Peace and Development Council’s human rights record. The section dedicated to the death penalty talks about the death penalty system in relation to specific cases.

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

Document(s)

How to Work with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 592 Ko ]

The World Coalition has developed and published a training manual on working with the African Union’s human rights organ, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). This how-to guide was created specifically for civil society to help encourage successful interaction with the ACHPR, a growing and influential human rights mechanism on the continent.

Document(s)

The Punishment

By Andres Segura, on 1 January 2018


2018

Multimedia content

United States


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“The Punishment” is a short film that takes place in 1978 at a Texas State Penitentiary. The story follows inmate Randle Kohler’s last hours on Death Row leading up to his execution. The only human being he’s able to communicate with is the Prison Guard assigned to bring him his last meal. As their conversation develops we begin to see more and more layers of Kohler’s past and the events that led him to the prison cell.

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

Document(s)

Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston

By United Nations / Philip Alston, on 1 January 2007


2007

International law - United Nations

arrufres
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The present report details the activities of the Special Rapporteur in 2009 and the first four months of 2010. This is the final report to the Human Rights Council by Philip Alston in his capacity as Special Rapporteur. It analyses the activities and working methods of the mandate over the past six years, and identifies important issues for future research. Detailed addenda to this report address: (a) accountability for killings by police; (b) election-related killings; and (c) targeted killings.

Document(s)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

By United Nations, on 1 January 1948


1948

United Nations report

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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(s)

Convention on the Rights of the Child

By United Nations, on 1 January 1989


1989

United Nations report

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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(s)

Irreversible Error: Recommended Reforms for Preventing and Correcting Errors in the Administration of Capital Punishment

By The Constitution Project, on 1 January 2014


2014

NGO report


More details See the document

The Committee also offers a host of other recommendations to prevent and correct wrongfulconvictions. These include recommendations regarding the preservation, testing andpresentation of forensic evidence; the creation of statutory remedies for wrongful convictionsand the implementation of procedures for the systemic review to help avoid future errors; thevideotaping of custodial interrogations – where practical – in order to avoid the documentedproblem of false and otherwise inaccurate confessions; the adoption of best practices foreyewitness identifications; the effective implementation of prosecutors’ constitutionalobligation to disclose exculpatory evidence; and enforcement of the Vienna Convention onConsular Relations.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Innocence Unmodified

By Emily Hughes / North Carolina Law Review , on 1 January 2010


2010

Article

United States


More details See the document

The Article proceeds in three parts. Part I explains the pivotal role that “actual” innocence has played in the Innocence Movement. It shows that even though the Innocence Movement has begun to broaden its DNA-based focus to include non-DNA-based claims, its goal has remained constant: achieving justice for “actually” innocent people. Part I then shows how the Innocence Movement has prioritized the cases of “actually” innocent people who were convicted through trial over “actually” innocent people who pleaded guilty. The prioritization of wrongful convictions derived from trials over wrongful convictions from pleas underscores how the Innocence Movement has overlooked the claims of people who have pleaded guilty and are not “actually” innocent, but who may still have strong wrongful conviction claims based on fundamental constitutional violations. Part II examines innocence unmodified in the context of trials and postconviction appeals. It asserts that one reason to protect innocence unmodified is because under the Court‟s existing jurisprudence, “actual” innocence alone is not enough to reverse a wrongful conviction. This is because the Supreme Court has not yet decided whether the Constitution forbids the execution of an “actually” innocent person who was convicted through a “full and fair” trial. Because the Court has not recognized a freestanding “actual” innocence claim, the “actual” innocence of a wrongly convicted person only matters as a door through which to allow a court to reach underlying constitutional claims. Part II uses the example of a recent Supreme Court decision, In Re Troy Davis, to highlight how an isolated prioritization of “actual” innocence does not achieve justice for wrongly convicted people. Part III examines innocence unmodified in the context of pleas. It reveals the degree to which the Court has itself polarized innocence in the context of pleas—prioritizing “actual” innocence over fundamental constitutional protections for all people.

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

Document(s)

Muzzling critical voices: Politicized trials before Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Saudi Arabia

aresarfr
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Despite the Saudi Arabian authorities’ rhetoric about reforms, they have unleashed an intense crackdown on citizens promoting change in the last few years. One of the instruments of that repression has been the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), which was set up in 2008 to try individuals accused of terror-related crimes. Amnesty International has documented the cases of 95 individuals who were tried before the SCC between 2011 and 2019. It has concluded that the SCC’s judges have presided over grossly unfair trials, handing down prison sentences of up to 30 years and numerous death sentences, in an effort to silence dissent.

Document(s)

Death Sentencing Database

By Brandon L. Garrett / End of its Rope, on 1 January 2018


2018

Working with...


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Documentaire: femmes dans la couloir de la mort

By Investigations et Enquêtes , on 17 January 2024


2024

Multimedia content

Death Row Conditions 

Gender

United States

Women


More details See the document

Un regard déchirant sur la vie des femmes condamnées et les failles du système judiciaire américain. Aux Etats-Unis, 54 femmes « attendent » l’exécution de leur peine. Linda Carty et Melissa Lucio sont emprisonnées au Texas, Shawna Forde en Arizona. Elles se livrent. Parmi les prisonnières, certaines espèrent la révision de leur procès.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions  / Gender / Women

Document(s)

Nobody To Talk To: Barriers to Mental Health Treatment for Family Members of Individuals Sentenced to Death and Executed

By Texas After Violence Project, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

Four decades after the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States, the harmful impact of death sentences and executions on persons other than the individual offender is still not widely recognized – not even among mental health professionals who specialize in responding to individual and community needs in the aftermath of traumatic events.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Mental Illness, Murder Victims' Families,

Document(s)

2015 World Day Report

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2016


2016

NGO report

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 2276 Ko ]

On 10 October 2015, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty along with abolitionist activists worldwide marked the 13th World Day against the Death Penalty by drawing attention to the death penalty for drug crimes. This report presents the activities organised for the 13th world day and the media coverage it received.

