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Document(s)
No death penalty: Essay on the human dignity of the guilty
By Alfredo De Francesco , on 11 January 2022
2022
Book
More details See the document
Is the death penalty “natural” or sometimes legally due?
If not, is the death penalty always a political instrument?
If so, how and why can it be said that the death penalty is unjust, also considering religious values?
What about in case of war time or of very dangerous criminals?
In which way can there be an irrefutable argument for banning the death penalty worldwide and forever?
These and other issues concerning the death penalty are addressed by the Author of this book.
A book, where the most common theories for and against the death penalty are considered in the light of law history and philosophical views, and where Cesare Beccaria’s approach is revised, taking into account the development of the contemporary criminal law and of the legal positivism.
This is an essay, where the protection of humanity is not considered simply as a hope or as a naive dream, but rather as a juridical concept, absolutely necessary to understand one of most tragic questions of all time: “is it just to kill those who killed?”
- Document type Book
Document(s)
Death Penalty and the Indian Supreme Court (2007-2021)
By Project 39A, on 8 December 2022
2022
NGO report
India
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Death Penalty and the Indian Supreme Court (2007-2021) maps the important trends and developments in the Supreme Court’s death penalty jurisprudence. These past 15 years have witnessed significant developments in the law on capital sentencing, post-mercy jurisprudence, and other procedural developments pertaining to the administration of the death penalty. Imagined as an intellectual successor of PUCL and Amnesty International’s doctrinal study of the Supreme Court’s death penalty cases between 1950 to 2006, in ‘Lethal Lottery: The Death Penalty in India’, this report highlights the sustained inconsistency and judge-centric reasoning in capital cases, with particular emphasis on the problem of arbitrariness in approaches to capital sentencing at the Supreme Court.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list India
Document(s)
Silently Silenced: State-Sanctioned Killing of Women
By Eleos Justice, Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide , on 30 March 2023
2023
Academic report
Women
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Silently Silenced: State-Sanctioned Killing of Women examines States’ involvement in ‘feminicide’. Feminicide is understood as the gender-motivated killing of women and girls that States actively engage in, condone, excuse, or fail to prevent. We use the term ‘feminicide’ to refer to the various forms of State-sanctioned killing of women and girls. In this report, we outline States’ direct involvement and complicity in the killings of women and girls and explain these deaths as a product of gendered forms of structural violence upheld and sustained by the State. We examine 3 types of feminicide: gender- related killings of women directly perpetrated by the State, such as the death penalty and extrajudicial killings; gender-related killings of women committed by non-State actors that are excused or condoned by the State; and gender-related killings of women that the State failed to prevent.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Women
Document(s)
Co-Sponsorship, Note Verbale, and Association Behaviour at the Unga: An Analysis of the Death Penalty Moratorium Resolutions
By Daniel Pascoe & Sangmin Bae, on 22 April 2021
2021
Academic report
Moratorium
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Since December 2007, seven resolutions in favour of a universal moratorium on death penalty executions have been adopted by the UN General Assembly. In an earlier paper (Pascoe and Bae 2020) we examined UN member states’ voting patterns over these seven resolutions, asking why some countries vote in a manner seemingly contradictory to their domestic death penalty practices. With a slightly different focus, we now further explore idiosyncratic state behaviour, this time through an analysis of co-sponsorship and the note verbale of dissociation. Our assumption is that states which plan to vote ‘yes’ in the plenary will also co-sponsor the resolution beforehand. We also presume that states which vote ‘no’ in the plenary will sign the note verbale invariably circulated several months later, as a further means of condemnation.
However, when it comes to the moratorium resolutions, not all member states fit into either of these binary categories. Many countries situate themselves in between the two groups of ‘genuine’ supporters and opponents. These countries in the middle evince inconsistency between their plenary votes and what we term their ‘association behaviour’ before or after the plenary, consisting of co-sponsorship and adherence to the note verbale. This paper analyses these groups of countries to determine the underlying causes for their ambivalent, or even contradictory, positions concerning the moratorium resolutions. The findings of this research stand to enrich not only the academic literature on international organizations, but also to inform the campaigning efforts of abolitionist UN member states and non-governmental organizations.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Moratorium
Document(s)
Death Sentencing Database
By Brandon L. Garrett / End of its Rope, on 1 January 2018
2018
Working with...
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This resource website displays data concerning death sentencing in the United States from 1990 to present. Research using these data includes a book, “End of its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice” published by Harvard University Press in Fall 2017. This research was conducted by Professor Brandon L. Garrett with the support of the University of Virginia School of Law.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Death Penalty, Statistics,
Document(s)
Searching for Uniformity in Adjudication of the Accused’s Competence to Assist and Consult in Capital Cases
By John T. Philipsborn / Psychology, Public Policy and Law, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
United States
More details See the document
Based on the review of capital cases from various jurisdictions involoving issues of competence to stand trial, this article examines the standards, literature, and varying practices associated with competence assessments and adjudications. The author, who is an experienced criminal defense lawyer with capital trial and postconviction litigation experiece, examines the implications of disparities in the approaches and definitions used in dealing with competence assessments and suggests solutions to improve the standards of practice related to these important assessments.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Staying Alive: Executive Clemency, Equal Protection, and the Politics of Gender in Women’s Capital Cases
By Elizabeth Rapaport / Buffalo Criminal Law Review, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
In this Article, I will review the matrix in which executive decisions in women’s capital clemency cases are made, a matrix supplied by modern equal protection law, the nature and scope of the clemency power, gender politics, and contemporary death row. I will then conduct two thought experiments. Each invented case tests the relevance of gender in legally and politically acceptable contemporary clemency decisions. The goal is to understand the politics and law of granting or denying that very rare boon-commutation of sentence – to a female death row prisoner. The exercise offers support for two conclusions. In the age of formal equality, women cannot be granted clemency simply because they are women. The rhetoric of chivalry is untenable for the contemporary executive. A governor who is courageous and rhetorically skillful, however, can sometimes successfully defend the commutation of the death sentence of a woman as a proper use of the power to grant mercy, done for her sake, the class she exemplifies, the conscience of the governor, and the public.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Women, Clemency,
Document(s)
Contradictions in Judicial Support for Capital Punishment in India and Bangladesh: Utilitarian Rationales
By Saul Lehrfreund / Carolyn Hoyle / Asian Journal of Criminology, on 1 January 2019
2019
Article
Bangladesh
More details See the document
This article draws on two original empirical research projects that explored judges’ opinions on the retention and administration of capital punishment in India and Bangladesh. The data expose justice systems marred by corruption, incompetence, abuses of due process, and arbitrary and inconsistent treatment of defendants from arrest through to conviction and sentencing. It shows that those with the power to sentence to death have little faith in the integrity of the criminal process. Yet, a startling paradox emerges from these studies; despite personal knowledge of its flaws, judges have trust in the death penalty to deter crime and to realise other sentencing aims and feel retention benefits society. This is explained by reference to utilitarian values. Not only did our judges express strongly utilitarian justifications for sentencing people to death, in terms of their erroneous belief in its deterrent effect, but some also articulated utilitarian justifications for misconduct in pre-trial processes, suggesting that it was necessary to break the rules to secure convictions when the system was dysfunctional and ineffective.
