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Document(s)

Does the Rest of the World Matter? Sovereignty, International Human Rights Law and the American Death Penalty

By Oko Elechi / Eric Lamber / Alan W. Clarke / Queen's Law Journal / Laurie Anne Whitt, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


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American officials have indicated that extra efforts will be used to ensure that captured terrorist suspects face the death penalty. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has stated that the U.S. military will “try to prevent enemy leaders from falling into the hands of peacekeeping troops from allied nations that might oppose capital punishment.” Americans should be troubled to learn that the United States is out of step with an emerging worldwide consensus that the death penalty, even for the most heinous terrorist, “has no legitimate place in the penal systems of modern civilised societies.” As of July 2004, 117 nations were abolitionist in law or in practice, while only 80 retained the death penalty. The entire Council of Europe–45 nations ranging from Iceland to Russia–now constitutes a death penalty free zone.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in the United States: An International Human Rights Perspective

By Anthony N. Bishop / Texas Law Review, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

On December 10, 1998, the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, former President William J. Clinton signed Executive Order No. 13107 stating, “It shall be the policy and practice of the Government of the United States, being committed to the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, fully to respect and implement its obligations.

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

Document(s)

South Korea’s changing capital punishment policy: The road from de facto to formal abolition

By Byung-Sun Cho / Punishment and Society, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article

Republic of Korea


More details See the document

The most recent executions in South Korea took place in December 1997, when 23 people were executed at short notice on the same day. Similarly, nineteen executions occurred in 1995 and 15 in 1994, in each instance occurring all on the same day. These group executions seem to reflect cultural factors that monthly statistics alone do not capture. No executions have occurred since 1998, but this de facto suspension has not been reinforced by law. Since 1999, lawmakers have thrice endorsed a bill favoring life imprisonment without parole in place of the death penalty, but each time the proposal has stalled and failed to move forward. The need remains to develop a culturally appropriate pro-abolition argument that could persuade the Korean public that the death penalty is unworkable and wrong. On 21 January 2007, in the Inhyeokdang case, the Korean Court acquitted 8 persons who had been executed 32 years earlier. The hope is that, in light of strong arguments based on the risk to innocent persons and the irreversibility of capital punishment, Korea will effectively transition from de facto to formal abolition.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Republic of Korea
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Document(s)

The politics of increasing punitiveness and the rising populism in Japanese criminal justice policy

By Setsuo Miyazawa / Punishment and Society, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

Japan


More details See the document

The purpose of this article is (1) to establish that increasing punitiveness characterizes criminal justice policies in Japan and (2) to explain this trend in terms of the penal populism promoted by crime victims and supporting politicians. This article first examines newspaper articles to illuminate the increasingly punitive character of recent criminal justice policies in Japan in terms of both legislation and judicial decisions. The next section discusses the main contributing factors behind this trend and its public acceptance. The next two sections discuss two related issues: the public’s subjective sense of security, and the lack of a role for empirical criminologists in criminal justice policy making in Japan. The concluding section compares the Japanese and Anglo-American situations and argues that the same penal populism seen in Anglo-American countries is rapidly rising in Japan, and that public distrust of government has ironically increased the state’s investigative, prosecutorial, and sentencing powers in Japan. This article closes with the conjecture that police, prosecutors, and judges are unlikely to relinquish their increased power in the event that they gain the public’s trust and equally unlikely in the event of a change of the ruling party.

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

Document(s)

A Heavy Thumb on the Scale: The Effect of Victim Iimpact Evidence On Capital Decision Making

By Ray Paternoster / Criminology / Jerome Deise, on 1 January 2011


2011

Article

United States


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The past several decades have seen the emergence of a movement in the criminal justice system that has called for a greater consideration for the rights of victims. One manifestation of this movement has been the “right” of victims or victims’ families to speak to the sentencing body through what are called victim impact statements about the value of the victim and the full harm that the offender has created. Although victim impact statements have been a relatively noncontroversial part of regular criminal trials, their presence in capital cases has had a more contentious history. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned previous decisions and explicitly permitted victim impact testimony in capital cases in Payne v. Tennessee (1991). The dissenters in that case argued that such evidence only would arouse the emotions of jurors and bias them in favor of imposing death. A body of research in behavioral economics on the “identifiable victim effect” and the “identifiable wrongdoer effect” would have supported such a view. Using a randomized controlled experiment with a death-eligible sample of potential jurors and the videotape of an actual penalty trial in which victim impact evidence (VIE) was used, we found that these concerns about VIE are perhaps well placed. Subjects who viewed VIE testimony in the penalty phase were more likely to feel negative emotions like anger, hostility, and vengeance; were more likely to feel sympathy and empathy toward the victim; and were more likely to have favorable perceptions of the victim and victim’s family as well as unfavorable perceptions of the offender. We found that these positive feelings toward the victim and family were in turn related to a heightened risk of them imposing the death penalty. We found evidence that part of the effect of VIE on the decision to impose death was mediated by emotions of sympathy and empathy. We think our findings open the door for future work to put together better the causal story that links VIE to an increased inclination to impose death as well as explore possible remedies.

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

Document(s)

Innocence Unmodified

By Emily Hughes / North Carolina Law Review , on 1 January 2010


2010

Article

United States


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The Article proceeds in three parts. Part I explains the pivotal role that “actual” innocence has played in the Innocence Movement. It shows that even though the Innocence Movement has begun to broaden its DNA-based focus to include non-DNA-based claims, its goal has remained constant: achieving justice for “actually” innocent people. Part I then shows how the Innocence Movement has prioritized the cases of “actually” innocent people who were convicted through trial over “actually” innocent people who pleaded guilty. The prioritization of wrongful convictions derived from trials over wrongful convictions from pleas underscores how the Innocence Movement has overlooked the claims of people who have pleaded guilty and are not “actually” innocent, but who may still have strong wrongful conviction claims based on fundamental constitutional violations. Part II examines innocence unmodified in the context of trials and postconviction appeals. It asserts that one reason to protect innocence unmodified is because under the Court‟s existing jurisprudence, “actual” innocence alone is not enough to reverse a wrongful conviction. This is because the Supreme Court has not yet decided whether the Constitution forbids the execution of an “actually” innocent person who was convicted through a “full and fair” trial. Because the Court has not recognized a freestanding “actual” innocence claim, the “actual” innocence of a wrongly convicted person only matters as a door through which to allow a court to reach underlying constitutional claims. Part II uses the example of a recent Supreme Court decision, In Re Troy Davis, to highlight how an isolated prioritization of “actual” innocence does not achieve justice for wrongly convicted people. Part III examines innocence unmodified in the context of pleas. It reveals the degree to which the Court has itself polarized innocence in the context of pleas—prioritizing “actual” innocence over fundamental constitutional protections for all people.

