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701 Document(s) 90 Member(s) 845 Article(s) 14 Page(s)

Document(s)

End Crime, not Life is not about protecting criminals, but about protecting vulnerable innocents

By Coalition for the Abolition of Death Penalty in ASEAN (CADPA), on 8 September 2020


2020

Multimedia content

Malaysia


More details See the document

Cheong Chun Yin, a Malaysian boy, was about 23 years old when he was arrested for drug trafficking. A trusting boy he was asked to bring some ‘gold’ to Singapore. Merri was a victim of domestic abuse, whose son had a heart defect. She took a job abroad to help pay his hospital bills. A loving man bought her a suitcase for her home journey. The tragedy of such stories is what keeps human rights activists and lawyers from ASEAN unrelenting in their opposition to the death penalty, for reasons they spell out in this video.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list Malaysia
  • Themes list Arbitrariness, Networks, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

The Punishment

By Andres Segura, on 1 January 2018


2018

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

“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)

Death Qualification in Black and White: Racialized Decision Making and Death‐Qualified Juries

By Craig Haney / Mona Lynch / SSRN, on 1 January 2018


Academic report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Academic report

Document(s)

There Is No Evil

By YouTube / Mohammad Rasoulof, on 1 January 2020


2020

Multimedia content

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

fr
More details See the document

There Is No Evil (Persian: شیطان وجود ندارد‎, lit. ‘Satan doesn’t exist’) is a 2020 Iranian drama film directed by Mohammad Rasoulof. It won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. The film relates four stories concerning the death penalty in Iran. Rasoulof explained that the film is about “people taking responsibility” for their actions, and that each story “is based on my own experience.”

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list Public debate,
  • Available languages Le Diable n'existe pas

Document(s)

The Deprived: Innocent On Death Row

By Steffen Hou / BookBaby, on 1 January 2019


2019

Book

United States


More details See the document

The book describes how thousands of Americans are convicted of crimes they never committed. Many of them end up on death row where inmates have been executed despite their innocence. ‘The Deprived’ is based on interviews with 10 Americans who have all been affected by wrongful convictions and the death penalty. The book also describes what leads to wrongful convictions in America and who’s most likely to be convicted of a crime they never committed.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Compounded Violence: Domestic Abuse and the Mandatory Death Penalty in Ghana and Sierra Leone

By Anjuli Peters / University of Oxford, on 1 January 2019


Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This paper applies a gendered perspective to women sentenced to a mandatory death penalty in the West African countries of Ghana and Sierra Leone. At present, there are six women on death row in Ghana and two women on death row in Sierra Leone. All eight women are sentenced to mandatory death for murder. However, interviews with the women on death row suggest that their offenses do not meet the threshold of ‘most serious crimes.’ Instead, many are convicted for acts committed in retaliation following violence against them.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list Women,

Document(s)

How to Work with National Human Rights Institutions to Abolish the Death Penalty – A Practical Guide

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 17 November 2022


2022

Working with...

World Coalition

Trend Towards Abolition

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 2375 Ko ]

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) role as influential human rights actors is paramount, and as such their contributions to abolition of the death penalty should not be underestimated when developing an anti-death penalty strategy. Expertly written by the President of the of the Beninese Commission on Human Rights, this guide’s content has been bolstered by examples and advice coming from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the field. Working with NHRIs can seem like a daunting task, especially for civil society organizations that do not have previous experience working with them. As such, this guide has been specifically designed for abolitionist civil society groups around the world, both beginners and advanced activists, with a focus on the African continent.

Document(s)

Compounded Violence: Domestic Abuse and the Mandatory Death Penalty in Ghana and Sierra Leone

By Anjuli Peters / University of Oxford, on 1 January 2019


2019

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This paper applies a gendered perspective to women sentenced to a mandatory death penalty in the West African countries of Ghana and Sierra Leone. At present, there are six women on death row in Ghana and two women on death row in Sierra Leone. All eight women are sentenced to mandatory death for murder. However, interviews with the women on death row suggest that their offenses do not meet the threshold of ‘most serious crimes.’ Instead, many are convicted for acts committed in retaliation following violence against them.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list Women,

Document(s)

Punished for Being Vulnerable. How Pakistan executes the poorest and the most marginalized in society

By Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) / Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), on 1 January 2019


NGO report


More details See the document

The present report aims to provide an update on the 2007 report, bearing in mind the significant changes that have taken place in Pakistan under various governments since then, including the 2008 unofficial moratorium and the resumption of executions in 2014. The mission aimed at exploring specific issues within the theme of the death penalty, including detention conditions on death row, the use of capital punishment for minors, and the impact of the death penalty on families of death row inmates, particularly their children. However, a recurring theme emerged in discussions about each of these sub-issues: a strong systemic bias against the poor and marginalized.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Fair Trial, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Contradictions in Judicial Support for Capital Punishment in India and Bangladesh: Utilitarian Rationales

By Saul Lehrfreund / Carolyn Hoyle / Asian Journal of Criminology, on 1 January 2019


Article

Bangladesh


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

CHINA’S DEATH PENALTY REFORMS

By Bonny Ling / Si-si Liu / Cliff Ip / Human Rights In China, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report


More details See the document

The Chinese authorities have introduced reforms to the death penalty system aimed at “killing fewer, and killing carefully.” Key systemic challenges remain, however, in ensuring that the criminally accused are not arbitrarily deprived of their inherent right to life.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Position Paper: Death Penalty under the Palestinian National Authority

By Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


More details See the document

This paper describes the international law surrounding the trend towards abolition. It then discusses this in relation to the death penalty in Palestine which has come under criticism from Human Rights NGO’s to provide prisoners with international standards regarding their detention and providing a fair trial.

