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Document(s)

The ‘Mumia Exception’

By Free Mumia Abul Jamal Coalition (NYC), on 1 January 2009


2009

Legal Representation


More details See the document

In 1981, Mumia worked as a cab driver at night to supplement his income. On December 9th he was driving his cab through the red light district of downtown Philadelphia at around 4 a.m. Mumia testifies that he let off a fare and parked near the corner of 13th and Locust Streets. Upon hearing gunshots, he turned and saw his brother, William Cook, staggering in the street. Mumia exited the cab and ran to the scene, where he was shot by a uniformed police officer and fell to the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. Within minutes, police arrived on the scene to find Officer Faulkner and Mumia shot; Faulkner died. Mumia was arrested, savagely beaten, thrown into a paddy wagon and driven to a hospital a few blocks away (suspiciously, it took over 30 minutes to arrive at the hospital). The trial began in 1982 with Judge Sabo (who sent more people to death row than any other judge) presiding. Mumia wished to represent himself and have John Africa as his legal advisor, but before jury selection had finished, this right was revoked and an attorney was forcibly appointed for him. Throughout the trial, Mumia was accused of disrupting court proceedings and was not allowed to attend most of his own trial.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Fault Lines: Politics of Death Penalty

By Fault Lines / YouTube, on 1 January 2010


2010

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

FaultLines explores the death penalty in the United States. Interviews with murder victim families, politicans and the exonerated are included.

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

Document(s)

Step by Step : Journey of Hope

By Journey of Hope / YouTube, on 1 January 2007


2007

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This is a video following the Journey of Hope in Texas, a group lobbying for abolition in Texas.They tour Texas giving talks on the death penalty and they promote a message of love and not retribution. This video includes testimonies from murder victim families and exonerees.

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty and the Indian Supreme Court (2007-2021)

By Project 39A, on 8 December 2022


2022

NGO report

India


More details See the document

Death Penalty and the Indian Supreme Court (2007-2021) maps the important trends and developments in the Supreme Court’s death penalty jurisprudence. These past 15 years have witnessed significant developments in the law on capital sentencing, post-mercy jurisprudence, and other procedural developments pertaining to the administration of the death penalty. Imagined as an intellectual successor of PUCL and Amnesty International’s doctrinal study of the Supreme Court’s death penalty cases between 1950 to 2006, in ‘Lethal Lottery: The Death Penalty in India’, this report highlights the sustained inconsistency and judge-centric reasoning in capital cases, with particular emphasis on the problem of arbitrariness in approaches to capital sentencing at the Supreme Court. 

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list India

Document(s)

Killing as Punishment: Reflections on the Death Penalty in America

By Hugo Adam Bedau / Northeastern, on 1 January 2004


2004

Book

United States


More details See the document

Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the field, Bedau addresses topics such as strong public suppport for the death penalty, wrongful convictions, the disappearance of executive clemency, constitutional arguments surronding the Eight Amendment, and procedural reforms under consideration that move toward abolition.

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

Document(s)

In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families

By Elizabeth Beck / Oxford University Press / Sarah Britto / Arlene Andrews, on 1 January 2007


2007

Article

United States


More details See the document

The stories of parents, siblings, children, and cousins chronicled in this book-vividly illustrate the precarious position family members of capital offenders occupy in the criminal justice system. They live in the shadow of death, crushed by trauma, grief, and helplessness. In this penetrating account of guilt and innocence, shame and triumph, devastating loss and ultimate redemption, the voices of these family members add a new dimension to debates about capital punishment and how communities can prevent and address crime.

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

Document(s)

Annual Statistics Report 2022

By Project 39A, on 22 February 2023


2023

NGO report

India


More details See the document

This is the seventh edition of the Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report published by Project 39A at National Law University, Delhi. 2022 represents a significant shift in death penalty adjudication, with the Supreme Court recognising the need to reconsider the capital sentencing framework for the first time since it was laid down in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab in 1980. In a momentous order, the Supreme Court noted the gaps in the death penalty sentencing framework and has sought to address these concerns through a Constitution Bench towards establishing the components of a real, meaningful and effective capital sentencing hearing. In another decision, the Court laid down guidelines for the collection of mitigating material by trial courts. However, in the same year that the Supreme Court cast grave doubts on the death penalty sentencing framework and its implementation by trial courts, it is of concern that 165 death sentences were imposed by Sessions Courts, the highest in a single year since 2000.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Countries list India

Document(s)

America Without the Death Penalty: States Leading the Way

By John F. Galliher / Larry W. Koch / Northeastern / Teresa J. Guess, on 1 January 2002


2002

Book

United States


More details See the document

Twelve states and the District of Columbia do not impose the death penalty. The authors, all sociology professors at American universities, use the case-study method to examine why this is so. The factors they consider include murder rates, the history of executions, economic circumstances, public opinion, mass media, population diversity, and each state’s abolition of the death penalty. They also examine the role of a state’s social, cultural, and economic leaders in public debate on capital punishment. The states studied are Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, and West Virginia, though there is also some discussion of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. Media reports and government documents were reviewed and legislators, civil servants, journalists, death-penalty activists, and others interviewed. Throughout, the authors express an abolitionist point of view, stating “We hope this book will provide practical information to those interested in furthering death penalty abolition in the United States and throughout the world.”

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

Document(s)

Myth of the hanging tree: stories of crime and punishment in territorial New Mexico

By Robert J. Torrez / University of New Mexico Press, on 1 January 2008


2008

Book

United States


More details See the document

The haunting specter of hanging trees holds a powerful sway on the American imagination, conjuring images of rough-and-tumble frontier towns struggling to impose law and order in a land where violence was endemic. In this thoughtful study, former New Mexico State Historian Robert Torrez examines several fascinating criminal cases that reveal the harsh and often gruesome realities of the role hangings, legal or otherwise, played in the administration of frontier justice. At first glance, the topic may seem downright morbid, and in a sense it is, but these violent attempts at justice are embedded in our perception of America’s western experience. In tracing territorial New Mexico’s efforts to enforce law, Torrez challenges the myths and popular perceptions about hangings and lynching in this corner of the Wild West.