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

Document(s)

Crossing the line: Rape-murder and the death penalty

By Phyllis L. Crocker / Ohio Northern Law Review 26(3), 689-723., on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


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When a woman is raped and then murdered, it is among the most horrifying of crimes. It is also, often, among the most sensational, notorious, and galvanizing of cases. In 1964, Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered in Queens, New York. Her murder sparked soul-searching across the country because her neighbors heard her cries for help and did not respond: it made us question whether we had become an uncaring people. During the 1970s and 80s a number of serial killers raped and murdered their victims: including Ted Bundy in Florida and William George Bonin, the “Freeway Killer,” in Southern California. In the 1990s, the sexual assault-murder of seven- year-old Megan Kanka in New Jersey contributed to a firestorm of states passing sex offender notification statutes. Rolando Cruz was released from Illinois death row in 1995, after serving eleven years for a crime he did not commit: the rape and murder of ten-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. The crime itself sent shock waves through the Chicago metropolitan area and pressure to quickly solve it contributed to Cruz’s arrest and conviction. In each instance the rape- murder terrified us and made us want to impose the severest of punishments. This explores the crime and punishment of those convicted of committed rape .murder

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

Document(s)

Not to Decide is to Decide: The U.S. Supreme Courts Thirty-Year Struggle With One Case About Competency to Waive Death Penalty Appeals

By Phyllis L. Crocker / Wayne Law Review 49(4), 885-938, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


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In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Rees v. Peyton, Rees was a death penalty case in which the petitioner sought to withdraw his petition for writ of certiorari so that he could be executed. The Court stayed the proceedings after Rees was found incompetent to waive his appeal, but the Court did not dismiss the case until after Rees died of natural causes. Rees pended in the Court during the terms of three Chief Justices. Even though the Court underwent major changes in personnel and philosophy during those years, the Court’s treatment of Rees was essentially the same–to hold the case in abeyance. This article chronicles the extraordinary history of Rees in the U.S. Supreme Court for those thirty years.

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

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


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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)

Raise the Proof: A Default Rule for Indigent Defense

By Adam M. Gershowitz / Connecticut Law Review, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


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Almost everyone agrees that indigent defense in America is underfunded, but workable solutions have been hard to come by. For the most part, courts have been unwilling to inject themselves into legislative budget decisions. And, when courts have become involved and issued favorable decisions, the benefits have been only temporary because once the pressure of litigation disappears so does a legislature’s desire to appropriate more funding. This Article proposes that if an indigent defense system is under-funded, the state supreme court should impose a default rule raising the standard of proof to “beyond all doubt” to convict indigent defendants. The legislature would then have the opportunity to opt out of this higher standard of proof by providing enough funding to bring defense lawyers’ caseloads within well-recognized standards or by providing funding parity with prosecutors’ offices. Such an approach will create an incentive for legislatures to adequately fund indigent defense without miring courts in detailed supervision of legislative budget decisions. At the same time, because courts can check once per year to determine whether there is funding parity with prosecutors’ offices or compliance with caseload guidelines, there will be constant pressure on legislatures to maintain adequate funding in order to avoid the higher standard of proof.

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

Document(s)

Still Unfair, Still Arbitrary — But Do We Care?

By Samuel L. Gross / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article

United States


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My assignment is to try to give an overview of the status of the death penalty in America at the beginning of the twenty-first century. I will try to put that in the context of how the death penalty was viewed thirty years ago, or more, and maybe that will tell us something about how the death penalty will be viewed thirty or forty years from now.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

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)

Death and Deterrence Redux: Science, Law and Causal Reasoning on Capital Punishment

By Jeffrey Fagan / Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


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A recent cohort of studies report deterrent effects of capital punishment that substantially exceed almost all previous estimates of lives saved by execution. Some of the new studies go further to claim that pardons, commutations, and exonerations cause murders to increase, as does trial delay. This putative life-life tradeoff is the basis for claims by legal academics and advocates of a moral imperative to aggressively prosecute capital crimes, brushing off evidentiary doubts as unreasonable cautions that place potential beneficiaries at risk of severe harm. Challenges to this “new deterrence” literature find that the evidence is too unstable and unreliable to support policy choices on capital punishment. This article identifies numerous technical and conceptual errors in the “new deterrence” studies that further erode their reliability: inappropriate methods of statistical analysis, failures to consider several factors such as drug epidemics that drive murder rates, missing data on key variables in key states, the tyranny of a few outlier states and years, weak to non-existent tests of concurrent effects of incarceration, inadequate instruments to disentangle statistical confounding of murder rates with death sentences and other punishments, failure to consider the general performance of the criminal justice system as a competing deterrent, artifactual results from truncated time frames, and the absence of any direct test of the components of contemporary theoretical constructions of deterrence. Re-analysis of one of the data sets shows that even simple adjustments to the data produce contradictory results, while alternate statistical methods produce contrary estimates. But the central mistake in this enterprise is one of causal reasoning: the attempt to draw causal inferences from a flawed and limited set of observational data, the absence of direct tests of the moving parts of the deterrence story, and the failure to address important competing influences on murder. There is no reliable, scientifically sound evidence that pits execution against a robust set of competing explanations to identify whether it exerts a deterrent effect that is uniquely and sufficiently powerful to overwhelm the recurring epidemic cycles of murder. This and other rebukes remind us to invoke tough, neutral social science standards and commonsense causal reasoning before expanding the use of execution with its attendant risks and costs.

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

Document(s)

Law, society, and capital punishment in Asia

By David T. Johnson / Franklin E. Zimring / Punishment and Society, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

Japan


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Students of capital punishment need to study Asia, the site of at least 85 percent and as many as 95 percent of the world’s executions. This article explores the varieties of Asian capital punishment in two complementary ways. Cross-sectionally, the impression of uniformity that comes from classifying 95 percent of the population of Asia as living in executing states breaks down when closer attention is paid to the character of capital punishment policy within retentionist nations. Temporally, the general trajectory of capital punishment in the Asian region seems downward (though generalizations about patterns in this part of the world are undermined by significant data problems). Asia is also a useful territory for testing the generality of theories of capital punishment based on European experience. Looking forward, Japan and South Korea, two developed nations in Asia that still retain the death penalty, may indicate what other Asian nations are likely to do as they develop. Ultimately, Asia either will become a major staging area for world-wide abolition or the campaign against capital punishment will fail to achieve global status.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Japan

Document(s)

Support for the Death Penalty in Developed Democracies: A Binational Comparative Case Study

By Kevin Buckler / Willian Reed Benedict / Ben Brown / International Criminal Justice Review, on 1 January 2010


2010

Article

Mexico


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To assess support for the death penalty in Mexico and South Korea, surveys were administered to students at institutions of higher education. The majority of respondents in Mexico (52.3%) and South Korea (60.8%) supported the death penalty. Given that the Mexican and South Korean governments have histories of using criminal justice agencies to suppress democratic reform, the high level of support for the death penalty indicates that a history of authoritarian governance may not inculcate widespread opposition to the punishment. Concomitantly, regression analyses of the data indicate that beliefs about the treatment afforded to criminal suspects do not significantly affect support for capital punishment. Contrary to research conducted in the United States, which has consistently shown support for capital punishment is lower among females than among males, regression analyses of the data show that gender has no impact on support for the death penalty; findings that call for a reexamination of the thesis that the gender gap in support for the death penalty in the United States is the result of a patriarchal social structure.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Mexico
  • Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

Document(s)

Bloodsworth an Innocent Man

By Gregory Bayne, on 1 January 2015


2015

Working with...


