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Document(s)
Romanian : Cum s v face i vocea auzit în cadrul Uniunii Europene: Îndreptar pentru Organiza iile Non-Guvernamentale
By Civil Society Contact Group, on 8 September 2020
2020
Academic report
enenenenenenenenenfresMore details See the document
Acest îndreptar a fost creat în mod special pentru acele ONG-uri care abia i-au început activitatea i pentru membrii acestora, implica i în procesul de formulare a unei strategii europene. Pentru a- i atinge scopul, aceast publica ie ofer informa ii despre UE adaptate pe m sura fiec rei organiza ii, precum i sfaturi legate de activitatea de „lobbying”, ilustrate prin prezentara unor cazuri de campanii la nivelul UE.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Bulgarian : Как гласът ни да бъде чут в ЕС:Наръчник за НПОEstonian : Enda kuuldavaks tegemine Euroopa Liidus: juhend vabaühendusteleItalian : Far sentire la propria voce nell’UE Guida per le ONGGerman : Einfluss nehmen in der EU: Ein Handbuch für NROsHungarian : Hallassuk hangunkat az EU-ban: útmutató civil szervezeteknekLatvian : Tava balss Eiropas Savieniba: Rokasgramata NVOPortuguese : Faça ouvir A sua voz na União Europeia!Slovene : Naj se slisi vas glas v EU: Prirocnik za nevladne organizacijeMaking your Voice Heard in the EU: A Guide for NGOsFaire Entendre votre voix dans l'UE: Un Guide à l'Usage des ONGHaciéndose oír en la UE: Una Guía para ONG
Document(s)
Bulgarian : Как гласът ни да бъде чут в ЕС:Наръчник за НПО
By Civil Society Contact Group, on 8 September 2020
Academic report
enenenenenenenenenfresMore details See the document
Това обучение наръчник е специално проектиран за тези “новодошъл”, неправителствени организации и активисти, които са в процес на създаване на Европейска стратегия. Това се постига, чрез предоставяне на “пригодени направени информация за институциите на ЕС, начин на работа на европейски НПО, както и лобиране” съвети “, илюстрирани с примери на ниво кампании на ЕС.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Romanian : Cum s v face i vocea auzit în cadrul Uniunii Europene: Îndreptar pentru Organiza iile Non-GuvernamentaleEstonian : Enda kuuldavaks tegemine Euroopa Liidus: juhend vabaühendusteleItalian : Far sentire la propria voce nell’UE Guida per le ONGGerman : Einfluss nehmen in der EU: Ein Handbuch für NROsHungarian : Hallassuk hangunkat az EU-ban: útmutató civil szervezeteknekLatvian : Tava balss Eiropas Savieniba: Rokasgramata NVOPortuguese : Faça ouvir A sua voz na União Europeia!Slovene : Naj se slisi vas glas v EU: Prirocnik za nevladne organizacijeMaking your Voice Heard in the EU: A Guide for NGOsFaire Entendre votre voix dans l'UE: Un Guide à l'Usage des ONGHaciéndose oír en la UE: Una Guía para ONG
Document(s)
Мораторий на применение смертной казни. Доклад Генерального секретаря
By Генеральный секретарь ООН, on 11 December 2020
2020
Доклад Организации Объединенных Наций
More details See the document
- Document type Доклад Организации Объединенных Наций
Document(s)
:
By Christof Heyns , on 8 September 2020
2020
NGO report
More details See the document
- Document type NGO report
Document(s)
Showing Remorse: Reflections on the Gap between Expression and Attribution in Cases of Wrongful Conviction
By Richard Weisman / Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
Canada
More details See the document
This paper seeks first to show that persons who are convicted of crimes can be perceived as either remorseful or as lacking in remorse. This division establishes a moral hierarchy that has profound implications for the characterization and disposition of persons who are so designated. Second, using both Canadian and American cases, it looks at how inclusion in the category of the unremorseful affects the characterization and disposition of those who have been wrongfully convicted. Finally, it suggests that remorse is a major site of conflict between persons who are wrongfully convicted and officials within the criminal justice system, conflict that involves the use of institutional pressure to encourage the expression of remorse, on the one hand, and the mobilization of individual resources to resist those expressions.
- Document type Article
- Countries list Canada
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Ethical Responsibilities of Physicians: Capital Punishment in the 21st Century
By Karen B. Rosenbaum / William Connor Darby / Robert Weinstock / Psychiatric Annals, on 1 January 2015
2015
Article
United States
More details See the document
The American Medical Association is among many medical professional organizations that prohibit the participation of physicians in the physical act of execution. Despite these clear guidelines, debate remains regarding physician involvement in various aspects of death penalty cases. This article outlines different positions that physicians and specifically forensic psychiatrists have taken on this issue. Our position is that given the overwhelming secondary duty related to their physician role—specifically to do no harm—forensic psychiatrists should not use their expertise if they believe their involvement will be used for the primary purpose of obtaining a death penalty.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Intellectual Disability,
Document(s)
2020 World Day report
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 10 June 2021
2021
Campaigning
Legal Representation
frMore details Download [ pdf - 1081 Ko ]
The 18th World Day Against the Death Penalty explored the theme “Access to Counsel: A Matter of Life or Death” in light of the continued execution of individuals who struggle to have adequate support from the State (in having access to a trained, experienced attorney, to have adequate time to mount a defense, etc), who consequently also face their challenges in the judicial system.
Having access to qualified and effective representation at all stages of a trial is important to ensure due process and can spell the difference between life and death for people facing capital punishment.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Legal Representation
- Available languages Rapport de la Journée mondiale 2020
Document(s)
From seventy-eight to zero: Why executions declined after Taiwan’s democratization
By Fort Fu-Te Liao / Punishment and Society, on 8 September 2020
2020
Article
Taiwan
More details See the document
This article examines, from a legal perspective, why executions in Taiwan declined from 78 in 1990 to zero in 2006. The inquiry focuses on three considerations: the number of laws that authorized employment of the death penalty; the code of criminal procedure; and the manner in which executions were carried out, including the manner in which amnesty was granted. The article argues that the ratification of international covenants and constitutional interpretations did not play a significant role in the decline, and that several factors that did play a role included the annulment or amendment of laws, changes in criminal procedure, establishment of and further amendments to guidelines for execution and two laws for reducing sentences. This article maintains that the absence of executions in 2006 is a unique situation that will not last because some inmates remain on death row, meaning that executions in Taiwan will continue unless the death penalty is abolished. However, the article concludes that the guarantee of the utmost human right, the right to life, can be sustained in Taiwan through the demands of democratic majority rule.
