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2933 Document(s) 1100 Member(s) 8 Country 1934 Article(s) 41 Page(s)

Document(s)

Is the Death Penalty an Asian Value?

By Sangmin Bae / Asian Affairs, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Bylaws of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

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


2020

World Coalition

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 129 Ko ]

Document(s)

The Punishment

By Andres Segura, on 1 January 2018


2018

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Final Request

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2012


2012

Multimedia content


More details See the document

This 2012 animation “The Final Request” was produced under the EU funded project ‘Progressive Abolition of the Death Penalty and Alternatives that Respect International Human Rights Standards’. The three-minute animation provides a basic overview of the application of the death penalty in the Middle East and North African region.

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

Document(s)

Race Discrimination and the Legitimacy of Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Interaction of Fact and Perception

By George Woodworth / David C. Baldus / DePaul Law Review, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Going backwards The death penalty in Southeast Asia

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


2016

NGO report


More details See the document

Over the past year, Southeast Asia has witnessed significant setbacks with regard to the abolitionof the death penalty. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore have all carried out executions. It isunknown whether any executions were carried out in Vietnam, where statistics on the deathpenalty continue to be classified as ‘state secrets.’ In the name of combating drug trafficking,Indonesian President Joko Widodo is rapidly becoming Southeast Asia’s top executioner. ThePhilippines, which effectively abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2006, is consideringreinstating capital punishment as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s ill-conceived and disastrous‘war on drugs.’

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

Document(s)

West Africa: Time to abolish the death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2003


2003

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

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

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


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Investigating Attitudes to the Death Penalty in Indonesia in bahasa Indonesia

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


2021

NGO report

Drug Offenses

Indonesia

Public Opinion 


More details See the document

Pandangan Para Pembentuk Opini tentang Hukuman Mati di Indonesia

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty Project: 2018 Report

By The Death Penalty Project, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Uzbekistan: Torture and Secrecy

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


2005

NGO report

rufr
More details See the document

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

Kurdistan without Genocide logo

Member(s)

Kurdistan without Genocide

on 8 September 2023

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

2023

Iraq

Document(s)

The Harrowing Testimonies of Death Penalty Executioners

By Lucy Tiven / attn, on 1 January 2016


2016

Working with...


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in China

By Sky News / YouTube, on 1 January 2015


2015

Arguments against the death penalty

fr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

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

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


2012

Book


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in 2010: Year End Reports

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Q&A: The Death Penalty and Drug Offenses

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


2020

Academic report

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 143 Ko ]

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

Document(s)

Fatally flawed: Why Malaysia must abolish the death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report

enzh-hantesfr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

The death penalty worldwide: Developments in 2000

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2001


2001

NGO report

arfres
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Prison guards and the death penalty

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

No one is spared – The widespread use of the death penalty in Iran

By League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran, on 5 November 2020


2020

Drug Offenses

Fair Trial

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Juveniles

Women


More details See the document
  • Document type Array
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list Drug Offenses / Fair Trial / Juveniles / Women

Document(s)

Religious Conservatives and the Death Penalty

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


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Victim Gender and the Death Penalty

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


2014

Article


More details See the document

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

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

Article(s)

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

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

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

2013

Barbados

Trinidad and Tobago

Document(s)

Tanzania: the death sentence institutionnalised

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Eric Mirguet / Arnold Tsunga, on 1 January 2005


2005

NGO report

enfr
More details See the document

Individuals are regularly sentenced to death in murder cases, but no statistics are published about the number of condemnations. Under the Tanzanian Penal Code, the death sentence remains a mandatory penalty for murder while it can also be applied for treason. As of April 2003, 370 persons (359 males and 11 females) were awaiting execution in the prisons of mainland Tanzania in conditions that might amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. There are a number of dysfunctions in the Tanzanian legal system, which seems to represent a threat to the rule of law, and an obstacle to reform: the unwillingness of the Executive to have its decisions challenged in judicial proceedings, and; the existence of a Penal System essentially based on retaliation towards the offenders rather than rehabilitation ; e.g. corporal punishments can still be applied for numerous offences, in spite of the fact that they clearly violate international and regional human rights instruments. Furthermore, pervasive corruption in the police and the judiciary represents a serious threat to the due process of law, including in death penalty cases.