Document(s)

A Guide to Sentencing in Capital Cases

By The Death Penalty Project, on 1 January 2007


2007

Working with...


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Recent years have seen a number of ground-breaking judicial decisions on the mandatory death penalty in various Caribbean and African jurisdictions. In analysing these developments, this manual addresses the key issues that arise in the sentencing and resentencing of offenders following the abolition of the mandatory death penalty for particular crimes. It deals with the general test to be applied when deciding whether an offender should be sentenced to a discretionary death penalty. It also addresses the aggravating and, in particular, mitigating considerations relevant to the sentencing exercise and procedural issues that arise as a result of the discretion now vested in the courts to impose an appropriate sentence in each case.

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

Document(s)

Vietnam: From “Vision” to Facts: Human Rights in Vietnam under its Chairmanship of ASEAN

By Vietnam Committee on Human Rights / International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Viet Nam


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The use of the death penalty is frequent in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In 2009, the government reduced the number of offences punishable by death from 29 to 22. Capital punishment is applied for crimes including murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, rape, sexual abuse of children, and a range of economic crimes. Execution is by firing squad. A draft law was introduced in November 2009 proposing the use of two methods of execution, either by firing squad or by lethal injection. Statistics on the number of death sentences and executions are not made public. Indeed, following criticisms by international human rights organisations, in January 2004, Vietnam adopted a decree classifying death penalty statistics as “state secrets”. According to the Vietnamese and international press, at least 100 people are executed each year in Vietnam. In 2007, 104 death sentences were pronounced, including 14 women. In 2010, the official legal magazine Phap Luat (Law) reported 11 death sentences for the month of January alone.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Viet Nam
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions, Firing Squad,

Document(s)

Executions by County in the United States

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


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Although counties do not carry out executions, in almost all states the decision to seek the death penalty is made by the county district attorney. A small number of counties are responsible for a disproportionate number of the executions in the United States. Search results can be sorted by county.

  • Document type NGO report

Document(s)

Nigeria: Waiting for the Hangman

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2008


2008

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

More than 720 men and 11 women are under sentence of death in Nigeria’s prisons. They have one thing in common, beyond not knowing when they will be put to death. They are poor. From their first contact with the police, through the trial process, to seeking pardon, those with the fewest resources are at a serious disadvantage. This text describes the treatment of the death penalty in Nigeria.

Document(s)

Don’t Take His Eye, Don’t Take His Tooth, and Don’t Cast the First Stone: Limiting Religious Arguments in Capital Cases

By John Blume / Sheri Lynn Johnson / William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

Religious arguments in the course of particular capital sentencing proceedings are very common. This may be in part because capital punishment jurisprudence, unlike the jurisprudence of reproductive rights or segregation, has itself mandated individualized decision-making. Public discussion of whether religious principles or authority compel (or preclude) the imposition of the death penalty for all police killings (or, more broadly, all killings) has been largely mooted by the Supreme Court’s determination that mandatory death penalty statutes violate the Eighth Amendment.

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

Document(s)

Ethical Responsibilities of Physicians: Capital Punishment in the 21st Century

By Karen B. Rosenbaum / William Connor Darby / Robert Weinstock / Psychiatric Annals, on 1 January 2015


2015

Article

United States


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The American Medical Association is among many medical professional organizations that prohibit the participation of physicians in the physical act of execution. Despite these clear guidelines, debate remains regarding physician involvement in various aspects of death penalty cases. This article outlines different positions that physicians and specifically forensic psychiatrists have taken on this issue. Our position is that given the overwhelming secondary duty related to their physician role—specifically to do no harm—forensic psychiatrists should not use their expertise if they believe their involvement will be used for the primary purpose of obtaining a death penalty.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Intellectual Disability,

Document(s)

Guided Jury Discretion in Capital Murder Cases: The Role of Declarative and Procedural Knowledge

By Richard L. Wiener / Psychology, Public Policy and Law / Melanie Rogers / Ryan Winter / Linda Hurt / Amy Hackney / Karen Kadela / Hope Seib / Shannon Rauch / Laura Warren / Ben Morasco, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


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This article analyzes whether state-approved jury instructions adequately guide jury discretion in the penalty phase of first-degree murder trials. It examines Eighth Amendment jurisprudence regarding guided jury discretion, emphasizing the use of “empirical factors” to examine the quality of state-approved instructions. Psychological research and testimony on the topic of the comprehensibility of jury instructions are reviewed. Data from a recently completed simulation with 80 deliberating juries showed that current instructions do not adequately convey the concepts and processes essential to guiding penalty phase judgments. An additional simulation with 20 deliberating juries demonstrated that deliberation alone does not correct for jurors’ errors in comprehension. The article concludes with recommendations for policy and future research.

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

Document(s)

Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

By University of Pittsburgh Law Review / Christof Heyns , on 1 January 2014


2014

International law - United Nations

arrufres
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In the present report, the Special Rapporteur provides an overview of hisactivities and considers four topics relating to the protection of the right to life:(a) the role of regional human rights systems; (b) less lethal and unmanned weaponsinlaw enforcement; (c) resumptions of the death penalty; and (d) the role ofstatistical indicators.

