Your search “Keep%20ethe%20eDeath%20ePenalty%abolished%20ein%20ethe%20ePhilippfines%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e%20e/page/www.deathpenaltyindia.com/img/pages/resources/20e17Statistics.pdf ”

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

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

The present report, prepared pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolutions 1754 (LIV) of 16 May 1973 and 1995/57 of 28 July 1995, and Council decision 2005/247 of 22 July 2005, is the eighth quinquennial report of the Secretary-General on capital punishment. It covers the period 2004-2008 and reviews developments in the use of capital punishment. The report confirms a very marked trend towards abolition and restriction of the use of capital punishment in most countries. The rate at which States that retained the death penalty at the start of the quinquennium have abolished its use either in law or in practice is comparable with that of previous reporting periods, and may even be accelerating slightly. Moreover, countries that retain the death penalty are, with rare exceptions, significantly reducing its use in terms of numbers of persons executed and the crimes for which it may be imposed. Nevertheless, where capital punishment remains in force, there are serious problems with regard to the respect of international norms and standards, notably in the limitation of the death penalty to the most serious crimes, the exclusion of juvenile offenders from its scope, and guarantees of a fair trial.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages عقوبة الإعدام وتنفيذ الضمانات التي تكفل حماية حقوق الذين يواجهون عقوبة الإعدام : م ذكّرة من الأمين العامСмертная казнь и применение мер, гарантирующих защиту прав тех, кому грозит смертная казнь : Доклад Генерального секретаряLa pena capital y la aplicación de las salvaguardias para garantizar la protección de los derechos de los condenados a la pena de muerte : Informe del Secretario GeneralPeine capitale et application des garanties pour la protection des droits des personnes passibles de la peine de mort: Rapport du Secrétaire général死刑和保护死刑犯权利的保障措施的执行情况: 秘书长的报告

The present report contains information covering developments during 2006. The report indicates that the trend towards abolition of the death penalty continues. This is illustrated, inter alia, by the increase in the number of countries that have abolished the death penalty and by the increase in ratifications of international instruments that provide for the abolition of this form of punishment.

• Document type International law - United Nations
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
• Available languages دام عقوبة مسألة: العام الأمينВопрос о смертной казни: Доклад Генерального секретаряQuestion de la peine de mort : Rapport du Secrétaire général死刑问题: 秘书长的报告La cuestión de la pena capital: Informe del Secretario General

The present report surveys respect for the rights of those sentenced to death as set out in the international human rights treaties and the guidelines established by the Economic and Social Council in 1984. Drawing on contributions of Member States, the report surveys various motivations for establishing a moratorium on or abolishing the death penalty, as well as those for retaining the death penalty. It also includes up-to-date statistical information on the worldwide use of the death penalty, including moratoriums established in States that have not abolished this form of punishment, together with relevant developments since the sixty-second session of the General Assembly. The report concludes by confirming the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty, the important role played by moratoriums in those States that seek to abolish it and possibilities for further work on the issue.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list Moratorium ,
• Available languages وقف استخدام عقوبة الإعدام :تقرير الأمين العامМоратории на применение смертной казни: Доклад Генерального секретаря暂停使用死刑: 秘书长的报告Moratoria del uso de la pena de muerte : Informe del Secretario GeneralMoratoires sur l'application de la peine de mort: Rapport du Secrétaire général

In this collaborative work, the Jacksons, father (former presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow Coalition) and son (a congressional representative) with Salon.com editor Shapiro, pursue a nationwide conversation on the issues surrounding the death penalty one that begins with the proposal of a moratorium and could lead to the eventual cessation of capital punishment. This book describes a bureaucratic nightmare involving defense lawyers asleep at trial, vengeance-hungry politicos and a problematic, imperfect justice system in which the handing out of death sentences is skewed, both racially and economically. An objective examination of this penal system would be beneficial to all, say the authors: since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976, one in every eight prisoners on death row has been found innocent and released. There are undoubtedly cases, the authors argue, where the proof of innocence didn’t see the light of day in time. Navigating the historical precedents of the death penalty and the reasons why federally mandated executions were restored following a 10-year moratorium imposed in 1967, the authors thoroughly detail legitimate questions regarding what they view as erroneous deterrence theories, scriptural misrepresentation and simple vengeance.

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

Este artigo trata da pena de morte dentro da legislação criminal brasileira, analisando algumas sanções impostas no período colonial, por meio do Livro V das Ordenações Filipinas, bem como da legislação pertinente no Brasil Império, pelo Código Criminal de 1830 e suas reformas de 1832 e 1835. Por fim, discorre sobre o processo Motta Coqueiro e sua repercussão na sociedade, após decisão condenatória do réu, posteriormente provado inocente, com o intuito de acabar com este tipo de penalidade no Brasil.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Brazil
• Themes list Networks,

In Roper v. Simmons (2005), the US Supreme Court raised the minimum age at which someone could be subjected to capital punishment, ruling that no one under the age of 18 at the time of their crime could be sentenced to death. The present article discusses the legal context and rationale by which the Court established the current age-based limit on death penalty eligibility as well as the scientific basis for a recent American Psychological Association Resolution that recommended extending that limit to include members of the “late adolescent class” (i.e., persons from 18 to 20 years old). In addition, we present new data that address the little-discussed but important racial/ethnic implications of these age-based limits to capital punishment, both for the already established Roper exclusion and the APA-proposed exclusion for the late adolescent class. In fact, a much higher percentage of persons in the late adolescent class who were sentenced to death in the post-Roper era were non-White, suggesting that their age-based exclusion would help to remedy this problematic pattern.

• Document type Academic report
• Countries list United States

Failures of justice in trials which result in an execution cannot be rectified. In the Asia-Pacific region, where 95 per cent of the population live in countries that retain and use the death penalty, there is a real danger of the state executing someone in error following an unfair trial.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Fair Trial,

Lawyers For Human Rights International an Organisation of Lawyers having its base in Punjab, India, being part of an International movement against Death Penalty, decided to visit Sharjah jail in UAE to meet the 17 prisoners who have been sentenced to Death for killing a Pakistani youth. Two member team comprising of Navkiran Singh a Human Rights Lawyer & Activist from Panjab, practicing in the High Court at Chandigarh and who is the General Secretary of LFHRI along with another Lawyer Gagan Aggarwal, visited Dubai and Sharjah on 13th and 14th of April 2010 and met the Lawyers who have been hired to defend these 17 Indians by the Indian Consulate of UAE and also visited Sharjah jail and met all the prisoners. This report presents their findings.

