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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for death penalty
71 results foundAuthor: Oberwittler, Dietrich Title: Public Opinion on the Death Penalty in China: Results from a General Population Survey Conducted in Three Provinces in 2007-09. Summary: This survey examines the support levels for the death penalty among the Chinese population, explores the reasons behind the attitudes, suggests possible ways to change public opinion, and analyses the views of the Chinese population in relation to international norms on the imposition of the death penalty Details: Freiburg, Germany: Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, 2009. 28p. Source: Year: 2009 Country: China URL: Shelf Number: 116299 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath Penalty |
Author: Gallahue, Patrick Title: The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2010 Summary: This report provides an updated review of the status of the death penalty for drug offenses worldwide, with a particular focus on national legislation and state practice. Details: London: International Harm Reduction Association, 2010. 51p. Source: Year: 2010 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 118528 Keywords: Death PenaltyDrug Abuse and CrimeDrug OffendersDrug Policy |
Author: Dieter, Richard C. Title: Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis: National Poll of Police Chiefs Puts Capital Punishment at Bottom of Law Enforcement Priorities: A Report Summary: This report analyzes the costs of the death penalty as measured in various state studies. It examines why the death penalty is so expensive and why it may be impossible to cut those costs without endangering fundamental rights. The report looks closely at the opinions of law enforcement experts and finds little support for continuing to spend enormous sums on an ineffective program when so many other areas of need are being short changed. Details: Washington, DC: Death Penalty Information Center, 2009. 26p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 117613 Keywords: Capital Punishment, CostsDeath Penalty |
Author: Lines, Rick Title: Complicity or Abolition? The Death Penalty and International Support For Drug Enforcement Summary: This report exposes the links between the carrying out of executions and the financial contributions from European governments, the European Commission and the UNODC to support drug enforcement operations in countries that use the death penalty such as China, Iran and Viet Nam. The report notes that such operations continue to be funded without appropriate safeguards despite the fact that the abolition of the death penalty is a requirement of entry into the Council of Europe and the European Union and that the United Nations advocates strongly against capital punishment. Details: London: International Harm Reduction Association, 2010. 35p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 119294 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDrug Enforcement |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Death Sentences and Executions, 2009 Summary: By the end of 2009, a total of 139 countries worldwide had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Only 58 countries continued to retain the punishment in their legislation. Important steps towards the implementation of a worldwide moratorium on executions were taken in all regions of the world during 2009, and two further countries – Burundi and togo – abolished the death penalty for all crimes. The figures that Amnesty International compiles each year in its global monitoring of the application of the death penalty show that the world is drawing ever closer to total abolition. While 18 countries continue to execute prisoners, as a means to deter crime, a small number of these countries also use executions against political opposition. And for the first time ever, one region of the world – Europe – remained free of executions for the entire year. This report analyzes some of the key developments in the worldwide application of the death penalty, citing figures gathered by Amnesty International on the number of death sentences handed down and executions carried out in 2009. Details: London: Amnesty International, 2010. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 6, 2010 at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/001/2010/en/17348b70-3fc7-40b2-a258-af92778c73e5/act500012010en.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/001/2010/en/17348b70-3fc7-40b2-a258-af92778c73e5/act500012010en.pdf Shelf Number: 119870 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyExecutions |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Death Sentences and Executions 2010 Summary: In the last decade, more than 30 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Fifty-eight countries worldwide now retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes, and less than half of these carried out executions in 2010. across all regions of the world, the last 10 years have seen important progress made on the global journey towards abolition. in 2010, the global trend towards abolition was again confirmed. The President of Mongolia announced an official moratorium on executions in January, and a bill that would abolish the death penalty has been put before the Mongolian Parliament. Gabon abolished the death penalty in February. More states than ever before voted at the un in favour of a worldwide moratorium on executions. even in states where support for the death penalty remains strong, positive steps towards restricting its use were recorded. But in the face of this clear progress, many of the states that carried out executions in 2010 did so in clear violation of international law and standards, despite their claims to the contrary in front of international human rights bodies. This report analyzes some of the key developments in the worldwide application of the death penalty in 2010, citing figures gathered by Amnesty International on the number of death sentences handed down and executions carried out during the year. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. Details: London: Amnesty International, 2010. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 28, 2011 at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/001/2011/en/ea1b6b25-a62a-4074-927d-ba51e88df2e9/act500012011en.pdf Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/001/2011/en/ea1b6b25-a62a-4074-927d-ba51e88df2e9/act500012011en.pdf Shelf Number: 121122 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltySentencing |
Author: United Nations. Secretary General Title: Capital Punishment and Implementation of the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty Summary: The Economic and Social Council, by its resolution 1745 (LIV) of 16 May 1973, invited the Secretary-General to submit to it, at five-year intervals starting from 1975, periodic updated and analytical reports on capital punishment. The Council, by its resolution 1995/57 of 28 July 1995, recommended that the quinquennial reports of the Secretary-General should continue to cover also the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. By the same resolution, the Council requested the Secretary-General, in preparing the quinquennial report, to draw on all available data, including current criminological research. The present eighth quinquennial report reviews the use of and trends in capital punishment, including the implementation of the safeguards during the period 2004-2008. In accordance with Economic and Social Council resolutions 1745 (LIV) and 1990/51 of 24 July 1990 and Council decision 2005/247 of 22 July 2005, this report is submitted to the Council at its substantive session of 2010, and will also be before the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its nineteenth session, and the Human Rights Council, in accordance with its decision 2/102. The report confirms a very marked trend towards abolition and restriction of the use of capital punishment in most countries. The rate at which States that retained the death penalty at the start of the quinquennium have abolished its use either in law or in practice is comparable with that of previous reporting periods, and may even be accelerating slightly. Moreover, countries that retain the death penalty are, with rare exceptions, significantly reducing its use in terms of numbers of persons executed and the crimes for which it may be imposed. Nevertheless, where capital punishment remains in force, there are serious problems with regard to the respect of international norms and standards, notably in the limitation of the death penalty to the most serious crimes, the exclusion of juvenile offenders from its scope, and guarantees of a fair trial. Details: New York: United Nations Economic and Social Council, 2009. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: E/2010/10: Accessed April 19, 2011 at: http://www.crin.org/docs/UN_CP.pdf Year: 2009 Country: International URL: http://www.crin.org/docs/UN_CP.pdf Shelf Number: 121406 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath Penalty |
Author: Miethe, Terance D. Title: Capital Punishment in Nevada, 1977-2008 Summary: Over 1,100 prisoners in 33 different states have been executed in the United States from 1977 to 2008 (DPIC, 2008). As of yearend 2008, over 3,300 convicted offenders across this country are also awaiting execution for a death sentence (NAACP, 2008). Nevada has executed 12 convicted murderers over this 32-year period. At yearend 2007, 77 capital offenders in Nevada were under a death sentence. This State Data Brief describes the nature of Nevada’s death sentences over time and compares these trends with national patterns. Reasons for the differences between Nevada and other states are also discussed. Details: Las Vegas, NV: University of Nevada - Las Vegas, Center for the Analysis of Crime Statistics, 2009. 3p. Source: Internet Resource: State Data Brief: Accessed May 18, 2011 at: http://www.unlv.edu/centers/crimestats/SDBs/Capital%20Punishment/Capital%20Punishment%20v4.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.unlv.edu/centers/crimestats/SDBs/Capital%20Punishment/Capital%20Punishment%20v4.pdf Shelf Number: 121743 Keywords: Capital Punishment (Nevada)Death Penalty |
Author: Kirchgassner, Gebhard Title: Econometric Estimates of Deterrence of the Death Penalty: Facts or Ideology? Summary: In 2007, the Wall Street Journal published an article claiming that each execution saves more than 70 lives. This example is used to show how easy it is, using simple or advanced econometric techniques, to produce results that do or do not support the deterrence hypothesis. Moreover, we also point to some puzzles which have not been satisfactorily solved so far. We then present a critical survey of the papers published in the last ten years. It is shown how simple changes can produce quite different results using the same data. Finally, we draw some conclusions about the usefulness of statistical arguments in policy debates, but also on the moral questions involved in this particular debate. Details: Munich: CESifo Group, 2011. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: CESifo Working Paper No. 3443: Accessed June 27, 2011 at: http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1205541.PDF Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1205541.PDF Shelf Number: 121834 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDeterrenceEconometric Evidence |
Author: Lombardo, Robert M. Title: Capital Punishment Reforms in Illinois: Comparing the Views of Police, Prosecutors, and Public Defenders Summary: Following a 2000 moratorium on executions, the Governor’s Commission on Capital Punishment was created to study the use of the death penalty in Illinois. As a result of this effort, comprehensive legislation was enacted to reform the Illinois death penalty system. The Illinois legislature also created a Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee (CPRSC) to gauge the implementation and impact of the reforms. Working with the CPRSC, the authors’ surveyed 413 Illinois police departments, 102 Illinois State’s Attorneys’ Offices, and all 99 Public Defender’s Offices in an effort to determine the extent to which criminal justice agencies have implemented the requirements of the capital punishment reform legislation, and whether there were any significant barriers to the implementation of the legislative requirements. This paper reports the results of this inquiry, and enumerates a number of areas were additional effort is needed. Details: Chicago: Loyola University, 2010. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 24, 2011 at: http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=robert_lombardo&sei-redir=1#search=%22capital%20punishment%20reforms%20illinois%20lombardo%22 Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=robert_lombardo&sei-redir=1#search=%22capital%20punishment%20reforms%20illinois%20lombardo%22 Shelf Number: 122889 Keywords: Capital Punishment (Illinois)Death Penalty |
Author: Manski, Charles Title: Deterrence and the Death Penalty: Partial Identification Analysis Using Repeated Cross Sections Summary: Researchers have long used repeated cross sectional observations of homicide rates and sanctions to examine the deterrent effect of the adoption and implementation of death penalty statutes. The empirical literature, however, has failed to achieve consensus. A fundamental problem is that the outcomes of counterfactual policies are not observable. Hence, the data alone cannot identify the deterrent effect of capital punishment. How then should research proceed? It is tempting to impose assumptions strong enough to yield a definitive finding, but strong assumptions may be inaccurate and yield flawed conclusions. Instead, we study the identifying power of relatively weak assumptions restricting variation in treatment response across places and time. The results are findings of partial identification that bound the deterrent effect of capital punishment. By successively adding stronger identifying assumptions, we seek to make transparent how assumptions shape inference. We perform empirical analysis using state-level data in the United States in 1975 and 1977. Under the weakest restrictions, there is substantial ambiguity: we cannot rule out the possibility that having a death penalty statute substantially increases or decreases homicide. This ambiguity is reduced when we impose stronger assumptions, but inferences are sensitive to the maintained restrictions. Combining the data with some assumptions implies that the death penalty increases homicide, but other assumptions imply that the death penalty deters it. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 17455: Accessed September 26, 2011 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17455 Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17455 Shelf Number: 122900 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDeterrenceHomicides |
Author: International Harm Reduction Association Title: The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2011 - Shared Responsibility & Shared Consequences Summary: ‘Global Overview 2011 – Shared Responsibility and Shared Consequences’ is the fourth report on the death penalty for drug-related offences produced by Harm Reduction International. In addition to providing a survey of international developments related to capital drug laws around the world, it focuses on foreign nationals sentenced to death and/or executed for drug-related offences. The report demonstrates that every country in the world – whether it retains capital punishment or not – has a stake in the abolition of the death penalty. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of non-nationals who are facing or have faced the death penalty for drugs in recent years including citizens of Australia, France, Israel, Liberia, Mexico, Mongolia, The Netherlands, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, The Philippines, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia and many more. Details: London: Harm Reduction International, 2011. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 26, 2011 at: http://www.ihra.net/contents/1080 Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://www.ihra.net/contents/1080 Shelf Number: 122905 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDrug Offenders |
Author: Bandes, Susan Title: The Heart Has Its Reasons: Examining the Strange Persistence of the American Death Penalty Summary: The debate about the future of the death penalty often focuses on whether its supporters are animated by instrumental or expressive values, and if the latter, what values the penalty does in fact express, where those values originated, and how deeply entrenched they are. In this article I argue that a more explicit recognition of the emotional sources of support for and opposition to the death penalty will contribute to the clarity of the debate. The focus on emotional variables reveals that the boundary between instrumental and expressive values is porous; both types of values are informed (or uninformed) by fear, outrage, compassion, selective empathy and other emotional attitudes. More fundamentally, though history, culture and politics are essential aspects of the discussion, the resilience of the death penalty cannot be adequately understood when the affect is stripped from explanations for its support. Ultimately, the death penalty will not die without a societal change of heart. Details: Chicago: University of Chicago, Law School, 2008. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: U of Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 378 U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 200: Accessed October 29, 2011 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1019615 Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1019615 Shelf Number: 123171 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyPunishment |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Addicted to Death: Executions for Drug Offences in Iran Summary: Since mid-2010, the execution rate in Iran has soared. up to 80 per cent of those executed are accused of drug-related offences – offences that do not meet the international criterion of “most serious crimes” for which the death penalty may be imposed. hundreds of alleged drug offenders are being executed in secret mass executions after grossly unfair trials. those executed are often from amongst the most disadvantaged sectors of society, and have included juvenile offenders, whose execution is strictly forbidden under international law. This report highlights the Iranian authorities’ use of execution as a catch-all solution to social ills, even though there is no conclusive evidence that the death penalty has any deterrent effect on crime. Despite the long history of executions for drug offences, Iran’s internal drug problem continues to grow and drug-trafficking across Iran’s borders shows no sign of abating. The report urges the Iranian authorities to immediately end the use of the death penalty for drugs offences, and calls on the international community to ensure that aid to Iran for counter-narcotics measures is not used to commit human rights violations. Details: London: Amnesty International, 2011. 63p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 10, 2012 at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/090/2011/en/0564f064-e965-4fad-b062-6de232a08162/mde130902011en.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Iran URL: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE13/090/2011/en/0564f064-e965-4fad-b062-6de232a08162/mde130902011en.pdf Shelf Number: 123549 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDrug Offenders (Iran)Drug TraffickingExecutions |
Author: Donohue, John Title: Capital Punishment in Connecticut, 1973-2007: A Comprehensive Evaluation from 4684 Murders to One Execution Summary: This study explores and evaluates the application of the death penalty in Connecticut from 1973 until 2007, a period during which 4686 murders were committed in the state. The objective is to assess whether the system operates lawfully and reasonably or is marred by arbitrariness, caprice, or discrimination. My empirical approach has three components. First, I provide background information on the overall numbers of murders, death sentences, and executions in Connecticut. The extreme infrequency with which the death penalty is administered in Connecticut raises a serious question as to whether the state’s death penalty regime is serving any legitimate social purpose. Specifically, of the 4686 murders committed during the sample period, 205 are death-eligible cases that resulted in a homicide conviction, and 138 of these were charged with a capital felony. Of the 92 convicted of a capital felony, 29 then went to a death penalty sentencing hearing, resulting in 9 sustained death sentences, and one execution (in 2005). A comprehensive assessment of this process of winnowing reveals a troubling picture. Overall, the state’s record of handling death-eligible cases represents a chaotic and unsound criminal justice policy that serves neither deterrence nor retribution. Second, mindful of the Supreme Court’s mandate that “[c]apital punishment must be limited to those offenders who commit ‘a narrow category of the most serious crimes’ and whose extreme culpability makes them ‘the most deserving of execution,’”3I evaluate whether the crimes that result in sustained death sentences are the most egregious relative to other death-eligible murders. Any claim to properly punishing such a narrow and specific category of the most serious offenses can definitively be put to rest. The Connecticut death penalty regime does not select from the class of death-eligible defendants those most deserving of execution. At best, the Connecticut system haphazardly singles out a handful for execution from a substantial array of horrible murders. Third, I conduct a multiple regression to test more formally for the presence of arbitrariness or discrimination in implementing the death penalty. Specifically, I examine the impact on capital charging and sentencing decisions of legitimate factors that bear on the deathworthiness of 205 death-eligible cases, as well as legally suspect variables—such as race and gender of the defendant, race of victim, or judicial district in which the murder occurred. The Connecticut death penalty system decidedly fails this inquiry; arbitrariness and discrimination are defining features of the state’s capital punishment regime. Details: Stanford, CA: The Author, 2011. 456p. Source: Available at the Don M. Gottfredson Library of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 123563 Keywords: Capital Punishment (Connecticut)Death PenaltyHomicides |