Document(s)

The Unusualness of Capital Punishment

By Louis D. Bilionis / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


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The order struck during the regulatory years following Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia has been inverted. Executions once were rarities of newsworthy moment; now, they are nearly twice-a-week occurrences that often pass with nary a notice. Skeptical scrutiny of death penalty cases once was the professed and practiced mission of the federal judiciary; now, words like weariness, ennui, and resentment seem better choices to capture the spirit of the federal courts when confronted with complaints from death row. As we will see, the various lines of objection join to form a sophisticated and comprehensive critique.

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

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the special rapporteur, Ms. Asma Jahangir, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1999/35

By United Nations / Asma Jahangir, on 1 January 2000


International law - United Nations

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

Document(s)

EU Guidelines: Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law

By Council of the European Union / European Union, on 1 January 2009


2009

Working with...

fr
More details See the document

An integral part of our Human Rights Policy is a series of Guidelines on issues of importance to the Union. These Guidelines are practical tools to help EU representations in the field better advance our policy. The first Guideline, on the Death Penalty, was elaborated in 1998. It was followed by six others focussed on Torture, Dialogues with Third Countries, Children Affected by Armed Conflict, Human Rights Defenders, the Rights of the Child and Violence Against Women. The first five Guidelines were published as a brochure four years ago; this new edition adds those Guidelines adopted since then. In preparation for publishing this booklet, all of the older Guidelines underwent a review and renovation to reflect changes both in the Union and the external environment that have taken place since 2005. There is one other innovation in the edition you hold in your hands: for the first time, we have included a guideline developed in 2005 by Member State legal experts on the topic of International Humanitarian Law. Because of the explosive growth of operations and missions conducted under the European Security and Defence Policy and as a result of our conviction that counterterrorism be conducted within the framework of international law, the Guideline on IHL is growing in importance.

Document(s)

COMPETENT CAPITAL REPRESENTATION: THE NECESSITY OF KNOWING AND HEEDING WHAT JURORS TELL US ABOUT MITIGATION

By John H. Blume / Sheri Lynn Johnson / Scott E. Sundby / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

United States


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While there are antecedent factual determinations jurors must make, including the existence of a statutory aggravating circumstance, the final decision the jurors must make is not factual in nature. As the courts have noted, this is an “awesome responsibility,” and the jury must make a “reasoned moral” decision whether life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or the death penalty is the appropriate punishment.

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

Document(s)

TESTIMONIALS FROM WOMEN SENTENCED TO DEATH

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 July 2021


2021

Campaigning

Women

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 942 Ko ]

Collection of testimonials of women’s experiences around the world regarding their death sentences- World Day 2021

Document(s)

Mentally Ill Prisoners on Death Row: Unsolved Puzzles for Courts and Legislatures

By Richard J. Bonnie / Catholic University Law Review, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


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This paper focuses on the problems relating to mental illness or other mental disabilities that arise after sentencing, where the underlying values at stake are the dignity of the condemned prisoner and the integrity of the law.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Mental Illness, Intellectual Disability,

Document(s)

Capital Punishment: New Perspectives

By Peter Hodgkinson / Ashgate Publishing, on 1 January 2013


2013

Book


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The authors argue that capital litigators should use their skills challenging the abuses not just of process, but of the conditions in which the condemned await their fate, namely prison conditions, education, leisure, visits, medical services, etc. In the aftermath of successful constitutional challenges it is the beneficiaries (arguably those who are considered successes, having been ‘saved’ from the death penalty and now serving living death penalties of one sort or another) who are suffering the cruel and inhumane alternative.Part I of the book offers a selection of diverse, nuanced examinations of death penalty phenomena, scrutinizing complexities frequently omitted from the narrative of academics and activists. It offers a challenging and comprehensive analysis of issues critical to the abolition debate. Part II offers examinations of countries usually absent from academic analysis to provide an understanding of the status of the debate locally, with opportunities for wider application.

  • Document type Book

Document(s)

Frequency and Predictors of False Conviction: Why We Know So Little, and New Data on Capital Cases

By Barbara O'Brien / Samuel R. Gross / Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

In the first part of this paper we address the problems inherent in studying wrongful convictions: our pervasive ignorance and the extreme difficulty of obtaining the data that we need to answer even basic questions. The main reason that we know so little about false convictions is that, by definition, they are hidden from view. As a result, it is nearly impossible to gather reliable data on the characteristics or even the frequency of false convictions. In addition, we have very limited data on criminal investigations and prosecutions in general, so even if we could somehow obtain data on cases of wrongful conviction, we would have inadequate data on true convictions to compare them to. In the second part we dispel some of that ignorance by considering data on false convictions in a small but important subset of criminal cases about which we have unusually detailed information: death sentences. From 1973 on we know basic facts about all defendants who were sentenced to death in the United States, and we know which of them were exonerated. From these data we estimate that the frequency of wrongful death sentences in the United States is at least 2.3%. In addition, we compare post-1973 capital exonerations in the United States to a random sample of cases of defendants who were sentenced in the same time period and ultimately executed. Based on these comparisons we present a handful of findings on features of the investigations of capital cases, and on background facts about capital defendants, that are modest predictors of false convictions.

