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Document(s)

Film “Kill Troy Killing Me”

By Garry A. Boast / Cerebral Motion Productions, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

A death penalty abolitionist (Martina Correia) must sound the alarms of our criminal justice system in time to save her brother from lethal injection.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence,

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


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)

Article: “Troy Davis: Why Poster Boys Don’t Matter”

By David R. Dow / Guerinca, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

Is the Troy Davis case the tipping point on the capital punishment debate? Unfortunately, not until the majority of Americans believes that killing—even an unquestionably guilty murderer—is wrong.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Emergency Exit: Which actions for supporting offenders close te release?

By Save Anthony, on 1 January 2013


2013

NGO report


More details See the document

In a recent research , Emergency Exit: Which actions for supporting offenders close te release?, 13 key practices have proven to help resettle successfully ex offenders into society at their exit of prison and prevent them from re-offending.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Public debate,

Document(s)

Change of Heart: Justice, Mercy, and Making Peace with My Sister’s Killer

By Jeanne Bishop / Westminster John Knox Press, on 1 January 2015


2015

Book

United States


More details See the document

Jeanne Bishop has written a new book about her life and spiritual journey after her sister was murdered in Illinois in 1990. Change of Heart: Justice, Mercy, and Making Peace with My Sister’s Killer tells Bishop’s personal story of grief, loss, and of her eventual efforts to confront and reconcile with her sister’s killer. She also addresses larger issues of capital punishment, life sentences for juvenile offenders, and restorative justice. Former Illinois Governor George Ryan said of the book, “When I commuted the death sentences of everyone on Illinois’s death row, I expressed the hope that we could open our hearts and provide something for victims’ families other than the hope of revenge. I quoted Abraham Lincoln: ‘I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.’ Jeanne Bishop’s compelling book tells the story of how devotion to her faith took her face-to-face with her sister’s killer …. She reminds us of a core truth: that our criminal justice system cannot be just without mercy.”

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

Document(s)

ENHANCING EU ACTION ON THE DEATH PENALTY IN ASIA

By Roger Hood / European Parliament / DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL POLICIES OF THE UNION, on 1 January 2012


2012

Article


More details See the document

This paper has three objectives. First, it provides an analysis of the state-of-play regarding the death penalty in Asia. Second it reports on EU human rights dialogues. Third, it suggests policies that might help to support initiatives in Asian countries aimed both at restraining the use of the death penalty and securing its complete abolition.

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

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


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)

Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America

By Clive Stafford Smith / Harvill Secker, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Deterrence and the Death Penalty

By The National Academies Press / John V. Pepper, on 1 January 2012


Book


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Deterrence ,

Document(s)

In This Timeless Time: Living and Dying on Death Row in America

By Univerity if North Carolina / Diane Christian, on 1 January 2012


Book

United States


More details See the document

In this comprehensive, well-crafted book, published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, SUNY-Buffalo professors Jackson and Christian build upon the photographs and interviews from death row in Texas that yielded their 1979 book and documentary Death Row

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

Document(s)

The Second Execution of Romell Broom

By Michael Verhoeven / Michael Verhoeven, on 1 January 2012


Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

On September 15, 2009, the State of Ohio tried to execute Romell Broom and failed. Ohio claims it has a right to try again. This film explores the legal and moral questions surrounding this unique case.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions, Lethal Injection,

Document(s)

Death Watch Diary

By Robert Towery / Amazon Digital Services, on 1 January 2012


Book

United States


More details See the document

Robert Towery was denied clemency by the state of Arizona on Friday March 2, 2012 and was executed on Thursday March 8th in Florence, Arizona. He was 47 years old. The last 35 days of his life, Robert was placed on “Death Watch” where his every move was recorded and chronicled by prison officials. Robert kept a diary and he sent his writings to his attorneys. Robert authorized his lawyers to release his diary after his execution.

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

Document(s)

Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong

By Raymond Bonner / Stated First Edition, on 1 January 2012


Book

United States


More details See the document

The book that helped free an innocent man who had spent twenty-seven years on death row. In January 1982, an elderly white widow was found brutally murdered in the small town of Greenwood, South Carolina. Police immediately arrested Edward Lee Elmore, a semiliterate, mentally retarded black man with no previous felony record. His only connection to the victim was having cleaned her gutters and windows, but barely ninety days after the victim’s body was found, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

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

Document(s)

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

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


Book


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Killer Art: Florida’s Death Row Artists

By Chris Dahl / CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

Art and letters from the men who await death in the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Black is the Day, Black is the Night

By Amy Elkins, on 1 January 2014


2014

Working with...