Document(s)

The death penalty worldwide: 2012 report

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 1 January 2012


2012

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


2022

NGO report

Women


More details See the document

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

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Women

Document(s)

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

By Council of Europe, on 1 January 2011


2011

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Documentaire: femmes dans la couloir de la mort

By Investigations et Enquêtes , on 17 January 2024


2024

Multimedia content

Death Row Conditions 

Gender

United States

Women


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Japan : 111 th Session of the Human Rights Committee

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


2014

Multimedia content

Japan


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


2006

Book

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition

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


2001

Book

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


2010

Book

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Deterrence and the Death Penalty

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


2012

Book


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Deterrence ,

Document(s)

Failure to Apply the Flynn Correction in Death Penalty Litigation: Standard Practice of Today Maybe, but Certainly Malpractice of Tomorrow

By John E. Wright / John Niland / Cecil R. Reynolds / Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment / Michal Rosenn, on 1 January 2010


2010

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

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

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


2006

Article

China


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The death penalty, terrorism and international law

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2014


2014

Academic report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


2019

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Siting the Death Penalty Internationally

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


2008

Article


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning

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


2004

Book


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Religion ,

Document(s)

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

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


2011

NGO report

zh-hant
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

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

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


2003

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


2016

NGO report

ru
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

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

By United Nations / Ivan Šimonovic, on 1 January 2014


2014

International law - United Nations


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Flawed Justice: Unfair Trial and the Death Penalty in indonesia

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report

enfr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

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

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Tajikistan

ru
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

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

By United Nations General Assembly, on 18 November 2020


2020

International law - United Nations

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2017

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


2018

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2018

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


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Is the Death Penalty Good for Women

By Phyllis L. Crocker / Buffalo Law Review, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

In this essay, I suggest a different and particularly feminist reason for reexamining, and rejecting, the death penalty. The death penalty perverts society’s response to the tragedy of a woman being raped and murdered by relying on a form of racism that is gendered in nature and by making the horrific nature of the crime of rape-murder a more important consideration in determining punishment than the individual characteristics of the person who committed it.

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty in Liberia. When will it be abolished?

By FIACAT, on 1 January 2019


2019

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

The FIACAT and ACAT Liberia organized an awareness-raisingworkshop on 17 and 18 September 2019 in Monrovia (Liberia) for 30 participants: Muslim and Christian religious leaders, traditional chiefs, members of civil society organizations, journalists, members of the Independent National Commissionon Human Rights (INCHR) and parliamentarians. This workshop resulted in the production of this publication to raise awareness among opinion leaders on the abolition of the death penalty in Liberia, considering the specific characteristicsand needs of the country.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty

Article(s)

Call for interns

By Project 39A, on 14 June 2018

Project 39A offers a minimum of four-week long internships to students of law and related fields.

2018

India

Document(s)

In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families

By Elizabeth Beck / Oxford University Press / Sarah Britto / Arlene Andrews, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Chinas Death Penalty: History, Law and Contemporary Practices

By Terance D. Miethe / Hong Lu / Routledge, on 1 January 2007


Book

China


More details See the document

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,

Member(s)

Penal Reform International (PRI)

on 30 April 2020

Penal Reform International (PRI) is an independent international non-governmental organisation that structures its work through a policy programme, regional programmes, and a governance and strategy programme that ensures learning and impact. Registered in The Netherlands (registration no 40025979), PRI operates globally with offices in multiple locations. We work to promote criminal justice systems that uphold […]

2020

United Kingdom

Document(s)

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

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


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

For or against abolition of the death penalty: Evidence from Taiwan

By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / The Death Penalty Project, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report


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

Document(s)

Alternative Sanctions to the Death Penalty Information Pack

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2011


2011

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Mental Illness and the Death Penalty in North Carolina

By American Civil Liberties Union, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Financial Costs of the Death Penalty

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


2014

Government body report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Government body report
  • Themes list Statistics, Financial cost,
Human Rights Association - logo

Member(s)

Human Rights Association

on 2 May 2023

The Human Rights Association (İnsan Hakları Derneği) is a non-governmental, independent, and voluntary body. The association, which was founded in 1986 by 98 human rights defenders, today has 27 branches, 7 representative offices, and ~8,000 members. İHD is the oldest and largest human rights organization in Turkey and its “sole and specific goal is to […]

2023

Turkey

Member(s)

HURILAWS

on 30 April 2020

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

2020

Nigeria

Document(s)

UN advocacy: the universal periodic review – Death penalty

By The Advocates for Human Rights / Amy Bergquist / Rosalyn Park / Jennifer Prestholdt, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Against Capital Punishment: The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America, 1972-1994

By Oxford University Press / Herbert H. Haines, on 8 September 1999


1999

Book

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures

By Oxford University Press / Beth A. Berkowitz, on 1 January 2006


2006

Book


More details See the document

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 ,

Document(s)

