Your search “Keep%20the%20death%20penalty%abolished%20in%20the%20ePhilippfines%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e/page/www.humanrights.asia/resources/report/2011/AHRC-sur-008-2011/act_download/file ”
Document(s)
Iraq : Twentieth Session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty / The Advocates for Human Rights / Iraqi Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2014
2014
Multimedia content
Iraq
More details See the document
This submission addresses Iraq’s compliance with its human rights obligations withregard to its use of the death penalty. This submission concludes that Iraq cannotguarantee its citizens adequate domestic and international guarantees against the arbitrarydeprivation of life and therefore should abolish the death penalty.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Iraq
- Themes list Fair Trial, Arbitrariness,
Document(s)
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman
By UK Film Council, on 1 January 2005
2005
Multimedia content
United Kingdom
More details See the document
Motion picture on the life and times of Albert Pierrepoint – Britain’s most prolific hangman.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United Kingdom
- Themes list Public debate, Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty in Africa : The Path Towards Abolition
By Ashgate Publishing / Aimé Muyoboke Karimunda, on 1 January 2014
2014
Book
More details See the document
Human development is not simply about wealth and economic well-being, it is also dependent upon shared values that cherish the sanctity of human life. Using comparative methods, archival research and quantitative findings, this book explores the historical and cultural background of the death penalty in Africa, analysing the law and practice of the death penalty under European and Asian laws in Africa before independence. Showing progressive attitudes to punishment rooted in both traditional and modern concepts of human dignity, Aimé Muyoboke Karimunda assesses the ground on which the death penalty is retained today. Providing a full and balanced appraisal of the arguments, the book presents a clear and compelling case for the total abolition of the death penalty throughout Africa.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
Document(s)
Pictures at an execution: The condemned in art
By BBC / Jason Farago, on 1 January 2014
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Filling The Void
By CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform / Bill Leonard / Maggie Smart, on 1 January 2014
Book
United States
More details See the document
‘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,
Document(s)
Just Punishment
By Kim Beamish / Liz Burke Films, on 1 January 2006
2006
Multimedia content
Australia
More details See the document
In December 2005 Van Nguyen, a 24 year-old Australian, was hanged by the state of Singapore for heroin trafficking. Filmed across two years, ‘Just Punishment’ tells the remarkable story behind the fight to save his life.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Australia
- Themes list Foreign Nationals,
Document(s)
Go With God
By Frank Harriman / Filmbay Ltd., on 1 January 2012
2012
Multimedia content
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
More details See the document
David Taylor has just half an hour to live. He is alone in his cell, in a foreign country, facing execution for something that isn’t even a crime back home in Britain.David has committed the crime of adultery in Iran, a fundamentalist Islamic nation. In the last minutes of his life he tries to come to terms with terrifying finality of his seemingly insignificant actions.Written to be shot in real-time, we follow every second of every minute of the last half hour of David’s life. As he chain smokes his way through to his upcoming oblivion, David is a mess of emotions. From tears and rage to laughter and even calm, he is trying to wrench everything… anything… from his dwindling life.As he interacts with different people, each having a different agenda – the prison governor, the Swedish consul, the guards and his best friend – we see a mirror being held up to reflect the wider world we live in.And finally, it is a simple study of raw human emotion, of friendship and of love.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
- Themes list Foreign Nationals, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
David R. Dow: Lessons from death row inmates
By David R. Dow / TED, on 1 January 2012
Multimedia content
United States
More details See the document
What happens before a murder? In looking for ways to reduce death penalty cases, David R. Dow realized that a surprising number of death row inmates had similar biographies. In this talk he proposes a bold plan, one that prevents murders in the first place.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Due Process ,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty in the U.S. in 2015: infographic
By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2015
2015
Multimedia content
United States
More details See the document
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Perspectives on Capital Punishment in America
By CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform / Charles E. MacLean, on 1 January 2013
2013
Book
United States
More details See the document
Searching inquiry into the contours of capital punishment in America. Containing over 1300 footnotes, the chapters by ten young scholars explore the sometimes-ignored fine details of the death penalty. Topics include the impropriety of applying the death penalty to felony murder, the implications of death row exonerations and their impact on access to post-conviction DNA testing, media impacts on capital cases, death qualification of capital juries and its impact on the right of prospective capital jurors to enjoy First Amendment protection of the free exercise of their religions, the fiscal conservative and social conservative argument favoring abolition of the death penalty, the need for a heightened standard of proof – greater than beyond a reasonable doubt – at the penalty phase of capital trials, federal habeas corpus protections for state-sentenced capital offenders and the constitutionality of limits on “actual innocence” equitable tolling, tips and techniques for capital defense counsel representing defendants who were acutely substance-impaired at the time of the crime or have a history of chronic substance abuse or chemical dependency, the impropriety of allowing counsel to argue fiscal matters to the jury, such as that either execution or life imprisonment is the “cheapest” option for society, and the role the death penalty should and does play within the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Due Process ,
Document(s)
Exile and Embrace: Contemporary Religious Discourse on the Death Penalty
By Northeastern / Anthony Santoro, on 1 January 2013
Book
United States
More details See the document
With passion and precision, Exile and Embrace examines the key elements of the religious debates over capital punishment and shows how they reflect the values and self-understandings of contemporary Americans. Santoro demonstrates that capital punishment has relatively little to do with the perpetrators and much more to do with those who would impose the punishment. Because of this, he convincingly argues, we should focus our attention not on the perpetrators and victims, as is typically the case in debates pro and con about the death penalty, but on ourselves and on the mechanisms that we use to impose or oppose the death penalty.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Religion ,
Document(s)
A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America
By Evan J. Mandery / W. W. Norton & Company, on 1 January 2013
Book
United States
More details See the document
