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Document(s)

Drugs and the Death Penalty

By Patrick Gallahue / Open Society Foundations, on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

Experience has proved that for certain governments it is not easy to balance international drug laws with human rights, public health, alternatives to incarceration, and experimentation with regulation.This Report intends to provide a primer on why governments must not turn a blind eye to pressing human rights and public health impacts of current drug policies.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offences,

Document(s)

Death penalty abolition, Death penalty as inhuman and degrading treatment

By European Court of Human Rights, on 1 January 2012


2012

International law - Regional body


More details See the document

Factsheet regarding cases concerning the Death Penalty

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Alabama: Judge Override

By Equal Justice Initiative, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


More details See the document

In Alabama, elected trial judges can override jury verdicts of life and impose death sentences. Although judges have authority to override life or death verdicts, in 92% of overrides elected judges have overruled jury verdicts of life to impose the death penalty.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Fair Trial, Arbitrariness, Sentencing Alternatives,

Document(s)

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

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Foreign Nationals

By Harm Reduction International, on 1 January 2019


NGO report


More details See the document
  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offences, Foreign Nationals, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

People’s Republic of China: The Death Penalty Log in 2000

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

China


More details See the document

The Death Penalty Log gives available details of death sentences and executions occurring in China throughout 2000.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list China
  • Themes list Statistics,

Document(s)

No to the Death Penalty, No to Revenge

By YouTube, on 1 January 2008


2008

Working with...


More details See the document

A murder victim’s family member talks out about her opposition to the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

Travelling abroad? Beware the death penalty

By Reprieve / Emmanuelle Purdon , on 1 January 2011


2011

Campaigning


More details See the document

Many Britons abroad think that the local death penalty cannot be applied to them. Most would not know what to do if they got arrested. Yet well-meaning Britons can indeed find themselves facing execution, even if they are innocent.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Foreign Nationals,

Document(s)

Jeremy Irons talks about the death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2007


2007

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This video features Jeremy Irons who speaks about the death penalty and arguements commonly made for it.

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

Document(s)

Moratorium on the use of death penalty

By United Nations, on 1 January 2018


2018

United Nations report

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More details See the document

Document(s)

Stolen Youth. Juvenils, mass trials and the death penalty in Egypt

By Reprieve, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document
  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Juveniles, Fair Trial, Death Penalty,

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...

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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 Death Penalty in the United States: A Crisis of Conscience

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


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

The articles in this issue discuss many appellate court decisions that turned on due process problems in the guilt and penalty phases of capital murder trials and the troubling role of race in capital prosecutions. Governor Ryan of Illinois cited many of these issues when he declared a moratorium on the death penalty and appointed a blue-ribbon panel to study the prosecution of capital murder in 2000. Governor Ryan commuted the sentences of all Illinois death row inmates in January 2003, in part, because the legislature was unable to address these issues that again appeared in the panel’s report. These issues raise serious questions about the reliability of the capital murder system and recommend a continued public debate about its fairness.

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

Document(s)

Study on the question of the death penalty in Africa

By African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights / Working Group on the Death Penalty in Africa, on 1 January 2011


2011

Book

fr
More details See the document

The document broadly looks at the historical, human rights law, and practical aspects of the death penalty. It takes a comprehensive approach to the question of the death penalty, bearing in mind the need to provide the African Commission with sufficient information that will enable it to take an informed position on the matter.

Document(s)

Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa: A Human Rights Perspective

By Lilian Chenwi / Pretoria University Law Press, on 1 January 2007


2007

Book


More details See the document

In “Towards the abolition of the death penalty in Africa – a human rights perspective”, the author shows that international law increasingly recognises that the imposition and execution of the death penalty constitute violations of human rights. The author locates an emerging international trend towards the abolition of capital punishment in the African context. In doing so, she provides a particular African perspective on the issue. In this rich and informative text, she reflects on the role and impact of relevant UN instruments on African states, and analyses related African regional instruments, domestic law and case-law.

  • Document type Book

Document(s)

The Global Debate on the Death Penalty

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

Exploring the Effects of Altitudes Toward the Death Penalty on Capital Sentencing Verdicts

By Kevin O’Neil / Psychology, Public Policy and Law / Marc W. Patry / Steven D. Penrod, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

Attitudes toward the death penalty are multifaceted and strongly held, but little research outside of the death-qualification literature has focused on the role that such attitudes and beliefs play in jurors’ capital sentencing verdicts. A single item is insufficient to properly measure attitudes toward the death penalty; therefore, a new 15-item, 5-factor scale was constructed and validated. Use of this scale in 11 studies of capital jury decision making found a large effect of general support of the death penalty on sentencing verdicts as well as independent aggravating effects for the belief that the death penalty is a deterrent and the belief that a sentence of life without parole nonetheless allows parole. These effects generally were not completely mediated by, nor did attitudes moderate the effects of, aggravating and mitigating factors.

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

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


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Article(s)

Amnesty recorded 1,200 known executions in 2007

on 15 April 2008

Amnesty International’s early figures for last year show that China tops the executioners’ list, although secrecy surrounds the real death penalty statistics in many countries.