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

Document(s)

Mandatory Justice: Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty

By The Constitution Project, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

The Politics of Fear and Death: Successive Problems in Capital Federal Habeas Corpus.”

By Bryan A. Stevenson / New York University (NYU), on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: An Analysis of Post-Furman Capital Errors

By Talia Roitberg Harmon / Criminal Justice Policy Review, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

The issue of erroneous convictions in capital cases has recently gained considerable nationwide media attention. This article builds on prior research by examining 76 cases of inmates who were released from death rows between 1970 and 1998 because of doubts about their guilt. By using sources, or persons who have extensive insider knowledge about these cases, as well as published court opinions, it was possible to identify the causes of the wrongful convictions as well as the significant events that led to the discovery of the miscarriages of justice. The data indicate that prosecutorial misconduct, perjury of witnesses, police misconduct, and racial discrimination were influential factors that led to the wrongful convictions. In addition, continued investigation by the defense attorney, new witnesses coming forward, and/or a confession from another person were the factors most often leading to the discovery of errors. These findings suggest that there have not been any significant changes in causes of erroneous convictions since the implementation of contemporary safeguards. As a result, policy changes are suggested to decrease the chances of erroneous executions.

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

Document(s)

Predictors of Miscarriages of Justice in Capital Cases

By Talia Roitberg Harmon / Justice Quarterly, on 1 January 2001


Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Race for Your Life: An Analysis of the Role of Race in Erroneous Capital Conviction

By Talia Roitberg Harmon / Criminal Justice Review, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

Prior research on the role of race in wrongful capital convictions has focused primarily on the race of the defendant. In contrast, this article begins with two case studies that illustrate the impact of the race of the defendant and also the race of the victim in contributing to erroneous convictions. The second section of this article identifies the race of the defendant and the victim in 82 cases where prisoners were released from death row because of doubts about their guilt and in a matched group of inmates who were executed. Through the use of three logistic regression models, the combination of the race of the defendant and the race of the victim is identified as a significant predictor of case outcome (exoneration vs. execution). The results also indicate that an indirect relationship may exist between the combination of the race of the defendant and the victim, the strength of the evidence, and case outcome.

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

Document(s)

Mercy By the Numbers: An Empirical Analysis of Clemency and Its Structure

By Michael Heise / Virginia Law Review, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article

United States


More details See the document

Clemency is an extrajudicial measure intended both to enhance fairness in the administration of justice, and allow for the correction of mistakes. Perhaps nowhere are these goals more important than in the death penalty context. The recent increased use of the death penalty and concurrent decline in the number of defendants removed from death row through clemency call for a better and deeper understanding of clemency authority and its application. Questions about whether clemency decisions are consistently and fairly distributed are particularly apt. This study uses 27 years of death penalty and clemency data to explore the influence of defendant characteristics, political factors, and clemency’s structure on clemency decisions. The results suggest that although a defendant’s race and ethnicity did not influence clemency, gender did play a role, as women were far more likely than their male counterparts to receive clemency. Analyses of political and structural factors point in different directions. Political factors such as the timing of gubernatorial and presidential elections and a governor’s lame-duck status did not systematically influence clemency. However, how states structure clemency authority did make a difference. Clemency grants were more likely in states that vest authority in administrative boards than in states that vest authority in the governor. Regionality and time were also important as clemency grants were less likely in southern states and declined after 1984. Overall, these mixed results contribute to a critique that clemency decisions are arbitrary and inconsistent. Thus, important questions regarding fairness that plague earlier aspects of the death penalty process persist to its final stage.

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

Document(s)

Capital Punishment: A Global Perspective

By Roger Hood / Punishment and Society, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article


More details See the document

This article reviews the extent to which the movement to abolish capital punishment has been successful and discusses some of the influences which have produced a remarkable increase in the number of abolitionist countries in the past two decades. It asks whether this trend has now come to an end as many countries which retain the death penalty continue to defy, for a variety of reasons, international pressure to change their laws and practices. Finally, it discusses some actions that might prove effective in overcoming these obstacles.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Instructions: Form for Filing Petitions alleging Human Rights Violations

By Organization of American States, on 8 September 2020


2020

Working with...

esfren
More details See the document

The following form, prepared by the Commission’s Executive Secretariat, is intended to make it easier for victims of violations, their family members, organizations of civil society or other persons to file complaints alleging human rights violations by OAS member States.

Document(s)

Information Handbook on the Council of the European Union

By Council of the European Union / European Union, on 1 January 2006


2006

Working with...

fr
More details See the document

The purpose of this handbook — which has been prepared on the responsibility of the General Secretariat of the Council and has no legal force — is to explain certain basic concepts of how the Council works, but above all to provide practical information both on existing sources of information and on the implementation of measures adopted with regard to openness and transparency. These measures illustrate the Council’s desire to get closer to citizens in order to build their confidence in European integration.