- Document type Article
- Countries list Taiwan
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
The International Library of Essays on Capital Punishment, Volume 1 : Justice and Legal Issues
By Peter Hodgkinson / Ashgate Publishing, on 8 September 2020
Book
More details See the document
This volume provides up-to-date and nuanced analysis across a wide spectrum of capital punishment issues. The essays move beyond the conventional legal approach and propose fresh perspectives, including a unique critique of the abolition sector. Written by a range of leading experts with diverse geographical, methodological and conceptual approaches, the essays in this volume challenge received wisdom and embrace a holistic understanding of capital punishment based on practical experience and empirical data. This collection is indispensable reading for anyone seeking a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the complexity of the death penalty discourse.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Death and Deterrence Redux: Science, Law and Causal Reasoning on Capital Punishment
By Jeffrey Fagan / Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, on 1 January 2006
2006
Article
United States
More details See the document
A recent cohort of studies report deterrent effects of capital punishment that substantially exceed almost all previous estimates of lives saved by execution. Some of the new studies go further to claim that pardons, commutations, and exonerations cause murders to increase, as does trial delay. This putative life-life tradeoff is the basis for claims by legal academics and advocates of a moral imperative to aggressively prosecute capital crimes, brushing off evidentiary doubts as unreasonable cautions that place potential beneficiaries at risk of severe harm. Challenges to this “new deterrence” literature find that the evidence is too unstable and unreliable to support policy choices on capital punishment. This article identifies numerous technical and conceptual errors in the “new deterrence” studies that further erode their reliability: inappropriate methods of statistical analysis, failures to consider several factors such as drug epidemics that drive murder rates, missing data on key variables in key states, the tyranny of a few outlier states and years, weak to non-existent tests of concurrent effects of incarceration, inadequate instruments to disentangle statistical confounding of murder rates with death sentences and other punishments, failure to consider the general performance of the criminal justice system as a competing deterrent, artifactual results from truncated time frames, and the absence of any direct test of the components of contemporary theoretical constructions of deterrence. Re-analysis of one of the data sets shows that even simple adjustments to the data produce contradictory results, while alternate statistical methods produce contrary estimates. But the central mistake in this enterprise is one of causal reasoning: the attempt to draw causal inferences from a flawed and limited set of observational data, the absence of direct tests of the moving parts of the deterrence story, and the failure to address important competing influences on murder. There is no reliable, scientifically sound evidence that pits execution against a robust set of competing explanations to identify whether it exerts a deterrent effect that is uniquely and sufficiently powerful to overwhelm the recurring epidemic cycles of murder. This and other rebukes remind us to invoke tough, neutral social science standards and commonsense causal reasoning before expanding the use of execution with its attendant risks and costs.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Deterrence ,
Document(s)
Europe – A Death Penalty Free Zone: Commentary and Critique of Abolitionist Strategies
By Peter Hodgkinson / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 8 September 2020
2020
Article
More details See the document
The purpose of this paper is to offer a critique and commentary on the European agenda on the abolition of the death penalty, and in so doing the author has relied heavily on the contributions made by a number of commentators to the recent Council of Europe publication, “The Death Penalty: Abolition in Europe”.
- Document type Article
- Themes list International law, Trend Towards Abolition,
Page(s)
World Day Against the Death Penalty
on 22 June 2020
2020
Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Lingala
on 15 July 2024
Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Lingala
2024
Document(s)
Poster 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – Swahili
on 10 July 2023
2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 14504 Ko ]
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
Document(s)
Poster 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – Luganda
on 10 July 2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 14504 Ko ]
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Italian
on 9 July 2024
Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Italian
2024
Select Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Swahili
on 9 July 2024
Select Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Swahili
22nd World Day Against the Death Penalty – Facts and figures
on 8 July 2024
22nd World Day Against the Death Penalty – Facts and figures
2024
Select Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Luganda
on 9 July 2024
Select Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Luganda
2024
Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Urdu
on 9 July 2024
Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Urdu
Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – German
on 9 July 2024
Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – German
Document(s)
Poster 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – traditional Chinese
on 10 July 2023
2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 49239 Ko ]
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
Select Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Japanese
on 9 July 2024
Select Poster World day against the death penalty 2024 – 2025 – Japanese
2024
World coalition against the death penalty – Portuguese
on 8 July 2024
World coalition against the death penalty – Portuguese
2024
Document(s)
Poster 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – Akan
on 10 July 2023
2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 14499 Ko ]
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
Poster EN World Day Against the Death Penalty 2021
on 9 June 2021
2021
Document(s)
Poster 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – Italian
on 10 July 2023
2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 49299 Ko ]
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
Document(s)
Poster 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – German
on 10 July 2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 14504 Ko ]
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
Document(s)
Poster 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – Urdu
on 10 July 2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 14499 Ko ]
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
Detailed Factsheet: Women and the Death Penalty
on 1 July 2021
2021
Document(s)
Poster 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty – Japanese
on 10 July 2023
2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 14426 Ko ]
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
Leaflet EN – 2021 World Day Against the Death Penalty
on 23 June 2021
2021
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)
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)
Detailed Factsheet – World Day 2023
By World coalition against the death penalty, on 2 October 2023
2023
Campaigning
World Coalition
frMore details Download [ pdf - 855 Ko ]
Detailed factsheet on the link between torture and the death penalty, to mark the 21st World Day against the Death Penalty.Detailed factsheet on the link between torture and the death penalty, to mark the 21st World Day against the Death Penalty.
