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

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Mongolia
• Available languages Доклад Cпециального докладчика по вопросу о пытках и других жестоких, бесчеловечных или унижающих достоинство видах обращения и наказания Манфреда Новака - МИССИЯ В МОНГОЛИЮRapport du Rapporteur spécial sur la torture et autres peines ou traitements cruels, inhumains ou dégradants, M. Manfred Nowak - MISSION EN MONGOLIE酷刑和其他残忍、不人道或有辱人格的待遇或处罚问题 特别报告员曼弗雷德·诺瓦克的报告 - 对蒙古的访问Informe del Relator Especial sobre la tortura y otros tratos o penas crueles, inhumanos o degradantes, Manfred Nowak - MISIÓN A MONGOLIAمن وغيره التعذيب بمسألة المعني الخاص المقرر نواك، منفرد السيد تقرير المهينة أو اللاإنسانية أو القاسية العقوبة أو المعاملة ضروب ‎‎- منغوليا إلى البعثة

The death penalty in the state of California continues to be a major focus, due in part to the burden it places on tax payers. Our goal with this infographic was to examine the facts, and the facts alone. Even though Proposition 34 did not pass in the most recent election, this issue will continue to be argued and remain a pressing issue, especially during difficult economic times.

• Document type Lobbying
• Themes list Minorities, International law, Public debate,

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition

• Document type Campaigning / World Coalition

• Document type Academic report
• Available languages Kit pour les Villes contre la peine de mort - 2015Kit Ciudades contra la Pena de Muerte - 2015

• Document type Campaigning
• Available languages Kit pour les Villes contre la peine de mortKit Ciudades contra la Pena de Muerte

• Document type Campaigning
• Available languages Folleto Ciudades contra la Pena de MuerteBrochure Villes contre la peine de mort

In the last five years, the death penalty has become a frequent topic of discussion. While discussion of such an emotive topic is not unusual for any period in history, the tenor of the recent dialogue is unusual. For the most part, the discussion centers around the problems with capital punishment, particularly its inaccuracy and unfairness. This Article begins in Part II with a discussion of recent claims about the frequency of errors in capital cases. Part III enumerates and discusses the factors generally thought to be the cause of the errors. Part IV details new rules recently adopted in one jurisdiction in an effort to eliminate the errors. Part IV also suggests that these new rules, though worthwhile, are actually a reiteration of long-standing ethical obligations of judges and lawyers, the breach of which is responsible for many of the errors. Part V recommends additional remedies which the bench and the bar must take if there is a true commitment to providing a fair, just, and reliable system for determining who the government is entitled to kill.

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

THE SITUATION TODAY The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for more than ten years, was again confirmed in 2011 and the first six months of 2012. There are currently 155 Countries and territories that, to different extents, have decided to renounce the death penalty. Of these: 99 are totally abolitionist; 7 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 5 have a moratorium on executions in place and 44 are de facto abolitionist (i.e. Countries that have not carried out any executions for at least 10 years or Countries which have binding obligations not to use the death penalty).

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : I FATTI PIÙ IMPORTANTI DEL 2011 (E DEI PRIMI SEI MESI DEL 2012)

The Worldwide Situation to Date: The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for at least a decade, was again confirmed in 2008 and the first six months of 2009. There are currently 151 countries and territories that to different extents have decided to renounce the death penalty. Of these: 96 are totally abolitionist; 8 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 5 have a moratorium on executions in place and 42 are de facto abolitionist (i.e. countries that have not carried out any executions for at least 10 years or countries which have binding obligations not to use the death penalty).

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : SINTESI DEI FATTI PIÙ IMPORTANTI DEL 2008 (e dei primi sei mesi del 2009)

THE SITUATION TODAY The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for more than ten years, was again confirmed in 2009 and the first six months of 2010. There are currently 154 countries and territories that, to different extents, have decided to renounce the death penalty. Of these: 96 are totally abolitionist; 8 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 6 have a moratorium on executions in place and 44 are de facto abolitionist (i.e. countries that have not carried out any executions for at least 10 years or countries which have binding obligations not to use the death penalty).

