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2311 Document(s) 1108 Member(s) 645 Article(s) 15 Page(s)

Document(s)

Human Rights Council March 2016 Iran letter

By Impact Iran , on 1 January 2016


2016

Multimedia content

Iran (Islamic Republic of)


More details See the document

Some Human Rights and civil society groups wrote to the member states of the Human Rights Council to get them to support the resolution to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran at the 31st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list International law, Most Serious Crimes, Country/Regional profiles,

IT_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 7 July 2022

2022

SWA_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 8 July 2022

2022

SWA_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 8 July 2022

Singhala_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 8 July 2022

Singhala_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 8 July 2022

LINGALA_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 7 July 2022

2022

Houssa_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 7 July 2022

DE_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 7 July 2022

TestimoniesJM_EN_v.1.0

on 4 July 2022

2022

EN-Detailed Factsheet_1.0

on 4 July 2022

Anniversary tool_EN-v1.1bf

on 8 July 2022

2022

TestimoniesJM_EN

on 28 June 2022

2022

Maldives CAT LOIPR TAHR WCADP MDN

on 21 July 2022

2022

Ethiopia CAT LOI TAHR WCADP

on 21 July 2022

Ethiopia CAT LOI TAHR WCADP

on 21 July 2022

Palestine CAT TAHR WCADP PCHR SHAMS

on 21 July 2022

EN_World Day 2021 Report_v1.0_final with annexes

on 8 July 2022

2022

Tamil_WD2022_Poster_BD1.0

on 8 July 2022

URDU_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 8 July 2022

ZHtrad_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 8 July 2022

LUGANDA_WD2022_Poster_BD1.0

on 8 July 2022

JPN_WD2022_Poster_BD

on 8 July 2022

an-abolitionist-educational-toolkit

on 15 April 2022

2022

Cuba CAT death penalty

on 21 April 2022

2022

Kenya CAT Death Penalty

on 21 April 2022

TAHR WCADP Philippines Death Penalty UPR

on 19 April 2022

2022

prison-conditions-in-jamaica-2011

on 19 April 2022

2809872v1_wsdocs_-sentencing-to-death-without-execution-2020

on 15 April 2022

2022

Lebanon CEDAW

on 21 April 2022

2022

WCADP_TDR_StudyCountriesAtRisk-SriLanka2022

on 23 December 2021

2021

FINAL_EN_Parliamentarian Guide_BD

on 7 October 2021

2021

Parliamentarians Tool-WD2021

on 10 September 2021

2021

Iraq CAT Death Penalty FINAL

on 21 April 2022

2022

Qatar ICCPR DP FINAL

on 21 April 2022

BROCHURE_V2_8p_EN_BD

on 24 June 2022

2022

FactsFigures2022_EN_v1.0

on 24 June 2022

EN_World Day 2021 Report_v1.0_final without annexes

on 10 June 2022

2022

EN_WDPoster2022-BD website

on 9 June 2022

2022

WD2022Kit de mobilisation_EN_v1

on 9 June 2022

Malawi CEDAW Death Penalty FINAL

on 21 April 2022

2022

Iraq CAT Death Penalty FINAL

on 21 April 2022

Cameroon CERD Death Penalty

on 21 April 2022

Zimbabwe UPR death penalty Final

on 21 April 2022

Uganda UPR Death Penalty Final

on 21 April 2022

AHR Yemen DP CEDAW 2

on 21 April 2022

AHR The Maldives DP CEDAW

on 21 April 2022

Uganda Death Penalty CEDAW Final revised

on 21 April 2022

Document(s)

Annual report on the death penalty in Iran 2020

By Iran Human Rights (IHR), ECPM (Together Against the Death Penalty), on 4 May 2021


2021

NGO report

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

fa
More details See the document

The 13th annual report on the death penalty by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and ECPM (Together Against the Death Penalty) provides an assessment and analysis of the death penalty trends in 2020 in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

CERD USA Death Penalty FINAL

on 21 July 2022

2022

Document(s)

Should Abolitionists Support Legislative “Reform” of the Death Penalty?