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
- Available languages Fiche détaillée - Journée mondiale 2023
Page(s)
Member organizations
on 22 June 2020
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is made of member organizations with diverse backgrounds. To find out more about each of our members, click on their name in the list below.
2020
EN_WCADP_TDR_GenderSensitiveEvaluationWorldDay2021_30.09
on 7 October 2022
Terms of Reference – Gender sensitive Evaluation
2022
Member(s)
Michigan Committee Against Capital Punishment
on 30 April 2020
The Michigan Committee Against Capital Punishment was organized in 1972 for research, publication, testimony and education on the evils of the death penalty. Nowadays, its main actions are legislative testimony, research, publications, film production, public speaking, literature and film distribution and abolitionist activities.
2020
United States
Document(s)
Exonerations in the United States 1989 Through 2003
By Daniel J. Matheson / Kristin Jacoby / Samuel R. Gross / Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology / Nicholas Montgomery / Sujata Patil, on 1 January 2005
2005
Article
United States
More details See the document
In this paper we use reported exonerations as a window on false convictions generally. We can’t come close to estimating the number of false convictions that occur in the United States, but the accumulating mass of exonerations gives us a glimpse of what we’re missing. We located 340 individual exonerations from 1989 through 2003, not counting at least 135 innocent defendants in at least two mass exonerations, and not counting more than 70 defendants convicted in a series of childcare sex abuse prosecutions, most of whom were probably innocent. Almost all the individual exonerations that we know about are clustered in the two most serious common felonies: rape and murder. They are surrounded by widening circles of categories of cases that include false convictions that are rarely detected, if ever: rape convictions that have not been reexamined with DNA evidence; robberies, for which DNA identification is useless; murder cases that are ignored because the defendants were not sentenced to death; assault and drug convictions that are forgotten entirely; misdemeanor convictions that aren’t even part of the picture. Judging from our data, any plausible guess at the total number of miscarriages of justice in America in the last fifteen years must run to the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, in felony cases alone. We can, however, see some clear patterns in those false convictions that have come to light.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Article(s)
La Coalition d’Afrique Centrale contre la Peine de Mort commémore 13 ans sans exécutions en RDC
on 10 January 2016
2016
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Page(s)
The World Coalition’s campaign in favour of the international and regional protocols on abolition
on 22 June 2020
2020
Document(s)
Stuck in the Dark Ages: Supreme Court Decision Making and Legal Developments
By James R.P. Ogloff / Psychology, Public Policy and Law / Sonia R. Chopra, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
United States
More details See the document
In the latter quarter of the 20th century, the United States Supreme Court has generally refused to narrow the procedural and substantive conditions under which adults may be sentenced to death for capital murder. The current status of social science evidence is briefly reviewed to evaluate the Court’s treatment of 3 specific categories of evidence: The death-qualified jury, prejudicial capital sentencing, and juror comprehension of capital-sentencing instructions. The role of perceptions of public opinion in the perseverance of capital punishment statutes is considered. It appears that the Court, in general, does not place much weight on social science evidence. Suggestions are made for future areas of research and practice for social scientists interested in capital punishment.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Innocents Convicted: An Empirically Justified Factual Wrongful Conviction Rate
By D. Michael Risinger / Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, on 1 January 2007
2007
Article
United States
More details See the document
The news about the astounding accuracy of felony convictions in the United States, delivered by Justice Scalia and Joshua Marquis in the passage set out epigrammatically above, would be cause for rejoicing if it were true. Imagine. Only 27 factually wrong felony convictions out of every 100,000! Unfortunately, it is not true, as the empirical data analyzed in this article demonstrates. To a great extent, those who believe that our criminal justice system rarely convicts the factually innocent and those who believe such miscarriages are rife have generally talked past each other for want of any empirically-justified factual innocence wrongful conviction rate. This article remedies at least a part of this problem by establishing the first such empirically justified wrongful conviction rate ever for a significant universe of real world serious crimes: capital rape-murders in the 1980’s. Using DNA exonerations for capital rape-murders from 1982 through 1989 as a numerator, and a 406-member sample of the 2235 capital sentences imposed during this period, this article shows that 21.45%, or around 479 of those, were cases of capital rape murder. Data supplied by the Innocence Project of Cardozo Law School and newly developed for this article show that only 67% of those cases would be expected to yield usable DNA for analysis. Combining these figures and dividing the numerator by the resulting denominator, a minimum factually wrongful conviction rate for capital rape-murder in the 1980’s emerges: 3.3%. The article goes on to consider the likely ceiling accompanying this 3.3% floor, arriving at a slightly softer number for the maximum factual error rate of around 5%. The article then goes on to analyze the implications of a factual error rate of 3.3%-5% for both those who currently claim errors are extremely rare, and those who claim they are extremely common. Extension of the 3.3%-5% to other capital and non-capital categories of crime is discussed, and standards of moral duty to support system reform in the light of such error rates is considered at length.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Poster World Day 2003
By World Coalition against the death penalty , on 10 October 2003
2003
Campaigning
Trend Towards Abolition
More details See the document
Poster for the world day against the death penalty 2003
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
Document(s)
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND COURT HIERARCHY
By MARY KOZLOVSKI / Asian Law Centre, on 1 January 2019
2019
Multimedia content
India
More details See the document
This paper provides an introduction to the Indian judicial system and court hierarchy, outlining the jurisdiction of constitutional and statutory courts and tribunals and the appointment, tenure and removal of judges. It describes forms of alternative dispute resolution that have emerged in recent decades, partly to combat delays in the court system, and informal dispute resolution bodies that mediate family disputes, such as Sharia courts. The paper concludes by discussing the contentious issues of delay in the court system, public interest litigation, and appointments to the Supreme and High Courts of India.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list India
Member(s)
We Believe in Second Chances
on 30 April 2020
We Believe in Second Chances was founded as a reaction to Yong Vui Kong’s condemnation to death, and are advocating for the abolishment of the death penalty in Singapore.