- Document type Article
- Countries list Bangladesh
- Themes list Arbitrariness, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2016: The Year in Review
By Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2016
2016
NGO report
More details See the document
TCADP reviews the death penalty situation in Texas in 2016: The State of Texas executed seven people in 2016, the lowest number of executions in two decades. Seven other individuals with execution dates received reprieves from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. It was only the second time since the resumption of executions in 1982 that no African-Americans were put to death in Texas.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Discrimination, Intellectual Disability, Death Penalty, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Capital punishment and American culture
By David Garland / Punishment & Society 7, 347-376, on 1 January 2005
2005
Article
United States
More details See the document
This is an essay about capital punishment and American culture. Its point of departure is the recent publication of several books and articles suggesting that the USA’s retention of the death penalty is an expansion of an underlying cultural tradition that creats an elective affinity between American society and the execution of criminal offenders. The implicit – and sometimes explicit claim – of this new literature is that today’s capital punishment system is an insurance of ‘American exceptionalism’, an expression of a deep and abiding condition that has shaped the American nation from its formative years to the present.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
The death penalty and society in contemporary China
By Wang Yunhai / Punishment ans Society 10(2), 137-151, on 1 January 2008
2008
Article
China
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Why are death penalty provisions, convictions and executions so prevalent in China? This article aims to answer this question by way of defining China as a ‘state power’ based society characterized by a socialist social system. The prevalence of the death penalty in China can be explained in terms of the following factors: first, the death penalty is a political issue of state power; second, the death penalty is a crucial part of criminal policy in a ‘state power’-based society; third, the issue of whether to retain the death penalty is a political rather than a legal matter. The Chinese government has improved its death penalty system in recent years; however, the situation has not fundamentally changed. The future of death penalty policy and practice in China will depend primarily on legal rather than democratic developments. The death penalty serves as a focal point that can help illuminate issues of punishment and society in East Asia. Accordingly, this article will elaborate my theories regarding the death penalty in contemporary China, with the primary intent of elucidating the relationship between punishment and society in China.
- Document type Article
- Countries list China
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law
By William A. Schabas / Cambridge University Press, on 1 January 2002
2002
Book
More details See the document
This extensively revised third edition covers developments since publication of the second edition in 1997. It includes consideration of the UN human rights system, international humanitarian law, European human rights law and Inter-American human rights law. New chapters address capital punishment in African human rights law and international criminal law. An extensive list of appendices contains many of the essential documents for the study of capital punishment in international law.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Rethinking the Study of Miscarriages of Justice: Developing a Criminology of Wrongful Conviction
By Richard A. Leo / Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2005
2005
Article
United States
More details See the document
This article provides a brief history of the study of miscarriages of justice in America. It analyzes the field of wrongful conviction scholarship as three distinct genres: the big-picture studies, the specialized-causes literature, and the true-crime genre. It also analyzes what these literatures have contributed to knowledge about miscarriages as well as their limitations. This article attempts to rethink the study of miscarriages of justice to systematically develop a more sophisticated, insightful, and generalizable criminology of wrongful conviction.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Failings of the Supreme Court, Human Sacrifice, Sentencing and the Death Penalty
By Anup Surendranath / Economic and Political Weekly, on 1 January 2020
2020
Article
India
More details See the document
In the judicial discourse on the relationship between human sacrifice and punishment in criminal law, there are glaring errors. Looking closely at the Supreme Court’s judgment in Ishwari Lal Yadav v State of Chhattisgarh, the deviation from the principle of individualised sentencing and the consequences of ignoring evidence on the complex anthropological and psychological dimensions of human sacrifice are reflected upon.
- Document type Article
- Countries list India
- Themes list Hanging,
Document(s)
Just Mercy film discussion – Florida International University College of Law (Webinar)
By Fiona Kidman, on 8 September 2020
2020
Multimedia content
United States
More details Download [ pdf - 232 Ko ]
Just Mercy film discussion and reflections on racism in the US criminal justice system, scheduled on 22 July 2020.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Fair Trial, Death Penalty,
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)
Race for Your Life: An Analysis of the Role of Race in Erroneous Capital Conviction
By Talia Roitberg Harmon / Criminal Justice Review, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
United States
More details See the document
Prior research on the role of race in wrongful capital convictions has focused primarily on the race of the defendant. In contrast, this article begins with two case studies that illustrate the impact of the race of the defendant and also the race of the victim in contributing to erroneous convictions. The second section of this article identifies the race of the defendant and the victim in 82 cases where prisoners were released from death row because of doubts about their guilt and in a matched group of inmates who were executed. Through the use of three logistic regression models, the combination of the race of the defendant and the race of the victim is identified as a significant predictor of case outcome (exoneration vs. execution). The results also indicate that an indirect relationship may exist between the combination of the race of the defendant and the victim, the strength of the evidence, and case outcome.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence, Discrimination,
Document(s)
Trial by fire
By Edward Zwick, on 1 January 2019
2019
Multimedia content
United States
More details See the document
Trial by Fire is the true-life Texas story of the unlikely bond between an imprisoned death row inmate (Jack O’Connell) and a mother of two from Houston (Laura Dern) who, though facing staggering odds, fights mightily for his freedom. Cameron Todd Willingham, a poor, uneducated heavy metal devotee with a violent streak and a criminal record, is convicted of arson-related triple homicide in 1992. During his 12 years on death row, Elizabeth Gilbert, an improbable ally, uncovers questionable methods and illogical conclusions in his case, and battles with the state to expose suppressed evidence that could save him.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
: Waiting for capital punishment
By Sadegh Souri, on 8 September 2020
2020
Academic report
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
More details See the document
According to Iranian law, the age when girls are held accountable for criminal punishment is nine years old, while international conventions have banned the death penalty for persons under 18. In Iran, the death penalty for children is used for crimes such as murder, drug trafficking, and armed robbery.Pursuant to the passing of new laws in recent years, the Iranian Judiciary System detains children in Juvenile Delinquents Correction Centers after their death sentence verdict, and a large number of them are hanged upon reaching age 18.