Document(s)

Deciding Death

By Corinna Barrett Lain / Duke Law Journal, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

When the Supreme Court is deciding death, how much does law matter? Scholars long have lamented the majoritarian nature of the Court’s Eighth Amendment “evolving standards of decency” doctrine, but their criticism misses the mark. Majoritarian doctrine does not drive the Court’s decisions in this area; majoritarian forces elsewhere do. To make my point, I first examine three sets of “evolving standards” death penalty decisions in which the Court implicitly or explicitly reversed itself, attacking the legal justification for the Court’s change of position and offering an extralegal explanation for why those cases came out the way they did. I then use political science models of Supreme Court decisionmaking to explain how broader social and political forces push the Court toward majoritarian death penalty rulings for reasons wholly independent of majoritarian death penalty doctrine. Finally, I bring the analysis full [*pg 2] circle, showing how broader sociopolitical forces even led to the development of the “evolving standards” doctrine. In the realm of death penalty decisionmaking, problematic doctrine is not to blame for majoritarian influences; rather, majoritarian influences are to blame for problematic doctrine. The real obstacle to countermajoritarian decisionmaking is not doctrine, but the inherently majoritarian tendencies of the Supreme Court itself.

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

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


More details See the document

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)

Working with the United Nations Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society

By United Nations, on 1 January 2008


2008

Working with...

rufrzh-hantes
More details See the document

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(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)

Preventing the Execution of the Innocent: Testimony Before the House Judiciary Committee.

By Peter Neufeld / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Justice by Geography and Race: The Administration of the Death Penalty in Maryland 1978-1999

By Robert Brame / Raymond Paternoster / Margins Law Journal / Sarah Bacon / Andrew Ditchfield, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Role of Organized Religions in Changing Death Penalty Debates

By Michael L. Radelet / William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article


More details See the document

In his Article, Professor Michael L. Radelet describes a global decline in the use of the death penalty, the United Nation’s progressively stronger stance against executions, and a growing opposition to capital punishment in the United States. This decrease is attributed to both empirical studies casting doubt on the death penalty’s efficacy in promoting its stated underlying goals, and to the increasingly vocal stance of religious leaders morally opposed to capital punishment. Nevertheless, the decline in other justifications for capital punishment has been met with increasing reliance on retribution as the primary argument in its support. Professor Radelet argues that retribution’s moral, rather than empirical, base makes it an issue largely within the purview of religious denominations, the traditional source of a community’s moral authority. Professor Radelet predicts that religious leaders’ increasing opposition to the flawed administration of the death penalty, rather than their lesser support for the abstract concept of capital punishment, will tip the balance toward its abolition in America.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Religion ,

Document(s)

Emerging Issues in Juvenile Death Penalty Law

By Victor L. Streib / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 1 January 2000


Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Death IS Different: An Editorial Introduction to the Theme Issue.

By Richard L. Wiener / Craig Haney / Psychology, Public Policy and Law, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

Capital punishment has once again become the focus of intense national debate in the United States. There is increasingly widespread public concern over the propriety of state-sanctioned executions and the legal processes by which they are accomplished. Even in political arenas, where little more than a decade ago commentators could quip that “the electric chair has replaced the American flag as your all-purpose campaign symbol,” many elected officials are voicing second thoughts about capital punishment. The American Bar Association (ABA), among other prestigious groups, has called for a moratorium on executions until, at least, the procedural flaws in the legal process through which death sentencing takes place — what the ABA analysts characterized as a “haphazard maze of unfair practices” — have been identified and remedied. Recent assessments of the scope and seriousness of the problems that plague this process suggest that the task of reforming the system of capital punishment will prove to be a daunting one. For example, James Liebman and his colleagues have presented a sobering picture of what they termed a “broken system” in which the outcomes of capital trials — if judged by their fates in the appellate courts — are legally wrong more often than they are right. And at least one judge declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional because it failed to provide sufficient procedural protections to capital defendants.

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

Document(s)

Inadequete Legal Representation

By Death Penalty Focus, on 8 September 2020


2020

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

Perhaps the most important factor in determining whether a defendant will receive the death penalty is the quality of the representation he or she is provided. Almost all defendants in capital cases cannot afford their own attorneys. In many cases, the appointed attorneys are overworked, underpaid, or lacking the trial experience required for death penalty cases.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list Legal Representation,

Article(s)

Inquiry into Australia’s Advocacy for the Worldwide Abolition of the Death Penalty

By Peter Norden, on 25 November 2015

On 17, 20 and 27 November, the Australian Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs is conducting public hearings on Australia’s advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty. The World Coalition and its members uses this opportunity to make their voices heard.

2015

Australia

Document(s)

Where is the justice for me?’ The case of Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia

By Amnesty International / Amnesty International - USA, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

Troy Anthony Davis has been on death row in Georgia for more than 15 years for the murder of a police officer he maintains he did not commit. Given that all but three of the witnesses who testified against Troy Davis at his trial have since recanted or contradicted their testimony amidst allegations that some of it had been made under police duress, there are serious and as yet unanswered questions surrounding the reliability of his conviction and the state’s conduct in obtaining it. As the case currently stands, the government’s pursuit of the death penalty contravenes international safeguards which prohibit the execution of anyone whose guilt is not based on “clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts”. Amnesty International does not know if Troy Davis is guilty or innocent of the crime for which he is facing execution. As an abolitionist organization, it opposes his death sentence either way. It nevertheless believes that this is one in a long line of cases in the USA that should give even ardent supporters of the death penalty pause for thought. For it provides further evidence of the danger, inherent in the death penalty, of irrevocable error. As the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court wrote in 1993, “It is an unalterable fact that our judicial system, like the human beings who administer it, is fallible. Or as a US federal judge said in 2006, “The assessment of the death penalty, however well designed the system for doing so, remains a human endeavour with a consequent risk of error that may not be remediable.”

