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Document(s)

Death Penalty in Belarus: Murder on (Un)lawful Grounds

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Viasna Human Rights Center, on 1 January 2016


2016

NGO report

ru
More details See the document

In June 2016, FIDH and its member organisation in Belarus, the Human Rights Center ″Viasna″(HRC ″Viasna″), conducted an international fact-finding mission on the issue of the death penaltyin Belarus. The use of the death penalty (execution by shooting) in Belarus is provided for by Art. 24 of theConstitution of the Republic of Belarus as an exceptional measure of punishment for the mostserious crimes.Apart from the very fact of taking a person’s life, which is not only cruel, but also ineffective infighting and preventing crime, the use of the death penalty in Belarus is accompanied by many grosshuman rights violations.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Uzbekistan: Torture and Secrecy

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Christine Martineau / Caroline Giraud / Richard Wild, on 1 January 2005


2005

NGO report

rufr
More details See the document

On August 1, 2005, President Karimov announced, through a presidential decree, that the abolition of the death penalty was planned for January 1, 2008. The report concludes that the Uzbek authorities are responsible of serious and systematic human rights violations in the framework of the administration of criminal justice. The rights of those arrested are systematically violated. They often lack any access to a lawyer during their pre-trial detention, their families are not informed and torture is used in order to extort confessions, which often serve as a basis for their condemnation.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Taiwan: Towards Abolition?

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Sharon Hom / Penelope Martin / Siobhan Ni Chulachain, on 1 January 2006


2006

NGO report


More details See the document

This report highlights serious concerns regarding the conditions of detention of prisoners in Taiwan. Although there has been some improvement in conditions in recent years, FIDH and TAEDP report severe problems of overcrowding and inadequate medical treatment for prisoners, requiring urgent attention. In addition, the mission found that the use of shackles, in violation of international standards, is widespread. Prisoners, in particular those on death row, regularly have their legs chained together for 24 hours per day, in violation of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Despite recent reforms to the criminal justice system, FIDH and TAEDP found that serious failings continue to lead to miscarriages of justice. The report highlights persistent problems including discrimination, limited access to legal representation, piecemeal and only partially implemented reforms and unsatisfactory appeals procedures. FIDH and TAEDP found that training and supervision for actors within the system, including police, is grossly inadequate, leading to failures in the collection and preservation of evidence, whilst prosecutors and judges are inclined to “rubber stamp” police findings.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Row Conditions, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition

By David Garland / Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

This book offers a fresh perspective on why the death penalty endures in the United States when so many other countries in the Western world have already abolished it. The book seeks to understand the persistence of the death penalty in the U.S. as a social fact, using sociological, historical and legal analyses to explain the unique and peculiar manner in which the death penalty is applied. Garland concludes that the death penalty has survived in the United States because it is deeply connected to the fundamentally American institutions of local autonomy and popular democracy.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty In 2018: Year End Report

By Death Penalty Information Center / Death Penalty Information Centre, on 1 January 2018


2018

NGO report


More details See the document

New death sentences and executions remained near historic lows in 2018 and a twentieth state abolished capital punishment, as public opinion polls, election results, legislative actions, and court decisions all reflected the continuing erosion of the death penalty across the country.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Religion and the Death Penalty

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 8 September 2020


2020

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

In recent years, a growing number of religious organizations have participated in the nation’s death penalty debate. The purpose of this Web page is to provide access to information regarding the efforts of these faith groups and to highlight recent developments related to religion and the death penalty.

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

Member(s)

Cornell Center on Death Penalty Worldwide

on 30 April 2020

A research, training, and advocacy center focused on promoting international human rights law in the application of the death penalty.

2020

United States

Document(s)

Mass Injustice: Statistical Findings on the Death Penalty in Egypt

By Reprieve, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Trial and Errors : The Texas Death Penalty

By Lisa Maxwell / AMITI, on 1 January 2013


2013

Book

United States


More details See the document

TRIAL & ERROR takes a thorough look at the most controversial issues of the Texas Death Penalty that have raised questions of fairness and equality. Read words of inmates on death row in interviews conducted by the Amiti Organization, then judge for yourself whether the Death Penalty is administering justice or injustice.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty: An American History

By Stuart Banner / Harvard University Press, on 1 January 2003


2003

Book

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Member(s)

Japan Innocence and Death Penalty Research Center

on 30 April 2020

The JIADEP mission is to assist those who have been wrongfully incarcerated and sentenced to death, and to educate the public on the tragedies of criminal justice in Japan by lecturing, writing, and demonstrating.

2020

Japan

Document(s)

Q&A: The Death Penalty and Drug Offenses

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


2020

Academic report

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 143 Ko ]

This Q&A was prepared by Harm Reduction International (www.ihra.net), the International Drug PolicyConsortium (www.idpc.net) and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (www.worldcoalition.org) aheadof World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October 2015.

Document(s)

A Thousand People Face the Death Penalty in Iraq

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report

arfres
More details See the document

Iraq now has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. At least 1,000 people are believed to be under sentence of death, 150 of whom have exhausted all legal remedies available to them and are therefore at serious risk of being hanged. This document describes the use of the death penalty in Iraq, including issues of transperancy, crimes punishable by death, unfair trials, the death penalty as used in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and some individual cases are discussed.