- Document type Academic report
- Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
- Themes list Juveniles, Women, Death Row Conditions,
Document(s)
Is Public Opinion a Justifiable Reason Not to Abolish the Death Penalty? A Comparative Analysis of Surveys of Eight Countries
By Roger Hood / Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, on 1 January 2018
2018
Article
More details See the document
Roger Hood, “Is Public Opinion a Justifiable Reason Not to Abolish the Death Penalty? A Comparative Analysis of Surveys of Eight Countries”, 23 Berkeley J. Crim. L. 218 (2018)
- Document type Article
- Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
GUILTY. THE FINAL 72 HOURS OF BALI-9’S MYURAN SUKUMARAN
By Madman Films / Matthew Sleeth / Maggie Miles / Matthew Bate, on 8 September 2020
2020
Multimedia content
Indonesia
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The final 72-hours in the life of Myuran Sukumaran, the Bali-9 convicted criminal who became an accomplished artist while in Kerobokan prison under the tutorship of artist Ben Quilty. Myuran was executed by Indonesian firing squad on Nusakambangan Island, 29 April 2015 alongside fellow Australian Andrew Chan and six others. Dramatic and archival material takes us into the final three days of Myuran Sukumaran’s life, as he farewells his family and creates his final paintings.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list Indonesia
- Themes list Foreign Nationals, Firing Squad,
Document(s)
The Future of the Federal Death Penalty
By Rory K. Little / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 1 January 2000
2000
Article
United States
More details See the document
On May 16, 2001, the federal government carried out its first execution for a criminal offense in over 38 years (Timothy McVeigh). This article (part of a symposium issue) examines recent developments in the administration of the federal death penalty, in the legislative, judicial, and executive (Department of Justice) arenas. While not an abolitionist, the author expresses misgivings about federal capital punishment as it is currently administered, updating statistics regarding racial and geographic disparity from his 1999 article “The Federal Death Penalty: History and Some Thoughts About the Department of Justice’s Role,”. The article also explains “What the Supreme Court Got Wrong in Jones,” (1999). Finally, the international implications of the first execution by the federal government in two generations are explored. No longer can the United States shift its internationally isolated position regarding capital punishment onto its constituent states under a theory of independent federalism. Note: This is a description of the paper and not the actual abstract.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
The death penalty in Africa
By Dirk van Zyl Smit / African Human Rights Law Journal, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
More details See the document
This article examines the situation of the death penalty in Africa. It does so byaddressing three main questions: First, to what extent is the death penalty inAfrica in fact an issue about which one should be particularly concerned?Second, what are the restrictions on the death penalty in Africa? Third, whatis to be done to strengthen the restrictions on the death penalty in Africa? Inaddition, the article examines the question whether article 4 of the AfricanCharter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its related provisions will inspirethe abolition of the death penalty. It is suggested that challenging mandatorydeath sentences, advancing procedural challenges, open debate onalternatives to the death penalty, and improving the national criminaljustice system will strengthen restrictions on the death penalty in Africa. Thearticle concludes that positive criminal justice reform rather than moralisticcondemnation is the most effective route to the eventual abolition of thedeath penalty in Africa.
- Document type Article
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Film: “The Execution of Wanda Jean”
By Liz Garbus / New Video Group, on 8 September 2020
2020
Academic report
United States
More details See the document
In THE EXECUTION OF WANDA JEAN, award-winning filmmaker Liz Garbus continues her investigations into the American criminal justice system with the compelling story of convicted murderess Wanda Jean Allen
- Document type Academic report
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,
Document(s)
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: An Analysis of Post-Furman Capital Errors
By Talia Roitberg Harmon / Criminal Justice Policy Review, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
The issue of erroneous convictions in capital cases has recently gained considerable nationwide media attention. This article builds on prior research by examining 76 cases of inmates who were released from death rows between 1970 and 1998 because of doubts about their guilt. By using sources, or persons who have extensive insider knowledge about these cases, as well as published court opinions, it was possible to identify the causes of the wrongful convictions as well as the significant events that led to the discovery of the miscarriages of justice. The data indicate that prosecutorial misconduct, perjury of witnesses, police misconduct, and racial discrimination were influential factors that led to the wrongful convictions. In addition, continued investigation by the defense attorney, new witnesses coming forward, and/or a confession from another person were the factors most often leading to the discovery of errors. These findings suggest that there have not been any significant changes in causes of erroneous convictions since the implementation of contemporary safeguards. As a result, policy changes are suggested to decrease the chances of erroneous executions.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Exonerations in the United States 1989 Through 2003
By Daniel J. Matheson / Kristin Jacoby / Samuel R. Gross / Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology / Nicholas Montgomery / Sujata Patil, on 1 January 2005
2005
Article
United States
More details See the document
In this paper we use reported exonerations as a window on false convictions generally. We can’t come close to estimating the number of false convictions that occur in the United States, but the accumulating mass of exonerations gives us a glimpse of what we’re missing. We located 340 individual exonerations from 1989 through 2003, not counting at least 135 innocent defendants in at least two mass exonerations, and not counting more than 70 defendants convicted in a series of childcare sex abuse prosecutions, most of whom were probably innocent. Almost all the individual exonerations that we know about are clustered in the two most serious common felonies: rape and murder. They are surrounded by widening circles of categories of cases that include false convictions that are rarely detected, if ever: rape convictions that have not been reexamined with DNA evidence; robberies, for which DNA identification is useless; murder cases that are ignored because the defendants were not sentenced to death; assault and drug convictions that are forgotten entirely; misdemeanor convictions that aren’t even part of the picture. Judging from our data, any plausible guess at the total number of miscarriages of justice in America in the last fifteen years must run to the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, in felony cases alone. We can, however, see some clear patterns in those false convictions that have come to light.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Imposing a Cap on Capital Punishment
By Adam M. Gershowitz / Missouri Law Review 72(1), 73-124., on 1 January 2007
2007
Article
United States
More details See the document
This article argues that because prosecutors have discretion to seek the death penalty in too many cases, they lack the incentive to police themselvesand choose carefully. Put simply, because there are few legal constraints — and virtually no political constraints — on the sheer number of cases in which prosecutors can pursue the death penalty, the Government is not under sufficient pressure to limit its use of capital punishment to only the most heinous cases. As a result, two things happen. First, the death penalty is sought and meted out in some cases, which though terrible, are no worse than the thousands of other murder cases in which prosecutors pursue only life imprisonment. Second, because prosecutors file too many capital cases, the criminal justice system lacks the resources to focus sufficient attention on each one.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Arbitrariness, Most Serious Crimes,
Document(s)
A ‘Commonsense’ Theory of Deterrence and the ‘Ideology’ of Science: The New York State Death Penalty Debate
By John F. Galliher / James M. Galliher / Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
This research will consider the principal claims and counterclaims made by death penalty supporters and opponents, as well as document the manner in which these claims were advanced or refuted. The nineteen-year debate provides a natural laboratory that can assist our understanding of why the United States is the only Western industrialized democracy to retain capital punishment.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
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
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)
Appointed but (Nearly) Prevented From Serving: My Experiences as a Grand Jury Foreperson
By Phyllis L. Crocker / Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, on 1 January 2004
2004
Article
United States
More details See the document
I begin this essay with basic information about grand juries, then tell what happened to our grand jury, and conclude by reflecting on what I learned from this experience. My theme is the tension between the grand jury’s independence and the prosecutor’s desire to control it. The lesson I learned, intellectually and emotionally, is the depth and tenacity of the prosecutor’s assumption that he does control, and has the right to control, the grand jury process. I also learned some lessons about being a client, and believing in oneself and one’s principles.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
WHEN THE FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY IS “CRUEL AND UNUSUAL”
By Michael J. Zydney Mannheimer / The University of Cincinnati Law Review, on 1 January 2006
2006
Article
United States
More details See the document
Recent changes to the way the U.S. Department of Justice decides whether to pursue capital charges have made it more likely that the federal death penalty will be sought in cases in which the criminal conduct occurred within States that do not authorize capital punishment for any crime. As a result, since 2002, five people have been sentenced to death in federal court for conduct that occurred in States that do not authorize the death penalty. This state of affairs is in serious tension with the Eighth Amendment’s proscription against “cruel and unusual punishments.”