• Document type Legal Representation
• Themes list Networks,

The change of administration in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and taking of office by a new president on 3 August 2013 has not brought any change as far as the death penalty is concerned. Between the 14 June presidential election and 1st October, more than 200 people have been reportedly executed, including possibly three people who may have been younger than 18 at the time of the commission of the alleged crimes.Against this backdrop, FIDH and its member organisation, LDDHI, have decided topublish the present report to analyse the new penal laws in force in Iran that are invoked consistently to violate the right to life in general and to execute child offenders. Coinciding with 10 October 2013, World Day against the Death Penalty, this report aimsto serve as an update on the current state of application of the death penalty in the IRI.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Juveniles, Drug Offences, Hanging, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages مجازﺯاﺍتﺕ اﺍعداﺍمﻡ دﺩرﺭ اﺍﯾﻳراﺍنﻥ - سﯿﻴاست دﺩوﻭلتﯽﻲ اﺍﯾﻳجادﺩ وﻭحشت - وﻭﯾﻳژهﻩ ﯾﻳازﺯدﺩهمﯿﻴن رﺭوﻭزﺯ جهانﯽﻲ ضد مجازﺯاﺍتﺕ اﺍعداﺍمﻡ

This report, released appropriately on International Human Rights Day, serves to strip away the “conspiracy of silence” and give voice to a group of victims who have for too long been largely ignored in the debate surrounding the death penalty: the families of the executed.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Murder Victims' Families,

The purpose of this annual report on State-sponsored Homophobia, as stated since its first edition in 2007, is to name and shame the states which in the 21st century deny the most fundamental human rights to LGBTI people, i.e. the right to life and freedom, in the hope that with every year more and more countries decide to abandon the ‘community’ of homophobic states.Compared to last year’s report, where we listed the 77 countries prosecuting people on ground of their sexual orientation, this year you will find ―only‖ 76 in the same list, including the infamous 5 which put people to death for their sexual orientation: Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen (plus some parts of Nigeria and Somalia). One country less compared to the 2009 list may seem little progress, until one realizes that it hosts one sixth of the human population.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Homosexuality,
• Available languages Portuguese : Homofobia do Estado: Uma pesquisa mundial sobre legislações que proíbem relações sexuais consensuais entre adultos do mesmo sexoHomophobie d'État: Une enquête mondiale sur les lois qui interdisent la sexualité entre adultes consentants de même sexeHomofobia de Estado: Un informe mundial sobre las leyes que prohiben la actividad homosexual con consentimiento entre personas adultas

這部短片是2010年美國被害人團體來台的報導（很抱歉，晚了一年才整理出來），今年，MVFHR將再度來台，並且也邀請日本的被害人團體一起在台灣巡迴演講「夜照亮了夜­：身為被害人」（http://www.taedp.org.tw/index.php?load=read&id=964）

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Murder Victims' Families,
• Available languages MVFHR Asia Speech Tour in Korea & Japan

The protracted and (somewhat) ongoing debate over whether lethal injection—in some or all of its forms—is cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment is the newest variation on the question of whether a particular form of capital punishment is inhumane and cruel. The history of capital punishment in the United States over the last two centuries has been punctuated by attempts to find less painful and gruesome ways to kill persons society has condemned to die. Ironically, at least from a historical perspective, some recent executions have seen condemned inmates or their attorneys elect some of the older methods, i.e., electrocution, or offer, as a potentially less painful alternative, the firing squad or death by lethal gas. And some states, including the main subject of this article, have resurrected electrocution and the firing squad because of a claimed inability or difficulty in obtaining execution drugs. In this article, the authors trace the history of execution methods in the pre-modern era of capital punishment (before 1972), primarily in South Carolina, pointing out the often-intractable problems with their implementation process (including specific “botches”), and then address other aspects of executions that have relevance to the current debate about the wisdom and efficacy of retaining the “modern” American death penalty in the twenty-first century.

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

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

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

In “Towards the abolition of the death penalty in Africa – a human rights perspective”, the author shows that international law increasingly recognises that the imposition and execution of the death penalty constitute violations of human rights. The author locates an emerging international trend towards the abolition of capital punishment in the African context. In doing so, she provides a particular African perspective on the issue. In this rich and informative text, she reflects on the role and impact of relevant UN instruments on African states, and analyses related African regional instruments, domestic law and case-law.

• Document type Book

The report presents the conclusions of monitoring by the IACHR in recent years, including an on-site visit to Jamaica in December 2008, several public hearings on human rights in the country, as well as a constant exchange of information with the State and civil society organizations.

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

This report, which includes policy recommendations, is the culmination of a long effort to identify and document the bias on the part of some prosecutors, judges, and members of the victims’ services community against victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty.

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

From the point of arrest decades after the execution or release of a parent accused of a capital crime, the children’s mental health and wellbeing, living situation, and relationships with others can all be affected, usually in a devastating manner. The inherent trauma of knowing that a loved one is going to be executed can be exacerbated by public indifference or hostility, and by authorities who either fail to recognise or deliberately refuse to consider the situation of these children. This publication addresses the challenges to support the children.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Juveniles, International law, Murder Victims' Families,

Simandjuntak’s article comes back to the death sentences part of the “war against drugs” conducted by President Widjojo in Indonesia. In 2015, 14 drug convicts – mostly foreign nationals – have been executed. The article also comes back to the wide support to the death penalty in the country, on the debate on the presumed deterrent effect of the death penalty and on the political function of the capital punishment in Indonesia.