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

Document(s)

Wounds That Do Not Bind: Victim-based Perspectives on the Death Penalty

By James R. Acker / David R. Karp / Carolina Academic Press, on 1 January 2006


2006

Book

United States


More details See the document

This book examines how family members and advocates for victims address the impact of capital punishment. The book presents the personal stories of victims’ family members and their interactions with the criminal justice system. It also examines the relevant areas of legal research, including the use of victim impact evidence in capital trials, how capital punishment affects victims’ family members, and what is known about addressing the needs of the survivors after a murder.

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

Document(s)

Cut This: The Death Penalty

By ABC7 / YouTube, on 1 January 2010


2010

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

An anti death penalty video which advocates the abolition of the death penalty. The personalities in the video suggest using the money which is currently used on the death penalty for improving the community.

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

Document(s)

Execution Facility Tour of North Carolina Death Row

By Scott Langley / YouTube, on 1 January 2010


Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This video gives a tour of the death row facilities at North Carolina. It also explores the protocol for execution by lethal injection.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty
  • Themes list Lethal Injection,

Document(s)

Geometrical Justice: The Death Penalty in America

By Scott Phillips and Mark Cooney, on 12 October 2022


2022

Book

United States


More details See the document

In their new book, released in the Summer of 2022, University of Denver criminology and sociology professor Scott Phillips and University of Georgia sociologist Mark Cooney apply the concept of “social geometry,” developed in the 1970s by sociologist Donald Black, to analyze outcomes of capital cases. After reviewing extensive data collected in connection with the landmark Baldus Study of capital sentencing in Georgia and from the national Capital Jury Project, they conclude that the sentencing outcomes in the cases in those databases support key principles of Black’s theory: the higher the social status of the victim and the lower the social status of the defendant, the more likely a death sentence will be imposed.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

NGO Media Outreach: Using the Media as an Advocacy Tool

By Coalition for the International Criminal Court, on 1 January 2003


2003

Working with...


More details See the document

A guide for NGOs to use media effectively. This guide explains the importance of media, how to create contacts, how to prepare a media outreach campaign, how to deliver a campaign to the media and how to use available resources to support your media campaign.

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

Document(s)

Jeremy Irons talks about the death penalty

By Amnesty International, on 1 January 2007


2007

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This video features Jeremy Irons who speaks about the death penalty and arguements commonly made for it.

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

Document(s)

Oleg Alkaev, former head of Belarus’s death row

By Amnesty International / Daily Motion, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

Belarus

fr
More details See the document

Colonel Oleg Alkaev, who was Director of remand prison (SIZO)6 No. 1 in Minsk and ordered a number of executions. He gave this testimony to Amnesty International, a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

Document(s)

The Death Penalty in China

By Sky News / YouTube, on 1 January 2015


2015

Arguments against the death penalty

fr
More details See the document

This Sky News Report discusses the administration of the death penalty in China; Innocent people who have been put to death, stealing the organs of the executed and the nature of the death penalty in China.

Document(s)

Stephen Bright v. Death Penalty

By Moblogic TV / YouTube, on 1 January 2008


2008

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

Renowned capital defense attorney Stephen Bright discusses the death penalty in light of recent Supreme Court decisions.

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

Document(s)

End the Death Penalty, Mike Farrell on Meet the Bloggers

By Meet the Bloggers / YouTube, on 1 January 2008


Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

Meet the Bloggers talks about the death penalty with two anti death penalty campaigners. The cases of Troy Davis and Montell Johnson are discussed and issues such as discrimination, retribution, the cost of the death penalty, religion and sentencing alternatives are touched upon. Short clips on the Death Penalty in Mexico, Amnesty Internationals campaign and how you can help fight the death penalty are all discussed here.

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

Document(s)

Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

By UK Film Council, on 1 January 2005


2005

Multimedia content

United Kingdom


More details See the document

Motion picture on the life and times of Albert Pierrepoint – Britain’s most prolific hangman.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United Kingdom
  • Themes list Public debate, Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty,

Document(s)

The North Carolina Racial Justice Act

By North Carolina Coalition For A Moratorium / YouTube, on 1 January 2009


2009

Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

House Bill 472 and Senate Bill 461, known as The North Carolina Racial Justice Act, addresses racial discrimination in capital sentencing. This video featuring death row exonoree Edward Chapman, talks about racial bias and how the Racial Justice Act attempts to assure that race would not play a role in who gets the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

Innocence

By The North Atlantic Innocence Project / The Innocence Project / YouTube, on 1 January 2009


Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

This event was held by the North Atlantic Innocence Project. The video explores post conviction evidence that can prove innocence after conviction. Testimonials from the exonerated, a victim and from a police officier who works on post conviction cases.

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

Document(s)

Mike Farrell: Paul House and Death Row

By Air America Media / YouTube, on 1 January 2009


Arguments against the death penalty


More details See the document

Mike Farrell talks about the death penalty in the United States. Amongst many things he speaks about innocence, deterrence and retribution.

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

Document(s)

Training on death penalty advocacy for the Universal Periodic Review of human rights

By The Advocates for Human Rights / Amy Bergquist / Rosalyn Park / Jennifer Prestholdt, on 1 January 2015


2015

Working with...


More details See the document

Video recording of a training session by The Advocates for Human Rights on death penalty advocacy for the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of human rights. Download the PowerPoint presentation here.

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

Document(s)

Judy Kerr: Murder Victim Family Member

By California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty / YouTube, on 1 January 2009


2009

Working with...


More details See the document

Judy Kerr talks about her experience as a murder victim family member and her opposition against the death. Responding to violence with violence is not the answer.

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

Document(s)

The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition

By Routledge / Madoka Futamura, on 1 January 2014


2014

Book


More details See the document

Covering a diverse range of transitional processes in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, The Politics of the Death Penalty in Countries in Transition offers a broad evaluation of countries whose death penalty policies have rarely been studied. The book would be useful to human rights researchers and international lawyers, in demonstrating how transition and transformation, ‘provide the catalyst for several of interrelated developments of which one is the reduction and elimination of capital punishment’.