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment,
Document(s)
Addressing Capital Punishment Through Statutory Reform
By Douglas A. Berman / Ohio State Law Journal, on 1 January 2002
2002
Article
United States
More details See the document
State legislatures principally have been responsible for the acceptance and evolution (and even sometimes the abandonment) of capital punishment in the American criminal justice system from the colonial and founding eras, through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and now into the twenty-first century. A number of colonial legislative enactments, though influenced by England’s embrace of the punishment of death, uniquely defined and often significantly confined which crimes were to be subject to capital punishment.[1] State legislatures further narrowed the reach of the death penalty through the early nineteenth century as states, prodded often by vocal abolitionists and led by developments in Pennsylvania, divided the offense of murder into degrees and provided that only the most aggravated murderers would be subject to the punishment of death. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also saw states, as the product of legislative enactments, move away from mandating death as the punishment for certain crimes by giving juries discretion to choose which defendants would be sentenced to die. Throughout all these periods, statutory enactments have also played a fundamental role in the evolution of where and how executions are carried out.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Racial Disparity and Death Sentences in Ohio
By Marian R. Williams / Jefferson E. Holocomb / Journal of Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2001
2001
Article
United States
More details See the document
The use of the death penalty has resulted in a number of studies attempting to determine if its application is consistent with the guidelines established by the United States Supreme Court. In particular, many studies have assessed whether there are racial disparities in the imposition of death sentences. This study examined the imposition of death sentences in Ohio, a state largely ignored by previous research and that, until 1999, had not executed an inmate since 1963. Drawing from previous studies that have examined the issue in other states, this study assessed the likelihood that a particular homicide would result in a death sentence, controlling for race of defendant and victim and other relevant factors. Results indicated both legal and extralegal factors (including race of victim) were significant predictors of a death sentence, supporting many previous studies that concluded that race plays a role in the imposition of the death penalty.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Designed to break you: Human Rights Violations in Texas’ Death Row
By The Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, on 1 January 2017
2017
Academic report
More details See the document
The State of Texas stands today as one of the most extensive utilizers of the death penalty worldwide. Consequently, inmate living conditions on Texas’ death row are ripe for review. This report demonstrates that the mandatory conditions implemented for death row inmates by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice(TDCJ) are harsh and inhumane. Particular conditions of relevance include mandatory solitary confinement, a total ban on contact visits with both attorneys and friends and family, substandard physical and psychological health care, and a lack of access to sufficient religious services.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2019
By NLU Delhi , on 1 January 2020
2020
Academic report
More details See the document
The ‘Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics’ attempts to create a comprehensive year-by-year documentation of movements in the death row population in India. The publication tracks important political and legal developments in the administration of the death penalty and the criminal justice system in the year 2019.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Death Penalty, Statistics,
Document(s)
Myth of the hanging tree: stories of crime and punishment in territorial New Mexico
By Robert J. Torrez / University of New Mexico Press, on 1 January 2008
2008
Book
United States
More details See the document
The haunting specter of hanging trees holds a powerful sway on the American imagination, conjuring images of rough-and-tumble frontier towns struggling to impose law and order in a land where violence was endemic. In this thoughtful study, former New Mexico State Historian Robert Torrez examines several fascinating criminal cases that reveal the harsh and often gruesome realities of the role hangings, legal or otherwise, played in the administration of frontier justice. At first glance, the topic may seem downright morbid, and in a sense it is, but these violent attempts at justice are embedded in our perception of America’s western experience. In tracing territorial New Mexico’s efforts to enforce law, Torrez challenges the myths and popular perceptions about hangings and lynching in this corner of the Wild West.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Hanging,
Document(s)
Remedying Wrongful Execution
By Meghan J. Ryan / University of Michigan, on 1 January 2011
2011
Article
United States
More details See the document
The Article highlights that statutory compensation schemes overlook the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004, of wrongful execution and the greater injustice it entails and urges that the statutes be amended in light of this grievous wrong that has come to the fore of American criminal justice systems.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
The Death Penalty: America’s Experience with Capital Punishment
By Ray Paternoster / Robert Brame / Oxford University Press / Sarah Bacon, on 8 September 2020
2020
Book
United States
More details See the document
This book addresses one of the most controversial issues in the criminal justice system today—the death penalty. Paternoster et al. present a balanced perspective that focuses on both the arguments for and against capital punishment. Coverage draws on legal, historical, philosophical, economic, sociological, and religious points of view.
- Document type Book
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Due Process , Public opinion, Country/Regional profiles,
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
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)
How to answer the deterrence argument
By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2015
2015
Arguments against the death penalty
frMore details Download [ pdf - 1642 Ko ]
It was created to help all abolitionists answer the deterrent argument. It gives a definition of the deterrent theory, concrete reasons why academic studies have failed to prove the deterrent effect of the death penalty and compares figures about criminal rates in relation to abolition. It does not provide simple and easy answers, but explain, step by step, what to answer to those who believe that the death penalty has a deterrent effect.
- Document type Arguments against the death penalty
- Themes list Deterrence ,
- Available languages Comment répondre à l'argument de l'effet dissuasif
Document(s)
Last Day of Freedom
By Dee Hibbert-Jones / Nomi Talisman, on 1 January 2015
Working with...
More details See the document
When Bill Babbitt realizes his brother Manny has committed a crime he agonizes over his decision: should he call the police? Last Day of Freedom, a richly animated personal narrative, tells the story of Bill’s decision to stand by his brother in the face of war, crime and capital punishment. The film is a portrait of a man at the nexus of the most pressing social issues of our day – veterans’ care, mental health access and criminal justice.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Murder Victims' Families,
Document(s)
Bloodsworth an Innocent Man
By Gregory Bayne, on 1 January 2015
Working with...