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : I FATTI PIÙ IMPORTANTI DEL 2009 (E DEI PRIMI SEI MESI DEL 2010)

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

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

Cameroon, with a population of approximately 18 million, has a multiparty system of government, with the current ruling party Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) in power since it was created in 1985. The president retains the power to control legislation or to rule by decree. Although the civilian authorities do generally maintain effective control of the security forces, security forces sometimes act independently of government authority. Authorities arbitrarily arrest and detain citizens for different reasons. Among those arbitrarily arrested and detained are human rights defenders and other activists and persons not carrying government-issued identity cards. There are incidents of prolonged and sometimes incommunicado pretrial detention and infringement on privacy rights. The government restricts freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association, and harasses journalists and human rights defenders. Other problems include widespread official corruption, societal violence, discrimination against women, the trafficking of children and girls, and discrimination against homosexuals. The government restricts worker rights and activities of independent labor organizations. The diverse cultural beliefs and ethnic groups promote to a large extend discrimination against and violations of women and young people, widows and the divorced. This report specifically highlights violations in 2008 and 2009, with a few violations in other years.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Cameroun: Rapport de la société civile sur la mise en oeuvre du PIDCP

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

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Guide de l’information du Conseil de l’Union européenne

This document summarizes Amnesty International’s global research on the use of the death penalty in 2009. More than two-thirds of the countries of the world have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. While 58 countries retained the death penalty in 2009, most did not use it. Eighteen countries were known to have carried out executions, killing a total of 714 people; however, this figure does not include the thousands of executions that were likely to have taken place in China, which again refused to divulge figures on its use of the death penalty. For an update to this document please see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ACT50/005/2010/en

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages أحكام الإعدام وعمليات الإعدام في عام 2009CONDAMNATIONS À MORT ET EXÉCUTIONS RECENSÉES EN 2009CONDENAS A MUERTE Y EJECUCIONES 2009

This volume represents an effort to restore the sense of capital punishment as a question caught up in history. Edited by leading scholars of crime and justice, these original essays pursue different strategies for unsettling the usual terms of the debate. In particular, the authors use comparative and historical investigations of both Europe and America in order to cast fresh light on familiar questions about the meaning of capital punishment.

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

This is a guide for preparing events against the death penalty. It includes a “How to” guide for holding different types of events. It also provides a short factsheet on death penalty information in the United States.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Networks,

California’s death penalty is dead. Prosecutors, legislators and taxpayers are turning to permanent imprisonment with no chance of parole as evidence grows that the system is costly, risky, and dangerous to public safety.

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

For the third time in a span of five years, a country has brought suit against the United States in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) in capital cases. 1 And, for the third time, the ICJ has issued an order of provisional measures. The most recent order indicates that: “the United States shall take all measures necessary to ensure that [three named Mexican defendants] are not executed pending final judgment in these proceedings.” (Avena case)

• Document type Article
• Countries list Mexico
• Themes list Foreign Nationals,

This Article addresses the issue of whether a criminal defendant may waive the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments by selecting an unconstitutional punishment over a constitutional punishment. The Article begins with a discussion of the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, followed by a discussion of areas where the Court has allowed defendants to waive Eighth Amendment protections in various contexts. Then, the Article discusses court decisions that have addressed whether one may waive Eighth Amendment protections by choosing a cruel and unusual punishment. Generally, this issue has arisen in three contexts: (1) where defendants are given the punishment option of banishment; (2) where sex offenders are given the punishment option of castration; and (3) where capital defendants are given an execution method option that violates the constitution. The Article explains that at least in the context of punishment type, a defendant’s choice should not waive Eighth Amendment protections. First, the ban on cruel and unusual punishments is a right that differs significantly from other constitutional criminal rights because it serves a broad societal purpose. Second, the waiver of this right differs from the waiver of other criminal rights because such waivers do not benefit the individual or society. Finally, to allow such waivers would strip the Eighth Amendment of meaning by permitting legislatures to create any punishment options it desired. Therefore, the Article concludes that the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishments cannot be waived by an individual.

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

In Uganda, 28 crimes can attract the death penalty – including robbery, smuggling, acts of treason and terrorism, and non-lethal military sentences, and death sentences continue to be handed out after judicial proceedings which fail to meet international standards for a fair trial. This film produced by PRI’s Ugandan partner the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative provides a moving insight into the situation of prisoners on death row and others serving life sentences in the country.