• Document type Article
• Countries list Indonesia
• Themes list Public opinion, Deterrence , Drug Offences, Foreign Nationals, Country/Regional profiles,

The ABA has long been concerned with the provision of effective counsel for all criminal defendants, especially for those facing the death penalty. In 1989, the ABA first published its Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, which detailed the kind of competent, effective legal representation that all capital defendants were entitled to receive. Earlier this year, after a two-year effort drawing upon the expertise of a broad group ofdistinguished and experienced judges, lawyers, and academics, the ABA House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved revisions to those Guidelines to update and expand upon the obligations of death penalty jurisdictions to ensure due process of law and justice. “These Guidelines are not aspirational.” They articulate a national standard of care and the minimum that should be required in the defense of capital cases.

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

This groundbreaking report aims to bridge critical gaps in understanding of how states apply capital punishment from a gender perspective. This study is the first to examine how and when women receive death sentences and the conditions under which they are detained on death row, with a particular focus on India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malawi, Pakistan and the United States. The conclusions are that gender discrimination is pervasive at all stages of capital cases, but that its operation is complex. Report published by Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide with the support of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Women,
• Available languages Jugée pour plus que son crime

The revised ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases require that an agency “independent of the judiciary” be responsible for “ensuring that each capital defendant in the jurisdiction receives high quality legal representation.” This independent agency “and not the judiciary or elected officials should select lawyers for specific cases.” These mandates reflect two realities that have become overwhelmingly clear: (1) judges—whether initially elected, subject to retention elections, or appointed—are subject to political pressures in connection with capital punishment cases; and (2) lawyers whom judges have appointed in capital punishment cases have frequently been of far lower quality than could have been selected.

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

This short article will explore some additional issues regarding the relationship between international law and the death penalty. First, it will discuss some additional aspects of the representation of foreign nationals in capital cases. Second, it will discuss additional instances in which defense counsel can make international law arguments, regardless of the client’s nationality. Third, because international law issues are new to most lawyers in the United States, even those who are seasoned in capital litigation, it will suggest some alternative ways in which international law arguments can be made. The conclusion will put theUnited States experience with the death penalty into the broader context of world practice on the death penalty.

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

On March 7, 2018, the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide launched its new report entitled Justice Denied: A Global Study of Wrongful Death Row Convictions at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The report is a first-of-its-kind comparative study of the risk factors that increase the likelihood of wrongful convictions. The report illuminates the similarities in wrongful conviction risk factors in six countries across the geographical and political spectrum: Cameroon, Indonesia, Jordan, Malawi, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Innocence, Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Déni de justice : Une étude mondiale sur les erreurs judiciaires dans les couloirs de la mort

This report has been prepared for Governor Ryan’s Commission on Capital Punishment to provide additional information on those who have been wrongfully convicted of murder and subsequently incarcerated. It is hoped that this information is useful in the Commission’s consideration of possible improvements in the way criminal justice agencies and allied entities meet the needs of those who have been wrongfully convicted.

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

One major goal of these recommendations is to create additional safeguards against the endemic tendency of decision-makers in the criminal justice system to “pass the buck.” The system is far too lax in catching errors and injustices in part because many of those who might catch these errors and injustices do not fully understand their own duty to ensure that a death sentence is the appropriate punishment. Several of these recommendations are addressed to those who occupy critical roles in the capital punishment system, including the defense attorney, the prosecutor, the jury, the trial judge, and the reviewing courts. They emphasize that each, individually, has the responsibility to ensure, to the best of his or her ability, that justice is done.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,

Questions regarding the jury’s inability to reach a unanimous decision are often asked of judges and similar uninformative responses are generally given. Is ignoringjuror concerns the proper method for handling jury inquiries about the result of juror non-unanimity in capital sentencing? Or should courts inform capital juries up-front of the consequences of their failure to reach a unanimous verdict?

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

It turns out that voir dire in capital cases is woefully ineffective at the most elementary task—weeding out unqualified jurors.Empirical evidence reveals that many capital jurors are in fact unqualified to serve. Moreover, the ineffectiveness of the process is far from even-handed. A juror is not “death-qualified” if she would always vote against a death sentence, regardless of the circumstances, and a handful of the jurors who actually serve in capital cases are in fact unqualified for this reason.

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

I offer an account of the ordeal of Earl Washington, who—having come within days of execution—was released from prison on February 12, 2001, after DNA evidence of his innocence finally proved conclusive to the Virginia authorities. I do so for two reasons. First, I believe, both as a member of his legal team and a scholar, that history deserves an accurate account of the events. Second, more broadly, I believe that the case exemplifies many of the phenomena that contribute to the injustice of the death penalty in America today.

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

The present project is concerned with the significant role that public opinion plays in the debate surrounding the death penalty and criminal policy in the People’s Republic of China, including possible public reaction to any planned abolishment of the death penalty. How is public opinion on the death penalty exhibited in China? What influence does public opinion on the death penalty have on legislative and judicial practice in China? The principal goal of the project is to analyze the links that exist between public opinion, criminal policy, legislation and legal practice, and to initiate attitudinal changes amongst political and legal actors as well as the public at large. A further objective is to guide Chinese criminal law reform, particularly with regard to a possible reduction in the number of capital offences, against the background of the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

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

In tutto il mondo, coloro che sopravvivono alle vittime di omicidi sono in genere considerati a favore della pena capitale. Si presume che le esecuzioni vadano incontro al bisogno dei superstiti di giustizia, e di porre fine ad una vicenda. Opporsi alla pena di morte, è spesso visto come un andare contro alla vittima. Attraverso le loro dichiarazioni, le testimonianze e il materiale educativo, i membri dell’associazione fanno sapere ai responsabili della vita politica, e al grande pubblico, che è possibile essere sia a favore delle vittime che contro la pena di morte.

• Document type Academic report
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Familias de Víctimas de Homicidio por los Derechos HumanosFamilles de Victimes de Meurtre pour les Droits de l'Homme BrochureMurder Victims Families for Human Rights BrochureJapanese : 人権のための殺人被害者遺族の会

The report takes into account the standards developed within the Inter-American human rights system to restrict the application of the death penalty over the last 15 year.