More details See the document
BLOODSWORTH – An Innocent Man is a documentary memoir recounting Kirk Noble Bloodsworth’s remarkable journey through the criminal justice system. An innocent man convicted and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, Kirk became the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence in the United States.Set against the backdrop of his 2013 battle to repeal the death penalty in the State that sentenced him to death, BLOODSWORTH – An Innocent Man offers an intimate glimpse into what it is to wake to a living nightmare; an innocent man caught in the perfect storm of injustice.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Death Penalty Mitigation A Handbook for Mitigation Specialists, Investigators, Social Scientists, and Lawyers
By Oxford University Press / Jose B. Ashford / Melissa Kupferberg, on 1 January 2013
2013
Book
More details See the document
This book provides an introduction to socio-legal forms of mitigation in capital sentencing. It helps mitigation specialists, defense investigators, social scientists, and lawyers in developing socio-cultural themes of mitigation. It examines scientific formulations, concepts, and frameworks for structuring social history investigations and assessments of moral culpability. A fundamental aim of this handbook was to provide mitigation professionals not only with an understanding of the context of mitigation in criminal justice thinking, but also ways of contextualizing issues of blame and culpability.
- Document type Book
- Themes list Due Process ,
Document(s)
Financial Costs of the Death Penalty
By Office of Performance Evaluations Idaho Legislature, on 1 January 2014
2014
Government body report
More details See the document
Idaho’s death penalty involves many criminal justicestakeholders at both the local and state levels and in all three branches of government. Because death penalty processes involve so many entities, legislators asked for a better understanding of the structure, workings, and costs. The following events also sparked legislative interest: (1) two offenders sentenced to death werelater released from prison in 2001 and (2) two recent executions after a 17-year pause.Legislators wanted to know whether costs of sentencingdefendants to death could be compared with costs of sentencing them to life in prison.
- Document type Government body report
- Themes list Statistics, Financial cost,
Document(s)
NGO Media Outreach: Using the Media as an Advocacy Tool
By Coalition for the International Criminal Court, on 1 January 2003
2003
Working with...
More details See the document
A guide for NGOs to use media effectively. This guide explains the importance of media, how to create contacts, how to prepare a media outreach campaign, how to deliver a campaign to the media and how to use available resources to support your media campaign.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
The Court of Life and Death: The Two Tracks of Constitutional Sentencing Law and the Case for Uniformity.
By Rachel E. Barkow / New York University (NYU), on 1 January 2008
2008
Article
United States
More details See the document
This Article argues for the abandonment of the two-track approach to sentencing by the Supreme Court. It finds no support in the Constitution’s text, history, or structure, and the functional arguments given by the Court to support its capital decisions apply with equal force to all other criminal punishments.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Arbitrariness,
Document(s)
Film “Kill Troy Killing Me”
By Garry A. Boast / Cerebral Motion Productions, on 8 September 2020
2020
Academic report
United States
More details See the document
A death penalty abolitionist (Martina Correia) must sound the alarms of our criminal justice system in time to save her brother from lethal injection.
- Document type Academic report
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Innocence,
Document(s)
Arguing for the Death Penalty: Making the Retentionist Case in Britain, 1945-1979
By Thomas Wright / University of York, on 1 January 2010
2010
Multimedia content
United Kingdom
More details See the document
There is a small body of historiography that analyses the abolition of capital punishment in Britain. There has been no detailed study of those who opposed abolition and no history of the entire post-war abolition process from the Criminal Justice Act 1948 to permanent abolition in 1969. This thesis aims to fill this gap by establishing the role and impact of the retentionists during the abolition process between the years 1945 and 1979. This thesis is structured around the main relevant Acts, Bills, amendments and reports and looks briefly into the retentionist campaign after abolition became permanent in December 1969. The only historians to have written in any detail on abolition are Victor Bailey and Mark Jarvis, who have published on the years 1945 to 1951 and 1957 to 1964 respectively. The subject was discussed in some detail in the early 1960s by the American political scientists James Christoph and Elizabeth Tuttle. Through its discussion of capital punishment this thesis develops the themes of civilisation and the permissive society, which were important to the abolition discourse. Abolition was a process that was controlled by the House of Commons. The general public had a negligible impact on the decisions made by MPs during the debates on the subject. For this reason this thesis priorities Parliamentary politics over popular action. This marks a break from the methodology of the new political histories that study ‘low’ and ‘high’ politics in the same depth.
- Document type Multimedia content
- Countries list United Kingdom
- Themes list Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,
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 Death Penalty in China and the World
By Amnesty International UK, on 8 September 2020
Campaigning
More details See the document
In this lesson students aged 11-16 work collectively to use their mathematical skill and appropriate technology to examine and analyse information about the changing use of the death penalty in China and the world. They look for the most effective ways of presenting information using charts, graphs and maps, and comment on the reliability and validity of the data that they have collected.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
A Matter of Life and Death: films, an assembly, lessons and information on the death penalty to inspire students aged 14+
By Amnesty International UK, on 8 September 2020
Campaigning
More details See the document
Through A Matter of Life and Death lessons, assembly and films, students aged 14+ can explore the issues surrounding the use of the death penalty, one of Amnesty’s oldest and most established campaigns.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Public opinion,
Document(s)
World Day Poster 2022
By the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 9 June 2022
2022
Campaigning
World Coalition
aresfafrruzh-hantMore details Download [ pdf - 4097 Ko ]
20th World Day on “Torture and the death penalty”.
- Document type Campaigning / World Coalition
- Available languages 2022 ملصق اليوم العال مPoster Spanish – 2022 Día Mundial contra la Pena de MuertePoster Farsi 2022 - بیستمین روز جهانی علیهمجازات مرگAffiche Journée mondiale 2022Poster Russian 2022 - 20Й ВСЕМИРНЫЙ ДЕНЬ ПРОТИВ СМЕРТНОЙ КАЗНИPoster Chinese 2022- 第20届世界反死刑日
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)
Why two mothers back death penalty repeal
By Vicki Schieber and Carolyn Leming / The Gazette, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
This article talks about the tension between protecting the innocent on the one hand and dragging the process out for victims’ families on the other, and how those two can’t be reconciled.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Murder Victims' Families, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
For or against abolition of the death penalty: Evidence from Taiwan
By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / The Death Penalty Project, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
More details See the document
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Public opinion, Death Penalty,
Document(s)
Poster Singhala 2022 – 20 වන ජගත් මරණ දඬුවමට එෙරහි දිනය
By the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 July 2022
2022
World Coalition
More details Download [ pdf - 19959 Ko ]
- Document type World Coalition
Document(s)
Japanese : 人権のための殺人被害者遺族の会
By Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020
2020
Academic report
United States
esfrenenMore details See the document
人権のための殺人被害者遺族の会(MVFHR)は、2004年の国際人権デーに、死刑に反対し、米国および世界中で幅広く講演活動を行っている被害者遺族のグループによって設立されました。私たちのメンバーが死刑に反対する理由は様々ですが、死刑はあらゆる法的・倫理的基準に違反しているという確信において一致しています。「いかなる場合であっても死刑には反対する」という方であれば、どのような遺族の方であれ~殺人事件、死刑執行、超法規 的な殺害行為そして「失踪」の被害者家族~、MVFHRの会員に なることができます
- 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 BrochureItalian : Famiglie Delle Vittime Di Omicidio Per I Diritti Umani
Document(s)
Human Rights and the Death Penalty in the United States
By The Advocates for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020
Arguments against the death penalty
More details See the document
This sheet details what human rights are in relation to the death penalty and the USA. It discusses racism, inadequete legal representation and the unjustifiable cost of the death penalty in the US.