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

Detailed information on the death penalty and drug crimes.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list Drug Offences, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
• Available languages مجازات اعدام و جرا ی م مربوط به مواد مخدر نگاهی به آمار و ارقام سیزدهمین روز جهانی علیه مجازات اعدامFiche sur la peine de mort et le trafic de drogue

Detailed information on the death penalty and terrorism.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Terrorism,
• Available languages Fiche détaillée sur la peine de mort et le terrorisme

Take action
against the death penalty:
Join the hundreds
of initiatives worldwide
Sign the petition
calling for a universal
moratorium on executions

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
• Available languages Poster Arabic 2007Affiche journée mondiale 2007

A press release on the DPIC Year End Report 2016: Use of the death penalty fell to historic lows across the United States in 2016. States imposed the fewest death sentences in the modern era of capital punishment, since states began re-enacting death penalty statutes in 1973. New death sentences are predicted to be down 39% from 2015’s 40-year low. Executions declined more than 25% to their lowest level in 25 years, and public opinion polls also measured support for capital punishment at a four-decade low.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,

DPIC collects information on the number of death sentences in the United States. We only count the number of “new sentences,” i.e., we do not recount individuals who were sentenced to death in a previous year, had their sentenced overturned, and were resentenced in the current year.

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

The U.N. Moratorium on Executions : On December 18, 2007, with 104 votes in favour, 54 votes against and 29 abstentions, the United Nations 62nd General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a Resolution that calls upon all States that still maintain the death penalty to “Establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.”

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : SINTESI DEI FATTI PIÙ IMPORTANTI DEL 2007 (e dei primi sei mesi del 2008)

In this Opinion, Professor Schabas argues that the Commonwealth is behind the curve of the international trend towards the abolition of the death penalty. He analyses the status and use of capital punishment in Commonwealth countries, as compared to all UN member states more broadly.

• Document type Article
• Themes list International law,

The first section below describes how, for many jurors, the decision about guilt appears to be so overwhelming that it prevents truly separate decision making about punishment. The second section focuses on the degree to which jurors feel constrained by what they view as a requirement to impose death if certain aggravating factors are present in the case. And finally, the third section explores the way in which mitigating evidence, even when it appears to have been extensive and credible, is ignored, devalued, or discredited.

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

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

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

In Malaysian jails, more than 1,200 prisoners are on death row. For them, news that the government was planning to abolish the death penalty provided a much-needed glimmer of hope. But many Malaysians want to keep the law as it is, saying capital punishment deters criminals and helps keep citizens safe. Families of murder victims say the only way to get justice for their loved ones is by hanging the perpetrators. 101 East meets the people on either side of this emotional life-and-death debate and investigates if Malaysia is ready to abolish the death penalty.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Malaysia
• Themes list Moratorium , Murder Victims' Families, Death Row Phenomenon,

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

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

Mr. Page committed an atrocious crime. He did not know his victim, Peyton Tuthill, a young woman who had recently graduated from college and moved to Denver. But he was in her house, looking for money and items to sell, when she returned from a job interview. Instead of leaving her home, Mr. Page stayed to beat Peyton Tuthill, tie her up, stab her, slit her throat, rape her repeatedly, and eventually, kill her. Clearly, Ms. Tuthill did not deserve to die such a tortured death. Clearly, her death resulted from an egregious crime. However, the answer to the question of whether Mr. Page should be executed for committing this murder is not as clear. Some would answer affirmatively, others negatively. An important question is: who should decide?

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

From initial charging decisions to plea bargaining to jury sentencing, African-Americans are treated more harshly when they are defendants, and their lives are accorded less value when they are victims.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Discrimination,
• Available languages La Pena de Muerte tiene Tendencias Racistas

Compiled by Project 39A from the National University Law in Delhi, India and based on numerous figures and statistics, this report attempts to understand how death sentencing is practised among the district and sessions courts in India.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Death Penalty,

List of points of international human rights law to review when submitting a report on a country’s use of the death penalty to the United Nations’ Universial Periodic Review.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list International law,

This article discusses a new art exhibition in Los Angeles which aims to humanise condemned prisoners. It continues to situate the exhibition in the greater context of the depiction of the death penalty in art history. The conversation this article raises is the link the death penalty in art history has with creating a public discussion. From the sword to the electric chair, the death penalty has inspired challenging art, writes Jason Farago.