By Carol S. Steiker / Jordan M. Steiker / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

We assessed the Court’s reformist project on its own terms, asking whether the Court achieved the goals explicit or tolerated, if not invited, the inequalities and capriciousness characteristic of the pre-Furman era. We also argued that, apart from its failure on its own terms, the Supreme Court’s reformist regulation of capital punishment might well have carried an additional unanticipated cost. Whereas abolitionists initially sought judicial regulation of the death penalty as at least a first step towards abolition, judicial reform actually may have helped to stabilize the death penalty as a social practice. We argued that the appearance of intensive regulation of state death penalty practices, notwithstanding its virtual absence, played a role in legitimizing the practice of capital punishment in the eyes of actors both within and outside the criminal justice system, and we pointed to some objective indicators—such as the dramatic decline in the use of executive clemency in the post-Furman era[12] —as support for this thesis. Implicit in Furman and the 1976 foundational cases. Our assessment was not a positive one. Although the reformist approach spawned an extraordinarily intricate and detailed capital punishment jurisprudence, the resulting doctrines were in practical terms largely unresponsive to the underlying concerns for fairness and heightened reliability that had first led to the constitutional regulation of the death penalty. We described contemporary capital punishment law as the worst of all possible worlds. Its sheer complexity led to numerous reversals of death sentences and thus imposed substantial costs on state criminal justice systems. On closer inspection, however, the complexity concealed the minimalist nature of the Court’s reforms.

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

Document(s)

Enduring Injustice. The Peristence of Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Death Penalty

By Death Penalty Information Center / Ngozi Ndulue, on 1 January 2020


2020

NGO report

United States


More details See the document
  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty Classroom Resource Manual

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2003


2003

Campaigning


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Ohio’s Death Penalty Statute: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

By Ohio State Law Journal / Kelly L. Culshaw, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

As of November 2001, 203 men sit on Ohio’s death row. With the executions of Wilford Berry on February 19, 1999, Jay D. Scott on June 14, 2001, and John Byrd, Jr. on February 19, 2002, the death penalty in Ohio is a reality. The capital defense practitioner representing a client at trial or on appeal must be prepared to defend his or her client against that reality. To that end, this article examines the statutory framework within which capital cases are prosecuted with the express purpose of aiding defense practitioners and improving the quality of capital representation in Ohio. This article analyzes both the positive and negative aspects of Ohio’s death penalty statute. To meet its twin objects, practical advice and suggested litigation strategies are intermingled with critical analysis of the law in Ohio.

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

Document(s)

Striving to Eliminate Unjust Executions: Why the ABA’s Individual Rights & Responsibilities Section Has Issued Protocols on Unfair Implementation of Capital Punishment

By Ronald J. Tabak / Ohio State Law Journal, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article

United States


More details See the document

The ABA concluded in 1997 that pervasive unfairness in capital punishment regimes warranted a halt to executions unless all of the systemic problems the ABA identified were corrected. Four years later, with those problems still pervasive, the ABA’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities issued protocols designed to facilitate the evaluation of the fairness—or lack thereof—of a jurisdiction’s capital punishment system. The protocols are particularly timely because many state legislative bodies are authorizing, or considering authorizing, studies of death penalty implementation. The protocols provide an overview, a list of questions to consider, and recommendations with regard to each topic area they cover. While these are not exhaustive, and are not fully applicable in every death penalty jurisdiction, they should prove invaluable to any group seeking to seriously evaluate the manner in which capital punishment is actually administered today.

