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Document(s)
The Logical Framework Approach
By Greta Jenson / Bond - For International Development, on 1 January 2010
2010
Campaigning
More details See the document
The logframe is a tool for concisely describing the results of an LFA project design process, as it summarises in a standard format: What the project is going to achieve, what activities will be carried out, what means/resources/inputs (human, technical, infrastructural, etc.) are required, what potential problems could affect the success of the project, how the progress and ultimate success of the project will be measured and verified.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Nigeria: Waiting for the Hangman
By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2008
2008
NGO report
frMore details See the document
More than 720 men and 11 women are under sentence of death in Nigeria’s prisons. They have one thing in common, beyond not knowing when they will be put to death. They are poor. From their first contact with the police, through the trial process, to seeking pardon, those with the fewest resources are at a serious disadvantage. This text describes the treatment of the death penalty in Nigeria.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Due Process , Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages Nigéria: Pour qui vient le bourreau?
Document(s)
Handbook of Forensic Psychiatric Practice in Capital Cases
By The Death Penalty Project / Nigel Eastman / Richard Latham / Marc Lyall / Sanya Krljes, on 1 January 2018
2018
Working with...
More details See the document
The Death Penalty Project and Forensic Psychiatry Chambers have released two new publications, together providing an authoritative guide on the application of mental health law in capital cases. The resources respond to the knowledge that, in many countries that retain the death penalty, mental health issues are not being sufficiently addressed by the courts, leading to miscarriages of justice and putting vulnerable individuals at risk.This Handbook guides the reader through the role of the forensic psychiatrist in criminal proceedings and key principles of mental health law.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Death by Geography: A County By County Analysis of the Road to Execution in California
By Natasha Minsker / Romy Ganschow / American Civil Liberties Union / Jeff Gillenkirk / Elise Banducci, on 1 January 2008
2008
NGO report
More details See the document
California’s death penalty is arbitary, unnecessary and a waste of critical resources. Whilst the vast majority of California’s counties have largely abandoned execution in favor of simply sentencing people to die in prison, 10 counties continue to aggressively sentence people to execution, accounting for nearly 85 percent of death sentences since 2000. California’s death penalty has become so arbitary that the county border, not the facts of the case, determines who is sentenced to execution and who is simply sentenced to die in prison. Pursuing executions provides no identifiable benefit to these counties but costs millions.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Casebook of Forensic Psychiatric Practice in Capital Cases
By The Death Penalty Project / Marc Lyall, on 1 January 2018
2018
Working with...
More details See the document
The Death Penalty Project and Forensic Psychiatry Chambers have released two new publications, together providing an authoritative guide on the application of mental health law in capital cases. The resources respond to the knowledge that, in many countries that retain the death penalty, mental health issues are not being sufficiently addressed by the courts, leading to miscarriages of justice and putting vulnerable individuals at risk.This Casebook uses real-life examples to address ethical and professional questions and explore the application of legal principles.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Joint Letter Calling on the HRC to Renew the Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran
By Human Rights Watch / Impact Iran , on 1 January 2018
Multimedia content
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
More details See the document
In this joint letter many Iranian and international human rights organizations, urge the governments they called to support the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, during the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Discrimination,
Document(s)
Turning the tide in the Caribbean: towards an end to the death penalty
By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2013
2013
Campaigning
More details See the document
This toolkit is for activists working towards the abolition of the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean. Drawing on many years of Amnesty International’s work to promote all human rights and to oppose violations of those rights, including the death penalty, it provides practical tips and suggestions for advocacy and campaigning. It sets out key arguments and relevant international human rights standards and provides information about resources that activists can use to strengthen and broaden the campaign against the death penalty in the English-speaking Caribbean.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Public debate, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
The death penalty in Egypt: Ten year after the uprising
By Jeed Basyouni - Reprieve, on 10 August 2021
2021
NGO report
Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment
Death Row Conditions
Egypt
Fair Trial
More details See the document
Reprieve wrote this report about the use of the death penalty in Egypt.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Egypt
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment / Death Row Conditions / Fair Trial
Document(s)
The Death Penalty: The Ultimate Punishment
By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2008
2008
Campaigning
enfresMore details See the document
Campaigning toolkit published by Amnesty International. A 16-page detailed advocacy document explaining why the abolition of the death penalty is necessary and how the theories behind capital punishment get it wrong.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Korean : 사형제도 극단적 형벌La Peine de Mort: Le Châtiment SuprêmeLa Pena de Muerte: El Castigo Máximp
Document(s)
WMA Resolution to Reaffirm the WMA’s Prohibition of Physician Partecipation in Capital Punishment
By World Medical Association, on 8 September 2020
2020
NGO report
More details See the document
The World Medical Association has strengthened its opposition to capital punishment with a resolution at its recent conference in Bangkok that “physicians will not facilitate the importation or prescription of drugs for execution.”