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

The most recent executions in South Korea took place in December 1997, when 23 people were executed at short notice on the same day. Similarly, nineteen executions occurred in 1995 and 15 in 1994, in each instance occurring all on the same day. These group executions seem to reflect cultural factors that monthly statistics alone do not capture. No executions have occurred since 1998, but this de facto suspension has not been reinforced by law. Since 1999, lawmakers have thrice endorsed a bill favoring life imprisonment without parole in place of the death penalty, but each time the proposal has stalled and failed to move forward. The need remains to develop a culturally appropriate pro-abolition argument that could persuade the Korean public that the death penalty is unworkable and wrong. On 21 January 2007, in the Inhyeokdang case, the Korean Court acquitted 8 persons who had been executed 32 years earlier. The hope is that, in light of strong arguments based on the risk to innocent persons and the irreversibility of capital punishment, Korea will effectively transition from de facto to formal abolition.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Republic of Korea
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

This article reviews several cases where the families of victim’s speak out against the death penalty.

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

Ever since California added the death penalty to its penal code in the 1870s, supporters have argued that the threat of executions would make potential murderers think twice before committing heinous crimes.

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

Amnesty International has received reports from contacts in Pakistan that there has recently been an increase in executions in Pakistan: 60 people have been executed this year in the province of Punjab alone. In addition, 10 executions are known to have taken place in the North-West Frontier Province. There are continuing concerns around the application of the death penalty in Pakistan including the execution of juveniles.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,

In chapter III, the Special Rapporteur focuses on the compatibility of the death penalty with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. He concludes that the historic interpretation of the right to personal integrity and human dignity in relation to the death penalty is increasingly challenged by the dynamic interpretation of this right in relation to corporal punishment and the inconsistencies deriving from the distinction between corporal and capital punishment, as well as by the universal trend towards the abolition of capital punishment.

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages تقرير المقرر الخاص المعني بمسألة التعذيب وغيره من ضروب المعاملةأو العقوبة القاسية أو اللاإنسانية أو المهينة، مانفرِد نوواكRapport du Rapporteur spécial sur la torture et autres peines ou traitements cruels, inhumains ou dégradants, Manfred Nowak酷刑和其他残忍、不人道或有辱人格的待遇或处罚问题特别报告员曼弗雷德·诺瓦克的报告Informe del Relator Especial sobre la tortura y otros tratos o penas crueles, inhumanos o degradantes, Manfred NowakДоклад Специального докладчика по вопросу о пытках и других жестоких, бесчеловечных или унижающих достоинство видах обращения и наказания Манфреда Новака

This study, focusing on five of Florida’s 67 counties considers 48 death sentences that were declared unconstitutional after a Florida Supreme Court decision. The research reveals that “63 percent of these individuals exhibit 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
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Intellectual Disability, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

This article talks about the tension between protecting the innocent on the one hand and dragging the process out for victims’ families on the other, and how those two can’t be reconciled.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Murder Victims' Families, Death Penalty,

n the course of its advocacy and litigation work, JPP has developed a substantial collection of data sets on death row. With technical support from HURIDOCS, it has now developed open source data sets based on existing research on death row and on age determination under the Juvenile Justice Systems Ordinance. This project marks the beginning of the process of making the information publicly available, allowing the public and academic institutions to generate their own findings and base their campaigns on verified data.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Pakistan
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Urdu : جسٹس پراجیکٹ پاکستان کا ڈیٹا بیس

Developments on the use of the death penalty in 2011 confirmed the global trend towards abolition. The number of countries that were known to have carried out death sentences decreased compared to the previous year, and overall, progress was recorded in all regions of the world. In this report, Amnesty International analyses some of the key developments in the worldwide application of the death penalty, citing figures it has gathered on the number of death sentences handed down and executions carried out during the year.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Thai : สถานการณ์โทษประหาร และการประหารชีวิต ในปี 2554Korean : 연례사형현황 보고서 2011 사형선고와 사형집행اعدام و صدور حکم اعدام در سال2011Condamnations à mort et executions 2011國際特赦組織 全球死刑報告 2011Condenas a muerte y ejecuciones 2011

According to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) entitled, “Slamming the Courthouse Doors: Denial of Access to Justice and Remedy in America,” many states severely restrict access to justice for capital defendants and limit the availability of remedies to correct errors. The problem of inadequate counsel continues to pervade death penalty systems across the country: “Few states provide adequate funds to compensate lawyers for their work or to investigate cases properly. In addition to inadequate funding, the majority of death-penalty states lack adequate competency standards. Many states require only minimal training and experience for attorneys handling death penalty cases, and in some cases capital defense attorneys fail to meet the minimum guidelines for capital defense set by the American Bar Association (ABA),” according to the ACLU. The report also states that the absence of a right to counsel in post-conviction appeals leaves capital defendants with few options to address serious errors during their trial.