Author: Minsker, Natasha Title: California's Death Penalty is Dead: Anatomy of a Failure Summary: California’s death penalty is dead. Prosecutors, legislators and taxpayers are turning to permanent imprisonment with no chance of parole as evidence grows that the system is costly, risky, and dangerous to public safety. New polls also indicate that voters favor replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole, with a requirement for work and restitution paid to the Victims’ Compensation Fund. Most significantly, only three death sentences were handed down in California from January to June 2011, compared with the same period last year when there were 13. This is the lowest number of new death sentences in a six month period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978, and a clear indicator that district attorneys and jurors across the state are turning away from the death penalty. On average, 49% of death sentences are decided in the first six months of the year. This means that California may be on track for a total of less than 10 death sentences in 2011– the lowest number in 33 years. Details: California: American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, 2011. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed on January 28, 2012 at http://www.aclunc.org/docs/criminal_justice/death_penalty/the_death_penalty_is_dead_2011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.aclunc.org/docs/criminal_justice/death_penalty/the_death_penalty_is_dead_2011.pdf Shelf Number: 123850 Keywords: Capital Punishment (California)Death Penalty |
Author: Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation Title: "I don't want another kid to die." Families of Victims Murdered by Juveniles Oppose Juvenile Executions Summary: The creation of the juvenile justice system rests on the belief that when a juvenile commits a crime a different kind of response is warranted as opposed to when an adult commits a crime. Therefore, juveniles typically receive sentences that focus on treatment rather than punishment, except in States that sentence juvenile offenders to death. In the United States, the opposition to the execution of juvenile offenders is growing with opinion polls showing that most people oppose the practice. This report examines the issue of the juvenile death penalty from the perspective of family members of victims killed by juvenile offenders and parents of juvenile offenders who have been executed. Individuals presented in this report are members of Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation. This is a national organization of homicide victims’ family members opposing the death penalty in all cases. It demonstrates that the issues surrounding the juvenile death penalty are victims’ issues too. The report is a statement against state killing of juveniles, presented by those who know violent loss most intimately and have been most directly affected by juvenile crimes. The members of human rights organization, Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation conclude that the juvenile death penalty has no place in a democratic society and that it is time to bring the law in line with the national consensus and abolish the juvenile death penalty. Details: Cambridge, MA: Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, 2004. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 3, 2012 at http://www.aclu.org/files/FilesPDFs/mvfr%20report.pdf Year: 2004 Country: United States URL: http://www.aclu.org/files/FilesPDFs/mvfr%20report.pdf Shelf Number: 124369 Keywords: Capital Punishment (U.S.)Death PenaltyHomicideJuvenile OffendersJuvenile VictimsViolent Crime |
Author: Kearney, Helen F. Title: Children of Parents Sentenced to Death Summary: The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child devoted its 2011 Day of General Discussion to ‘Children of Incarcerated Parents’. These children have committed no crime. Yet – as hundreds of participants who work with these children around the world came to testify – they are directly and powerfully impacted by their parent’s involvement with the criminal justice system. Over the course of the day, it became apparent that several issues within this neglected field require further consideration. One such issue was the differentiated impact of different crimes and sentences. Amnesty International prepared a written submission to raise awareness of the impact of a parent’s death sentence on children. It focussed on situations that occur in violation of existing international standards on the use of capital punishment, namely secrecy surrounding detention on death row and execution. However, whether or not a parent’s death sentence has been lawfully applied, their children are affected. Quakers oppose capital punishment in all circumstances, but this paper focuses on the children of parents sentenced to death. It begins to explore the diverse and multi-faceted impacts of the death sentence on the children of the accused. Details: Geneva: Quaker United Nations Office, 2012. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 30, 2012 at: http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/ChildrenOfParentsSentencedToDeath.pdf Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/ChildrenOfParentsSentencedToDeath.pdf Shelf Number: 124775 Keywords: Capital PunishmentChildren of PrisonersDeath PenaltyFamilies of Inmates |
Author: Miller, Kevin E. Title: Mercy, Justice, and Politics: John Paul II on Capital Punishment Summary: Pope John Paul II’s 1995 Evangelium Vitae teaches that capital punishment ought not be used “except ... when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.” Several interpretations of this teaching have been proposed. Through a close reading of the encyclical in itself, in light of John Paul’s other writings on the human person and morality, especially the 1980 Dives in Misericordia, and also in the context of such important influences upon him as Thomas Aquinas and Henri de Lubac, I dispute, on the one hand, the interpretation according to which John Paul is pointing toward possible acceptance of the view that capital punishment is, as intentional killing, intrinsically evil. This interpretation rests upon a reading of Aquinas that fails to see the valid logic of his limited defense of capital punishment, and on a reading of John Paul that exaggerates his departure from Aquinas. I also reject, on the other hand, the interpretation of John Paul’s teaching as a purely prudential judgment about what is best only in the circumstance of an unhealthy moral culture. This interpretation is incompatible with the logic of Evangelium Vitae, which concerns what is necessary both to build and then also to maintain a healthy culture, and is further disproved by demonstrating at length that John Paul’s teaching appeals to mercy as a moral principle always essential for full respect for human dignity insofar as this includes the capacity for conversion, and for the realization of true justice by human persons by nature “restless” apart from a supernatural relationship with God. This appeal is grounded primarily in Christian revelation, but the beginning of an appreciation of the value of mercy is also accessible through natural-law reasoning, based especially on our recognition of creation as already pure gift, requiring us to give ourselves to others in love beyond justice. Details: Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University, 2011. 210p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed April 3, 2012 at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=dissertations_mu Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=dissertations_mu Shelf Number: 124807 Keywords: Capital PunishmentCatholic ChurchDeath PenaltyReligion |
Author: Phillips, Scott Title: Continued Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment? The Rosenthal Era Summary: Given the substantial amount of research that has been conducted throughout the United States regarding the relationship between race and capital punishment, one might assume that much of the attention has been focused on Harris County, Texas. After all, Harris County -- home to Houston and surrounding areas -- is the capital of capital punishment. Indeed, if Harris County were a state it would rank second in executions after Texas. Yet only one study has examined whether race influences the death penalty in Houston. Specifically, Phillips (2008) reports that death was more likely to be imposed against black defendants, and more likely to be imposed on behalf of white victims, during the period from 1992 to 1999 -- the final years of Johnny Homes tenure as District Attorney. After Holmes retired, Charles Rosenthal served as District Attorney from January 1, 2001 to February 15, 2008. Did racial disparities continue during the Rosenthal administration? The current research suggests that the impact of defendant race disappeared, but the impact of victim race continued: death sentences were imposed on behalf of white victims at 2.5 times the rate one would expect if the system were blind to race, and death sentences were imposed on behalf of white female victims at 5 times the rate one would expect if the system were blind to race and gender. Such disparities are particularly troubling because Rosenthal was forced out of office in a scandal that included racist emails. Given the disparities, coupled with racist emails from the elected official who decides whether to seek the death penalty, the paper contemplates a key question: Should the state of Texas be allowed to execute inmates who were sentenced to death in Harris County during the Rosenthal administration? Details: Denver: University of Denver Sturm College of Law, 2012. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: U Denver Legal Studies Research Paper No. 12-05: Accessed May 10, 2012 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2033905## Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2033905## Shelf Number: 125242 Keywords: Capital Punishment (Texas)Death PenaltyRacial BiasRacial Disparities |
Author: Covey, Russell D. Title: Death in Prison: The Right Death Penalty Compromise Summary: The death penalty today provides virtually none of the benefits its advocates proffer as justifications for its existence. The tiny number of death sentences imposed, the even tinier number actually carried out, the enormous drain on public resources, and the decade-long delays that inevitably occur thoroughly undermine any deterrent or retributive benefits today’s death penalty might otherwise provide. In this paper, I argue for a compromise position that promises to better serve penal purposes and that will save states money at the same time: abandon the current dysfunctional death penalty in favor of a new ultimate sentence: death-in-prison. A sentence of death-in-prison would be exactly what it says: a prisoner sentenced to death-in-prison would remain in prison until he or she died. Death-in-prison would be a kind of hybrid sentence: like life in prison without possibility of parole (“LWOP”), death-in-prison would entail lifetime incarceration but no affirmative state action to terminate the prisoner’s life, but death-in-prison would also share several features of the conventional death penalty. As with the conventional death penalty, a special penalty trial would be needed to impose the ultimate death-in-prison sentence. In addition, persons sentenced to death-in-prison might continue to serve their sentences in special segregated “death rows.” Death-in-prison sentences would also be imposed with all the magisterial weightiness of conventional death sentences. Persons so sentenced would be told, like those in conventional death penalty states, that the punishment for their crime is the ultimate one — death. If adopted, death-in-prison would reduce criminal justice expenditures, facilitate community healing, discourage divisive and ineffective commutation campaigns, and diminish wrongful executions, without forgoing what is arguably the greatest benefit of the current death penalty: the expressive value of imposing a “death” rather than a “life” sentence on highly culpable offenders. Details: Atlanta, GA: George State University College of Law, 2012. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 20, 2012 at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2080076 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2080076 Shelf Number: 125388 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyPrisonsPunishment |
Author: LaChance, Daniel Title: Condemned To Be Free: The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in the United States, 1945-Present Summary: This dissertation examines the waning of capital punishment in the immediate post-World War II period and its resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s. Some scholars understand the revival of the death penalty in the United States as part of a socially conservative backlash in a society undergoing immense social change. Qualifying and building upon these accounts, I argue that the migration of Americans‘ sense of political community away from the public sphere and a concomitant resurgence of individualism in the post-World War II period played an under-examined role in the growth of the American demand for capital punishment. State killing, I show, was compatible with a cultural consensus that social problems could be solved only by individual acts of will and not by large-scale social engineering. The revival of the death penalty reflected Americans‘ discomfort with the way that modern, utilitarian approaches to punishment, which peaked in the years after World War II, failed to take individuals seriously, prioritizing social goals over individual autonomy. In this context, capital punishment legitimized, rather than simply masked, the state‘s withdrawal of its claim to being the central provider of social, economic, and personal security. And it denied, rather than endorsed, the state‘s role as a dispenser of traditional morality. Contradictory understandings of the role of the killing state as normatively and descriptively strong and weak worked, moreover, to sustain the practice of capital punishment in the United States. Details: Minneapolis, MN: Department of American Studies, University of Minnesota, 2011. 228p. Source: Dissertation: Internet Resource: Accessed September 23, 2012 at http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/101797/1/LaChance_umn_0130E_11760.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/101797/1/LaChance_umn_0130E_11760.pdf Shelf Number: 126409 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyPublic OpinionPunishment |
Author: Shatz, Steven F. Title: Challenging the Death Penalty with Statistics: Furman, McCleskey and a Single County Case Study Summary: In the forty year history of the Supreme Court's modern death penalty jurisprudence, two cases — Furman v. Georgia (1972) and McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) — stand out above all others. Both cases turned on the Court's consideration of empirical evidence, but they appear to have reached divergent — even altogether inconsistent — results. In Furman, the Court relied on statistical evidence that the death penalty was infrequently applied to death-eligible defendants to hold that the Georgia death penalty scheme was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. In McCleskey, the Court, despite being presented with statistical evidence that race played a significant role in death-charging and death-sentencing in Georgia, upheld the revised Georgia scheme and McCleskey's death sentence against Equal Protection and Eighth Amendment challenges. The McCleskey decision called into question the use of statistical evidence to challenge the death penalty. In the present article, we report on a unique empirical study of the administration of the death penalty in Alameda County, California — the largest single-county death penalty study and the only study to examine intra-county geographic disparities in death-charging and death-sentencing. The data set, drawn from 473 first degree murder convictions for murders occurring over a 23-year period, compares death-charging and death-sentencing in the two halves of the county. During the study period, the two halves differed significantly in racial makeup — the population of North County was over 30% African-American, and of South County less than 5% African-American; and the two halves differed in the race of homicide victims — in North County, African-Americans were homicide victims roughly 4.5 times as often as Whites, while, in South County, Whites were homicide victims more than three times as often as African-Americans. The study reveals that there were statistically significant disparities in death-charging and death-sentencing according to the location of the murder: the Alameda County District Attorney was substantially more likely to seek death, and capital juries, drawn from a county-wide jury pool, were substantially more likely to impose death, for murders that occurred in South County. We argue that, McCleskey notwithstanding, statistical evidence such as the "race of neighborhood" disparities found in the present study should support constitutional challenges to the death penalty under both the Equal Protection Clause and the Eighth Amendment. Details: San Francisco, CA: University of San Francisco - School of Law, 2012. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Univ. of San Francisco Law Research Paper No. 2012-23: Accessed September 28, 2012 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2146253 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2146253 Shelf Number: 126496 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDiscriminationDisparitiesEighth AmendmentFurman v. GeorgiaMcCleskey v. Kemp |
Author: Hunnicutt, Wendell Allen Title: Romilly and Rush: The Parallel Paths of Penal Reform in Britain and America, 1780 - 1830 Summary: After the end of the American Revolution, efforts were made in both American and in Britain to alter the penal code in order to reduce the number of offenses that carried the death penalty and to replace capital punishment with incarceration in a penitentiary. In Pennsylvania, Dr. Benjamin Rush achieved apparent success in this matter since, by the time of his death, the local jail was well on its way to being transformed into the total penal institution recognizable in the nineteenth-century penitentiary. Sir Samuel Romilly, on the other hand, faced relentless opposition in Parliament in his efforts to repeal the numerous statutes that constituted England’s “Bloody Code.” The revolutionary spirit in America allowed for the alteration in the penal code and the experimentation with less severe forms of punishment. In Britain, the spirit of revolution seemed too real and threatening to the entrenched elites and therefore efforts to alleviate the law’s harshness came to naught as long as Napoleon Bonaparte remained in power. By the 1820s American interests had changed and penal reform slowed; in Britain, the absence of revolutionary threat allowed Britons to establish a police force and to relax their harsh laws. Details: Arlington, TX: University of Texas at Arlington, 2010. 174p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed October 19, 2012 at: http://dspace.uta.edu/bitstream/handle/10106/5134/Hunnicutt_uta_2502D_10749.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://dspace.uta.edu/bitstream/handle/10106/5134/Hunnicutt_uta_2502D_10749.pdf?sequence=1 Shelf Number: 126762 Keywords: Benjamin RushCapital Punishment (U.S., U.K.)Correctional Reform MovementsDeath PenaltyPrison ReformPunishmentSamuel Romilly |
Author: United Nations. General Assembly. Human Rights Council Title: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Summary: In States in which the death penalty continues to be used, international law imposes stringent requirements that must be met for it not to be regarded as unlawful. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur considers the problem of error and the use of military tribunals in the context of fair trial requirements. He also examines the constraint that the death penalty may be imposed only for the most serious crimes: those involving intentional killing. Lastly, he considers the issues of collaboration and complicity, in addition to transparency in respect of the use of the death penalty. Details: Vienna: United Nations, 2012. 25p. Source: United Nations Report A/67/275: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2012 at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N12/457/80/PDF/N1245780.pdf?OpenElement Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N12/457/80/PDF/N1245780.pdf?OpenElement Shelf Number: 126861 Keywords: Administration of JusticeCapital PunishmentCriminal Justice ReformDeath PenaltyExtrajudicial ExecutionsHuman Rights |
