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More than 2500 individuals are now under sentence of death in the United States. At the same time, multiple indicators—public opinion polls, legislative repeal and judicial invalidation of deathpenalty laws, the reduction in new death sentences, and infrequency of executions—suggest that support for capital punishment has significantly eroded. As jurisdictions abandon or consider eliminating the death-penalty, the fate of prisoners on death row—whether their death sentences, valid when imposed, should be carried out or whether these individuals should instead be spared execution—looms as contentious political and legal issues, fraught with complex philosophical, penological, and constitutional questions. This article presents a detailed account of what has happened historically to persons awaiting execution, principally within the United States but also internationally, at the time capital-punishment legislation is repealed or invalidated (either completely, or with respect to a narrow category of crimes or persons). Our analysis has uncovered no instances of executions being carried out under those circumstances. This finding has important policy implications and is directly relevant to the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, which relies on execution practices as one measure to help inform the Court about whether the death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment.

• Document type Academic report
• Countries list United States

Since December 2007, seven resolutions in favour of a universal moratorium on death penalty executions have been adopted by the UN General Assembly. In an earlier paper (Pascoe and Bae 2020) we examined UN member states’ voting patterns over these seven resolutions, asking why some countries vote in a manner seemingly contradictory to their domestic death penalty practices. With a slightly different focus, we now further explore idiosyncratic state behaviour, this time through an analysis of co-sponsorship and the note verbale of dissociation. Our assumption is that states which plan to vote ‘yes’ in the plenary will also co-sponsor the resolution beforehand. We also presume that states which vote ‘no’ in the plenary will sign the note verbale invariably circulated several months later, as a further means of condemnation.

However, when it comes to the moratorium resolutions, not all member states fit into either of these binary categories. Many countries situate themselves in between the two groups of ‘genuine’ supporters and opponents. These countries in the middle evince inconsistency between their plenary votes and what we term their ‘association behaviour’ before or after the plenary, consisting of co-sponsorship and adherence to the note verbale. This paper analyses these groups of countries to determine the underlying causes for their ambivalent, or even contradictory, positions concerning the moratorium resolutions. The findings of this research stand to enrich not only the academic literature on international organizations, but also to inform the campaigning efforts of abolitionist UN member states and non-governmental organizations.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Moratorium

A l’occasion de la Journée mondiale 2020, portant sur le droit à un·e avocat·e, The Advocates for Human Rights et la Coalition mondiale contre la peine de mort proposent une fiche d’information à destination des juges.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Fair Trial, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Factsheet for Judges - 2020 World Day

2020 World Day 8-page leaflet

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Fair Trial, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Brochure - Journée mondiale 2020

Detailed factsheet on international and regional human rights standards on the right to access to effective legal representation.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Fair Trial, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Fiche détaillée - Journée mondiale 2020

On the occasion of the 2020 World Day, focusing on the right to access to counsel, Repreive and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty released a facthsheet for police officers.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Due Process , World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Fiche d'information pour la police - Journée mondiale 2020

On the occasion of the 2020 World Day, focusing on the right to access to counsel, Reprieve and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty released a facthsheet for media representatives.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Fair Trial, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Fiche d'information pour les journalistes - Journée mondiale 2020

On the occasion of the 2020 World Day, focusing on the right to access to counsel, The Advocates for Human Rights and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty released a facthsheet for judges.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Fair Trial, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
• Available languages : Fiche d'information pour les juges - Journée mondiale 2020

On the occasion of the 2020 World Day, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty has compiled testimonies from those for whom access to counsel is a matter of life or death.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
• Available languages La parole est à la défense - Journée mondiale 2020

Mobilization Kit for the 2020 World Day Against the Death Penalty.

• Document type Academic report
• Themes list Due Process , Fair Trial, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Death Penalty,
• Available languages Kit de mobilisation - Journée mondiale 2020 (arabe)Kit de mobilisation - Journée mondiale 2020