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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)

Examining Public Opinion about Crime and Justice: A Statewide Study

By Eric Johnston / Barbara Sims / Criminal Justice Policy Review, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

As noted by Flanagan (1996), public opinion polls about crime and justice can act as a social barometer providing important data to policy makers regarding what the public is willing, or is not willing, to accept when it comes to proposed legislation and/or intervention programming. This paper reports findings from the 2001 Penn State Poll, a random telephone survey of Pennsylvanians, 18 years of age or older, in which citizens were asked about their attitudes toward and perceptions of such issues as fear of crime, capital punishment, the most important goal of prison, and where they would most like to see their tax dollars spent (building more prisons vs. early intervention programs with troubled youth). Significant differences were found within certain demographic groups across these sets of questions, and in a predictive model, gender, race/ethnicity, and education had a greater impact on citizens’ support for capital punishment than did their fear of crime. Overall, findings suggest that the public is not as punitive as it is sometimes believed to be by legislators and policy makers.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Public opinion,

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)

Racial Differences in Death Penalty Support and Opposition: A Preliminary Study of White and Black College Students

By Morris Jenkins / Eric G. Lambert / David N. Baker / Journal of Black Studies, on 1 January 2005


Article

United States


More details See the document

Although the death penalty has a long history, it is not without debate and differing views. There appears to be a gap between Whites and Blacks in terms of their support of capital punishment. Students at a Midwestern university were surveyed to determine whether there were differences between the two groups of students in reasons to support or oppose the death penalty. In bivariate tests, there were significant differences between White and Black students on 15 of 16 measures for reasons for supporting or opposing capital punishment. These differences continued for 10 of the 16 measures even after multivariate analysis controlled for the effects of gender, age, and academic level. The results are discussed.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

Document(s)

Furman Fundamentals

By Corinna Barrett Lain / Washington Law Review, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


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For the first time in a long time, the Supreme Court’s most important death penalty decisions all have gone the defendant’s way. Is the Court’s new found willingness to protect capital defendants here to stay? Or is it a passing fancy that will dissipate in less hospitable times? At first glance, history allows for optimism. Furman v. Georgia, the 1972 landmark that invalidated the death penalty, provides a seemingly perfect example of the Court’s ability and inclination to protect capital defendants when no one else will. Furman looks countermajoritarian, scholars have claimed it was countermajoritarian, and even the Justices saw themselves as playing a heroic, countermajoritarian role in the case. But the lessons of Furman are not what they seem. Rather than proving the Supreme Court’s ability to withstand majoritarian influences, Furman teaches the opposite – that even in its more countermajoritarian moments, the Court never strays far from dominant public opinion, tending instead to reflect the social and political movements of its time. This Article examines the historical context of Furman v. Georgia and its 1976 counterpart, Gregg v. Georgia, to highlight a fundamental flaw in the Supreme Court’s role as protector of minority rights: its inherently limited inclination and ability to render countermajoritarian change. In theory, the Court might protect unpopular minorities, but in practice it is unlikely to do so unless a substantial (and growing) segment of society supports that protection. Even then, Furman reminds us that the Court’s “help” may do more harm than good. If the past truly is a prologue, Furman portends that the Court’s current interest in restricting the death penalty will not last forever. Like the fair-weather friend, the Court’s protection will likely be there in good times but gone when needed the most.

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

Document(s)

The Use of Peremptory Challenges in Capital Murder Trials: A Legal and Empirical Analysis

By George Woodworth / David C. Baldus / David Zuckerman / University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law / Neil Alan Weiner / Barbara Broffitt, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

One of the largely unique aspects of the American jury system is that it confers upon the parties the unilateral power – in the form of peremptory challenges – to remove prospective jurors for any non-racial or non-gender-based reason. This article presents an overview of the literature on peremptory challenges, and an empirical analysis of their use in Philadelphia capital cases in the 1980s and 1990s.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial,

Document(s)

A year-end compilation of death penalty data for the state of Missouri : Annual Report 2015

By Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, on 1 January 2015


2015

NGO report


More details See the document

MADP released its annual report which highlights some of the major problems with Missouri’s broken death penalty system. Here is a snapshot of the death penalty in Missouri in 2015: 6 executions in 2015 but no new death sentences in Missouri in 2015.

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

Document(s)

Identifying and (Re)formulating Prophylactic Rules, Safe Harbors, and Incidental Rights in Constitutional Criminal Procedure

By Susan R. Klein / Michigan Law Review, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


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The Miranda conundrum runs something like this: If the Miranda decision represents true constitutional interpretation, and all unwarned statements taken during custodial interrogation are compelled” within the meaning of the self-incrimination clause, the impeachment and “”fruits”” exceptions to Miranda should fall. If it is not true constitutional interpretation, than the Court has no business reversing state criminal convictions for its violation. I offer here what I hope is a satisfying answer to this conundrum, on both descriptive and normative levels, that justifies not only Miranda but a host of similar Warren, Burger, and Rehnquist Court decisions as well. In Part I, I introduce and define the terms “”constitutional prophylactic rule,”” “”constitutional safe harbor rule,”” and “”constitutional incidental right,”” and attempt to legitimate their use. I further demonstrate that constitutional criminal procedure is so flush with such prophylactic and safe harbor rules and incidental rights that trying to eliminate them now, by either reversing a large number of criminal procedure cases or “”constitutionalizing”” all of those holdings, would do more harm than good. I propose that we accept the fact that these rules and rights are a fixed part of our constitutional landscape, and focus instead on minimizing their risks and maximizing their benefits”

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial,

Document(s)

Let’s Make a Deal: Waiving the Eighth Amendment by Selecting a Cruel and Unusual Punishment

By Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier / Connecticut Law Review, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

This Article addresses the issue of whether a criminal defendant may waive the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments by selecting an unconstitutional punishment over a constitutional punishment. The Article begins with a discussion of the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, followed by a discussion of areas where the Court has allowed defendants to waive Eighth Amendment protections in various contexts. Then, the Article discusses court decisions that have addressed whether one may waive Eighth Amendment protections by choosing a cruel and unusual punishment. Generally, this issue has arisen in three contexts: (1) where defendants are given the punishment option of banishment; (2) where sex offenders are given the punishment option of castration; and (3) where capital defendants are given an execution method option that violates the constitution. The Article explains that at least in the context of punishment type, a defendant’s choice should not waive Eighth Amendment protections. First, the ban on cruel and unusual punishments is a right that differs significantly from other constitutional criminal rights because it serves a broad societal purpose. Second, the waiver of this right differs from the waiver of other criminal rights because such waivers do not benefit the individual or society. Finally, to allow such waivers would strip the Eighth Amendment of meaning by permitting legislatures to create any punishment options it desired. Therefore, the Article concludes that the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishments cannot be waived by an individual.

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

Document(s)

Another Place Beyond Here: The Death Penalty Moratorium Movement in the United States

By Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier / University of Colorado Law Review, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

Professor Kirchmeier examines the recent decline in support for the death penalty in the United States and the resulting emergence of a movement to impose a moratorium on executions. After discussing the history of the death penalty abolition movement in the United States, he identifies five major and seven minor events that have contributed to the growth of the Death Penalty Moratorium Movement. Then, he compares the current Moratorium Movement to other similar reform periods: the 1960s Death Penalty Abolitionist Movement; legislative abolition of the death penalty in several states during the mid-1800s and early 1900s; death penalty abolition in other countries; and the Anti-Lynching Movement of the early 1900s. Based on the history of these other movements, Professor Kirchmeier discovers various lessons for today’s Moratorium Movement, including lessons about strategy and the roles of public opinion and leadership. Finally, using these lessons from history and looking at recent events, he considers the future of the Moratorium Movement. Professor Kirchmeier concludes that for the Movement to continue to be successful: (1) there must be no major national distracting forces; (2) the Movement must continue to broaden its arguments and not be overly dependent upon one issue, one person, or one strategy; (3) the Movement must continue seek support from unexpected voices; and (4) the Movement must stay focused on the goals of achieving popular support and creating new leaders. Finally, Professor Kirchmeier predicts that the Moratorium Movement is strong enough to continue to have lasting effects.