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

Document(s)

Give up Tomorrow

By Michael Collins / Thoughtful Robot Production, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Reflecting schisms of race, class, and political power at the core of the Philippines’ tumultuous democracy, clashing families, institutions, and individuals face off to convict or free Paco, accused of the rape and murder of two chinese-philipino women.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Circumstances of Offense: Robert “Saint” Bailey on Death Row

By Chris Dahl / CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

This book is a first-hand account of the life of Simon City Royals gangster Robert “Saint” Bailey who is currently on Death Row in Raiford, Florida. He killed a law enforcement officer in 2005.

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

Document(s)

MVFHR Asia Speech Tour in Korea & Japan

By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights / YouTube, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

Japan

en
More details See the document

MVFHR is an organization formed by a group of victim’s family members. They have traveled across the ocean all the way down to Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to share their stories and views on the death penalty with the local victim’s family members, attorneys, and human rights organizations.

Document(s)

Trial and Errors : The Texas Death Penalty

By Lisa Maxwell / AMITI, on 1 January 2013


2013

Book

United States


More details See the document

TRIAL & ERROR takes a thorough look at the most controversial issues of the Texas Death Penalty that have raised questions of fairness and equality. Read words of inmates on death row in interviews conducted by the Amiti Organization, then judge for yourself whether the Death Penalty is administering justice or injustice.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Foreign nationals facing the death penalty in the USA: the important role of consular officials

By Reprieve, on 1 January 2012


2012

Lobbying


More details See the document

This video explains the role of consular officers in protecting their nationals when they face the death penalty abroad.

  • Document type Lobbying
  • Themes list Foreign Nationals,

Document(s)

Victims, We Care

By Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights / YouTube, on 1 January 2011


2011

Working with...


More details See the document

Victims, We Care

  • Document type Working with...
  • Themes list Murder Victims' Families,

Document(s)

Paradise Lost: Purgatory

By Bruce Sinofsky / Joe Berlinger / HBO documentaries, on 1 January 2011


Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

Joe Berlinger’s third film about the West Memphis 3, Paradise Lost: Purgatory

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story, A Journey from Murder to Redemption Inside America’s Worst Prison System

By Jodie Sinclair / Billy Wayne Sinclair / Arcade Publishing, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

Life in the Balance: a book on the Billy Wayne Sinclair Story, A Journey from Murder to Redemption Inside America’s Worst Prison System. The New York Times Book Review called it a “numbing tale of crime, punishment, and redemption.”

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

Document(s)

BN at 6 – Our Stories, Our Miracles: Sentenced to Death, An Innocent Man Steps Out After 24 Years in Prison – Olatunji Olaide shares his story of Survival, Freedom & Hope

By Adeola Adeyemo / Bellanaija, on 8 September 2020


Article

Nigeria


More details See the document

Olatunji Olaide was wrongfully arrested and subsequently sentenced to death. He shares the harrowing experience of his time in prison and his survival and freedom with BN and how he kept his head high in the face of the storm.We hope that you are inspired by it.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Nigeria
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Killer Art: Florida’s Death Row Artists

By Chris Dahl / CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, on 8 September 2020


Book

United States


More details See the document

Art and letters from the men who await death in the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions, Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Condemned to Die

By Mark Davis / SBS, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

Presenter Mark Davis travels to Indonesia with the mother of Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran, as she visits her son for the first time since his final death sentence appeal was rejected.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Drug Offences,

Document(s)

Beyond the Death Penalty: Reflections on Punishment (Maastricht Series in Human Rights)

By Jacques Claessen / Hans Nelen / Intersentia , on 1 January 2012


2012

Book


More details See the document

This book contains a selection of papers that were presented during the multidisciplinary conference “Beyond the Death Penalty: Reflections on Punishment,” organized by the Maastricht Center for Human Rights. The aim of the conference was to reflect on punishment from a variety of angles and to give some food for thought to the contemporary debate on crime and punishment. After a first cluster of chapters with a strong focus on capital punishment, an intriguing mixture of topics in relation to punishment is presented, including chapters on the populist context of contemporary crime control, reconciliation and rehabilitation, prison life, and efficiency and effectiveness.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment,

Document(s)

Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong

By Raymond Bonner / Stated First Edition, on 1 January 2012


Book

United States


More details See the document

The book that helped free an innocent man who had spent twenty-seven years on death row. In January 1982, an elderly white widow was found brutally murdered in the small town of Greenwood, South Carolina. Police immediately arrested Edward Lee Elmore, a semiliterate, mentally retarded black man with no previous felony record. His only connection to the victim was having cleaned her gutters and windows, but barely ninety days after the victim’s body was found, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

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

Document(s)

Film: “The Execution of Wanda Jean”

By Liz Garbus / New Video Group, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

In THE EXECUTION OF WANDA JEAN, award-winning filmmaker Liz Garbus continues her investigations into the American criminal justice system with the compelling story of convicted murderess Wanda Jean Allen

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Document(s)

Death Watch Diary

By Robert Towery / Amazon Digital Services, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

Robert Towery was denied clemency by the state of Arizona on Friday March 2, 2012 and was executed on Thursday March 8th in Florence, Arizona. He was 47 years old. The last 35 days of his life, Robert was placed on “Death Watch” where his every move was recorded and chronicled by prison officials. Robert kept a diary and he sent his writings to his attorneys. Robert authorized his lawyers to release his diary after his execution.

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

Document(s)

The Second Execution of Romell Broom

By Michael Verhoeven / Michael Verhoeven, on 1 January 2012


Multimedia content

United States


More details See the document

On September 15, 2009, the State of Ohio tried to execute Romell Broom and failed. Ohio claims it has a right to try again. This film explores the legal and moral questions surrounding this unique case.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Conditions, Lethal Injection,

Document(s)

In This Timeless Time: Living and Dying on Death Row in America

By Univerity if North Carolina / Diane Christian, on 1 January 2012


Book

United States


More details See the document

In this comprehensive, well-crafted book, published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, SUNY-Buffalo professors Jackson and Christian build upon the photographs and interviews from death row in Texas that yielded their 1979 book and documentary Death Row

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment, Death Row Phenomenon,

Document(s)

Film: “Execution”

By Steven Scaffidi / Ghost Rider Pictures, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report


More details See the document

Amnesty International Presents a Groundbreaking Film Event That Takes the Audience to the Front Row of an Execution–Regal Cinemas opens its doors in eight major cities across America for this first-of-a-kind motion picture less than 1 week after California’s attempt to repeal the death penalty fails.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Film “Kill Troy Killing Me”

By Garry A. Boast / Cerebral Motion Productions, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

United States


More details See the document

A death penalty abolitionist (Martina Correia) must sound the alarms of our criminal justice system in time to save her brother from lethal injection.

