Your search “Keep the Death Penalty Abolished fin the Philippfines %20e ”

Poster- 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Italian)

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
• Available languages Indonesian : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Cebuano)Tagalog : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Tagalog)Japanese : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Japanese)Divehi : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Dhivehi)German : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (German)Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Arabic)Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Farsi)Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Russian)Affiche - 18ème Journée mondiale contre la peine de mortPoster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Chinese)Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Spanish)Poster- 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (English)

17th World Day Against the Death Penalty Poster in black and white

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Juveniles, Public debate, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
• Available languages Affiche - 17ème Journée mondiale contre la peine de mort (noir et blanc)

Poster- 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Dhivehi)

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
• Available languages Indonesian : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Cebuano)Tagalog : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Tagalog)Japanese : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Japanese)Italian : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Italian)German : Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (German)Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Arabic)Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Farsi)Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Russian)Affiche - 18ème Journée mondiale contre la peine de mortPoster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Chinese)Poster - 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (Spanish)Poster- 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty (English)

Detailed information on the death penalty in the Greater Caribbean

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Due Process , Deterrence , Mandatory Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Fiche sur la peine de mort dans les Caraïbes

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 type NGO report
• Themes list Deterrence ,
• Available languages Así No Hay Mayor Seguridad: Delincuencia, Seguridad Publica y Pena de Muerte

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,

In this book Beth Berkowitz tells the story of modern scholarship on the ancient rabbinic death penalty and continues the story by offering a fresh perspective using the approaches of ritual studies, cultural criticism, and talmudic source criticism. Against the scholarly consensus, Berkowitz argues that the rabbinic laws of the death penalty were used by the early Rabbis in their efforts to establish themselves in the wake of the destruction of the Temple. The purpose of the laws, she contends, was to create a complex ritual of execution that was controlled by the Rabbis, thus bolstering their claims to authority in the context of Roman imperial domination.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Religion ,

PowerPoint presentation used at The Advocates for Human Rights’ training session on death penalty advocacy for the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of human rights. See also the video of the presentation here.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list International law,

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,

Essays on the theme of the issue of the DNA and the Death Penalty

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

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,

While most western democracies have renounced the death penalty, capital punishment enjoys vast and growing support in the United States. A significant and vocal minority, however, continues to oppose it. Against Capital Punishment is the first full account of anti-death penalty activism in America during the years since the ten-year moratorium on executions ended.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

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,

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,

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,

The Flynn Effect is a well documented phenomenon demonstrating score increases on IQ measures over time that average about 0.3 points per year. Normative adjustments to scores derived from IQ measures normed more than a year or so prior to the time of testing an individual have become controversial in several settings but especially so in matters of death penalty litigation. Here we make the argument that if the Flynn Effect is real, then a Flynn Correction should be applied to obtained IQs in order to obtain the most accurate estimate of IQ possible. To fail to provide the most accurate estimate possible in matters that are truly life and death decisions seems wholly indefensible.

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

The study results indicate that when test subjects, many of whom are likely retributivists, are presented with information about the problem of innocence, the drop in support for capital punishment spans all points on the Likert scale. Our study suggests that more rigorous testing may demonstrate that an individual’s knowledge of the “innocence problem” can generate more profond changes in attitudes toward the death penalty than indicted by previous studies of the marshall Hypotheses.

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

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,

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,

The report describes the federal forensic oversight program; outlines the problems that have plagued the program since its inception (with specific examples): Explains the consequences of the federal government’s inadequate administration of the program; shows how forensic negligence and misconduct lead to wrongful convictions; and gives specific recommendations for what the federal government, states and individuals can do to strengthen forensic oversight.

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

This book examines the death penalty within the changing socio-political context of China. The authors’ treatment of China’s death penalty is legal, historical, and comparative. In particular, they examine; the substantive and procedures laws surrounding capital punishment in different historical periods the purposes and functions of capital punishment in China in various dynasties changes in the method of imposition and relative prevalence of capital punishment over time the socio-demographic profile of the executed and their crimes over the last two decades and comparative practices in other countries. Their analyses of the death penalty in contemporary China focus on both its theory – how it should be done in law – and actual practice – based on available secondary reports/sources.