2020
Singapore
Document(s)
Wrongful Convictions and the Culture of Denial in Japanese Criminal Justice
By David T. Johnson / The Asia-Pacific Journal, on 1 January 2015
2015
Article
Japan
More details See the document
The release of Hakamada Iwao from death row in March 2014 after 48 years of incarceration provides an opportunity to reflect on wrongful convictions in Japanese criminal justice. My approach is comparative because this problem cannot be understood without asking how Japan compares with other countries: to know only one country is to know no country well. Comparison with the United States is especially instructive because there have been many studies of wrongful conviction there and because the U.S. and Japan are the only two developed democracies that retain capital punishment and continue to carry out executions on a regular basis. On the surface, the United States seems to have a more serious problem with wrongful convictions than Japan, but this gap is more apparent than real. To reduce the problem of wrongful convictions in Japanese criminal justice, reformers must confront a culture of denial that makes it difficult for police, prosecutors, and judges to acknowledge their own mistakes.
- Document type Article
- Countries list Japan
- Themes list Fair Trial, Innocence,
Document(s)
Emerging Issues in Juvenile Death Penalty Law
By Victor L. Streib / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 1 January 2000
2000
Article
United States
More details See the document
As our society’s enduring marriage to the death penalty prepares to enter yet another century, it is a marriage that places the children in danger. Why is it that we continue to impose the death penalty for crimes committed by juvenile offenders? As questionable as the death penalty is in general, might we not at least place an “adults only” label on it? The rest of the world has already done so. Only in America need children fear execution by their own government.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Juveniles,
Document(s)
Japanese : The Chaplain
By Japan Society Film, on 8 September 2020
2020
Multimedia content
Japan
More details See the document
The late, great Ren Osugi (Hana-bi) stars as a prison chaplain working on death row in this thought-provoking chamber drama—his final film as an actor and first as a producer. Visiting with a regular roster of inmates who await their final sentence—including a converted ex-yakuza and a philosophy-spouting mass murderer—the newly appointed clergyman gradually learns of their circumstances and is forced to confront his own understanding of life, death and salvation. Featuring unforgettable characters and a restrained visual style, Dai Sako’s searching film takes on the rarely-addressed topic of Japan’s death penalty in order to question the state of the country’s soul.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Japan
- Themes list Retribution, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
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)
Errors and Ethics: Dilemmas in Death
By Penny J. White / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
In the last five years, the death penalty has become a frequent topic of discussion. While discussion of such an emotive topic is not unusual for any period in history, the tenor of the recent dialogue is unusual. For the most part, the discussion centers around the problems with capital punishment, particularly its inaccuracy and unfairness. This Article begins in Part II with a discussion of recent claims about the frequency of errors in capital cases. Part III enumerates and discusses the factors generally thought to be the cause of the errors. Part IV details new rules recently adopted in one jurisdiction in an effort to eliminate the errors. Part IV also suggests that these new rules, though worthwhile, are actually a reiteration of long-standing ethical obligations of judges and lawyers, the breach of which is responsible for many of the errors. Part V recommends additional remedies which the bench and the bar must take if there is a true commitment to providing a fair, just, and reliable system for determining who the government is entitled to kill.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
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)
Guided Jury Discretion in Capital Murder Cases: The Role of Declarative and Procedural Knowledge
By Richard L. Wiener / Psychology, Public Policy and Law / Melanie Rogers / Ryan Winter / Linda Hurt / Amy Hackney / Karen Kadela / Hope Seib / Shannon Rauch / Laura Warren / Ben Morasco, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
United States
More details See the document
This article analyzes whether state-approved jury instructions adequately guide jury discretion in the penalty phase of first-degree murder trials. It examines Eighth Amendment jurisprudence regarding guided jury discretion, emphasizing the use of “empirical factors” to examine the quality of state-approved instructions. Psychological research and testimony on the topic of the comprehensibility of jury instructions are reviewed. Data from a recently completed simulation with 80 deliberating juries showed that current instructions do not adequately convey the concepts and processes essential to guiding penalty phase judgments. An additional simulation with 20 deliberating juries demonstrated that deliberation alone does not correct for jurors’ errors in comprehension. The article concludes with recommendations for policy and future research.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Fair Trial,
Document(s)
COMPETENT CAPITAL REPRESENTATION: THE NECESSITY OF KNOWING AND HEEDING WHAT JURORS TELL US ABOUT MITIGATION
By John H. Blume / Sheri Lynn Johnson / Scott E. Sundby / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2008
2008
Article
United States
More details See the document
While there are antecedent factual determinations jurors must make, including the existence of a statutory aggravating circumstance, the final decision the jurors must make is not factual in nature. As the courts have noted, this is an “awesome responsibility,” and the jury must make a “reasoned moral” decision whether life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or the death penalty is the appropriate punishment.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Too Late for Luck: A Comparison of Post-Furman Exonerations and Executions of the Innocent
By Talia Roitberg Harmon / William S. Lofquist / Crime and Delinquency, on 1 January 2005
2005
Article
United States
More details See the document
This study is a quantitative analysis designed to compare two groups of factually innocent capital defendants: Those who were exonerated and those who were executed. There are a total of 97 cases in the sample, including 81 exonerations and 16 executions. The primary objective of the authors is to identify factors that may predict case outcomes among capital defendants with strong claims of factual innocence. Through the use of a logistic regression model, the following variables were significant predictors of case outcome (exoneration vs. execution): allegations of perjury, multiple types of evidence, prior felony record, type of attorney at trial, and race of the defendant. These results point toward significant problems with the administration of capital punishment deriving primarily from the quality of the case record created at trial.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Raise the Proof: A Default Rule for Indigent Defense
By Adam M. Gershowitz / Connecticut Law Review, on 1 January 2007
2007
Article
United States
More details See the document