More details See the document

Black is the Day, Black is the Night is conceptual exploration into the many facets of human identity using notions of time, accumulation, memory and distance through personal correspondence with men serving life and death row sentences in some of the most maximum security prisons in the U.S., all of which had served between 13-26 years at point of contact.

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions,

Document(s)

Parting Words

By Amy Elkins, on 1 January 2014


Working with...


More details See the document

Parting Words, a visual photographic archive of the 500+ prisoners to date executed in the state of Texas.

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Public debate, Death Row Phenomenon,

Document(s)

A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story, A Journey from Murder to Redemption Inside America’s Worst Prison System

By Jodie Sinclair / Billy Wayne Sinclair / Arcade Publishing, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

Life in the Balance: a book on the Billy Wayne Sinclair Story, A Journey from Murder to Redemption Inside America’s Worst Prison System. The New York Times Book Review called it a “numbing tale of crime, punishment, and redemption.”

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence, Country/Regional profiles,

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)

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)

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)

Summary of Hands Off Cain 2014 Report

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 1 January 2014


2014

NGO report


More details See the document

The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for more than fifteen years, was again confirmed in 2013 and the first six months of 2014.There are currently 161 countries and territories that, to different extents, have decided to renounce the death penalty. Of these: 100 are totally abolitionist; 7 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes; 6 have a moratorium on executions in place and 48 are de facto abolitionist (i.e. Countries that have not carried out any executions for at least 10 years or countries which have binding obligations not to use the death penalty).Countries retaining the death penalty worldwide declined to 37 (as of 30 June 2014), compared to 40 in 2012. Retentionist countries have gradually declined over the last few years: there were 43 in 2011, 42 in 2010, 45 in 2009, 48 in 2008, 49 in 2007, 51 in 2006 and 54 in 2005.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Statistics,

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)

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)

The Death Penalty in 2014: video summary

By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2014


NGO report


More details See the document

DPIC’s 2014 Year-End Report. Death sentences were at a 40-year low and executions were at a 20-year low. Texas, Missouri, and Florida accounted for 80% of all the executions in the United States. There were 7 exonerations this year and it took an average of 30 years to discover their innocence.

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

Document(s)

Report : Third World Congress Against the Death Penalty

By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2008


2008

NGO report

fr
More details See the document

Participants in the Third World Congress Against the Death Penaltyin Paris have repeated again and again that the universal abo-lition of the death penalty is underway. The work carried outin Paris 2007 has clearly shown it: an irreversible downwardtrend in the number of death sentences and executions is vis-ible worldwide. Above all an increasing number of nations haveabandoned this useless and cruel practice.

Document(s)

David R. Dow: Lessons from death row inmates

By David R. Dow / TED, on 1 January 2012


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)

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)

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)

Exile and Embrace: Contemporary Religious Discourse on the Death Penalty

By Northeastern / Anthony Santoro, on 1 January 2013


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)

The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition

By Routledge / Madoka Futamura, on 1 January 2014


2014

Book


More details See the document

Covering a diverse range of transitional processes in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition offers a broad evaluation of countries whose death penalty policies have rarely been studied. The book would be useful to human rights researchers and international lawyers, in demonstrating how transition and transformation, ‘provide the catalyst for several of interrelated developments of which one is the reduction and elimination of capital punishment’.

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

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


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)

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)

Foreign nationals facing the death penalty in the USA: the important role of consular officials

By Reprieve, on 1 January 2012


2012

Lobbying


More details See the document

This video explains the role of consular officers in protecting their nationals when they face the death penalty abroad.

  • Document type Lobbying
  • Themes list Foreign Nationals,

Document(s)

Training on death penalty advocacy for the Universal Periodic Review of human rights

By The Advocates for Human Rights / Amy Bergquist / Rosalyn Park / Jennifer Prestholdt, on 1 January 2015


2015

Working with...