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
Document(s)
Juvenile Offenders Awaiting Execution in Yemen : “Look at Us with a Merciful Eye”
By Human Rights Watch, on 1 January 2013
2013
NGO report
arMore details See the document
The 30-page report found that at least 22 individuals have been sentenced to death in Yemen despite evidence that they were under age 18 at the time of their alleged crimes. In the last five years, Yemen has executed at least 15 young men and women who said they were under 18 at the time of their offense.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Juveniles, Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages "انظروا إلينا بعين الرحمة" الأحداث على ذمة الإعدام في اليمن
Document(s)
Human Rights and the Death Penalty
By The Advocates for Human Rights, on 1 January 2012
2012
Campaigning
More details See the document
Four-page introduction to the status of the death penalty in international human rights law and the global trend abolition.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list International law, Trend Towards Abolition,
Document(s)
Take action on the death penalty
By The Advocates for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020
2020
Campaigning
More details See the document
Two-page guide with tips and contacts for individuals interested in getting started in anti-death penalty activism in the US.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Public opinion,
Document(s)
Sentenced to oblivion. Fact-finding mission on death row. Cameroon
By Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) / Nestor Toko / Carole Berrih, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
frMore details See the document
The report “Sentenced to oblivion. Fact-finding mission on death row. Cameroon”, which was officially launched on 21 June at the Delegation of the European Union from Yaoundé to Cameroon, is the result of an unprecedented fact-finding mission, conducted from May to October 2018 in five Cameroonian prisons by the Cameroonian Lawyers’ Network against the Death Penalty (Racopem) and the association ECPM (Ensemble contre la peine de mort).
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Death Row Conditions, Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages Condamnés à l'oubli. Mission d'enquête dans les couloirs de la mort. Cameroun
Document(s)
The Juvenile Death Penalty Today: Death Sentences and Executions for Juvenile Crimes, January 1, 1973 – February 28, 2005
By Victor Streib / Ohio Northern University, on 8 September 2020
Article
United States
More details See the document
This is Issue #77, the final issue of these periodic reports, having first been launched on June 15, 1984. On that date, the death penalty for juvenile offenders (defined as those under age 18 at the time of their crimes) was an obscure issue in law as well as in political and social arenas. During the last twenty-one years, these reports have been with us (1) through the intense litigation of the late 1980s, (2) through our society’s near hysteria about violent juvenile crime in the 1990s, (3) into the era of the international pressure on the United States to abandon this practice, and (4) now at the end of this practice. The validity and influence of these reports is indicated by thecitations to them in the opinions of leading courts, including the United States Supreme Court: Roper v. Simmons, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 1192, 1193, 1210, 1211, 1221 (2005); In re Stanford, 537 U.S. 968, 971 (2002); and Stanford v. Kentucky, 492 U.S. 361, 373 (1989). In the litigation leading up to the final juvenile death penalty case before the United States Supreme Court (Roper v. Simmons, 125 S.Ct. 1183 (2005)), the Missouri Supreme Court majority opinion included 12 citations to these reports: See Simmons v. Roper, 112 S.W.3d 397, 408, 409, 411 (Mo. 2003). This final issue of this periodic report is intended to document the status of the death penalty for juvenile offenders as ofthe day before the United States Supreme Court held this practice to be unconstitutional. These reports sketch the characteristics of the juvenile offenders and their crimes who have been sentenced to death, who have been executed, and who are currently under death sentences. —- See bottom left hand corner of web page.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Juveniles,
Document(s)
Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition
By David Garland / Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, on 8 September 2020
Book
United States
More details See the document
This book offers a fresh perspective on why the death penalty endures in the United States when so many other countries in the Western world have already abolished it. The book seeks to understand the persistence of the death penalty in the U.S. as a social fact, using sociological, historical and legal analyses to explain the unique and peculiar manner in which the death penalty is applied. Garland concludes that the death penalty has survived in the United States because it is deeply connected to the fundamentally American institutions of local autonomy and popular democracy.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Death Penalty: The Political Foundations of the Global Trend Towards Abolition
By Eric Neumayer / Human Rights Review, on 1 January 2008
2008
Article
More details See the document
The death penalty is like no other punishment. Its continued existence in many countries of the world creates political tensions within these countries and between governments of retentionist and abolitionist countries. After the Second World War, more and more countries have abolished the death penalty. This article argues that the major determinants of this global trend towards abolition are political, a claim which receives support in a quantitative cross-national analysis from 1950 to 2002. Democracy, democratisation, international political pressure on retentionist countries and peer group effects in relatively abolitionist regions all raise the likelihood of abolition. There is also a partisan effect, as abolition becomes more likely if the chief executive’s party is left wing-oriented. Cultural, social and economic determinants receive only limited support. The global trend towards abolition will go on if democracy continues to spread around the world and abolitionist countries stand by their commitment to press for abolition all over the world.