Almost everyone agrees that indigent defense in America is underfunded, but workable solutions have been hard to come by. For the most part, courts have been unwilling to inject themselves into legislative budget decisions. And, when courts have become involved and issued favorable decisions, the benefits have been only temporary because once the pressure of litigation disappears so does a legislature’s desire to appropriate more funding. This Article proposes that if an indigent defense system is under-funded, the state supreme court should impose a default rule raising the standard of proof to “beyond all doubt” to convict indigent defendants. The legislature would then have the opportunity to opt out of this higher standard of proof by providing enough funding to bring defense lawyers’ caseloads within well-recognized standards or by providing funding parity with prosecutors’ offices. Such an approach will create an incentive for legislatures to adequately fund indigent defense without miring courts in detailed supervision of legislative budget decisions. At the same time, because courts can check once per year to determine whether there is funding parity with prosecutors’ offices or compliance with caseload guidelines, there will be constant pressure on legislatures to maintain adequate funding in order to avoid the higher standard of proof.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
DPCI-report-2023
on 22 March 2024
2024
Document(s)
World Coalition Statutory Auditor’s Report 2022
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 22 August 2023
2023
World Coalition
Trend Towards Abolition
frMore details Download [ pdf - 4925 Ko ]
- Document type World Coalition
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
- Available languages Coalition Mondiale Rapport de la Commissaire aux Comptes 2022
Document(s)
Arcs of Global Justice
By Oxford University Press / Margaret M. Guzman / Diane Marie Amann, on 1 January 2018
2018
Book
More details See the document
This work honours William A. Schabas and his career with essays by luminary scholars and jurists from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The essays examine contemporary, historical, cultural, and theoretical aspects of the many arcs of global justice with which Professor Schabas has engaged, in fields including public international law, human rights, transitional justice, international criminal law, and capital punishment.Table of Contents (regarding information on the death penalty)II. Capital PunishmentChapter 5: International Law and the Death Penalty: A Toothless Tiger, or a Meaningful Force for Change?Sandra L. BabcockChapter 6: The UN Optional Protocol on the Abolition of the Death PenaltyMarc BossuytChapter 7: The Right to Life and the Progressive Abolition of the Death PenaltyChristof Heyns and Thomas Probert and Tess BordenChapter 8: Progress and Trend of the Reform of the Death Penalty in ChinaZhao Bingzhi
- Document type Book
- Themes list International law, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Japan : 111 th Session of the Human Rights Committee
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty / The Advocates for Human Rights / Center for Prisoners' Rights / Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), on 1 January 2014
2014
Multimedia content
Japan
More details See the document
This report examinesprison conditionsandthe imposition of the death penalty in Japan in light of international human rights standards.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Japan
- Themes list Due Process , International law, Death Row Conditions,
death_penalty_research_unit_dpru
on 15 December 2023
2023
Document(s)
Racial Differences in Death Penalty Support and Opposition: A Preliminary Study of White and Black College Students
By Morris Jenkins / Eric G. Lambert / David N. Baker / Journal of Black Studies, on 1 January 2005
2005
Article
United States
More details See the document
Although the death penalty has a long history, it is not without debate and differing views. There appears to be a gap between Whites and Blacks in terms of their support of capital punishment. Students at a Midwestern university were surveyed to determine whether there were differences between the two groups of students in reasons to support or oppose the death penalty. In bivariate tests, there were significant differences between White and Black students on 15 of 16 measures for reasons for supporting or opposing capital punishment. These differences continued for 10 of the 16 measures even after multivariate analysis controlled for the effects of gender, age, and academic level. The results are discussed.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,
Document(s)
The Deprived: Innocent On Death Row
By Steffen Hou / BookBaby, on 1 January 2019
2019
Book
United States
More details See the document
The book describes how thousands of Americans are convicted of crimes they never committed. Many of them end up on death row where inmates have been executed despite their innocence. ‘The Deprived’ is based on interviews with 10 Americans who have all been affected by wrongful convictions and the death penalty. The book also describes what leads to wrongful convictions in America and who’s most likely to be convicted of a crime they never committed.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
Document(s)
A Stolen Life: The Debra Milke Story
By Jana Bommersbach, on 1 January 2019
Book
United States
More details See the document
Arizona said Debra Milke was a baby killer. Phoenix Homicide Detective Armando Saldate testified she “confessed” to having her four-year-old son murdered when he thought he was going to see Santa. In 1990, she ended up exactly where most thought she deserved–the only woman on Arizona’s death row. This compelling investigative work by one of Arizona’s most acclaimed journalists takes readers inside the case–inside the prison, inside the evidence, inside the breakdown of justice, inside the legal tenacity, inside the heart and mind of Debra Milke.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Women, Death Row Conditions,
Document(s)
Chinese Executions: Visualising their Differences with European Supplices
By Bourgon J / European Journal of East Asian Studies, on 1 January 2003
2003
Article
China
More details See the document
European executions obeyed a complex model that the author proposes to call ‘the supplice pattern’. The term supplice designates tortures and tormented executions, but it also includes their cultural background. The European way of executing used religious deeds, aesthetic devices and performing arts techniques which themselves called for artistic representations through paintings, theatre, etc. Moreover, Christian civilisation was unique in the belief that the spectacle of a painful execution had a redemptive effect on the criminals and the attendants as well. Chinese executions obeyed an entirely different conception. They were designed to show that punishment fitted the crime as provided in the penal code. All details were aimed to highlight and inculcate the meaning of the law, while signs of emotions, deeds, words, that could have interfered with the lesson in law were prohibited. In China, capital executions were not organized as a show nor subject to aesthetic representations, and they had no redemptive function. This matter-of-fact way of executing people caused Westerners deep uneasiness. The absence of religious background and staging devices was interpreted as a sign of barbarity and cruelty. What was stigmatised was not so much the facts that their failure to conform to the ‘supplice pattern’ that constituted for any Westerner the due process of capital executions.
- Document type Article
- Countries list China
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Executing the Mentally Ill: When Is someone Sane Enough to Die?