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

Public support for the death penalty, which reached a four-decade low in 2016, has increased somewhat since then. Today, 54% of Americans favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 39% are opposed, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April and May.

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

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty,

DPIC’s 2016 Year-End Report: another record decline in death penalty use in the US. A video summary of the report.

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

The US death penalty usage remains near record lows in 2019.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Due Process , Innocence, Statistics,

The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 139 men and women have been released from death row nationally.

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

This document looks back at the death penalty in 2007 beginning with the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission releasing its final report recommending abolition and concluding with the UN General Assembly passing a landmark resolution calling for a global moratorium. It includes death by electrocution; abolition; execution, commutation and stay of execution; mental illness; child rape as well as geographical and colour bias.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks, Statistics,
• Available languages Estados Unidos: Rompiendo con un hábito letal - Un repaso a la pena de muerte en 2007

This report analyses the use of the death penalty in China and examines sentencing patterns and the legislation behind the death penalty.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list China
• Themes list Networks, Statistics,
• Available languages République Populaire de Chine: La peine de mort en 1999

A new book by Professor Robert Bohm of the University of Central Florida looks at death-penalty decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court prior to the modern era of capital punishment that began in 1968. In The Past As Prologue, Bohm examines 39 Court decisions, covering issues such as clemency, jury selection, coerced confessions, and effective representation.

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

Poster of the 14th Wold Day against the death penalty dedicated to terrorism: Execution is a terrorist’s tool. Stop the cycle of violence

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Terrorism,
• Available languages German : Poster - 14. Welttag gegen die TodesstrafeItalian : Poster - 14° Giornata mondiale contro la Pena di morteپوستر - رد روز جهانی علیه مجازات اعدام 2016плакат - Всемирный день 2016海報 - 世界反对死刑日 2016 繁體海報 - 世界反对死刑日2016 简化字Cartel - Día Mundial 2016Affiche Journée Mondiale 2016

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

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

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

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Drug Offences,

This article deals with one of the main arguments of defenders of the capital sentence: is the death penalty a source of relief for the victims?

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

The evidence reviewed demonstrates frequent and heavy-handed recourse to the death penalty by Saudi Arabia in recent months. At least 149 people were executed in 2018, with at minimum 46 remaining on death row at the end of the year. A significant proportion of those executed were political dissidents, and a number were children at the time of their alleged offending. Each of these features connotes a grave violation of international human rights norms.

• Document type International law - Regional body

As this report lays bare, entrenched obstacles within the criminal justice system impede efforts to recognize those with severe mental illness and to treat them fairly. As detailed in this report, these obstacles include the fact that: 1, mentally ill offenders, because of their impairments, often undermine their own defenses in a variety of ways that contribute directly to their convictions, death sentences and executions; 2, although state law exclusively defines mental illness as a mitigating factor for sentencing purposes, juries often perceive mental illness as an aggravating (rather than mitigating) factor. 3, the law governing mental illness in the context of the death penalty does not often align itself with clinical realities; thus mental health experts must often answer legal questions that do not conform to their medical analyses.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Mental Illness,

This article explores the roots of white support for capital punishment in the United States. Our analysis addresses individual-level and contextual factors, paying particular attention to how racial attitudes and racial composition influence white support for capital punishment. Our findings suggest that white support hinges on a range of attitudes wider than prior research has indicated, including social and governmental trust and individualist and authoritarian values. Extending individual-level analyses, we also find that white responses to capital punishment are sensitive to local context. Perhaps most important, our results clarify the impact of race in two ways. First, racial prejudice emerges here as a comparatively strong predictor of white support for the death penalty. Second, black residential proximity functions to polarize white opinion along lines of racial attitude. As the black percentage of county residents rises, so too does the impact of racial prejudice on white support for capital punishment.