- Document type Article
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
Document(s)
The death penalty wordwide: developments in 2004
By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2005
2005
NGO report
fresMore details See the document
This document covers significant events concerning the death penalty during the year 2004. Five countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes, bringing to 84 the number of totally abolitionist countries at year end. Scores of death sentences were commuted in Malawi and Zambia, and moratoria or suspensions of executions were being observed in several other countries. Other subjects covered in this document include significant judicial decisions; the use of the death penalty against the innocent; resumptions of executions; and campaigning activities to promote abolition.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Statistics,
- Available languages La peine de mort dans le monde: évolution en 2004La pena de muerte en el mundo: noticias del año 2004
Document(s)
Death sentences and executions in 2010
By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2011
2011
NGO report
fresMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Death penalty developments in 2005
By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2006
2006
NGO report
fresMore details See the document
This document covers significant events concerning the death penalty during the year 2005. Two countries abolished the death penalty for all crimes, bringing to 86 the number of totally abolitionist countries at year end. Moratoria or suspensions of executions were being observed in several countries. At least 2,148 people were executed in 22 countries, and at least 5,186 were sentenced to death in 53 countries. Eight child offenders were executed in Iran. Other sections include significant judicial decisions; the use of the death penalty against child offenders and resumptions of executions.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Statistics,
- Available languages La peine de mort dans le monde : évolution en 2005LA PENA DE MUERTE EN EL MUNDO: NOTICIAS DEL AÑO 2005
Document(s)
West Africa: Time to abolish the death penalty
By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2003
2003
NGO report
frMore details See the document
This doument summarizes each of the 16 ECOWAS countries’ legislation on the death penalty, provides information on the most recent executions and convictions and notes the view currently taken by the governments concerned. Two thirds have already abolished the death penalty
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Statistics,
- Available languages AFRIQUE DE L’OUEST : Il est temps d’abolir la peine de mort
Document(s)
A Penalty Without Legitimacy: The Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad and Tobago
By Douglas Mendes / Florence Seemungal / Jeffrey Fagan / Roger Hood / The Death Penalty Project, on 1 January 2009
2009
NGO report
More details See the document
As a result of legal challenges, and in line with the trend worldwide, the mandatory death penalty has now been abolished in nine Caribbean countries and a discretion to impose a lesser sentence has been given to the judges of the Eastern Caribbean, Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas. However, in relation to Trinidad & Tobago, in the case of Charles Matthew (Matthew v The State [2005] 1 AC 433), a majority of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decided – notwithstanding that the mandatory death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of entrenched fundamental freedoms and human rights established in the Constitution of Trinidad & Tobago – that it remained protected from constitutional challenge by the operation of the “savings clause” in the Constitution. As a result, Trinidad & Tobago remains one of only three Commonwealth Caribbean countries (Barbados and Guyana being the other two) that still retains the mandatory death penalty.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Mandatory Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Report of the Secretary-General (2008)
By United Nations, on 8 September 2020
2020
United Nations report
arruzh-hantesfrMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Capital punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty: Report of the Secretary-General
By United Nations, on 1 January 2005
2005
United Nations report
arruesfrzh-hantMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
The question of the death penalty: Report of the Secretary-General
By United Nations, on 1 January 2006
2006
International law - United Nations
arrufrzh-hantesMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America’s Future
By Bruce Shapiro / Rev. Jesse L. Jackson / Anchor , on 8 September 2020
2020
Book
United States
More details See the document