Author: Papke, David Ray Title: Muted Message: Capital Punishment in the Hollywood Cinema Summary: Contemporary Hollywood films seem at first glance to be opposed to capital punishment. However, this article’s consideration of five surprisingly similar films (Dead Man Walking, The Chamber, Last Dance, True Crime, and The Life of David Gale) finds they do not truly and consistently condemn capital punishment. Instead of suggesting that the practice of capital punishment is fundamentally immoral and should in general be ended, the films champion only worthy individuals on death row and delight primarily in the personal growth of other characters who attempt to aid the condemned. In the end, Hollywood offers only a muted message regarding the on-going use of capital punishment. Details: Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Law School, 2012. 18p. Source: Marquette University Law School Legal Studies Research Paper Series Paper No. 12-25: Internet Resource: Accessed December 16, 2012 at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2179186 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2179186 Shelf Number: 127224 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyFilmLaw and Popular Culture |
Author: Gallahue, Patrick Title: Death Penalty for Drug Offences Global Overview 2012: Tipping the Scales for Abolition Summary: The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2012 – Tipping the Scales for Abolition is Harm Reduction International’s third annual overview on the status of the death penalty for drug offences worldwide. Tipping the Scales for Abolition documents the 33 countries and territories that retain death penalty for drug offences, including 13 in which the sentence is mandatory. In the past year many hundreds of people have been executed for drug offences in violation of international law in just a small minority of states that continue to operate at the fringes of international consensus. The trend towards abolition is, however, moving back in the right direction. This report details court cases and recent political debates that show an increasing discomfort with the death penalty for drugs, and in particular with mandatory death sentences. Details: London: Harm Reduction International, 2012. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 7, 2013, at http://www.ihra.net/files/2012/11/27/HRI_-_2012_Death_Penalty_Report_-_FINAL.pdf Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.ihra.net/files/2012/11/27/HRI_-_2012_Death_Penalty_Report_-_FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 127855 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDrug OffendersDrug Offenses |
Author: Wesson, Marianne Title: Living Death: Ambivalence, Delay, and Capital Punishment Summary: Most discussions about capital punishment in the United States treat the distinct phenomena of death sentencing and execution as joined: in the ordinary case, it is assumed, the first will lead eventually to the second. But in fact it is exceptional for a death sentence to cause the death of the individual sentenced. During the entire modern death penalty era, since 1976, the ratio of death sentences pronounced in the U.S. to those carried out has been about six to one. This Article seeks to investigate the causes of the disparity. It surmises that our tolerance for it grows out of political and institutional ambivalence about capital punishment, and undertakes to identify which actors and processes enact this ambivalence and thus hinder the conversion of death sentences into executions. My research assistants and I chose a small number of jurisdictions that we found representative in which to study the post-sentence careers of death row inmates. We considered the roles of death while in prison, executive clemency, and federal habeas corpus intervention in creating attrition from death row, but taken together these events failed to account for all (indeed, even very much) of the disparity. We investigated in more detail the frequency of sentence reversal by postconviction appeal or collateral state remedies, but contrary to expectation, we found that these processes could not account for the disparity we had observed. We then undertook a more granular study, following the careers of a cohort of death row inmates, all of whom resided on death row in 1995 (and nearly half of whom still reside there today). Our findings suggest that the most powerful explanation was simply delay. Our study population consists entirely of prisoners who have been under sentence of death for seventeen years or longer, yet more of them (in some of our jurisdictions many more) are still alive and under sentence of death than have been executed. To be sure, necessary and expected legal processes consumed some of the intervening years, and the Article investigates and discusses the developments in capital punishment law that have contributed to impeding the march of execution. A variety of measures have been designed to hasten the processing of capital cases between sentence and execution, but they have been unsuccessful. Since 1976, the typical interval between sentence and execution has grown markedly over time, cannot really be explained by necessity, and begins to resemble a permanent feature of the system of capital punishment. Although predicting the outcome of individual cases is difficult, it appears that many death sentences that have not been carried out will never be carried out, and that we have accommodated ourselves to this reality. In closing, the Article discusses the implications of these observations for our national conversation about capital punishment, considers the recent landscape of explicit death penalty abolition activity (especially in California), and makes some predictions about the future of capital punishment. Details: Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Law Schoo, 2013. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 13-4: Accessed March 7, 2013 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2221597 Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2221597 Shelf Number: 127861 Keywords: Capital PunishmentCruel and Unusual PunishmentDeath PenaltyHabeas Corpus |
Author: Gerritzen, Berit C. Title: Facts or Ideology: What Determines the Results of Econometric Estimates of the Deterrence Effect of Death Penalty? A Meta-Analysis Summary: Provided that the literature on the deterrent effect of capital punishment is overall inconclusive, the fact that individual authors persistently claim to have found solid evidence in one or the other direction raises two questions. Firstly, what are the causes for these different results? Do different data samples, estimation methods or time periods lead to different results or do the outcomes merely reflect prior convictions of the authors? Secondly, to what extent is it possible to derive such diverging results by slightly changing the specification of the test equations without violating scientific standards? After a survey of the over forty reviews of this literature available so far, we perform a meta-analysis of 102 deterrence studies published between 1975 and 2011. The profession of the author turns out to be the only statistically significant explanatory variable: Economists claim significantly more often to have found a significant deterrence effect than members of law or other social science departments. Furthermore, using a panel data set of U.S. states, we show how easy it is to derive contradictory results by employing alternative specifications. Thus, our results reinforce the claim that the empirical evidence presented to date is by far too fragile in order to base political decisions on it. Details: Munich: CESifo Group, consisting of the Center for Economic Studies (CES), the Ifo Institute and the CESifo GmbH , 2013. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: CESIFO WORKING PAPER NO. 4159: Accessed March 27, 2013 at: http://www.cesifo-group.de Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.cesifo-group.de Shelf Number: 128149 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDeterrenceEconomic Evidence |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Death Sentences and Executions 2012 Summary: Despite some negative developments, the use of the death penalty in 2012 overall confirmed the global trend towards abolition. The USA was the only country in the Americas to have carried out executions in 2012. However, just nine states in the USA carried out executions in 2012, compared to 13 in 2011. Connecticut became the 17th abolitionist US state. Despite setbacks in the Asia-Pacific region – including the resumption of executions in India and Pakistan – Viet Nam did not carry out death sentences and Singapore observed a moratorium on executions while considering amendments to its death penalty laws. In sub-Saharan Africa, further progress was visible. The government of Ghana plans to abolish the death penalty in the new Constitution. There are no more prisoners on death row in Sierra Leone. Belarus continued to be the only country in Europe and central Asia to carry out executions. Legislation to remove the death penalty completely came into effect in Latvia in January, making it the 97th country abolitionist for all crimes worldwide. In December the UN General Assembly adopted the fourth resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, with 111 Member States voting in favour. This report analyzes some of the key developments in the application of the death penalty in 2012, presenting figures gathered by Amnesty International on the number of death sentences handed down and executions carried out during the year. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. Details: London: AI, 2013. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 12, 2013 at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/worlddpreport2012.pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/worlddpreport2012.pdf Shelf Number: 128344 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyExecutions |
Author: Stancu, Constantin-Raducu Title: The Political Use of Capital Punishment in Communist Romania Summary: This thesis aims to reveal the relationship between the death penalty and politics in Romania, throughout the communist period. It examines the legal framework, takes a statistical survey of the actual use, and provides examples in order to illustrate how the state’s attitude towards capital punishment evolved. The use of the death penalty was defined by frequent irregularities and the incoherent policies of a regime that transformed its own perpetuation in one of its main aims. This was especially the case when it was at its weakest, at the very beginning and then close to the end of its existence. The result was the use of the death penalty in a manner that was dictated by immediate political “needs” and reactions to specific events, rather than in relation to a coherent criminal policy, and thus was ultimately less influenced by ideology than one might expect. Used in the Stalinist period both as a direct means to eliminate opponents and by the propaganda for its deterrent effect, as described in the first research chapter, the second research chapter provides evidence about how it slowly evolved to become a more refined political tool limited to the propagandistic use, during the 1980’s. Ultimately, both chapters demonstrate that the legal provisions and their interpretation when put into practice highlight the politicization of the death penalty itself. 68p. Details: Budapest : CEU, Budapest College, 2012. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2013 at: Year: 2012 Country: Romania URL: Shelf Number: 128749 Keywords: Capital Punishment (Romania)Death Penalty |
Author: Robertson, Oliver Title: Lightening the Load of the Parental Death Penalty on Children Summary: One of the little-asked questions in debates over the death penalty is what happens to the children of the offender. The arrest, sentencing and (potential) execution of a parent affect children greatly, but they receive little consideration and less support. Some of the impacts on children of parents sentenced to death or executed are similar to those experienced by children of prisoners more generally. These include how they experience the arrest and trial of a parent, some of the issues around visiting a parent in prison, and considerations about what they are told and when. Even in these cases, children of parents sentenced to death may experience the issues at greater intensity or with additional aspects that other children of prisoners do not face. But there are also areas where the nature of the death penalty itself, and the procedures accompanying it, mean the experiences of these children are categorically different from those of their peers. These include dealing with the execution itself, and learning to continue living after the execution in the knowledge that a parent has been killed by the State. This paper begins by providing some basic information about children of parents sentenced to death, issues that persist through the whole of a parent’s interaction with the criminal justice system. Next, it looks at issues that are similar to those faced by other children of prisoners, but focuses on the ways in which children of parents sentenced to death are different. For a more detailed account of the situation of children of prisoners worldwide, including recommendations and examples of good practice, read QUNO’s 2012 paper Collateral Convicts. Thirdly, the fundamentally different issues are considered, those only children of parents sentenced to death experience. There are a limited number of recommendations included throughout: these are not intended to be comprehensive, instead only covering those areas where there is already clarity about a positive way forward. Details: Geneva, SWIT: Quaker United Nations Office, 2013. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 18, 2013 at: http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/2013LighteningLoad-English.pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/2013LighteningLoad-English.pdf Shelf Number: 129015 Keywords: Capital PunishmentChildren of PrisonersDeath PenaltyFamilies of Inmates |
Author: American Civil Liberties Union Title: A Death Before Dying: Solitary Confinement on Death Row Summary: We know that the death penalty system is broken. Racial bias, junk science, underfunded public defense, and other serious breakdowns in our legal system can mean that people – sometimes innocent people – will languish on death rows for years while pursuing appeals. Spending these years in extreme isolation can erode mental health to the point that some will “volunteer” to die rather than continue to live under such conditions. Many prisoners die a slow and painful psychological death before the state ever executes them. Using the results of an ACLU survey of death row conditions nationwide, this briefing paper offers the first comprehensive review of the legal and human implications of subjecting death row prisoners to solitary confinement for years. Details: New York: ACLU, 2013. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 5, 2013 at: http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/deathbeforedying-report.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/deathbeforedying-report.pdf Shelf Number: 129534 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDeath RowSolitary Confinement |
Author: Hodgkinson, Peter Title: Capital Punishment Briefing Paper Summary: This briefing paper is offered as a critique of the received wisdom of abolition strategies against the background of an evidence based analysis of the literature. A point of interest to begin with is to try to tease out the motivation of individuals and groups that consider themselves death penalty abolitionists - they are a mixed bunch. On the one hand, there are those who oppose capital punishment based on the offence, and others, based on the characteristics of the defendant or on the death penalty process itself. Some individuals and countries restrict their support to murder; others for crimes including rape, child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, kidnapping, bribery, corruption, adultery, apostasy and arson. There is neither clarity, agreement, nor consistency worldwide about which, crimes attract the death sentence, nor, as to why a particular crime should be distinguished as deserving of death. 'Abolitionists' influenced by this approach remain so only until the 'unacceptable' crimes have been removed from the purview of capital punishment. Further opposition to capital punishment is based on specific characteristics of the defendant, for example, they oppose sentencing to death those under the age of eighteen at the time of the offence, those with mental impairment or mental illness, women, pregnant women, or those over a certain age (e.g. 65 years). Some oppose its mandatory imposition, the possibility of wrongful convictions, the mode of execution, or policies with their roots in religious beliefs (Islam, Mormonism and some schools of Christianity). Examples of dissonance within the abolitionist camp are provided by such occasions as the trial and execution of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. A poll conducted shortly before Timothy McVeigh's execution showed that 20% out of the 80% that supported his execution were ordinarily opposed to capital punishment. In another report, Richard Dieter, Director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, is reported as saying, 'With McVeigh, you don't have the questions of innocence or lack of counsel or some of the others things that have particularly troubled folks about (other recent) executions. It's nothing like the typical death-penalty case.' Another example of this 'exceptionalism' is demonstrated by Australia's policy regarding the death penalty and the case of the Bali bombers. In an ABC News broadcast4 Philip Alston, Professor of Law at New York University and the UN spokesman on the death penalty described the stance taken by the Federal Government of Australia over the execution of the Bali bombers as 'Australian exceptionalism strategy', as it appears to support a position inconsistent with its apparent opposition to the death penalty in cases involving Australian citizens. The next government formed by the Australian Labour Party, after a slow start, has brought a note of optimism with statements from government ministers and the PM reflecting their support for total abolition and a decision to table a resolution at the UN along these lines. Other examples of exceptionalism are provided by certain countries which consistently excuse or commute the death penalty for citizens of powerful and influential countries - Vietnam provides a good example of such an approach. The execution of Saddam Hussein in Iraq led to the unseemly spectacle of governments and individuals worldwide falling over themselves to avoid making unequivocal statements opposing it. Some disguised their obvious approval by restricting their criticism to the process not the principle. In the UK, then Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, was reported as saying that she welcomed the fact that Saddam Hussein 'has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people' and that his execution meant that he had been 'held to account'. In the same statement, she did, however, also state that the British government remained opposed to the death penalty5. Another example of exceptionalism? The vast majority of death penalty scholarship and scholars are based in the USA and on its use in the United States of America and despite the fact that the USA represents the experience of only 5% of the world's population, its data and debate tends to dominate the Western approach to capital punishment. Whilst one should not ignore the wealth of information and scholarship the US experience provides the reality is that there is precious little authoritative material on capital punishment in other countries though in recent years attempts have been made by some, including the CCPS, to redress the balance. The crucial distinction that needs to be made is between the valuable contribution the US data makes to the general debate and its relevance to understanding the death penalty worldwide. The core reasons for retaining or removing the death penalty differ from country to country but generally include such issues as deterrence, public opinion, rights of victims, religious doctrine and alternative penalties - all this against a background of understandable concern of its citizens that an explosion in violent crime would follow the removal of the death penalty. Professor Roger Hood identifies several factors that he believes have influenced the increase in the number of abolitionist countries: the spread of international treaties and of the human rights movement; political pressure; political leadership; and rejection of injustices associated with totalitarian regimes. He proposes four main objections to the death penalty, 1] capital punishment violates the fundamental right to life, 2] capital punishment is not a unique deterrent, 3] the administration of the death penalty, even in developed legal systems, is inherently and irredeemably flawed, and 4] its effect is counter-productive in that it gives out very confused moral messages. Details: London: Centre for Capital Punishment Studies, Westminster University Law School, 2010. 97p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 26, 2014 at: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/?a=79134 Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/?a=79134 Shelf Number: 132539 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath Penalty |