- Document type Arguments against the death penalty
Document(s)
German : Einleitung durch die Kontaktgruppe der Europäischen Zivilgesellschaft : Ein Leitfaden für die Zusammenarbeit
By European Union, on 8 September 2020
Academic report
enfrMore details See the document
Das Handbuch ist dafür gedacht, Ihnen einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Sektoren von NGOs zu geben, die sich für BürgerInnenrechte und für das allgemeine Interesse einsetzen und kann Ihnen somit gleichsam als Kompass für die europäische Zivilgesellschaft dienen. Im ersten Teil geben wir Ihnen zunächst einen generellen Einblick in die bereits bestehende Praxis des Dialogs zwischen EU Institutionen und NGOs, die sich über die letzten 20 Jahre hinweg herausgebildet hat. Daran anschließend möchte wir Ihnen die Forderungen der NGOs im Bezug auf die Umsetzung des Paragraphen über den Zivilen Dialog nahebringen, wie er in der neuen Verfassung niedergeschrieben ist. Im zweiten Teil finden Sie einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Politkbereiche, in denen sich die sechs Sektoren in den nächsten 5 Jahren ihrer Amtszeit jeweils engagieren werden. Dieser Teil soll es Ihnen ermöglichen, die Bereiche auszumachen, in denen europäische NGOs für Ihre jeweils spezifische Arbeit im Parlament Expertise anbieten können. Die Werte und Ziele der Kontaktgruppe finden Sie in Teil III. Der Anhang ist eine komplette Kontaktliste der verschiedenen NGOs, die im Rahmen der Kontaktgruppe zusammen kommen.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages The European Parliament 2004-2009 and European Civil Society: A Guide for PartnershipIntroduction du Groupe de Contact de la Société Civile: Un guide de partenariat
Document(s)
Portuguese : Instruções: FORMULÁRIO PARA APRESENTAR PETIÇÃO SOBREVIOLAÇÕES DOS DIREITOS HUMANOS
By Organization of American States, on 8 September 2020
Academic report
esfrenMore details See the document
O formulário que se segue foi preparado pela Secretaria Executiva da CIDH e se destina a facilitar a apresentação de petições referentes a violações dos direitos humanos praticadas por Estados membros da OEA, denunciadas pelas vítimas de tais violações, por seus familiares, organizações da sociedade civil ou outras pessoas.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Instrucciones: Formulario para Presentar Peticiones sobre Violaciones a los Derechos HumanosInstructions: Formule de Plainte Relative à des Allégations de Violation des Droits de la PersonneInstructions: Form for Filing Petitions alleging Human Rights Violations
Document(s)
Report No. 211/20. Case 13.570. Report on admissibility and mertis. Lezmond C. Mitchell. United States of America
By Inter-american Commission on Human Rights, on 24 August 2020
2020
Regional body report
esMore details See the document
- Document type Regional body report
- Available languages Informe No. 211/20. Caso 13.750. Informe sobre admisibilidad y fondo. Lezmond C. Mitchell. Estados Unidos de America
Document(s)
The Death Penalty in 2020: Year-End Report
By Death Penalty Information Center, on 1 January 2020
2020
NGO report
United States
More details See the document
2020 was abnormal in almost every way, and that was clearly the case when it came to capital punishment in the United States. The interplay of four forces shaped the U.S. death penalty landscape in 2020: the nation’s long-term trend away from capital punishment; the worst global pandemic in more than a century; nationwide protests for racial justice; and the historically aberrant conduct of the federal administration. At the end of the year, more states had abolished the death penalty or gone ten years without an execution, more counties had elected reform prosecutors who pledged never to seek the death penalty or to use it more sparingly; fewer new death sentences were imposed than in any prior year since the Supreme Court struck down U.S. death penalty laws in 1972; and despite a six-month spree of federal executions without parallel in the 20th or 21st centuries, fewer executions were carried out than in any year in nearly three decades.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list United States
Document(s)
Listing of verifiable executions worldwide reported this month.
By Capital Punishment U.K., on 8 September 2020
2020
NGO report
More details See the document
Listing of verifiable executions worldwide reported per month.
- Document type NGO report
- Themes list Statistics,
Document(s)
Investigating Forensic Problems in the United States: How the Federal Government Can Strengthen Oversight Through the Coverdell Grant Program
By Benjamin N. Cardozo / The Innocence Project, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
The report describes the federal forensic oversight program; outlines the problems that have plagued the program since its inception (with specific examples): Explains the consequences of the federal government’s inadequate administration of the program; shows how forensic negligence and misconduct lead to wrongful convictions; and gives specific recommendations for what the federal government, states and individuals can do to strengthen forensic oversight.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Instructions: Form for Filing Petitions alleging Human Rights Violations
By Organization of American States, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
esfrenMore details See the document
The following form, prepared by the Commission’s Executive Secretariat, is intended to make it easier for victims of violations, their family members, organizations of civil society or other persons to file complaints alleging human rights violations by OAS member States.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Instrucciones: Formulario para Presentar Peticiones sobre Violaciones a los Derechos HumanosInstructions: Formule de Plainte Relative à des Allégations de Violation des Droits de la PersonnePortuguese : Instruções: FORMULÁRIO PARA APRESENTAR PETIÇÃO SOBREVIOLAÇÕES DOS DIREITOS HUMANOS
Document(s)
Petition for DNA Testing
By Arizona Justice Project, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
This is a document which can be used for those petitioning to have DNA evidence re-examined. Specific to Arizona but can be used as a guide in other jurisdictions.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Screening questionnaire for DNA Grant Cases
By Arizona Justice Project, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
esMore details See the document
The Arizona Justice Project will use this questionnaire to decide whether your case qualifies for assistance under the DNA testing grant, provided by the National Institute of Justice.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Cusestionario Inicial del Proceso de Revision para subsidio de Casos de ADN
Document(s)
False Confessions and Recording of Custodial Interrogations
By The Innocence Project, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
esMore details See the document
Many of the nation’s 249 wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence involved some form of a false confession. Yet it’s virtually impossible to fathom wh a person would wrongly confess to a crime he or she did not commit. The causes behind false confessions is explored in this text.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Confesiones Falsas Y Grabación De Interrogatorios En Custodia Policial
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)
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)
Death Qualification
By Capital Punishment in Context, on 8 September 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)
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)
Host a Speaking Event
By Witness to Innocence, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
Are you stressing about finding that perfect speaker for your next event? Worried that the speaker be inspirational, educational, and entertaining all at the same time? Look no further. We are awaiting your call to help you organize an unforgettable and unique experience for your audience.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Poster 2022 German – 20. Welttag gegen die Todesstrafe
By the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 7 July 2022
2022
More details Download [ pdf - 19959 Ko ]
Welttag gegen die Todesstrafe Poster
- Document type Array
Document(s)
Facts Law Enforcement Should Know About the Death Penalty
By Death Penalty Focus, on 8 September 2020
2020
Working with...