In this collaborative work, the Jacksons, father (former presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow Coalition) and son (a congressional representative) with Salon.com editor Shapiro, pursue a nationwide conversation on the issues surrounding the death penalty one that begins with the proposal of a moratorium and could lead to the eventual cessation of capital punishment. This book describes a bureaucratic nightmare involving defense lawyers asleep at trial, vengeance-hungry politicos and a problematic, imperfect justice system in which the handing out of death sentences is skewed, both racially and economically. An objective examination of this penal system would be beneficial to all, say the authors: since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976, one in every eight prisoners on death row has been found innocent and released. There are undoubtedly cases, the authors argue, where the proof of innocence didn’t see the light of day in time. Navigating the historical precedents of the death penalty and the reasons why federally mandated executions were restored following a 10-year moratorium imposed in 1967, the authors thoroughly detail legitimate questions regarding what they view as erroneous deterrence theories, scriptural misrepresentation and simple vengeance.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Portuguese : A PENA DE MORTE NA LEGISLAÇÃO CRIMINAL COMUM DO BRASIL -O CASO MOTTACOQUEIRO E SUA REPERCUSSÃO
By SÉRGIO DA COSTA FRANCO, on 8 September 2020
Article
Brazil
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
When Justice Fails: Thousands executed in Asia after unfair trials
By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 1 January 2011
2011
NGO report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Roper and Race: the Nature and Effects of Death Penalty Exclusions for Juveniles and the “Late Adolescent Class”
By Craig Haney, Frank R. Baumgartner and Karen Steele, on 20 October 2022
2022
Academic report
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
Death penalty in Iran: A State terror policy – Special Update for 11th World Day against the Death Penalty
By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), on 8 September 2020
2020
NGO report
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
faMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind
By Robert Renny Cushing / Susannah Sheffer / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 1 January 2005
2005
NGO report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
State-sponsored Homophobia: A world survey of laws prohibiting same sex activity between consenting adults
By Daniel Ottosson / International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), on 1 January 2010
2010
NGO report
enfresMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Fact Finding Report of LFHRI of the Sentencing of 17 Indians to Death by the Shariat Court of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
By Lawyers for Human Rights International, on 1 January 2010
Legal Representation
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Ghosts of Executions Past: A Case Study of Executions in South Carolina in the Pre-Furman Era
By John H. Blume, Samuel F. Leibowitz, on 1 September 2022
2022
Academic report
Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
MVFHR 飄洋過海來看你:看見被害人 20100704 台北信義誠品
By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights / YouTube, on 1 January 2011
2011
Working with...
enMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Children of parents sentenced to death or executed: How are they affected? How can they be supported?
By Child Rights Connect , on 8 September 2020
2020
Arguments against the death penalty
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Spectacle of the Scaffold? The Politics of Death Penalty in Indonesia
By Deasy Simandjuntak, on 1 January 2015
2015
Article
Indonesia
More details See the document
Simandjuntak’s article comes back to the death sentences part of the “war against drugs” conducted by President Widjojo in Indonesia. In 2015, 14 drug convicts – mostly foreign nationals – have been executed. The article also comes back to the wide support to the death penalty in the country, on the debate on the presumed deterrent effect of the death penalty and on the political function of the capital punishment in Indonesia.
- Document type Article
- Countries list Indonesia
- Themes list Public opinion, Deterrence , Drug Offences, Foreign Nationals, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Earl Washington’s Ordeal
By Eric M. Freedman / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
PROBING “LIFE QUALIFICATION” THROUGH EXPANDED VOIR DIRE
By John H. Blume / Sheri Lynn Johnson / Brian Threlkeld / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
JURY INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING DEADLOCK IN CAPITAL SENTENCING
By Laurie B. Berberich / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Mandatory Justice: Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty
By The Constitution Project, on 1 January 2001
NGO report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
The Needs of the Wrongfully Convicted: A Report on a Panel Discussion
By Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority's Research & Analysis Unit / Northwestern University School of Law, on 1 January 2002
2002
Working with...