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

Document(s)

Iran must halt execution of web programmer

By Amnesty International - Canada, on 1 January 2012


2012

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Saeed Malekpour was sentenced to death in December 2010 following what appears to have been an unfair trial, without access to his lawyer, and amid allegations that he was tortured and forced to confess to crimes which he did not commit. Iran must not execute this web programmer sentenced to death after one of his web programs was used to post pornographic images without his knowledge, Amnesty International said today, as the Iranian authorities continue their crackdown on bloggers and other users of the internet.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,

Article(s)

Is the death penalty a cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment under international law?

on 20 March 2009

Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak raised the issue at the UN’s Human Rights Council, triggering a debate in which World Coalition member organisations had their say.

2009

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

Document(s)

World Day Against the Death Penalty Report 2007

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2007


2007

Campaigning

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 2594 Ko ]

World Coalition Report: No to the Death Penalty! The World decides 10 October 2007 World Day against the Death Penalty. The actions of the world coaltion and their iniatives during the World Day 2007 campaign can be found in this report.

Document(s)

Death Penalty Debate

By Council of Europe, on 1 January 2009


2009

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

During a televised panel discussion on the death penalty on 9th October, Slovenian law professor Dragan Petrovec said victims should play no role in the sentencing of offenders. ”The victim is never objective,” he said. ”Victims can’t be judges.” The discussion, organised by the Council of Europe to mark the European day against the death penalty, also featured Sweden’s Human Rights Ambassador Jan Axel Nordlander. Council of Europe’s Head of Department Jeroen Schokkenbroek said the organisation was critical of the United States and Japan over their use of the death penalty . He added that ”dialogue was continuing” with both countries towards ending the practice.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty

Document(s)

Wounds That Do Not Bind: Victim-based Perspectives on the Death Penalty

By James R. Acker / David R. Karp / Carolina Academic Press, on 1 January 2006


2006

Book

United States


More details See the document

This book examines how family members and advocates for victims address the impact of capital punishment. The book presents the personal stories of victims’ family members and their interactions with the criminal justice system. It also examines the relevant areas of legal research, including the use of victim impact evidence in capital trials, how capital punishment affects victims’ family members, and what is known about addressing the needs of the survivors after a murder.

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

Document(s)

Death Dissent and Diplomacy: The U.S. Death Penalty as an Obstacle to Foreign relations

By Mark Warren / William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

Widely believed to be the innocent victims of an unfair trial, two foreign nationals facing execution in the United States had captured the attention of theworld. Rallies in their support attracted huge crowds in London and Paris, in Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Bombay and Tokyo. Petitions for mercy flooded the governor’s office, signed by half a million people worldwide. The Italian head of state, former Nobel prize winners, and the Vatican joined in the global appealfor clemency, all to no avail. The world watched as the final days ticked away, transfixed by the last-minute battle to obtain a new trial amid a mounting storm ofdomestic and international protest. Citing procedural default and deference to state law, the appellate courts refused to intervene.

  • 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


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)

The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions

By Helen Prejean / Vintage , on 1 January 2005


2005

Book

United States


More details See the document

She tells the story of two inmates she came to know as a spiritual adviser. Dobie Williams, a poor black man with an IQ of 65 from rural Louisiana, was executed after being represented by incompetent counsel and found guilty by an all-white jury based mostly on conjecture and speculation. Joseph O’Dell was convicted of murder after the court heard from an inmate who later admitted to giving false testimony for his own benefit. O’Dell received neither an evidentiary hearing nor potentially exculpatory DNA testing and was executed, insisting on his innocence the whole while. Besides exploring the shaky cases against them, Prejean describes in vivid detail the thoughts and feelings of Williams and O’Dell as their bids for clemency fail and they are put to death. The second part of the book details “the machinery of death,” the legal process that Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, dismayed at the inequities of the death penalty, cited as his reason for resigning and that current justice Antonin Scalia has boasted of being a part of.

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

Document(s)

Capital Punishment: Strategies for Abolition

By William A. Schabas / Peter Hodgkinson / Cambridge University Press, on 1 January 2004


2004

Book

Georgia


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Murder Victims Families for Human Rights Brochure

By Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020


2020

Working with...

esfrenen
More details See the document

Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights was launched on international human rights day, 2004, by a group of victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty and have extensive speaking and organizing experience in the United States and around the world. Through their statements, testimony, and educational materials, MVFHR members let policymakers and the general public know that it is possible to be both pro-victim and anti-death penalty. The response to one human rights violation should not be another human rights violation. We honor victims by preventing violence, not by perpetuating it.