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Circumstances of Offense: Robert “Saint” Bailey on Death Row

By Chris Dahl / CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

This book is a first-hand account of the life of Simon City Royals gangster Robert “Saint” Bailey who is currently on Death Row in Raiford, Florida. He killed a law enforcement officer in 2005.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

One Iranian lawyer’s fight to save juveniles from execution

By Amnesty International / The Guardian, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

Iran (Islamic Republic of)


More details See the document

As part of Amnesty International’s 2012 death penalty campaign the Guardian and animators from Sherbet tell in this short animation fim the extraordinary story of Mohammad Mostafaei, a lawyer who has saved 20 of the 40 juveniles he has defended from execution in Iran. Actor Paul Bettany speaks the lawyer’s words.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

The Codemned: Bali 9

By Dateline / SBS, on 1 January 2010


2010

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Two of the Bali Nine have been speaking publicly for the first time… just days ahead of final hearings on whether their death sentences for drug trafficking will be carried out.Dateline reporter Mark Davis gained exclusive access to Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan in the ‘death tower’ at Indonesia’s Kerobokan Prison.They talk openly about their lives then and now, what they think of their crimes, and the prospect of facing death by firing squad.Mark also hears first-hand of the heartache for their families back in Australia, as they wait to hear if their pleas for clemency will be granted.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Executed Taiwan airman Chiang Kuo-ching innocent

By Cindy Sui / BBC, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

A Taiwanese air force private executed 14 years ago for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl was innocent after all, a military court has ruled.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

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)

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)

Death penalty ‘traumatises jail warders’

By Daily Nation, on 1 January 2011


Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

The men who lead death row inmates to the gallows are traumatised on surrendering a prisoner to the hangman. This was told at a meeting of judges, commissioners of prisons and legal practitioners from East Africa on the death penalty in Nairobi.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list Retribution, Death Row Conditions, Sentencing Alternatives,

Document(s)

APYN Death Penalty Quizz

By Asia Pacific Youth Network, on 1 January 2009


2009

Campaigning


More details See the document

Quizz on the death penalty by the Asia Pacific Youth Network

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice

By TED / Bryan Stevenson, on 1 January 2012


2012

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.Speaker starts talking about the death penalty at the 8 minute mark.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Discrimination,

Document(s)

Military court exonerates Chiang Kuo-ching

By Rich Chang / Taipei Times, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

A military court yesterday acquitted Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), who was executed for the rape and murder of a girl 15 years ago, in a posthumous trial.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Give up Tomorrow

By Michael Collins / Thoughtful Robot Production, on 1 January 2011


Legal Representation


More details See the document

Reflecting schisms of race, class, and political power at the core of the Philippines’ tumultuous democracy, clashing families, institutions, and individuals face off to convict or free Paco, accused of the rape and murder of two chinese-philipino women.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Make Me Believe

By Dax-Devlon Ross / Outside the Box Publishing, on 1 January 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)

NGO Media Outreach: Using the Media as an Advocacy Tool

By Coalition for the International Criminal Court, on 1 January 2003


2003

Working with...


More details See the document

A guide for NGOs to use media effectively. This guide explains the importance of media, how to create contacts, how to prepare a media outreach campaign, how to deliver a campaign to the media and how to use available resources to support your media campaign.

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

Document(s)

Northwestern Death Penalty Project

By Northwestern University Centre on Wrongful Convictions, on 1 January 1998


1998

Working with...


More details See the document

The Center on Wrongful Convictions is dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justice. The Center has three components: representation, research, and community services. Center faculty, staff, cooperating outside attorneys, and Bluhm Legal Clinic students investigate possible wrongful convictions and represent imprisoned clients with claims of actual innocence. The research component focuses on identifying systemic problems in the criminal justice system and, together with the community services component, on developing initiatives designed to raise public awareness of the prevalence, causes, and social costs of wrongful convictions and promote reform of the criminal justice system. In addition, the community services component helps exonerated former prisoners cope with the difficult process of reintegration into free society.

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

Document(s)

Judy Kerr: Murder Victim Family Member

By California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty / YouTube, on 1 January 2009


2009

Working with...


More details See the document

Judy Kerr talks about her experience as a murder victim family member and her opposition against the death. Responding to violence with violence is not the answer.

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

Document(s)

No to the Death Penalty, No to Revenge

By YouTube, on 1 January 2008


2008

Working with...