For two hundred years, the constitutionality of capital punishment had been axiomatic. But in 1962, Justice Arthur Goldberg and his clerk Alan Dershowitz dared to suggest otherwise, launching an underfunded band of civil rights attorneys on a quixotic crusade. In 1972, in a most unlikely victory, the Supreme Court struck down Georgia’s death penalty law in Furman v. Georgia. Though the decision had sharply divided the justices, nearly everyone, including the justices themselves, believed Furman would mean the end of executions in America.Instead, states responded with a swift and decisive showing of support for capital punishment. As anxiety about crime rose and public approval of the Supreme Court declined, the stage was set in 1976 for Gregg v. Georgia, in which the Court dramatically reversed direction.A Wild Justice is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the Court, the justices, and the political complexities of one of the most racially charged and morally vexing issues of our time.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Due Process , Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned
By Richard Jaffe / New Horizon Press, on 1 January 2012
2012
Book
United States
More details See the document
In Quest For Justice, the author takes readers into the Bo Cochran and Eric Rudolph cases, along with those of Randall Padgett and Judge Jack Montgomery, in a conversational, story-driven narrative that offers personal insights and intimate views into these complex individuals and cases.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Due Process ,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty Project’s Annual Lecture 2014
By William A. Schabas / Death Penalty Project, on 8 September 2020
2020
Multimedia content
More details See the document
On 28th January 2014, DPP’s 3rd lecture was held at the Inner Temple, London. Professor William Schabas delivered a lecture entitled “Universal Abolition: Only a Decade Away“. This video recording of the lecture includes the Q&A session.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
Document(s)
Oral Statement from Amnesty International during the Panel on Children of Parents Sentenced to the Death Penalty or Executed (Human Rights Council, 24th Session)
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
Campaigning
More details See the document
Oral Statement from Amnesty International during the Panel on Children of Parents Sentenced to the Death Penalty or Executed, Human Rights Council, 24th Session.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Juveniles, International law, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Trial and Errors : The Texas Death Penalty
By Lisa Maxwell / AMITI, on 1 January 2013
2013
Book
United States
More details See the document
TRIAL & ERROR takes a thorough look at the most controversial issues of the Texas Death Penalty that have raised questions of fairness and equality. Read words of inmates on death row in interviews conducted by the Amiti Organization, then judge for yourself whether the Death Penalty is administering justice or injustice.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty in China and the World
By Amnesty International UK, on 8 September 2020
2020
Campaigning
More details See the document
In this lesson students aged 11-16 work collectively to use their mathematical skill and appropriate technology to examine and analyse information about the changing use of the death penalty in China and the world. They look for the most effective ways of presenting information using charts, graphs and maps, and comment on the reliability and validity of the data that they have collected.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
BN at 6 – Our Stories, Our Miracles: Sentenced to Death, An Innocent Man Steps Out After 24 Years in Prison – Olatunji Olaide shares his story of Survival, Freedom & Hope
By Adeola Adeyemo / Bellanaija, on 8 September 2020
Article
Nigeria
More details See the document
Olatunji Olaide was wrongfully arrested and subsequently sentenced to death. He shares the harrowing experience of his time in prison and his survival and freedom with BN and how he kept his head high in the face of the storm.We hope that you are inspired by it.
- Document type Article
- Countries list Nigeria
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Index of Paralegal Services in Africa
By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2012
2012
Book
More details See the document
This Index of Paralegal Services in Africa is the latest resource in PRI’s paralegal series. It lists paralegal services, paralegal networks and university legal clinics in 21 African countries and, where the information was available, provides contact details, a summary of the main services offered, a list of donors and examples of important results achieved.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Fair Trial,
Document(s)
Evidence Does Not Support Death Penalty As Deterrent
By Sacramento Bee, on 1 January 2012
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
The Darkest Hour: Shedding Light on the Impact of Isolation and Death Row
By Dr. Betty Gilmore and Nanon M. Williams / Goodmedia press, on 1 January 2012
Book
United States
More details See the document
The Darkest Hour: Stories and Interviews from Death Row by Nanon M. Williams emerged from a deep and dark despair in a place where the thought of suicide often holds more appeal than the thought of living
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions,
Document(s)
Entrenchment and/or Destabilization? Reflections on (Another) Two Decades of Constitutional Regulation of Capital Punishment
By Death Penalty Information Center / Carol S. Steiker / Jordan M. Steiker, on 1 January 2012
Article
United States
More details See the document
A recent law review article by Professors Carol and Jordan Steiker examines two decades of attempts to regulate capital punishment and concludes that this process may have paved the way to a finding that the death penalty is unconstitutional
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Voices and video from death row- Ghezelhesar mass-executions
By Iran Human Rights (IHR), on 1 January 2015
2015
Multimedia content
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
More details See the document
This video was made by IHR after the start of the executions of 77 prisoners in Ghezehesar prison. Two of the prisoners speak about the interrogations, torture, – You also see the last farewell of a prisoner before the execution.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Torture, Death Row Conditions,
Document(s)
Death by hanging
By Nagisa Oshima, on 1 January 1968
1968
Multimedia content
Japan
More details See the document
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Japan
- Themes list Hanging, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
No to the Death Penalty
By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2008
2008
Multimedia content
Kazakhstan
More details See the document
This film is based on the death penalty in Kazakhstan. The death penalty was formerly a common charge for the most obscene crimes, and was at its greatest prominence in 1995, when 101 males on charges of death sentences were executed by the firing squad.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Kazakhstan
- Themes list Most Serious Crimes, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
ASEAN’s legacy of hope A short video about many of the weakness of a justice system that relies on the death penalty
By Coalition for the Abolition of Death Penalty in ASEAN (CADPA), on 1 January 2017
2017
Multimedia content
More details See the document
Drawing on dramatic footage from famous cases, told by the priests and lawyers who knew them, this video depicts the death penalty as a cruel and inhumane practice that persists even through weaknesses in our legal systems might mean we are killing innocent people even though no evidence exists to suggest that the death penalty serves as a deterrent.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Themes list Due Process , Moratorium , Networks, Death Penalty,
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)
Juan Melendez-6446
By YouTube / Comision de Derechos Civiles, on 1 January 2014
2014
Working with...