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

Document(s)

Gendering the Death Penalty: Countering Sex Bias in a Masculine Sanctuary

By Victor L. Streib / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

American death penalty laws and procedures persistently minimize cases involving female capital offenders. Recognizing some benign explanations for this disparate impact, Professor Streib nonetheless sees the dearth of female death penalty trials, death sentences, and actual executions as signaling sex bias throughout the death penalty system. In this article, he provides data concerning death sentencing and execution patterns and then suggests both substantive and procedural means to address the apparent sex bias. Much more significant, however, is the unique lens for examining the death penalty that is provided by a sex bias analysis. Professor Streib concludes that this perspective unmasks the system’s crime-fighting rhetoric to reveal a macho refuge that masculinizes all who enter therein.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Ohio: Fairness, Reliability, and Justice at Risk—A Report on Reforms in Ohio’s Use of the Death Penalty Since the 1997 Ohio State Bar Association Recommendations

By S. Adele Shank / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002


Article

United States


More details See the document

The report as presented to the Ohio State Bar Association Council of Delegates in 1997,the OSBA’s recommendations and, where there have been changes in the law since that time, updates reflecting those changes. New information is noted at the conclusion of each section of the report immediately following the OSBA recommendation for that section.

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

Document(s)

The “New Abolitionism” and the Possibilities of Legislative Action: The New Hampshire Experience

By Sarat Austin / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

Recently, the work of the abolitionist community has shifted from the courts to the legislatures. In this article, Professor Sarat examines the significance of what he calls the “new abolitionism” in the politics of legislation aimed at changing or ending the death penalty. The author describes the new abolitionism in detail and then examines its role in the May 2000 vote of the New Hampshire State Legislature to repeal the death penalty. The author concludes that the focus of the new abolitionism on the practical liabilities of our system of capital punishment makes it possible for legislators to oppose the death penalty whilepresenting themselves as guardians of widely shared values and the integrity and fairness of our legal institutions.

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

Document(s)

The Prejudicial Nature of Victim Impact Statements: Implications for Capital Sentencing Policy

By Edith Greene / Bryan Myers / Psychology, Public Policy and Law, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

Victim impact evidence is presented during sentencing hearings to convey the harm experienced by victims and victims’ relatives as a result of a crime. Its use in capital cases is highly controversial. Some argue that the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the admission of victim impact statements (VIS) during capital sentencing proceedings (Payne v. Tennessee, 1991) invites prejudice and judgments based on emotion rather than reason. Others reason that it provides an important voice for survivors and affords the jury an opportunity to learn about the victim. The authors outline the chief psychological issues that arise in the context of VIS, including their relevance to jurors’ judgments of blameworthiness, concerns that the social worth of the victim will influence jurors’ sentencing decisions, and issues related to the emotional appeal of VIS. Psycholegal research on the influence of VIS on mock jurors is reviewed, and implications of this work for capital sentencing policy and suggested directions for future research are discussed.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial, Murder Victims' Families,

Document(s)

Bringing Reliability Back In: False Confessions and Legal Safeguards in the 21st Century

By Steven A. Drizen / Bradley R. Hall / Peter J. Neufeld / Richard A. Leo / Wisconsin Law Review / Amy Vatner, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


More details See the document

In this Article, we point out the failures of the legal tests governing admissibility of confessions, tracing the historical development of these flawed standards. We propose a new standard that we believe reinvigorates the largely forgotten purpose of the rules—reliability of confession evidence—in part by requiring the electronic recording of custodial interrogations.

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

Document(s)

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

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


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Problem of False Confessions in the Post – DNA World

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


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

When Legislatures Delegate Death: The Troubling Paradox Behind State Uses of Electrocution and Lethal Injection and What It Says About Us