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

Document(s)

Officials’ Estimates of the Incidence of ‘Actual Innocence’ Convictions

By Angie Kiger / Brad Smith / Marvin Zalman / Justice Quarterly, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

United States


More details See the document

Evidence indicates that the conviction and imprisonment of factually innocent persons occur with some regularity. Most research focuses on causes, but the incidence of wrongful convictions is an important scientific and policy issue, especially as no official body gathers data on miscarriages of justice. Two methods are available for discovering the incidence of wrongful conviction: (1) enumerating specific cases and (2) having criminal justice experts estimate its incidence. Counts or catalogues of wrongful conviction necessarily undercount its incidence and are subject to accuracy challenges. We surveyed Michigan criminal justice officials, replicating a recent Ohio survey, to obtain an expert estimate of the incidence of wrongful conviction. All groups combined estimated that wrongful convictions occurred at a rate of less than 1/2 percent in their own jurisdiction and at a rate of 1-3 percent in the United States. Defense lawyers estimate higher rates of wrongful conviction than judges, who estimate higher rates than police officials and prosecutors. These differences may be explained by professional socialization. An overall wrongful conviction estimate of 1/2 percent extrapolates to about 5,000 wrongful felony convictions and the imprisonment of more than 2,000 innocent persons in the United States every year.

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

Document(s)

Anthony Graves: The TT Interview

By Brandi Grissom / The Texas Tribune, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

The state of Texas incarcerated him for nearly two decades — and nearly executed him twice — for murders he didn’t commit. And now, the state is balking at giving him the $1.4 million he’s owed for all the years he spent wrongfully imprisoned.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Convicting the Innocent

By Samuel R. Gross / Annual Review of Law and Social Science, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

United States


More details See the document

Almost everything we know about false convictions is based on exonerations in rape and murder cases, which together account for only 2% of felony convictions. Within that important but limited sphere we have learned a lot in the past 30 years; outside it, our ignorance is nearly complete. This review describes what we now know about convicting the innocent: estimates of the rate of false convictions among death sentences; common causes of false conviction for rape or murder; demographic and procedural predictors of such errors. It also explores some of the types of false convictions that almost never come to light—innocent defendants who plead guilty rather than go to trial, who receive comparatively light sentences, who are convicted of crimes that did not occur (as opposed to crimes committed by other people), who are sentenced in juvenile court—in fact, almost all innocent defendants who are convicted of any crimes other than rape or murder. Judging from what we can piece together, the vast majority of false convictions fall in these categories. They are commonplace events, inconspicuous mistakes in ordinary criminal investigations that never get anything close to the level of attention that sometimes leads to exoneration.

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

Document(s)

Myth of the hanging tree: stories of crime and punishment in territorial New Mexico

By Robert J. Torrez / University of New Mexico Press, on 1 January 2008


Book

United States


More details See the document

The haunting specter of hanging trees holds a powerful sway on the American imagination, conjuring images of rough-and-tumble frontier towns struggling to impose law and order in a land where violence was endemic. In this thoughtful study, former New Mexico State Historian Robert Torrez examines several fascinating criminal cases that reveal the harsh and often gruesome realities of the role hangings, legal or otherwise, played in the administration of frontier justice. At first glance, the topic may seem downright morbid, and in a sense it is, but these violent attempts at justice are embedded in our perception of America’s western experience. In tracing territorial New Mexico’s efforts to enforce law, Torrez challenges the myths and popular perceptions about hangings and lynching in this corner of the Wild West.

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

Document(s)

Poster World Day 2010

By World Coalition against the death penalty , on 10 October 2010


2010

Campaigning

Trend Towards Abolition

esfr
More details Download [ pdf - 82 Ko ]

Poster World Day against the death penalty 2010

Document(s)

3 questions to Ndume Olatushani, former death row prisoner

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2018


2018

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

Ndume, 56 years old, spent 28 years in prison in the US, 20 of which on death row, for a crime he did not commit. Today, he is human rights activist, and fight with us for the abolition of the death penalty. He is also a very gifted painter.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Death Sentences and Executions in 2017

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2018


NGO report

arfarufres
More details See the document

Amnesty International published its international global review of the death penalty on Tuesday, 12th April 2018.At least 993 executions in 23 countries in 2017 were recorded, down by 4% from 2016 (1,032 executions) and 39% from 2015 (when the organization reported 1,634 executions, the highest number since 1989). China remained the world’s top executioner, but excluding China, 84% of all reported executions took place in just four countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.

Document(s)

#nodeathpenalty – Signs

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

farufrzh-hantes
More details Download [ pdf - 42 Ko ]

For this 12th World Day Against the Death Penalty the World Coalition has decided to focus on a social media campaign which it hopes will spread the truth about death penalty more widely than ever before. The concept is simple. People will make signs stating why they are against the death penalty and take a photo of themselves holding that sign and upload it onto a social media platform, with the hashtag #nodeathpenalty. With the photo uploaded, the person will nominate at least 3 people to do the same, thus creating an exponential (snowball) effect. Think of it as a cross between the #bringbackourgirls campaign in support for

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

By United Nations, on 1 January 2012


2012

International law - United Nations

rufrzh-hantesar
More details See the document

In States in which the death penalty continues to be used, international law imposes stringent requirements that must be met for it not to be regarded as unlawful. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur considers the problem of error and the use of military tribunals in the context of fair trial requirements. He also examines the constraint that the death penalty may be imposed only for the most serious crimes: those involving intentional killing. Lastly, he considers the issues of collaboration and complicity, in addition to transparency in respect of the use of the death penalty.