Document(s)

Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases

By American Bar Association, on 1 January 2003


2003

Working with...


More details See the document

The objective of these Guidelines is to set forth a national standard of practice for the defense of capital cases in order to ensure high quality legal representation for all persons facing the possible imposition or execution of a death sentence by any jurisdiction. These Guidelines apply from the moment the client is taken into custody and extend to all stages of every case in which the jurisdiction may be entitled to seek the death penalty, including initial and ongoing investigation, pretrial proceedings, trial, post-conviction review, clemency proceedings and any connected litigation.

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

Document(s)

Ending Executions in Europe – Towards Abolition of the Death Penalty in Belarus

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Belarus


More details See the document

Belarus is the last country in Europe and in the former Soviet Union that is still carrying out executions. Since gaining its independence from the USSR in 1991 Belarus has taken some significant steps towards ending the use of the death penalty. The information in this report has been gathered over more than two decades of work monitoring the practice of the death penalty in Belarus.

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

Document(s)

USA: More about politics than child protection: The death penalty for sex crimes against children

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2006


2006

NGO report

es
More details See the document

On 8 June, the Governor of South Carolina signed a bill allowing the death penalty for a person convicted for a second time of sex crimes against children under the age of 11 and a day later, the Governor of Oklahoma signed a similar bill. Amnesty International urges all legislative, executive and judicial authorities in the United States to meet their human rights obligations by not permitting any expansion of the death penalty to non-lethal crimes such as sexual assault. The organization renews its call for a total moratorium on executions in the United States.

Document(s)

The death penalty worldwide: 2012 report

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 1 January 2012


2012

NGO report


More details See the document

Hands Off Cain’s 2012 Report, edited by Reality Book, presents the most important facts regarding the practice of the death penalty in 2011 and in the first six months of 2012. Data shows that China, Iran and Saudi Arabia were the top three “Executioner-Countries” in the world in 2011, while also demonstrating a positive evolution towards the abolition of the death penalty which has been developing worldwide during recent years.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Training Resource: Protecting the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty and Life and Long-Term Imprisonment

on 1 January 2011


2011

Working with...


More details See the document

PRI training resource (1/3): Aimed mainly to mid-level prison officers, this resource’s trains these stakeholders on: due process and fair trial standards, international standards on the treatment of prisoners, vulnerable prisoners, building a rehabilitation-oriented penal culture.

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

Document(s)

Writing Wrongs: How to Shift Public Opinion on the Death Penalty with Letters to the Editor

By Nancy Oliviera, on 1 January 2009


2009

Working with...


More details See the document

This booklet explains why it is important to write letters to the editor as a platform for distributing information to the public. It provides a guide to good letter writing.

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

Document(s)

Annual Report On The Death Penalty In Iran 2017

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) / Iran Human Rights (IHR), on 1 January 2018


2018

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

The 10th annual report on the death penalty by Iran Human Rights (IHR) provides an assessment and analysis of the death penalty trends in 2017 in the Islamic Republic of Iran.The report sets out the number of executions in 2017, the trend compared to previous years, charges, geographic distribution and a monthly breakdown of executions.

Document(s)

Final Declaration 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2016


2016

Multimedia content

fr
More details See the document

The participants to the 6th World Congress against the death penalty have handed over their final declaration, calling again for the universal abolition of the death penalty.

Document(s)

Public Opinion on the Death Penalty

By Cornell Law School, on 1 January 2018


2018

Article


More details See the document

Public officials in retentionist or de facto abolitionist countries often invoke public support for the death penalty as one of the reasons why they do not promote abolition. A closer look at this justification, however, reveals some common flaws. This note offers a critical assessment of public opinion polls on the death penalty and suggests tools to properly gauge the level of public support for the death penalty.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Public opinion, Public debate, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Singapore: Cooperate or die: Singapore’s flawed reforms to the mandatory death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Singapore


More details See the document

Singapore has recorded a significant reduction in its use of the death penalty in recent years, with executions dropping from more than 70 per year in the mid-1990s to single figures in the subsequent decade. Despite this progress, the death penalty in the country continues to be used in violation of international law and standards, particularly with respect to its mandatory application and use for drug-related offences.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Singapore
  • Themes list Mandatory Death Penalty, Member organizations, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty Failed Experiment: From Gary Graham to Troy Davis in Context

By Diann Rust-Tierney / McKinney & Associates, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

A new book published in electronic format, The Death Penalty Failed Experiment: From Gary Graham to Troy Davis in Context by Diann Rust-Tierney, examines the problem of arbitrariness in the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1976. Through an analysis of the cases of Gary Graham and Troy Davis, the author argues that race, wealth and geography play a more significant role in determining who faces capital punishment than the facts of the crime itself.

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

Document(s)

Alternatives to the Death Penalty

By Death Penalty Focus / Alternatives to the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2008


2008

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

In every state that retains the death penalty, jurors have the option of sentencing convicted capital murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The sentence is cheaper to tax-payers and keeps violent offenders off the streets for good. The information is California specific.

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

Document(s)

Report : Third World Congress Against the Death Penalty

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2008


NGO report

fr
More details See the document

Participants in the Third World Congress Against the Death Penaltyin Paris have repeated again and again that the universal abo-lition of the death penalty is underway. The work carried outin Paris 2007 has clearly shown it: an irreversible downwardtrend in the number of death sentences and executions is vis-ible worldwide. Above all an increasing number of nations haveabandoned this useless and cruel practice.