2008

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)

The ‘Shocking Truth’ About the Electric Chair: An Analysis of the Unconstitutionality of Electrocution

By Dawn Macready / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Lethal Injustice in Asia: End unfair trials, stop executions

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

How Families of Murder Victims Feel Following the Execution of Their Loved One’s Murderer: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Reports of Executions from 2006-2011

By Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology, on 1 January 2013


2013

Working with...


More details See the document

By Corey Burton and Richard Tewksbury

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Public debate, Murder Victims' Families, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
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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)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

By United Nations, on 1 January 1948


1948

United Nations report

arrufrzh-hantes
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Report on Taiwan and Art.6 ICCPR

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2013


2013

NGO report


More details Download [ msword - 95 Ko ]

In view of Taiwan’s Human Rights Review in the framework of the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty submitted a report regarding the situation of the death penalty in Taiwan.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Right to life, Clemency, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Death Penalty in India: 2018 Annual Statistics Report

By Project 39A, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty and Deterrence

By Amnesty International - USA, on 8 September 2020


2020

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

An argument against deterrence is made by looking at a survey which found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty and Mental Illness

By Amnesty International - USA, on 1 January 2013


2013

Arguments against the death penalty

es
More details See the document

The execution of those with mental illness or “the insane” is clearly prohibited by international law. Virtually every country in the world prohibits the execution of people with mental illness. This webpage explores international law and the death penalty in relation to the USA.

Document(s)

Blind Justice: Juries Deciding Life and Death With Only Half the Truth

By Death Penalty Information Center / Richard C. Dieter, on 1 January 2005


2005

NGO report


More details See the document

Blind Justice is a report which focuses on the problems of the death penalty from the perspective of jurors. While jurors have always occupied an esteemed position in the broader criminal justice system in the United States, in capital cases the responsibility of jurors is even more critical as they decide whether defendants should live or die. Even with this unique authority in capital cases, they are treated less than respectfully. Frequently, they are kept in the dark regarding key information about the case and are often barred from serving based on their beliefs or their race.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

USA: The execution of mentally ill offenders

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2006


2006

NGO report


More details See the document

More than 1,000 men and women have been put to death in the USA since executions resumed there in 1977. Dozens of these people had histories of mental impairment, either from before the crimes for which they were sentenced, or at the time of their execution. The report discusses many cases and includes an illustrative list of 100 people. It does not attempt to answer the complex question of precisely which defendants should be exempt from the death penalty on the grounds of mental illness at the time of the crime.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Mental Illness, Intellectual Disability,

Document(s)

Halting the Death Penalty in Divine Hodud Punishments from a Practical Expediency Perspective

By Human Rights & Democracy for Iran, on 1 January 2017


2017

NGO report


More details See the document

Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation and Various Iranian Religious AuthoritiesAbdorrahman Boroumand FoundationNovember 16, 2017Report

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Press article: reporting the death penalty

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


NGO report


More details See the document
  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Public debate, Member organizations, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTS IN BRIEF 2004 (and up to September 15, 2005)

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 1 January 2005


2005

NGO report

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More details See the document

The worldwide situation to date: The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for at least a decade, was again confirmed in 2004 and the first half of 2005. There are currently 138 countries that to different extents have decided to renounce the death penalty. Of these: 86 are totally abolitionist; 11 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 1 (Russia) is committed to abolishing the death penalty as a member of the Council of Europe and currently observing a moratorium on executions; 5 have a moratorium on executions in place and 35 are de facto abolitionist (i.e. no executions have taken place in those countries for at least ten years). Since the beginning of 2004, 3 countries have passed from retention to an extent of abolition, whereas 5 countries have advanced within the categories of the abolitionist group.

Document(s)

Compensating the Wrongfully Convicted

By The Innocence Project, on 1 January 2012


2012

Working with...


More details See the document

Those proven to have been wrongfully convicted through postconviction DNA testing spend, on average, 12 years behind bars. The agony of prison life and the complete loss of freedom are only compounded by the feelings of what might have been, but for the wrongful conviction. Deprived for years of family and friends and the ability to establish oneself professionally, the nightmare does not end upon release. With no money, housing, transportation, health services or insurance, and a criminal record that is rarely cleared despite innocence, the punishment lingers long after innocence has been proven. States have a responsibility to restore the lives of the wrongfully convicted to the best of their abilities. This document describes how a state can try to recompensate an exonerated person.