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

Document(s)

The Darkest Hour: Shedding Light on the Impact of Isolation and Death Row

By Dr. Betty Gilmore and Nanon M. Williams / Goodmedia press, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

The Darkest Hour: Stories and Interviews from Death Row by Nanon M. Williams emerged from a deep and dark despair in a place where the thought of suicide often holds more appeal than the thought of living

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

Document(s)

The Executioner’s Song

By Norman Mailer / Vintage , on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

Norman Mailer tells Gary Gilmore’s story, and those of the men and women caught up in his procession toward the firing squad, with implacable authority, steely compassion, and a restraint that evokes the parched landscapes and stern theology of Gilmore’s Utah.

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

Document(s)

Incendiary: the Willingham case

By Steve Mims / Joe Bailey Jr. / Yokel, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

This film, by Steve Mims and Joe Bailey Jr., is just what its title implies: a match being lit to a tinderpile of flimsy evidence that led to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham in Texas in 2004 after his 1992 conviction for setting the fire that killed his three babies.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Emergency Exit: Which actions for supporting offenders close te release?

By Save Anthony, on 1 January 2013


2013

NGO report


More details See the document

In a recent research , Emergency Exit: Which actions for supporting offenders close te release?, 13 key practices have proven to help resettle successfully ex offenders into society at their exit of prison and prevent them from re-offending.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Public debate,

Document(s)

Fourteen Days in May

By Paul Hamann, on 30 November 2018


2018

Arguments against the death penalty

Multimedia content

Death Row Conditions 


More details See the document

Fourteen Days in May is a documentary directed by Paul Hamann. The program recounts the final days before the execution of Edward Earl Johnson, an American prisoner convicted of rape and murder.

The documentary crew, given access to the prison warden, guards and chaplain and to Johnson and his family, filmed the last days of Johnson’s life in detail. The documentary argues against the death penalty and maintains that capital punishment is disproportionately applied to African-Americans convicted of crimes against whites. The programme features attorney Clive Stafford Smith, an advocate against capital punishment.

  • Document type Arguments against the death penalty / Multimedia content
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions 

Document(s)

A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America

By Evan J. Mandery / W. W. Norton & Company, on 1 January 2013


2013

Book

United States


More details See the document

For two hundred years, the constitutionality of capital punishment had been axiomatic. But in 1962, Justice Arthur Goldberg and his clerk Alan Dershowitz dared to suggest otherwise, launching an underfunded band of civil rights attorneys on a quixotic crusade. In 1972, in a most unlikely victory, the Supreme Court struck down Georgia’s death penalty law in Furman v. Georgia. Though the decision had sharply divided the justices, nearly everyone, including the justices themselves, believed Furman would mean the end of executions in America.Instead, states responded with a swift and decisive showing of support for capital punishment. As anxiety about crime rose and public approval of the Supreme Court declined, the stage was set in 1976 for Gregg v. Georgia, in which the Court dramatically reversed direction.A Wild Justice is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the Court, the justices, and the political complexities of one of the most racially charged and morally vexing issues of our time.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Due Process , Country/Regional profiles,

Document(s)

Military court exonerates Chiang Kuo-ching

By Rich Chang / Taipei Times, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

A military court yesterday acquitted Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), who was executed for the rape and murder of a girl 15 years ago, in a posthumous trial.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Elmer ‘Geronimo’ Pratt dies at 63; former Black Panther whose murder conviction was overturned

By Robert J. Lopez / Los Angeles Times, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

Elmer G. “Geronimo” Pratt, a former Los Angeles Black Panther Party leader whose 1972 murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years in prison for a crime he said he did not commit, has died. He was 63.

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

Document(s)

APYN Death Penalty Quizz

By Asia Pacific Youth Network, on 1 January 2009


2009

Campaigning


More details See the document

Quizz on the death penalty by the Asia Pacific Youth Network

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned

By Richard Jaffe / New Horizon Press, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

In Quest For Justice, the author takes readers into the Bo Cochran and Eric Rudolph cases, along with those of Randall Padgett and Judge Jack Montgomery, in a conversational, story-driven narrative that offers personal insights and intimate views into these complex individuals and cases.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Due Process ,

Document(s)

Living with murder, the video documentary: Meet those touched by Detroit homicide

By Suzette Hackney / Kathy Kieliszewski / Romain Blanquart / Detroit Free Press, on 1 January 2011


2011

Legal Representation


More details See the document

More than 3,300 people have been murdered in the City of Detroit since 2003. In this Detroit Free Press documentary, meet some of the families who have lost loved ones to homicide, are searching for justice and trying to come to terms with their losses.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list FRONTPAGE

Document(s)

Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong

By Brandon L. Garrett / Harvard University Press, on 1 January 2011


Book

United States


More details See the document

Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.

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

Document(s)

In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance

By Wilbert Rideau / Knopf, on 1 January 2011


Book

United States


More details See the document

A death row inmate finds redemption as a prison journalist in this uplifting memoir. In 1961, after a bungled bank robbery, Rideau was convicted of murder at the age of 19 and received a death sentence that was later commuted to life in prison.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions,

Document(s)

A victim of 9/11 hate crime now fights for his attacker’s life

By Kari Huus / MSNBC, on 8 September 2020


2020

Academic report

United States


More details See the document

Immigrant badly wounded by ‘Arab Slayer’ mounts long-shot bid to halt execution.

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

Document(s)

The Death Penalty Project’s Annual Lecture 2014

By William A. Schabas / Death Penalty Project, on 8 September 2020


Multimedia content


More details See the document

On 28th January 2014, DPP’s 3rd lecture was held at the Inner Temple, London. Professor William Schabas delivered a lecture entitled “Universal Abolition: Only a Decade Away“. This video recording of the lecture includes the Q&A session.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Document(s)

Victim’s son objects as Texas sets execution in hate crime death

By Karen Brooks / Reuters, on 8 September 2020


Academic report

United States


More details See the document

As Texas prepares to execute one of his father’s killers, Ross Byrd hopes the state shows the man the mercy his father, James Byrd Jr., never got when he was dragged behind a truck to his

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

Document(s)

Make Me Believe

By Dax-Devlon Ross / Outside the Box Publishing, on 1 January 2011


2011

Book

United States


More details See the document

A Crime Novel Based on Real Events, follows the discoveries and dangerous encounters of a fictional author investigating the case of Toronto Patterson, the last juvenile defendant executed in Texas.

