INDEX

While officiating the new Chief Justice at the State House, the President of Tanzania, President Magufuli, expressed his support towards the abolitionist movement by refusing to sign any future death warrant. For the Tanzanian Coalition Against the Death Penalty, this statement is an unhoped opportunity to ask for the complete abolition of the death penalty in the country.

The Parliament of Suriname (photo) has abolished the death penalty in law, setting an example for the Greater Caribbean – a major front line in the global fight against capital punishment. World Coalition member organisation Parliamentarians for Global Action provided crucial support for abolition in Suriname.

On 9 February 2015, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum introduced in parliament the Republic of Fiji Military Forces amended Bill 2015, a one page bill to abolish the death penalty provision.

The number of executions in the United States was at its lowest in 20 years and seven death row prisoners were exonerated in 2014.

The National Assembly of Madagascar adopted a bill that abolishes the death penalty on 10 December, World Human Rights Day.

The House of Delegates has passed a bill replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole. The governor of the US state has been supporting the bill and promised to sign it into law.

Lawmakers in the US State of Connecticut have abolished capital punishment and the State’s governor has said that he would sign the bill into law. Elizabeth Zitrin of the US NGO Death Penalty Focus chairs the World Coalition’s working group on the United States. She writes on the significance of this news for the wider abolitionist movement.

After nearly two months of fierce lobbying on both sides, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn abolishes the death penalty in the state and commutes all current death sentences to life in prison.

The West African nation outlawed the death penalty in February 2010 and then kept the secret for over a year.