More details See the document
A leaflet detailing the facts that law enforcement should be aware of; how the system prolongs suffering of the victim’s family, mistakes that have been made, the uneven application of the death penalty – these amongst other topics are explored to inform law enforcement about the facts of the death penalty.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Overview – Association of Southeast Asian Nations
By Association of Southeast Asian Nations, on 8 September 2020
Academic report
More details See the document
This document provides a quick overview of ASEAN, going through its aims and purposes, fundamental principles, its community and its charter.
- Document type Academic report
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Death Penalty Can Prolong the Suffering of a Vicitm’s Family
By Death Penalty Focus, on 8 September 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)
Facts and Figures 2022
By the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 24 June 2022
2022
World Coalition
frMore details Download [ pdf - 241 Ko ]
Find the main facts and figures regarding the death penalty worldwide in 2021 and early 2022.
- Document type World Coalition
- Available languages Faits et chiffres 2022
Document(s)
Student Resource Centre
By Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 8 September 2020
2020
Campaigning
More details See the document
A resource centre for students researching the death penalty. It provides student essays as an example on how to write an essay on the death penalty. It also contains a contact list of – death row inmates, activists, jurists, families of inmates, and others that have agreed to make themselves available to answer students’ questions regarding capital punishment.
- Document type Campaigning
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
How to Lobby
By California People of Faith Working Against the death penalty, on 8 September 2020
Lobbying
More details See the document
Lobbying your elected officials is one of the most important actions you can take to bring about the end of the death penalty. Here are some tips for communicating effectively with government officials.
- Document type Lobbying
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Families of Murder Victims Oppose the Death Penalty
By California People of Faith Working Against the death penalty, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
The San Diego chapter of California People of Faith Working Against the DeathPenalty educates and mobilizes faith communities to act to abolish the death penalty in California. We are a nonpartisan, statewide, interfaith organization. As communities of faith, we join together to take responsibility for the killing of our citizens by the State of California. As people of faith, we know that the God/Wisdom of all faiths calls us to something more: a high and often difficult standard of love, forgiveness and justice that is rooted not in retribution but rather in redemption and restoration. The death penalty denies the sacredness of human life. Spiritually, the death penalty diminishes us all. As we invest in vengeance in this society, we divest ourselves of compassion. As we support retribution, we neglect restorative justice. We cannot be a community of compassion and unity if we choose to destroy one another. And we should not allow the State to do it for us.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
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)
Department of Public Information Non-Governmental Organizations
By United Nations / Department of Public Information Non-Governmental Organizations, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
eszh-hantfrruMore details See the document
The NGO Relations Cluster is the link to over 1,500 Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) associated with the Department of Public Information and supports their efforts to interact effectively with the United Nations in their areas of expertise.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Sección de las Organizaciones no Gubernamentales联合国新闻部非政府组织Section des Organisations Non GouvernementalesНеправите Неправительственные организации (льственные организации)
Document(s)
Witness to Innocence – from death row to freedom
By Witness to Innocence, on 8 September 2020
Academic report
United States
More details See the document
Errors have been made repeatedly in death penalty cases because of: poor legal representation, racial prejudice, prosecutorial misconduct, the presentation of erroneous evidence, false confession, junk science, eyewitness error. Once convicted, a death row prisoner faces enormous obstacles in convincing any court that he or she is innocent.
- Document type Academic report
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Facts on Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations
By The Innocence Project, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
More details See the document
This fact sheet gives facts on post DNA exonerations and provides information on the main causes of wrongful conviction including eyewitness misidentification, false confessions and snitches.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Guidelines for Submitting Communications
By African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
frfrenMore details See the document
This document outlines the functions of the Commission, how to make presentations in front of the Commission, the procedures of examining the communication and the recommendations of the Commission.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Ligne Directrices pour la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Hommes et des PeuplesProcedure (de la Communication de la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et Des Peuples)Procedure (Communications Procedure of the African Commission for Human and Peoples rights)
Document(s)
Procedure (Communications Procedure of the African Commission for Human and Peoples rights)
By African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, on 8 September 2020
Working with...
frfrenMore details See the document
This document describes the procedures of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights stating who can apply to the court and what measures they may take.
- Document type Working with...
- Themes list Networks,
- Available languages Ligne Directrices pour la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Hommes et des PeuplesProcedure (de la Communication de la Commission Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et Des Peuples)Guidelines for Submitting Communications
Document(s)
Inadequete Legal Representation
By Death Penalty Focus, on 8 September 2020
Arguments against the death penalty
More details See the document
Perhaps the most important factor in determining whether a defendant will receive the death penalty is the quality of the representation he or she is provided. Almost all defendants in capital cases cannot afford their own attorneys. In many cases, the appointed attorneys are overworked, underpaid, or lacking the trial experience required for death penalty cases.
- Document type Arguments against the death penalty
- Themes list Legal Representation,
Document(s)
Uzbekistan: Unfair trials and secret executions: Summary of the report “‘Justice only in heaven’ – the death penalty in Uzbekistan”
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
Uzbekistan
fresMore details See the document
This document provides a summary of the report “Uzbekistan: “Justice only in heaven” – the death penalty in Uzbekistan” (EUR 62/011/2003).