• Document type International law - Regional body
• Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Mandatory Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
• Available languages La pena de muerte en el sistema interamericano de derechos humanos: de restricciones a abolición

The fundamental task of the mitigation specialist is to conduct a comprehensive social history of the defendant and identify all relevant mitigation issues. The 2003 revised edition of the American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases recognizes the mitigation specialist as an “indispensable member of the defense team throughout all capital proceedings.” What are the particular responsibilities and contributions of a mitigation specialist and what makes them so essential to the capital defense team as to warrant this long overdue recognition by the ABA Guidelines?

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

This report asserts that the death penalty is not only inappropriate and unwarranted for persons with severe mental illness but that it also serves as a distraction from problems within the mental health system that contributed or even led directly to tragic violence. Families of murder victims and families of people with mental illness who have committed murder have a cascade of questions and needs. It is to these questions, rather than to the death penalty, that as a society we must turn our attention and our collective energies if we are truly to address the problem of untreated mental illness and the lethal violence that can result.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Mental Illness, Murder Victims' Families,

This briefing paper is offered as a critique of the received wisdom of abolition strategies against the background of an evidence based analysis of the literature. A point of interest to begin with is to try to tease out the motivation of individuals and groups that consider themselves death penalty abolitionists.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Networks,

Many states fail to conduct, or even to permit, DNA testing of biological materials in circumstances in which the results might exonerate convicts under sentence of death. Senator Patrick Leahy thinks that Congress should enact a statute requiring states to provide for testing when it promises to reveal the truth. Leahy’s idea is sensible as a matter of policy. I mean in this Article to argue that it is also constitutionally feasible.

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

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,

Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights was launched on international human rights day, 2004, by a group of victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty and have extensive speaking and organizing experience in the United States and around the world. Through their statements, testimony, and educational materials, MVFHR members let policymakers and the general public know that it is possible to be both pro-victim and anti-death penalty. The response to one human rights violation should not be another human rights violation. We honor victims by preventing violence, not by perpetuating it.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Networks,
• Available languages Familias de Víctimas de Homicidio por los Derechos HumanosFamilles de Victimes de Meurtre pour les Droits de l'Homme BrochureJapanese : 人権のための殺人被害者遺族の会Italian : Famiglie Delle Vittime Di Omicidio Per I Diritti Umani

There have been at least sixty-seven postconviction DNA exonerations in the United States. Our Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law has either assisted or been the attorney of record in thirty-nine of those cases, including eight men who served time on death row. For all of these men, existing appellate remedies failed to catch the mistakes and correct the injustice. In one third of the exonerations, bad lawyering contributed to their convictions yet in only one case was ineffective assistance of counsel recognized by an appellate court. Mistaken eyewitness identification was a critical factor in almost 90% of the unjust convictions yet not a single trial or appellate court found the eyewitness testimony to be unreliable.

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

Lawyers are generally familiar with the ethical rule forbidding frivolous arguments, principally because of sanctions imposed under rules of civil procedure for making such arguments. Not all lawyers are aware, however, of two ways in which the prohibitions of frivolous arguments are restricted in both the rules themselves and in their enforcement. First, the ethical rules have express limitations with respect to arguments made on behalf of criminal defendants, and courts are generally loath to sanction criminal defense lawyers. Second, the term “frivolous” is narrowed, even in civil cases, by the way it is defined and explained in the ethical rules and in court decisions.

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

The thesis of this paper is that lawyers who have represented clients in capital murder cases at trial and appeal—not unlike all criminal trial and initial appeal counsel, but more urgently because of the circumstances—continue to owe important obligations to their former clients. These obligations have been just recently included in the latest version of the American Bar Association’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death PenaltyCases: In accordance with professional norms, all persons who are or have been members of the defense team have a continuing duty to safeguard the interests of the client and should cooperate fully with successor counsel. This duty includes, but is not limited to: A. maintaining the records of the case in a manner that will inform successor counsel of all significant developments relevant to the litigation; B. providing the client’s files, as well as information regarding all aspects of the representation, to successor counsel; C. sharing potential further areas of legal and factual research with successor counsel; and D. cooperating with such professionally appropriate legal strategies as may be chosen by successor counsel. It is my hope that this article will demonstrate that these Guidelines reflect not just best practice, but actual ethical mandates that trial counsel, like Bryan Saunders, owe their former clients as those clients negotiate the jurisprudential maze known as habeas corpus.

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

The goal of our bill is simple, but profoundly important: to reduce the risk of mistaken executions. The Innocence Protection Act proposes basic, common-sense reforms to our criminal justice system that are designed to protect the innocent and to ensure that if the death penalty is imposed, it is the result of informed and reasoned deliberation, not politics, luck, bias, or guesswork. We have listened to a lot of good advice and made some refinements to the bill since the last Congress, but it is still structured around two principal reforms: improving the availability of DNA testing, and ensuring reasonable minimum standards and funding for court-appointed counsel.

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

The death penalty continued to be mired in conflict in 2010, as states grappled with an ongoing controversy over lethal injections, the high cost of capital punishment, and increasing public sentiment in favor of alternative sentences. Executions dropped by 12% compared with 2009, and by more than 50% since 1999. The number of new death sentences was about the same as in 2009, the lowest number in 34 years. —– For other DPIC year end reports (from 1995 – 2009) please visit: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/reports

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

The 15th Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran, by Iran Human Rights and ECPM reveals the highest annual number of executions since 2015. At least 582 people were executed, an increase of 75% compared to 2021. In 2022, Iran’s authorities demonstrated how crucial the death penalty is to instil societal fear in order to hold onto power.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Available languages Rapport annuel sur la peine de mort en Iran 2022

In the summer of 2007, an older man approaches Reyhaneh Jabbari and asks the architecture student who has a side job as an interior decorator for her help in the design of offices. During the site inspection, he tries to rape her. Reyhaneh stabs him in self-defence. She is arrested for murder and sentenced to death. Reyhaneh was to spend the next seven years in prison while her family hired lawyers and made the public aware of the case. However, in spite of the efforts of national and international politicians and human rights organisations, the Iranian judiciary continued to cite the “right of blood-revenge”. This meant that, as long as Reyhaneh did not withdraw her accusations against the man, his family could demand her death. Reyhaneh stuck to her testimony and was hanged at the age of 26.
In her moving and shockingly topical documentary debut, director Steffi Niederzoll uses among other things original audio and visual material that was smuggled out of Iran. This film, in which Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi lends Reyhaneh her voice, makes visible the injustice in Iranian society and portrays an involuntary heroine who gave her life in the fight for women’s rights.