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

Document(s)

Executing the Insane: The Story of Scott Panetti

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


2007

Legal Representation


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Death penalty – Beyond abolition

By Council of Europe / Hugo Adam Bedau / Peter Hodgkinson / Roger Hood / Robert Badinter / Michel Forst / Anne Ferrazzini / Eric Prokosch / H.C Krüger / C. Ravaud / Sir Nigel Rodley / Renate Wohlwend / Yoshihiro Yasuda / Anatoly Pristavkin, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

France

fr
More details See the document

Europe is today the only region in the world where the death penalty has been almost completely abolished. In the Council of Europe’s 45 member states, including the European Union’s 15 member states and its 13 candidate countries, capital punishment is no longer applied. The Council of Europe played a pioneering role in the battle for abolition, believing that the death penalty has no place in democratic societies under any circumstances. This determination to eradicate the death penalty was reflected in Protocol No.6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, on the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime, which was adopted in April 1983, then in Protocol No.13 on the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances, adopted in May 2002.Introduced by Roger Hood, an international expert on death penalty legislation, this book reviews the long and sometimes tortuous path to abolition in Europe. It also addresses the tangible problems which countries face once the death penalty has been abolished, and related issues: the situation of murder victims’ families and alternatives to capital punishment, particularly the choice of a substitute sentence.The Council of Europe’s campaign for abolition is currently being pursued beyond Europe’s borders, in those states which have Observer status with the organisation, particularly the United States and Japan: the situation in these countries is discussed here.This publication will be of interest to all those who feel concerned by this issue, particularly members of NGOs, lawyers, officials in departments dealing with legal and criminal affairs, and human rights campaigners.

Document(s)

The Waiver and Withdrawal of Death Penalty Appeals as “Extreme Communicative Acts”

By Avi Brisman / Western Criminology Review, on 1 January 2010


2010

Article

United States


More details See the document

This paper explores the power struggle between the State and the condemned over the timing and conditions under which an inmate is executed. It begins with a discussion of current public opinion about the death penalty and the ways in which the death penalty has been resisted. Next, it describes capital defendants who elect execution over life imprisonment and considers some of the reasons proffered for waiver and withdrawal. This paper then contemplates whether some instances of “volunteering” should be regarded as “extreme communicative acts” (Wee 2004, 2007)—nonlinguistic communicative acts that are usually associated with protest, especially in the context of a lengthy political struggle (such as hunger strikes, self-immolation, and the chopping off of one’s fingers). In so doing, this paper weighs in on the larger questions of who ultimately controls the body of the condemned and what governmental opposition to waiver and withdrawal may reveal about the motives and rationale for the death penalty. This paper also furthers research on how the prison industrial complex is resisted and how State power more generally is negotiated.

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

Document(s)

Seven Winters in Teheran

By Steffi Niederzoll, on 24 March 2023


2023

Multimedia content

Gender

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Women

fr
More details See the document

In the summer of 2007, an older man approaches Reyhaneh Jabbari and asks the architecture student who has a side job as an interior decorator for her help in the design of offices. During the site inspection, he tries to rape her. Reyhaneh stabs him in self-defence. She is arrested for murder and sentenced to death. Reyhaneh was to spend the next seven years in prison while her family hired lawyers and made the public aware of the case. However, in spite of the efforts of national and international politicians and human rights organisations, the Iranian judiciary continued to cite the “right of blood-revenge”. This meant that, as long as Reyhaneh did not withdraw her accusations against the man, his family could demand her death. Reyhaneh stuck to her testimony and was hanged at the age of 26.
In her moving and shockingly topical documentary debut, director Steffi Niederzoll uses among other things original audio and visual material that was smuggled out of Iran. This film, in which Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi lends Reyhaneh her voice, makes visible the injustice in Iranian society and portrays an involuntary heroine who gave her life in the fight for women’s rights.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list Gender / Women
  • Available languages Sept hivers à Téhéran

Member(s)

Fédération Syndicale Unitaire (FSU)

on 30 April 2020

The United Trade-Union Federation (FSU) brings together 22 national trade unions in the fields of education, teaching, research, culture, training and social integration. They represent the majority or a large proportion of workers in their professional fields. FSU unites these national trade unions by combining diversity, pluralism and unity. Its characteristic organisational innovation is to […]

2020

France

Document(s)

Support for the Death Penalty in Developed Democracies: A Binational Comparative Case Study

By Kevin Buckler / Willian Reed Benedict / Ben Brown / International Criminal Justice Review, on 1 January 2010


2010

Article

Mexico


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Politics and The Death Penalty: Can Rational Discourse and Due Process Survive the Perceived Political Pressure?

By Norman Redlich / Fordham Urban Law Journal, on 1 January 1994


1994

Article

United States


More details See the document

This article is a transcript from a program sponsored by the American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities entitled, “Politics and the Death Penalty: Can Rational Discourse and Due Process Survive the Perceived Political Pressure?” In it, Norman Redlich discusses his experience litigating organizing the New York State Justice-PAC, a political action committee which promoted anti-death penalty candidates for the New York State legislature, and challenges the notion that there is overwhelming public support in the United States of America for the death penalty.