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

Document(s)

Randall Adams, 61, Dies; Freed With Help of Film

By Douglas Martin / New York Times, on 1 January 2011


Legal Representation


More details See the document

Randall Dale Adams, who spent 12 years in prison before his conviction in the murder of a Dallas police officer was thrown out largely on the basis of evidence uncovered by a filmmaker, died in obscurity in October in Washington Court House, Ohio. He was 61.

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Innocence,

Document(s)

Death penalty in Iran: A State terror policy – Special Update for 11th World Day against the Death Penalty

By International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), on 8 September 2020


2020

NGO report

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

fa
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Premeditated: meditations on capital punishment

By Malaquias Montoya / University of Notre Dame, on 1 January 2004


2004

Working with...


More details See the document

Meditations on Capital Punishment, Recent Works by Malaquias Montoya features recently created silkscreen images and paintings, and related research dealing with the death penalty and penal institutions.

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

Document(s)

Cruel and Unusual: The American Death Penalty and the Founders’ Eighth Amendment

By John D. Bessler / Northeastern, on 1 January 2012


2012

Book

United States


More details See the document

While shedding important new light on the U.S. Constitution’s “cruel and unusual punishments” clause, Bessler explores the influence of Cesare Beccaria’s essay, on Crimes and Punishments, on the Founders’ views, and the transformative properties of the Fourteenth Amendment, which made the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Dead Reckoning: Executions in America

By Greg Mitchell / Sinclair Books , on 1 January 2011


2011

Book

United States


More details See the document

The fast-paced new book, “Dead Reckoning,” offers a critical overview of capital punishment in America, along with a vivid discussion of current issues central in today’s debate, based on many interviews. Along the way, Mitchell turns to a wide cast of notable abolitionists, from Charles Dickens and Mark Twain to Albert Camus and Christopher Hitchensو and Steve Earle.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Death Penalty Cases: Leading U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment

By David McCord / Barry Latzer / Butterworth-Heinemann, on 1 January 2010


2010

Book

United States


More details See the document

This brand new edition of Death Penalty Cases makes the most manageable comprehensive resource on the death penalty even better. It includes the most recent cases, including Kennedy v. Louisiana, prohibiting the death penalty for child rapists, and Baze v. Rees, upholding execution by lethal injection. In addition, all of the cases are now topically organized into five sections: * The Foundational Cases * Death-Eligibility: Which persons/crimes are fit for the death penalty? * The Death Penalty Trial * Post-conviction Review * Execution Issues The introductory essays on the history, administration, and controversies surrounding capital punishment have been thoroughly revised. The statistical appendix has been brought up-to-date, and the statutory appendix has been restructured. For clarity, accuracy, complete impartiality and comprehensiveness, there simply is no better resource on capital punishment available.

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

Document(s)

The Last Word: Rewriting the American death penalty

By Lawrence O’Donnell / MSNBC, on 1 January 2011


2011

Campaigning


More details See the document

Sept. 22: The execution of Troy Davis drew an unprecedented amount of media attention. But where was the outrage over Derrick Mason who was put to death in Alabama today? MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has more in the Rewrite.

  • Document type Campaigning
  • Themes list Fair Trial, Innocence, Arbitrariness,

Document(s)

Into the Abyss

By Werner Herzog / Skellig Rock (Werner Herzog Film) / Channel 4 (Spring Films), on 1 January 2011


Legal Representation


More details See the document

We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes. There are interviews (video).

  • Document type Legal Representation
  • Themes list Death Row Conditions,

Document(s)

Of Crimes and Punishment

By Cesare Beccaria-Bonesana / Philip H. Nicklin, on 1 January 1764


1764

Book

enenfrzh-hantes
More details See the document

This is a highly thought-provoking work where Beccaria-Bonesana has explained his ideas against the use of torture and capital punishments. He has produced a humanitarian spirit in the dispensation of laws. This work is important as the views expressed here, were not regarded either in his times or now.

Document(s)

America’s Death Penalty: Between Past and Present

By David Garland / Jonathan Simon / Douglas Hay / Michael Meranze / Randall McGowen / New York University (NYU) / Rebecca Mc Lennan, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

This volume represents an effort to restore the sense of capital punishment as a question caught up in history. Edited by leading scholars of crime and justice, these original essays pursue different strategies for unsettling the usual terms of the debate. In particular, the authors use comparative and historical investigations of both Europe and America in order to cast fresh light on familiar questions about the meaning of capital punishment.

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

Document(s)

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND ELITE POLITICS: DISSENSUS AND THE DEATH PENALTY IN AMERICA

By Judith Randle / Studies in Law, Politics and Society, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article

United States


More details See the document

Drawing from televised debates over capital punishment on CNN’s Crossfire from February 2000 to June 2002, I argue that Teles’s (1998) theory of “dissensus politics” is useful in understanding the U.S.’s preservation of capital punishment as well as current divisions in death penalty sentiment within the U.S. I pose the retention of capital punishment as the product of rival elites who are unwilling to forsake capital punishment’s moral character (and often the political benefits it offers), and who consequently ignore an American public that appears to have reached a measured consensus of doubt about the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

White Female Victims and Death Penalty Disparity Research

By Stephen Demuth / Marian R. Williams / Jefferson E. Holocomb / Justice Quarterly, on 1 January 2004


2004

Article

United States


More details See the document

Empirical studies of the death penalty continue to find that the race and gender of homicide victims are associated with the severity of legal responses in homicide cases even after controlling for legally relevant factors. A limitation of this research, however, is that victim race and gender are examined as distinct and independent factors in statistical models. In this study, we explore whether the independent examination of victim race and gender masks important differences in legal responses to homicides. In particular, we empirically test the hypothesis that defendants convicted of killing white females are significantly more likely to receive death sentences than killers of victims with other race-gender characteristics. Findings indicate that homicides with white female victims were more likely to result in death sentences than other victim race-gender dyads. We posit that this response may be unique and result in differential sentencing outcomes.