By Michael Mello / Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2007
2007
Article
United States
More details See the document
Mental illness is a phenomenon that knifes across the entire corpus of our criminal justice system. From interrogations and waivers of Miranda rights, to consent to searches and seizures, to plea negotiations and the capacity to stand trial, to calculating sentences and participating in appellate and postconviction proceedings, mental illness warps the machinery of our criminal law and challenges its most cherished assumptions about free will, decisional competence, and culpability. This is so regardless of whether or not life hangs in the balance. But when the stakes are life and death, the structural distortions caused by mental illness become magnified, and the contradictions can rise to constitutional magnitude.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Mental Illness,
Document(s)
Officials’ Estimates of the Incidence of ‘Actual Innocence’ Convictions
By Angie Kiger / Brad Smith / Marvin Zalman / Justice Quarterly, on 1 January 2008
2008
Article
United States
More details See the document
Evidence indicates that the conviction and imprisonment of factually innocent persons occur with some regularity. Most research focuses on causes, but the incidence of wrongful convictions is an important scientific and policy issue, especially as no official body gathers data on miscarriages of justice. Two methods are available for discovering the incidence of wrongful conviction: (1) enumerating specific cases and (2) having criminal justice experts estimate its incidence. Counts or catalogues of wrongful conviction necessarily undercount its incidence and are subject to accuracy challenges. We surveyed Michigan criminal justice officials, replicating a recent Ohio survey, to obtain an expert estimate of the incidence of wrongful conviction. All groups combined estimated that wrongful convictions occurred at a rate of less than 1/2 percent in their own jurisdiction and at a rate of 1-3 percent in the United States. Defense lawyers estimate higher rates of wrongful conviction than judges, who estimate higher rates than police officials and prosecutors. These differences may be explained by professional socialization. An overall wrongful conviction estimate of 1/2 percent extrapolates to about 5,000 wrongful felony convictions and the imprisonment of more than 2,000 innocent persons in the United States every year.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Capital Punishment As Human Sacrifice: A Societal Ritual as Depicted in George Elliot’s Adam Bede
By Roberta M. Harding / Buffalo Law Review 48, 175-248, on 1 January 2000
2000
Article
United States
More details See the document
The ritual slaughter of humans for sacrificial purposes has an ancient provenance. Few members of modern society would be inclined to believe that killing humans for sacrificial purposes continues. Of those, most probably envision it only being practiced by individuals who belong to “uncivilized,” or non-“First-World” cultures. Upon closer scrutiny, however, it becomes apparent that this is a misconception because the past and present practice of capital punishment includes a thinly disguised manifestation of the ritualized killing of people, otherwise known as human sacrifice. The purpose of this article is to identify, describe, and analyze the historic and contemporary connection between the practices of capital punishment and human sacrifice. After describing how human sacrifice constitutes an integral component of capital punishment, it will be argued that the institutionalization of this antiquated barbaric ritual, vis-a-vis the use of capital punishment, renders the present use of the death penalty in the United States incompatible with “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society”; and that consequently, this facet of capital punishment renders the penalty at odds with the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against the infliction of “cruel and unusual” punishments.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment,
Document(s)
Don’t Take His Eye, Don’t Take His Tooth, and Don’t Cast the First Stone: Limiting Religious Arguments in Capital Cases
By John Blume / Sheri Lynn Johnson / William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, on 1 January 2000
Article
United States
More details See the document
Religious arguments in the course of particular capital sentencing proceedings are very common. This may be in part because capital punishment jurisprudence, unlike the jurisprudence of reproductive rights or segregation, has itself mandated individualized decision-making. Public discussion of whether religious principles or authority compel (or preclude) the imposition of the death penalty for all police killings (or, more broadly, all killings) has been largely mooted by the Supreme Court’s determination that mandatory death penalty statutes violate the Eighth Amendment.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Religion ,
Document(s)
The Unusualness of Capital Punishment
By Louis D. Bilionis / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 1 January 2000
Article
United States
More details See the document
The order struck during the regulatory years following Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia has been inverted. Executions once were rarities of newsworthy moment; now, they are nearly twice-a-week occurrences that often pass with nary a notice. Skeptical scrutiny of death penalty cases once was the professed and practiced mission of the federal judiciary; now, words like weariness, ennui, and resentment seem better choices to capture the spirit of the federal courts when confronted with complaints from death row. As we will see, the various lines of objection join to form a sophisticated and comprehensive critique.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Addressing Capital Punishment Through Statutory Reform
By Douglas A. Berman / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002
2002
Article
United States
More details See the document
State legislatures principally have been responsible for the acceptance and evolution (and even sometimes the abandonment) of capital punishment in the American criminal justice system from the colonial and founding eras, through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and now into the twenty-first century. A number of colonial legislative enactments, though influenced by England’s embrace of the punishment of death, uniquely defined and often significantly confined which crimes were to be subject to capital punishment.[1] State legislatures further narrowed the reach of the death penalty through the early nineteenth century as states, prodded often by vocal abolitionists and led by developments in Pennsylvania, divided the offense of murder into degrees and provided that only the most aggravated murderers would be subject to the punishment of death. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also saw states, as the product of legislative enactments, move away from mandating death as the punishment for certain crimes by giving juries discretion to choose which defendants would be sentenced to die. Throughout all these periods, statutory enactments have also played a fundamental role in the evolution of where and how executions are carried out.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Finality Without Fairness: Why We Are Moving Towards Moratoria on Executions, and the potential Abolition of Capital Punishment