Author: Donohue, John J., III Title: An Empirical Evaluation of the Connecticut Death Penalty System Since 1973: Are There Unlawful Racial, Gender, and Geographic Disparities? Summary: This article analyzes the 205 death-eligible murders leading to homicide convictions in Connecticut from 1973-2007 to determine if discriminatory and arbitrary factors influenced capital outcomes. A regression analysis controlling for an array of legitimate factors relevant to the crime, defendant, and victim provides overwhelming evidence that minority defendants who kill white victims are capitally charged at substantially higher rates than minority defendants who kill minorities, that geography influences both capital charging and sentencing decisions (with the location of a crime in Waterbury being the single most potent influence on which death-eligible cases will lead to a sentence of death), and that the Connecticut death penalty system has not limited its application to the worst of the worst death-eligible defendants. The work of an expert hired by the State of Connecticut provided emphatic, independent confirmation of these three findings, and found that women who commit death-eligible crimes are less likely than men to be sentenced to death. There is also strong and statistically significant evidence that minority defendants who kill whites are more likely to end up with capital sentences than comparable cases with white defendants. Regression estimates of the effect of both race and geography on death sentencing reveal the disparities can be glaring. Considering the most common type of death-eligible murder - a multiple victim homicide - a white on white murder of average egregiousness outside Waterbury has a .57 percent chance of being sentenced to death, while a minority committing the identical crime on white victims in Waterbury would face a 91.2 percent likelihood. In other words, the minority defendant in Waterbury would be 160 times more likely to get a sustained death sentence than the comparable white defendant in the rest of the state. Among the nine Connecticut defendants to receive sustained death sentences over the study period, only Michael Ross comports with the dictates that "within the category of capital crimes, the death penalty must be reserved for 'the worst of the worst.'" For the eight defendants on death row (after the 2005 execution of Ross), the median number of equally or more egregious death-eligible cases that did not receive death sentences is between 35 and 46 (depending on the egregiousness measure). In light of the prospective abolition of the Connecticut death penalty in April 2012, which eliminated the deterrence rationale for the death penalty, Atkins v. Virginia teaches that unless the Connecticut death penalty regime "measurably contributes to [the goal of retribution], it is nothing more than the purposeless and needless imposition of pain and suffering, and hence an unconstitutional punishment." Apart from Ross, the evidence suggests that the eight others residing on death row were not measurably more culpable than the many who were not capitally sentenced. Moreover, Connecticut imposed sustained death sentences at a rate of 4.4 percent (9 of 205). This rate of death sentencing is among the lowest in the nation and more than two-thirds lower than the 15 percent pre-Furman Georgia rate that was deemed constitutionally problematic in that "freakishly rare" sentences of death are likely to be arbitrary. Details: Forthcoming article, 2014. 84p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper: Accessed August 23, 2014 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2470082 Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2470082 Shelf Number: 133118 Keywords: Capital Punishment (Connecticut)Death PenaltyGender DisparitiesRacial Disparities |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Death Sentences and Executions 2014 Summary: An alarming number of countries used the death penalty to tackle real or perceived threats to state security linked to terrorism, crime or internal instability in 2014, Amnesty International found in its annual review of the death penalty worldwide. The number of death sentences recorded in 2014 jumped by almost 500 compared to 2013, mainly because of sharp spikes in Egypt and Nigeria, including mass sentencing in both countries in the context of internal conflict and political instability. The USA continued to be the only country to put people to death in the region, although executions dropped from 39 in 2013 to 35 in 2014 - reflecting a steady decline in the use of the death penalty in the country over the past years. Only seven states executed in 2014 (down from nine in 2013) with four - Texas, Missouri, Florida and Oklahoma -responsible for 89 per cent of all executions. The state of Washington imposed a moratorium on executions in February. The overall number of death sentences decreased from 95 in 2013 to 77 in 2014. But there was also good news to be found in 2014 - fewer executions were recorded compared to the year before and several countries took positive steps towards abolition of the death penalty. Details: London: AI, 2015. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 4, 2015 at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/DeathSentencesAndExecutions2014_EN.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/DeathSentencesAndExecutions2014_EN.pdf Shelf Number: 135493 Keywords: Capital Punishment Death PenaltyExecutions |
Author: Nevada. Legislative Auditor Title: Fiscal Costs of the Death Penalty Summary: The death penalty in the United States is applied almost exclusively for the crime of murder. As of August 2014, 32 states have laws allowing death as a sentencing option although governors in Washington and Oregon have issued moratoriums on executions. Two U.S. Supreme Court cases significantly impacted states' laws regarding the death penalty. Furman v. Georgia in 1972 invalidated death penalty laws because the legal system, as it was then structured, allowed for the death penalty to be imposed in an arbitrary manner. The 1976 case of Gregg v. Georgia upheld newly crafted statutes that ensured death penalty sentences were rationally imposed and objectively reviewable. Senate Bill 220 of the 1977 Legislative Session brought Nevada's death penalty laws into compliance with U.S. Supreme Court guidelines. Since the death penalty was reinstated in Nevada in 1977, 153 people have been sentenced to death. Twelve inmates have been executed since that time with 11 effectively "volunteering" by giving up their right to continue appealing their conviction. Eighty-two inmates are currently sentenced to the death penalty as of September 2014. Of the remaining 59 inmates, 16 died while in prison and 43 had their sentence and/or conviction reduced. Nevada law requires executions to be performed by lethal injection. This method of execution has become an issue nationally as historically used drugs have become difficult to obtain. This audit was required by Chapter 469, Statutes of Nevada, 2013 (A.B. 444). The purpose of the audit was to determine (1) the fiscal costs of prosecuting death penalty cases versus nondeath penalty cases and (2) the potential savings attributable to the death penalty through plea bargaining and strategic litigation choices. Our audit focused on murder cases in Washoe and Clark counties between 2000 and 2012. We used December 31, 2013, as the cut-off date for cost accumulation. The audit was subject to certain limitations as many agencies with significant roles could not provide actual staff time and were hesitant to provide estimates. Furthermore, much of the information was based on unverifiable estimates provided by various entities Details: Carson City, NV: Legislative Auditor, 2014. 114p. Source: Internet Resource: Performance Audit LA 14025: Accessed May 16, 2015 at: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/NevadaCosts.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/NevadaCosts.pdf Shelf Number: 135680 Keywords: Capital PunishmentCosts of Criminal JusticeDeath Penalty |
Author: Lowy Institute Title: 2015 Lowy Institute polling: Indonesia and the death penalty Summary: New polling commissioned by the Lowy Institute following the executions in Indonesia of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran last week suggests that Australians have a strong preference for a restrained diplomatic response from the Australian Government. 'Private diplomatic protests' are the course of action most Australian adults would prefer their Government to take, with 59% agreeing with this approach when presented with five potential Government responses following the execution of an Australian citizen overseas. Only a minority (42%) say that Australia 'should recall Australia's ambassador', despite the Government announcing the recall of Australia's Ambassador to Jakarta last week and his subsequent return to Australia on 4 May. There is scant support for suspending Australian aid projects (28% agreeing) or suspending military and law enforcement cooperation (27%). The least supported action is for applying trade sanctions (24% agreeing). Attitudes have shifted very little since Lowy Institute polling on this question earlier in the year, with the exception of the preference for private diplomatic protests (down from 73% support before the executions) and for recalling Australia's ambassador (up from 33% before the executions). Key Findings - Following the recall of the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, the predominant view is that normal diplomatic relations with Indonesia should be suspended for only a few months. - The poll results suggest that the executions will have little impact on Australians' travel plans, buying habits or business dealings with Indonesia. - A slight majority say the Australian Government should play an active role in pushing for the abolition of the death penalty internationally (51%, compared with 45% saying it should not). Details: Sydney: Lowy Institute, 2015. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 18, 2015 at: http://www.lowyinstitute.org/files/lowyinstitute_2015indonesiadeathpenaltypolling.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Indonesia URL: http://www.lowyinstitute.org/files/lowyinstitute_2015indonesiadeathpenaltypolling.pdf Shelf Number: 135707 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath Penalty |
Author: Temkin, Moshik Title: The Great Divergence: The Death Penalty in the United States and the Failure of Abolition in Transatlantic Perspective Summary: This essay analyzes the persistence of the death penalty in the United States--a topic that has long been the subject of debate among legal scholars, social scientists, and historians. Adopting a comparative framework by focusing on the United States and France (the last Western European country to abolish the death penalty), this essay argues that the best explanation for the divergence in the practice of the death penalty between the two countries can be found in the very different histories, meanings, and practical applications of death penalty abolitionism. Whereas abolition in France (as elsewhere in Europe) was a political, top-down process, framed in normative terms, decided at the national level, and enshrined in supranational treaties, the abolitionist cause in the United States has been primarily legal, procedural, and decentralized. This divergence should also be understood in the context of a broader divide - whereas in Europe, human rights have been a binding principle for policymaking and political belonging, in the United States human rights are applied for the wider world but not for domestic affairs. The essay concludes with implications for thinking about the relationship between the transatlantic history of abolition and its prospects in the United States, arguing that abolitionism should be understood, and proceed, in terms that are political and normative rather than legal and procedural. Details: Cambridge, MA: Harvard Kennedy School, 2015. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Faculty Research Working Paper Series: Accessed July 22, 2015 at: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=9785&type=WPN Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=9785&type=WPN Shelf Number: 136123 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath Penalty |
Author: Penal Reform International Title: Sharia law and the death penalty. Summary: This report is designed for non-experts who want to understand more about Sharia law and Islamic jurisprudence as it relates to the death penalty. Sharia law is used in some countries as a reason to retain capital punishment. However, there are schools of thought among Islamic scholars stating that Sharia law creates stringent conditions for the use of the death penalty and includes various opportunities to avoid or commute punishment, and that Sharia law explicitly encourages alternatives. The report begins by explaining the primary and secondary sources and schools of Sharia law. It then looks at the categories of penalties in Sharia law (Qisas crimes, Hudud crimes and Ta'zir crimes) and explains what these comprise in relation to the death penalty. The book quotes sources of Sharia law related to these offences and analyses what this means for the application of the death penalty, including how Sharia law relates to international standards on the application of the death penalty. It ends by looking at ways in which Islamic jurisprudence has changed over the centuries in various aspects of law and punishment. Details: London: PRI, 2015. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 4, 2015 at: http://www.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sharia-law-and-the-death-penalty.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: http://www.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Sharia-law-and-the-death-penalty.pdf Shelf Number: 136305 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyIslamic Law |
Author: Garrett, Brandon L. Title: The Decline of the Virginia (and American) Death Penalty Summary: The American death penalty is disappearing. Death sentences and executions have reached the lowest levels seen in decades. Public support for the death penalty has declined. More states have abolished the death penalty or imposed de facto moratoria. Even the states formerly most aggressive in pursuit of death sentences have seen death sentences steadily decline. Take Virginia, which has the highest rate of executions of any death penalty state, and which has executed the third highest number of prisoners since the 1970s. How times have changed. There are now two or fewer trials a year in Virginia at which a judge or jury even considers imposing the death penalty. Still more surprising, over one half of those trials in Virginia now result in a life sentence (11 of 21 cases from 2005 to present at which there was a capital sentencing hearing resulted in a life sentence). Why is this happening and in Virginia of all places? In this study of the decline in the Virginia death penalty, I examine every capital trial since 2005, a group of 21 trials, and I compare those to a group of twenty capital trials from 1996 to 2004. The law on the books has not meaningfully changed in ways that would make it harder to obtain death sentences in Virginia. However, in 2004 regional capital defense resource centers were created to handle capital cases. From 1996 to 2004, the crucial sentencing phase at which the judge or jury decided whether to impose the death penalty was typically cursory, averaging less than two days long. In the more recent trials, the average was twice that - four days - and still more striking was the increase in numbers of defense witnesses called, greater use of expert witnesses, and the added complexity of sentencing proceedings. Only seven counties have imposed death sentences in the past decade in Virginia. The changed understanding of effective mitigation, together with improved defense resources, may help explain the decline. I examine additional evidence from North Carolina and Florida, situating the role of other factors such as national trends in homicide rates, and conclude by describing heightened Eighth Amendment concerns with the scattered state of the American death penalty. Details: Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia School of law, 2015. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 27, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2674604 Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2674604 Shelf Number: 137147 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyEighth Amendment Right to Counsel |
Author: Gallahue, Patrick Title: The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2015. The Extreme Fringe of Global Drug Policy Summary: This report looks at the death penalty for drugs in law and practice. It also considers critical developments on the issue. Among its findings are: >> There are at least 33 countries and territories that prescribe the death penalty for drugs in law. >> At least 10 countries have the death penalty for drugs as a mandatory sanction. >> In 2013, around 549 people were believed to have been executed for drugs. This is an estimate using figures provided by human rights monitors but it cannot be considered comprehensive and it is likely there are more executions than those recorded. >> If the estimates for China are accurate and remained constant for 2014, then there would have been at least 600 executions for drugs in 2014. The actual figure is also likely to be higher when countries like North Korea, for which there is no reliable data, are included. >> Executions for drugs took place in at least seven countries since 2010. This number is possibly higher but not by much. Very few countries in the world actually execute drug offenders with any frequency. >> As of 2015, there are believed to be almost 900 people on death row for drugs in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Pakistan, and many hundreds more in China, Iran and Vietnam. While this report notes that there still are a troubling number of governments with capital drug laws in law very few states actually execute people for drugs. The number of people killed for drug-related offences is high but only because China, Iran and Saudi Arabia are aggressive executioners. The reality is that those governments that kill for drugs are an extreme fringe of the international community. One of the major developments in recent years on the death penalty for drugs, however, is that the international community is no longer standing idly by. The death penalty for drugs is distinct from many other capital offences as drug control is not confined to the borders of a particular country. The investigation, capture and prosecution of those who are executed may require assistance from partners around the world, including agencies based in countries that are opposed to the death penalty. After all, international drug control is a collective endeavour formalised by international agreements. The 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances promotes cross-border information-sharing between national agencies, joint trainings, technical and financial assistance between a variety of States Parties. The 1988 Convention formalised transnational cooperation in drug control and essentially 'internationalised' the war on drugs. In practice, this means a border control program between Iran and Pakistan could involve European Union donors, German police trainers, French equipment and British intelligence. Details: Harm Reduction International, 2015. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2015 at: http://www.ihra.net/files/2015/10/07/DeathPenaltyDrugs_Report_2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: http://www.ihra.net/files/2015/10/07/DeathPenaltyDrugs_Report_2015.pdf Shelf Number: 137193 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDrug Control PolicyDrug EnforcementDrug Offenders |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Growing Up on Death Row: The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders in Iran Summary: Between 2005 and 2015, Amnesty International recorded the execution of 73 juvenile offenders (people younger than 18 at the time of the crime), including at least four in 2015. A UN report issued in 2014 stated that more than 160 juvenile offenders were on death row. In 2013, Iran adopted a new Islamic Penal Code granting judges discretionary power to replace the death penalty with an alternative punishment if they find that a juvenile offender convicted of murder or certain other capital offences did not understand the nature of the crime or its consequences or there are doubts about his or her "mental maturity and development". Hopes were reinforced by a 2014 decision from Iran's Supreme Court that all juvenile offenders on death row could seek retrial. However, over the past two years the authorities have continued to carry out executions of juvenile offenders, failing to inform them of their right to file an "application for retrial". Also worryingly, several juvenile offenders who had been granted a retrial have been resentenced to death. These cases highlight, yet again, the urgent need for Iran to comply with its international obligations by abolishing completely the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders. Details: London: AI, 2016. 110p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2016 at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/growing_up_on_death_row_-_the_death_penalty_and_juvenile_offenders_in_iran_final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Iran URL: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/growing_up_on_death_row_-_the_death_penalty_and_juvenile_offenders_in_iran_final.pdf Shelf Number: 137700 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDeath RowExecutionsJuvenile JusticeJuvenile Offenders |
