INDEX

The death row facility of California at San Quentin finds itself at the center of a fierce debate over the future of a hugely expensive and increasingly unpopular death penalty system.

Ron Keine, an exonerated former prisoner turned activist, shares his story so that the United States may one day join the rest of the civilized world in abolishing the death penalty.

A few days out from the World Day Against the Death Penalty, California has decided not to resume executions. A shortage of one of the drugs used for lethal injections gives death row inmates and abolitionists more time to continue the legal battle.

World Coalition member organisation Hands Off Cain will on July 31present Jean Ping, the chairman of the African Union Commission, with its 2010 award.

Wen-Yu Weng (19), a student and debating coach from Thailand who attended the World Congress workshop on educational strategies, thinks young teenagers are mature enough to understand the death penalty debate – just like she did.

Luis Arroyo Zapatero is the head of the Institute for European and International law at the University of Castilla-La-Mancha. In 2009, he kick-started the foundation of the International Academic Network for the Abolition of Capital Punishment.

Parents and friends of those killed fill a growing space in the debate on the death penalty and, increasingly, this is to call for abolition rather than vengeance.

Benin’s President Thomas Yayi Boni, one of the World Congress’s guests, has asked the parliament to enshrine the abolition of the death penalty in the constitution. Justice Minister Victor Tokpanou details Benin’s path to abolition.

In a vibrant speech before the parliament on January 14, President Elbegdorj Tsakhia of Mongolia developed all the arguments put forward by the abolitionist community.

Speaking at a symposium on the death penalty organised in Tokyo by the Swedish presidency of the European Union, a Japanese minister expressed his commitment for abolition.