By Ronald J. Tabak / Connecticut Law Review, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
In the past several years, there has been a marked change in the climate with regard to public discourse about the death penalty in the United States. This is partly due to advances in DNA technology. This Article, in Part II, will address the impact that DNA testing has had on public discourse on capital punishment. In Part III, it will discuss the overall context in which public discourse has changed, and its likely impact on judges, prosecutors and governors dealing with capital cases. Finally, in Part IV, it will consider the broader implications of this change in climate, in leading to a moratorium on executions in Illinois, consideration of moratoria elsewhere, and potentially to abolition of capital punishment in this country.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Moratorium ,
Document(s)
Capital Punishment and the Bible
By Gardner C. Hanks / Herald Press, on 1 January 2002
2002
Book
United States
More details See the document
Capital Punishment and the Bible goes beyond proof-text arguments to examine biblical statements about capital punishment in their historical contexts and for present meaning. Does the use of capital punishment in the USA meet Old Testament standards for fairness? How did Jesus and the early church extend God’s love in restorative justice? Gardner C. Hanks convincingly shows that the use of the death penalty is not consistent with Jesus’ call for love and forgiveness.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Religion ,
Document(s)
Capital Punishment and American Exceptionalism
By Carol S. Steiker / Duke Law School, on 1 January 2002
Article
United States
More details See the document
At the same time, the countries that most vigorously employ the death penalty are generally ones that the United States has the least in common with politically, economically, or socially, and ones that the United States is wont to define itself against, as they are among the least democratic and the worst human rights abusers in the world. In recent years, the top five employers of capital punishment were China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.3 Moreover, in the past twelve years, only seven countries in the world are known to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of their crimes: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United States.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Capital Punishment: New Perspectives
By Peter Hodgkinson / Ashgate Publishing, on 1 January 2013
2013
Book
More details See the document
The authors argue that capital litigators should use their skills challenging the abuses not just of process, but of the conditions in which the condemned await their fate, namely prison conditions, education, leisure, visits, medical services, etc. In the aftermath of successful constitutional challenges it is the beneficiaries (arguably those who are considered successes, having been ‘saved’ from the death penalty and now serving living death penalties of one sort or another) who are suffering the cruel and inhumane alternative.Part I of the book offers a selection of diverse, nuanced examinations of death penalty phenomena, scrutinizing complexities frequently omitted from the narrative of academics and activists. It offers a challenging and comprehensive analysis of issues critical to the abolition debate. Part II offers examinations of countries usually absent from academic analysis to provide an understanding of the status of the debate locally, with opportunities for wider application.
- Document type Book
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)
White Female Victims and Death Penalty Disparity Research
By Stephen Demuth / Marian R. Williams / Jefferson E. Holocomb / Justice Quarterly, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
United States
More details See the document
Empirical studies of the death penalty continue to find that the race and gender of homicide victims are associated with the severity of legal responses in homicide cases even after controlling for legally relevant factors. A limitation of this research, however, is that victim race and gender are examined as distinct and independent factors in statistical models. In this study, we explore whether the independent examination of victim race and gender masks important differences in legal responses to homicides. In particular, we empirically test the hypothesis that defendants convicted of killing white females are significantly more likely to receive death sentences than killers of victims with other race-gender characteristics. Findings indicate that homicides with white female victims were more likely to result in death sentences than other victim race-gender dyads. We posit that this response may be unique and result in differential sentencing outcomes.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Discrimination,
uganda-death-penalty
on 2 May 2023
2023
CEDAW86-side-event-gender-and-death-penalty
on 8 November 2023
2023
Central-African-Republic-abolition-death-penalty
on 3 June 2022
2022
Document(s)
Detailed Factsheet on Death Penalty and Poverty
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2017
2017
Multimedia content
frMore details Download [ pdf - 612 Ko ]
Detailed information on the death penalty and poverty.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
- Available languages Fiche détaillée sur la peine de mort et la pauvreté
Member(s)
Magistrats européens pour la démocratie et les libertés (MEDEL)
on 30 April 2020
European Judges and Public Prosecutors for Democracy and Fundamental Rights (Magistrats européens pour la démocratie et les libertés – MEDEL)) is an association regrouping 23 association of judges and prosecutors coming from 16 European countries. Its activities are centred on debates and studies on the independence of the judiciary and international judicial co-operation, in connection […]
2020
Germany
Document(s)
Forensic Mental Health: Assessments in Death Penalty Cases
By Oxford University Press / David DeMatteo / Daniel C. Murrie / Natalie M. Anumba / Michael E. Keesler, on 1 January 2011
2011
Book
United States
More details See the document
Forensic mental health assessments in death penalty cases are on the rise due in part to the continuing growth of forensic psychology and psychiatry as professions, combined with several recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Forensic mental health professionals are now conducting assessments at every stage of death penalty proceedings, ranging from pre-trial evaluations to determine eligibility for the death penalty to evaluations conducted post-sentencing and closer to the date of execution.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Mental Illness, Intellectual Disability,
Document(s)
Capital Punishment at the United Nations: Recent Developments
By Ilias Bantekas / Peter Hodgkinson / Criminal Law Forum, on 1 January 2000
2000
Article
More details See the document
The article discusses the difficulties and controversies surrounding the 1999 Draft Resolution on the Death Penalty to the United Nations General Assembly.