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

This document focuses on the significant developments and events – both negative and positive – in the struggle against the death penalty in 2006. It includes steps towards abolition; horrific state killings; executions after unfair trials, including that of Saddam Hussein; the growing global campaign for abolition, and the political courage needed to rid the world of judicial state killing.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks, Statistics,
• Available languages Halte aux hommicides commis par l'étatPena de muerte: Poner fin al homicidio estatal

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 ,

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

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

The authors analyze data concerning race discrimination in capital sentencing and data regarding how the public perceives this issue. They conclude that race discrimination is not an inevitable feature of all death penalty systems. Before Furman v. Georgia was decided in 1972, widespread discrimination against black defendants marred the practice of capital punishment in America. According to studies cited by the authors, race-of-defendant discrimination has lessened since Furman. However, race-of-victim discrimination remains a significant factor in sentencing; defendants with white victims are at a significantly higher risk of being sentenced to death and executed than are defendants whose victims are black, Asian, or Hispanic. From 1976 to 2002, the proportion of white-victim cases among all murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases has ranged between 51% and 56%. However, 81% of executed defendants had white victims. Polling data indicate that the general public perceives only one form of race discrimination in the use of the death penalty – race-of-defendant discrimination – and that the public and elected officials may see racial discrimination as inevitable in the criminal justice system. Race of victim discrimination is a pervasive problem in the death penalty system. However, race discrimination is not inevitable. If serious controls were enacted to address this problem (such as those imposed in a few states) a fairer system could result.

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

Numerous studies have examinedthe psychological sequelae thatresult from the murder of a loved one. Except for the death penalty,however, sparse attention has been paidto the impact of the murderer’ssentence on homicide survivors’ well-being. Given the steadfastness ofthe public’s opinion that the death penalty brings satisfaction and closureto survivors, it is surprising thatthere has been no systematic inquirydirectly with survivors about whether obtaining the ultimate punishmentaffects their healing. This Study used in-person interviews with arandomly selected sample of survivorsfrom four time periods to examinethe totality of the ultimate penal sanction (UPS) process and itslongitudinal impact on their lives. Moreover, it assessed the differentialeffect of two types of UPS by comparing survivors’ experiences in Texas,a death penalty state, and Minnesota, a life without the possibility ofparole (LWOP) state. Comparing states highlights differences primarilyduring the postconviction stage, specifically with respect to the appealsprocess and in regard to survivor well-being. In Minnesota, survivors ofadjudicated cases show higher levels of physical, psychological, andbehavioral health. This Study’s findings have implications for trialstrategy and policy development.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Murder Victims' Families,

The authors gathered information on 1665 death-eligible cases nationwide for three years at decade intervals: 1994, 2004, and 2014. In 517 cases death sentences were imposed; in 311 cases sentences spared the defendants from death sentences, and in 837 cases prosecutors spared defendants from death sentences.

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

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

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Arbitrariness,

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

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

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

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty

Women sentenced to death: an invisible reality.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Women
• Available languages 2021اليوم العالمي ضدّ عقوبة الاعدامPoster ES - 2021 Día Mundial contra la Pena de Muerte2021روز جهانی علیه مجازات مرگAffiche FR - 2021 Journée mondiale contre la peine de mortPoster RU- 2021 Всемирный день против смертной казниPoster ZH 2021- 世界反死刑日

This survey polled public opinion in Kazakhstan towards the use of the death penalty for terrorist offences resulting in death, and also for especially grave crimes committed inwartime.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Public opinion,

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

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

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

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

The Egypt Death Penalty Index is a joint initiative of Reprieve and the Daftar Ahwal Data Research Center. The Index tracks Egypt’s use of capital punishment between 25 Janurary 2011 and 23 Septembrer 2018.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

This report focuses itsanalysis on discrimination and torture, cruel inhuman and degrading treatment and foundnumerous human rights violations, including the most basic right – the right to life – in theuse of the death penalty in California and Louisiana.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Discrimination,

Brandon Garrett hand-collected and analyzed national data, looking for causes and implications of this turnaround. End of Its Rope explains what he found, and why the story of who killed the death penalty, and how, can be the catalyst for criminal justice reform.