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

‘Filling The Void’ is a brutal record of Bill Leonard’s troubled childhood and youth.The memoir provides a shocking insight into the neglect and abuse that he suffered as a child at the hands of his parents and stepfather and gives a frank account of the murders that led to his incarceration. It reveals the horrendous conditions in which Bill is held in Ely State Prison, Nevada and gives a graphic description of the barbarous treatment that he has received at the hands of his prison guards. It also details and examines the flawed process that earned him the death penalty and describes his struggle for self-rehabilitation through a process called neuroplasticity. This is the life story of a man who has suffered a great deal, who has passions that aren’t always under control. A man who loves order and truth but hasn’t always been able to engage in them. Someone who is hugely motivated to learn and develop his abilities. Someone who ought to be alive for a long time. This is Bill Leonard – and this is his story.

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

A new book by Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer who has defended death row inmates in the U.S., offers an in-depth view of capital punishment in America. In Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America, Stafford Smith examines the case of Kris Maharaj, a British citizen who was sentenced to death in Florida for a double murder, to expose problems in the justice system.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Innocence,

In the report, the Special Rapporteur considers key elements of a gender-sensitive perspective to the mandate, in the interests of strengthening an inclusive application of critical norms and standards related to the right to life. These elements include consideration of the impact of gender identity and expression, intersecting with other identities, on the risks factors to killings or death, the degree of predictability of harm and States’ implementation of its due diligence obligations. Applying gender lenses to the notion of arbitrariness, the Special Rapporteur highlights that gender-based killings — when committed by non-State actors — may constitute arbitrary killings. It also shows that violations of the right to life stem not only from an intentional act of deprivation of life by the State or a non-State actor, but also from the deprivation of basic conditions that guarantee life, such as access to essential health care

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list International law, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Torture, Arbitrariness, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,

Fairness for those defendants facing the ultimate punishment of death requires that they be afforded zealous advocacy by competent counsel, and that counsel be provided with the resources necessary to effectively represent their clients. Stating that “[o]ur capital system is haunted by the demon of error, error in determining guilt, and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die,” Governor Ryan cited many deficiencies in the justice system in Illinois, including poor lawyering and inadequate resources for defense counsel, in arriving at his decision to commute all death sentences. Over the years the imposition of the death penalty has too often been a function of unqualified counsel or counsel who lacked the resources, including time, funding, and provision of investigative, expert and supportive services, to competently represent their clients, rather than a reasoned decision based on the circumstances of the crime and the background and character of the defendant.

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

This report seeks to answer the arguments put forward by the proponents of capital punishment in the English Speaking Caribbean and examines the shortcomings in the administration of the death penalty in the region.The paper primarily focuses on Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the two countries with the largest death row populations in the region. However, details of other counties are given and the themes and problems illustrated in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are prevalent in the other nations of the ESC.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,

Evidence from execution logs showed that six of the last eight prisoners executed in California had not stopped breathing before technicians gave the paralytic agent, raising a serious possibility that prisoners experienced suffocation from the paralytic, a feeling much like being buried alive, and felt intense pain from the potassium bolus. This experience would be unacceptable under the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. So the judge ordered the state to have an anesthesiologist present in the death chamber to determine when the prisoner was unconscious enough for the second and third injections to be given — or to perform the execution with sodium thiopental alone.The California Medical Association, the American Medical Association (AMA), and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) immediately and loudly opposed such physician participation as a clear violation of medical ethics codes. “Physicians are healers, not executioners,” the ASA’s president told reporters. Nonetheless, in just two days, prison officials announced that they had found two willing anesthesiologists. The court agreed to maintain their anonymity and to allow them to shield their identities from witnesses. Both withdrew the day before the execution, however, after the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit added a further stipulation requiring them personally to administer additional medication if the prisoner remained conscious or was in pain. This they would not accept. The execution was then postponed until at least May, but the court has continued to require that medical professionals assist with the administration of any lethal injection given to Morales. This turn of events is the culmination of a steady evolution in methods of execution in the United States.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Lethal Injection,

Death row exonerees bios

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Right to life, Death Row Conditions, Death Row Phenomenon, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

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

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

Findings from a preliminary study concerning the local abolitionist movement, risksto related civilsociety organizations and the identification of capacity building opportunities.