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

Document(s)

Capital Punishment: A Global Perspective

By Roger Hood / Punishment and Society, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article


More details See the document

This article reviews the extent to which the movement to abolish capital punishment has been successful and discusses some of the influences which have produced a remarkable increase in the number of abolitionist countries in the past two decades. It asks whether this trend has now come to an end as many countries which retain the death penalty continue to defy, for a variety of reasons, international pressure to change their laws and practices. Finally, it discusses some actions that might prove effective in overcoming these obstacles.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Europe – A Death Penalty Free Zone: Commentary and Critique of Abolitionist Strategies

By Peter Hodgkinson / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article


More details See the document

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critique and commentary on the European agenda on the abolition of the death penalty, and in so doing the author has relied heavily on the contributions made by a number of commentators to the recent Council of Europe publication, “The Death Penalty: Abolition in Europe”.

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

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 political origins of death penalty exceptionalism: Mao Zedong and the practice of capital punishment in contemporary China

By Zhang Ning / Punishment and Society, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

China


More details See the document

This article focuses on the role played by Mao Zedong in the making of the Chinese communist legal system in general and in the Chinese practice of the death penalty under Mao in particular. It attempts to study this link through an analysis of an event which represented a landmark, namely the campaign of the regression against counterrevolutionaries launched in 1950—2, and through an examination of three specific cases, which enable us to observe the concrete characteristics of these practices, whose effects continue to be felt in today’s China.

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

Document(s)

Judging Innocence

By Brandon Garrett / Columbia School of Law, on 1 January 2008


Article

United States


More details See the document

This empirical study examines for the first time how the criminal system in the United States handled the cases of people who were subsequently found innocent through postconviction DNA testing. The data collected tell the story of this unique group of exonerees, starting with their criminal trials, moving through levels of direct appeals and habeas corpus review, and ending with their eventual exonerations. Beginning with the trials of these exonerees, this study examines the leading types of evidence supporting their wrongful convictions, which were erroneous eyewitness identifications, forensic evidence, informant testimony, and false confessions. Yet our system of criminal appeals and postconviction review poorly addressed factual deficiencies in these trials. Few exonerees brought claims regarding those facts or claims alleging their innocence. For those who did, hardly any claims were granted by courts. Far from recognizing innocence, courts often denied relief by finding errors to be harmless.

  • 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)

Siting the Death Penalty Internationally

By Valerie West / David F. Greenberg / Law and Social Inquiry, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article


More details See the document

We examine sources of variation in possession and use of the death penalty using data drawn from 193 nations in order to test theories of punishment. We find the death penalty to be rooted in a country’s legal and political systems, and to be influenced by its religious traditions. A country’s level of economic development, its educational attainment, and its religious composition shape its political institutions and practices, indirectly affecting its use of the death penalty. The article concludes by discussing likely future trends.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

A Matter of Life and Death: The Effect of Life Without-Parole Statutes on Capital Punishment

By Harvard Law Review, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


More details See the document

Activists have embraced the life-without-parole alternative because the availability of parole is often a key factor for jurors deciding whether of not to impose a sentence of life or death.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Sentencing Alternatives,

Document(s)

Too Late for Luck: A Comparison of Post-Furman Exonerations and Executions of the Innocent

By Talia Roitberg Harmon / William S. Lofquist / Crime and Delinquency, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article

United States


More details See the document

This study is a quantitative analysis designed to compare two groups of factually innocent capital defendants: Those who were exonerated and those who were executed. There are a total of 97 cases in the sample, including 81 exonerations and 16 executions. The primary objective of the authors is to identify factors that may predict case outcomes among capital defendants with strong claims of factual innocence. Through the use of a logistic regression model, the following variables were significant predictors of case outcome (exoneration vs. execution): allegations of perjury, multiple types of evidence, prior felony record, type of attorney at trial, and race of the defendant. These results point toward significant problems with the administration of capital punishment deriving primarily from the quality of the case record created at trial.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in Japan: An “Absurd” Punishment

By Joachim Herrmann / Brooklyn Law Review, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article

Japan


More details See the document

This article outlines some of the main arguments against the death penalty in Japan.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Japan

Document(s)

Incestuous Rape and the Death Penalty in the Philippines: Psychological and Legal Implications

By Seema Kandelia / Philippine Law Journal, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

Philippines


More details See the document

The majority of those on death row in the Philippines have been convicted of rape crimes, including rape of a minor, rape of a family member and other aggravated forms of rape. Looking at incestuous rape in particular, this paper will examine some of the psychological and legal difficulties of imposing the death penalty for such a crime. It will focus on the effects the administration of the death penalty has on the victim and the victim’s family, as well as looking at some of the legal, evidential and procedural problems that arise in this jurisdiction’s imposition of the death penalty for rape.Despite the continued existence of the death penalty for incestuous rape, the number of reported cases has not diminished. Recognising this, local women’s groups in the Philippines have called for the root causes of incest and other forms of violence against women to be addressed rather than imposing the death penalty for rape. This response will also be considered within the broader context of Filipino gender relations.

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

Document(s)

Views on the death penalty among college students in India

By Eric G. Lambert / Sudershan Pasupuleti / Punishment and Society / Shanhe Jiang / K. Jaishankar / Jagadis V. Bhimarasetty, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

India


More details See the document

While research abounds on attitudes toward capital punishment in the United States, such work has been lacking in non-western nations — particularly in India, the world’s largest democracy. Data recently collected have revealed variance in levels of support for the death penalty among Indian college students: 44 percent express some degree of opposition, 13 percent are uncertain, and 43 percent express some degree of support. Reasons for support or opposition also exhibited variance. According to a multivariate analysis, statistically significant reasons for support included retribution, instrumentalist goals, and incapacitation; while significant reasons for opposition included morality and the belief that deterrence could be achieved by imposing sentences of life without parole.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list India
  • Themes list Public opinion, Public debate,

Document(s)

Cross-National Variability in Capital Punishment: Exploring the Sociopolitical Sources of Its Differential Legal Status

By Terance D. Miethe / Hong Lu / Gini R. Deibert / International Criminal Justice Review, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article


More details See the document

Guided by existing macrolevel theories on punishment and society, the present study explores the independent and conjunctive effects of measures of sociopolitical conditions on the legal retention of capital punishment in 185 nations in the 21st century. Significant correlations are found between a nation’s retention of legal executions for ordinary crimes and its level of economic development, primary religious orientation, citizens’ voice in governance, political stability, and recent history of extrajudicial executions. Subsequent multivariate analyses through qualitative comparative methods reveal substantial context-specific effects and wide variability in legal retention even within countries with similar sociopolitical structures. These results are then discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for future cross-national research on punishment and society.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

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)

Capital Punishment and American Exceptionalism

By Carol S. Steiker / Duke Law School, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

At the same time, the countries that most vigorously employ the death penalty are generally ones that the United States has the least in common with politically, economically, or socially, and ones that the United States is wont to define itself against, as they are among the least democratic and the worst human rights abusers in the world. In recent years, the top five employers of capital punishment were China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.3 Moreover, in the past twelve years, only seven countries in the world are known to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of their crimes: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United States.