More details See the document
Juan Melendez-6446 portrays the story of a New York born Puerto Rican immigrant who was accused of murder in the state of Florida, a crime he did not commit. Juan Melendez was sentenced to death in a trial that only lasted 5 days. He was on death row for 17 years, 8 months and 1 day, until his exoneration on January 3, 2002.
- Document type Working with...
Document(s)
Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain. Audience, Justice, Memory
By Lizzie Seal / Solon, on 8 September 2020
2020
Book
United Kingdom
More details See the document
Drawing on primary research, this book explores the cultural life of the death penalty in Britain in the twentieth century, including an exploration of the role of the popular press and a discussion of portrayals of the death penalty in plays, novels and films. Popular protest against capital punishment and public responses to and understandings of capital cases are also discussed, particularly in relation to conceptualisations of justice.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United Kingdom
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Surviving Execution: A Miscarriage of Justice and the Fight to End the Death Penalty
By Ian Woods / Atlantic Books, on 1 January 2018
2018
Book
United States
More details See the document
Imagine being condemned to death for murder, when even the prosecutors admit that you didn’t actually kill anyone. This is what happened to Richard Glossip.Despite being convicted on the word of the actual self-confessed killer, the state of Oklahoma is still intent on executing him.Ian Woods, a reporter for Sky News in the UK, came across the case, and has tirelessly campaigned ever since to bring the injustices Glossip has faced to the world’s attention.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Capital Clemency Resource Initiative
By American Bar Association, on 1 January 2018
Arguments against the death penalty
More details See the document
This ressource provided by the American Bar Association permits to help fill clemency petitions in the United States.
- Document type Arguments against the death penalty
- Themes list Clemency, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Final declaration of the African Congress
By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2018
Article
frMore details See the document
On 9 and 10 April, more than 300 abolitionists, activists, diplomats, politicians, parliamentarians, lawyers, former death row inmates and citizens gathered in Abidjan for the first African Congress against the death penalty. After two days of debating and sharing experiences, the delegates adopted a final declaration at the closing ceremony.
- Document type Article
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages Congrès Africain: déclaration finale pour une Afrique abolitionniste
Document(s)
SUSPENSE: TWELVE YEARS LIVING AND LONGING ON DEATH ROW
By Marit Lund Bødtker, on 1 January 2018
Book
More details See the document
Story of Ivan Ray Murphy Jr who was condemned to death for murder. Over a period of ten years and through the medium of more than a hundred letters, Murphy, who was known as Pee-Wee, shared his innermost thoughts with his twenty years older Norwegian pen friend, the author of this book, Marit Lund Bødtker. The author twice travelled to the prison in Huntsville, Texas, where Murphy was held and from where he worked tirelessly to regain his freedom. ‘Whether he is innocent, as he claims to be, or guilty, Murphy is first and foremost a human being, a man with his own personal strengths and weaknesses, dreams and aspirations. In all probability readers will sometimes find themselves agreeing with him, at other times totally at variance with his conduct and opinions, just as they do with other people they meet or read about.’ From the afterword by John Peder Egenæs, Secretary General, Amnesty International Norway
- Document type Book
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
FREE MEN
By Anne-Frédérique Widmann / International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, on 1 January 2018
Multimedia content
United States
More details See the document
How can a human being stand up, under conditions of unjust imprisonment on death row, alone and without hope of being released? In this documentary film, Anne-Frédérique Widmann draws the portrait of Kenneth Reams, who wakes up every day with an unwavering desire to live, and succeeds in writing, testifying, painting and loving a woman. A film about the art, resistance and dignity of every human life.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
By Amazon Digital Services / Lara Love Hardin / Anthony Ray Hinton, on 1 January 2018
Book
United States
More details See the document
Autobiography of Anthony Ray Hinton, the 152nd death row exoneree in the USA. In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama.With no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution.With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Death Row Conditions, Electrocution, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement, and 12 years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul
By Anthony Graves / Beacon Press, on 1 January 2018
Book
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Dolores Story of Hope and Redemption
By Coalition for the Abolition of Death Penalty in ASEAN (CADPA), on 1 January 2016
2016
Multimedia content
More details See the document
Dolores’ world was turned upside down when her husband was arrested. Then the news came that he would be executed. But the abolition of the death penalty has given his whole family a second chance, turning this story, at least until now into one of redemption.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Themes list Public debate, Networks, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
End Crime, not Life is not about protecting criminals, but about protecting vulnerable innocents
By Coalition for the Abolition of Death Penalty in ASEAN (CADPA), on 8 September 2020
2020
Multimedia content
Malaysia
More details See the document
Cheong Chun Yin, a Malaysian boy, was about 23 years old when he was arrested for drug trafficking. A trusting boy he was asked to bring some ‘gold’ to Singapore. Merri was a victim of domestic abuse, whose son had a heart defect. She took a job abroad to help pay his hospital bills. A loving man bought her a suitcase for her home journey. The tragedy of such stories is what keeps human rights activists and lawyers from ASEAN unrelenting in their opposition to the death penalty, for reasons they spell out in this video.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Malaysia
- Themes list Arbitrariness, Networks, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
How a chronically shy child ended up on death row
By Coalition for the Abolition of Death Penalty in ASEAN (CADPA), on 1 January 2017
2017
Multimedia content
More details See the document
As a young girl Rita was so self-conscious she would only sweep the floor inside the house. Nonetheless, poverty drove her to work overseas. Learning she was coming home one day, an acquaintance – Eka – pressed her to bring back a suitcase with some clothes. Rita was too afraid to refuse. The bag was lined with drugs. Eka is still out there. Rita’s only hope is that Malaysia revises its death penalty policy.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Themes list Juveniles, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Gambia has decided
By Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), on 1 January 2017
Multimedia content
Gambia
More details See the document
Movie about the challenges faced by the abolitionnists and the hopes raised by the recent abolition of the death penalty in Gambia
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Gambia
- Themes list Public debate, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
The sleeping voice
By Benito Zambrano, on 1 January 2011
2011
Multimedia content
Spain
More details See the document
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Spain
- Themes list Women, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
End of its Robe: How Killing the Death Penalty can Revive Criminal Justice
By Brandon L. Garrett , on 1 January 2017
2017
Book
United States
More details See the document
Brandon Garrett hand-collected and analyzed national data, looking for causes and implications of this turnaround. End of Its Rope explains what he found, and why the story of who killed the death penalty, and how, can be the catalyst for criminal justice reform.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Due Process , Public debate, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Inside Death Row with Trevor McDonald Part 2
By YouTube, on 1 January 2014
2014
Multimedia content
United States
More details See the document
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Inside Death Row with Trevor McDonald Part 1
By YouTube, on 1 January 2014
Multimedia content
United States
More details See the document
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Death Row Doctors
By New York Times, on 1 January 2017
2017
Multimedia content
More details See the document
Dr. Carlo Musso took an oath to do no harm. So why does he take part in executions?