Author: Baumgartner, Frank R. Title: The Impact of Race, Gender, and Geography on Florida Executions Summary: Florida's use of the death penalty in the modern era has been marked by substantial disparities by the race and gender of the victim of the crime, and by geography. These disparities are so great that they call in to question the equity of the application of the harshest penalty, adding to growing concerns that the death penalty is applied in an unfair, capricious, and arbitrary manner. Between 1976 and 2014, the state of Florida executed 89 men and women. Here are a few key findings of this research: - 72% of all executions carried out in Florida between 1976 and 2014 were for crimes involving White victims despite the fact that 56% of all homicide victims are White. - Only 26% of all homicide victims are female, but 43% of all executions carried out in Florida were for homicides involving female victims. - Homicides involving White female victims are 6.5 times more likely to result in an execution than homicides in involving Black male victims. - No White person has been executed in Florida for a homicide involving a Black victim. In contrast, 71% of the executions carried out against Black inmates were for homicides involving White victims. In cases where Black inmates were executed, 56% of all of the victims were White. - Just six out of Florida's 67 counties are responsible for more than half of the state's 89 executions. - Only four counties (Miami-Dade, Orange, Duval, and Pinellas) have produced more than five executions. More than half of all Florida counties (36) have never produced an execution. Seven Florida counties (Bradford, Wakulla, Santa Rosa, Madison, Colombia, Lake, and Hernando) have execution rates that are more than triple the state's average execution rate of .30 executions per 100 homicides. - The homicide rate in counties that have produced no executions (1.11 homicides per 1,000 population) is significantly lower than the homicide rate in counties that have produced executions (1.62 homicides per 1,000 population). Details: The Author, 2016. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 25, 2016 at: https://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/articles/Baumgartner-Florida-executions-Jan2016.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.unc.edu/~fbaum/articles/Baumgartner-Florida-executions-Jan2016.pdf Shelf Number: 137975 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyExecutionsHomicidesRacial Disparities |
Author: Pettigrew, Mark N. Title: Incarceration on Death Row: A Microcosm of Communication? Summary: Death row is a space across the United States that continues to expand, not only in numbers, but in the length of time inmates spend confined there. Fewer and fewer inmates are executed and death row is now increasingly the only punishment of capital convicts. This thesis examines the retributive and punitive treatment of death-sentenced offenders within that space and, by viewing that form of imprisonment as part of a communication process, it assesses the contribution it makes to the death penalty more generally in the USA to argue that death row imprisonment is crucial in sustaining the distinction of capital offenders, and the death penalty itself.Just as death row receives images from wider culture, it simultaneously generates images that complement and validate those it receives, of death sentenced offenders as dangerous monsters. These images, of offenders who require punitive detention, align with the dominant supportive rationale of capital punishment, retribution, and provide a basis for continued death penalty support in an era of declining executions.In the "hidden world" of death row, prisoners are left to be abused, mistreated, and denied privileges and opportunities available to other prisoners. The capital offender is presented by his death row incarceration as different from all other offenders serving other sentences, even life without parole. Death row incarceration communicates the worth and status of the condemned, presenting him as a dangerous, and dehumanised other, who needs to be securely detained, and restricted. Thus death row validates and justifies the cultural needs of capital punishment. Just as wider culture, including, specifically, the legal community, dictates a requirement for punitive detention, death row corroborates that image with its own in a self-affirming loop. Death row is therefore functional beyond the mere holding of offenders, it affirms cultural descriptions of the condemned and thus justifies, and provides support for, the very continuation of capital punishment itself. Details: Manchester, UK: University of Manchester, 2013. 215p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed February 29, 2016 at: https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:201596 Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:201596 Shelf Number: 137987 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDeath RowIncarceration |
Author: Blume, John H. Title: Forty Years of Death: The Past, Present, and Future of the Death Penalty in South Carolina (Or Still Arbitrary after All These Years) Summary: Forty years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States deemed constitutional new death penalty laws intended to minimize the arbitrariness which led the Court to invalidate all capital sentencing statutes four years earlier in Furman v. Georgia. Over the last four decades the Court has - time and again - attempted to regulate the "machinery of death." Looking back over the Court's work, many observers, including two current Supreme Court justices, have questioned whether the modern death penalty has lived up to expectations set by the Court in the 1970s or if, despite 40 years of labor, the American death penalty continues to be administered in an unconstitutionally arbitrary manner. This Article presents data from South Carolina's forty-year experiment with capital punishment and concludes that the administration of the death penalty in that state is still riddled with error and infected with racial and gender bias. It is - in short - still arbitrary after all these years. The authors maintain that the only true cure it to abolish South Carolina's death penalty, although they do argue that lesser steps including additional safeguards and procedure may limit, but will not eliminate, some of the arbitrariness and bias which are present in the current imposition of South Carolina's most extreme punishment. Details: Ithaca, NY: Cornell Law School, 2016. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 16-8 : Accessed March 9, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2734895 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2734895 Shelf Number: 138143 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyRacial Disparities |
Author: Sato, Mai Title: The Public Opinion Myth: Why Japan retains the death penalty Summary: There is a global trend away from the death penalty. As of June 2015, 160 countries have abolished it in law or in practice. In 2014, a UN General Assembly resolution calling for an international moratorium on the death penalty was supported by a record 117 member states. This tendency is explained by increasing empirical evidence concerning wrongful convictions, the growing academic consensus over the difficulty in proving deterrent effects, and data that shows the death penalty being applied disproportionately to marginalised groups. In some societies, however, the death penalty remains deeply entrenched. Many leaders prefer to follow tradition and 'majority opinion' rather than challenge opinion and exercise leadership. They often quote results from public opinion polls and use the 'democracy argument'. In this report, Mai Sato and Paul Bacon go beyond the simple results of opinion polls conducted recently by the Japanese government, which show very high levels of support for the death penalty. Using a similar methodology and sample, the authors reveal that the majority of the population form their views on the death penalty with limited information and based on often inaccurate perceptions - for example, believing that the crime rate is increasing. Sato and Bacon also demonstrate that people have a relatively low level of 'psychological ownership' when it comes to the future of the death penalty: the majority think that the government and experts should decide. Furthermore, discussions about the death penalty among participants increased tolerance towards those with different views - which, in turn, facilitated potential reform and change. The messages in this report go beyond the death penalty debate in Japan. The keys to moving away from the death penalty in all retentionist states are better information and dialogue. Instead of resorting to the populist politics of 'killing for votes', leaders should be challenging stereotypes. Instead of being 'tough on crime' by supporting the death penalty, they should be providing for efficient crime control measures, combined with care for victims' families. Is this too much to ask? No - not in the 21st century, which is ready for further advances in the protection of human rights. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated: 'This cruel punishment has no place in the 21st century.' Details: London: Death Penalty Project, 2015. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 12, 2016 at: http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Public-Opinion-Myth1.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Japan URL: http://www.deathpenaltyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Public-Opinion-Myth1.pdf Shelf Number: 139620 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyPublic Opinion |
Author: Pascoe, Daniel Title: Clemency in Southeast Asian Death Penalty Cases Summary: The five contemporary practitioners of the death penalty in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam) have performed judicial executions on a regular basis between 1975 and 2013. Notwithstanding this similarity, the number of death sentences passed by courts that were subsequently reduced to a term of imprisonment through grants of clemency by the executive has varied remarkably between these jurisdictions. Some of these countries commuted the sentences of death row prisoners often (for example, the clemency 'rate' of 91-92 per cent witnessed in Thailand), others rarely (a clemency 'rate' of around 1 per cent in Singapore), and some at 'medium' rates. In this article, I employ the methodology of comparative criminal justice to explore the discrepancies and similarities in capital clemency practice between these five Southeast Asian jurisdictions. In doing so, I seek to identify the structural and cultural reasons why retentionist countries exercise clemency at vastly different 'rates' in finalised capital cases. Details: Melbourne: Centre for Indonesian Law Islam and Society, 2014. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: CILIS Policy Paper series no. 4: Accessed July 18, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2459414 Year: 2014 Country: Asia URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2459414 Shelf Number: 139654 Keywords: Capital PunishmentClemencyDeath Penalty |
Author: Fair Punishment Project Title: America's Top Five Deadliest Prosecutors: How Overzealous Personalities Drive the Death Penalty Summary: This report analyzes the records of five of America's deadliest head prosecutors. Three of them personally obtained over 35 death sentences each: Joe Freeman Britt in North Carolina, Bob Macy in Oklahoma, and Donnie Myers in South Carolina. These men shared an obsession with winning death sentences at almost any cost. For example, Joe Freeman Britt, who committed misconduct in more than 36% of his death penalty prosecutions, said: "Within the breast of each of us burns a flame that constantly whispers in our ear 'preserve life, preserve life, preserve life at any cost.' It is the prosecutor's job to extinguish that flame." The remaining two prosecutors, Lynne Abraham (Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania) and Johnny Holmes (Harris County, Texas), did not personally prosecute as many death penalty cases as the three men above, but nonetheless oversaw the imposition of death sentences against a staggering 108 and 201 people, respectively, during their terms. Of these five prosecutors, only one - Donnie Myers - remains in office, and he plans to retire at the end of the year. One of the most remarkable findings from our research is the fact that once these prosecutors and their proteges left their positions, death sentences dramatically declined in these jurisdictions - a pattern that has only become clear in the years since their departures. We also highlight five additional prosecutors who came very close to becoming members of this notorious group. These runners-up have egregious records in their own states, and like the prosecutors above, the striking drop in new death sentences that has occurred in their respective jurisdictions since their departures illustrates their outsized impact on the death penalty. Details: s.l.: Fair Punishment Project, 2016. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 20, 2016 at: http://fairpunishment.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FPP-Top5Report_FINAL.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://fairpunishment.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FPP-Top5Report_FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 139721 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyProsecutors |
Author: Yale Law School. The Arthur Liman Public Interest Program Title: Rethinking "Death Row": Variations in the Housing of Individuals Sentenced to Death Summary: In 2015, individuals sentenced to death in the United States were housed in varying degrees of isolation. Many people were kept apart from others in profoundly isolating conditions, while others were housed with each other or with the general prison population. Given the growing awareness of the debilitating effects of long-term isolation, the placement of deathsentenced prisoners on what is colloquially known as "death row" has become the subject of discussion, controversy, and litigation. This Report, written under the auspices of the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School, examines the legal parameters of death row housing to learn whether correctional administrators have discretion in deciding how to house death-sentenced individuals and to document the choices made in three jurisdictions where death-sentenced prisoners are not kept in isolation. Part I details the statutes, regulations, and policies that govern the housing of those sentenced to death and reviews prior research on the housing conditions of death-sentenced prisoners. Part II presents an overview of decisions in three states, North Carolina, Missouri, and Colorado, where correctional administrators enable death-sentenced prisoners to have meaningful opportunities to interact with others. Given the discretion that correctional officials have over housing arrangements, these states provide models to house capital-sentenced prisoners without placing them in solitary confinement. Details: New Haven, CT: Yale Law School, 2016. 87p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 23, 2016 at: https://www.law.yale.edu/system/files/documents/pdf/Liman/deathrow_reportfinal.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.law.yale.edu/system/files/documents/pdf/Liman/deathrow_reportfinal.pdf Shelf Number: 139808 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDeath RowPrisoner IsolationPrisons |
Author: Australia. Parliament. Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Title: A World Without the Death Penalty: Australia's Advocacy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty Summary: There is no place for the death penalty in the modern world. State execution is a barbaric act that demeans the State that carries it out. The death penalty is cruel and inhumane, and is inevitably associated with miscarriages of justice, the inadvertent execution of innocents, and the disproportionate execution of the poor and ethnic and religious minorities. Not only does an eye for an eye leave the world blind, but the deliberate destruction of human life as a response to crime is an affront to the 'right to life', enshrined under international human rights law. The world has come a long way towards ceasing the practice of capital punishment. Amnesty International tells us that in 1977 only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty. Since that year, Amnesty and many others have campaigned vigorously for an end to capital punishment, and by 2015 140 countries had abolished it law or in practice. However, there is no room for complacency. There are still 56 countries that actively retain the death penalty, including some that execute hundreds of people each year. Disturbingly, the year 2015 saw the highest number of executions recorded worldwide since 1989. It also saw the appalling executions of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Indonesia for drug trafficking, despite impassioned appeals from many Australians and sympathetic Indonesians. Thankfully this spike in executions was counterbalanced by four countries abolishing the death penalty for all crimes. This was the highest number to join the abolitionist list in a single year for almost a decade. Half of the countries in the world have now abolished capital punishment completely. Australia has long supported abolition, and is an active advocate on the world stage. As a nation, we can be proud of our advocacy and our support for the United Nations' work on abolition. But Australia can do more. Evidence received in the course of this inquiry offered many ideas for invigorating Australia's advocacy; from multilateral and bilateral strategies, to an increase in funding for civil society organisations, especially those in retentionist countries. Witnesses also offered useful suggestions for improving Australia's messaging around our opposition to capital punishment. In light of evidence received, this report makes recommendations that go towards focussing Australia's international advocacy and dedicating additional resources to this work. Specifically, the report recommends the Australian Government develop, fund and implement a whole-of-government strategy that focusses our efforts on retentionist countries in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as our ally the United States of America. The recommendations propose overarching goals for the strategy, as well as concrete actions to focus Australia's efforts. The inquiry also facilitated an energetic discussion on the issue of drug trafficking and law enforcement, with many witnesses concerned about the number of people executed for drug-related crimes, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. As such, the report makes recommendations aimed at strengthening the safeguards currently in place to prevent exposing people to the death penalty as a result of police-to-police cooperation on transnational crime. Details: Canberra; Australian Parliament, 2016. 204p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 2, 2016 at: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/Death_Penalty/Report Year: 2016 Country: International URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/Death_Penalty/Report Shelf Number: 139940 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath Penalty |