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

Document(s)

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


More details See the document

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)

Mass Injustice: Statistical Findings on the Death Penalty in Egypt

By Reprieve, on 1 January 2019


2019

NGO report


More details See the document

This report, Mass Injustice, presents the Egypt Death Penalty Index (“the Index”), a first-of-its-kind website and statisticaldatabase on Egypt’s application of thedeath penalty. The report provides background information on Egypt’s growing unlawful application of the death penalty, and explains how the Index was compiled.

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

Document(s)

Frequency and Predictors of False Conviction: Why We Know So Little, and New Data on Capital Cases

By Barbara O'Brien / Samuel R. Gross / Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

In the first part of this paper we address the problems inherent in studying wrongful convictions: our pervasive ignorance and the extreme difficulty of obtaining the data that we need to answer even basic questions. The main reason that we know so little about false convictions is that, by definition, they are hidden from view. As a result, it is nearly impossible to gather reliable data on the characteristics or even the frequency of false convictions. In addition, we have very limited data on criminal investigations and prosecutions in general, so even if we could somehow obtain data on cases of wrongful conviction, we would have inadequate data on true convictions to compare them to. In the second part we dispel some of that ignorance by considering data on false convictions in a small but important subset of criminal cases about which we have unusually detailed information: death sentences. From 1973 on we know basic facts about all defendants who were sentenced to death in the United States, and we know which of them were exonerated. From these data we estimate that the frequency of wrongful death sentences in the United States is at least 2.3%. In addition, we compare post-1973 capital exonerations in the United States to a random sample of cases of defendants who were sentenced in the same time period and ultimately executed. Based on these comparisons we present a handful of findings on features of the investigations of capital cases, and on background facts about capital defendants, that are modest predictors of false convictions.

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

Document(s)

Death and Harmless Error: A Rhetorical Response to Judging Innocence

By Colin P. Starger / Columbia School of Law, on 1 January 2011


2011

Article

United States


More details See the document

The ‘Garret Study’ analyses the first 200 post conviction DNA exonerations in the United States. This article wheights the impact of the study and how it will depend on how jurists, politicians, and scholars extrapolate the explanatory power of the data.

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty Issues Checklist – Universal Periodic Review Stakeholder Reports

By The Advocates for Human Rights, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report


More details See the document

List of points of international human rights law to review when submitting a report on a country’s use of the death penalty to the United Nations’ Universial Periodic Review.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list International law,

Document(s)

Urdu : آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

enenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

اس رپورٹ کو ترتیب دیتے ہوئے کئی مقدمات کا دوبارہ جائزہ لیا گیا جس سے سزائے موت پر عمل درآمد سے پیدا ہونے والے اصل خطرات ظاہر ہوئے ہیں۔ آٹھ کیس شیٹ (ڈھکنے کا چین، بھارت، انڈونیشیا، جاپان، ملائیشیا، پاکستان، سنگاپور ، تائیوان)

Document(s)

Portuguese : Projecto de protocolo adicional à carta Africana dos direitos humanos e dos povos acerca da abolição da pena de morte em Africa

By FIACAT, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

enfr
More details Download [ pdf - 350 Ko ]

Para completar e reforçar as disposições da carta Africana dos direitos humanos e dos povos,o artigo 66 da carta autoriza a adopção de protocolos ou acordos particulares. É com estefundamento que a Comissão Africana dos Direitos Humanos e dos Povos (CADHP) – organismoda União Africana (UA) encarregado da promoção e protecção dos direitos humanos em Africa– propôs à UA a adopção de um protocolo específico sobre a abolição da pena de morte queprecisa que “o direito à vida é o fundamento de todos os outros direitos”, e que “a abolição dapena de morte é essencial à protecção eficaz” deste direito.

Document(s)

Amnesty International Death Penalty Awareness Weeks guide

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2012


2012

Campaigning


More details See the document

This is a guide for preparing events against the death penalty. It includes a “How to” guide for holding different types of events. It also provides a short factsheet on death penalty information in the United States.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Executing the Insane: The Story of Scott Panetti

By The Texas Defender Service / Google videos, on 1 January 2007


2007

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Scott Panetti was accused of killing his parents in law and convicted. Scott suffered from severe mental illness for many years, Schizophrenia. He dismissed his legal counsel and represented himself at trial wearing a cow boy suit and asking irrelavent questions. This video tells the story of Scott Panetti’s case and questions whether he was mentally stable to attend trial and represent himself.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in China: Towards the Rule of Law

By Nicola Macbean / Ashgate Publishing, on 1 January 2008


2008

Academic report


More details See the document

In the run up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, intemational criticism of China’s human rights record has highlighted the use of the death penalty. Although global activists may try to intemationalise China’s use ofthe death penalty, capital punishment is a domestic issue.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list Public debate, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

: Last Chance for Life: Clemency in Southeast Asian Death Penalty Cases

By Oxford University Press / Daniel Pascoe, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book


More details See the document
  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Death Penalty,

Document(s)

A Tale of Two (and Possibly Three) Atkins: Intellectual Disability and Capital Punishment Twelve Years after The Supreme Court’s Creation of a Categorical Bar

By John H. Blume / Sheri Lynn Johnson / William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, on 8 September 2020


Article

United States


More details See the document

The article, with three co-authors, examines empirically the capital cases decided by the lower courts since the United States Supreme Court created the categorical ban against the execution of persons with intellectual disability twelve years ago in the Atkins decision.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Mental Illness,

Document(s)

UPR death penalty stakeholder report template

By The Advocates for Human Rights, on 1 January 2015


2015

Working with...


More details See the document

Template for civil society submissions to the Universal Periodic Review of human rights organised by the United Nations.

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

Document(s)

UN advocacy: the universal periodic review – Death penalty

By The Advocates for Human Rights / Amy Bergquist / Rosalyn Park / Jennifer Prestholdt, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report


More details See the document

PowerPoint presentation used at The Advocates for Human Rights’ training session on death penalty advocacy for the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of human rights. See also the video of the presentation here.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list International law,

Document(s)

Thai : แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

enenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

ในรายงานฉบับนี้ มีการทบทวนคดีต่างๆ ที่เกิดขึ้นซึ่งสะท้อนให้เห็นอย่างชัดเจนถึงอันตรายร้ายแรงของการใช้โทษประหารชีวิต การตัดสินว่าใครจะถูกประหารและใครที่จะรอด มักไม่ แปดแผ่นกรณี (ครอบคลุมถึงจีน, อินเดีย, อินโดนีเซีย, ญี่ปุ่น, มาเลเซีย, ปากีสถาน, สิงคโปร์, ไต้หวัน)

Document(s)

Hindi : एशिया में घातक अन्याय: समाप्ति अनुचित परीक्षण, सज़ाएँ बंद करो

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

संयुक्त दुनिया के बाकी की तुलना में एशिया – प्रशांत क्षेत्र में और अधिक लोगों को क्रियान्वित कर रहे हैं. इस संभावना है कि वे एक अनुचित परीक्षण के बाद मार डाला गया जोड़ें, और इस सज़ा के सकल अन्याय सब भी स्पष्ट हो जाता है.