- Document type Multimedia content
- Themes list Public debate, Methods of Execution, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
The Penalty
By Will Francome / Mark Pizzey, on 1 January 2017
Multimedia content
United States
More details See the document
The penalty follows three people caught in the crosshairs of capital punishment, and the political landscape thatcould decide their fate. Going behind the scenes of some of the biggest headlines in the history of America’sdeath penalty, the film follows the lethal injection protocol crisis that resulted in a botched execution, therehabilitation of a man who spent 15 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, and the family of a youngwoman – brutally murdered – split by the state’s pursuit of the ultimate punishment.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Fair Trial, Right to life, Murder Victims' Families, Death Row Phenomenon, Lethal Injection, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
China’s Death Penalty: The Supreme People’s Court, the Suspended Death Sentence and the Politics of Penal Reform
By Susan Trevaskes / British Journal of Criminology, on 1 January 2013
2013
Article
China
More details See the document
This paper examines the issue of judicial discretion and the role of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) in death penalty reform since 2007. The SPC has been encouraging judges to give ‘suspended’ death sentences rather than ‘immediate execution’ for some homicide cases. Lower court judges are encouraged to use their discretion to recognize mitigating circumstances that would allow them to sentence offenders to a suspended death sentence. The SPC has used ‘guidance’ instruments which include ‘directives’ and other SPC interpretations and a new ‘case guidance’ system which provides case exemplars to follow. The study explored these guidance instruments as a way of deepening the understanding of how law, politics and judicial practices are interwoven to achieve reform goals.
- Document type Article
- Countries list China
- Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
China’s death penalty: reforms on capital punishment
By Hong Lu / East Asian Institute (EAI), on 8 September 2020
2020
Article
China
More details See the document
This paper covers the death penalty situation in China, which is, according to the author, unlikely to abolish the death penalty in the near future. China topped the world in the imposition of the death penalty in 2008, while wrongful convictions and erroneous executions have been found, despite China’s official policy to prevent excessive executions.
- Document type Article
- Countries list China
- Themes list Juveniles, Capital offences, Legal Representation, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Spectacle of the Scaffold? The Politics of Death Penalty in Indonesia
By Deasy Simandjuntak, on 1 January 2015
2015
Article
Indonesia
More details See the document
Simandjuntak’s article comes back to the death sentences part of the “war against drugs” conducted by President Widjojo in Indonesia. In 2015, 14 drug convicts – mostly foreign nationals – have been executed. The article also comes back to the wide support to the death penalty in the country, on the debate on the presumed deterrent effect of the death penalty and on the political function of the capital punishment in Indonesia.
- Document type Article
- Countries list Indonesia
- Themes list Public opinion, Deterrence , Drug Offences, Foreign Nationals, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Japanese Moratorium on the Death Penalty
By Mika Obara-Minnitt, on 1 January 2016
2016
Book
Japan
More details See the document
While the number of states that retain capital punishment is declining, Japan has maintained the death penalty in its legislation. In the case of Japan, the government has consistently justified the retention and use of the death penalty on the basis of national law. However, the country as recently experienced a number of de facto moratorium periods on executions. This book addresses how the Ministry of Justice in Japan has justified capital punishment policy during these de facto moratorium periods. The primary goal of this volume is to provide a better understanding of the elite-driven nature of the capital punishment system in Japan. It also addresses the domestic and cultural factors of the capital punishment policy and the rhetoric of the Ministry of Justice in its justification of capital punishment policy.
- Document type Book
- Countries list Japan
- Themes list Moratorium , Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Documentary: An eye for an eye
By Ilan Ziv, on 1 January 2016
Multimedia content
United States
More details See the document
The powerful documentary AN EYE FOR AN EYE, conveys message of forgiveness and healing. Directed by award winning filmmaker Ilan Ziv, AN EYE FOR AN EYE tells the story of death row inmate Mark Stroman, and the friendship he ultimately forges with one of his surviving victims Rais Bhuiyan, who sets about to save Stroman from death row.With unprecedented access and in-depth interviews, the film charts this riveting drama of revenge, change and forgiveness. A powerful human drama that carries a warning and a message of hope in our troubled times.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Capital offences, Murder Victims' Families, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
The Last Verdict
By Jamie Arpin-Ricci, on 1 January 2016
Book
Canada
More details See the document
What would you do if your child was murdered?What would you do if your child was convicted of murder?Alice Goodman has known great loss. Since the brutal murder of her daughter Madeline decades earlier, she has tirelessly fought to see the killer pay for his crime. Now, after twenty years, the day has arrived that she will witness his long-delayed execution. Will justice finally be done? Will she finally find the peace that has long eluded to her?Lori Williams knows she was not the perfect mother, but she never believed her son Mark could be guilty of the crime that placed him on death row. Confronting every challenge along the way, she refused to give up her pursuit of the truth—a truth she believed would set her son free. Will it be enough?Both women are fighting for a justice they believe has been denied their children. Now, their lives are on a collision course with each other. Is either woman prepared for the truth?