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

Member(s)

Save Anthony

on 30 April 2020

Save Anthony is a charity registered under the 1901 French law. It is designed to promote the story and finance the privately retained legal team of Anthony Mungin, sentenced to death and incarcerated at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida (USA) since February 23rd, 1993. Anthony Mungin has always maintained his innocence for the […]

2020

France

Document(s)

Anti-death penalty group launches handbook

By Manila Bulletin, on 1 January 2018


2018

Article

Philippines


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Tanzania Human Rights Report – 2017 ‘Unknown Assailants’: A Threat to Human Rights

By Legal and Human Rights Centre, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United Republic of Tanzania


More details See the document

“Unknown Assailants: A Threat to Human Rights”So is named The Tanzania Human Rights Report of 2017 released by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC).This report was published on April, 25th 2018 and it enlights for the fifteenth time the major human rights violation in Tanzania. This report, while it deals with human rights violation in Tanzania concerning civil and politial rights, freedom of violence, freedom of expression, etc, also presents some issues due to these violations such as the right to participate in governance, particularly the right to participate in political life, which are deny.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United Republic of Tanzania
  • Themes list Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Summary of Hands Off Cain 2014 Report

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 1 January 2014


2014

NGO report


More details See the document

The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for more than fifteen years, was again confirmed in 2013 and the first six months of 2014.There are currently 161 countries and territories that, to different extents, have decided to renounce the death penalty. Of these: 100 are totally abolitionist; 7 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 6 have a moratorium on executions in place and 48 are de facto abolitionist (i.e. Countries that have not carried out any executions for at least 10 years or countries which have binding obligations not to use the death penalty).Countries retaining the death penalty worldwide declined to 37 (as of 30 June 2014), compared to 40 in 2012. Retentionist countries have gradually declined over the last few years: there were 43 in 2011, 42 in 2010, 45 in 2009, 48 in 2008, 49 in 2007, 51 in 2006 and 54 in 2005.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Statistics,

Document(s)

Human Rights Activists in Iran Annual Report on Executions in Iran 2019-2020

on 1 January 2020


2020

NGO report


More details See the document
  • Document type NGO report

Document(s)

Death penalty developments in 2005

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2006


2006

NGO report

fres
More details See the document

This document covers significant events concerning the death penalty during the year 2005. Two countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes, bringing to 86 the number of totally abolitionist countries at year end. Moratoria or suspensions of executions were being observed in several countries. At least 2,148 people were executed in 22 countries, and at least 5,186 were sentenced to death in 53 countries. Eight child offenders were executed in Iran. Other sections include significant judicial decisions; the use of the death penalty against child offenders and resumptions of executions.

Document(s)

SUMMARY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTS OF 2002

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 1 January 2003


2003

NGO report

en
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty Cost

By Amnesty International - USA, on 8 September 2020


2020

Arguments against the death penalty

es
More details See the document

This factsheet deals with the cost of the death penalty in the United States using figures from a study conducted by the Californian Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice.

Document(s)

Too Broken to Fix: Part I – An In-depth Look at America’s Outlier Death Penalty Counties

By Fair Punishment Project, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

United States


More details See the document

The trends are clear. In 2015, juries returned the fewest number of new death sentences—49—since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.Of the 3,143 county or county equivalents in the United States, only 16—or one half of one percent—imposed five or more death sentences between 2010 and 2015.This report takes a close look at how capital punishment operates on the ground in half of these active death-sentencing counties. In this first report, we dig deep into Caddo, Clark, Duval, Harris, Maricopa, Mobile, Kern, and Riverside counties. Our review reveals that these counties frequently share at least three systemic deficiencies: a history of overzealous prosecutions, inadequate defense lawyering, and a pattern of racial bias and exclusion. These structural failings regularly produce two types of unjust outcomes which disproportionately impact people of color: the wrongful conviction of innocent people, and the excessive punishment of persons who are young or suffer from severe mental illnesses, brain damage, trauma, and intellectual disabilities.

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

Document(s)

Too Broken to Fix: Part II – An In-depth Look at America’s Outlier Death Penalty Counties

By Fair Punishment Project, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

United States


More details See the document

The trends are clear. In 2015, juries returned the fewest number of new death sentences—49—since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.Of the 3,143 county or county equivalents in the United States, only 16—or one half of one percent—imposed five or more death sentences between 2010 and 2015.This report takes a close look at how capital punishment operates on the ground in half of these active death-sentencing counties. In Part II, we highlight Dallas (TX), Jefferson(AL), San Bernardino (CA), Los Angeles (CA), Orange (CA), Miami-Dade (FL),Hillsborough (FL), and Pinellas (FL) counties.Our review of these counties, like the places profiled in Part I, reveals thatthese counties frequently share at least three systemic deficiencies: a history ofoverzealous prosecutions, inadequate defense lawyering, and a pattern of racialbias and exclusion. These structural failings regularly produce two types of unjustoutcomes which disproportionately impact people of color: the wrongful convictionof innocent people, and the excessive punishment of persons who are young or sufferfrom severe mental illnesses, brain damage, trauma, and intellectual disabilities.

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

Document(s)

The most important facts in 2000

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 1 January 2000


2000

NGO report

en
More details See the document

This is the fourth consecutive year that Hands off Cain is publishing its report on the death penalty. The events registered in 2000 reveal a positive trend towards abolition.As of 31/12/2000, there were 123 abolitionist countries of various types: 77 were fully abolitionist, 12 were abolitionist for ordinary crimes, 30 were de facto abolitionist (they haven´t carried out a death sentence in at least ten years), 2 were engaged in abolishing the death penalty as members of the Council of Europe, 2 had a legal moratoria on executions. Seventy three states retained the death penalty.

