INDEX

Recent figures show that a January ruling by the Ugandan supreme court making it illegal to keep people on death row for more than three years has saved 167 lives.

A joint effort by Kenyan and British lawyers and NGOs resulted in a court decision overturning all death sentences for murder. Legislation making capital punishment the only possible penalty for certain crimes is invalid.

The American death row inmate heard the news less than one hour before he was scheduled to die. From Huntsville to Paris, activists demand that new evidence be examined.

The Kirghiz parliament has ratified the UN Protocol on the abolition of the death penalty as demanded by the World Coalition and its partner States, months after several leaders called for its reinstatement.

Togo’s National Assembly passed a bill abolishing the death penalty on June 23, 2009. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero, who was visiting the country, attended the parliamentary session to witness the event.

Burundi’s new penal code, which abolishes the death penalty, was signed into law on April 22. ACAT-Burundi chairman Merius Rusumo recounts the campaign’s success.

New Mexico’s governor Bill Richardson signed the repeal of the death penalty in to law on March 18, 2009, attracting praise from the global abolitionist community.

Uzbekistan became the first state to abolish the death penalty in 2008. World Coalition members Community of Sant’Egidio and Mothers Against the Death Penalty, who have led a campaign in the region, welcome the move.

A Filipina woman sentenced to death in Kuwait for the murder of her employer has seen her sentence commuted to life imprisonment after joint action by migrant and abolitionist groups.