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

Document(s)

Racial Disparity and Death Sentences in Ohio

By Marian R. Williams / Jefferson E. Holocomb / Journal of Criminal Justice, on 1 January 2001


2001

Article

United States


More details See the document

The use of the death penalty has resulted in a number of studies attempting to determine if its application is consistent with the guidelines established by the United States Supreme Court. In particular, many studies have assessed whether there are racial disparities in the imposition of death sentences. This study examined the imposition of death sentences in Ohio, a state largely ignored by previous research and that, until 1999, had not executed an inmate since 1963. Drawing from previous studies that have examined the issue in other states, this study assessed the likelihood that a particular homicide would result in a death sentence, controlling for race of defendant and victim and other relevant factors. Results indicated both legal and extralegal factors (including race of victim) were significant predictors of a death sentence, supporting many previous studies that concluded that race plays a role in the imposition of the death penalty.

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

Document(s)

Officials’ Estimates of the Incidence of ‘Actual Innocence’ Convictions

By Angie Kiger / Brad Smith / Marvin Zalman / Justice Quarterly, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

United States


More details See the document

Evidence indicates that the conviction and imprisonment of factually innocent persons occur with some regularity. Most research focuses on causes, but the incidence of wrongful convictions is an important scientific and policy issue, especially as no official body gathers data on miscarriages of justice. Two methods are available for discovering the incidence of wrongful conviction: (1) enumerating specific cases and (2) having criminal justice experts estimate its incidence. Counts or catalogues of wrongful conviction necessarily undercount its incidence and are subject to accuracy challenges. We surveyed Michigan criminal justice officials, replicating a recent Ohio survey, to obtain an expert estimate of the incidence of wrongful conviction. All groups combined estimated that wrongful convictions occurred at a rate of less than 1/2 percent in their own jurisdiction and at a rate of 1-3 percent in the United States. Defense lawyers estimate higher rates of wrongful conviction than judges, who estimate higher rates than police officials and prosecutors. These differences may be explained by professional socialization. An overall wrongful conviction estimate of 1/2 percent extrapolates to about 5,000 wrongful felony convictions and the imprisonment of more than 2,000 innocent persons in the United States every year.

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

Document(s)

Death Penalty in Korea: From Unofficial Moratorium to Abolition?

By Kuk Cho / Asian Journal of Comparative Law, on 1 January 2008


Article

Democratic People's Republic of Korea


More details See the document

This article provides an overview of the legal regime governing the death penalty and the on-going debate on the death penalty in Korea. It begins by briefly reviewing international treaties that call for the abolition of the death penalty, contrasting them with the retentionist trend in most Asian countries. It then reviews the major decisions of the Korean Supreme Court and the Korean Constitutional Court. It also discusses recent moves in the National Assembly and the National Human Rights Commission to abolish the death penalty. It suggests that the Korean death penalty debate has potentially significant implications for its retentionist Asian neighbours grappling with similar issues.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Document(s)

Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning

By John D. Carlson / Erik C. Owens / Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company / Eric P. Elshtain / J. Budziszewski / E. J. Dionne / Avery Cardinal Dulles / Stanley Hauerwas / Frank Keating / Gilbert Meilaender / David Novak, on 1 January 2004


2004

Book


More details See the document

This important book is sure to foster informed public discussion about the death penalty by deepening readers’ understanding of how religious beliefs and perspectives shape this contentious issue. Featuring a fair, balanced appraisal of its topic, Religion and the Death Penalty brings thoughtful religious reflection to bear on current challenges facing the capital justice system.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Religion ,

Document(s)

America’s Experiment With Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction

By Carol S. Steiker / James R. Acker / Jordan M. Steiker / Richard J. Wilson / Robert Blecker / Stephen B. Bright / Charles S. Lanier / Robert M. Bohm / Carolina Academic Press / Ernest van den Haag / Ruth D. Peterson / William C. Bailey / Jon Sorensen / James Marquart / Victor L., on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

The second edition of America’s Experiment with Capital Punishment is an updated and expanded version of the comprehensive first edition. Chapters, authored by the country’s leading legal and social science scholars, have been revised to include a host of important developments since the 1998 edition. Thus, new evidence and information is presented concerning racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty, wrongful convictions, deterrence, the prediction of future dangerousness, jury decision-making, public opinion about the death penalty, the effects of the capital punishment process on murder victims’ and offenders’ relatives, death row incarceration, the costs of capital punishment, execution methods, and many other issues.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list United States

Document(s)

Determinants of the Death Penalty: A Comparative Study of the World

By Carsten Anckar / Routledge, on 1 January 2004


2004

Book


More details See the document

Determinants of the Death Penalty seeks to explain the phenomenon of capital punishment – without recourse to value judgements – by identifying those characteristics common to countries that use the death penalty and those that mark countries which do not. This global study uses statistical analysis to relate the popularity of the death penalty to physical, cultural, social, economical, institutional, actor oriented and historical factors. Separate studies are conducted for democracies and non-democracies and within four regional contexts. The book also contains an in-depth investigation into determinants of the death penalty in the USA.