By Deborah W. Denno / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

This article discusses the paradoxical motivations and problems behind legislative changes from one method of execution to the next, and particularly moves from electrocution to lethal injection. Legislatures and courts insist that the primary reason states switch execution methods is to ensure greater humaneness for death row inmates. History shows, however, that such moves were prompted primarily because the death penalty itself became constitutionally jeopardized due to a state’s particular method. The result has been a warped legal “philosophy” of punishment, at times peculiarly aligning both friends and foes of the death penalty alike and wrongly enabling legislatures to delegate death to unknowledgeable prison personnel. This article first examines the constitutionality of electrocution, contending that a modern Eighth Amendment analysis of a range of factors, such as legislative trends toward lethal injection, indicates that electrocution is cruel and unusual. It then provides an Eighth Amendment review of lethal injection, demonstrating that injection also involves unnecessary pain, the risk of such pain, and a loss of dignity. These failures seem to be attributed to vague lethal injection statutes, uninformed prison personnel, and skeletal or inaccurate lethal injection protocols. The article next presents the author’s study of the most current protocols for lethal injection in all thirty-six states where anesthesia is used for a state execution. The study focuses on a number of criteria contained in many protocols that are key to applying an injection, including: the types and amounts of chemicals that are injected; the selection, training, preparation, and qualifications of the lethal injection team; the involvement of medical personnel; the presence of general witnesses and media witnesses; as well as details on how the procedure is conducted and how much of it witnesses can see. The study emphasizes that the criteria in many protocols are far too vague to assess adequately. When the protocols do offer details, such as the amount and type of chemicals that executioners inject, they oftentimes reveal striking errors and ignorance about the procedure. Suchinaccurate or missing information heightens the likelihood that a lethal injection will be botched and suggests that states are not capable of executing an inmate constitutionally. Even though executions have become increasingly hidden from the public, and therefore more politically palatable, they have not become more humane, only more difficult to monitor.

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

Document(s)

The European Parliament 2004-2009 and European Civil Society: A Guide for Partnership

By European Union, on 1 January 2010


2010

Working with...

enfr
More details See the document

The handbook is intended to introduce you to the rights and value based NGO sectors in the EU and helps you to navigate your way around Civil Society. Part I gives a general overview of the context of dialogue between the EU institutions and NGOs – as it has been established over the last 20 years – and how NGOs would like civil dialogue to develop in the context of the new Constitution. In Part II you will find an overview of the policy areas that each of the 6 sectors will work on during the EP period 2004-2009. This is intended to help you identify the areas of expertise European NGOs can offer for your specific work in the EP. The values and objectives of the EU Civil Society Contact Group from Part III and the annex contain a comprehensive contact list for European NGOs within the 6 sectors.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Alabama: Judge Override

By Equal Justice Initiative, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY

By Robert J. Smith / Ben Cohen / Washington Law Review, on 1 January 2010


2010

Article

United States


More details See the document

Scholars have devoted substantial attention to both the overrepresentation of black defendants on federal death row and the disproportionate number of federal defendants charged capitally for the murder of white victims. This attention has not explained (much less resolved) these disquieting racial disparities. Little research has addressed the unusual geography of the federal death penalty, in which a small number of jurisdictions are responsible for the vast majority of federal death sentences. By addressing the unique geography, we identify a possible explanation for the racial distortions in the federal death penalty: that federal death sentences are sought disproportionately where the expansion of the venire from the county to the district level has a dramatic demographic impact on the racial make-up of the jury. This inquiry demonstrates that the conversation concerning who should make up the jury of twelve neighbors and peers—a discussion begun well before the founding of our Constitution—continues to have relevance today. Louisiana, Missouri, Virginia and Maryland referred to.

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

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°119

on 20 November 2020

2020

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°114

on 20 November 2020

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°117

on 20 November 2020

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°116

on 20 November 2020

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°115

on 20 November 2020

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°117

on 20 November 2020

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°120

on 20 November 2020

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°118

on 20 November 2020

Document(s)

Criminology: racial discrimination in the administration of the death penalty: the experience of the united states armed forces (1984–2005)

By David C. Baldus / Catherine M. Grosso / Northwestern University School of Law / Richard Newell, on 1 January 2012


2012

Article

United States


More details See the document

This Article presents evidence of racial discrimination in the administration of the death penalty in the United States Armed Forces from 1984 through 2005.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Minorities, Country/Regional profiles,

WCADP_Bylaws_FR

on 12 November 2020

2020

Document(s)

Question of the death penalty. Report of the Secretary-General.