Document(s)

Application form – Call for Actions in the Philippines (18th World Day)

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020


2020

Multimedia content

Philippines


More details Download [ vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document - 49 Ko ]

Call for actions in the Philippines

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list Philippines
  • Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Application form – Call for Actions in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean States (18th World Day)

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020


Multimedia content


More details Download [ vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document - 58 Ko ]

Call for actions on World Day in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean States

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

جماربو حنِملاو ق

By She was convicted for infanticide in 1895 and became the only woman ever hanged in New Zealand. He was a young lad from Bluff who was shot for desertion in World War I. Now Minnie Dean and Victor Spencer share their stories with you—just hours before their planned executions by the state., on 1 January 2013


2013

Working with...


More details Download [ - 0 Ko ]

يق |ناسنلإا قوقحل ةيماسلا ةدحتملا مملأا ةيضوفم بتكم / | |2013||externe | | http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/AboutUs/CivilSociety/OHCHRFundsGuide_ar.pdf|OHCHR-2013|Academic report|International law, Networks, |
en12671|OHCHR Practical Guide for Civil Society: Human Rights Funds, Grants and Fellowships|This Practical Guide – the fourth in the series of practical guides for civil society – provides a brief description of funding sources, grants and fellowships administered by or with the participation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). |Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights / | |2013||externe | | http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/AboutUs/CivilSociety/OHCHRFundsGuide_en.pdf|OHCHR-2013|Academic report|International law, Networks, |
en12670|Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys|How do attorneys who represent clients facing the death penalty cope with the stress and trauma of their work? Through conversations with twenty of the most experienced and dedicated post-conviction capital defenders in the United States, Fighting for Their Lives explores this emotional territory for the first time|Susannah Sheffer / Vanderbilt University Press / | |2013|United States|externe | | http://www.susannahsheffer.com/fighting-for-their-lives.html||Book|Country/Regional profiles, |
en12669|Invers Theatre Company presents A Cry Too Far From Heaven”

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Academic report

Document(s)

Shepherds and Butchers

By Oliver Schmitz, on 1 January 2016


2016

Legal Representation


More details See the document

South Africa, 1987. When Leon, a white 19-year-old prison guard commits an inexplicable act of violence, killing seven black men in a hail of bullets, the outcome of the trial – and the court’s sentence – seems a foregone conclusion.

Hotshot lawyer John Weber reluctantly takes on the seemingly unwinnable case.

A passionate opponent of the death penalty, John discovers that young Leon worked on death row in the nation’s most notorious prison, under traumatic conditions: befriending the inmates over the years while having to assist their eventual execution.

As the court hearings progress, the case offers John the opportunity to put the entire system of legally sanctioned murder on trial. How can one man take such a dual role of friend and executioner, becoming both shepherd and butcher?

Inspired by true events, this is the story that puts death penalty on trial and changes history.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Row Conditions, Discrimination, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Final declaration of the African Congress

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2018


2018

Article

fr
More details See the document

On 9 and 10 April, more than 300 abolitionists, activists, diplomats, politicians, parliamentarians, lawyers, former death row inmates and citizens gathered in Abidjan for the first African Congress against the death penalty. After two days of debating and sharing experiences, the delegates adopted a final declaration at the closing ceremony.

Document(s)

Capital Punishment As Human Sacrifice: A Societal Ritual as Depicted in George Elliot’s Adam Bede

By Roberta M. Harding / Buffalo Law Review 48, 175-248, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

The ritual slaughter of humans for sacrificial purposes has an ancient provenance. Few members of modern society would be inclined to believe that killing humans for sacrificial purposes continues. Of those, most probably envision it only being practiced by individuals who belong to “uncivilized,” or non-“First-World” cultures. Upon closer scrutiny, however, it becomes apparent that this is a misconception because the past and present practice of capital punishment includes a thinly disguised manifestation of the ritualized killing of people, otherwise known as human sacrifice. The purpose of this article is to identify, describe, and analyze the historic and contemporary connection between the practices of capital punishment and human sacrifice. After describing how human sacrifice constitutes an integral component of capital punishment, it will be argued that the institutionalization of this antiquated barbaric ritual, vis-a-vis the use of capital punishment, renders the present use of the death penalty in the United States incompatible with “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society”; and that consequently, this facet of capital punishment renders the penalty at odds with the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against the infliction of “cruel and unusual” punishments.

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

Document(s)

Pakistan, a long march for democracy and the rule of law

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Fatma Cosadia / Odette Lou Bouvier, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

Regularly denounced by human rights associations, violations of the right to a fair trial and inequality before the law for prisoners who face the death penalty are flagrant. Most prisoners belong to the most disadvantaged social classes or to ethnic or religious minorities. Involved in often questionable circumstances, with confessions extracted under frequent beatings and torture, many litigants are not given an adequate defence. To defend these cases, lawyers appointed ex officio receive 200 rupees per hearing (less than 5 U.S. dollars). Often young and inexperienced to deal with procedures not respecting the minimum fair trial guarantees, these lawyers are not in a position to ensure the mandate entrusted to them.