Author: Fair Punishment Project Title: Too Broken to Fix: Part 1. An In-depth Look at America's Outlier Death Penalty Counties Summary: This report offers an in-depth look at how the death penalty is operating in the small handful of counties across the country that are still using it. Of the 3,143 county or county equivalents in the United States, only 16 - or one half of one percent - imposed five or more death sentences between 2010 and 2015. Part I of the report, titled Too Broken to Fix: An In-depth Look at America's Outlier Death Penalty Counties, examined 10 years of court opinions and records from eight of these 16 "outlier counties," including Caddo Parish (LA), Clark (NV), Duval (FL), Harris (TX), Maricopa (AZ), Mobile (AL), Kern (CA) and Riverside (CA). The report also analyzed all of the new death sentences handed down in these counties since 2010. The report notes that these "outlier counties" are plagued by persistent problems of overzealous prosecutors, ineffective defense lawyers, and racial bias. Researchers found that the impact of these systemic problems included the conviction of innocent people, and the excessively harsh punishment of people with significant impairments. The report notes that many of the defendants appear to have one or more impairments that are on par with, or worse than, those that the U.S. Supreme Court has said should categorically exempt individuals from execution due to lessened culpability. The Court previously found that individuals with intellectual disabilities (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002) and juveniles under the age of 18 (Roper v. Simmons, 2005) should not be subject to the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment. In conducting its analysis, the we reviewed more than 200 direct appeals opinions handed down between 2006 and 2015 in these eight counties. We found: - Sixty percent of cases involved defendants with significant mental impairments or other forms of mitigation. - Eighteen percent of cases involved a defendant who was under the age of 21 at the time of the offense. In Riverside County, 16 percent of the defendants were age 18 at the time of the offense. - Forty-four percent of cases involved a defendant who had an intellectual disability, brain damage, or severe mental illness. In four of the counties, half or more of the defendants had mental impairments: Maricopa (62 percent), Mobile (60 percent), Caddo Parish (57 percent), and Kern (50 percent). - Approximately one in seven cases involved a finding of prosecutorial misconduct. Maricopa and Clark counties had misconduct in 21 percent and 47 percent of cases respectively. - Bad lawyering was a persistent problem across all of the counties. In most of the counties, the average mitigation presentation at the penalty phase of the trial, in which the defense lawyer is supposed to present all of the evidence showing that the defendant's life should be spared - including testimony from mental health and other experts, lasted approximately one day. While this is just one data point for determining the quality of legal representation, this finding reveals appalling inadequacies. In Duval County, Florida, the entire penalty phase of the trial and the jury verdict often came in the same day. - A relatively small group of defense lawyers represented a substantial number of the individuals who ended up on death row. In Kern County, one lawyer represented half of the individuals who ended up on death row between 2010 and 2015. Additional findings: - Five of the eight counties had at least one person exonerated from death row since 1976. Harris County has had three death row exonerations, and Maricopa has had five. - Out of all of the death sentences obtained in these counties between 2010 and 2015, 41 percent were given to African-American defendants, and 69 percent were given to people of color. In Duval, 87 percent of defendants were Black in this period. In Harris, 100 percent of the defendants who were newly sentenced to death since November 2004 have been people of color. - The race of the victim is also a significant factor in who is sentenced to death in many of these counties. In Mobile County, 67 percent of the Black defendants, and 88% of all defendants, who were sentenced to death were convicted of killing white victims. In Clark County, 71 percent of all of the victims were white in cases resulting in a death sentence. The report noted just three white defendants sentenced to death for killing Black victims between 2010 and 2015. One of those cases was from Riverside, and in that case the defendant was also convicted of killing two additional white victims. The two other cases were from Duval. - Five of the 16 "outlier counties" are from Florida and Alabama, the only two states that currently allow non-unanimous jury verdicts. In Duval, 88 percent of the decisions in the review period were non-unanimous, and in Mobile the figure was 80 percent. Details: s.l.: Fair Punishment Project, 2016. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 27, 2016 at: http://fairpunishment.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FPP-TooBroken.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://fairpunishment.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FPP-TooBroken.pdf Shelf Number: 140054 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyProsecutorsRacial DisparitiesSentencingWrongful Convictions |
Author: Sanger, Robert M. Title: Fourteen Years Later: The Capital Punishment System in California Summary: Fourteen years ago, the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment issued a Report recommending 85 reforms in the criminal justice system in that state to help minimize the possibility that an innocent person would be executed. The following year, this author conducted an empirical study, later published in the Santa Clara Law Review, to determine if California's system was in need of the same reforms. The study concluded that over ninety-two percent of the same reforms were needed in California. In addition, the study showed that the California system had additional weaknesses beyond those of Illinois that also could lead to the execution of the innocent. This article is an effort, fourteen years later, to determine what has transpired in California during the last fourteen years. It will survey of the major scholarly and judicial work that has been published in the last fourteen years on the death penalty nationally and specifically with regard to California as well as on the progress, if any, to meet the unmet recommendations for the Illinois Commission. This article concludes that there has been much additional criticism of the failures of the criminal justice and death penalty systems in the country and specifically in California. Nevertheless, the empirical study demonstrates that no additional Recommendations of the Illinois Commission have been met in California in the last fourteen years. Illinois, itself, enacted significant reforms to meet at least some of the Illinois recommendations. Nevertheless, Illinois repealed its death penalty. California, despite no reforms, has not, as yet. The voters will have that option on November 8, 2016. By voting "Yes" on Proposition 62, the California death penalty would be repealed. Details: Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara College of Law; Venture, CA: Ventura College of Law, 2016. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Special Law Report: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2830677 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2830677 Shelf Number: 147894 Keywords: Capital PunishmentCriminal Justice ReformDeath Penalty |
Author: Fair Punishment Project Title: Too Broken to Fix: Part II An In-depth Look at America's Outlier Death Penalty Counties Summary: The two-part report titled Too Broken to Fix: An In-depth Look at America's Outlier Death Penalty Counties, examined 10 years of court opinions and records from these 16 "outlier counties." Part II focuses on Dallas (TX), Jefferson (AL), Pinellas (FL), Miami-Dade (FL), Hillsborough (FL), Los Angeles (CA), San Bernardino (CA), and Orange (CA). Part I, which was released in August, looked at Caddo Parish (LA), Clark (NV), Duval (FL), Harris (TX), Maricopa (AZ), Mobile (AL), Kern (CA) and Riverside (CA). The report also analyzed all of the new death sentences handed down in these counties since 2010. The report notes that these "outlier counties" are plagued by persistent problems of overzealous prosecutors, ineffective defense lawyers, and racial bias. Researchers found that the impact of these systemic problems included the conviction of innocent people, and the excessively harsh punishment of people with significant impairments. Many of the defendants appear to have one or more impairments that are on par with, or worse than, those that the U.S. Supreme Court has said should categorically exempt individuals from execution due to lessened culpability. The Court previously found that individuals with intellectual disabilities (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002) and juveniles under the age of 18 (Roper v. Simmons, 2005) should not be subject to the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment. In conducting its analysis, the Project reviewed nearly 400 direct appeals opinions handed down between 2006 and 2015 in these 16 counties. The Project found: Fifty-six percent of cases involved defendants with significant mental impairments or other forms of mitigation, such as the defendant's young age. Approximately one out of every six cases involved a defendant who was under the age of 21 at the time of the offense. Forty percent of cases involved a defendant who had an intellectual disability, brain damage, or severe mental illness. In eight of the 16 counties, half or more of the defendants had mental impairments, including: Pinellas (67 percent), Maricopa (62 percent), Mobile (60 percent), Caddo Parish and Miami-Dade (both had 57 percent), and Kern, Hillsborough, and San Bernardino counties (each had 50 percent). Approximately one in ten cases involved a finding of prosecutorial misconduct. The counties with the highest rates of misconduct include: Maricopa (47 percent), Miami-Dade (29 percent), and Clark (21 percent). Bad lawyering was a persistent problem across all of the counties. In most of the counties, the average mitigation presentation at the penalty phase of the trial lasted less than one and half days. During the mitigation phase, the defense lawyer is supposed to present all of the evidence showing that the defendant's life should be spared - including testimony from mental health and other experts. This presentation can last several weeks if the lawyers prepare properly. While this is just one data point for determining the quality of legal representation, this finding reveals appalling inadequacies. This type of mitigation evidence can also be used pre-trial to negotiate a plea agreement. Additional findings: Ten of the 16 counties had at least one person released from death row since 1976. These 10 counties account for more than 10 percent of all death row exonerations nationwide. Out of all of the death sentences obtained in these counties between 2010 and 2015, 46 percent were given to African-American defendants, and 73 percent were given to people of color. In Jefferson, 100 percent of defendants sentenced to die between 2010 and 2015 were African-American. In Duval that figure was 87 percent and in Dallas it was 88 percent. In Harris, 100 percent of the defendants who were newly sentenced to death since November 2004 have been people of color. The race of the victim is also a significant factor in who is sentenced to death in many of these counties. The report noted that in 14 of the 16 counties, not a single white person received a death sentence for killing a Black person. In contrast, in 14 out of 16 counties, at least one Black person was sentenced to death for the killing of a white person. In Orange County 60 percent of the victims were white in the cases involving a Black defendant, even though research has shown that the vast majority of homicides are committed intra-race. Five of the 16 "outlier counties" are from Florida and Alabama, the only two states that currently allow non-unanimous jury verdicts. Just eight out of 71 cases we reviewed from these five counties had a unanimous jury verdict; 89 percent were non-unanimous. Details: s.l.: Fair Punishment Project, 2016. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 13, 2016 at: http://fairpunishment.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FPP-TooBroken_II.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://fairpunishment.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FPP-TooBroken_II.pdf Shelf Number: 145086 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyPublic OpinionRacial DisparitiesWrongful Conviction |
Author: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Title: Death Penalty and the Victims Summary: This book includes perspectives from a broad range of victims. While some of them are family members of the crime victims, others are victims of the human rights violations in application of the death penalty, of its brutality and traumatic effects. Victims’ perspectives, taken holistically, make a compelling case against the death penalty. When it comes to the death penalty, almost everyone loses. Victims' family members mostly end up frustrated. If they are against the death penalty and the death penalty is imposed on the perpetrator, the cycle of violence is continuing instead of being broken. If they want revenge, just a few can get it, and often, only after many years. Meanwhile, the expectation of the execution prevents closure and moving forward.The convicted persons may be considered victims if the criminal response of the justice system violates their human rights, through wrongful convictions, unequal and discriminatory application of justice, lack of a due process, imposing the death penalty for crimes that do not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold or to the categories of perpetrators that should be protected from the death penalty (minors, persons with mental or intellectual disabilities, pregnant women). Long delays, conditions on a death row and the application of the death penalty may amount to torture, or at least inhuman and degrading treatment. Third parties are the "hidden victims" of the death penalty. When compared to other forms of punishment, the death penalty disproportionality affects mental health and well-being of family members of the convicted person (especially children and primary care-takers), as well as third persons included in criminal proceedings or executions (such as prosecutors, judges, lawyer and executioners). Finally, the state's right to execute violates the right to life and negatively reflects on human rights of its citizens in general.The perspectives of the victims on the death penalty as reflected in this book are likely to provoke tough discussions and polemics. This may be a welcome challenge. There is a strong and empirically proven correlation between the evidence-based discussion on the death penalty and moving away from it. Details: New York: UN, 2016. 335p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2016 at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/newyork/Documents/Death-Penalty-and-the-Victims-WEB.pdf Year: 2016 Country: International URL: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/newyork/Documents/Death-Penalty-and-the-Victims-WEB.pdf Shelf Number: 144999 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyHuman Rights Abuses |
Author: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Title: Moving Away from the Death Penalty: Arguments, Trends and Perspectives Summary: Today, more than four out of five countries have either abolished the death penalty or do not practice it. Globally, there is a firm trend towards abolition, with progress in all regions of the world. Member States representing a variety of legal systems, traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds have taken a position in favour of abolition of the death penalty. Some States that opposed the abolition of the death penalty in the recent past have moved to abolish it; others have imposed a moratorium on its use. The application of the death penalty appears to be confined to an ever-narrowing minority of countries. Those remaining States cite a number of reasons for retaining the death penalty, including what they see as its deterrent effect; that it is consistent with public opinion; that it is equally applied against all perpetrators; and that there are sufficient judicial safeguards to ensure defendants are not wrongfully convicted. Over the past two years, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has convened a series of important panel discussions on the death penalty, seeking to address these issues. The events drew on the experiences of government officials, academic experts and civil society from various regions which, in recent years, have made progress towards abolition or the imposition of a moratorium. They covered key aspects of the issue, including data on wrongful convictions and the disproportionate targeting of marginalized groups of people. This publication brings together the contributions of the panel members as well as other experts on this subject. Taken as a whole, they make a compelling case for moving away from the death penalty Details: New York: UN, 2014. 109p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2016 at: http://www.ohchr.org/Lists/MeetingsNY/Attachments/52/Moving-Away-from-the-Death-Penalty.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://www.ohchr.org/Lists/MeetingsNY/Attachments/52/Moving-Away-from-the-Death-Penalty.pdf Shelf Number: 144996 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyHuman Rights AbusesWrongful Convictions |
Author: Kaplan, Aliza B. Title: Oregon's Death Penalty: A Cost Analysis Summary: The primary goal of this study was to estimate the economic costs associated with aggravated murder cases that result in death sentences and compare those costs to other aggravated murder cases, the majority of which resulted in some form of a life sentence, in the state of Oregon. Importantly, Oregon law does not require the prosecution to file a formal notice indicating whether or not the state will seek the death penalty in aggravated murder cases. Therefore, all aggravated murder cases are treated as death penalty cases, likely inflating the average cost of aggravated murder cases that do not result in a death sentence. In order to provide a bit more context, we include costs for non-aggravated cases where defendants were charged with a lesser charge of murder, in categories where data were both available and reliable. The following are the main findings from the study, presented by total (includes all cost categories), then by individual cost category. The information contained within this research report reflects a thorough analysis of data collected from hundreds of aggravated murder and murder cases over 13 years in Oregon, from 2000 through 2013. We also examined the appeals process of aggravated murder cases that resulted in death sentences between 1984 until 2000. The economic findings below are limited because no cost data were available or provided by district attorneys or the courts. We were able to get cost-related information from local jails (costs associated with incarceration during trial), Department of Corrections (DOC) (incarceration costs), Office of Public Defense Services (OPDS) (trial, appeals, and all stages of post-conviction costs), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) (Oregon's Attorney General's Office) (costs related to appeals and all stages of post-conviction). Although these categories make up a great deal of the overall costs related to aggravated murder cases, they only represent a portion of the total costs for pursuing the death penalty in Oregon. We approached all data and cost estimations from a conservative standpoint, meaning the costs are intentionally underestimated. Details: Seattle, WA: Lewis & Clark Law School, and Seattle University, 2016. 86p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 23, 2016 at: https://law.lclark.edu/live/files/22888-oregons-death-penalty-a-cost-analysis-2016 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://law.lclark.edu/live/files/22888-oregons-death-penalty-a-cost-analysis-2016 Shelf Number: 147809 Keywords: Capital PunishmentCosts of Criminal JusticeDeath Penalty |
Author: American Bar Association Title: Severe Mental Illness and the Death Penalty Summary: In recent years, our society's improved understanding of mental illness has led to a growing recognition that, to ensure fairness, the American justice system should treat those with mental disorders and disabilities differently. Advocates, professional organizations, and many others are troubled by the over-representation of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system, and agree that these conditions need to be better taken into account by prosecutors and courts because of their relevance to culpability, sentencing, and meaningful participation in the legal process. This consideration is particularly critical in capital cases, when the stakes are the highest. For these reasons, among many others that will be discussed in this Paper, individuals with severe mental illness should not be subject to the death penalty. It has now been 10 years since the American Bar Association (ABA), in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association and National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) adopted a policy opposing the death penalty for individuals with severe mental disorders or disabilities present at the time a crime is committed; and five years since Mental Health America adopted a similar position. As we reflect on these anniversaries, it is significant to note that, since 2006, none of the jurisdictions that use capital punishment have passed statutes to categorically prevent the execution of individuals with severe mental illness. Despite broader efforts to reform the criminal justice system's approach to mental illness, individuals with these types of conditions can still be sentenced to death and executed. It is, therefore, now time to convert the ABA's policy into a meaningful tool to help states pass laws that will establish clear standards and processes to prevent the execution of those with severe mental illness. Details: Chicago: ABA, 2016. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Death Penalty Due Process Review Project: Accessed January 30, 2017 at: http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/images/crsj/DPDPRP/SevereMentalIllnessandtheDeathPenalty_WhitePaper.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/images/crsj/DPDPRP/SevereMentalIllnessandtheDeathPenalty_WhitePaper.pdf Shelf Number: 146035 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDue ProcessMentally Ill Offenders |