Document(s)

The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia

By David T. Johnson / Franklin E. Zimring / Oxford University Press, on 1 January 2009


2009

Book

China


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list China

Document(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)

Exoneration and Wrongful Condemnations: Expanding the Zone of Perceived Injustice in Death Penalty Cases

By Craig Haney / Golden Gate University Law Review, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


More details See the document

In this article I argue that despite the very serious nature and surprisingly large number of these kinds of exonerations revelations about factually innocent death-sentenced prisoners represent only the most dramatic, visible tip of a much larger problem that is submerged throughout our nation’s system of death sentencing. That is, many of the very same flaws and factors that have given rise to these highly publicized wrongful convictions also produce a more common kind of miscarriage of justice in capital cases. I refer to death sentences that are meted out to defendants who, although they may be factually guilty of the crimes for which they were placed on trial, are not “death worthy” or “deserving” of the death penalty. This includes the many who, if their cases had been handled properly by competent counsel at the time of trial and adjudicated in a fairer and more just system, would have been sentenced to life instead.

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

Document(s)

Leaflet World Day 2011 on the inhumanity of the death penalty

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2011


2011

Campaigning

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 105 Ko ]

The International Jurisprudence Factsheet is divided in four topics: 1. The Right to Be Free from Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 2. Methods of Executions 3. Death Row Conditions 4. Families of the Persons Sentenced to Death. The relevant international entities have been investigated regarding these topics and their conclusions are presented in this factsheet.

Document(s)

Eyewitness Evidence: A guide for law enforcement

By US Department of Justice, on 1 January 1999


1999

Working with...


More details See the document

This Guide combines research and practical perspectives. The growth of social science research into the eyewitness process coincided with parallel efforts of law enforcement agencies to improve their own procedures. This Guide benefits from the inclusion of the diverse perspectives of TWGEYEE members; the group included not only researchers but also prosecutors, defense lawyers, and working police investigators from departments of all sizes and from all regions. This Guide represents a combination of the best current, workable police practices and psychological research.

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

Document(s)

Sources of Variation in Pro-Death Penalty Attitudes in China: An Exploratory Study of Chinese Students at Home and Abroad

By Lening Zhang / Terance D. Miethe / Hong Lu / Bin Liang / British Journal of Criminology, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

China


More details See the document

This paper examines Chinese students’ attitudes about the death penalty in contemporary China. Drawing upon Western public opinion research on the death penalty, samples of Chinese college students at home and abroad are used to explore the magnitude of their pro-death penalty attitudes and sources of variation in these opinions. Both groups of Chinese students are found to support the death penalty across different measures of this concept. Several individual and contextual factors are correlated with pro-death penalty attitudes, but the belief in the specific deterrent effect of punishments was the only variable that had a significant net effect on these attitudes in our multivariate analysis. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this study for future research on public opinion about crime and punishment in China.

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

Document(s)

Cross-National Variability in Capital Punishment: Exploring the Sociopolitical Sources of Its Differential Legal Status

By Terance D. Miethe / Hong Lu / Gini R. Deibert / International Criminal Justice Review, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article


More details See the document

Guided by existing macrolevel theories on punishment and society, the present study explores the independent and conjunctive effects of measures of sociopolitical conditions on the legal retention of capital punishment in 185 nations in the 21st century. Significant correlations are found between a nation’s retention of legal executions for ordinary crimes and its level of economic development, primary religious orientation, citizens’ voice in governance, political stability, and recent history of extrajudicial executions. Subsequent multivariate analyses through qualitative comparative methods reveal substantial context-specific effects and wide variability in legal retention even within countries with similar sociopolitical structures. These results are then discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for future cross-national research on punishment and society.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Myth #1 – Innocent people are not executed

By Reprieve / Clive Stafford Smith , on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report


More details See the document

MYTH: Only guilty prisoners are sent to their death. FACT: Professionals in the justice system know that innocent people have been executed.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

MVFHR Asia Speech Tour in Korea & Japan

By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights / YouTube, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

Japan

en
More details See the document

MVFHR is an organization formed by a group of victim’s family members. They have traveled across the ocean all the way down to Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to share their stories and views on the death penalty with the local victim’s family members, attorneys, and human rights organizations.

Document(s)

The Use of Peremptory Challenges in Capital Murder Trials: A Legal and Empirical Analysis

By George Woodworth / David C. Baldus / David Zuckerman / University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law / Neil Alan Weiner / Barbara Broffitt, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

One of the largely unique aspects of the American jury system is that it confers upon the parties the unilateral power – in the form of peremptory challenges – to remove prospective jurors for any non-racial or non-gender-based reason. This article presents an overview of the literature on peremptory challenges, and an empirical analysis of their use in Philadelphia capital cases in the 1980s and 1990s.

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

Document(s)

Racial Differences in Death Penalty Support and Opposition: A Preliminary Study of White and Black College Students

By Morris Jenkins / Eric G. Lambert / David N. Baker / Journal of Black Studies, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Dark At the Top of the Stairs: Four Destructive Influences of Capital Punishment on American Criminal Justice

By David T. Johnson / Franklin Zimring / Social Science Research Network , on 1 January 2011


2011

Academic report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list Arbitrariness,

Document(s)

The Innocence Network Exonerations 2011

By The Innocence Network, on 1 January 2011


Working with...


More details See the document

21 people were exonerated by the Innocence Network in 2011. Proving their innocence took years of work by dedicated teams of lawyers and staffers. These 21 represent a small fraction of the thousands of people who are behind bard for crimes they didn’t commit.