- Document type Book
- Countries list Canada
- Themes list Right to life, Clemency, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
The Grass Beneath His Feet: The Charles Victor Thompson Story
By Roger Rodriguez / AuthorHouse, on 1 January 2008
2008
Book
United States
frMore details See the document
Nothing produced a glow in his eyes like the wonders of nature provoking his every curiosity. Everything about nature appealed to his meticulous character and his childhood was invested at Medina Lake, chasing down fireflies, and fishing. There was nothing he liked better than fried perch and eggs for breakfast. So how does such an innocent boy end up on death row in what most agree is the most relentless state for executing murders? The Grass Beneath His Feet recounts the life of Charles Victor Thompson, who after falling in love; found himself in a disturbing chain of events that would change his life forever. This re-telling of his story is extracted directly from the journals of Charles Victor Thompson himself where his childhood, his true love, and his ultimate escape from death row are revealed. For this first time, readers can enjoy the intimate details of the escape that shocked the entire nation. America?s Most Wanted, CNN, The World News all wanted to know the same question: How did this man manage to escape from the most notorious death row system in the country? The Grass Beneath His Feet also introduces Charles to the people, not as a murderer, but as a man fighting to prove that there were many flaws in his legal process that kept him from proving that he does not meet criteria for capital punishment. Prepare to embark on a journey into a life at death row through the eyes of Charles Victor Thompson and run next to him as a child and an escapee as he took in the beauty of nature and the South Texas sun with the grass beneath his feet.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Row Phenomenon, Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages Les pieds nus dans l'herbe: L'histoire de Charles Thompson
Document(s)
The lethal injection quandary: how medicine has dismantled the death penalty
By Deborah W. Denno, on 1 January 2007
2007
Article
United States
More details See the document
On February 20, 2006, Michael Morales was hours away from execution in California when two anesthesiologists declined to participate in his lethal injection procedure, thereby halting all state executions. The events brought to the surface the long-running schism between law and medicine, raising the question of whether any beneficial connection between the professions ever existed in the execution context. History shows it seldom did. Decades of botched executions prove it. This Article examines how states ended up with such constitutionally vulnerable lethal injection procedures, suggesting that physician participation in executions, though looked upon with disdain, is more prevalent— and perhaps more necessary —than many would like to believe. The Article also reports the results of this author’s unique nationwide study of lethal injection protocols and medical participation. The study demonstrates that states have continued to produce grossly inadequate protocols that severely restrict sufficient understanding of how executions are performed and heighten the likelihood of unconstitutionality. The analysis emphasizes in particular the utter lack of medical or scientific testing of lethal injection despite the early and continuous involvement of doctors but ongoing detachment of medical societies. Lastly, the Article discusses the legal developments that led up to the current rush of lethal injection lawsuits as well as the strong and rapid reverberations that followed, particularly with respect to medical involvement. This Article concludes with two recommendations. First, much like what occurred in this country when the first state switched to electrocution, there should be a nationwide study of proper lethal injection protocols. An independent commission consisting of a diverse group of qualified individuals, including medical personnel, should conduct a thorough assessment of lethal injection, especially the extent of physician participation. Second, this Article recommends that states take their execution procedures out of hiding. Such visibility would increase public scrutiny, thereby enhancing the likelihood of constitutional executions. By clarifying the standards used for determining what is constitutional in Baze v. Rees, the U.S. Supreme Court can then provide the kind of Eighth Amendment guidance states need to conduct humane lethal injections.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Methods of Execution, Lethal Injection,
Document(s)
Crime and Justice. Abolishing the Death Penalty
By IPS, on 1 January 2007
Book
More details See the document
The IPS ‘Death Penalty Abolition Project’, supported bythe European Union, has recorded the voices of many of those who have played a key role in the recently fast-moving journey towards a death-penalty-free world. In doing so, IPS has been guided by the purposes and principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.Collected here are some 100 reports from dozens ofcountries and every continent. The voices of those who have spoken out here – many hundreds in number – include activists,academics, lawyers and, of course, those waiting for that dreaded last knock on their cell door.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Moratorium , Trend Towards Abolition, 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)
Death Penalty: Trials and Tribulations
By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2012
Multimedia content
Uganda
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Courting Death – The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment
By Carol S. Steiker / Jordan M. Steiker / Harvard University Press, on 8 September 2020
2020
Book
United States
More details See the document
While execution chambers remain active in several states in the United States, constitutional regulation has contributed to the death penalty’s new fragility. In the next decade or two, Carol Steiker and Jordan Steiker argue, the fate of the American death penalty is likely to be sealed by this failed judicial experiment. Courting Death illuminates both the promise and pitfalls of constitutional regulation of contentious social issues.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
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)
Remedies for California’s Death Row Deadlock
By Judge Arthur Alarcon / Southern California Law review, on 8 September 2020
2020
Article
United States
More details See the document
This Article identifies the woeful inefficiencies of the current procedures that have led to inexcusable delays in arriving at just results in death penalty cases and describes how California came to find itself in this untenable condition. The article makes recomendations.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Fair Trial,
Document(s)
Make Me Believe
By Dax-Devlon Ross / Outside the Box Publishing, on 1 January 2011
2011
Book
United States
More details See the document
A Crime Novel Based on Real Events, follows the discoveries and dangerous encounters of a fictional author investigating the case of Toronto Patterson, the last juvenile defendant executed in Texas.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Juveniles,
Document(s)
In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance
By Wilbert Rideau / Knopf, on 1 January 2011
Book
United States
More details See the document
A death row inmate finds redemption as a prison journalist in this uplifting memoir. In 1961, after a bungled bank robbery, Rideau was convicted of murder at the age of 19 and received a death sentence that was later commuted to life in prison.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Death Row Conditions,
Document(s)
Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong
By Brandon L. Garrett / Harvard University Press, on 1 January 2011
Book
United States
More details See the document
Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Executing Those Who Do Not Kill
By Tracy Casadio / Joseph Trigilio / American Criminal Law Review, on 1 January 2011
Article
United States
More details See the document
This article explores the constitutionality of the death penalty for those convicted of felony murder, i.e., those who participated in a serious crime in which a death occurred, but were not directly responsible for the death.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Living with murder, the video documentary: Meet those touched by Detroit homicide
By Suzette Hackney / Kathy Kieliszewski / Romain Blanquart / Detroit Free Press, on 1 January 2011
Legal Representation
More details See the document
More than 3,300 people have been murdered in the City of Detroit since 2003. In this Detroit Free Press documentary, meet some of the families who have lost loved ones to homicide, are searching for justice and trying to come to terms with their losses.