Document(s)

Video “Flight” – animation about death penalty in Belarus

By Viasna Human Rights Center, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

Belarus


More details See the document

The animation film, created by talented volunteers of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders against Death Penalty”, dwells on the topic of the cruelty and inhumanity of the death penalty in Belarus. Our country is the last one in Europe and on the post-Soviet space where the death penalty is still used

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list Belarus
  • Themes list International law, Public debate,

Document(s)

Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty Classroom Resource Manual

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2003


2003

Campaigning


More details See the document

This web site and its accompanying materials are designed to assist both teachers and students in an exploration of capital punishment, presenting arguments for and against its use, as well as issues of ethics and justice that surround it.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

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

By The Constitution Project, on 1 January 2014


2014

NGO report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Convention on the Rights of the Child

By United Nations, on 1 January 1989


1989

United Nations report

arrufrzh-hantes
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

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)

Public Opinion on the Death Penalty in China: Results from a General Population Survey Conducted in Three Provinces in 2007/08

By Shenghui Qi / Dietrich Oberwittler / Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

China


More details See the document

The present project is concerned with the significant role that public opinion plays in the debate surrounding the death penalty and criminal policy in the People’s Republic of China, including possible public reaction to any planned abolishment of the death penalty. How is public opinion on the death penalty exhibited in China? What influence does public opinion on the death penalty have on legislative and judicial practice in China? The principal goal of the project is to analyze the links that exist between public opinion, criminal policy, legislation and legal practice, and to initiate attitudinal changes amongst political and legal actors as well as the public at large. A further objective is to guide Chinese criminal law reform, particularly with regard to a possible reduction in the number of capital offences, against the background of the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

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

Document(s)

Surviving Execution: A Miscarriage of Justice and the Fight to End the Death Penalty

By Ian Woods / Atlantic Books, on 1 January 2018


2018

Book

United States


More details See the document

Imagine being condemned to death for murder, when even the prosecutors admit that you didn’t actually kill anyone. This is what happened to Richard Glossip.Despite being convicted on the word of the actual self-confessed killer, the state of Oklahoma is still intent on executing him.Ian Woods, a reporter for Sky News in the UK, came across the case, and has tirelessly campaigned ever since to bring the injustices Glossip has faced to the world’s attention.

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

Document(s)

Transcript of Speech on Religion’s Role in the Administration of the Death Penalty

By Pat Robertson / William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 9(1), 215-222, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

About fifteen years ago, I was in the maximum-security prison in Raiford, Florida, and after I had spoken to the inmates, and had several interviews for our television program, I was permitted to go back into death row. It was a very sobering sight because the electric chair was just down the hall from where I was, and you could see that rather grim room. There were two men that they had asked me to talk to. One was a young man, in his mid-twenties who had been a contract killer for organized crime. He had dispatched at least twenty people to the next world as a cold-blooded killer. He was there on death row awaiting execution. The other man was a rather simple soul who had discovered his wife having an affair with another man, at least that’s my understanding, and in a fit of rage, he killed her. In the subsequent trial, he had received the death penalty for his action. Both of these men had had profound religious conversions. I know the difference between somejailhouse conversions-and there are plenty of them out there-and something that’s sincere from the heart. Both of these men, in my opinion, had been spiritually transformed.

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

Document(s)

The Debate Over the Death Penalty in Today’s China

By Zhang Ning / China perpectives, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article

China


More details See the document

Despite the sensitivity of the subject, the death penalty is currently a topic of public discussion among Chinese legal experts who are now openly wondering about its possible abolition. This debate is of interest on three counts. First, it goes hand-in-hand with a retrospective reading of the Chinese penal tradition, highlighting the succession of attempts at modernising criminal law for over a century. It also shows the ever present weight of the Maoist legacy and the contradictions of the present policy, caught between a concern for legality and continuing recourse to exceptional measures. Lastly, legal professionals and theorists alike are engaging in a review—based on specific cases—of the particular features of contemporary Chinese society and culture.

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

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 Proposed Innocence Protection Act Won’t—Unless It Also Curbs Mistaken Eyewitness Identifications

By Margery Malkin Koosed / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

This article contends that legislatures should adopt measures to assure greater reliability in the eyewitness testimony introduced in capital cases. Erroneous eyewitness identification is one of the most frequent causes of mistaken convictions and executions. Decades ago, the United States Supreme Court crafted due process and right to counsel constitutional doctrines to curb identification procedures that gratuitously enhanced the risk of mistake. While initial interpretations favored a greater judicial role in preventing such abuses, later rulings retreated. Present constitutional rules do not suffice due to the narrowness of their definition and the weakness of the remedial sanctions allotted. The proposed Innocence Protection Act and similar state legislation trust DNA testing to avert mistaken executions. But testing requires biological material that is often not available in capital prosecutions, and so DNA cannot detect all the innocents among those capitally prosecuted. To avert mistaken convictions and executions, legislative reforms need to go beyond DNA, and avert mistakes arising from erroneous eyewitness identifications. Studies show this is one of the most common sources of unjust conviction, and that suchmistakes may well be on the rise. Federal and state legislation should be adopted that provides a stronger curb on suggestive identification practices that gratuitously increase the risk of executing the innocent. The Recommendations for Lineups and Photospreads, developed by the American Psychology/Law Society (AP/LS) in 1998, are an appropriate starting point for legislatures (or state courts exercising their supervisory powers or interpreting state constitutional provisions). Adopting such guidelines will reduce the risk of error in capital cases, with little or no expense borne by the states. Further, to assure that these more reliable procedures will be used during capital case investigations and prosecutions, legislatures and courts should, minimally, adopt an exclusionary rule of the type first announced by the United States Supreme.