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

Poster of the 15th World Day against the Death Penalty dedicated to poverty. Poverty and Justice: a Deadly Mix.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Discrimination,
• Available languages German : Poster - 15. Welttag gegen die TodesstrafeItalian : Poster - 15° Giornata mondiale contro la Pena di morteپوستر - رد روز جهانی علیه مجازات اعدام 2017плакат - Всемирный день 2017海報 - 世界反对死刑日 2017 繁體海報 - 世界反对死刑日2017 简化字Affiche Journée Mondiale 2017Cartel -15° Día mundial contra la pena de muerte

In a video interview at the NCADP conference in Chicago, leading Illinois abolitionist Jeremy Schroeder explains how grassroots activism and political lobbying was an important factor in abolishing the death penalty in Illinois.

• Document type Lobbying
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Illinois : abolition, mode d'emploi

Test your knowledge of human rights and the death penalty in the U.S. with our downloadable quiz.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Country/Regional profiles,

Two-page guide with tips and contacts for individuals interested in getting started in anti-death penalty activism in the US.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Public opinion,

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

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

The penalty follows three people caught in the crosshairs of capital punishment, and the political landscape thatcould decide their fate. Going behind the scenes of some of the biggest headlines in the history of America’sdeath penalty, the film follows the lethal injection protocol crisis that resulted in a botched execution, therehabilitation of a man who spent 15 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, and the family of a youngwoman – brutally murdered – split by the state’s pursuit of the ultimate punishment.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Fair Trial, Right to life, Murder Victims' Families, Death Row Phenomenon, Lethal Injection, Death Penalty,

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

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

Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executions could resume after a four year moratorium, more than 1,050 people have been executed in the United States. Approximately 3,370 men and women remain on death row throughoutthe United States. This is a teaching guide on the death penalty in the United States after 1976.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Networks,

Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who have committed heinous crimes present hard cases for the American system of justice. The violence that occasionally erupts into murder can easily overcome the special respect that is afforded most veterans. However, looking away and ignoring this issue serves neither veterans nor victims. PTSD has affected an enormous number of veterans returning from combat zones. Over 800,000 Vietnam veterans suffered from PTSD. At least 175,000 veterans of Operation Desert Storm were affected by “Gulf War Illness,” which has been linked to brain cancer and other mental deficits. Over 300,000 veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts have PTSD. In one study, only about half had received treatment in the prior year.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Mental Illness,

This report examines four key aspects of the administration of capital punishment in Virginia: prosecutorial discretion in the charging of capital crimes, quality of legal representation for the accused at trial, appellate review of trials resulting in the death penalty and race. During its preparation, another issue became apparent: the state’s record keeping.

• Document type NGO report

This advocacy toolkit is for the use of activists working on the abolition of the death penalty in Africa. It is intended to equip them with some key advocacy tools to effectively influence the institutions and individuals who can make abolition a reality in the region.

• Document type Lobbying

The Global Overview 2011. It provides a country-by-country analysis of the death penalty for drugs, and is intended to inform policy-makers of the potential for change as well as to shed some light on the environments in which the international fight against illicit drugs is pursued.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Drug Offences,

The secrecy that surrounds capital punishment in Japan is taken to extremes not seen in other nations. This article describes the Japanese state’s policy of secrecy and explains how it developed in three historical stages: the “birth of secrecy” during the Meiji period (1867 – 1912); the creation and spread of “censored democracy” during the postwar Occupation (1945 – 1952); and the “acceleration of secrecy” during the decades that followed. The article then analyzes several justifications for secrecy that Japanese prosecutors provide. None seems cogent. The final section explores four meanings of the secrecy policy that relate to the sources of death penalty legitimacy, the salience of capital punishment, the nature of Japan’s democracy, and the role and rule of law in Japanese society.