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)

Indonesian : KETIDAKADILAN YANG MEMATIKAN DI ASIA Akhiri peradilan yang tidak adil, hentikan eksekusi

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

Lebih banyak orang yang dieksekusi mati di kawasan Asia-Pasifik dibandingkan dengan gabungan jumlah hukuman mati di kawasan lain di dunia. Ditambah lagi adanya kemungkinan bahwa mereka dieksekusi hukuman mati setelah melalui sebuah peradilan yang tidak adil, maka ketidakadilan yang sangat besar dari hukuman ini menjadi semakin jelas.

Document(s)

The Innocents

By Taryn Simon, on 1 January 2002


2002

Working with...


More details See the document

The Innocents documents the stories of individuals who served time in prison for violent crimes they did not commit. At issue is the question of photography’s function as a credible eyewitness and arbiter of justice.

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

Document(s)

Korean : 아시아에서의 치명적 불의 불공정 재판을 멈춰라, 사형집행을 중단하라.

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

아시아∙태평양 지역에서는 세계 나머지 모든 곳을 다 합친 것보다 더 많은 사람이 사형을 당한다. 게다가 불공정한 재판을 받고 사형당할 가능성까지 감안하면 사형이 얼마나 부당한 제도인지 명백히 드러난다. 공정한 재판을 받지 못한 채 사형이 집행된 후에는 이를 되돌이킬 방법이 전혀 없다.

Document(s)

Pakistani Christian Woman Sentenced to Death

By Amnesty International / British Pakistani Christian Association, on 1 January 2010


2010

Legal Representation


More details See the document

On 8 November, the 45-year-old mother of five children was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death under Section 295B and 295C of Pakistan’s Penal Code, for insulting the Prophet Muhammad, by a court in Nankana, around 75km (45 miles) west of the city of Lahore in Punjab province.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Portuguese : UM BREVE DISCURSO SEDICIOSO ACERCA DA PENA DE MORTE

By Neemias Prudente / Journal of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, on 8 September 2020


2020

Article

Brazil


More details See the document

Em decorrência de certos crimes de grande repercussão que abalam a sociedade e da impotência do Estado frente à criminalidade, ressuscitam vozes e projetos solicitando a aplicação da pena de morte entre nós. O tema é de abordagem complexa, polêmica e controversa.Os partidários da supressão do homem sustentam que a presença da pena de morte na legislação teria por escopo de definitivamente banir ou diminuir o crescente índice de criminalidade em nosso país, além de desestimular homicídios, latrocínios, crimes sexuais violentos, seqüestros etc.Mas será que a pena de morte, como têm sido defendido por alguns setores da sociedade, seria a solução para os problemas de violência e da criminalidade, que estão sendo vivenciadas pela população brasileira?

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

Document(s)

Death Row Stories

By CNN, on 1 January 2020


2020

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

This docu-series investigate the fallibility of the death penalty in the United States.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Japanese : 不当に奪われる生命 ~アジアにおける不公正な裁判を止め、 死刑執行の停止を~

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

アジア太平洋地域における死刑の執行数は、世界の他の地域の合計数よりも多い。その上、不公正な裁判で処刑された可能性や、死刑の著しい不正義が明らかに なっている。誤判で死刑判決が言い渡されると、取り返しがつかない。アジア 太平洋地域の人口の95パーセントが、 死刑を存置

Document(s)

Towards an Islamic Critique of Capital Punishment

By Robert Postawko / Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law, on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

Iran (Islamic Republic of)


More details See the document

In general, Muslim nations recognize the validity of the death penalty, and many frequently impose it. According to Amnesty International, between 1985 and mid-1988, Saudi Arabia executed 140 prisoners for the crimes of murder, robbery with violence, drug smuggling or distribution, and adultery. During the same period, Pakistan executed 115, primarily for the crime of murder. Hundreds every year faced the firing squad in Iraq for murder, desertion, treason, sabotage, and economic corruption. At the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed more than 743 inmates for murder, drug crimes, political offenses, prostitution, adultery and other “moral offenses,” including “being corrupt on earth” and “being at enmity with God.” In face of the widespread acceptance of the death penalty within the Muslim world, this essay explores the contours of an Islamic argument against capital punishment. The argument is not, and cannot be, an appeal for the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances. It does call into question, however, the legitimacy – indeed, the legality in accordance with the principles of classical Islamic law, or the Shari’ah – of capital punishment as it is practiced in the era of Islamization.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Iran (Islamic Republic of)
  • Themes list Religion , Capital offences, Most Serious Crimes,

Document(s)

Death Penalty Sentencing in Trial Courts: Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (2000-2015)

By Project 39A, on 1 January 2019


2019

Academic report


More details See the document

Compiled by Project 39A from the National University Law in Delhi, India and based on numerous figures and statistics, this report attempts to understand how death sentencing is practised among the district and sessions courts in India.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Incendiary: the Willingham case

By Joe Bailey Jr. / Indira Barykbayeva / YOKEL production, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

After its national release in October, “Incendiary: The Willingham Case” is now available on DVD and through Apple’s iTunes Movie Store.The film examines the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham in Texas for the murder of his children by arson and centers around evolving standards of scientific evidence and the notion that an innocent man was executed

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Lapan lembaran kes (meliputi China, India, Indonesia, Jepun, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 1 January 2011


Academic report

enenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

Document(s)

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 1 January 2020


2020

NGO report


More details See the document

Энэхүү илтгэлийг боловсруулахдаа хэд хэдэн хэргийг тоймлон бичсэн ба тэдгээр нь цаазын ялыг хэрэгжүүлэхийн бодит аюулыг ил тодорхой харуулж байна.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Thai : การประหารชีวิตที่อยุติธรรม ในภูมิภาคเอเชีย ยุติการพิจารณาคดีที่ไม่เป็นธรรม ยกเลิกการประหารชีวิต

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

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)

Urdu : یفاصناان کلہم ںیم ایشیا ںیرک متخ توم ےازس ،دنب تامدقم ہنافصنمریغ

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

ںیم سا ۔ےہ یتاج ید توم ےازس وک دارفا ہدایز ےس ایند یقاب ںیم ےطخ کفسیپ ایشیا ںیم ےجیتن ےک تعامس ہنافصنمریغ ںیہنا ہک ےئاج ایل رک لماش یھب وک ناکما سا رگا ۔ےہ یتاجوہ حضاو یفاصناان یعومجم یک ازس سا وت یئگ ید ازس

Document(s)

Tagalog : NAKAMAMATAY NA KAWALAN NG KATARUNGAN SA ASYA Itigil ang Di Makatarungang paglilitis, Itigil ang Pagbitay

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

Mas maraming tao ang pinarusahan ng kamatayan sa Rehiyong Asya-Pasipikokung ikukumpara sa pinagsamang iba pang bahagi ng mundo. Idagdag pa rito ang probabilidad na sila ay binitay pagkatapos ng di-makatarungang paglilitis, at lalong lilinaw ang garapal na inhustisya ng parusang ito.