  • Document type Book
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Death Penalty: The Political Foundations of the Global Trend Towards Abolition

By Eric Neumayer / Human Rights Review, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article


More details See the document

The death penalty is like no other punishment. Its continued existence in many countries of the world creates political tensions within these countries and between governments of retentionist and abolitionist countries. After the Second World War, more and more countries have abolished the death penalty. This article argues that the major determinants of this global trend towards abolition are political, a claim which receives support in a quantitative cross-national analysis from 1950 to 2002. Democracy, democratisation, international political pressure on retentionist countries and peer group effects in relatively abolitionist regions all raise the likelihood of abolition. There is also a partisan effect, as abolition becomes more likely if the chief executive’s party is left wing-oriented. Cultural, social and economic determinants receive only limited support. The global trend towards abolition will go on if democracy continues to spread around the world and abolitionist countries stand by their commitment to press for abolition all over the world.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Document(s)

Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind

By Robert Renny Cushing / Susannah Sheffer / Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, on 1 January 2005


2005

NGO report


More details See the document

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

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

Document(s)

Chinese Executions: Visualising their Differences with European Supplices

By Bourgon J / European Journal of East Asian Studies, on 1 January 2003


2003

Article

China


More details See the document

European executions obeyed a complex model that the author proposes to call ‘the supplice pattern’. The term supplice designates tortures and tormented executions, but it also includes their cultural background. The European way of executing used religious deeds, aesthetic devices and performing arts techniques which themselves called for artistic representations through paintings, theatre, etc. Moreover, Christian civilisation was unique in the belief that the spectacle of a painful execution had a redemptive effect on the criminals and the attendants as well. Chinese executions obeyed an entirely different conception. They were designed to show that punishment fitted the crime as provided in the penal code. All details were aimed to highlight and inculcate the meaning of the law, while signs of emotions, deeds, words, that could have interfered with the lesson in law were prohibited. In China, capital executions were not organized as a show nor subject to aesthetic representations, and they had no redemptive function. This matter-of-fact way of executing people caused Westerners deep uneasiness. The absence of religious background and staging devices was interpreted as a sign of barbarity and cruelty. What was stigmatised was not so much the facts that their failure to conform to the ‘supplice pattern’ that constituted for any Westerner the due process of capital executions.

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

Document(s)

State-sponsored Homophobia: A world survey of laws prohibiting same sex activity between consenting adults

By Daniel Ottosson / International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), on 1 January 2010


2010

NGO report

enfres
More details See the document

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

Document(s)

Criminological analysis on deterrent power of death penalty

By Yuanhuang Zhang / Frontiers of law in China, on 1 January 2009


2009

Article

China

zh-hant
More details See the document

Death penalty is the most effective deterrence to grave crimes, which has been the key basis for the State to retain death penalty. In fact, either in legislation or in execution, death penalty can not produce the special deterrent effect as expected. With respect to this issue, people tend to conduct normative exploration from the perspective of ordinary legal principles or the principle of human rights, which is more speculative than convincing. Correct interpretation based on the existing positive analysis and differentiation based on human nature which sifts the true from the false will not only help end the simple, repetitive and meaningless arguments regarding the basis for the existence of death penalty, but also help understand the rational nature of both the elimination and the preservation of death penalty, so as to define the basic direction towards which the State should make efforts in controlling death penalty in the context of promoting social civilization.

Document(s)

Taking Capital Punishment Seriously

By Franklin E. Zimmering / David T. Johnson / Asian Journal of Criminology, on 1 January 2006


2006

Article


More details See the document

Although Asia is the most important region of the world when it comes to capital punishment, it is also one of the most understudied. This article identifies four research questions that deserve attention from students and scholars who believe taking capital punishment seriously requires studying Asia seriously too. What are the empirical contours of capital punishment in contemporary Asia? What are the histories of capital punishment in Asia? Can Western theories of capital punishment explain patterns and changes in Asia? And what is the future of capital punishment in Asia? If researchers take the trouble to explore these questions, the death penalty will not only become an interesting window into law and society in Asia, but Asia will prove to be an instructive window into the death penalty—the gravest real-life problem in the law.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Capital Punishment at the United Nations: Recent Developments

By Ilias Bantekas / Peter Hodgkinson / Criminal Law Forum, on 1 January 2000


2000

Article


More details See the document

The article discusses the difficulties and controversies surrounding the 1999 Draft Resolution on the Death Penalty to the United Nations General Assembly.

  • Document type Article
  • Themes list Networks,

Document(s)

Europe as an International Actor: Friends Do Not Let Friends Execute: The Council of Europe and the International Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty

By Sangmin Bae / International Politics, on 1 January 2008


2008

Article

Ukraine


More details See the document

This article investigates the way in which the Council of Europe enforced the norm against capital punishment in Europe. The Council of Europe, through both moral persuasion and centripetal pressure, compelled its member states to adopt the regionally promoted human rights standard. Ukraine, where the very last execution in Europe took place, accepted the norm after a number of years of resistance and in the face of public opposition to abolition. It was possible because of the adamant role of the Council of Europe in attempting to build a death penalty-free zone in Europe and Ukraine’s strategic will to be integrated within the European regional community.

  • Document type Article
  • Countries list Ukraine
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,

Document(s)

The cultural lives of capital punishment: comparative perspectives

By Sangmin Bae / David T. Johnson / Virgil K.Y. Ho / Evi Girling / Agata Fijalkowski / Julia Eckert / Christian Boulanger / Austin Sarat / Stanford University Press / Botagoz Kassymbekova / Shai Lavi / Jürgen Martschukat, on 1 January 2005


2005

Book

China


More details See the document

They undertake this “cultural voyage” comparatively—examining the dynamics of the death penalty in Mexico, the United States, Poland, Kyrgyzstan, India, Israel, Palestine, Japan, China, Singapore, and South Korea—arguing that we need to look beyond the United States to see how capital punishment “lives” or “dies” in the rest of the world, how images of state killing are produced and consumed elsewhere, and how they are reflected, back and forth, in the emerging international judicial and political discourse on the penalty of death and its abolition.

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

Document(s)

Against the death penalty: international initiatives and implications

By Richard C. Dieter / Sangmin Bae / Seema Kandelia / William A. Schabas / Lilian Chenwi / Peter Hodgkinson / Roger Hood / Lina Gyllensten / Nicola Machean / Jane Marriott / Julian Killingley / Quincy Whitaker / Jon Yorke (ed) / Ashgate Publishing Limited / Rachael Stokes, on 1 January 2008


2008

Book

China


More details See the document

This edited volume brings together leading scholars on the death penalty within international, regional and municipal law. It considers the intrinsic elements of both the promotion and demise of the punishment around the world, and provides analysis which contributes to the evolving abolitionist discourse.The contributors consider the current developments within the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the African Commission and the Commonwealth Caribbean, and engage with the emergence of regional norms promoting collective restriction and renunciation of the punishment. They investigate perspectives and questions for retentionist countries, focusing on the United States, China, Korea and Taiwan, and reveal the iniquities of contemporary capital judicial systems. Emphasis is placed on the issues of transparency of municipal jurisdictions, the jurisprudence on the ‘death row phenomenon’ and the changing nature of public opinion. The volume surveys and critiques the arguments used to scrutinize the death penalty to then offer a detailed analysis of possible replacement sanctions.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list China
  • Themes list International law,