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

This overview discusses the intersection of the law and the challenges faced by mentally ill capital defendants at every stage from trial through appeals and execution. It provides examples of some of the more famous cases of the execution of the mentally ill. Lastly, it describes current legislative efforts to exempt those who suffer from a serious mental illness from execution and the importance of such efforts.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Mental Illness,

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

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

The tide is turning in the United States from death sentences to permanent imprisonment. A growing number of states are choosing permanent imprisonment over the death penalty, fueled by growing concerns about the wrongful conviction of innocent people and the high costs of the death penalty in comparison to permanent imprisonment. In 2009, the number of new death sentences nationwide reached the lowest level since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. California lags behind in this national trend. The Golden State sent more people to death row last year than in the seven preceding years. By the close of 2009, California’s death row was the largest and most costly in the United States.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Sentencing Alternatives, Networks,

This submission addresses the Central African Republic’s compliance with its humanrights obligations with regard to its use of the death penalty. This submission concludesthat although the Central African Republic (CAR) should be given great credit for takingimportant steps towards abolition of the death penalty, including supporting the 2012U.N. General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty, manyhurdles remain in terms of ensuring that the citizens of CAR are afforded adequatedomestic and international guarantees against the arbitrary deprivation of life.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Central African Republic
• Themes list Due Process , Trend Towards Abolition, Arbitrariness,

Within the international community, other countries have recognized the potential for harm caused by our current system, and as a result have refused to extradite back to the United States individuals who might face the death penalty. These countries cite not only the possibility of execution as reason for refusal, but the waiting process which attends that death as a separate, independent violation of human rights. If we remain unpersuaded by the international community, the behavioral trends of those individuals awaiting execution are telling as well. Within one week in 2008, two individuals awaiting death in Texas committed suicide, reflecting the heightened suicide rates on death row, estimated at ten times greater than those in society at large and several times greater than those in a general prison population. In addition, the widely-recognized practice of “volunteering” for execution permits condemned inmates to waive their state and federally mandated rights to appeal in order to speed up the execution process, in essence “volunteering” to be executed.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Death Row Phenomenon, Extradition,

The stories of parents, siblings, children, and cousins chronicled in this book-vividly illustrate the precarious position family members of capital offenders occupy in the criminal justice system. They live in the shadow of death, crushed by trauma, grief, and helplessness. In this penetrating account of guilt and innocence, shame and triumph, devastating loss and ultimate redemption, the voices of these family members add a new dimension to debates about capital punishment and how communities can prevent and address crime.

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

The case of Cameron Todd Willingham has become infamous and was enmeshed in the death penalty debate and the reelection of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who refused to grant a stay of execution. The governor has since attempted to derail an investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

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

Senate Resolution No.6 in 2011 called for a study of the contemporary capital punishment system in the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania is among the 31 states and the federal government that authorize capital punishment. During the last four decades in Pennsylvania, hundreds of murderers have been convicted and condemned to death; however, there have been only three executions.This study follows others on the same or related topics, including those conducted by the American Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System. The SR6 report is the culmination of work done by the Justice Center for Research at The Pennsylvania State University, the Interbranch Commission on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, and an advisory committee comprised of judges, public defenders, district attorneys, victim advocates, inmate advocates, clergy, law enforcement officials, and other expert stakeholders.

• Document type Government body report
• Themes list Death Penalty, Statistics,

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

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

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

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

The present report, the first to be submitted to the Human Rights Council, is submitted pursuant to Council resolution 16/9 and covers the human rights developments since the commencement of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on 1 August 2011.

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

In this joint letter many Iranian and international human rights organizations, urge the governments they called to support the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, during the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Discrimination,

Malaysia is one of only a handful of countries around the world that continues to retain a mandatory death penalty. The newly elected Malaysian government has promised to abolish mandatory death sentences and other “oppressive laws”. This short animation sheds light on what the mandatory death penalty is, what the Malaysian public think about it and why it is time to consign this abhorrent punishment to history.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Malaysia
• Themes list Public opinion, Drug Offences, Mandatory Death Penalty,

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

Every 3 hours someone is put to death by their government. Is this justice? Watch first-hand testimonies by Reprieve lawyers and clients. Read ten hard facts about the death penalty. Decide for yourself.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Public debate, Death Penalty,

A new study by an interdisciplinary team of Arizona State University psychology researchers has found a link between the actual and perceived scarcity of resources and support for capital punishment. The study discovered that countries with greater resource scarcity were more likely to have a death penalty, as were U.S. states with lower per capita income.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Death Penalty, Financial cost,

The vast majority of countries in Western Europe, North America and South America – more than 139 nations worldwide – have abandoned capital punishment in law or in practice. This document goes through the death penalty status of countries world wide.