Document(s)

Peter Jackson talks about his innocence project: ‘West of Memphis’

By Chris Nashawaty / Entertainment Weekly, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

United States


More details See the document

For the past seven years, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have quietly financed investigations to help free Jason Baldwin, Jesse Misskelley Jr., and Damien Echols, known as the the West Memphis Three, who were wrongly convicted in 1994 of murdering three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis , Arkansas. This piece provides and in-depth look into Peter and Fran’s involvement with the investigattion, the creation of ‘West of Memphis’ as a way to expose key developments in the infamous murder case and Jackson’s main goal, to exonerate the West Memphis Three and help find the real killer.

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

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)

Executing The Innocent and Support for Capital Punishment: Implications for Public Policy

By Francis T. Cullen / James D. Unnver / Criminology and Public Policy, on 1 January 2005


2005

Article

United States


More details See the document

The issue of whether innocent people have been executed is now at the center of the debate concerning the legitimacy of capital punishment. The purpose of this research was to use data collected by the Gallup Organization in 2003 to investigate whether Americans who believed that an innocent person had been executed were less likely to support capital punishment. We also explored whether the association varied by race, given that African Americans are disproportionately affected by the death penalty. Our results indicated that three-quarters of Americans believed that an innocent person had been executed for a crime they did not commit within the last five years and that this belief was associated with lower levels of support for capital punishment, especially among those who thought this sanction was applied unfairly. In addition, our analyses revealed that believing an innocent person had been executed had a stronger association with altering African American than white support for the death penalty.A key claim of death penalty advocates is that a high proportion of the public supports capital punishment. In this context, scholars opposing this sanction have understood the importance of showing that the public’s support for executing offenders is contingent and shallower than portrayed by typical opinion polls. The current research joins this effort by arguing that the prospect of executing innocents potentially impacts public support for the death penalty and, in the least, creates ideological space for a reconsideration of the legitimacy of capital punishment.

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

Document(s)

Mongolian : АЗИ ТИВ ДЭХ ЭНЭРЭЛГҮЙ ШУДАРГА БУС ЯВДАЛ Шударга бусaap шүүх явдлыг зогсоож, цаазын ялыг халъя

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

enenenenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

Ази, Номхон далайн бүсэд дэлхийн бусад орнуудыг нийлүүлж тооцсоноос ч илүү олон хүнийг цаазалж байна. Үүнээс гадна тэр хүмүүсийг шударга бус шүүхээр шүүсэн байх магадлалтай бөгөөд энэхүү шийтгэл нь асар ичгүүргүй, шударга бус болох нь улам ойлгомжтой болсоор байна.

Document(s)

The Execution of Cameron Todd Willingham: Junk Science, an Innocent Man, and the Politics of Death

By Paul C. Giannelli / Case Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2011-18 , on 1 January 2011


2011

Article

United States


More details See the document

The case of Cameron Todd Willingham has become infamous and was enmeshed in the death penalty debate and the reelection of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who refused to grant a stay of execution. The governor has since attempted to derail an investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

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

Document(s)

Minority Practice, Majority’s Burden: The Death Penalty Today

By James S. Liebman / Peter Clarke / Columbia School of Law, on 1 January 2011


Article

United States


More details See the document

This article explores how, capital punishment in the United States is a minority practice. This feature of American capital punishment has become more pronounced recently, and is especially clear when death sentences, which are merely infrequent, are distinguished from executions, which are exceedingly rare.

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

Document(s)

Remedying Wrongful Execution

By Meghan J. Ryan / University of Michigan, on 1 January 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)

Hindi : आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

enenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

इस रिपोर्ट संकलन में मामलों की संख्या की समीक्षा की गई है जो स्पष्ट रूप से मौत की सजा को लागू करने के बहुत असली खतरों का प्रदर्शन. आठ मामले शीट (कवर चीन, भारत, इंडोनेशिया, जापान, मलेशिया, पाकिस्तान, सिंगापुर, ताइवान)

Document(s)

The Story of Chiou Ho-shun

By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / Ho Chao-ti, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Chiou Ho-shun, a death row inmate in Taiwan, may be executed at any time. He said, ‘ I hope you can save me, but if it’s too late, please scatter my ashes in the Longfeng harbour, and buy a meatball, come and see me.’

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Torture,

Document(s)

Indonesian : Delapan kasus lembar (meliputi Cina, India, Indonesia, Jepang, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapura, Taiwan)

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

enenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

Document(s)

Japanese : 八ケースシート(カバー中国、インド、インドネシア、日本、マレーシア、パキスタン、シンガポール、台湾)

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

enenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

Document(s)

Tagalog : Eight kaso sheet (sumasakop sa China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan)

By Amnesty International / Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

enenenenenenzh-hant
More details See the document

Document(s)

Psychological Assessments in Legal Contexts: Are Courts Keeping “Junk Science” Out of the Courtroom?

By Tess M. S. Neal / Psychological Science in the Public Interest, on 1 January 2020


2020

Article

United States


More details See the document

This article reports the results of a two-part investigation of psychological assessments proposed as expert evidence in legal context.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Mental Illness, Death Penalty,

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)

Black Deaths Matter: The Race-of-Victim Effect and Capital Punishment

By Daniel Medwed / Northeastern, on 1 January 2020


2020

Article

United States


More details See the document

The racial dimensions of the death penalty are well-documented. Many observers assume this state of affairs derives from bias—often implicit and occasionally explicit—against black defendants in particular. Research points to an even more alarming factor. The race of the victim, not the defendant, steers cases in the direction of death. Regardless of the perpetrator’s race, those who kill whites are more likely to face capital charges, receive a death sentence, and die by execution than those who murder blacks. This short Essay adds a contemporary gloss to the race-of-victim effect literature, placing it in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement and showing how it relates to the broader, systemic devaluation of African-American lives.

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2019

By NLU Delhi , on 1 January 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)

The Effect of Race, Gender, and Location on Prosecutioral Decisions to Seek the Death Penalty in South Carolina

By Isaac Unah / Michael J. Songer / South Carolina Law Review, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article

United States


More details See the document

This Article analyzes the factors that influence the decisions of South Carolina prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Professor Unah and Mr. Songer employ statistical methods to examine the legal and nonlegal factors that shape this decision-making process. Controlling for political factors, this Article finds that the race of the victim, gender, and rural crime locations are significant considerations in the decision to seek the death penalty. Further, Professor Unah and Mr. Songer argue that these nonlegal factors undermine the legal guidelines that are intended to channel and steer the decision-making process. This Article highlights the arbitrary nature of the decisions that result from these considerations, and it concludes by challenging the legitimacy of a process influenced by these factors.

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

Document(s)

Commentary on Counsel’s Duty to Seek and Negotiate a Disposition in Capital cases (ABA Guideline 10.9.1)

By Russell Stetler / Hofstra Law Review, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article

United States


More details See the document

The ABA’s revised Guidelines have squarely addressed the importance of seeking and negotiating dispositions in capital cases as a core component of effective representation in matters of life and death. Pleas have been available in the overwhelming majority of capital cases in the post-Furman era, including the cases of hundreds of prisoners who have been executed. There are no precise empirical data on this question. Plea negotiations are typically confidential, with both parties maintaining a posture of plausible denial if negotiations fail. The prosecutor may find it harder to argue to jurors that justice in a particular case requires a sentence of death if they know that he had offered the defendant a life sentence only weeks before. Defense counsel may not want to advertise her willingness to plead to first-degree murder if the case proceeds to trial and she is arguing to the jurors that the proof supports only second-degree. In addition, there are cases where a plea was acceptable to both sides, but negotiation never began because each side waited for the other to initiate discussions.