- Document type Article
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Death Row – The Final Minutes
By Blink Publishing / Michelle Lyons, on 8 September 2020
2020
Book
United States
More details See the document
First as a reporter and then as a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Michelle was a frequent visitor to Huntsville’s Walls Unit, where she recorded and relayed the final moments of death row inmates’ lives before they were put to death by the state.Michelle was in the death chamber as some of the United States’ most notorious criminals, including serial killers, child murderers and rapists, spoke their last words on earth, while a cocktail of lethal drugs surged through their veins.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Right to life, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Final declaration of the African Congress
By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM), on 1 January 2018
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)
Convicting the Innocent
By Samuel R. Gross / Annual Review of Law and Social Science, on 1 January 2008
2008
Article
United States
More details See the document
Almost everything we know about false convictions is based on exonerations in rape and murder cases, which together account for only 2% of felony convictions. Within that important but limited sphere we have learned a lot in the past 30 years; outside it, our ignorance is nearly complete. This review describes what we now know about convicting the innocent: estimates of the rate of false convictions among death sentences; common causes of false conviction for rape or murder; demographic and procedural predictors of such errors. It also explores some of the types of false convictions that almost never come to light—innocent defendants who plead guilty rather than go to trial, who receive comparatively light sentences, who are convicted of crimes that did not occur (as opposed to crimes committed by other people), who are sentenced in juvenile court—in fact, almost all innocent defendants who are convicted of any crimes other than rape or murder. Judging from what we can piece together, the vast majority of false convictions fall in these categories. They are commonplace events, inconspicuous mistakes in ordinary criminal investigations that never get anything close to the level of attention that sometimes leads to exoneration.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Shattered Justice – Crime Victims’ Experiences with Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations
By Kimberly J. Cook, on 12 August 2022
2022
Book
United States
More details See the document
Shattered Justice presents original crime victims’ experiences with violent crime, investigations and trials, and later exonerations in their cases. Using in-depth interviews with 21 crime victims across the United States, Cook reveals how homicide victims’ family members and rape survivors describe the painful impact of the primary trauma, the secondary trauma of the investigations and trials, and then the tertiary trauma associated with wrongful convictions and exonerations. Important lessons and analyses are shared related to grief and loss, and healing and repair. Using restorative justice practices to develop and deliver healing retreats for survivors also expands the practice of restorative justice. Finally, policy reforms aimed at preventing, mitigating, and repairing the harms of wrongful convictions is covered.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
Document(s)
Physicians Willingness to Participate in the Process of lethal Injection for Capital Punishment
By Joan Weiner / Brian M. Aboff / Neil J. / Farber / Annals of Internal Medecine 135(10), 884-888 / Elizabeth B. Davis / E. Gil Boyer / Peter A. Ubel, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
Occasionally, physicians’ personal values conflict with their perceived societal duties. One example is the case of lethal injection for the purpose of capital punishment. Some states require that such lethal injections be performed by physicians. At the same time, leading medical societies have concluded that physicians should avoid participating in capital punishment. Physicians’ attitudes toward involvement in capital punishment may depend on how they balance their responsibilities to individuals against their duties to society. Other factors may include a desire to provide a more painless death for the prisoner or concern over the competency of other health care personnel. In a previous survey, we found that a majority of physicians condoned involvement of their fellow physicians in capital punishment. For the current study, we conducted another survey to ascertain physicians’ attitudes about their own involvement in capital punishment, as well as factors associated with these attitudes.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Lethal Injection,
Document(s)
Mobilization Kit World Day 2021
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 10 June 2021
2021
Campaigning
Women
arfrzh-hantMore details Download [ pdf - 847 Ko ]
The World Day Against the Death Penalty is aimed at political leaders and public opinion in both retentionist and abolitionist countries.
For the 19th year in a row, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is calling for local initiatives and world-wide actions that shine a spotlight on the abolition of the death penalty.
The goal of this Mobilization Kit is to inform of this year’s objectives as well provide ideas of activities that boost the global abolitionist goal. This year the World Day is dedicated to women who risk being sentenced to death, who have received a death sentence, who have been executed, and to those who have had their death sentences commuted, have been exonerated or pardoned.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Women
- Available languages رزمة التعبئةKit de mobilisation Journée mondiale 2021動員資料包
Document(s)
Statement on Executions in the USA
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020
2020
World Coalition
frMore details Download [ pdf - 589 Ko ]
Following the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma on 29 April, the United Nations called on the United States to suspend executions in the face of potential international law violations. The World Coalition supports this call.
- Document type World Coalition
- Themes list International law, Moratorium , Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Transparency, Lethal Injection,
- Available languages Déclaration concernant les exécutions aux USA
Document(s)
A Tale of Two (and Possibly Three) Atkins: Intellectual Disability and Capital Punishment Twelve Years after The Supreme Court’s Creation of a Categorical Bar
By John H. Blume / Sheri Lynn Johnson / William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, on 8 September 2020
Article
United States
More details See the document
The article, with three co-authors, examines empirically the capital cases decided by the lower courts since the United States Supreme Court created the categorical ban against the execution of persons with intellectual disability twelve years ago in the Atkins decision.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Mental Illness,
Document(s)
The Use of Peremptory Challenges in Capital Murder Trials: A Legal and Empirical Analysis
By George Woodworth / David C. Baldus / David Zuckerman / University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law / Neil Alan Weiner / Barbara Broffitt, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
One of the largely unique aspects of the American jury system is that it confers upon the parties the unilateral power – in the form of peremptory challenges – to remove prospective jurors for any non-racial or non-gender-based reason. This article presents an overview of the literature on peremptory challenges, and an empirical analysis of their use in Philadelphia capital cases in the 1980s and 1990s.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Fair Trial,
Document(s)
Dangerousness, Risk Assessment, and Capital Sentencing
By Aletha M. Claussen-Schulza / Psychology, Public Policy and Law / Marc W. Pearceb / Robert F. Schopp, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
United States
More details See the document
Judges, jurors, police officers, and others are sometimes asked to make a variety of decisions based on judgments of dangerousness. Reliance on judgments of dangerousness in a variety of legal contexts has led to considerable debate and has been the focus of numerous publications. However, a substantial portion of the debate has centered on the accuracy and improvement of risk assessments rather than the issues concerning the use of dangerousness as a legal criterion. This article focuses on whether dangerousness judgments can play a useful role in capital sentencing decisions within the framework of “guided discretion” and “individualized assessment” set forth by the Supreme Court of the United States. It examines the relationship between these legal doctrines and contemporary approaches to risk assessment, and it discusses the potential tension between these approaches to risk assessment and these legal doctrines. The analysis suggests that expert testimony has the potential to undermine rather than assist the sentencer’s efforts to make capital sentencing decisions in a manner consistent with Supreme Court doctrine. This analysis includes a discussion of the advances and limitations of current approaches to risk assessment in the context of capital sentencing.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Poster 2011
on 10 October 2011
2011
Campaigning
World Coalition
Trend Towards Abolition
arfrMore details Download [ pdf - 107 Ko ]
Poster 2011
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition
- Available languages Poster Arabic 2011Affiche 2011
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,
amnesty-international-report-2021
on 26 May 2021
2021
amnesty-report-2021
on 9 June 2022
2022
iran-annual-report-22
on 18 September 2023
2023
amnesty-annual-report-2022
on 18 September 2023