Author: Texas Defender Service Title: Lethally Deficient: Direct Appeals in Texas Death Penalty Cases Summary: An indigent capital defendant's right to trial counsel has been a component of the State of Texas' criminal justice system since its inception. The state's first Code of Criminal Procedure in 1857 directed trial courts to appoint counsel to represent any indigent defendant charged with a capital offense. This enactment gave Texas death penalty defendants the right to trial counsel 75 years before the United States Supreme Court recognized this right in Powell v. Alabama, 247 U.S. 45 (1932). Notwithstanding this history, Texas has failed to ensure that capital defendants receive effective representation throughout death penalty cases. During the 1990s and early 2000s, national news media and legal services organizations drew attention to pervasive problems with the performance of capital defense counsel in Texas, ranging from sleeping trial lawyers to post-conviction counsel who used the same writ for every client. Reform efforts focused on improving defense representation at trial and in state habeas corpus proceedings. In 2007, the Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases, which represents indigent capital defendants in more than 170 rural Texas counties, opened its doors. In 2009, the Texas Legislature created the Office of Capital Writs, which represents death-sentenced individuals in state post-conviction proceedings. Direct appeals, and the quality of representation provided to death row inmates in these proceedings, have remained unexamined. The following report is the first evaluation of defense counsel performance in death penalty direct appeal cases in Texas. These proceedings are important because they allow for full and unencumbered review of record claims—i.e., errors that are reflected in the trial record. Habeas proceedings, which typically follow direct appeal, might not permit review of record claims or might subject those claims to a more exacting standard before the death-sentenced inmate can vindicate his rights. In preparing this report, Texas Defender Service (TDS) reviewed documents for each of the 84 death penalty direct appeals decided by the Court of Criminal Appeals between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2015. In Spring 2014, TDS began examining the assigned counsel system's statutory framework, county indigent defense plans, regional attorney qualification criteria, and attorney caseload data. We further reviewed attorney bills (when available) and the appellate record of each death penalty direct appeal— i.e., appellate briefs, motions filed with the Court of Criminal Appeals, orders on party motions, correspondence with the Court and among the parties, and opinions—decided during our survey window. Our review uncovered multiple and severe deficits in the provision of capital direct appeal representation. The deficits include inadequate resources, excessive attorney caseloads, inadequate briefing, and routine avoidance by appointed counsel of "optional procedures" such as reply briefs and applications for review by the U.S. Supreme Court. These deficiencies reflect systemic problems with the state’s indigent defense apparatus and not merely isolated failures by a handful of attorneys. Administrative and legislative reforms are necessary to ensure that the defense is adequately staffed with qualified counsel and preserve the integrity of the Texas criminal justice system. Details: Houston, TX: Texas Defender Service, 2016. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2017 at: http://texasdefender.org/wp-content/uploads/TDS-2016-LethallyDeficient-Web.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://texasdefender.org/wp-content/uploads/TDS-2016-LethallyDeficient-Web.pdf Shelf Number: 141173 Keywords: Assistance to the PoorCapital PunishmentDeath PenaltyIndigent DefenseLegal AidPublic Defenders |
Author: Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission Title: The Report of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission Summary: The Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission (Commission) came together shortly after the state of Oklahoma imposed a moratorium on the execution of condemned inmates. In late 2015, Oklahoma executions were put on hold while a grand jury investigated disturbing problems involving recent executions, including departures from the execution protocols of the Department of Corrections. The report of the grand jury, released in May of 2016, was highly critical and exposed a number of deeply troubling failures in the final stages of Oklahoma's death penalty. The Commission has spent over a year studying all aspects of the Oklahoma death penalty system, from arrest to execution, and even examined the costs of the system to taxpayers. The Commission was grateful to hear from those with direct knowledge of how the system operates-including law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, families of murdered victims, and the families of those wrongfully convicted. In light of the extensive information gathered from this year-long, in-depth study, the Commission members unanimously recommend that the current moratorium on the death penalty be extended. The Commission did not come to this decision lightly. While some Commission members had disagreements with some of the recommendations contained in this report, there was consensus on each of the recommendations. Due to the volume and seriousness of the laws in Oklahoma's capital punishment system, Commission members recommend that the moratorium on executions be extended until significant reforms are accomplished. Many of the findings of the Commission's year-long investigation were disturbing and led Commission members to question whether the death penalty can be administered in a way that ensures no innocent person is put to death. Commission members agreed that, at a minimum, those who are sentenced to death should receive this sentence only after a fair and impartial process that ensures they deserve the ultimate penalty of death. To be sure, the United States Supreme Court has emphasized that the death penalty should be applied only to "the worst of the worst." Unfortunately, a review of the evidence demonstrates that the death penalty, even in Oklahoma, has not always been imposed and carried out fairly, consistently, and humanely, as required by the federal and state constitutions. These shortcomings have severe consequences for the accused and their families, for victims and their families, and for all citizens of Oklahoma. Many Oklahomans support the availability of the death penalty, as evidenced by the vote in favor of State Question 776 in the November 2016 election. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that innocent people have been sentenced to death in Oklahoma. And the burden of wrongful convictions alone requires the systemic corrections recommended in this report. This report is designed to highlight issues giving rise to urgent questions about the manner in which the death penalty is imposed and carried out in Oklahoma. The Commission hopes this report will help foster an informed discussion among all Oklahomans about whether the death penalty in our state can be implemented in a way that eliminates the unacceptable risk of executing the innocent, as well as the unacceptable risks of inconsistent, discriminatory, and inhumane application of the death penalty. The Commission encourages the Oklahoma Legislature, executive branch, and judiciary to take actions to address the systemic laws in Oklahoma's death penalty system. In submitting these recommendations, we adhere faithfully to important Oklahoma values and aspirations of innocence protection, procedural fairness, and justice for all. Details: Oklahoma City: The Commission, 2017. 294p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 2, 2017 at: http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/enidnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/97/c97b1666-29e5-11e7-9361-fbc9125d6693/58ff96d3b9524.pdf.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/enidnews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/97/c97b1666-29e5-11e7-9361-fbc9125d6693/58ff96d3b9524.pdf.pdf Shelf Number: 145246 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyWrongful Convictions |
Author: Justice Project Pakistan Title: A Summary: On December 17, 2014, Pakistan lifted a seven-year moratorium on the death penalty. Coming in the wake of the tragic terrorist attacks on the Army Public School in Peshawar, the resumption of executions initially applied only to individuals convicted of terrorist offenses. Yet within several months and without public justification, the Interior Ministry lifted the moratorium for all death-eligible crimes. As a result, more than 8,000 individuals are now at risk of execution, many for offenses that are ineligible for capital punishment under international law. Since ending the moratorium, Pakistan has executed more than 400 people, bringing the country's annual rate of executions to the highest point in its history and making it the "third most prolific executioner in the world." In the twenty months since the lifting of the moratorium, the Government of Pakistan has carried out 418 executions. This means that an average of 6 executions have been carried out every week since the death penalty was reinstated, with the highest number of executions taking place in the province of Punjab. Whilst there is no confirmed figure for Pakistan's total death row population, in December 2014, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Law and Justice stated that there were 8,261 prisoners on death row in Pakistan. Therefore, thousands of prisoners remain at risk of imminent execution. Initially, in December 2014, executions were reinstated for terrorism-related offences only. In March 2015, however, the Government - without any public justification - bought back the death penalty for all capital offences. Thereafter, from December 2014 to March 2015, the Government executed a total of 24 people, or an average of 2 per week. That rate more than doubled in March 2015 to over 5 per week, when executions were also resumed for non-terrorism cases. In the period March 2015 to September 2016, the Government has executed an alarming total of 393 people. Pakistan's resumption of executions has drawn sharp criticism from international actors. On June 11, 2015, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said, "[t]he idea that mass executions would deter the kinds of heinous crimes committed in Peshawar in December is deeply flawed and misguided, and it risks compounding injustice." That same week, the European Union delegation mission to Pakistan urged its government "to reinstate the moratorium immediately to commute the sentences of persons sentenced to death" in order to comply with its international legal 9 10 obligations. British and German officials have also urged Pakistan to reconsider its decision. Pakistan's imposition of the death penalty is, at its core, arbitrary. To begin with, Pakistan does not reserve the death penalty for the "most serious crimes," as required by international law, but instead imposes execution for commonplace offenses, such as kidnapping and drug-trafficking. Second, Pakistan's justice system is ridden with deficiencies and abuses of authority. Police routinely coerce defendants into confessing, often by torture, and courts admit and rely upon such evidence. Poor defendants must rely on attorneys who typically provide only cursory and ineffective representation. Once sentenced, defendants lack effective recourse to post-conviction relief, even in the face of new exonerating evidence. Finally, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 offers even fewer safeguards than the ordinary criminal justice system and has the effect of fast-tracking convictions. Each of these failings constitutes a human rights violation in itself; taken together, they reveal an unreliable system that is fundamentally incapable of administering the ultimate and irreversible penalty of death. As the cases examined in this report illustrate, the systemic problems described above fall most heavily on Pakistan's most vulnerable members - the poor, juveniles, and persons with mental illness and development and intellectual disabilities. This report, written by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School (Lowenstein Clinic) in partnership with Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), documents the many ways in which Pakistan's application of the death penalty is in breach of its obligations under international law. In 11 analyzing Pakistan's use of the death penalty, the authors focused on "crucial cases" that exemplify the numerous international law violations and that illustrate the particularly damaging impact of these violations on certain vulnerable populations: juveniles, the mentally ill, and persons with physical disabilities. Relying on public records for a dozen of JPP's clients sentenced to death, the report tracks the many junctures at which violations occur, from charging to sentencing to execution. Several of the individuals selected have been executed since research for this report began. The systemic violations illustrated in this report compel the conclusion that Pakistan's continuing practice of capital punishment violates international law. The irreversible nature of execution mandates the immediate reinstatement of the moratorium on all executions. Yet a moratorium alone will not suffice. Today, Pakistan continues to sentence to death persons who are juveniles, mentally ill, or very likely innocent. What procedural safeguards exist in theory are largely ignored on the ground. Given the multi-level failings of its criminal justice system, Pakistan should suspend indefinitely all capital sentencing and launch investigations into those cases marked by allegations of juvenility, mental illness, the use of torture and other abuses of authority, and evidence of innocence. Details: New Haven, CT: Justice Project Pakistan, ALLARD K. LOWENSTEIN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC, YALE LAW SCHOOL 2016. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 8, 2017 at: https://law.yale.edu/system/files/area/center/schell/2016_09_23_pub_dp_report.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Pakistan URL: https://law.yale.edu/system/files/area/center/schell/2016_09_23_pub_dp_report.pdf Shelf Number: 145352 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyExecutionsHuman Rights Abuses |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Death Sentences and Executions 2016 Summary: Amnesty International recorded more than 1,000 executions around the world in 2016. While this figure represented a reduction from 2015 - a year in which the organization logged a historical spike - more than 3,000 death sentences were imposed in 2016, an increase on the figure recorded for the previous year. Two countries - Benin and Nauru - abolished the death penalty for all crimes, while Guinea abolished it for ordinary crimes. In the Middle East and North Africa, the number of executions recorded decreased by 28%, but Iran and Saudi Arabia remained among the world's top executioners. In Asia-Pacific, the number of known executions decreased, mostly due to a significant reduction in Pakistan. China was once again the world's lead executioner but figures remained classified as a state secret. The number of recorded death sentences in the Asia-Pacific region rose significantly, while new information which came to light in China, Malaysia and Viet Nam painted an alarming picture of the extensive resort to the death penalty in these countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there were fewer executions recorded; however the number of death sentences logged rose by 145%, largely due to a steep rise in Nigeria. The USA remained the only country to carry out executions in the Americas region, for the 8th consecutive year. However, the number of executions and death sentences continued to decrease. Two Caribbean countries - Antigua and Barbuda and Bahamas - commuted their last remaining death sentences. In Europe and Central Asia, Belarus resumed executions after a 17-month hiatus. Belarus and Kazakhstan were the only two countries in the region to use the death penalty. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or the circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. Details: London: AE, 2017. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 17, 2017 at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2016/04/death-sentences-executions-2015/ Year: 2017 Country: International URL: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2016/04/death-sentences-executions-2015/ Shelf Number: 146241 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyExecutionsSentencing |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Abusive System: Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza Summary: Abusive System: Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza highlights serious human rights violations by Hamas security services in the Gaza Strip and the failure of the criminal justice system to protect detainees from arbitrary arrest and torture or to punish those responsible for severe abuses. The report is based on interviews with victims and relatives of victims of abuses as well as lawyers and judges, and reviews of case files and court verdicts that included evidence of rights violations. The report documents that Hamas's Internal Security service and civil police have frequently subjected Palestinians to arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, and torture. Prosecutors and judges have ignored detainees' due process rights in such cases. With few exceptions, security services have enjoyed impunity from Hamas authorities and the courts for such abuses. The report's case studies show that victims of serious abuses include not only members of Hamas's political rival, Fatah, but also persons suspected of common crimes and detained by civil police. In the light of evidence that the Hamas authorities have executed men whom courts had convicted in part on the basis of confessions secured through torture, Abusive System calls on Hamas to immediately impose a moratorium on the death penalty. Hamas should urgently reform the criminal justice system to end warrantless arrests, ensure that detainees have prompt access to lawyers, end prosecutions of civilians in military courts, and hold accountable security officials who commit violations. Details: New York: HRW, 2012. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 8, 2017 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iopt1012ForUpload_0.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Palestine URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iopt1012ForUpload_0.pdf Shelf Number: 129669 Keywords: Death PenaltyHuman Rights AbusesTorture |
Author: Amnesty International Title: USA: Death in Florida Summary: It is a tale of two states. One is a modern internationally connected state, linked to the rest of the world through trade and tourism and known among other things for its health, software and space technology industries. The other is an outlier state stuck in the past, connected to a punishment which in the 21st century sets it apart from much of the world. Both are the US State of Florida, which is days away from conducting its first judicial killing in a year and a half, even as much of the country has turned against this policy. "There will be robust debates on the best direction for Florida", Governor Rick Scott proclaimed in his second inaugural address in 2015. Four years earlier, he had promised "bold, positive change". Not when it comes to the death penalty, however. In March 2017, he responded to a State Attorney's decision not to pursue the death penalty because of its demonstrable flaws by ordering her replacement with a prosecutor willing to engage in this lethal pursuit. Since then the governor has transferred 26 capital murder cases to his preferred prosecutor. Two of these cases have already resulted in juries voting for death sentences. In January 2016, Florida was eight executions short of becoming the fourth state in the USA to conduct 100 executions since 1976 when the US Supreme Court stopped it in its tracks. The Court ruled Florida's capital sentencing statute unconstitutional for giving jurors only an "advisory" role in who would end up on death row. Eighteen months later, capital trials are back on and the Florida execution machine is being readied to kill again, starting on 24 August. The prisoner selected to be first in line for lethal injection is Mark Asay, sent to death row in 1988. He is also set to become the first white person in Florida to be put to death for the murder of a black victim. This "sad statistic" wrote Florida Supreme Court Justice James Perry, himself African American, dissenting against the December 2016 decision to lift Mark Asay's stay of execution, is a "reflection of the bitter reality that the death penalty is applied in a biased and discriminatory fashion, even today". Even now, at the 11th hour of this 30- year-old case, the race-of-victim issue has come to the fore after the state Supreme Court admitted it had for years wrongly described both murder victims as black, when one was not. In any event, this is a moment to reflect upon an often overlooked aspect of Florida's history - that it was a leader in lynching in the South and slow to eradicate this phenomenon in the 20th century - and upon the all too often ignored fact that today it remains a diehard death penalty state even as political support for this cruel, racially biased, error-prone and unnecessary punishment has waned elsewhere in the USA. Racial discrimination was one of the death penalty's flaws - along with its costs, risks and failure as a deterrent - cited by State Attorney Aramis Ayala, the first African American to be elected to that position in Florida, in explaining her decision to drop pursuit of death sentences. So this is not just a tale of two states. It is also the tale of two officials who have taken very different approaches to the evidence that the death penalty is a failed policy. One says drop it, it is a waste of resources, prone to discrimination, arbitrariness and error, and makes promises to murder victims' families it cannot keep. The other says crank up the machinery of death. One is acting consistently with international human rights principles. The other is not. Details: London: AI, 2017. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed August 25, 2017 at: https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Florida-Death-Penalty-Briefing-ENG.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Florida-Death-Penalty-Briefing-ENG.pdf Shelf Number: 146899 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyRacial Disparities |