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

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)

The True Legacy of Atkins and Roper: The Unreliability Principle, Mentally Ill Defendants, and the Death Penalty’s Unraveling

By Scott E. Sundby / University of Miami School of Law, on 8 September 2020


NGO report

United States


More details See the document

In striking down the death penalty for intellectually disabled and juvenile defendants, Atkins v. Virginia and Roper v. Simmons have been understandably heralded as important holdings under the Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence that has found the death penalty “disproportional” for certain types of defendants and crimes. This Article argues, however, that the cases have a far more revolutionary reach than their conventional understanding. In both cases the Court went one step beyond its usual two-step analysis of assessing whether imposing the death penalty violated “evolving standards of decency.” This extra step looked at why even though intellectual disability and youth were powerful mitigators, juries were not able to reliably use them in their decision making. The Court thus articulated expressly for the first time what this Article calls the “unreliability principle:” if too great a risk exists that constitutionally protected mitigation cannot be reliably assessed, the unreliability means that the death penalty cannot be constitutionally imposed. In recognizing the unreliability principle, the Court has called into serious question the death penalty for other offenders to whom the principle applies, such as mentally ill defendants. And, unlike with the “evolving standards” analysis, the unreliability principle does not depend on whether a national consensus exists against the practice. This Article identifies the six Atkins-Roper factors that bring the unreliability principle into play and shows why they make application of the death penalty to mentally ill defendants unconstitutional. The principle, which finds its constitutional home in the cases of Woodson v. North Carolina and Lockett v. Ohio, has profound implications for the death penalty, and if taken to its logical endpoint calls into question the Court’s core premise since Furman v. Georgia, that by providing individualized consideration of a defendant and his crime, the death penalty decision will be free of arbitrariness.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial, Intellectual Disability,

Document(s)

Grief, Loss, and Treatment for Death Row Families

By Sandra Joy, on 5 December 2013


2013

Book

Murder Victims' Families


More details See the document

The families of death row inmates are rarely considered in public discourse regarding the death penalty. They have largely been forgotten, and their pain has not been acknowledged by the rest of society. These families experience a unique grief process as they are confronted with the loss of their loved one to death row and brace themselves for the possibility of an execution. Death row families are disenfranchised from their grief by the surrounding community, and their; mental health needs exacerbated as they struggle in isolation with the ambiguous loss that comes with the fear that the state will kill their loved one.

Grief, Loss, and Treatment for Death Row Families describes the grief that families experience from the time of their loved one’s arrest through his or her execution. In each chapter, Sandra Joy guides the reader through the grief process experienced by the families, offering clinical interventions that can be used by mental health professionals who are given the opportunity to work with these families at various stages of their grief. The author conducted over seventy qualitative interviews with family members from Delaware who either currently have a loved one on death row or have survived the execution of their loved one. Delaware was chosen because though it has a relatively small death row, it is ranked third in the nation with its rate of per capita executions. This book provides an in-depth awareness of the grieving process of death row families, as well as ways that professionals can intervene to assist them in healing. With increased awareness and effective clinical treatment, we can ensure that the families of death row inmates are forgotten no more.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Murder Victims' Families

Document(s)

The Next Frontier: National Development, Political Change, and the Death Penalty in Asia

By David T. Johnson / Franklin E. Zimring / Oxford University Press, on 1 January 2009


2009

Book

China


More details See the document

Authors David Johnson, an expert on law and society in Asia, and Franklin Zimring, a senior authority on capital punishment, utilize their research to identify the critical factors affecting the future of the death penalty in Asia. They found that when an authoritarian state experienced democratic reform, such as in Taiwan and South Korea, the rate of executions dropped sharply. Johnson and Zimring also found that politics, instead of culture or tradition, is the major obstacle to the end of capital punishment in Asia.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list China

Document(s)

Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic and Christian Cultures

By Oxford University Press / Beth A. Berkowitz, on 1 January 2006


2006

Book


More details See the document

In this book Beth Berkowitz tells the story of modern scholarship on the ancient rabbinic death penalty and continues the story by offering a fresh perspective using the approaches of ritual studies, cultural criticism, and talmudic source criticism. Against the scholarly consensus, Berkowitz argues that the rabbinic laws of the death penalty were used by the early Rabbis in their efforts to establish themselves in the wake of the destruction of the Temple. The purpose of the laws, she contends, was to create a complex ritual of execution that was controlled by the Rabbis, thus bolstering their claims to authority in the context of Roman imperial domination.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Religion ,

Document(s)

The Politics of Fear and Death: Successive Problems in Capital Federal Habeas Corpus.”

By Bryan A. Stevenson / New York University (NYU), on 1 January 2002


2002

Article

United States


More details See the document

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996 was drafted, enacted, and signed in an atmosphere of anger and fear. The legislation, which includes substantial cutbacks in the federal habeas corpus remedy, was Congress’s response to the tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing. During the congressional hearings on the bills that culminated in AEDPA, the proponents of the legislation claimed that its habeas corpus restrictions and other provisions were necessary to fight domestic terrorism. The Senate bill was approved by the House on April 18, 1996, the day before the one-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. President Bill Clinton invoked the bombing in a statement he issued at the time of the Senate’s passage of the legislation and again when he signed the legislation into law. Even at the time of the debates, some courageous legislators were willing to denounce the fallacious connection that the bill’s proponents drew between the bombing and the broader issues of the scope and availability of habeas corpus review. Many of the habeas corpus restrictions ultimately built into AEDPA had been under consideration by Congress since 1990, though none had been adopted. The congressional proponents of these restrictions seized upon the Oklahoma City tragedy as a means of accomplishing their longstanding goal to scale back federal habeas corpus review.

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

Document(s)

Seven Dates With Death

By Mike Holland, on 1 January 2019


2019

Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

In Louisiana in the late 50s, Moreese Bickham, who was the oldest living survivor of death row, killed two members of the Ku Klux Klan to save his own life. He was sentenced to death and believes he was lucky enough to even have a trial as a black man in the south. Due to mental toughness, a timely supreme court decision, and a lot of hope, Bickham survived his death sentence. Whether he knew it or not, after that day, his life was not going to get any easier

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Minorities, Death Row Conditions, Electrocution,

Document(s)

Prosecutorial Discretion and Sentencing in Singapore

By Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal / Kumaralingam Amirthalingam, on 1 January 2018


2018

Academic report


More details See the document

Singapore recently amended its laws to replace the mandatory death penalty regime for murder and drug trafficking with a discretionary sentencing regime under certain conditions. One of the conditions with respect to drug trafficking was that the convicted trafficker had to be granted a certificate by the Public Prosecutor stating that the trafficker had provided substantive assistance that led to the disruption of drug trafficking activities. That decision is not subject to judicial review except under very narrow circumstances, protected in the same way as the constitutionally protected prosecutorial discretion.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list Due Process , Fair Trial, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

Emerging Issues in Juvenile Death Penalty Law

By Victor L. Streib / Ohio Northern University Law Review, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article

United States


More details See the document

As our society’s enduring marriage to the death penalty prepares to enter yet another century, it is a marriage that places the children in danger. Why is it that we continue to impose the death penalty for crimes committed by juvenile offenders? As questionable as the death penalty is in general, might we not at least place an “adults only” label on it? The rest of the world has already done so. Only in America need children fear execution by their own government.

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