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

Document(s)

ENHANCING EU ACTION ON THE DEATH PENALTY IN ASIA

By Roger Hood / European Parliament / DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL POLICIES OF THE UNION, on 1 January 2012


2012

Article


More details See the document

This paper has three objectives. First, it provides an analysis of the state-of-play regarding the death penalty in Asia. Second it reports on EU human rights dialogues. Third, it suggests policies that might help to support initiatives in Asian countries aimed both at restraining the use of the death penalty and securing its complete abolition.

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

Document(s)

2018 World Day – Report

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


2020

NGO report

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 730 Ko ]

Report of the 2018 World Day Against the Death Penalty, on the conditions of detention on death row.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
  • Available languages Journée mondiale 2018 - Rapport

Document(s)

2013 World Day Report

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2014


2014

Campaigning


More details Download [ pdf - 2154 Ko ]

This report presents the theme of 2013 World Day, facts on the death penalty and all the actions and media coverage for the 11th World Day on the progress made and challenges ahead.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Public opinion, Mandatory Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Death Penalty and Arbitrariness

By Amnesty International - USA, on 8 September 2020


2020

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This sheet details the factors which contribute to the arbitrariness of the death penalty in the USA.

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty Information Pack

By Penal Reform International , on 1 January 2014


2014

NGO report


More details See the document

PRI information pack on the state of the death penalty in 2014: international trends toward abolition; moratorium; the death penalty for the “most serious crimes”; right to a fair trial; mandatory death penalty; conditions of imprisonment; clemency; execution; transparency; deterrence; public opinion; victims’ rights.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Affront to Justice: Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2008


2008

NGO report

ar
More details See the document

Amnesty International has been documenting the Saudi Arabian authorities’ extensive use of the death penalty for over a quarter of a century. This report is the latest evaluation, made in light of the legal, judicial and human rights changes that have been introduced in recent years in the country. The report details cases of death row prisoners on whose behalf Amnesty International has campaigned. It also includes testimonies of former detainees, some of whom have been under sentence of death.

Document(s)

Myanmar: The Administration Of Justice – Grave And Abiding Concerns

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Myanmar


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Northwestern Death Penalty Project

By Northwestern University Centre on Wrongful Convictions, on 1 January 1998


1998

Working with...


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Kit for Cities Against the Death Penalty – 2015

By Community of Saint Egidio, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

fres
More details Download [ pdf - 341 Ko ]

Document(s)

Kit for Cities Against the Death Penalty

By Community of Saint Egidio, on 1 January 2012


2012

Campaigning

fres
More details Download [ msword - 324 Ko ]

Document(s)

Leaflet Cities Against the Death Penalty

By Community of Saint Egidio, on 1 January 2012


Campaigning

esfr
More details Download [ pdf - 326 Ko ]

Document(s)

International Affairs Forum. Capital Punishment Around the World

By Center for International Relations, on 1 January 2015


2015

International law - Regional body


More details See the document

The summer issue of International Foreign Affaires focuses on the topic of capital punishment around the world. It collects articles and interviews dealing with the issues of death penalty, the path towards abolition, and the situation of capital punishment in the world.

  • Document type International law - Regional body
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

EU Guidelines: Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law

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


2009

Working with...

fr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Abolishing the Death Penalty: Why India Should Say No to Capital Punishment

By Gopalkrishna Gandhi, on 1 January 2016


2016

Book

India


More details See the document

In Abolishing the Death Penalty: Why India Should Say No to Capital Punishment, Gopalkrishna Gandhi asks fundamental questions about the ultimate legal punishment awarded to those accused of major crimes. Is taking another life a just punishment or an act as inhuman as the crime that triggered it? Does having capital punishment in the law books deter crime? His conclusions are unequivocal: Cruel in its operation, ineffectual as deterrence, unequal in its application in an uneven society, liable like any punishment to be in error but incorrigibly so, these grievous flaws that are intrinsic to the death penalty are compounded by yet another—it leaves the need for retribution (cited as its primary ‘good’) unrequited and simply makes society more bloodthirsty.Examining capital punishment around the world from the time of Socrates onwards, the author delves into how the penalty was applied in India during the times of Asoka, Sikandar Lodi, Krishnadevaraya, the Peshwas and the British Raj, and how it works today

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list India
  • Themes list Capital offences, Public debate, Deterrence , Trend Towards Abolition, Right to life, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition

By Routledge / Madoka Futamura, on 1 January 2014


2014

Book


More details See the document

Covering a diverse range of transitional processes in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition offers a broad evaluation of countries whose death penalty policies have rarely been studied. The book would be useful to human rights researchers and international lawyers, in demonstrating how transition and transformation, ‘provide the catalyst for several of interrelated developments of which one is the reduction and elimination of capital punishment’.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list International law, Trend Towards Abolition,