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
A New Profession for an Old Need: Why a Mitigation Specialist Must be Included on the Capital Defense Team
By Pamela Blume Leonard / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003
2003
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
International Law Issues in Death Penalty Defense
By Richard J. Wilson / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Why an Independent Appointed Authority Is Necessary to Choose Counsel for Indigent People in Capital Punishment Cases
By Ronald J. Tabak / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
The Guiding Hand of Counsel’ and the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases
By Robin M. Maher / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Congressional Power to Require DNA Testing
By Larry Yackle / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Errors and Ethics: Dilemmas in Death
By Penny J. White / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 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)
The Professional Obligation to Raise Frivolous Issues in Death Penalty Cases
By Monroe H. Freedman / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003
2003
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Making the Last Chance Meaningful: Predecessor Counsel’s Ethical Duty to the Capital Defendant
By Lawrence J. Fox / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
The Innocence Protection Act of 2001
By Senator Patrick Leahy / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Public Opinion on the Death Penalty in China: Results from a General Population Survey Conducted in Three Provinces in 2007/08
By Shenghui Qi / Dietrich Oberwittler / Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, on 1 January 2008
2008
Article
China
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Capital Punishment Briefing Paper
By Peter Hodgkinson / Lina Gyllensten / Diana Peel / Center for Capital Punishment Studies, on 1 January 2011
2011
NGO report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Italian : Famiglie Delle Vittime Di Omicidio Per I Diritti Umani
By Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020
2020
Academic report
United States
esfrenenMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Murder Victims Families for Human Rights Brochure
By Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
esfrenenMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe Mental Illness
By Susannah Sheffer / National Alliance on Mental Illness / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 1 January 2009
2009
NGO report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Justice Denied : A Global Study of Wrongful Death Row Convictions January 2018
By Sandra Babcock / Cornell Law School / Madalyn Wasilczuk and Sharon Pia Hickey / Delphine Lourtau / Katie Campbell / Julie Bloch, on 1 January 2018
2018
Academic report
frMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Judged for More than Her Crime: a Global Overview of Women Facing the Death Penalty
By Cornwell Death Penalty Project / Delphine Lourtau, on 1 January 2018
NGO report
frMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
THE JURY IN THE TWENTY – FIRST CENTURY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE
By William J. Bowers / Ursula Bentele / Brooklyn Law Review, on 8 September 2020
2020
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Dignity Denied: The Experience of Murder Victims’ Family Members Who Oppose the Death Penalty
By Robert Renny Cushing / Susannah Sheffer / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty in the Inter-American Human Rights System: From Restrictions to Abolition
By Organization of American States / Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, on 1 January 2012
2012
International law - Regional body
esMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa: A Human Rights Perspective
By Lilian Chenwi / Pretoria University Law Press, on 1 January 2007
2007
Book
More details See the document
In “Towards the abolition of the death penalty in Africa – a human rights perspective”, the author shows that international law increasingly recognises that the imposition and execution of the death penalty constitute violations of human rights. The author locates an emerging international trend towards the abolition of capital punishment in the African context. In doing so, she provides a particular African perspective on the issue. In this rich and informative text, she reflects on the role and impact of relevant UN instruments on African states, and analyses related African regional instruments, domestic law and case-law.
- Document type Book
Document(s)
REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN JAMAICA
By IACHR , on 1 January 2013
2013
NGO report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Preventing the Execution of the Innocent: Testimony Before the House Judiciary Committee.
By Peter Neufeld / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty in 2010: Year End Reports
By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2010
2010
NGO report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2022
By Iran Human Rights & ECPM, on 13 April 2023
2023
NGO report
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
frMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Seven Winters in Teheran
By Steffi Niederzoll, on 24 March 2023
2023
Multimedia content
Gender
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Women
frMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Q&A: The Death Penalty and Drug Offenses
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020
2020
Academic report
frMore details Download [ pdf - 143 Ko ]
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
Document(s)
The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective
By Roger Hood / Carolyn Hoyle / Oxford University Press, on 1 January 2014
2014
Book
More details See the document
The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective by Roger Hood and Carolyn Hoyle is the Fourth Edition of a text that highlights the latest developments in the death penalty around the world. Roger Hood utilizes his experience as a consultant to the United Nations’ annual survey of capital punishment in compiling a wide range of information from non-governmental organizations and academic literature. The book explores both the advances in legal challenges to the death penalty and the reduction in executions, while noting the continued existence of human rights abuses. Problems include unfair trails, police abuse, painful forms of execution, and excessive periods of time spent in inhumane conditions on death row. The authors explore the latest issues related to capital punishment such as deterrence, arbitrariness, and what influence victims’ families should have in sentencing.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty
By Death Penalty Information Center, on 14 October 2022
2022
Article
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
Behind the Curtain: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States
By Death Penalty Information Center, on 20 November 2018
2018
NGO report
Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment
Death Row Conditions
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
New Research Finds That Historical News Coverage Reduced Executed Black Men to “Faceless, Interchangeable Public Safety Hazards” While Executed White Men Were Portrayed As “Tragic Heroes”
By The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), on 24 January 2024
2024
Article
Public Opinion
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
Issues and recommendations to raise with the government of Malawi
By Reprieve, Sant'egidio, WCADP, on 27 May 2021
2021
NGO report
Malawi
More details Download [ pdf - 265 Ko ]
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
Document(s)
The DPIC Death Penalty Census
By Death Penalty Information Center, on 20 July 2022
2022
NGO report
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
The Fear of Too Much Justice : Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts
By Stephen B. Bright, James Kwak , on 21 April 2023
2023
Book
Fair Trial
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
Reducing Facial Stereotype Bias in Consequential Social Judgments: Intervention Success With White Male Faces
By Youngki Hong, Kao-Wei Chua, & Jonathan B. Freeman, Columbia University, on 25 January 2024
2024
Article
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
By United Nations, on 1 January 1948
1948
United Nations report
arrufrzh-hantesMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty
By United Nations, on 1 January 1989
1989
United Nations report
arrufrzh-hantesMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Convention on the Rights of the Child
By United Nations, on 1 January 1989
United Nations report
arrufrzh-hantesMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
Resource Guide for Managing Capital Cases
By Molly Treadway Johnson / Federal Judicial Center / Laural L. Hooper, on 1 January 2004
2004
Working with...