By United Nations, on 1 January 2011


2011

International law - United Nations

ruzh-hantes
More details See the document

The present report contains information covering the period from July 2010 to June 2011, and draws attention to a number of phenomena, including the continuing trend towards abolition, the ongoing difficulties in gaining access to reliable information on executions, and various international efforts towards the universal abolition of the death penalty.

Document(s)

Death Row U.S.A. Fall 2010

By National Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


More details See the document

A quarterly report by the Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, on the situation of the death penalty in the USA

  • Document type NGO report

Document(s)

Status of signature and ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

By United Nations, on 1 January 1989


1989

NGO report

frfr
More details See the document

Status of signature ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, including declarations, reservations and objections.

Document(s)

Appointed but (Nearly) Prevented From Serving: My Experiences as a Grand Jury Foreperson

By Phyllis L. Crocker / Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

I begin this essay with basic information about grand juries, then tell what happened to our grand jury, and conclude by reflecting on what I learned from this experience. My theme is the tension between the grand jury’s independence and the prosecutor’s desire to control it. The lesson I learned, intellectually and emotionally, is the depth and tenacity of the prosecutor’s assumption that he does control, and has the right to control, the grand jury process. I also learned some lessons about being a client, and believing in oneself and one’s principles.

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

Document(s)

WHEN THE FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY IS “CRUEL AND UNUSUAL”

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


2006

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°113

on 20 November 2020

2020

Document(s)

Addressing Capital Punishment Through Statutory Reform

By Douglas A. Berman / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

State legislatures principally have been responsible for the acceptance and evolution (and even sometimes the abandonment) of capital punishment in the American criminal justice system from the colonial and founding eras, through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and now into the twenty-first century. A number of colonial legislative enactments, though influenced by England’s embrace of the punishment of death, uniquely defined and often significantly confined which crimes were to be subject to capital punishment.[1] State legislatures further narrowed the reach of the death penalty through the early nineteenth century as states, prodded often by vocal abolitionists and led by developments in Pennsylvania, divided the offense of murder into degrees and provided that only the most aggravated murderers would be subject to the punishment of death. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also saw states, as the product of legislative enactments, move away from mandating death as the punishment for certain crimes by giving juries discretion to choose which defendants would be sentenced to die. Throughout all these periods, statutory enactments have also played a fundamental role in the evolution of where and how executions are carried out.

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

Document(s)

Restraints on Death Penalty in Europe: A Circular Process

By Stefano Manacorda / Journal of International Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article


More details See the document

That the European area is a zone free of capital punishment is the result of a complex process of restraints that has evolved over the last 50 years. Domestic, regional and universal international law, as well as certain components within each level, have influenced each other to produce a dynamic, circular movement towards abolition. Starting from the internal level, restraints on the death penalty rose up to the regional and universal levels, and then descended back down into domestic law. This process, however, has not produced a completely closed circle, and certain countries in Europe retain legislation permitting recourse to the death penalty for certain crimes, especially war crimes and, according to recent interpretations, criminal offences related to terrorist activity. Extradition or other administrative mechanisms of expulsion also illustrate potential disjunctions in the circle, as they may allow persons to be transferred to retentionist countries. Even though the legislative framework has significantly evolved in the last few years, the dominant role played by political evaluations creates new fissures in the abolitionist circle. Only recently have new abolitionist perspectives emerged from the ‘right of interference’ in foreign death penalty cases, which some countries try to exercise when their own nationals are involved.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Japan’s Secretive Death Penalty Policy: Contours, Origins, Justifications, and Meanings

By David T. Johnson / Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

Japan


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The Pros and Cons of Life Without Parole

By Bent Grover / Catherine Appleton / British Journal of Criminology, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

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,

Document(s)

Capital Punishment in the Philippines

By Arlie Tagayuna / Southeast Asian Studies, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

Philippines


More details See the document

While an examination of the social and political currents of each country would perhaps be the best way to answer the question “Why is there strong support for capital punishment in Southeast Asia?”, this paper will begin this effort by looking specifically at the Philippines, a society that has received more exposure to democratic tenets and human rights advocacy than other Southeast Asian countries (Blitz, 2000).