MOBILIZATION KIT World Day Against the Death Penalty 10 October 2024 – 2025 Security and the death penalty

on 12 June 2024

MOBILIZATION KIT World Day Against the Death Penalty 10 October 2024 – 2025 Security and the death penalty

2024

Document(s)

Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America’s Future

By Bruce Shapiro / Rev. Jesse L. Jackson / Anchor , on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

In this collaborative work, the Jacksons, father (former presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow Coalition) and son (a congressional representative) with Salon.com editor Shapiro, pursue a nationwide conversation on the issues surrounding the death penalty one that begins with the proposal of a moratorium and could lead to the eventual cessation of capital punishment. This book describes a bureaucratic nightmare involving defense lawyers asleep at trial, vengeance-hungry politicos and a problematic, imperfect justice system in which the handing out of death sentences is skewed, both racially and economically. An objective examination of this penal system would be beneficial to all, say the authors: since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976, one in every eight prisoners on death row has been found innocent and released. There are undoubtedly cases, the authors argue, where the proof of innocence didn’t see the light of day in time. Navigating the historical precedents of the death penalty and the reasons why federally mandated executions were restored following a 10-year moratorium imposed in 1967, the authors thoroughly detail legitimate questions regarding what they view as erroneous deterrence theories, scriptural misrepresentation and simple vengeance.

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

Document(s)

Japanese Moratorium on the Death Penalty

By Mika Obara-Minnitt, on 1 January 2016


2016

Book

Japan


More details See the document

While the number of states that retain capital punishment is declining, Japan has maintained the death penalty in its legislation. In the case of Japan, the government has consistently justified the retention and use of the death penalty on the basis of national law. However, the country as recently experienced a number of de facto moratorium periods on executions. This book addresses how the Ministry of Justice in Japan has justified capital punishment policy during these de facto moratorium periods. The primary goal of this volume is to provide a better understanding of the elite-driven nature of the capital punishment system in Japan. It also addresses the domestic and cultural factors of the capital punishment policy and the rhetoric of the Ministry of Justice in its justification of capital punishment policy.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list Japan
  • Themes list Moratorium , Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective

By Roger Hood / Carolyn Hoyle / Oxford University Press, on 1 January 2014


2014

Book


More details See the document

The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective by Roger Hood and Carolyn Hoyle is the Fourth Edition of a text that highlights the latest developments in the death penalty around the world. Roger Hood utilizes his experience as a consultant to the United Nations’ annual survey of capital punishment in compiling a wide range of information from non-governmental organizations and academic literature. The book explores both the advances in legal challenges to the death penalty and the reduction in executions, while noting the continued existence of human rights abuses. Problems include unfair trails, police abuse, painful forms of execution, and excessive periods of time spent in inhumane conditions on death row. The authors explore the latest issues related to capital punishment such as deterrence, arbitrariness, and what influence victims’ families should have in sentencing.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Death Penalty,

Document(s)

PRIMER ON TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS FACING THE DEATH PENALTY

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty; FIACAT; The Advocates for Human Rights; Cornell Center on the DP Worldwide, on 30 June 2021


2021

Campaigning

Women

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 450 Ko ]

On 10 October 2021, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and other abolitionist organizations worldwide will celebrate the 19th World Day Against the Death Penalty.

This year the World Day is dedicated to women who risk being sentenced to death, who have received a death sentence, who have been executed, and to those who have had their death sentences commuted, have been exonerated or pardoned. Included in this theme, are trans women and other gender diverse individuals, who are a minority on death row but who are discriminated against on the basis of gender.

Capital punishment disproportionately targets socially marginalized individuals; it is no different for transgender people, who may face discrimination in every aspect of their lives.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in the USA

By Robert Dunham, on 8 September 2020


2020

Multimedia content

United States


More details Download [ pdf - 3888 Ko ]

Presentation of Robert Dunham, Death Penalty Information Center, for the plenary session on the death penalty in the USA which took place during the 2017 General Assembly of the World Coalition.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

2021 General Assembly of the World coalition against the death penalty – Program

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 15 June 2021


2021

World Coalition

Juveniles

Women

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 280 Ko ]

If you are a member organization, join the fantastic program we will have on Friday 18 June!

Document(s)

The Grass Beneath His Feet: The Charles Victor Thompson Story

By Roger Rodriguez / AuthorHouse, on 1 January 2008


2008

Book

United States

fr
More details See the document

Nothing produced a glow in his eyes like the wonders of nature provoking his every curiosity. Everything about nature appealed to his meticulous character and his childhood was invested at Medina Lake, chasing down fireflies, and fishing. There was nothing he liked better than fried perch and eggs for breakfast. So how does such an innocent boy end up on death row in what most agree is the most relentless state for executing murders? The Grass Beneath His Feet recounts the life of Charles Victor Thompson, who after falling in love; found himself in a disturbing chain of events that would change his life forever. This re-telling of his story is extracted directly from the journals of Charles Victor Thompson himself where his childhood, his true love, and his ultimate escape from death row are revealed. For this first time, readers can enjoy the intimate details of the escape that shocked the entire nation. America?s Most Wanted, CNN, The World News all wanted to know the same question: How did this man manage to escape from the most notorious death row system in the country? The Grass Beneath His Feet also introduces Charles to the people, not as a murderer, but as a man fighting to prove that there were many flaws in his legal process that kept him from proving that he does not meet criteria for capital punishment. Prepare to embark on a journey into a life at death row through the eyes of Charles Victor Thompson and run next to him as a child and an escapee as he took in the beauty of nature and the South Texas sun with the grass beneath his feet.