Document(s)

The Codemned: Bali 9

By Dateline / SBS, on 1 January 2010


2010

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Two of the Bali Nine have been speaking publicly for the first time… just days ahead of final hearings on whether their death sentences for drug trafficking will be carried out.Dateline reporter Mark Davis gained exclusive access to Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan in the ‘death tower’ at Indonesia’s Kerobokan Prison.They talk openly about their lives then and now, what they think of their crimes, and the prospect of facing death by firing squad.Mark also hears first-hand of the heartache for their families back in Australia, as they wait to hear if their pleas for clemency will be granted.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Finality Without Fairness: Why We Are Moving Towards Moratoria on Executions, and the potential Abolition of Capital Punishment

By Ronald J. Tabak / Connecticut Law Review, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

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 ,

Document(s)

Capital Punishment and American Exceptionalism

By Carol S. Steiker / Duke Law School, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

At the same time, the countries that most vigorously employ the death penalty are generally ones that the United States has the least in common with politically, economically, or socially, and ones that the United States is wont to define itself against, as they are among the least democratic and the worst human rights abusers in the world. In recent years, the top five employers of capital punishment were China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.3 Moreover, in the past twelve years, only seven countries in the world are known to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of their crimes: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United States.

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

Document(s)

Capital Punishment and the Bible

By Gardner C. Hanks / Herald Press, on 1 January 2002


Book

United States


More details See the document

Capital Punishment and the Bible goes beyond proof-text arguments to examine biblical statements about capital punishment in their historical contexts and for present meaning. Does the use of capital punishment in the USA meet Old Testament standards for fairness? How did Jesus and the early church extend God’s love in restorative justice? Gardner C. Hanks convincingly shows that the use of the death penalty is not consistent with Jesus’ call for love and forgiveness.

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

Document(s)

A Stolen Life: The Debra Milke Story

By Jana Bommersbach, on 1 January 2019


2019

Book

United States


More details See the document

Arizona said Debra Milke was a baby killer. Phoenix Homicide Detective Armando Saldate testified she “confessed” to having her four-year-old son murdered when he thought he was going to see Santa. In 1990, she ended up exactly where most thought she deserved–the only woman on Arizona’s death row. This compelling investigative work by one of Arizona’s most acclaimed journalists takes readers inside the case–inside the prison, inside the evidence, inside the breakdown of justice, inside the legal tenacity, inside the heart and mind of Debra Milke.

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

Document(s)

Too Late for Luck: A Comparison of Post-Furman Exonerations and Executions of the Innocent

By Talia Roitberg Harmon / William S. Lofquist / Crime and Delinquency, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article

United States


More details See the document

This study is a quantitative analysis designed to compare two groups of factually innocent capital defendants: Those who were exonerated and those who were executed. There are a total of 97 cases in the sample, including 81 exonerations and 16 executions. The primary objective of the authors is to identify factors that may predict case outcomes among capital defendants with strong claims of factual innocence. Through the use of a logistic regression model, the following variables were significant predictors of case outcome (exoneration vs. execution): allegations of perjury, multiple types of evidence, prior felony record, type of attorney at trial, and race of the defendant. These results point toward significant problems with the administration of capital punishment deriving primarily from the quality of the case record created at trial.

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

Document(s)

Raise the Proof: A Default Rule for Indigent Defense

By Adam M. Gershowitz / Connecticut Law Review, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

Almost everyone agrees that indigent defense in America is underfunded, but workable solutions have been hard to come by. For the most part, courts have been unwilling to inject themselves into legislative budget decisions. And, when courts have become involved and issued favorable decisions, the benefits have been only temporary because once the pressure of litigation disappears so does a legislature’s desire to appropriate more funding. This Article proposes that if an indigent defense system is under-funded, the state supreme court should impose a default rule raising the standard of proof to “beyond all doubt” to convict indigent defendants. The legislature would then have the opportunity to opt out of this higher standard of proof by providing enough funding to bring defense lawyers’ caseloads within well-recognized standards or by providing funding parity with prosecutors’ offices. Such an approach will create an incentive for legislatures to adequately fund indigent defense without miring courts in detailed supervision of legislative budget decisions. At the same time, because courts can check once per year to determine whether there is funding parity with prosecutors’ offices or compliance with caseload guidelines, there will be constant pressure on legislatures to maintain adequate funding in order to avoid the higher standard of proof.

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

Document(s)

Innocence Lost … and Found: An Introduction to The Faces of Wrongful Conviction Symposium Issue

By Daniel S. Medwed / Golden Gate University Law Review, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


More details See the document

Each wrongful conviction signifies an acute failure of the criminal justice system, a loss of innocence for those of us who want to believe in its merits, each exoneration constitutes an affirmation of the system’s potential value – not so much in the sense that the post-conviction system “works” (given that it often does not) but that learning about the uniquely human details of individual exonerations serves as a powerful motivating force to revamp the process through which guilt or innocence is adjudicated. Our criminal justice system is changeable, its flaws possibly remediable, and it is this prospect of a revised, superior method of charging and trying those accused of crimes.

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

Document(s)

Capital Punishment at the United Nations: Recent Developments

By Ilias Bantekas / Peter Hodgkinson / Criminal Law Forum, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Detailed factsheet on living conditions on death row

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2018


2018

Multimedia content

arfr
More details Download [ pdf - 479 Ko ]

Detailed factsheet on living conditions on death row

Document(s)

3 questions to Arthur Judah, former death row prisoner

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2018


Working with...


More details See the document

Sentenced to death in Nigeria for murder, Arthur Judah was finally released in 2000 after 16 years of incarceration. Today, he works as writer and painter, and fight with us for the abolition of the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

Death Sentences and Executions 2018

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report

arfarufres
More details See the document

Document(s)

Death Row Stories

By CNN, on 1 January 2020


2020

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Survivor on Death Row

By Amazon Digital Services / Clare Nonhebel, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

Survivor on Death Row, a new e-book co-authored by death row inmate Romell Broom and Clare Nonhebel, tells the story of Ohio’s botched attempt to execute Broom by lethal injection in 2009. In September of that year, Broom was readied for execution and placed on the gurney, but the procedure was terminated after corrections officials spent over two hours attempting to find a suitable vein for the lethal injection.