Document(s)

PROTOCOL TO THE AMERICAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

By Organization of American States, on 1 January 1990


1990

Regional body report

es
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

‘A “Most Serious Crime”? – The Death Penalty for Drug Offences and International Human Rights Law’

By Rick Lines / Amicus Journal, on 1 January 2010


2010

Article


More details See the document

An in-depth analysis of the international law ramifications of applying the death penalty for drug offences. It reviews the the ‘most serious crimes’ threshold for the lawful application of capital punishment as established in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It then explores the question of whether drug offences meet this threshold by examining the issue through the lenses of international human rights law, the domestic legislation in retentionist states, international narcotics control law, international refugee law and international criminal law. The article concludes that drug offences do not constitute ‘most serious crimes’, and that executions of people for drug offences violates international human rights law.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Drug Offences, Most Serious Crimes,

Document(s)

The Contemporary American Struggle with Death Penalty Law: Selected Topics and Cases

By Jerome A. Cohen / New York University (NYU), on 1 January 2013


2013

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

The U.S.-China Death Penalty Reform Project of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute (USALI) at New York University School of Law is a product of cooperation between USALI and Chinese experts during the recent period of death penalty law reform in China and the U.S. It includes the full text of USALI’s U.S. death penalty law casebook, The Contemporary American Struggle with Death Penalty Law: Selected Topics and Cases, in English and Chinese, and an online forum for discussion and questions.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list International law,

Document(s)

Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2016: The Year in Review

By Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2016


2016

NGO report


More details See the document

TCADP reviews the death penalty situation in Texas in 2016: The State of Texas executed seven people in 2016, the lowest number of executions in two decades. Seven other individuals with execution dates received reprieves from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. It was only the second time since the resumption of executions in 1982 that no African-Americans were put to death in Texas.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Discrimination, Intellectual Disability, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

RESOLUTION 1097 (1996) on the abolition of the death penalty in Europe

By Council of Europe / Parlamentary Assembly, on 1 January 1996


1996

Regional body report


More details See the document

The Parliamentary Assembly recalls its Resolution 1044 (1994) on the abolition of capital punishment. It welcomes the complete abolition of capital punishment in Italy, Spain, Moldova and Belgium during the last two years, which provide an excellent example for other countries to follow.

  • Document type Regional body report
  • Themes list International law,

Document(s)

The Problem of False Confessions in the Post – DNA World

By Steven A. Drizen / Richard A. Leo / North Carolina Law Review 82(3), 894-1009, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

In recent years, numerous individuals who confessed to and were convicted of serious felony crimes have been released from prison— some after many years of incarceration—and declared factually innocent, often as a result of DNA tests that were not possible at the time of arrest, prosecution, and conviction. DNA testing has also exonerated numerous individuals who confessed to serious crimes before their cases went to trial. Numerous others have been released from prison and declared factually innocent in cases that did not involve DNA tests, but instead may have occurred because authorities discovered that the crime never occurred or that it was physically impossible for the (wrongly) convicted defendant to have committed the crime, or because the true perpetrator of the crime was identified, apprehended, and convicted. In this Article, we analyze 125 recent cases of proven interrogation-induced false confessions (i.e., cases in which indisputably innocent individuals confessed to crimes they did not commit) and how these cases were treated by officials in the criminal justice system.This Article has three goals. First, we provide and analyze basic demographic, legal, and case-specific descriptive data from these 125 cases. This is significant because this is the largest cohort of interrogation-induced false confession cases ever identified and studied in the research literature. Second, we analyze the role that (false) confession evidence played in these cases and how the defendants in these cases were treated by the criminal justice system. In particular, this Article focuses on how criminal justice officials and triers-of-fact respond to confession evidence, whether it biases their evaluations and overwhelms other evidence (particularly evidence of innocence), and how likely false confessions are to lead to the wrongful arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration of the innocent. Analysis of the aforementioned questions leads to the conclusion that the problem of interrogationinduced false confession in the American criminal justice system is far more significant than previously supposed. Furthermore, the problem of interrogation-induced false confessions has profound implications for the study of miscarriages of justice as well as the proper administration of justice. Third, and finally, this Article suggests that several promising policy reforms, particularly mandatory electronic recording of police interrogations, will minimize the number of false confessions and thereby inject a much needed dose of justice into the American criminal justice system.

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

Document(s)

ARBITRARINESS: Getting a Death Sentence May Depend on the Budget of the County

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2014


2014

NGO report


More details See the document

Whether the death penalty will be sought in a murder may depend more on the budget of the county in which it is committed than on the severity of the crime, according to several prosecutors. A report by the Marshall Project found that the high costs of capital cases prevent some district attorneys from seeking the death penalty.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

West Africa: Time to abolish the death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2003


2003

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

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

Member(s)

Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)

on 30 April 2020

The OMCT is an independent, non-partisan, non-sectarian, Swiss international non-governmental organisation, founded in Geneva in 1985. It is today the leading global civil society network against torture including more than 200 local member organisations operating in over 90 countries around the world. Driven by the needs of its SOS-Torture Network members, the OMCT engages in […]

2020

Switzerland

Document(s)

The Harrowing Testimonies of Death Penalty Executioners

By Lucy Tiven / attn, on 1 January 2016


2016

Working with...