- Document type Legal Representation
- Themes list FRONTPAGE
Document(s)
Training Resource: Protecting the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty and Life and Long-Term Imprisonment
on 1 January 2011
Working with...
More details See the document
PRI training resource (1/3): Aimed mainly to mid-level prison officers, this resource’s trains these stakeholders on: due process and fair trial standards, international standards on the treatment of prisoners, vulnerable prisoners, building a rehabilitation-oriented penal culture.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Fair Trial, Death Row Conditions,
Document(s)
Working with Victims: A Guide for Activist
By Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 1 January 2009
2009
Working with...
More details See the document
The common assumption is that all victims’ family members support the death penalty. We cannot expect to abolish the death penalty without presenting an alternative view. Victims’ voices have a powerful effect – lawmakers have voted against the death penalty as a result of hearing victims’ testify for abolition. Including victims’ stories when working for abolition is strategically wise and is essential to bringing new people into the abolition movement. Here are a few suggestions. We encourage activists to consult with MVFHR for further guidance.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
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)
Myth of the hanging tree: stories of crime and punishment in territorial New Mexico
By Robert J. Torrez / University of New Mexico Press, on 1 January 2008
2008
Book
United States
More details See the document
The haunting specter of hanging trees holds a powerful sway on the American imagination, conjuring images of rough-and-tumble frontier towns struggling to impose law and order in a land where violence was endemic. In this thoughtful study, former New Mexico State Historian Robert Torrez examines several fascinating criminal cases that reveal the harsh and often gruesome realities of the role hangings, legal or otherwise, played in the administration of frontier justice. At first glance, the topic may seem downright morbid, and in a sense it is, but these violent attempts at justice are embedded in our perception of America’s western experience. In tracing territorial New Mexico’s efforts to enforce law, Torrez challenges the myths and popular perceptions about hangings and lynching in this corner of the Wild West.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Hanging,
Document(s)
Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa: A Human Rights Perspective
By Lilian Chenwi / Pretoria University Law Press, on 1 January 2007
2007
Book
More details See the document
In “Towards the abolition of the death penalty in Africa – a human rights perspective”, the author shows that international law increasingly recognises that the imposition and execution of the death penalty constitute violations of human rights. The author locates an emerging international trend towards the abolition of capital punishment in the African context. In doing so, she provides a particular African perspective on the issue. In this rich and informative text, she reflects on the role and impact of relevant UN instruments on African states, and analyses related African regional instruments, domestic law and case-law.
- Document type Book
Document(s)
America Without the Death Penalty: States Leading the Way
By John F. Galliher / Larry W. Koch / Northeastern / Teresa J. Guess, on 1 January 2002
2002
Book
United States
More details See the document
Twelve states and the District of Columbia do not impose the death penalty. The authors, all sociology professors at American universities, use the case-study method to examine why this is so. The factors they consider include murder rates, the history of executions, economic circumstances, public opinion, mass media, population diversity, and each state’s abolition of the death penalty. They also examine the role of a state’s social, cultural, and economic leaders in public debate on capital punishment. The states studied are Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, and West Virginia, though there is also some discussion of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. Media reports and government documents were reviewed and legislators, civil servants, journalists, death-penalty activists, and others interviewed. Throughout, the authors express an abolitionist point of view, stating “We hope this book will provide practical information to those interested in furthering death penalty abolition in the United States and throughout the world.”
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America’s Future
By Bruce Shapiro / Rev. Jesse L. Jackson / Anchor , on 8 September 2020
2020
Book
United States
More details See the document
In this collaborative work, the Jacksons, father (former presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow Coalition) and son (a congressional representative) with Salon.com editor Shapiro, pursue a nationwide conversation on the issues surrounding the death penalty one that begins with the proposal of a moratorium and could lead to the eventual cessation of capital punishment. This book describes a bureaucratic nightmare involving defense lawyers asleep at trial, vengeance-hungry politicos and a problematic, imperfect justice system in which the handing out of death sentences is skewed, both racially and economically. An objective examination of this penal system would be beneficial to all, say the authors: since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976, one in every eight prisoners on death row has been found innocent and released. There are undoubtedly cases, the authors argue, where the proof of innocence didn’t see the light of day in time. Navigating the historical precedents of the death penalty and the reasons why federally mandated executions were restored following a 10-year moratorium imposed in 1967, the authors thoroughly detail legitimate questions regarding what they view as erroneous deterrence theories, scriptural misrepresentation and simple vengeance.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Killing as Punishment: Reflections on the Death Penalty in America
By Hugo Adam Bedau / Northeastern, on 1 January 2004
2004
Book
United States
More details See the document
Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the field, Bedau addresses topics such as strong public suppport for the death penalty, wrongful convictions, the disappearance of executive clemency, constitutional arguments surronding the Eight Amendment, and procedural reforms under consideration that move toward abolition.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Cruel and Unusual: The American Death Penalty and the Founders’ Eighth Amendment
By John D. Bessler / Northeastern, on 1 January 2012
2012
Book
United States
More details See the document
While shedding important new light on the U.S. Constitution’s “cruel and unusual punishments” clause, Bessler explores the influence of Cesare Beccaria’s essay, on Crimes and Punishments, on the Founders’ views, and the transformative properties of the Fourteenth Amendment, which made the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
Document(s)
Of Crimes and Punishment
By Cesare Beccaria-Bonesana / Philip H. Nicklin, on 1 January 1764
1764
Book
enenfrzh-hantesMore details See the document