• Document type Campaigning
• Countries list Maldives
• Themes list Public Opinion 
• Available languages Empêcher le retour de la peine capitale aux Maldives

The Transitional Justice Working Group’s 2019 report “Mapping the Fate of the Dead: Killings and Burials in North Korea” is based on four years of research(2015-2019) to document and map three types of locations connected to human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea):

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

The worldwide situation to date: The worldwide situation concerning the death penalty has once again registered a trend towards abolition in the past year. The countries or territories that to different extents have decided to give up the practice of capital punishment total 133, including the first months of 2004. Of these 81 have abolished the death penalty completely; 14 have abolished it for ordinary crimes; 1, Russia, as a member of the Council of Europe is committed to abolish it and in the meanwhile apply a moratorium on executions; 5 are observing moratoriums and 32 countries are de facto abolitionist, not having carried out executions for at least 10 years.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : I FATTI PIU´ IMPORTANTI DEL 2003 (e dei primi mesi del 2004)

In the last decade, more than 30 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Fifty-eight countries worldwide now retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes, and less than half of these carried out executions in 2010. This report analyzes some of the key developments in the worldwide application of the death penalty in 2010, citing figures gathered by Amnesty International on the number of death sentences handed down and executions carried out during the year.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Condamnations à mort et exécutions et exécutions en 2010Condenas a meurte y ejecuciones en 2010

The year 2001 has confirmed the accelerated trend towards the abolition of the death penalty on course for the past ten years. In 2001 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became totally abolitionist, Chile abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes, Ireland removed all references to the death penalty from its constitution, Burkina Faso joined the group of de facto abolitionists not having carried out any executions for more than ten years, and Lebanon has imposed a moratorium on executions.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Statistics,
• Available languages Italian : I FATTI PIÙ IMPORTANTI DEL 2001

This article discusses the role of executive clemency in light of the current political environment. Attending to the political aspects of the capital litigation process gives insight into the trends in the use of executive clemency

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

FaultLines explores the death penalty in the United States. Interviews with murder victim families, politicans and the exonerated are included.

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

Autobiography of Anthony Graves, an innocent exonerated from death row in the USA. In the summer of 1992, a family was beaten and stabbed to death in Somerville, Texas. The perpetrator set the house on fire to cover his tracks, deepening the heinousness of the crime and rocking the tiny community to its core. Authorities were eager to make an arrest. Five days later, Anthony Graves was in custody.Graves was indicted, convicted of capital murder, sentenced to death, and, over the course of twelve years on death row, given two execution dates. He was not freed for eighteen years, two months, four days.

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

The Capital Punishment and Social Rights Research Initiative assesses and analyzes the access of men and women on U.S. death rows to social rights such as health care, social contacts, visitation, communication, recreation and spiritual support. CPSR’s info series on living conditions on death row, state by state. Part 1: Texas

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

In general, Muslim nations recognize the validity of the death penalty, and many frequently impose it. According to Amnesty International, between 1985 and mid-1988, Saudi Arabia executed 140 prisoners for the crimes of murder, robbery with violence, drug smuggling or distribution, and adultery. During the same period, Pakistan executed 115, primarily for the crime of murder. Hundreds every year faced the firing squad in Iraq for murder, desertion, treason, sabotage, and economic corruption. At the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed more than 743 inmates for murder, drug crimes, political offenses, prostitution, adultery and other “moral offenses,” including “being corrupt on earth” and “being at enmity with God.” In face of the widespread acceptance of the death penalty within the Muslim world, this essay explores the contours of an Islamic argument against capital punishment. The argument is not, and cannot be, an appeal for the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances. It does call into question, however, the legitimacy – indeed, the legality in accordance with the principles of classical Islamic law, or the Shari’ah – of capital punishment as it is practiced in the era of Islamization.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Religion , Capital offences, Most Serious Crimes,

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

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

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

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,