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

Document(s)

Seven Dates With Death

By Mike Holland, on 1 January 2019


2019

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community and Identity

By Kimberly J Cook / Saundra D Westervelt / Rutgers University Press, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

n Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community and Identity, the authors focus on three central areas affecting those who had to begin a new life after leaving years of severe confinement: the seeming invisibility of these individuals after their release; the complicity of the justice system in allowing that invisibility; and the need for each of them to confront their personal trauma

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

#nodeathpenalty – Flyer

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 71 Ko ]

For this 12th World Day Against the Death Penalty the World Coalition has decided to focus on a social media campaign which it hopes will spread the truth about death penalty more widely than ever before. The concept is simple. People will make signs stating why they are against the death penalty and take a photo of themselves holding that sign and upload it onto a social media platform, with the hashtag #nodeathpenalty. With the photo uploaded, the person will nominate at least 3 people to do the same, thus creating an exponential (snowball) effect.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list Public opinion, Trend Towards Abolition,
  • Available languages #nodeathpenalty - Flyer

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 2002/36

By United Nations / Asma Jahangir, on 1 January 2003


2003

International law - United Nations

arrufrzh-hantes
More details See the document

The report also discusses the issue of capital punishment and makes reference to death penalty cases in which the Special Rapporteur has intervened in reaction to reports that the sentences concerned had been passed in violation of international restrictions and human rights standards.

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Asma Jahangir, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/45

By United Nations / Asma Jahangir, on 1 January 2002


2002

International law - United Nations

arrufrzh-hantes
More details See the document

The report also discusses the issue of capital punishment and makes reference to death penalty cases in which the Special Rapporteur has intervened in reaction to reports that the sentences concerned had been passed in violation of international restrictions and human rights standards.

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the Special Rapporteur, Philip Alston

By United Nations / Philip Alston, on 1 January 2004


2004

International law - United Nations

arfrzh-hantesru
More details See the document

This report is submitted pursuant to Commission resolution 2005/34, and should be read in conjunction with its various addenda. They provide the following: a detailed analysis of communications sent to Governments which describe alleged cases of extrajudicial executions; reports on country missions to Nigeria and Sri Lanka during 2005; a report on the principle of transparency in relation to the death penalty; and several reports aimed at following up on earlier country missions to the Sudan, Brazil, Honduras and Jamaica.

Document(s)

Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir

By United Nations / Asma Jahangir, on 1 January 2003


2003

International law - United Nations

frzh-hantesarru
More details See the document

Document(s)

Caribbean Human Development Report – Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security

By United Nations Development Programme, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report


More details See the document

The Caribbean Human Development Report reviews the current state of crime as well as national and regional policies and programmes to address the problem in seven English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The new study recommends that Caribbean governments implement youth crime prevention through education, as well as provide employment opportunities that target the marginalized urban poor. A shift in focus is needed it says, from a state protection approach to one that focuses on citizen security and participation, promoting law enforcement that is fair, accountable, and more respectful of human rights.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Death Penalty,

Document(s)

The Inferno: A Southern Morality Tale

By Joseph Ingle / Westview Publishing, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

chronicles the compelling story of Philip Workman, who was executed in Tennessee in 2007. The author, a minister of the United Church of Christ who has spent decades working with those on death row, served as Mr. Workman’s pastor and tells the story from his own viewpoint, as well as those of others familiar with the case.

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

Document(s)

Statement on Executions in the USA

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020


2020

World Coalition

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 589 Ko ]

Following the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on 29 April, the United Nations called on the United States to suspend executions in the face of potential international law violations. The World Coalition supports this call.

Document(s)

Physicians Willingness to Participate in the Process of lethal Injection for Capital Punishment

By Joan Weiner / Brian M. Aboff / Neil J. / Farber / Annals of Internal Medecine 135(10), 884-888 / Elizabeth B. Davis / E. Gil Boyer / Peter A. Ubel, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND COURT HIERARCHY

By MARY KOZLOVSKI / Asian Law Centre, on 1 January 2019


2019

Multimedia content

India


More details See the document

This paper provides an introduction to the Indian judicial system and court hierarchy, outlining the jurisdiction of constitutional and statutory courts and tribunals and the appointment, tenure and removal of judges. It describes forms of alternative dispute resolution that have emerged in recent decades, partly to combat delays in the court system, and informal dispute resolution bodies that mediate family disputes, such as Sharia courts. The paper concludes by discussing the contentious issues of delay in the court system, public interest litigation, and appointments to the Supreme and High Courts of India.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list India

Document(s)

PAKISTAN: The State of Human Rights in 2011

By Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) / Asian Human Rights Commission, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


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The government’s ineptness to stop the religious and sectarian intolerance has strengthened the banned militant religious groups to organize and collect their funds in the streets and hold big rallies. This ineptness of the government has helped the forced conversion to Islam of girls from religious minority groups. In total thorough out the country during the year 1800 women from Hindu and Christian groups were forced to convert to Islam by different methods particularly though abduction and rape.