More details See the document

A murder victim’s family member talks out about her opposition to the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

Resource Guide for Managing Capital Cases

By Molly Treadway Johnson / Federal Judicial Center / Laural L. Hooper, on 1 January 2004


2004

Working with...


More details See the document

The purpose of this resource guide is to provide judges who are assigned capital cases with information about how other judges have handled these cases and an idea of what to expect as the case proceeds. The guide does not prescribe how such cases should be handled, and any examples of case-management approaches discussed should be considered illustrative.

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

Document(s)

Death to the Death Penalty/ La peine de mort est condamnée à disparaître/Muerte a la Pena de Muerte.

By Amnesty International / YouTube, on 1 January 2010


2010

Working with...


More details See the document

This video is part of the campaign run by Amnesty International titled “Death to the Death Penalty”, in the video wax figures ressembling forms of execution melt away leaving only the Amnesty International candle burning/Ce video, réalisé par Amnesty International pour la campagne intitulé “La peine de mort est condamnée à disparaître”/Muerte a la Pena de Muerte.

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

Document(s)

The Last Meals Project

By The Last Meals Project, on 8 September 2020


2020

Working with...


More details See the document

This series visually documents the face and last meal of a convicted killer and is without question honest and true. This will be an ongoing project as executions continue to take place in the United States.

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

Document(s)

The Dark Room

By Amnesty International - Italy / Istituto Europeo di Design, on 1 January 2010


2010

Working with...


More details See the document

The dark room was a photography exhibition planned as part of a project lunched by Amnesty International Italy under the title “I am against the death penalty because…”. The exhibition was held in Rome at Palazzo delle Exposizioni, Sala della Fontana, from 8th to 20th June 2010.

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

Document(s)

A victim of 9/11 hate crime now fights for his attacker’s life

By Kari Huus / MSNBC, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

Immigrant badly wounded by ‘Arab Slayer’ mounts long-shot bid to halt execution.

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

Document(s)

Randall Adams, 61, Dies; Freed With Help of Film

By Douglas Martin / New York Times, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Randall Dale Adams, who spent 12 years in prison before his conviction in the murder of a Dallas police officer was thrown out largely on the basis of evidence uncovered by a filmmaker, died in obscurity in October in Washington Court House, Ohio. He was 61.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Paradise Lost: Purgatory

By Bruce Sinofsky / Joe Berlinger / HBO documentaries, on 1 January 2011


Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

Joe Berlinger’s third film about the West Memphis 3, Paradise Lost: Purgatory

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Facing their last moments with a smile: The Chinese women about to be executed for drug smuggling

By Rick Dewsbury / Mail Online, on 1 January 2011


Campaigning


More details See the document

The moving images could show any group of young women as they go about their daily lives in prison. But just hours – and in some cases minutes – after the pictures were taken, each of the four women were led into a concrete yard and executed.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions,

Document(s)

PAKISTAN: The State of Human Rights in 2011

By Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) / Asian Human Rights Commission, on 1 January 2011


NGO report


More details See the document

The government’s ineptness to stop the religious and sectarian intolerance has strengthened the banned militant religious groups to organize and collect their funds in the streets and hold big rallies. This ineptness of the government has helped the forced conversion to Islam of girls from religious minority groups. In total thorough out the country during the year 1800 women from Hindu and Christian groups were forced to convert to Islam by different methods particularly though abduction and rape.

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

Document(s)

THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTS OF 2011 (and the first six months of 2012)

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

en
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Hands Off Cain 2011 Report

By HANDS OFF CAIN, on 1 January 2011


2011

NGO report


More details See the document

Hands Off Cain 2011 Report. The worldwide trend towards abolition, underway for more than ten years, was again confirmed in 2010 and the first six months of 2011.

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

Document(s)

Victims, We Care

By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights / YouTube, on 1 January 2011


Working with...


More details See the document

Victims, We Care

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

Document(s)

MVFHR Asia Speech Tour in Korea & Japan

By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights / YouTube, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

Japan

en
More details See the document

MVFHR is an organization formed by a group of victim’s family members. They have traveled across the ocean all the way down to Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to share their stories and views on the death penalty with the local victim’s family members, attorneys, and human rights organizations.