More details See the document

The accounts of the “anonymous execution teams” who implement the death penalty are chilling, and rarely reach the public sphere, because their identities are protected by stringent state laws. Rare interviews from retired corrections officers, wardens, and prison chaplains, as well as those included in the 2000 Peabody Award winning radio documentary “Witness to an Execution” give us glimpses of executioners and their experiences.

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Methods of Execution, Lethal Injection, Electrocution, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in China

By Sky News / YouTube, on 1 January 2015


2015

Arguments against the death penalty

fr
More details See the document

This Sky News Report discusses the administration of the death penalty in China; Innocent people who have been put to death, stealing the organs of the executed and the nature of the death penalty in China.

Document(s)

Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty

By Scott Turow / Picador, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

Turow bases his opinions on his experiences as a prosecutor and, in his post-prosecutorial years, working on behalf of death-row inmates, as well as his two years on Illinois’s Commission on Capital Punishment, charged by the former Gov. George Ryan.Turow presents both sides of the death penalty debate and seems himself to flip sides depending on the argument.Turow’s reflections include: * Thoughts on victims’ rights vs. community rights * Whether execution is a deterrent * The possible execution of an innocent person * If not the death penalty, what to do with the worst offenders

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

Document(s)

Beyond the Death Penalty: Reflections on Punishment (Maastricht Series in Human Rights)

By Jacques Claessen / Hans Nelen / Intersentia , on 1 January 2012


2012

Book


More details See the document

This book contains a selection of papers that were presented during the multidisciplinary conference “Beyond the Death Penalty: Reflections on Punishment,” organized by the Maastricht Center for Human Rights. The aim of the conference was to reflect on punishment from a variety of angles and to give some food for thought to the contemporary debate on crime and punishment. After a first cluster of chapters with a strong focus on capital punishment, an intriguing mixture of topics in relation to punishment is presented, including chapters on the populist context of contemporary crime control, reconciliation and rehabilitation, prison life, and efficiency and effectiveness.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in 2010: Year End Reports

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


More details See the document

The death penalty continued to be mired in conflict in 2010, as states grappled with an ongoing controversy over lethal injections, the high cost of capital punishment, and increasing public sentiment in favor of alternative sentences. Executions dropped by 12% compared with 2009, and by more than 50% since 1999. The number of new death sentences was about the same as in 2009, the lowest number in 34 years. —– For other DPIC year end reports (from 1995 – 2009) please visit: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/reports

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2017

By Harm Reduction International / Gen Sander, on 1 January 2018


2018

NGO report


More details See the document

The year 2017 marks 10 years since Harm Reduction International launched its Death Penalty for Drugs project. This report looks at the death penalty for drugs in law and practice and considers critical developments on the issue.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offences, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Missouri’s Death Penalty in 2016: The Year in Review

By Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2016


2016

NGO report


More details See the document

MADP’s 2016 report has compiled the death penalty data for the State of Missouri in 2016 and notices a significant decline of executions (6 in 2015, 1 in 2016). Moreover, no new death sentences were handed down in Missouri in 2016

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions, Discrimination, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Proceedings 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2017


2017

Academic report

fr
More details See the document

This publication brings together the contributions of experts and discussions among participants at the 6th World Congress against the Death Penalty held in Oslo, Norway, in June 2016.

Document(s)

The death penalty worldwide: Developments in 2000

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report

arfres
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty Lessons from Asia

By David T. Johnson / Franklin E. Zimring / Asia-Pacific Journal, on 1 January 2009


2009

Article

China


More details See the document

Part one of this article summarizes death penalty policy and practice in the region that accounts for 60 percent of the world’s population and more than 90 percent of the world’s executions. The lessons from Asia are then organized into three parts. Part two describes features of death penalty policy in Asia that are consistent with the experiences recorded in Europe and with the theories developed to explain Western changes. Part three identifies some of the most significant diversities within the Asian region – in rates of execution, trends over time, and patterns of change – that contrast with the recent history of capital punishment in non-Asian locations and therefore challenge conventional interpretations of death penalty policy and change. Part four discusses three ways that the politics of capital punishment in Asia are distinctive: the limited role of international standards and transnational influences in most Asian jurisdictions; the presence of single-party domination in several Asian political systems; and the persistence of communist versions of capital punishment in the Asia region.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list China
  • Themes list Death Penalty,

Document(s)

WHEN THE FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY IS “CRUEL AND UNUSUAL”

By Michael J. Zydney Mannheimer / The University of Cincinnati Law Review, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


More details See the document

Recent changes to the way the U.S. Department of Justice decides whether to pursue capital charges have made it more likely that the federal death penalty will be sought in cases in which the criminal conduct occurred within States that do not authorize capital punishment for any crime. As a result, since 2002, five people have been sentenced to death in federal court for conduct that occurred in States that do not authorize the death penalty. This state of affairs is in serious tension with the Eighth Amendment’s proscription against “cruel and unusual punishments.”