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

Document(s)

The last executioner: memoirs of Thailand’s last prison executioner

By Chavoret Jaruboon / Nicola Pierce / kindle edition, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

Thailand


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Chavoret Jaruboon was personally responsible for executing 55 prison inmates in Thailand’s infamous prisons. As a boy, he wanted to be a teacher like his father, but his life changed when he chose one of the hardest jobs in the world. Honest and often disturbing – but told with surprising humour and emotion – ‘The Last Executioner’ is the remarkable story of a man who chose death as his vocation.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list Thailand
  • Themes list Firing Squad,

Document(s)

So Long as They Die: Lethal Injections in the United States

By Human Rights Watch, on 1 January 2006


2006

NGO report


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This 65-page report reveals the slipshod history of executions by lethal injection, using a protocol created three decades ago with no scientific research, nor modern adaptation, and still unchanged today. As the prisoner lies strapped to a gurney, a series of three drugs is injected into his vein by executioners hidden behind a wall. A massive dose of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, is injected first, followed by pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes voluntary muscles, but leaves the prisoner fully conscious and able to experience pain. A third drug, potassium chloride, quickly causes cardiac arrest, but the drug is so painful that veterinarian guidelines prohibit its use unless a veterinarian first ensures that the pet to be put down is deeply unconscious. No such precaution is taken for prisoners being executed.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Lethal Injection,

Document(s)

The Last Supper

By Julie Green, on 1 January 2013


2013

Working with...


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The Last Supper illustrates the meal requests of U.S. death row inmates. Cobalt blue mineral paint is applied to second-hand plates, then kiln-fired by technical advisor Toni Acock. I am looking for a space to exhibit all the plates on a ten-year loan. 540 final meals, and two first meals on the outside for exonerated men, are completed to date. I plan to continue adding fifty plates a year until capital punishment is abolished.

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

Document(s)

Innocents Convicted: An Empirically Justified Factual Wrongful Conviction Rate

By D. Michael Risinger / Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


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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 Innocence,

Document(s)

Imposing a Cap on Capital Punishment

By Adam M. Gershowitz / Missouri Law Review 72(1), 73-124., on 1 January 2007


Article

United States


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This article argues that because prosecutors have discretion to seek the death penalty in too many cases, they lack the incentive to police themselvesand choose carefully. Put simply, because there are few legal constraints — and virtually no political constraints — on the sheer number of cases in which prosecutors can pursue the death penalty, the Government is not under sufficient pressure to limit its use of capital punishment to only the most heinous cases. As a result, two things happen. First, the death penalty is sought and meted out in some cases, which though terrible, are no worse than the thousands of other murder cases in which prosecutors pursue only life imprisonment. Second, because prosecutors file too many capital cases, the criminal justice system lacks the resources to focus sufficient attention on each one.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Arbitrariness, Most Serious Crimes,

Document(s)

An Innocent Man: Hakamada Iwao and the Problem of Wrongful Convictions in Japan

By David T. Johnson / The Asia-Pacific Journal, on 1 January 2015


2015

Article

Japan


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The main aim of this article is to explore the problem of wrongful convictions in Japanese criminal justice by focusing on the case of Hakamada Iwao, who was sentenced to death in 1968 and released in 2014 because of evidence of his innocence.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Japan
  • Themes list Fair Trial, Innocence,

Document(s)

Rethinking the Study of Miscarriages of Justice: Developing a Criminology of Wrongful Conviction

By Richard A. Leo / Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article

United States


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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,

Document(s)

Searching for Uniformity in Adjudication of the Accused’s Competence to Assist and Consult in Capital Cases

By John T. Philipsborn / Psychology, Public Policy and Law, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


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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,

Document(s)

Executions per Death Sentence

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


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Executions per Death Sentence, with cumulative death sentences (1977 through 2010), cumulative executions (1977 through 2010) and executions per death sentence, per State.

  • Document type NGO report

Document(s)

Failed Justice: Innocent on Death Row

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2018


2018

Multimedia content

United States


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This video tells the story of one prisoner, Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent 30 years on death row in Alabama for a crime he did not commit.

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

Document(s)

Death Row USA – Spring 2020

By NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. / Deborah Fins, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United States


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Spring 2020 edition of Death Row USA, on the situation of the death penalty in the USA as of April 2020

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Statistics,

Document(s)

Poster World Day 2003

By World coalition against the death penalty , on 10 October 2003


2003

Campaigning

Trend Towards Abolition

fr
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Poster World Day 2003

Document(s)

Casebook of Forensic Psychiatric Practice in Capital Cases

By The Death Penalty Project / Marc Lyall, on 1 January 2018


2018

Working with...


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The Death Penalty Project and Forensic Psychiatry Chambers have released two new publications, together providing an authoritative guide on the application of mental health law in capital cases. The resources respond to the knowledge that, in many countries that retain the death penalty, mental health issues are not being sufficiently addressed by the courts, leading to miscarriages of justice and putting vulnerable individuals at risk.This Casebook uses real-life examples to address ethical and professional questions and explore the application of legal principles.

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

Document(s)

Malawian Traditional Leaders’ Perspectives on Capital Punishment

By Cornell Law School / Malawi’s Paralegal Advisory Services Institute (PASI), on 1 January 2018


NGO report


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On 18 April 2018, the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide and Malawi’s Paralegal Advisory Services Institute (PASI) released their report on “Malawian Traditional Leaders’ Perspectives on Capital Punishment” before a group of public officials and stakeholders in Lilongwe.The report analyses data from surveys of 102 traditional leaders in villages across Malawi. Clifford Msiska, the National Director of PASI, informed an audience in Lilongwe that over ninety percent of traditional leaders surveyed did not support the use of the death penalty to punish individuals convicted of murder. Only six traditional leaders stated that death was the appropriate penalty for murder. The rest preferred a term of years, life imprisonment with opportunity for early release, or (least frequently of all) life imprisonment with no opportunity for release.

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