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

Document(s)

The Pros and Cons of Life Without Parole

By Bent Grover / Catherine Appleton / British Journal of Criminology, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

The question of how societies should respond to their most serious crimes if not with the death penalty is ‘perhaps the oldest of all the issues raised by the two-century struggle in western civilization to end the death penalty’ ( Bedau, 1990: 481 ). In this article we draw attention to the rapid and extraordinary increase in the use of ‘life imprisonment without parole’ in the United States. We aim to critically assess the main arguments put forward by supporters of whole life imprisonment as a punishment provided by law to replace the death penalty and argue against life-long detention as the ultimate sanction.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Sentencing Alternatives,

Document(s)

The Mandatory Death Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean and the Inter-American Human Rights System: An Evolution in the Development and Implementation of International Human Rights Protections

By Brian D. Tittemore / William and Mary Bill of Rights 13 (2), 445, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article


More details See the document

Among the most significant and compelling aspects of the litigation surrounding the issue of the mandatory death penalty in the Caribbean region has been the interplay between the procedures and jurisprudence of the inter-American human rights system and those of relevant domestic courts. In particular, the supervisory bodies of the inter-American system have relied upon the decisions of appellate courts in certain states employing the death penalty, and have concluded that the practice of mandatory sentencing for the death penalty contravened applicable international human rights norms. Subsequently, appellate courts in the Caribbean region explicitly relied upon the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in interpreting and applying rights that are protected under national constitutions. Moreover, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council found that the protection of due process of law under national constitutions extend to the procedures before the inter-American human rights system,’ with the consequence that states were barred from executing capital defendants while their pending cases were before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and, where available, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Mandatory Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Report by the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak – MISSION TO MONGOLIA

By United Nations / Manfred Nowak, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Mongolia

rufrzh-hantesar
More details See the document

The Special Rapporteur is also deeply concerned about all the circumstances surrounding the death penalty in Mongolia, especially the total secrecy. Despite repeated requests to the highest authorities of the Government, as well as prosecutors and the judiciary, the Special Rapporteur was not provided with any official information. Concern was expressed that not even the families of the condemned persons are notified of the exact date or place of execution and do not receive their mortal remains for burial, which amounts to inhuman treatment of the family, contrary to article 7 of the Covenant. Moreover, prisoners on death row at the Gants Hudag and Zuunmod detention centres are held in complete isolation, handcuffed and shackled, and denied adequate food. These conditions constitute additional punishments which can only be qualified as torture as defined in article 1 of the Convention.

Document(s)

TRANSPARENCY AND THE IMPOSITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Philip Alston

By United Nations / Philip Alston, on 1 January 2006


2006

International law - United Nations

arrufrzh-hantes
More details See the document

The present report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions analyses a critical area of non-compliance with legal safeguards designed to protect the right to life. It builds upon the proposition that “[c]ountries that have maintained the death penalty are not prohibited by international law from making that choice, but they have a clear obligation to disclose the details of their application of the penalty” (E/CN.4/2005/7, para. 59). The report analyses the legal basis of that transparency obligation and examines case studies that illustrate the major problems that exist in this area.

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


More details See the document

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)

Note verbale dated 10 February 2009 from the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Afghanistan, the Bahamas, […] and Zimbabwe addressed to the Secretary-General

By United Nations, on 8 September 2020


2020

United Nations report

Afghanistan

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Botswana

Brunei Darussalam

Central African Republic

Chad

China

Comoros

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Dominica

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Fiji

Gambia

Grenada

Guinea

Guyana

Indonesia

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Iraq

Jamaica

Japan

Jordan

Kuwait

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Libya

Malaysia

Maldives

Mauritania

Mongolia

Moratorium

Myanmar

Niger

Nigeria

Papua New Guinea

Qatar

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

Solomon Islands

Somalia

Sudan

Suriname

Syrian Arab Republic

Thailand

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Uganda

United Arab Emirates

Yemen

Zimbabwe

aresfrruzh-hant
More details See the document

The Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York listed below present their compliments to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and have the honour to refer to resolution 62/149, entitled “Moratorium on the use of the death penalty”, which was adopted by the Third Committee on 15 November 2007, and subsequently by the General Assembly on 18 December 2007 by a recorded vote. The Permanent Missions wish to place on record that they are in persistent objection to any attempt to impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty or its abolition in contravention to existing stipulations under international law, for the following reasons:

Document(s)

Note verbale dated 11 January 2008 from the Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, […] and Zimbabwe addressed to the Secretary-General

By United Nations, on 8 September 2020


United Nations report

Afghanistan

Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Botswana

Brunei Darussalam

Central African Republic

China

Comoros

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Dominica

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Eswatini

Ethiopia

Fiji

Grenada

Guinea

Guyana

Indonesia

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Iraq

Jamaica

Japan

Jordan

Kuwait

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Libya

Malaysia

Maldives

Mauritania

Mongolia

Moratorium

Myanmar

Nigeria

Oman

Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Qatar

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

Solomon Islands

Somalia

Sudan

Suriname

Syrian Arab Republic

Thailand

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Uganda

United Arab Emirates

Yemen

Zimbabwe

aresfrruzh-hant
More details See the document

The Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York listed below present their compliments to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and have the honour to refer to resolution 62/149, entitled “Moratorium on the use of the death penalty”, which was adopted by the Third Committee on 15 November 2007, and subsequently by the General Assembly on 18 December 2007 by a recorded vote. The Permanent Missions wish to place on record that they are in persistent objection to any attempt to impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty or its abolition in contravention to existing stipulations under international law, for the following reasons:

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)

Life, Death and the Crime of Crimes: Supreme Penalties and the ICC Statute

By William A. Schabas / Punishment and Society, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article


More details See the document

The attitude of international law and practice to supreme penalties has evolved enormously over the past half-century. At Nuremberg, in 1946, capital punishment was imposed upon Nazi war criminals. But at the Rome Conference in 1998, when the international community provided for the establishment of the International Criminal Court, not only was capital punishment excluded, the text also limited the scope of life imprisonment. These changes were driven principally by evolving norms of international human rights law. The first changes became apparent in the early work of the International Law Commission on the Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind, during the 1950s. When criminal prosecution returned to the international agenda, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was widespread agreement to exclude capital punishment. But at the Rome Conference, a relatively small and geographically isolated group of States made an aggressive attempt to defend capital punishment. Ultimately unsuccessful, their efforts only drew attention to a growing rejection of both capital punishment and life imprisonment in international and national legal systems

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

The Professional Obligation to Raise Frivolous Issues in Death Penalty Cases

By Monroe H. Freedman / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

The Global Debate on the Death Penalty

By Sandra Babcock / Human Rights Magazine, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

Many human rights organizations and intergovernmental organizations, such as the European Union, see the death penalty as one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time and have taken an active role in persuading countries to halt executions. The debate over capital punishment in the United States—be it in the courts, in state legislatures, or on nationally televised talk shows—is always fraught with emotion. The themes have changed little over the last two or three hundred years. Does it deter crime? If not, is it necessary to satisfy society’s desire for retribution against those who commit unspeakably violent crimes? Is it worth the cost? Are murderers capable of redemption? Should states take the lives of their own citizens? Are current methods of execution humane? Is there too great a risk of executing the innocent?

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

Document(s)

Alternative Sanctions to the Death Penalty Information Pack

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2011


2011

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

PRI information kit on the alternative sanctions to the death penalty: ; a review of current practices; the increasing use of ‘life’ and long-term sentences and their contribution to growing prison numbers; 12 steps toward alternative sanctions to the death penalty that respect international human rights standards and norms.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list Sentencing Alternatives,

Document(s)

The Decline of Juvenile Death Penalty: Scientific Evidence of Evolving Norms

By Valerie West / Jeffrey Fagan / Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

In 2003, the Missouri Supreme Court set aside the death sentence of Christopher Simmons, who was 17 when he was arrested for the murder of Shirley Crook. The Simmons court held that the “evolving standards of decency” embodied in the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments barred execution of persons who committed capital crimes before their 18th birthday. This decision was based in part on the emerging legislative consensus in the states opposing execution of juvenile offenders and the infrequency with which the death penalty is imposed on juvenile offenders. The State sought a writ of certiorari, and the case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. This article presents results of analyses of empirical data on the use of the death penalty for adolescent homicide offenders in state courts in the U.S. since 1990. The data shows that, since 1994, when death sentences for juvenile offenders peaked, juvenile death sentences have declined significantly. In particular, the decline in juvenile death sentences since 1999 is statistically significant after controlling for the murder rate, the juvenile homicide arrest rate, and the rate of adult death sentences. This downward trend in juvenile death sentences signals that there is an evolving standard in state trial courts opposing the imposition of death sentences on minors who commit capital offenses.

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

Document(s)

God and the Executioner: The Influence of Western Religion on the Use of the Death Penalty

By Davison M. Douglas / William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

In this essay, Professor Douglas conducts an historical review of religious attitudes toward capital punishment and the influence of those attitudes on the state’s use of the death penalty. He surveys the Christian Church’s strong support for capital punishment throughout most of its history, along with recent expressions of opposition from many Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish groups. Despite this recent abolitionist sentiment from an array of religious institutions, Professor Douglas notes a divergence of opinion between the “pulpit and the pew” as the laity continues to support the death penalty in large numbers. Professor Douglas accounts for this divergence by noting the declining influence of religious organizations over the social policy choices of their members. He concludes that the fate of the death penalty in America will therefore “most likely be resolved in the realm of the secular rather than the sacred.

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

Document(s)

Crossing the line: Rape-murder and the death penalty

By Phyllis L. Crocker / Ohio Northern Law Review 26(3), 689-723., on 1 January 2000


Article

United States


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

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

Document(s)

A Heavy Thumb on the Scale: The Effect of Victim Iimpact Evidence On Capital Decision Making

By Ray Paternoster / Criminology / Jerome Deise, on 1 January 2011


2011

Article

United States


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

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

Document(s)

The Role of International Law in United States Death Penalty Cases

By Sandra Babcock / Leiden Journal of International Law, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


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The United States has repeatedly failed to notify detained foreign nationals of their rights to consular notification and access under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In capital cases, US non-compliance with this ratified Treaty has led to litigation by foreign governments and individual lawyers in domestic courts and international tribunals. While these efforts have had mixed results in individual cases, litigation by Mexico, Germany and other actors has led to increased compliance with Article 36, and a growing recognition of the significance of US treaty obligations.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Foreign Nationals,

Document(s)

The politics of increasing punitiveness and the rising populism in Japanese criminal justice policy

By Setsuo Miyazawa / Punishment and Society, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

Japan


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

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

Document(s)

Death and Deterrence Redux: Science, Law and Causal Reasoning on Capital Punishment