• Document type Multimedia content
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
• Themes list Gender / Women
• Available languages Sept hivers à Téhéran

This Q&A was prepared by Harm Reduction International (www.ihra.net), the International Drug PolicyConsortium (www.idpc.net) and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (www.worldcoalition.org) aheadof World Day against the Death Penalty on 10 October 2015.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Drug Offences,
• Available languages Questions-Réponses: peine de mort et trafic de drogue

Published on December 12, 2023.

In a recently published academic article, Emory University History Professor Daniel LaChance writes about an important and underrecognized distinction in the way newspaper editors and journalists covered the executions of Black and white men in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Professor LaChance argues that the portrayals of the defendants made legal executions “a high-status punishment that respected the whiteness of those who suffered it.” While the length and detail of articles about the executions of Black men shrank dramatically over time, he notes that journalists consistently highlighted the humanity of white men who were executed, making it “easier for those who wanted to project a modern image of the South to distance capital punishment from lynching, a form of violence that was becoming a source of embarrassment for respectable white Southerners.”

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Public Opinion 

Report published by the Death Penalty Information Center on secrecy and the death penalty in the United States. This report documents the laws and policies that states have adopted to make information about executions inaccessible to the public, to pharmaceutical companies, and to condemned prisoners. It describes the dubious methods states have used to obtain drugs, the inadequate qualifications of members of the execution team, and the significant restrictions on witnesses’ ability to observe how executions are carried out. It summarizes the various drug combinations that have been used, with particular focus on the problems with the drug midazolam, and provides a state-by-state record of problems in recent executions. It explains how government policies that lack transparency and accountability permit states to violate the law and disregard fundamental principles of a democratic government while carrying out the harshest punishment the law allows.

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

Overview

This document has been prepared by the Community of Sant’Egidio, Reprieve and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty to assist the Commissioners ahead of the 2nd/3rd periodic report of the Government of Malawi that covers the reporting period of 2015-2019.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list Malawi

On June 29, 1972, the United States Supreme Court decided Furman v. Georgia, striking down all existing death penalty laws in the United States and ushering in the modern era of the U.S. death penalty. In the decades that followed—as jurisdictions revised their death-sentencing procedures in response to the Supreme Court’s rulings on capital punishment—thousands of people were sentenced to death.

The Death Penalty Census is DPIC’s effort to identify and document every death sentence imposed in the U.S. since Furman. The census captures more than 9,700 death sentences imposed between the Supreme Court’s issuance of the Furman ruling and January 1, 2021. These sentences were imposed in 1,280 counties across 40 states, as well as by the federal government and the U.S. Military.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States

These individual cases illustrate issues found in systemic reviews of the state’s death penalty system. In 2017, a bipartisan commission that included former prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges, citizens, crime victim advocates, and law professors found that the state’s capital punishment system created “unacceptable risks of inconsistent, discriminatory, and inhumane application of the death penalty.” In an extensively researched report, the commission recommended a moratorium on executions until reforms were made. Five years later, Oklahoma has enacted “virtually none” of the suggested reforms.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States

In The Fear of Too Much Justice, legendary death penalty lawyer Stephen B. Bright and legal scholar James Kwak offer a heart-wrenching overview of how the criminal legal system fails to live up to the values of equality and justice. The book ranges from poor people squeezed for cash by private probation companies because of trivial violations to people executed in violation of the Constitution despite overwhelming evidence of intellectual disability or mental illness. They also show examples from around the country of places that are making progress toward justice.

With a foreword by Bryan Stevenson, who worked for Bright at the Southern Center for Human Rights and credits him for “[breaking] down the issues with the death penalty simply but persuasively,” The Fear of Too Much Justice offers a timely, trenchant, firsthand critique of our criminal courts and points the way toward a more just future.

Available: June 2023

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Fair Trial

Published on December 18, 2023.

Initial impressions of others based on facial appearances are often inaccurate yet can lead to dire outcomes. Across four studies, adult participants underwent a counterstereotype training to reduce their reliance on facial appearance in consequential social judgments of White male faces. In Studies 1 and 2, trustworthiness and sentencing judgments among control participants predicted whether real-world inmates were sentenced to death versus life in prison, but these relationships were diminished among trained participants. In Study 3, a sequential priming paradigm demonstrated that the training was able to abolish the relationship between even automatically and implicitly perceived trustworthiness and the inmates’ life-or-death sentences. Study 4 extended these results to realistic decision-making, showing that training reduced the impact of facial trustworthiness on sentencing decisions even in the presence of decision-relevant information. Overall, our findings suggest that a counterstereotype intervention can mitigate the potentially harmful effects of relying on facial appearance in consequential social judgments.

• Document type Article
• Countries list United States

Article 37States Parties shall ensure that:(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list Juveniles, International law,
• Available languages اتفاقية حقوق الطفلКонвенция о правах ребенкаConvention relative aux droits de l'enfant儿童权利公约Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño

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

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

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,

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.” Article 3 – Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law, Right to life,
• Available languages المتحدة الإعلان العالمي لحقوق الإنسانВсеобщую декларацию прав человекаDéclaration universelle des droits de l'homme世界人权宣言Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos

The States Parties to the present Protocol,Believing that abolition of the death penalty contributes to enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights,Recalling article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on 10 December 1948, and article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted on 16 December 1966,Noting that article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights refers to abolition of the death penalty in terms that strongly suggest that abolition is desirable,Convinced that all measures of abolition of the death penalty should be considered as progress in the enjoyment of the right to life,Desirous to undertake hereby an international commitment to abolish the death penalty,Have agreed as follows:Article 11. No one within the jurisdiction of a State Party to the present Protocol shall be executed.2. Each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction.