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

Document(s)

Indigenous constitutionalism and the death penalty: The case of the Commonwealth Caribbean

By Margaret A. Burnham / International Journal of Constitutional Law, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article

Antigua and Barbuda


More details See the document

The Commonwealth Caribbean remains an obstinate holdout against the international trend limiting use of the death penalty. The death row population in the region per capita is about four times that of the United States. Widely debated in legal circles for a decade, capital punishment jurisprudence will be affected by the creation of the regional appellate court that was launched in April 2005. Modeled after the European Court of Justice, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will assume the constitutional jurisdiction currently exercised by the Judicial Committee of the London-based Privy Council. Critics claim the CCJ was created to undo the constraints on the death penalty decreed by the Privy Council and international human rights tribunals, while proponents maintain that the new court completes the region’s assumption of sovereignty. This article situates the debate in the constitutional history of the independence era, the current regionalization movement, and the interplay between international norms and domestic fundamental rights.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Antigua and Barbuda

Document(s)

Position Paper: Death Penalty under the Palestinian National Authority

By Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Cameroun: NGO Report on the Implementation of the ICCPR

By Gender Empowerment and Development / Association de Lutte contre les Violences faites aux Femmes / Centre for Civil and Political Rights / Solidarité Pour la Promotion des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples / Association pour la défense de l’homosexualité / Syndicat National des Journalistes du Cameroun, on 1 January 2010


NGO report

fr
More details See the document

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(s)

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

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


2009

NGO report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Juveniles,

Document(s)

Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2010: The Year in Review

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


2010

NGO report


More details See the document

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

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Statistics,

Document(s)

The right to life: A guide to the implementation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights

By Council of Europe / Douwe Korff / Directorate General of Human Rights, on 1 January 2006


2006

Working with...


More details See the document

This Handbook deals with the right to life, as guaranteed byArticle 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and with the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights under that article.

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

World coalition against the death penalty – Newsletter n°112

on 20 November 2020

2020

Document(s)

Annual report on the death penalty in Iran 2015

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) / Iran Human Rights (IHR), on 1 January 2016


2016

NGO report

fa
More details See the document

The 8th annual report of Iran Human Rights (IHR) on the death penalty provides an in-depth assessment of how the capital punishment was implemented in 2015 in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In addition to providing the number of executions that were conducted, the report also looks at the trends compared to previous years, the methods of execution, geographical distribution, the charges that were used by authorities to justify the executions and the articles in the penal law that were used to issue the death sentences.

Document(s)

Annual report on the death penalty in Iran 2014

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) / Iran Human Rights (IHR), on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

The seventh annual report of Iran Human Rights (IHR) on the death penalty gives an assessmentof how the death penalty was implemented in 2014 in the Islamic Republic of Iran.In addition to providing the number of executions that were conducted, the report alsolooks at the trends compared to previous years, the methods of execution, geographicaldistribution, the charges that were used by authorities to justify the executions and thearticles in the penal law that were used to issue the death sentences. Lists of the womenand juvenile offenders executed in 2014 are also included.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Juveniles, Minorities, Religion , Due Process , Fair Trial, International law, Capital offences, Drug Offences, Hanging, Statistics,

Document(s)

Moving away from the death penalty

By Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) , on 1 January 2015


International law - United Nations


More details See the document

The present publication provides an extensive review of global trends in death penalty matters, a summary of the applicable international legal standards, and the current status of legislative reform related to the death penalty in South-East Asia. As a product of the OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia, this publication is intended to be a resource for further discussions in the region toward the abolition of the death penalty.

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

Colombia-EN

on 7 January 2021

2021

Peru-FR

on 6 January 2021

2021