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

Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)

on 29 November 2023

The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) is a non-profit organisation focusing on advocacy, education and awareness for the calls of democracy and human rights in Bahrain. BIRD was established in 2013 after co-founder and current Director of Advocacy, Sayed Alwadaei, fled Bahrain after being imprisoned and tortured following participation in the 2011 democratic […]

2023

Bahrain

Document(s)

Iraq: The Death Penalty, Executions, and “Prison Cleansing”

By Human Rights Watch, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Iraq


More details See the document

This briefing paper examines Iraq’s arbitrary and widespread use of the death penalty and extrajudicial executions. For more than three decades, the government of President Saddam Hussein has sanctioned the use of the death penalty and extrajudicial executions as a tool of political repression, both in order to eliminate real or suspected political opponents and to maintain a reign of terror over the population at large. The executions that have taken place over this period constitute an integral part of more systematic repression – characterized by widespread arbitrary arrests, indefinite detention without trial, death in custody under torture, and large-scale “disappearances” – through which the government has sustained its rule.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Iraq
  • Themes list Due Process ,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in the U.S. in 2015: infographic

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2015


2015

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document
  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador Bianca Jagger on the campaign against the Death Penalty

By Council of Europe, on 1 January 2011


2011

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This podcast is interview with the Goodwill Ambassador Bianca Jagger. She talksabout murder victims’ families, deterrence, a moratorium on executions and the trend towards abolition.

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

Document(s)

Poster – 13th Wold Day against the death penalty

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


2020

Multimedia content

enenfaruzh-hantesfr
More details Download [ jpeg - 57 Ko ]

Poster of the 13th Wold Day against the death penalty dedicated to drug crimes: the death penalty doesn’t stop drug crimes

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)

The Death Penalty and Intellectual Disability: A Guide

By Edward Polloway / AAIDD- American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

In the 2002 landmark decision Atkins v. Virginia 536 U.S. 304, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that executing a person with intellectual disability is a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” but left states to determine their own criteria for intellectual disability. AAIDD has always advocated against the death penalty for people with intellectual disability and has long provided amicus curiae briefs in Supreme Court cases. Thus, in this comprehensive new book published by AAIDD, notable authors in the field of intellectual disability discuss all aspects of the issues, with a particular focus on foundational considerations, assessment factors and issues, and professional concerns in Atkins assessments.

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

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)

Bylaws of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 10 November 2020


2020

World Coalition

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 129 Ko ]

Document(s)

Is the Death Penalty an Asian Value?

By Sangmin Bae / Asian Affairs, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article


More details See the document

Since World War, a growing number of countries around the world have joinedthe movement to abolish capital punishment. Asia remains the exception and ithas been argued by some Asian leaders that the abolition of capital punishmentis in conflict with “Asian values” and that the abolitionist argument constitutesan illegitimate interference in what is essentially a domestic concern. Thisarticle reviews the death penalty in the context of international human rightsand examines the Asian values argument. Reviewing the teachings of Confuciusand other Asian philosophers, it suggests that the ongoing use of the deathpenalty in Asia is not rooted in intrinsic cultural traditions, but in fact is tiedto internal political decisions. The Asian values argument has been largelyused as a means to maintain political legitimacy, and not anything inherent tocultural factors.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Litigating in the Shadow of Death

By Lawrence C. Marshall / University of Pittsburgh Law Review, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


More details See the document

One gets the strong sense that Professor White believed that the key to changing or abolishing the death penalty in the United States was to educate policymakers and the public about its practical operation. This, of course, was Justice Thurgood Marshall’s hypothesis in Furman v. Georgia: that the widespread support that the death penalty enjoys in the country is a product of mass ignorance about how it is applied. Professor White did not simply posit the theory, he dedicated much of his life to the mission of educating the public about the inequities of the American death penalty. This final book does that in an extraordinarily effective way by combing together studies of illustrative cases, analysis of the lawyers’ roles and dilemmas, and cogent explanations of the state of the law.

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

Document(s)

Add Resources and Apply Them Systemically: Governments’ Responsibilities Under the Revised ABA Capital Defense Representation Guidelines

By Eric M. Freedman / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article

United States


More details See the document

The mainstream legal community, including the ABA, has long understood the importance of system-building, but the revised Guidelines state the point especially forcefully. In articulating “the current consensus about what is required to provide effective defense representation in capital cases,” they set high performance standards not just for lawyers, but for death penalty jurisdictions. As the problems are systemic, it is “imperative” that the solutions be.The Guidelines accordingly not only call on governments to deliver capital defense resources that are sufficient in amount, but also furnish the states with a user-friendly blueprint for using those resources wisely to create structures that will function well in the present and evolve effectively over time. This mandate for institution-building is welcome, and the states should lead it. Indeed, they must do so if the Guidelines are to achieve their ameliorative purposes and avoid becoming just a collection of lofty aspirations “‘that palter with us in a double sense, that keep the word of promise to our ear, and break it to our hope”.

