INDEX

Is the death penalty “natural” or sometimes legally due?
If not, is the death penalty always a political instrument?
If so, how and why can it be said that the death penalty is unjust, also considering religious values?
What about in case of war time or of very dangerous criminals?
In which way can there be an irrefutable argument for banning the death penalty worldwide and forever?

These and other issues concerning the death penalty are addressed by the Author of this book.
A book, where the most common theories for and against the death penalty are considered in the light of law history and philosophical views, and where Cesare Beccaria’s approach is revised, taking into account the development of the contemporary criminal law and of the legal positivism.

This is an essay, where the protection of humanity is not considered simply as a hope or as a naive dream, but rather as a juridical concept, absolutely necessary to understand one of most tragic questions of all time: “is it just to kill those who killed?”

• Document type Book

Upon receiving his execution date, one of the thousands of men living on death row in the United States had an epiphany: “All there ever is, is this moment. You, me, all of us, right here, right now, this minute, that’s love.”

Right Here, Right Now collects the powerful, first-person stories of dozens of men on death rows across the country. From childhood experiences living with poverty, hunger, and violence to mental illness and police misconduct to coming to terms with their executions, these men outline their struggle to maintain their connection to society and sustain the humanity that incarceration and its daily insults attempt to extinguish.

By offering their hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, failures, and wounds, the men challenge us to reconsider whether our current justice system offers actual justice or simply perpetuates the social injustices that obscure our shared humanity.

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

James Aren Duckett è detenuto nell’FSP (Florida State Prison) dal 30 giugno 1988, a seguito della condanna per lo stupro e l’uccisione di una bambina di 11 anni. In questi 33 anni, Jim, così lo chiamano gli amici e i suoi cari, lotta con i suoi legali per affermare la propria innocenza e per evidenziare le incongruenze e i malfunzionamenti del sistema giudiziario (e carcerario) degli Stati Uniti d’America. Oltre alla sua storia, la corrispondenza con l’autrice, iniziata nel 2012 e tuttora attiva, svela pensieri, paure e riflessioni di Jim, eternamente sospeso tra l’attesa di un responso e la vita in un carcere di massima sicurezza. Una preziosa testimonianza, la sua, che impone il rifiuto dell’idea che la Giustizia passi attraverso la pena di morte.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Fair Trial / Innocence

Maurice Chammah (The Marshall Project) explores the rise and fall of capital punishment in Texas where it appears to durably decline in spite of the state’s long use of the death penalty.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Public Opinion

• Document type Book
• Themes list Death Penalty,

This book documents the results of an IHR research project appraising the Philippine National Police’s commitment to human rights-based policing.

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

First as a reporter and then as a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Michelle was a frequent visitor to Huntsville’s Walls Unit, where she recorded and relayed the final moments of death row inmates’ lives before they were put to death by the state.Michelle was in the death chamber as some of the United States’ most notorious criminals, including serial killers, child murderers and rapists, spoke their last words on earth, while a cocktail of lethal drugs surged through their veins.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United States
• Themes list Right to life, Death Penalty,

While execution chambers remain active in several states in the United States, constitutional regulation has contributed to the death penalty’s new fragility. In the next decade or two, Carol Steiker and Jordan Steiker argue, the fate of the American death penalty is likely to be sealed by this failed judicial experiment. Courting Death illuminates both the promise and pitfalls of constitutional regulation of contentious social issues.

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

Drawing on primary research, this book explores the cultural life of the death penalty in Britain in the twentieth century, including an exploration of the role of the popular press and a discussion of portrayals of the death penalty in plays, novels and films. Popular protest against capital punishment and public responses to and understandings of capital cases are also discussed, particularly in relation to conceptualisations of justice.

• Document type Book
• Countries list United Kingdom
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Death Penalty, Country/Regional profiles,

This resource is for parlamentarians around the globe, currently working or thinking of working for the abolition of the death penalty. It is intended to provide some of the key arguments for abolition based on a series of case studies, showing how abolition has been achieved around the world. It is provided with an arguments section as well as with specific case studies based on countries that have either achieved abolition or have managed to achieve one of the intermediate steps toward abolition.

• Document type Book
• Themes list Trend Towards Abolition,