By Jeffrey Fagan / Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


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A recent cohort of studies report deterrent effects of capital punishment that substantially exceed almost all previous estimates of lives saved by execution. Some of the new studies go further to claim that pardons, commutations, and exonerations cause murders to increase, as does trial delay. This putative life-life tradeoff is the basis for claims by legal academics and advocates of a moral imperative to aggressively prosecute capital crimes, brushing off evidentiary doubts as unreasonable cautions that place potential beneficiaries at risk of severe harm. Challenges to this “new deterrence” literature find that the evidence is too unstable and unreliable to support policy choices on capital punishment. This article identifies numerous technical and conceptual errors in the “new deterrence” studies that further erode their reliability: inappropriate methods of statistical analysis, failures to consider several factors such as drug epidemics that drive murder rates, missing data on key variables in key states, the tyranny of a few outlier states and years, weak to non-existent tests of concurrent effects of incarceration, inadequate instruments to disentangle statistical confounding of murder rates with death sentences and other punishments, failure to consider the general performance of the criminal justice system as a competing deterrent, artifactual results from truncated time frames, and the absence of any direct test of the components of contemporary theoretical constructions of deterrence. Re-analysis of one of the data sets shows that even simple adjustments to the data produce contradictory results, while alternate statistical methods produce contrary estimates. But the central mistake in this enterprise is one of causal reasoning: the attempt to draw causal inferences from a flawed and limited set of observational data, the absence of direct tests of the moving parts of the deterrence story, and the failure to address important competing influences on murder. There is no reliable, scientifically sound evidence that pits execution against a robust set of competing explanations to identify whether it exerts a deterrent effect that is uniquely and sufficiently powerful to overwhelm the recurring epidemic cycles of murder. This and other rebukes remind us to invoke tough, neutral social science standards and commonsense causal reasoning before expanding the use of execution with its attendant risks and costs.

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty Trends in Asia Have Possible Implications for China

By Dui Hua Human Rights Journal , on 1 January 2011


2011

Article


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This article analyses the latest controversy over the use of the death penalty that erupted not in mainland China but across the strait in Taiwan. In January, the defense ministry there was forced to issue a public apology for a wrongful execution in 1997, followed in early March by the execution of five prisoners without notifying their families.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

JURY INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING DEADLOCK IN CAPITAL SENTENCING

By Laurie B. Berberich / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


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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,

Document(s)

Rewriting History: the Use of Feminist Narrative to Deconstruct the Myth of the Capital Defendant

By Francine Banner / New York University (NYU), on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


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

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

Document(s)

When the Wall has Fallen: Decades of Failure in the Supervision of Capital Juries

By Jose Felipe Anderson / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 1 January 2000


Article

United States


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Although there is no constitutional requirement that a jury participate in the death penalty process, most states do provide, through their capital punishment statutes, that a jury will participate in the decision. The preference for jury sentencing in these circumstances reflects a reluctance to leave power over life solely in the hands of one judge. Still, some scholars have long criticized juries for administering punishment.

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

Document(s)

Living with murder, the video documentary: Meet those touched by Detroit homicide

By Suzette Hackney / Kathy Kieliszewski / Romain Blanquart / Detroit Free Press, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


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More than 3,300 people have been murdered in the City of Detroit since 2003. In this Detroit Free Press documentary, meet some of the families who have lost loved ones to homicide, are searching for justice and trying to come to terms with their losses.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list FRONTPAGE

Document(s)

Restraints on Death Penalty in Europe: A Circular Process

By Stefano Manacorda / Journal of International Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article


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That the European area is a zone free of capital punishment is the result of a complex process of restraints that has evolved over the last 50 years. Domestic, regional and universal international law, as well as certain components within each level, have influenced each other to produce a dynamic, circular movement towards abolition. Starting from the internal level, restraints on the death penalty rose up to the regional and universal levels, and then descended back down into domestic law. This process, however, has not produced a completely closed circle, and certain countries in Europe retain legislation permitting recourse to the death penalty for certain crimes, especially war crimes and, according to recent interpretations, criminal offences related to terrorist activity. Extradition or other administrative mechanisms of expulsion also illustrate potential disjunctions in the circle, as they may allow persons to be transferred to retentionist countries. Even though the legislative framework has significantly evolved in the last few years, the dominant role played by political evaluations creates new fissures in the abolitionist circle. Only recently have new abolitionist perspectives emerged from the ‘right of interference’ in foreign death penalty cases, which some countries try to exercise when their own nationals are involved.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Fact Finding Report of LFHRI of the Sentencing of 17 Indians to Death by the Shariat Court of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

By Lawyers for Human Rights International, on 1 January 2010


2010

Legal Representation


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Lawyers For Human Rights International an Organisation of Lawyers having its base in Punjab, India, being part of an International movement against Death Penalty, decided to visit Sharjah jail in UAE to meet the 17 prisoners who have been sentenced to Death for killing a Pakistani youth. Two member team comprising of Navkiran Singh a Human Rights Lawyer & Activist from Panjab, practicing in the High Court at Chandigarh and who is the General Secretary of LFHRI along with another Lawyer Gagan Aggarwal, visited Dubai and Sharjah on 13th and 14th of April 2010 and met the Lawyers who have been hired to defend these 17 Indians by the Indian Consulate of UAE and also visited Sharjah jail and met all the prisoners. This report presents their findings.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,