• Document type United Nations report
• Themes list International law,
• Available languages البروتوكول الاختياري الثاني الملحق بالعهد الدولي الخاص بالحقوق المدنية والسياسية بهدف العمل علي إلغاء عقوبة الإعدامВторой Факультативный протокол к Международному пакту о гражданских и политических правах, направленный на отмену смертной казниDeuxième protocole facultatif se rapportant au Pacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques, visant à l'abolition de la peine de mort第二任择议定书的公民权利和政治权利国际公约，其目的在废除死刑Segundo Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos, destinado a abolir la pena de muerte

Where the death penalty is applied, international law, jurisprudence and practice require that certain minimum standards are applied. The standards include international and regional treaties that are legally binding on states that have ratified them, customary international law that is binding on all states without exception, and non-binding standards and resolutions that nonetheless command the support of the majority of states. International understanding of these minimum standards has continued to evolve in the years since they were drafted, but the documents themselves do not always keep pace. This paper brings together international, regional and national standards, the most recent understandings of relevant experts and appropriate insights from other connected disciplines. It explores possible ways in which international minimum standards could be further strengthened at this time, whether through ECOSOC, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, regional bodies or national amendments to laws and policies. In each section, the issue and current practice is described, followed by examples of good practice or suggestions for improvement, finishing with a short list of recommendations for strengthening existing standards. These issues and recommendations are not final, but are intended to provide a point from which discussion can begin.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list International law, Legal Representation,

Published in December 2023.

This paper seeks to map the political economy of capital punishment in Iran, in particular in relation to dual and foreign nationals, and examines its external and internal functions. The external functions include suppressing the ‘cultural threat’ of cross-border drug trafficking, achieving more power in sanctions negotiations, seeking reciprocal prisoner swaps or demanding recompense for outstanding multinational debt. The internal functions include quashing protests against the regime, supressing separatist movements, or even just ‘otherness’. It is evident that those facing disadvantage across foreign national and intersectional lines face the death penalty disproportionately. In addition, although only representing a fraction of the overall population of death row, the arbitrary detention of dual nationals has a disproportionate political function.

• Document type Academic Article
• Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Europe is today the only region in the world where the death penalty has been almost completely abolished. In the Council of Europe’s 45 member states, including the European Union’s 15 member states and its 13 candidate countries, capital punishment is no longer applied. The Council of Europe played a pioneering role in the battle for abolition, believing that the death penalty has no place in democratic societies under any circumstances. This determination to eradicate the death penalty was reflected in Protocol No.6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, on the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime, which was adopted in April 1983, then in Protocol No.13 on the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances, adopted in May 2002.Introduced by Roger Hood, an international expert on death penalty legislation, this book reviews the long and sometimes tortuous path to abolition in Europe. It also addresses the tangible problems which countries face once the death penalty has been abolished, and related issues: the situation of murder victims’ families and alternatives to capital punishment, particularly the choice of a substitute sentence.The Council of Europe’s campaign for abolition is currently being pursued beyond Europe’s borders, in those states which have Observer status with the organisation, particularly the United States and Japan: the situation in these countries is discussed here.This publication will be of interest to all those who feel concerned by this issue, particularly members of NGOs, lawyers, officials in departments dealing with legal and criminal affairs, and human rights campaigners.

• Document type Book
• Countries list France
• Available languages Peine de mort - Après l'abolition

This Handbook represents a stand alone, single-volume practionners’ handbook for the use of psychiatrists and psychologists, sollicitors, barristers, prosecuting authorities and the courts, who are required to deal with homicide, and other cases, in jurisdictions and circumstances where the death penalty can apply.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Mental Illness,

Executionhas also (1) had a powerful negative influence on the substantive criminal law; (2) promoted the practice of using extreme penal sanctions as status rewards to crime victims and their families; (3) provided moral camouflage for a penalty of life imprisonment without possibility of parole, which is almost as brutal as state killing; and (4) diverted legal andjudicial resources from the scrutiny of other punishments and governmental practicesin an era of mass imprisonment. This chapter discusses these four latent impacts of attempts to revive and rationalize the death penalty in the United States.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Arbitrariness,

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,

This study links two previously unrelated lines of research: The lack of comprehension of capital penalty-phase jury instructions and discriminatory death sentencing. Jury-eligible subjects were randomly assigned to view one of four versions of a simulated capital penalty trial in which the race of defendant (Black or White) and the race of victim (Black or White) were varied orthogonally. Dependent measures included a sentencing verdict (life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty), ratings of penalty phase evidence, and a test of instructional comprehension. Results indicated that instructional comprehension was poor overall and that, although Black defendants were treated only slightly more punitively than White defendants in general, discriminatory effects were concentrated among participants whose comprehension was poorest. In addition, the use of penalty phase evidence differed as a function of race of defendant and whether the participant sentenced the defendant to life or death. The study suggest that racially biased and capricious death sentencing may be in part caused or exacerbated by the inability to comprehend penalty phase instructions.

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

In 1998 Richard A. Leo and Richard J. Ofshe published a study of false confession cases entitled, The Consequences of False Confessions: Deprivations of Liberty and Miscarriages of Justice in the Age of Psychological Interrogation, which drew a response from Paul Cassell (1999), The Guilty and the Innocent : An Examination of Alleged Cases of Wrongful Conviction from False Confessions. In this article, the authors demonstrate that Cassell s article misreports the research and analysis contained in Leo and Ofshes 1998 article, and that Cassell s attempt to challenge Leo and Ofshes classifications of nine out of sixty false confessions is erroneous because Cassell excludes or presents an incomplete picture of important facts in his case summaries, selectively ignores enormous inconsistencies, implausibilities and/or contradictions in the prosecution s cases, and fails to acknowledge the existence of substantial exculpatory, if not dispositive, evidence. To illustrate the problems and biases in Cassell s commentary, this article discusses at length one of Cassell s challenges, the Barry Lee Fairchild case, in the main body of the article and in a detailed appendix analyzes the eight other cases (Joseph Giarratano, Paul Ingram, Richard Lapointe, Jessie Misskelley, Bradley Page, James Harry Reyos, Linda Stangel, and Martin Tankleff). Leo and Ofshe provide a point by point refutation of Cassell s assertions in all nine cases, demonstrating that all nine individuals were, as originally classified, almost certainly innocent of the crimes to which they had confessed.