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Uzbekistan
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages OUZBÉKISTAN : Procès iniques et exécutions tenues secrètesUzbekistán: Juicios sin garantías y ejecuciones secretas : Este documento es un resumen del informe de Amnistía Internacional titulado “Justice only in heaven” - the death penalty in Uzbekistan
Document(s)
Indonesian : Indonesia: Urusan tentang pidana mati
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
Indonesia
enMore details See the document
Amnesty International juga prihatin akan adanya seruan untuk memperluas jenis masalah kejahatan yang dapat dijatuhi pidana mati. Saat ini pidana mati dapat dijatuhkan pada pelaku kejahatan yang berhubungan dengan masalah pembunuhan; kejahatan menentang keamanan negara; pembunuhan Presiden atau Wakil Presiden dan kejahatan yang berhubungan dengan narkoba. Berlawanan dengan kecenderungan internasional yang ingin menghapuskan atau mengurangi jumlah kasus kejahatan yang dapat dijatuhi pidana mati, dua undang-undang yang berhubungan dengan kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan dan terorisme yang telah diadopsi selama empat tahun terakhir mencantumkan pidana mati atas beberapa kejahatan. Pada tahun-tahun belakangan ini juga telah ada seruan untuk menjatuhkan pidana mati bagi pelaku penebangan kayu ilegal dan pelaku korupsi.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Indonesia
- Themes list Networks, Statistics, Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages Indonesia: A briefing on the death penalty
Document(s)
Socialist Republic of Viet Nam: The death penalty – inhumane and Ineffective
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
Viet Nam
fresMore details See the document
Amnesty International is alarmed by the recent dramatic rise in the reported imposition of the death penalty in Viet Nam, particularly for drugs-related offences and other economic crimes. It believes that the continuing use of the death penalty in Viet Nam is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a breach of the right to life and that the conditions surrounding its imposition in Viet Nam are in contravention of international human rights standards. In this report Amnesty is calling on the Vietnamese Government to immediately establish a moratorium on all executions, while taking steps towards total abolition of the death penalty in accordance with international standards and United Nations recommendations.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Viet Nam
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages République Socialiste Du Viêt-Nam : La peine de port - inhumaine et inefficaceRepública Socialista de Vietnam: La pena de muerte - inhumana e ineficaz
Document(s)
Myanmar: The Administration Of Justice – Grave And Abiding Concerns
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
Myanmar
More details See the document
This report discusses Amnesty International’s concern about political imprisonments in Myanmar. Arbitrary arrests; torture and ill-treatment during incommunicado detention; unfair trials; and laws which greatly curtail the rights to freedom of expression and assembly continue as major obstacles to the improvement in the State Peace and Development Council’s human rights record. The section dedicated to the death penalty talks about the death penalty system in relation to specific cases.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Myanmar
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
Uzbekistan: ‘Justice only in heaven’ – the death penalty in Uzbekistan
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
Uzbekistan
More details See the document
This document reports on the use of the death penalty in Uzbekistan. It looks at the scope of the death penalty and the current hurdles to its abolition. The report also examines those factors which commonly lead to judicial error – the use of arbitrary detention and torture, unfair trials and corruption.The latter part of the report looks at the conditions for prisoners on death row and the suffering inflicted by the state on the families of those sentenced to death.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Uzbekistan
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
Document(s)
I don’t want another kid to die: Families of Victims Murdered by Juveniles Oppose Juvenile Executions
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
“I don’t want another kid to die” is a report about the juvenile death penalty from the perspective of family members of victims killed by juvenile offenders and parents of juvenile offenders who have been executed.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Juveniles, Murder Victims' Families,
Document(s)
Iraq: The Death Penalty, Executions, and “Prison Cleansing”
By Human Rights Watch, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
Iraq
More details See the document
This briefing paper examines Iraq’s arbitrary and widespread use of the death penalty and extrajudicial executions. For more than three decades, the government of President Saddam Hussein has sanctioned the use of the death penalty and extrajudicial executions as a tool of political repression, both in order to eliminate real or suspected political opponents and to maintain a reign of terror over the population at large. The executions that have taken place over this period constitute an integral part of more systematic repression – characterized by widespread arbitrary arrests, indefinite detention without trial, death in custody under torture, and large-scale “disappearances” – through which the government has sustained its rule.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Iraq
- Themes list Due Process ,
Document(s)
Japanese : 死刑民主主義国家にあるまじき行為
By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) / Sharon Hom / Etienne Jaudel / Richard Wild, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
Japan
enfrMore details See the document
廃止推進団体の努力にもかかわらず、世論には、死刑制度の継続を支持する強い傾向があることは確かです。死刑適用の実状を政府が隠し、これまでよかったといわれた治安が徐々に悪化していることもあり、この時機に政府が、国民に不人気な決断をすることはないでしょう。欧州評議会をはじめとする、国際組織からの圧力に対して、政府は「内政に対する許しがたい干渉」ときめつけています。保守派が与党の政府において、廃止に向けての議論が政治決定となる気配はありません。 日本のすべての弁護士が加盟する日弁連は、廃止法案提案でコンセンサスに至らなかったという事実が、現時点で死刑がなくなる可能性が少ないことを雄弁に物語っています。
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Japan
- Themes list Country/Regional profiles,
- Available languages The Death Penalty in Japan: A Practice Unworthy of a DemocracyLa peine de mort au Japon, une pratique indigne d'une démocratie
Document(s)
People’s Republic of China: The Death Penalty Log in 2000
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
China
More details See the document
The Death Penalty Log gives available details of death sentences and executions occurring in China throughout 2000.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list China
- Themes list Statistics,
Document(s)
THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA – The Death Penalty in 2000
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
China
More details See the document
The attached report analyses the use of the death penalty in China in 2000 and examines sentencing patterns and the legislation behind the death penalty in China.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list China
- Themes list Networks, Statistics,
Document(s)
Courtroom Contortions: How America’s application of the death penalty erodes the principle of equal justice under law
By Anthony G. Amsterdam / American Prospect, on 8 September 2020
Article
United States
More details See the document
One cost this country pays for the death penalty is that its courts are constantly compelled to corrupt the law in order to uphold death sentences. That corruption soils the character of the United States as a nation dedicated to equal justice under law.This is not the only price we pay for being one of the very few democracies in the world that retains capital punishment in the 21st century. But it is a significant item on the cost side of the cost-benefit ledger, something that each thinking person ought to balance in deciding whether he or she supports capital punishment. And it warrants discussion because this cost is little understood. I have spent much of my time for the past 40 years representing death-sentenced inmates in appeals at every level of the state and federal judicial systems, and I am only lately coming to realize how large a tax the death penalty imposes on the quality of justice in those systems.
- Document type Article
- Countries list United States
- Themes list Networks,
Document(s)
Singapore: The death penalty – A hidden toll of executions
By Amnesty International, on 8 September 2020
NGO report
Singapore
frMore details See the document
More than 400 prisoners have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, giving the small city-state possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its population of just over four million people. This report examines the use of the death penalty for drug offences, murder and firearms offences. It emphasizes the cruel and arbitrary nature of the death penalty and shows how it has been imposed on the most marginalized or vulnerable members of society including drug addicts, the poorly educated, the impoverished or unemployed, and migrant workers.
- Document type NGO report
- Countries list Singapore
- Themes list Transparency, Foreign Nationals,
- Available languages Singapore: Taux d'exécutions : un secret bien gardé