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

Document(s)

Deterrence and the Death Penalty

By John V. Pepper / Daniel S. Nagin / Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty / Committee on Law and Justice / Division on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education / National Research Council , on 1 January 2012


2012

Book


More details See the document

Many studies during the past few decades have sought to determine whether the death penalty has any deterrent effect on homicide rates. Researchers have reached widely varying, even contradictory, conclusions. Some studies have concluded that the threat of capital punishment deters murders, saving large numbers of lives; other studies have concluded that executions actually increase homicides; still others, that executions have no effect on murder rates. Commentary among researchers, advocates, and policymakers on the scientific validity of the findings has sometimes been acrimonious.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Deterrence ,

Document(s)

Averting Mistaken Executions by Adopting the Model Penal Code’s Exclusion of Death in the Presence of Lingering Doubts

By Margery Malkin Koosed / Northern Illinois Law Review, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

This article considers community views on the risk of mistaken executions and how sentencing juries respond to such risks. It explores the present state of the law surrounding risk-taking regarding lingering or residual doubt, and finds the law in a state of denial. Though the risk may be there, and jurors may see it, this is not something they are directed, or even invited, to consider. Some jurors may deny effect to the risk they see, believing it is not a proper subject of their attention. Others will consider it, yet wonder whether they should. This inconsistent treatment, and dissonance from what the public wants and justifiably expects from its legal system, is largely a product of the United States Supreme Court’s 1988 decision in Franklin v. Lynaugh. Arguably misread, and at least misguided, the Court’s decision on considering lingering or residual doubts about guilt as a mitigating factor at the penalty phase has retarded development of meaningful ways to avert mistaken executions.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Networks,
Kurdistan without Genocide logo

Member(s)

Kurdistan without Genocide

on 8 September 2023

Kurdistan without Genocide-KWG is non-govermental and non profite orgnisation working for human wright and against the genocide that was established in kurdistan regoing of Iraq in 2013. KWG is working to achive below goals: 1.Getting international recognition for the crimes perpetrated against the Kurdish people. 2.Nationalization of genocide events in Kurdistan to create a human […]

2023

Iraq

Document(s)

A year-end compilation of death penalty data for the state of Missouri : Annual Report 2015

By Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

MADP released its annual report which highlights some of the major problems with Missouri’s broken death penalty system. Here is a snapshot of the death penalty in Missouri in 2015: 6 executions in 2015 but no new death sentences in Missouri in 2015.

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

Document(s)

Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning

By John D. Carlson / Erik C. Owens / Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company / Eric P. Elshtain / J. Budziszewski / E. J. Dionne / Avery Cardinal Dulles / Stanley Hauerwas / Frank Keating / Gilbert Meilaender / David Novak, on 1 January 2004


2004

Book


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Religion ,

Document(s)

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND ELITE POLITICS: DISSENSUS AND THE DEATH PENALTY IN AMERICA

By Judith Randle / Studies in Law, Politics and Society, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe Mental Illness

By Susannah Sheffer / National Alliance on Mental Illness / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report


More details See the document

This report asserts that the death penalty is not only inappropriate and unwarranted for persons with severe mental illness but that it also serves as a distraction from problems within the mental health system that contributed or even led directly to tragic violence. Families of murder victims and families of people with mental illness who have committed murder have a cascade of questions and needs. It is to these questions, rather than to the death penalty, that as a society we must turn our attention and our collective energies if we are truly to address the problem of untreated mental illness and the lethal violence that can result.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty Project: 2018 Report

By The Death Penalty Project, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

The Death Penalty Project publishes its 2018 annual report. It provides testimonies, figures and a look on the actions accomplished in favour of the human rights worlwide.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Right to life, Legal Representation, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Moving Away from the Death Penalty: Arguments, Trends, and Perspectives

By United Nations / Ivan Šimonovic, on 1 January 2014


2014

International law - United Nations


More details See the document

Why yet another book on the death penalty? The answer is simple: Aslong as the death penalty exists, there is a need for advocacy against it.This book provides arguments and analysis, reviews trends and sharesperspectives on moving away from the death penalty.

  • Document type International law - United Nations
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2018

By Harm Reduction International / Giada Girelli, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

Harm Reduction International has monitored use of the death penalty for drug offences worldwide since its first ground-breaking publication on this issue in 2007. This eighth report on the subject, continues its work of providing regular updates on legislative and practical developments related to the use of capital punishment for drug offences, a practice which is a clear violation of international human rights law.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offences, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Investigating Attitudes to the Death Penalty in Indonesia in bahasa Indonesia

By Universitas Indonesia LBH Masyarakat Universitas Oxford The Death Penalty Project, on 10 August 2021


2021

NGO report

Drug Offenses

Indonesia

Public Opinion 


More details See the document

Pandangan Para Pembentuk Opini tentang Hukuman Mati di Indonesia

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list Indonesia
  • Themes list Drug Offenses / Public Opinion 

Document(s)

TAJIKISTAN: DEADLY SECRETS – The death penalty in law and practice

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Tajikistan

ru
More details See the document

Official secrecy surrounds the death penalty in Tajikistan. The picture that Amnesty International has been able to build is incomplete, yet alarming. With random and relentless cruelty, prisoners are executed in secret after unfair trials, with no warning to their families. According to the evidence gathered by Amnesty International, none of the prisoners sentenced to death in Tajikistan received a fair trial. Most, if not all, were tortured. Several different prisoners have given detailed accounts naming the same investigator, but no action has apparently been taken to investigate the truth of these allegations. Testimony extracted under torture has been admitted as evidence and used to condemn prisoners to death.