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

Senate Resolution No.6 in 2011 called for a study of the contemporary capital punishment system in the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania is among the 31 states and the federal government that authorize capital punishment. During the last four decades in Pennsylvania, hundreds of murderers have been convicted and condemned to death; however, there have been only three executions.This study follows others on the same or related topics, including those conducted by the American Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System. The SR6 report is the culmination of work done by the Justice Center for Research at The Pennsylvania State University, the Interbranch Commission on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, and an advisory committee comprised of judges, public defenders, district attorneys, victim advocates, inmate advocates, clergy, law enforcement officials, and other expert stakeholders.

• Document type Government body report
• Themes list Death Penalty, Statistics,

The capital punishment system in the United States is broken. Studies reveal growing delays nationwide between death sentences and executions and inexcusably high rates of reversals and retrials of capital verdicts. The current system persistently malfunctions because it rewards trial actors, such as police, prosecutors, and trial judges, for imposing death sentences, but it does not force them either to avoid making mistakes or to bear the cost of mistakes that are made during the process. Nor is there any adversarial discipline imposed at the trial level because capital defendants usually receive appointed counsel who either do not have experience trying capital cases or who receive inadequate resources from the State to pay litigation expenses. Instead, the appellate system is forced to deal with large amounts of error, creating backlog and delays. This article proposes a radical trade-off for capital defendants in which they agree to give up existing post-conviction review rights in return for a real assurance of better qualified, higher quality trial counsel. This proposal will avoid the traps of window dressing reforms, save states a good bit of the expense of appellate review, and make the capital punishment system more fair, efficient, and effective.

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

During 2009, we continued to strive for the global abolition of the death penalty. We made our opposition to it clear in our engagement with countries around the world, both bilaterally and in partnership with the EU. Bilaterally, we continue to fund work in the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Asia from our Human Rights Strategic Programme Fund. This includes working with key NGO partners, such as the Death Penalty Project and the Centre for Capital Punishment Studies at Westminster University in London. We also continued to raise the death penalty directly with governments, including China, Jamaica and the US.

• Document type Government body report
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Use of the death penalty in Texas remained near historic low levels in 2022, with juries sentencing two people to death and the State executing five people. Three other scheduled executions were stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA). Overall, the eight execution dates set for 2022 were the fewest in Texas since 1996.
Despite their low number, the executions set and carried out in 2022 raise troubling issues about the fairness and utility of the death penalty. Four of the men put to death, including 78-year-old Carl Wayne Buntion, suffered from physical or mental impairments or histories of childhood trauma, while two maintained their innocence of the crimes for which they were convicted.

• Document type NGO report
• Countries list United States

The QUNO’s report offers an updated review of differents elements of international law on the human rights of the child.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list International law, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,

This document describes who is elgible for Death Qualification, Jury Selection, and what death qualification entails.

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

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,

This file is relevant to the US, giving a list of states where governors can grant clemency, where the governor must have recommendations of clemency and where governors recieve a non-binding recommendation of clemency.

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

This paper updates The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2021. It is intended to provide a concise update to highlight changes in the status of the death penalty in OSCE participating States since the previous publication and to promote constructive discussion of the issue. It covers the period from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

• Document type Regional body report

This document briefly goes through the steps involved in a death penalty case, from the point of arrest to judge sentences.

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

Capital Punishment in Context contains several cases of individuals who were sentenced to death in the United States. Each case presents a narrative account of the individual’s crime, trial and punishment, along with guidelines for analysis, discussion and further research on issues raised by the case. The narratives are supplemented by resources such as original police reports from the homicide investigation and transcripts of testimony from witnesses. After reading the case, you can further explore issues by following a series of links to new information. Each case, along with the related materials, delineates a path through the criminal justice system. At every stage of the process, questions are raised about how the system works. These questions can lead to an analysis of key topics, such as the quality of legal representation for criminal defendants, the risk of wrongful convictions, the role of capital jurors, judicial independence, and the role that race may play in the criminal justice system.

• Document type Campaigning
• Themes list Networks,

This document provides state by state information in the United States regarding laws that govern the death penalty.

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

Many family members who have lost loved ones to murder feel that the death penalty will not heal their wounds nor will it end their pain. This webpage provides resources for those looking to connect with murder victims’ families organisations.

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

This document provides a list of the members of the Arab League and the origins of the organisation. It also describes its composition and provides contact information.

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

Summary of key supreme court cases in the United States, these cases deal with juror problems, the constitutionality of the death penalty and juveniles amongst key cases discussed.

• Document type Legal Representation
• Themes list Networks,

The Last Supper illustrates the meal requests of U.S. death row inmates. Cobalt blue mineral paint is applied to second-hand plates, then kiln-fired by technical advisor Toni Acock. I am looking for a space to exhibit all the plates on a ten-year loan. 540 final meals, and two first meals on the outside for exonerated men, are completed to date. I plan to continue adding fifty plates a year until capital punishment is abolished.

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

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,

Much has been written about why electrocution has persisted so stubbornly over the course of the twentieth century. This Article focuses briefly on more recent developments concerning why electrocution should be abolished entirely. Part I of this Article describes the facts and circumstances surrounding Bryan as well as Bryan’s unusual world-wide notice due to the gruesome photos of the executed Allen Lee Davis posted on the Internet. Part II focuses on the sociological and legal history of electrocution, most particularly the inappropriate precedential impact of In re Kemmler. In Kemmler, the Court found the Eighth Amendment inapplicable to the states and deferred to the New York legislature’s determination that electrocution was not cruel and unusual. Regardless, Kemmler has been cited repeatedly as Eighth Amendment support for electrocution despite Kemmler’s lack of modern scientific and legal validity.