Oregon’s death penalty disproportionately used against persons with significant mental impairments

By Fair Punishment Project, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United States


More details See the document

Although,by all functional measures, Oregonians have abandoned the death penalty, 35 condemned inmates remain on Oregon’s death row.What do we know about those people, and about the quality of justice that resulted in their death sentences? This report examines the cases of the condemned men and women in Oregon to see how they ended up there, and what patterns emerged.Here’s what we found: In Oregon, two-thirds of death row inmates possess signs of serious mental illness or intellectual impairment, endured devastatingly severe childhood trauma, or were not old enough to legally purchase alcohol at the time the offense occurred.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Mental Illness, Death Row Phenomenon, Intellectual Disability, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

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

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2013


2013

NGO report

es
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

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

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


2009

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

DNA and the Death Penalty

By Brandon Garrett / Joshua Marquis / CATO Unbound / Jeffrey Kirchmeier / George H. Smith, on 1 January 2012


2012

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Executing the Innocent: the Next Step in the Marshall Hypotheses

By Eric G. Lambert / Alen W. Clarke / New York University (NYU) / Laurie Anne Whitt, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2018

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


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Annual report on the death penalty in Iran 2013

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


2014

NGO report

fafr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2015

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


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offences,

Document(s)

Annual Report of the Death Penalty in Iran in 2010

By Iran Human Rights (IHR), on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report

fa
More details See the document

The annual report of the death penalty in 2010 shows a dramatic increase in the number of executions compared to the previous years. The number of annual executions in 2010 in Iran is probably the highest since the mass executions of political prisoners in the summer of 1988.

Document(s)

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

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


2007

NGO report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Drug Offences,

Document(s)

Investigating Forensic Problems in the United States: How the Federal Government Can Strengthen Oversight Through the Coverdell Grant Program

By Benjamin N. Cardozo / The Innocence Project, on 8 September 2020


2020

Working with...


More details See the document

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,

EN_WCADP_TDR_GenderSensitiveEvaluationWorldDay2021_30.09

on 7 October 2022

Terms of Reference – Gender sensitive Evaluation

2022

Document(s)

Death Row Stories

By CNN, on 1 January 2020


2020

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

This docu-series investigate the fallibility of the death penalty in the United States.

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

Document(s)

Seven Dates With Death

By Mike Holland, on 1 January 2019


2019

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

In Louisiana in the late 50s, Moreese Bickham, who was the oldest living survivor of death row, killed two members of the Ku Klux Klan to save his own life. He was sentenced to death and believes he was lucky enough to even have a trial as a black man in the south. Due to mental toughness, a timely supreme court decision, and a lot of hope, Bickham survived his death sentence. Whether he knew it or not, after that day, his life was not going to get any easier

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

Document(s)

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

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


2020

Multimedia content


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

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

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

Document(s)

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

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


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Professional Obligation to Raise Frivolous Issues in Death Penalty Cases

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


2003

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Take action on the death penalty

By The Advocates for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020


2020

Campaigning


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Social survey: public attitudes in Kazakhstan to the death penalty for terrorist offences

By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2014


2014

NGO report


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Death In Decline ’09: Los Angeles Holds California Back as Nation Shifts to Permanent Imprisonment

By American Civil Liberties Union / Northern California, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in 2016: video summary of DPIC Year End Report.

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2016


2016

NGO report


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Does the death penalty give victims closure? Science says no

By Linda Lewis Griffith / San Luis Obispo Tribune, on 1 January 2019


2019

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in 2019: Year End Report

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2019


NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Public support for the death penalty ticks up

By Pew Research Center / J. Baxter Oliphant, on 1 January 2018


2018

Article

United States


More details See the document

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(s)

Lethal Rejection: An Empirical Analysis of the Astonishing Plunge in Death Sentences in the United States from Their Post-Furman Peak

By Talia Roitberg Harmon / David McCord / Albany Law Review, on 1 January 2018


Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

USA: Breaking a lethal habit – A look back at the death penalty in 2007

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

United States

es
More details See the document

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(s)

Innocence and the Death Penalty

By Death Penalty Focus, on 1 January 2011


2011

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Early Supreme Court Cases on the Death Penalty

By Robert Bohm / Carolina Academic Press, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

People’s Republic of China: The Death Penalty in 1999

By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

China

fr
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty: Stop the state killing

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2007


2007

NGO report

fres
More details See the document

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(s)

Why Do White Americans Support the Death Penalty?

By Journal of Politics / Alan R. Metelko / Laura Langbein, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article

United States


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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,