Member(s)

California People of Faith

on 30 April 2020

The California People of Faith (CPF) is a nonprofit organization 501, based in Los Angeles in the United States. CPF is an interfaith organization which advocates for alternatives to the death penalty in California and throughout the United States. CPF coordinates grassroots affords via chapters located throughout California, organizing Faith-based communities to resist corrosive temptation […]

2020

United States

Article(s)

Program Officer

By PGA, on 22 February 2016

PGA is recruiting a Programme Officer for its Hague office.

2016

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)

When Justice Fails: Thousands executed in Asia after unfair trials

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Fair Trial,

Document(s)

Tanzania Human Rights Report 2008: Progress through Human Rights

By Sarah Louw / Clarence Kipobota / Legal and Human Rights Centre, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report


More details See the document

Tanzania is one of 25 countries in the world that continues to retain the death penalty in its legislation.56 However, de facto, Tanzania is an abolitionist country, as there have been no executions in Tanzania since 1994. Chapter 2.1.1 describes the position of the death penalty in Tanzania.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Statistics,

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


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 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)

Death by Geography: A County By County Analysis of the Road to Execution in California

By Natasha Minsker / Romy Ganschow / American Civil Liberties Union / Jeff Gillenkirk / Elise Banducci, on 1 January 2008


2008

NGO report


More details See the document

California’s death penalty is arbitary, unnecessary and a waste of critical resources. Whilst the vast majority of California’s counties have largely abandoned execution in favor of simply sentencing people to die in prison, 10 counties continue to aggressively sentence people to execution, accounting for nearly 85 percent of death sentences since 2000. California’s death penalty has become so arbitary that the county border, not the facts of the case, determines who is sentenced to execution and who is simply sentenced to die in prison. Pursuing executions provides no identifiable benefit to these counties but costs millions.

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

Document(s)

The Logical Framework Approach

By Greta Jenson / Bond - For International Development, on 1 January 2010


2010

Campaigning


More details See the document

The logframe is a tool for concisely describing the results of an LFA project design process, as it summarises in a standard format: What the project is going to achieve, what activities will be carried out, what means/resources/inputs (human, technical, infrastructural, etc.) are required, what potential problems could affect the success of the project, how the progress and ultimate success of the project will be measured and verified.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran

By Stop Child Executions / Foreign Policy Center, on 1 January 2009


2009

NGO report


More details See the document

This report aims to briefly highlight the past and present challenges and choices in Iran’s human rights record on juvenile offenders. It considers legal and theological perspectives on key issues as well as presenting case studies on selected individuals whose mistreatment raises serious questions about the injustices faced by young people in the Iranian judicial system. The report offers practical recommendations to the international community as it takes a closer look at the Islamic Republic and its human rights record through the 2010 Universal Periodic Review.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Juveniles,

Document(s)

Annual Report

By Puerto Rican Coalition against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2013


2013

NGO report

es
More details Download [ pdf - 77 Ko ]

The information presented in this annual report covers the situation about death penalty cases, regarding Puerto Ricans who face death penalty proceedings in the federal jurisdiction, as well as in those states of the U.S. where such punishment is strictly upheld, and a case of petition for extradition.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
  • Available languages Informe Anual 2012

Document(s)

New opinion study shows Zimbabwean public ready to accept death penalty abolition

By Death Penalty Project, on 1 January 2018


2018

NGO report


More details See the document

Today, The Death Penalty Project, in partnership with Veritas, launches “12 Years Without an Execution: Is Zimbabwe Ready for Abolition?” a national public opinion study, providing for the first time comprehensive and contextualised data on public attitudes towards the death penalty in Zimbabwe – a country that has not carried out any executions in over 12 years.

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

Document(s)

Death Row’s Children: Pakistan’s Unlawful Executions of Juvenile Offenders

By Justice Project Pakistan, on 1 January 2017


2017

NGO report


More details See the document

On 16 December 2014, the Government of Pakistan lifted a six-year de facto moratorium on the death penalty. Whilst the Government claims that the lifting of the moratorium is designed to curb terrorism, an analysis of the 423 executions that have taken place till February 2017 reveals that the death penalty has disproportionately impacted the most vulnerable of all populations including juvenile offenders. Even though Pakistan’s international obligations and domestic laws prohibit sentencing juvenile offenders to death, at least 6 have been executed in the past two years.Through this report, the Justice Project Pakistan highlights the fundamental weaknesses under Pakistan’s juvenile justice system that lead to the unlawful and arbitrary implementation of the death penalty against juvenile offenders.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Juveniles, Fair Trial, International law, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,