Document(s)

The Executioner’s Song

By Norman Mailer / Vintage , on 8 September 2020


Book

United States


More details See the document

Norman Mailer tells Gary Gilmore’s story, and those of the men and women caught up in his procession toward the firing squad, with implacable authority, steely compassion, and a restraint that evokes the parched landscapes and stern theology of Gilmore’s Utah.

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

Document(s)

Outlook: The release of Sierra Leone’s longest serving female death row prisoner.

By BBC, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

Sierra Leone


More details See the document

The release of Sierra Leone’s longest serving female death row prisoner.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list Sierra Leone
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Witness to Murder

By Tony Medina / Lulu PRESS, on 1 January 2011


2011

Book

United States


More details See the document

Tony Medina was accused of shooting into a crowd of young people with a semi-automatic weapon from a dark colored car. Two children were fatally wounded during the shooting. Nevertheless, he is innocent according to the furnished evidence and the testimony of witnesses.

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

Document(s)

Premeditated: meditations on capital punishment

By Malaquias Montoya / University of Notre Dame, on 1 January 2004


2004

Working with...


More details See the document

Meditations on Capital Punishment, Recent Works by Malaquias Montoya features recently created silkscreen images and paintings, and related research dealing with the death penalty and penal institutions.

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions,

Document(s)

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

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


2010

Book

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Condemned to Die

By Mark Davis / SBS, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Presenter Mark Davis travels to Indonesia with the mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran, as she visits her son for the first time since his final death sentence appeal was rejected.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Drug Offences,

Document(s)

Incendiary: the Willingham case

By Steve Mims / Joe Bailey Jr. / Yokel, on 1 January 2011


Legal Representation


More details See the document

This film, by Steve Mims and Joe Bailey Jr., is just what its title implies: a match being lit to a tinderpile of flimsy evidence that led to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham in Texas in 2004 after his 1992 conviction for setting the fire that killed his three babies.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Victim’s son objects as Texas sets execution in hate crime death

By Karen Brooks / Reuters, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

As Texas prepares to execute one of his father’s killers, Ross Byrd hopes the state shows the man the mercy his father, James Byrd Jr., never got when he was dragged behind a truck to his

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

Document(s)

Into the Abyss

By Werner Herzog / Skellig Rock (Werner Herzog Film) / Channel 4 (Spring Films), on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes. There are interviews (video).

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions,

Document(s)

The Last Word: Rewriting the American death penalty

By Lawrence O’Donnell / MSNBC, on 1 January 2011


Campaigning


More details See the document

Sept. 22: The execution of Troy Davis drew an unprecedented amount of media attention. But where was the outrage over Derrick Mason who was put to death in Alabama today? MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has more in the Rewrite.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Fair Trial, Innocence, Arbitrariness,

Document(s)

Dead Reckoning: Executions in America

By Greg Mitchell / Sinclair Books , on 1 January 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)

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)

Innocence Lost: A Play About Steven Truscott

By Beverley Cooper / Centaur Theater Company, on 1 January 2013


2013

Working with...


More details See the document

In 1959, the Canadian justice system nearly killed an innocent 14-year-old boy. The fact that Steven Truscott was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of 12-year-old Lynne Harper that year, and sentenced to hang, now seems surreal. All the more so since he’s alive and well and living quietly with his family after 10 years of unjust incarceration – and many more years as an obscure factory worker, father and grandfather, after suffering the consequences of a destroyed reputation.

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Public opinion, Innocence,

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,
logo Abolition Death Penalty of Iraq

Member(s)

Abolition Death Penalty of Iraq Organization

on 30 June 2023

According to the Abolition Death Penalty of Iraq Organization, capital punishment is the state’s terminology for murder. Individuals murder each other, but states sentence individuals to ‘capital punishment.’ The demand to end capital punishment and prohibit murder stems from opposition to intentional,  deliberate and planned murder of one by the other. That a state or […]

2023

Iraq

Document(s)