Document(s)

The Death penalty for Drug Offences: A Violation of International Human Rights Law

By Rick Lines / Harm Reduction International, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report


More details See the document

The report calls for an end to the use of the death penalty for drug offences around the world, and concludes that the on-going execution of drug offenders is a violation of international human rights law. The report emphasises how the harms faced by people who use drugs do not only include health harms such as HIV and hepatitis C infections, but also the effects of repressive law enforcement activities.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offences,

Document(s)

The State of Texas vs. Melissa

By Sabrina Van Tassel, on 25 March 2020


2020

Multimedia content

Fair Trial

United States


More details See the document

Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in Texas. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and she now faces her last appeal.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial

Document(s)

Voting record – Draft resolution A/C.3/75/L.41 as amended, Moratorium on the use of the death penalty

By United Nations General Assembly, on 18 November 2020


2020

International law - United Nations

zh-hant
More details See the document
  • Document type International law - United Nations
  • Available languages

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)

Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2018

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) / Iran Human Rights (IHR), on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

This report provides an assessment and analysis of death penalty trends in 2018 in the Is-lamic Republic of Iran. It sets out the number of executions in 2018, the trend compared to previous years, the legislative framework and procedures, charges, geographic distribution and a monthly breakdown of executions.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2010: The Year in Review

By Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


More details See the document

Death sentences in Texas have dropped more than 70% since 2003, reaching a historic low in 2010. According to data compiled from news sources and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, juries condemned eight new individuals to death in Texas in 2010. This is the lowest number of new death sentences since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas’ revised death penalty statute in 1976. For preious annual reports on Texas please visit: http://tcadp.org/get-informed/reports/

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Statistics,

Document(s)

No to the Death Penalty

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2008


2008

Multimedia content

Kazakhstan


More details See the document

This film is based on the death penalty in Kazakhstan. The death penalty was formerly a common charge for the most obscene crimes, and was at its greatest prominence in 1995, when 101 males on charges of death sentences were executed by the firing squad.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list Kazakhstan
  • Themes list Most Serious Crimes, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Fatally flawed: Why Malaysia must abolish the death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report

enzh-hantesfr
More details See the document

Malaysia retains the death penalty for 33 offences and held 1,293 people on death row as of September 2019. This report highlights how the burden of the death penalty has largely fallen on those convicted of drug trafficking, who disproportionately include women and foreign nationals. These findings gain an even greater significance in the context of laws and policies that are in contravention of international human rights law and standards and which have added multiple layers of arbitrariness into the use of this punishment.

Document(s)

Prison guards and the death penalty

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

How are prison guards affected by overseeing prisoners on death row or even participating in executions? What effects does it have in the short and the longer term?This short paper draws on research and interviews with prison guards to outline the psychological impact that guards who have worked with prisoners for many years on death row can experience when a prisoner is put to death.

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

Document(s)

Religious Conservatives and the Death Penalty

By Thomas C. Berg / William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 9(1), 31-60, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

In this Essay, Professor Thomas C. Berg examines how religious conservatives, especially Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants, have dealt with the recent concerns over the death penalty. Part I of the Essay documents how Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants traditionally approach the death penalty.Part II analyzes the particular theological arguments and practical concerns that will be most effective in persuading religious conservatives to oppose the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

Victim Gender and the Death Penalty

By John H. Blume / Theodore Eisenberg / Sheri Lynn Johnson / Cornell Law Review / Martin T. Wells / Valerie P. Hans / Amelia Courtney Hritz / Caisa E. Royer, on 1 January 2014


2014

Article


More details See the document

Do the characteristics of the victim determine a murderer’s punishment?Theory and research both suggest that they do. This Article focuses on thegender of the murder victim, in particular, how victim gender influences deathseeking and death penalty sentencing decisions. First, the Article reviews theexisting evidence supporting a “female victim effect” which theorizes that crimesinvolving female victims are punished more harshly than crimes with malevictims. It also presents and assesses various theoretical explanations for thefemale victim effect. Second, the Article analyzes cases from a comprehensivedataset of Delaware capital trials, exploring how cases with male and femalevictims differ. It then considers which of the theoretical explanations for afemale victim effect best explain death penalty decisions in this sample of cases.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Women, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Discrimination, Death Penalty,

Article(s)

Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago: abolish the mandatory death penalty for all crimes

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 18 September 2013

Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are the only two countries that continue to hand down the mandatory death penalty for murder in the Caribbean. Sign the petition here.

2013

Barbados

Trinidad and Tobago

Document(s)

Capital Punishment, the Moratorium Movement, and Empirical Questions: Looking Beyond Innocence Race and Bad Lawyering in Death Penalty Cases

By James R. Acker / Charles A. Lanier / Psychology, Public Policy and Law, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

This article briefly explores the underpinnings of the contemporary capital punishment moratorium movement and examines executive and legislative responses to calls for a halt to executions, including suggestions for studying the death penalty process. Although most investigations focus on select issues like innocence, ineffective counsel, and race bias, this article suggests that a wide-ranging constellation of issues should be investigated in any legitimate attempt to evaluate the administration of the death penalty. The article canvasses this broader sweep of issues, discusses related research evidence, and then considers the policy implications of conducting such a thorough empirical assessment of the administration of capital punishment in this country.