This is a highly thought-provoking work where Beccaria-Bonesana has explained his ideas against the use of torture and capital punishments. He has produced a humanitarian spirit in the dispensation of laws. This work is important as the views expressed here, were not regarded either in his times or now.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages German : Über Verbrechen und StrafenItalian : Dei delitti e delle pene-Consulte criminaliDes délits et des peines论犯罪与刑罚De Los Delitos Y De Las Penas
Document(s)
Death Penalty Cases: Leading U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment
By David McCord / Barry Latzer / Butterworth-Heinemann, on 1 January 2010
2010
Book
United States
More details See the document
This brand new edition of Death Penalty Cases makes the most manageable comprehensive resource on the death penalty even better. It includes the most recent cases, including Kennedy v. Louisiana, prohibiting the death penalty for child rapists, and Baze v. Rees, upholding execution by lethal injection. In addition, all of the cases are now topically organized into five sections: * The Foundational Cases * Death-Eligibility: Which persons/crimes are fit for the death penalty? * The Death Penalty Trial * Post-conviction Review * Execution Issues The introductory essays on the history, administration, and controversies surrounding capital punishment have been thoroughly revised. The statistical appendix has been brought up-to-date, and the statutory appendix has been restructured. For clarity, accuracy, complete impartiality and comprehensiveness, there simply is no better resource on capital punishment available.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
America’s Death Penalty: Between Past and Present
By David Garland / Jonathan Simon / Douglas Hay / Michael Meranze / Randall McGowen / New York University (NYU) / Rebecca Mc Lennan, on 8 September 2020
2020
Book
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty
By Scott Turow / Picador, on 8 September 2020
Book
United States
More details See the document
Turow bases his opinions on his experiences as a prosecutor and, in his post-prosecutorial years, working on behalf of death-row inmates, as well as his two years on Illinois’s Commission on Capital Punishment, charged by the former Gov. George Ryan.Turow presents both sides of the death penalty debate and seems himself to flip sides depending on the argument.Turow’s reflections include: * Thoughts on victims’ rights vs. community rights * Whether execution is a deterrent * The possible execution of an innocent person * If not the death penalty, what to do with the worst offenders
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution
By Austin Sarat / Princeton University Press, on 1 January 2005
2005
Book
United States
More details See the document
In this compelling and timely work, Austin Sarat provides the first book-length work on executive clemency. He turns our focus from questions of guilt and innocence to the very meaning of mercy. Starting from Ryan’s controversial decision, Mercy on Trial uses the lens of executive clemency in capital cases to discuss the fraught condition of mercy in American political life. Most pointedly, Sarat argues that mercy itself is on trial. Although it has always had a problematic position as a form of “lawful lawlessness,” it has come under much more intense popular pressure and criticism in recent decades. This has yielded a radical decline in the use of the power of chief executives to stop executions.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Clemency,
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)
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions
By Helen Prejean / Vintage , on 1 January 2005
2005
Book
United States
More details See the document
She tells the story of two inmates she came to know as a spiritual adviser. Dobie Williams, a poor black man with an IQ of 65 from rural Louisiana, was executed after being represented by incompetent counsel and found guilty by an all-white jury based mostly on conjecture and speculation. Joseph O’Dell was convicted of murder after the court heard from an inmate who later admitted to giving false testimony for his own benefit. O’Dell received neither an evidentiary hearing nor potentially exculpatory DNA testing and was executed, insisting on his innocence the whole while. Besides exploring the shaky cases against them, Prejean describes in vivid detail the thoughts and feelings of Williams and O’Dell as their bids for clemency fail and they are put to death. The second part of the book details “the machinery of death,” the legal process that Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, dismayed at the inequities of the death penalty, cited as his reason for resigning and that current justice Antonin Scalia has boasted of being a part of.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Murdering Myths: The Story Behind the Death Penalty
By Judith W. Kay / Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., on 1 January 2005
Book
United States
More details See the document
In Murdering Myths: The Story Behind the Death Penalty, Judith Kay goes beyond the hype and statistics to examine Americans’ deep-seated beliefs about crime and punishment. She argues that Americans share a counter-productive idea of justice–that punishment corrects bad behavior, suffering pays for wrong deeds, and victims’ desire for revenge is natural and inevitable. Drawing on interviews with both victims and inmates, Kay shows how this belief harms perpetrators, victims, and society and calls for a new narrative that recognizes the humanity in all of us.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Death by Design: Capital Punishment As a Social Psychological System
By Craig Haney / Oxford University Press, on 1 January 2005
Book
United States
More details See the document
In Death by Design, research psychologist Craig Haney argues that capital punishment, and particularly the sequence of events that lead to death sentencing itself, is maintained through a complex and elaborate social psychological system that distance and disengage us from the true nature of the task. Relying heavily on his own research and that of other social scientists, Haney suggests that these social psychological forces enable persons to engage in behavior from which many of them otherwise would refrain. However, by facilitating death sentencing in these ways, this inter-related set of social psychological forces also undermines the reliability and authenticity of the process, and compromises the fairness of its outcomes. Because these social psychological forces are systemic in nature –built into the very system of death sentencing itself –Haney concludes by suggesting a number of inter-locking reforms, derived directly from empirical research on capital punishment, that are needed to increase the fairness and reliability of the process.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Capital Punishment: Strategies for Abolition
By William A. Schabas / Peter Hodgkinson / Cambridge University Press, on 1 January 2004
2004
Book
Georgia
More details See the document
The editors of this study isolate the core issues influencing legislation so that they can be incorporated into strategies that advise governments in changing their policy on capital punishment. What are the critical factors determining whether a country replaces, retains or restores the death penalty? Why do some countries maintain the death penalty in theory, but in reality rarely invoke it? These questions and others are explored in chapters on South Korea, Lithuania, Georgia, Japan and the British Caribbean Commonwealth, as well as the U.S.