Annual Statistics Report 2022

By Project 39A, on 22 February 2023


2023

NGO report

India


More details See the document

This is the seventh edition of the Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report published by Project 39A at National Law University, Delhi. 2022 represents a significant shift in death penalty adjudication, with the Supreme Court recognising the need to reconsider the capital sentencing framework for the first time since it was laid down in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab in 1980. In a momentous order, the Supreme Court noted the gaps in the death penalty sentencing framework and has sought to address these concerns through a Constitution Bench towards establishing the components of a real, meaningful and effective capital sentencing hearing. In another decision, the Court laid down guidelines for the collection of mitigating material by trial courts. However, in the same year that the Supreme Court cast grave doubts on the death penalty sentencing framework and its implementation by trial courts, it is of concern that 165 death sentences were imposed by Sessions Courts, the highest in a single year since 2000.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list India

Document(s)

Capital Punishment & Social Rights Research Initiative – Texas

By Barbara Laubenthal, on 12 February 2023


2023

Multimedia content

Death Row Conditions 

United States


More details See the document

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

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions 
Prisoner’s Future Foundation's logo

Member(s)

Prisoner’s Future Foundation

on 28 March 2023

Prisoners’ Future Foundation (PFF) is a local non-governmental Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) following government enforcing the NGO Act of 2009 of the laws of Zambia. PFF has in the past handled both advocacy and service delivery, in responding to the needs of currently and formally incarcerated people and citizens who have […]

2023

Zambia

Document(s)

Fourteen Days in May

By Paul Hamann, on 30 November 2018


2018

Arguments against the death penalty

Multimedia content

Death Row Conditions 


More details See the document

Fourteen Days in May is a documentary directed by Paul Hamann. The program recounts the final days before the execution of Edward Earl Johnson, an American prisoner convicted of rape and murder.

The documentary crew, given access to the prison warden, guards and chaplain and to Johnson and his family, filmed the last days of Johnson’s life in detail. The documentary argues against the death penalty and maintains that capital punishment is disproportionately applied to African-Americans convicted of crimes against whites. The programme features attorney Clive Stafford Smith, an advocate against capital punishment.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty / Multimedia content
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions 
Logo OCTT

Member(s)

Organisation Contre la Torture en Tunisie – OCTT

on 8 September 2023

The OCTT has been campaigning since its creation in 2003 against torture in all its forms and in particular the death penalty and against impunity. The OCTT develops strategies and programs to promote human rights and eradicate torture and ill-treatment and against any violation of physical and moral integrity and primarily the right to life. […]

2023

Tunisia

Kurdpa's logo

Member(s)

Kurdpa Human Rights Organization

on 29 November 2023

KURDPA is a human rights organization and independent news agency, and is a leading source for the latest information on Kurdistan in Iran, with daily coverage in three languages. Founded in 2011, KURDPA’s on-the-ground reporting highlights human rights concerns affecting the Iranian Kurdish community. Kurdpa Organization intends to compensate the existing shortcomings in identifying and […]

2023

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU), University of Oxford

Member(s)

Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU), University of Oxford

on 15 December 2023

The Death Penalty Research Unit has three main aims: to develop empirical, theoretical and policy-relevant research on the death penalty worldwide; to encourage death penalty scholarship including at graduate level, through education, events, research dissemination and an active blog; and to engage in knowledge production, exchange and dissemination in cooperation with civil society, charities, legal […]

2023

United Kingdom

Document(s)

Death Penalty and the Indian Supreme Court (2007-2021)

By Project 39A, on 8 December 2022


2022

NGO report

India


More details See the document

Death Penalty and the Indian Supreme Court (2007-2021) maps the important trends and developments in the Supreme Court’s death penalty jurisprudence. These past 15 years have witnessed significant developments in the law on capital sentencing, post-mercy jurisprudence, and other procedural developments pertaining to the administration of the death penalty. Imagined as an intellectual successor of PUCL and Amnesty International’s doctrinal study of the Supreme Court’s death penalty cases between 1950 to 2006, in ‘Lethal Lottery: The Death Penalty in India’, this report highlights the sustained inconsistency and judge-centric reasoning in capital cases, with particular emphasis on the problem of arbitrariness in approaches to capital sentencing at the Supreme Court. 

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list India

Document(s)

No death penalty: Essay on the human dignity of the guilty

By Alfredo De Francesco , on 11 January 2022


2022

Book


More details See the document

Is the death penalty “natural” or sometimes legally due?
If not, is the death penalty always a political instrument?
If so, how and why can it be said that the death penalty is unjust, also considering religious values?
What about in case of war time or of very dangerous criminals?
In which way can there be an irrefutable argument for banning the death penalty worldwide and forever?