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

MYTH: The death penalty acts as a deterrent to potential criminals. FACT: The death penalty does not deter crime. It stimulates it.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Deterrence ,

MYTH: The death penalty is not political. FACT: The death penalty is often driven by politics rather than a desire to repair social problems and bring justice.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Fair Trial,

This video by Amnesty International talks about how the administration of the death penalty is cruel, often sought after unfair trials and how innocent people have been wrongfully convicted. Voice over by Colin Firth.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Available languages فيديو حول عقوبة الاعدام يسردها الممثل كولن فيرثDiaporama animé sur la peine de mort dans le mondeFotogalería: historias de todo el mundo sobre la pena capital

MYTH: The death penalty saves money. It costs less to kill people than to imprison them for life. FACT:The death penalty costs millions more than a sentence of life without parole. Taxpayers’ money could be used more efficiently on crime prevention programs and police.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Sentencing Alternatives, Financial cost,

Informations and survey findings about the public opinion on the death penalty in Singapore

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty,

Provides a comprehensive statistical assessment of how the death penalty has been applied over the entire modern period, 1976 to present

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

The International Commission against theDeath Penalty (ICDP) undertook anumber of activities in 2013 to reinforce andconsolidate the global trend toward abolition ofcapital punishment. This is a full report on ICDP’s workin 2013 as well as statistics on global trends on capital punishment.

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

MYTH: The death penalty applies to everyone equally, regardless of race, wealth or background. FACT: People who are convicted of the same crime receive vastly different penalties, across the world and within the same country or even case.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Arbitrariness,

While research abounds on attitudes toward capital punishment in the United States, such work has been lacking in non-western nations — particularly in India, the world’s largest democracy. Data recently collected have revealed variance in levels of support for the death penalty among Indian college students: 44 percent express some degree of opposition, 13 percent are uncertain, and 43 percent express some degree of support. Reasons for support or opposition also exhibited variance. According to a multivariate analysis, statistically significant reasons for support included retribution, instrumentalist goals, and incapacitation; while significant reasons for opposition included morality and the belief that deterrence could be achieved by imposing sentences of life without parole.

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

This report documents unfairness and unreliability that plague the death penalty system in Alabama and makes several recommendations, including a moratorium on executions. The major areas of focus the report examines are: Inadequate Defence, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Judicial Overrides, Execution of the Mentallly Retarded, Racial Discrimination, and Geographic Disparities.

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

Video recording of a training session by The Advocates for Human Rights on death penalty advocacy for the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of human rights. Download the PowerPoint presentation here.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list International law,

This toolkit is for the use of activists who are working on the abolition of the death penalty in West Africa. It is intended to equip activists with some key advocacy tools to effectively influence the institutions and individuals who can make abolition a reality.

• Document type Lobbying
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages Manuel de plaidoyer - Abolition de la peine de mort en Afrique de l'Ouest

This book addresses one of the most controversial issues in the criminal justice system today—the death penalty. Paternoster et al. present a balanced perspective that focuses on both the arguments for and against capital punishment. Coverage draws on legal, historical, philosophical, economic, sociological, and religious points of view.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Due Process , Public opinion, Country/Regional profiles,

Four-page introduction to the status of the death penalty in international human rights law and the global trend abolition.

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

In 2015, America had the lowest number of executions in 25 years. Of the 28 people executed, 68% suffered from severe mental disabilities or experienced extreme childhood trauma and abuse according to a new report released by Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice. A significant number of the executed individuals had multiple mental impairments. Two individuals were executed despite doubts about their guilt.

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

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

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