Document(s)

Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty

By Scott Turow / Picador, on 8 September 2020


2020

Book

United States


More details See the document

Turow bases his opinions on his experiences as a prosecutor and, in his post-prosecutorial years, working on behalf of death-row inmates, as well as his two years on Illinois’s Commission on Capital Punishment, charged by the former Gov. George Ryan.Turow presents both sides of the death penalty debate and seems himself to flip sides depending on the argument.Turow’s reflections include: * Thoughts on victims’ rights vs. community rights * Whether execution is a deterrent * The possible execution of an innocent person * If not the death penalty, what to do with the worst offenders

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

Document(s)

The State of Texas vs. Melissa

By Sabrina Van Tassel, on 25 March 2020


2020

Multimedia content

Fair Trial

United States


More details See the document

Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in Texas. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and she now faces her last appeal.

  • Document type Multimedia content
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Fair Trial

Document(s)

Little Furmans Everywhere: State Court Intervention and the Decline of the American Death Penalty

By Carol S. Steiker & Jordan M. Steiker, on 1 September 2022


2022

Academic report

Trend Towards Abolition

United States


More details See the document

This article retraces the evolution and recent decline of death peanlty in the United States, notablt through state court interventions. These dynamics between judicial and political action illuminate the importance of state court intervention in the story of the American death penalty’s precipitous decline, which has tended to foreground other institutional actors and to neglect the complex interactions among branches of government. State judicial rulings, though often highly technical and, therefore, less visible and accessible to the public, have been a pervasive and powerful force in the two-decade-long diminution of the practice of capital punishment across the United States.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition

Document(s)

Estimating the effect of death penalty moratoriums on homicide rates using the synthetic control method

By Stephen N. Oliphant, on 18 September 2022


2022

Academic report

Moratorium

United States


More details See the document

Research examining death penalty deterrence has been characterized as inconclusive and uninformative. The present analysis heeds a recommendation from prior research to examine single-state changes in death penalty policy using the synthetic control method. Data from the years 1979–2019 were used to construct synthetic controls and estimate the effects of death penalty moratoriums on homicide rates in Illinois, New Jersey, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Moratoriums on capital punishment resulted in nonsignificant homicide reductions in all four states.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list United States
  • Themes list Moratorium
Prisoner’s Future Foundation's logo

Member(s)

Prisoner’s Future Foundation

on 28 March 2023

Prisoners’ Future Foundation (PFF) is a local non-governmental Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) following government enforcing the NGO Act of 2009 of the laws of Zambia. PFF has in the past handled both advocacy and service delivery, in responding to the needs of currently and formally incarcerated people and citizens who have […]

2023

Zambia

Document(s)

Chinese Netizens’ Opinions on Death Sentences

By Bin Liang and Jianhong Liu, The University of Michigan Press, on 4 November 2021


2021

Academic report

China

Public Opinion 


More details See the document

The People’s Republic of China no doubt leads the world in both numbers of death sentences and executions. Despite being the largest user of the death penalty, China has never conducted a national poll on citizens’ opinions toward capital punishment, while claiming “overwhelming public support” as a major justification for its retention and use. Based on a content analysis of 38,512 comments collected from 63 cases in 2015, this study examines the diversity and rationales of netizens’ opinions of and interactions with China’s criminal justice system. In addition, the book discusses China’s social, systemic, and structural problems and critically examines the rationality of netizens’ opinions based on Habermas’s communicative rationality framework. Readers will be able to contextualize Chinese netizens’ discussions and draw conclusions about commonalities and uniqueness of China’s death penalty practice.

  • Document type Academic report
  • Countries list China
  • Themes list Public Opinion 

Document(s)

Capital Punishment & Social Rights Research Initiative – Texas

By Barbara Laubenthal, on 12 February 2023


2023

Multimedia content

Death Row Conditions 

United States


More details See the document

The Capital Punishment and Social Rights Research Initiative assesses and analyzes the access of men and women on U.S. death rows to social rights such as health care, social contacts, visitation, communication, recreation and spiritual support. CPSR’s info series on living conditions on death row, state by state. Part 1: Texas

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

Document(s)

When the State No Longer Kills: International Human Rights Norms and Abolition of Capital Punishment

By Sangmin Bae / State University of New York Press, on 1 January 2007


2007

Book

Republic of Korea


More details See the document

This book tries to explain what leads a state to abolish capital punishment or impose a moratorium, by offereing in-depth analyses of four countries: Ukraine, South Africa, South Korea and the United States. Focusing on the role of political leadership and domestic political institutions, Bae clarifies the causal mechanisms that lead to state compliance or noncompliance with the norm.

  • Document type Book
  • Countries list Republic of Korea
  • Themes list Moratorium ,

Document(s)

The Death Penalty: An American History

By Stuart Banner / Harvard University Press, on 1 January 2003


2003

Book

United States


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Law professor Stuart Banner tells the story of how, over four centuries, dramatic changes have taken place in the ways capital punishment has been administered and experienced. Banner moves beyond the debates, to give us an unprecedented understanding of capital punishment’s many meanings. As nearly four thousand inmates are now on death row, and almost one hundred are currently being executed each year, the furious debate is unlikely to diminish. The Death Penalty is invaluable in understanding the American way of the ultimate punishment.

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

Document(s)

Chinas Death Penalty: History, Law and Contemporary Practices

By Terance D. Miethe / Hong Lu / Routledge, on 1 January 2007


2007

Book

China


More details See the document

This book examines the death penalty within the changing socio-political context of China. The authors’ treatment of China’s death penalty is legal, historical, and comparative. In particular, they examine; the substantive and procedures laws surrounding capital punishment in different historical periods the purposes and functions of capital punishment in China in various dynasties changes in the method of imposition and relative prevalence of capital punishment over time the socio-demographic profile of the executed and their crimes over the last two decades and comparative practices in other countries. Their analyses of the death penalty in contemporary China focus on both its theory – how it should be done in law – and actual practice – based on available secondary reports/sources.

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