These and other issues concerning the death penalty are addressed by the Author of this book.
A book, where the most common theories for and against the death penalty are considered in the light of law history and philosophical views, and where Cesare Beccaria’s approach is revised, taking into account the development of the contemporary criminal law and of the legal positivism.

This is an essay, where the protection of humanity is not considered simply as a hope or as a naive dream, but rather as a juridical concept, absolutely necessary to understand one of most tragic questions of all time: “is it just to kill those who killed?”

  • Document type Book

Document(s)

I Spent A Day With Death Row Survivors

By Anthony Padilla, on 1 January 2020


2020

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

Anthony Padilla interviewed 4 death row survivors to shed light on sentencing innocent people to death for a crime they did not commit. Derrick Jamison, Nick Yarris, Peter Pringle and Sunny Jacobs spent between 15 and 23 years awaiting executions, before being finally released from death row.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Let the Lord Sort Them. The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty

By Maurice Chammah, on 27 January 2021


2021

Book

Public Opinion 

United States


More details See the document

Maurice Chammah (The Marshall Project) explores the rise and fall of capital punishment in Texas where it appears to durably decline in spite of the state’s long use of the death penalty.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Public Opinion 
Madrid Bar Association

Member(s)

Madrid Bar Association

on 5 May 2021

Founded in 1596, the Madrid Bar Association is made up of 77,000 lawyers, and its main mission is to defend their corporate interests and those of the citizens they serve. Likewise, the Bar guarantees its independence and the validity of the basic values of the profession, and provides its members with the services they need […]

2021

Spain

Document(s)

The Phantom

By Patrick Forbes, on 10 August 2021


2021

Multimedia content

Innocence

Public Opinion 

United States


More details See the document

THE PHANTOM tells the story of one of the darkest episodes in the long history of American justice. A story of how the State of Texas knowingly sent an innocent man to his death and left a serial killer at large. A case in which – for the first time – it can be conclusively proven that the US courts executed a blameless man.

This film uncovers the shocking truth behind a tale of murder, corruption and lies that unfolded in the dusty, desperate streets of a Texas oil town nearly thirty years ago.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence / Public Opinion 

Document(s)

Chinese Netizens’ Opinions on Death Sentences

By Bin Liang and Jianhong Liu, The University of Michigan Press, on 4 November 2021


2021

Academic report

China

Public Opinion 


More details See the document

The People’s Republic of China no doubt leads the world in both numbers of death sentences and executions. Despite being the largest user of the death penalty, China has never conducted a national poll on citizens’ opinions toward capital punishment, while claiming “overwhelming public support” as a major justification for its retention and use. Based on a content analysis of 38,512 comments collected from 63 cases in 2015, this study examines the diversity and rationales of netizens’ opinions of and interactions with China’s criminal justice system. In addition, the book discusses China’s social, systemic, and structural problems and critically examines the rationality of netizens’ opinions based on Habermas’s communicative rationality framework. Readers will be able to contextualize Chinese netizens’ discussions and draw conclusions about commonalities and uniqueness of China’s death penalty practice.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list China
  • Themes list Public Opinion 

Document(s)

The State of Texas vs. Melissa

By Sabrina Van Tassel, on 25 March 2020


2020

Multimedia content

Fair Trial

United States


More details See the document

Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in Texas. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and she now faces her last appeal.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial

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)

Deciding Death

By Corinna Barrett Lain / Duke Law Journal, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

The cultural lives of capital punishment: comparative perspectives

By Sangmin Bae / David T. Johnson / Virgil K.Y. Ho / Evi Girling / Agata Fijalkowski / Julia Eckert / Christian Boulanger / Austin Sarat / Stanford University Press / Botagoz Kassymbekova / Shai Lavi / Jürgen Martschukat, on 1 January 2005


2005

Book

China


More details See the document

They undertake this “cultural voyage” comparatively—examining the dynamics of the death penalty in Mexico, the United States, Poland, Kyrgyzstan, India, Israel, Palestine, Japan, China, Singapore, and South Korea—arguing that we need to look beyond the United States to see how capital punishment “lives” or “dies” in the rest of the world, how images of state killing are produced and consumed elsewhere, and how they are reflected, back and forth, in the emerging international judicial and political discourse on the penalty of death and its abolition.

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