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

Document(s)

In the Extreme: Women Serving Life Without Parole and Death Sentences in the United States

By The Sentencing Project, National Black Women’s Justice Institute and the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, on 14 January 2022


2022

NGO report

Women


More details See the document

One of every 15 women in prison — amounting to more than 6,600 women — is serving a life sentence and nearly 2,000 of these have no chance for parole. Another 52 women in the U.S. are awaiting execution. Many women serving extreme sentences were victims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse long before they committed a crime.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Women

Member(s)

HURILAWS

on 30 April 2020

HURILAWS began operations in 1997 as a specialist provider of human rights legal services and a purveyor of skills in the legal aspects of transition management. Today HURILAWS is also a public policy think tank working towards attainment of development, human rights and good governance. In particular, HURILAWS is the driver of the Multi-Sector Law […]

2020

Nigeria

Document(s)

Putting Them There, Keeping Them There, and Killing Them: An Analysis of State-Level Variations in Death Penalty Intensity

By William S. Lofquist / Iowa Law Review, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Siting the Death Penalty Internationally

By Valerie West / David F. Greenberg / Law and Social Inquiry, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article


More details See the document

We examine sources of variation in possession and use of the death penalty using data drawn from 193 nations in order to test theories of punishment. We find the death penalty to be rooted in a country’s legal and political systems, and to be influenced by its religious traditions. A country’s level of economic development, its educational attainment, and its religious composition shape its political institutions and practices, indirectly affecting its use of the death penalty. The article concludes by discussing likely future trends.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

A blow to human rights: Taiwan resumes executions: The Death Penalty in Taiwan, 2010

By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report

zh-hant
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Not Making Us Safer: Crime, Public Saftey and the Death Penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2013


2013

NGO report

es
More details See the document

Thisdocument aims at providing a generaloverview of how crime and concerns about public safety are often met by government calls forthe death penalty—distracting public attention fromthe much-needed, long-term solutionsthat could more effectively tackle crime and the root causes of crime. It reviews a number ofrecent studies on homicide trends, public perception of safety and the deterrent effect of thedeath penalty. The studies found that, in order toeffectively deter crime, governments shoulduse a multi-faceted approach involving different segments of society and multiple tools—andthat the death penalty is not one of them.

Document(s)

Financial Costs of the Death Penalty

By Office of Performance Evaluations Idaho Legislature, on 1 January 2014


2014

Government body report


More details See the document

Idaho’s death penalty involves many criminal justicestakeholders at both the local and state levels and in all three branches of government. Because death penalty processes involve so many entities, legislators asked for a better understanding of the structure, workings, and costs. The following events also sparked legislative interest: (1) two offenders sentenced to death werelater released from prison in 2001 and (2) two recent executions after a 17-year pause.Legislators wanted to know whether costs of sentencingdefendants to death could be compared with costs of sentencing them to life in prison.

  • Document type Government body report
  • Themes list Statistics, Financial cost,

Document(s)

The death penalty, terrorism and international law

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2014


Academic report


More details See the document

The death penalty is retained for terrorism offences in many countries, but how does it conform with international standards? The global community has had much to say about both terrorism and capital punishment; this paper brings together the key arguments to identify the appropriate state responses in the face of terrorism.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list International law, Terrorism,

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)

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)

When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition

By Austin Sarat / Princeton University Press, on 1 January 2001


2001

Book

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Annual report on the death penalty in Iran 2013

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) / Iran Human Rights (IHR), on 1 January 2014


2014

NGO report

fafr
More details See the document

The sixth annual report of Iran Human Rights (IHR) on the death penalty gives an assessment of how the death penalty was implemented in 2013 in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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)

Joint Statement on the Death Penalty in Bahrain

By Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, on 1 January 2015


2015

Multimedia content

Bahrain


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Joint statement calling on the government to immediately commute all death sentences; to investigate all allegations of torture made by persons sentenced to death, and to dismiss any and all convictions made on the basis of confessions obtained under conditions of torture; to re-impose a moratorium on the death penalty with a view towards abolishing the practice.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list Bahrain
  • Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Ultimate Sanction: Understanding the Death Penalty Through Its Many Voices and Many Sides

By Robert M. Bohm / Kaplan Trade, on 1 January 2010


2010

Book

United States


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The book looks at the death penalty through interviews with people affected by the system in different ways. He uses interviews to explore issues of deterrence, retribution, and fairness, while taking a unique look at how the death penalty affects those who participate in the system.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial, Deterrence , Retribution,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2015

By Rick Lines / Harm Reduction International, on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report


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In this new fourth edition of HRI’s ‘Global Overview’ series, HRI updates its previous research on the death penalty for drugs worldwide, and it considers critical developments on the issue. While the report notes that there still are a troubling number of governments with capital drug laws, in practice very few states execute people for drugs. The number of people killed for drug-related offences is high because China, Iran and Saudi Arabia are aggressive executioners. Those governments that kill for drugs are an extreme fringe of the international community.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offences,

Document(s)

Flawed Justice: Unfair Trial and the Death Penalty in indonesia

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2015


NGO report

enfr
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Despite strong protests from local and international human rights organisations, the new Indonesian administration under President Joko Widodo has executed 14 people, including Indonesian and foreign nationals, in 2015. All of them had been convicted of drug trafficking. In other occasions President Widodo also stated publicly that the government would deny any application for clemency made by people sentenced to death for drug-related crimes. This report, which builds on Amnesty International’s past work over three decades documenting the use of death penalty in Indonesia, includes research carried out during a March 2015 visit to the country. The report highlights 12 individual cases of death row prisoners, out of a total of 131 people on death row, which point to systemic problems in Indonesia’s administration of justice that resulted in violations of international human rights law and standards.