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

We compare homicide rates in two quite similar cities with vastly different execution risks. Singapore had an execution rate close to 1 per million per year until an explosive twentyfold increase in 1994-95 and 1996-97 to a level that we show was probably the highest in the world. Hong Kong,has no executions all during the last generation and abolished capital punishment in 1993. Homicide levels and trends are remarkably similar in these two cities over the 35 years after 1973. By comparing two closely matched places with huge contrasts in actual execution but no differences in homicide trends, we have generated a unique test of the exuberant claims of deterrence that have been produced over the past decade in the U.S.

• Document type Article
• Countries list China
• Themes list Deterrence ,

The fifth edition of this highly praised study charts and explains the progress that continues to be made towards the goal of worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The majority of nations have now abolished the death penalty and the number of executions has dropped in almost all countries where abolition has not yet taken place. Emphasising the impact of international human rights principles and evidence of abuse, the authors examine how this has fuelled challenges to the death penalty and they analyse and appraise the likely obstacles, political and cultural, to further abolition. They discuss the cruel realities of the death penalty and the failure of international standards always to ensure fair trials and to avoid arbitrariness, discrimination and conviction of the innocent: all violations of the right to life. They provide further evidence of the lack of a general deterrent effect; shed new light on the influence and limits of public opinion; and argue that substituting for the death penalty life imprisonment without parole raises many similar human rights concerns.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

This webpage talks about innocence and the death penalty: Examples of innocence in three cases in the United States and factors leading to wrongful conviction.

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

In this 20-page report, Human Rights Watch documents failures in law and practice that since January 2005 have resulted in 32 executions of juvenile offenders in five countries: Iran (26), Saudi Arabia (2), Sudan (2), Pakistan (1), and Yemen (1). The report also highlights cases of individuals recently executed or facing execution in the five countries, where well over 100 juvenile offenders are currently on death row, awaiting the outcome of a judicial appeal, or in some murder cases, the outcome of negotiations for pardons in exchange for financial compensation

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Juveniles,
• Available languages آخر المعاقلالقضاء على عقوبة إعدام الأحداث في إيران والمملكة العربيةالسعودية والسودان وباآستان واليمن

This 65-page report reveals the slipshod history of executions by lethal injection, using a protocol created three decades ago with no scientific research, nor modern adaptation, and still unchanged today. As the prisoner lies strapped to a gurney, a series of three drugs is injected into his vein by executioners hidden behind a wall. A massive dose of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic, is injected first, followed by pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes voluntary muscles, but leaves the prisoner fully conscious and able to experience pain. A third drug, potassium chloride, quickly causes cardiac arrest, but the drug is so painful that veterinarian guidelines prohibit its use unless a veterinarian first ensures that the pet to be put down is deeply unconscious. No such precaution is taken for prisoners being executed.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Lethal Injection,

This study addresses the subject of the “death Penalty in Egypt”, which is an applied theoretical study done in light of the principles of the Islamic law and provisions concerning international human rights law. Egyptian Penal Code No. 58/1937 is the modern penal code that still retains the death penalty in spite of its cruelty and strictness and impossibility of reforming its results or amending them. The laws governing the death penalty in Egypt are considered one of the most deterrent penalties at all levels, general and private, that ensures combating crimes and preserving the interests of society, as well as ensuring stability in spite of the presence of an increasing international inclination led by the United Nations and some international NGOs headed by Amnesty International to abolish the Death Penalty given the difficulty to reconcile between this penalty and obligation to respecting human rights.There is no doubt that the intention to study the legislative system of the death penalty in Egypt, with the purpose of the determination of legality of this penalty and the demonstration of the feasibility of its application for society, is difficult without identifying all the roles and functions caused by the death penalty over successive legal ages in Egypt. When the criminal legislator passes new laws that address crimes in Egypt, in his appreciation, to achieve deterrence and for the purpose of combating crime, the legislator does nothing new in society. The work of the legislature work is a product of an interaction between the proposed legislative articles to solve the realistic problems from which society suffers in a historical moment on the one hand, and the cultural, social, religious, legal and political heritage coming to our society from abroad, may play a key role in the determination of the content of the proposed legislative text in the context of the mutual influence between cultures. In this context, this study begins by an introductory chapter entitled “The Historical Origins of the Death Penalty in Egypt” in which we tried to pin the Egyptian penal legislation to its origin by studying the position of death penalty and its evolution in society. By identifying the historical origin of the Death Penalty in Egypt, we then present an objective view on the future of death penalty in Egypt between retention and abolition. —- Please find document at bottom of web page.

• Document type NGO report
• Themes list Religion ,
• Available languages عقوبة الإعدام في مصر دراسة نظرية وتطبيقية في ضوء مبادئ الشريعة الإسلامية وأحكام القانون الدولي لحقوق الإنسان

In recent years, a growing number of religious organizations have participated in the nation’s death penalty debate. The purpose of this Web page is to provide access to information regarding the efforts of these faith groups and to highlight recent developments related to religion and the death penalty.

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

An argument against deterrence is made by looking at a survey which found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.

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

This sheet details the factors which contribute to the arbitrariness of the death penalty in the USA.

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

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

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

This factsheet deals with the cost of the death penalty in the United States using figures from a study conducted by the Californian Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Networks, Financial cost,
• Available languages La Pena de Muerte Cuesta Más

The execution of those with mental illness or “the insane” is clearly prohibited by international law. Virtually every country in the world prohibits the execution of people with mental illness. This webpage explores international law and the death penalty in relation to the USA.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Mental Illness,
• Available languages La Pena de Muerte ignora las Enfermedades Mentales

This sheet speaks about the trend towards abolition of the death penalty, aswell as declining public support for it.

• Document type Arguments against the death penalty
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

New information on foreign nationals facing the death penalty in the U.S. is now available through Mark Warren of Human Rights Research. This DPIC page includes information on 143 foreign citizens from 37 countries on state and federal death rows.

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

The objective of this initiative was to use “the product of art” as a vehicle to educate common people about the history and practice of capital punishment in America and to lift societies consciousness around the idea of endowing a National Death Penalty Museum to preserve its deep history.

• Document type Working with...
• Themes list Public debate,