- Document type Book
- Countries list Georgia
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law
By William A. Schabas / Cambridge University Press, on 1 January 2002
2002
Book
More details See the document
This extensively revised third edition covers developments since publication of the second edition in 1997. It includes consideration of the UN human rights system, international humanitarian law, European human rights law and Inter-American human rights law. New chapters address capital punishment in African human rights law and international criminal law. An extensive list of appendices contains many of the essential documents for the study of capital punishment in international law.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Chinas Death Penalty: History, Law and Contemporary Practices
By Terance D. Miethe / Hong Lu / Routledge, on 1 January 2007
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,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty: An American History
By Stuart Banner / Harvard University Press, on 1 January 2003
2003
Book
United States
More details See the document
Law professor Stuart Banner tells the story of how, over four centuries, dramatic changes have taken place in the ways capital punishment has been administered and experienced. Banner moves beyond the debates, to give us an unprecedented understanding of capital punishment’s many meanings. As nearly four thousand inmates are now on death row, and almost one hundred are currently being executed each year, the furious debate is unlikely to diminish. The Death Penalty is invaluable in understanding the American way of the ultimate punishment.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
When the State No Longer Kills: International Human Rights Norms and Abolition of Capital Punishment
By Sangmin Bae / State University of New York Press, on 1 January 2007
2007
Book
Republic of Korea
More details See the document
This book tries to explain what leads a state to abolish capital punishment or impose a moratorium, by offereing in-depth analyses of four countries: Ukraine, South Africa, South Korea and the United States. Focusing on the role of political leadership and domestic political institutions, Bae clarifies the causal mechanisms that lead to state compliance or noncompliance with the norm.
- Document type Book
- Countries list Republic of Korea
- Themes list Moratorium ,
Document(s)
Executing the will of the voters: a roadmap to mend or end the California Legislature’s Milti-billion-dollar death penalty debacle
By Judge Arthur L. Alarcón / Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review / Paula M. Mitchell, on 8 September 2020
2020
Article
United States
More details See the document
This Article uncovers the true costs of administering the death penalty in California by tracing how much taxpayers are spending for death penalty trials versus non–death penalty trials and for costs incurred due to the delay from the initial sentence of death to the execution.The article makes recomendations.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Sentencing Alternatives, Financial cost,
Document(s)
Dead Reckoning: Executions in America
By Greg Mitchell / Sinclair Books , on 1 January 2011
2011
Book
United States
More details See the document
The fast-paced new book, “Dead Reckoning,” offers a critical overview of capital punishment in America, along with a vivid discussion of current issues central in today’s debate, based on many interviews. Along the way, Mitchell turns to a wide cast of notable abolitionists, from Charles Dickens and Mark Twain to Albert Camus and Christopher Hitchensو and Steve Earle.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
Document(s)
Behind Bars
By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2012
2012
Multimedia content
More details See the document
This 2012 documentary film ‘Behind Bars’ was produced under the EU funded project ‘Progressive Abolition of the Death Penalty and Alternatives that Respect International Human Rights Standards’.The film reflects the application of life sentence, conditions of lifers and long sentenced prisoners and the State’s attitude towards these offenders in the countries of the South Caucasus.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Themes list Death Row Conditions,
Document(s)
Die Free: A True Story of Murder, Betrayal and Miscarried Justice
By K. Cantrell / Amazon Digital Services, on 1 January 2012
Book
United States
More details See the document
A new electronic book by former journalist Peter Rooney offers an in-depth look at the case of Joseph Burrows, who was exonerated from Illinois’s death row in 1996. In Die Free: A True Story of Murder, Betrayal and Miscarried Justice, Rooney explains how Burrows was sentenced to death for the murder of William Dulin based on snitch testimony.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Awaiting Death
By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2008
2008
Multimedia content
Kyrgyzstan
More details See the document
This film gives an insight into prison life for 174 men convicted and sentenced to death or to life imprisonment in Kyrgyzstan.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Kyrgyzstan
- Themes list Retribution, Country/Regional profiles,
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)
Justice Advocates Project
By Death Penalty Focus, on 1 January 2012
Multimedia content
More details See the document
The Death Penalty Focus Justice Advocates Project empowers people with firsthand experience of the death penalty system to become advocates for fairness and justice by telling their personal stories to the public. Justice Advocates include the wrongfully convicted and law enforcement professionals, who bring their varied experiences of the flaws and dangers of the death penalty system to the public discourse
- Document type Multimedia content
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community and Identity
By Kimberly J Cook / Saundra D Westervelt / Rutgers University Press, on 1 January 2012
Book
United States
More details See the document
n Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community and Identity, the authors focus on three central areas affecting those who had to begin a new life after leaving years of severe confinement: the seeming invisibility of these individuals after their release; the complicity of the justice system in allowing that invisibility; and the need for each of them to confront their personal trauma
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
Document(s)
Public Executions in Virginia
By Harry M. Ward / McFarland Publishing, on 1 January 2012
Book
United States
More details See the document
A new book by Professor Harry M. Ward of the University of Richmond examines the death penalty in Virginia at a time when executions were carried out for all to see.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
The Death of the American Death Penalty
By L. Koch / Northeastern University Press / J. Galliher, on 1 January 2012
Book
United States
More details See the document
A new book by Larry Koch, Colin Wark and John Galliher discusses the status of the death penalty in the U.S. in light of recent legislative activity and court decisions. In The Death of the American Death Penalty, the authors examine the impact of factors such as economic conditions, public sentiment, the role of elites, the media, and population diversity on the death penalty debate.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,
Document(s)
Survivor on Death Row
By Amazon Digital Services / Clare Nonhebel, on 1 January 2012
Book
United States
More details See the document
Survivor on Death Row, a new e-book co-authored by death row inmate Romell Broom and Clare Nonhebel, tells the story of Ohio’s botched attempt to execute Broom by lethal injection in 2009. In September of that year, Broom was readied for execution and placed on the gurney, but the procedure was terminated after corrections officials spent over two hours attempting to find a suitable vein for the lethal injection.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment,
Document(s)
Early Supreme Court Cases on the Death Penalty
By Robert Bohm / Carolina Academic Press, on 1 January 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,