More details See the document
The purpose of this resource guide is to provide judges who are assigned capital cases with information about how other judges have handled these cases and an idea of what to expect as the case proceeds. The guide does not prescribe how such cases should be handled, and any examples of case-management approaches discussed should be considered illustrative.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on a gender-sensitive approach to arbitrary killings
By United Nations, on 8 September 2020
2020
International law - United Nations
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
The politics of capital punishment for foreign nationals in Iran
By Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU), University of Oxford, on 5 February 2024
2024
Academic Article
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
More details See the document
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)
Document(s)
Strengthening death penalty standards
By Penal Reform International, on 1 January 2015
2015
NGO report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Death penalty – Beyond abolition
By Council of Europe / Hugo Adam Bedau / Peter Hodgkinson / Roger Hood / Robert Badinter / Michel Forst / Anne Ferrazzini / Eric Prokosch / H.C Krüger / C. Ravaud / Sir Nigel Rodley / Renate Wohlwend / Yoshihiro Yasuda / Anatoly Pristavkin, on 8 September 2020
2020
Book
France
frMore details See the document
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
Document(s)
The Dark At the Top of the Stairs: Four Destructive Influences of Capital Punishment on American Criminal Justice
By David T. Johnson / Franklin Zimring / Social Science Research Network , on 1 January 2011
2011
Academic report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Handbook of Forensic Psychiatric Practice in Capital Cases
By The Death Penalty Project / Nick Green / Nigel Eastman / Richard Latham / Marc Lyall, on 1 January 2018
2018
Working with...
More details See the document
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,
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)
Discrimination and Instructional Comprehension: Guided Discretion, Racial Bias, and the Death Penalty
By Craig Haney / Mona Lynch / Law and Human Behavior, on 1 January 2000
2000
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
The Truth About False Confessions and Advocacy Scholarship
By Richard A. Leo / Criminal Law Bulletin, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Annual Report on Human Rights 2009
By United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office, on 1 January 2010
2010
Government body report
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Opting for Real Death Penalty Reform
By James S. Liebman / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002
2002
Article
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2022: The Year in Review
By Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, on 16 December 2022
2022
NGO report
United States
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
Death Qualification
By Capital Punishment in Context, on 8 September 2020
2020
Working with...
More details See the document
This document describes who is elgible for Death Qualification, Jury Selection, and what death qualification entails.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
PAKISTAN: The State of Human Rights in 2011
By Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) / Asian Human Rights Commission, on 1 January 2011
2011
NGO report
More details See the document
The government’s ineptness to stop the religious and sectarian intolerance has strengthened the banned militant religious groups to organize and collect their funds in the streets and hold big rallies. This ineptness of the government has helped the forced conversion to Islam of girls from religious minority groups. In total thorough out the country during the year 1800 women from Hindu and Christian groups were forced to convert to Islam by different methods particularly though abduction and rape.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Arbitrariness, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper 2022
By Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, on 7 October 2022
2022
Regional body report
More details See the document
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
Document(s)
Death Penalty Can Prolong the Suffering of a Vicitm’s Family
By Death Penalty Focus, on 8 September 2020
2020
Academic report
United States
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Death Penalty Laws in states
By Capital Punishment in Context, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Clemency Procedures in Death Penalty States
By Capital Punishment in Context, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Overview of the Capital Trial Process
By Capital Punishment in Context, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
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,
Document(s)
Capital Punishment in Context
By Death Penalty Information Center, on 8 September 2020
Campaigning
More details See the document
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,