Author: FIDH Title: Discrimination, Torture, and Execution: A Human Rights Analysis of the Death Penalty In California and Louisiana Summary: In May 2013, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) undertook a fact-finding mission in California and Louisiana to evaluate the death penalty as practiced and experienced in these jurisdictions under a human rights framework. The mission examined whether the death penalty was being applied in a discriminatory manner, and if the conditions on death row met the U.S.'s obligation to prevent and prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The mission interviewed death-row prisoners, exonerees and their family members, advocates, legal counsel, and non-governmental organizations in both states, analyzing the information gathered against the backdrop of international human rights law. Based on the interviews conducted and documentary review, the mission concludes that the use of the death penalty in California and Louisiana fails to protect a number of basic rights, rendering the United States in breach of certain fundamental international obligations. Specifically, the mission finds California and Louisiana violate the principle of non-discrimination in the charging, conviction and sentencing of persons to death. Both states treat prisoners condemned to death in a manner that is, at minimum, cruel, inhuman or degrading, and in some cases, constitutes torture. Details: New York: FIDH and Center for Constitutionial Right, 2013. 88p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 28, 2017 at: https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/report-death-penalty-us-2013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/report-death-penalty-us-2013.pdf Shelf Number: 131396 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyHuman Rights Abuses |
Author: Davis, Elizabeth Title: Capital Punishment, 2016 Summary: This report includes data on persons under sentence of death, persons executed, and the status of the death penalty at the state and federal level. Data on prisoners under sentence of death were obtained from the department of corrections in each jurisdiction that authorized the death penalty on December 31, 2016. Information on the status of death penalty statutes was obtained from the office of the Attorney General in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government. At year-end 2016, 34 states and the federal government authorized the death penalty. Two of these states (New York and Wyoming) did not have any prisoners under sentence of death at year-end. Each jurisdiction determines the offenses for which the death penalty can be imposed (appendix tables 1 and 2). Once a person has been convicted of a capital offense, a separate sentencing hearing is held. During the sentencing hearing, a jury will consider aggravating and mitigating factors as defined by state law. Before a person can be sentenced to death, a jury must find that at least one aggravating factor is present and that mitigating factors don't outweigh the aggravating factor(s). Methods of execution are defined by statute and vary by jurisdiction. In 2016, all 34 states with a death penalty statute authorized lethal injection as a method of execution (appendix table 3). In addition to lethal injection, 15 states authorized an alternative method of execution: electrocution (8 states), lethal gas (3), hanging (3), firing squad (2), and nitrogen hypoxia (1). In states that authorized multiple methods of execution, the condemned prisoner usually selected the method. Five states (Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Utah) stipulated which method must be used depending on the date of either the offense or sentencing. New Hampshire authorized hanging only if lethal injection could not be given. Four states authorized alternative methods if lethal injection is ruled to be unconstitutional: Delaware authorized hanging; Oklahoma authorized electrocution, firing squad, or nitrogen hypoxia; Utah authorized firing squad; and Wyoming authorized lethal gas. Federal prisoners are executed by lethal injection, pursuant to 28 CFR Part 26. For offenses prosecuted under the federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the law of the state in which the conviction took place determines the method used (18 U.S.C. 3596). Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2018. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 7, 2018 at: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cp16sb.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cp16sb.pdf Shelf Number: 150076 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath Penalty |
Author: Gruber, Aya Title: Equal Protection Under the Carceral State Summary: McCleskey v. Kemp, the case that upheld the death penalty despite undeniable evidence of its racially disparate impact, is indelibly marked by Justice William Brennan's phrase, "a fear of too much justice." The popular interpretation of this phrase is that the Supreme Court harbored what I call a "disparity-claim fear," dreading a future docket of racial discrimination claims and erecting an impossibly high bar for proving an equal protection violation. A related interpretation is that the majority had a "color-consciousness fear" of remedying discrimination through raceremedial policies. This Essay argues that the primary anxiety exhibited by the McCleskey majority was a "leniency fear" of death penalty abolition. Opinion author Justice Lewis Powell made clear his view that execution was the appropriate punishment for McCleskey's crime and expressed worry that McCleskey's victory would open the door to challenges of criminal sentences more generally. Understanding that the Court's primary political sensitivity was to state penal authority, not racial hierarchy, complicates the progressive sentiment that McCleskey's call-to-action is securing equality of punishment. Derrick Bell's "interest convergence" theory predicts that even conservatives with an aversion to robust equal protection law will accept racial-disparity evidence when in the service of crime-control values. Indeed, Justice Powell may have been more sanguine about McCleskey's discrimination claim had mandatory capital punishment been an option. This Essay cautions that, outside of the death penalty context, courts and lawmakers can address perceived punishment disparities through "level-up" remedies, such as mandatory minimum sentences or abolishing diversion (which is said to favor white defendants). It analyzes examples of convergence between antidiscrimination and prosecutorial interests, including mandatory sentencing guidelines, aggressive domestic violence policing and prosecution, and the movement to abolish Stand-Your-Ground laws. Details: Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Law School, 2018. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 30, 2018 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3179707 Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3179707 Shelf Number: 150388 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDomestic ViolenceRacial DisparitiesSentencingSentencing GuidelinesStand Your Ground Laws |
Author: Center for Death Penalty Litigation Title: On Trial for Their Lives: The Hidden Costs of Wrongful Capital Prosecutions in North Carolina Summary: Prosecutors and lawmakers insist that the death penalty is necessary to punish "the worst of the worst," in cases where evidence of the defendant's guilt is overwhelming and the circumstances of the crime are more heinous than most. Yet, the reality is that the death penalty in North Carolina is used indiscriminately and with little regard for the strength of the evidence. While police and prosecutors may not intend to convict the innocent, they often face enormous pressure to solve and prosecute crimes. In that environment, they rely on the threat of the death penalty to solicit information and confessions from suspects, or to pressure suspects to accept plea bargains. The frequency with which state officials use the death penalty in this manner makes it inevitable that innocent people get caught up in the capital punishment system. For the first time in North Carolina, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL) has conducted a study of cases in which people were accused of capital murder but never convicted, which we refer to in this report as wrongful capital prosecutions. We wanted to explore why people were prosecuted capitally when the state did not have enough evidence to convict, as well as determine the harm caused by such cases. This group of people has been largely ignored, even as North Carolina has seen several high-profile exonerations of death row inmates. There is no registry that tracks the cases of those wrongly charged with capital murder, and no group that advocates for them. We know of no other study in the United States that has asked these questions or tracked this group. We pored over case files, court records and news reports, contacted attorneys, and interviewed the accused to find cases during the period from 1989 to 2015 in which a person was charged with capital murder and was eventually acquitted or had all charges related to the crimes dismissed. We identified 56 cases in which the state abused its power in seeking a death sentence, because prosecutors did not have enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty. This means that over the past 26 years, an average of two people each year have been targeted for the death penalty even though there was very little evidence of guilt, let alone evidence that they were worthy of the state's harshest punishment. The database of cases presented in this report is reliable but not comprehensive, because there is no centralized tracking of such cases. Doubtless, there are cases we did not find. Our research uncovered the same types of errors and misconduct in these cases that have been uncovered in cases where innocents were convicted and sent to death row. We found cases in which state actors hid exculpatory evidence, relied on junk science, and pressured witnesses to implicate suspects. In several cases, there was no physical evidence and charges were based solely on the testimony of highly unreliable witnesses, such as jail inmates, co-defendants who were given lighter sentences in return for cooperation, and paid informants. Reliance on such witnesses was a factor in more than 60 percent of the cases we studied. The state incarcerated these people, who were never convicted of any crime, for an average of two years each. All told, the 56 defendants spent a total of more than 112 years in jail. Gregory Chapman in Duplin County served the longest jail term: nearly seven years. Those who are indicted on capital charges and later cleared are not eligible for compensation, even though many of them spend years in jail, lose their jobs, and are bankrupted by legal expenses. In addition to leaving many in financial ruin, the state does not even do these exonorees the favor of clearing their criminal histories. They must request a court order to expunge their criminal records, an expensive and lengthy process. Those who were already living at the margins of society often struggled to find jobs, and some fell into homelessness after they were released from jail. Details: Durham, NC: he Center for Death Penalty Litigation, 2015. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 16, 2018 at: http://www.cdpl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/INTERACTIVE-CDPL-REPORT.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.cdpl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/INTERACTIVE-CDPL-REPORT.pdf Shelf Number: 150893 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyExonerationsFalse ImprisonmentJudicial ErrorMiscarriage of JusticeWrongful Convictions |
Author: Cornell Law School’s Avon Global Center for Women and Justice and International Human Rights Clinic Title: Judged for More Than Her Crime: A Global Overview of Women Facing the Death Penalty Summary: We estimate that at least 500 women are currently on death rows around the world. While exact figures are impossible to obtain, we further estimate that over 100 women have been executed in the last ten years - and potentially hundreds more. The number of women facing execution is not dramatically different from the number of juveniles currently on death row, but the latter have received a great deal more attention from international human rights bodies, national courts, scholars, and advocates. This report aims to shed light on this much-neglected population. Few researchers have sought to obtain information about the crimes for which women have been sentenced to death, the circumstances of their lives before their convictions, and the conditions under which they are detained on death row. As a result, there is little empirical data about women on death row, which impedes advocates from understanding patterns in capital sentencing and the operation of gender bias in the criminal legal system. To the extent that scholars have focused on women on death row, they have concluded that they are beneficiaries of gender bias that operates in their favor. While it is undeniable that women are protected from execution under certain circumstances (particularly mothers of infants and young children) and that women sometimes benefit from more lenient sentencing, those that are sentenced to death are subjected to multiple forms of gender bias. Most women have been sentenced to death for the crime of murder, often in relation to the killing of family members in a context of gender-based violence. Others have been sentenced to death for drug offenses, terrorism, adultery, witchcraft, and blasphemy, among other offenses. Although they represent a tiny minority of all prisoners sentenced to death, their cases are emblematic of systemic failings in the application of capital punishment. Women in conflict with the law are particularly vulnerable to abuse and other rights violations, either at the police station, during trial, or while incarcerated. Women are more likely than men to be illiterate, which affects their ability to understand and participate in their own defense. For example, of the 12 women on India's death row in 2015, six have never attended school. Illiteracy also increases their vulnerability to coercion, heightening the risk of false confessions. In certain countries, particularly in the Gulf states, most death-sentenced women are foreign migrant workers who are subject to discriminatory treatment. Mental illness and intellectual disability are common among women facing the death penalty. In Pakistan, Kanizan Bibi has been on death row since 1989, when she was only 16-years-old. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, she cannot care for herself in the most basic ways and has lost all awareness of her surroundings. Although she is now confined in a psychiatric hospital, she remains under sentence of death. Many women enter prison as long-term survivors of gender-based violence and harsh socioeconomic deprivation. We have documented several cases of women convicted of crimes committed while they were minors, often in the context of child marriage. These factors receive little attention from lawyers and courts. In many death penalty jurisdictions, gender-based violence is not considered at sentencing. Few lawyers present such evidence, and even where they do, the courts often discount it. In mandatory death penalty jurisdictions, a woman's prior history as a survivor of physical or sexual abuse is simply irrelevant, since the death penalty is automatically imposed for death-eligible offenses without consideration of the offender's background or the circumstances of the crime. Our research also indicates that women who are seen as violating entrenched norms of gender behavior are more likely to receive the death penalty. In several cases documented in this report, women facing the death penalty have been cast as the "femme fatale," the "child murderer," or the "witch." The case of Brenda Andrew in the United States is illustrative. In her capital trial, the prosecution aired details of her sexual history under the guise of establishing her motive to kill her husband. The jury was allowed to hear about Brenda's alleged extramarital affairs from years before the murder, as well as details about outfits she wore. The trial court also permitted the prosecutor to show the underwear found in the suitcase in her possession after she fled to Mexico, because it showed that she was not behaving as "a grieving widow, but as a free fugitive living large on a Mexico beach." As one Justice of the Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma noted, Brenda was put on trial not only for the murder of her husband but for being "a bad wife, a bad mother, and a bad woman." Death row conditions around the world are harsh and at times life-threatening for both men and women. In China, for example, all death row inmates, including women, are shackled at all times by their hands and feet. Women face certain deprivations, however, that do not affect the male population to the same extent. Some death sentenced women must also care for infants or young children who are incarcerated alongside them. Meriam Ibrahim, sentenced to death in Sudan for apostasy in 2014, was shackled to heavy chains in prison while eight months pregnant and caring for a young child. In Thailand and Myanmar, inmates have reportedly given birth alone in prison. In many countries, it is challenging or impossible for women to access sanitary pads or other menstruation products. In Zambia, for example, women must make do with rags that they struggle to clean without soap. The social stigma associated with women who are convicted and imprisoned, paired in some cases with restrictive family and child visitation rules, means that many female death row inmates around the world suffer an enduring lack of family contact, contributing to the high levels of depression suffered by women prisoners. Women on death row may also be denied access to occupational training and educational programs. For instance, the general female prison population in Thailand has access to work programs, but death row inmates do not. One woman in Ghana explained, after being denied educational opportunities while on death row: "I don't do anything. I sweep and I wait." Our country profiles aim to provide a snapshot of women facing the death penalty in several major regions of the world. The stories of women on death row provide anecdotal evidence of the particular forms of oppression and inhumane treatment documented in this report. It is our hope that this initial publication, the first of its kind, will inspire the international community to pay greater attention to the troubling plight of women on death row worldwide. Details: Ithaca, NY: Cornell Law School, 2018. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 23, 2018 at: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/7202 Year: 2018 Country: International URL: http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/pdf/judged-for-more-than-her-crime.pdf Shelf Number: 153113 Keywords: Capital PunishmentDeath PenaltyDeath RowExecutionsFemales Gender Based PunishmentGender Based ViolenceGender BiasGender IssuesImprisonmentIntellectual DisabilityMental Health IssuesPrisonPrisoners |
Author: Johnson, Calvin Title: An Analysis of the Economic Cost of Maintaining a Capital Punishment System in the Pelican State Summary: Louisiana has had the death penalty in its current form since 1977. Since that time, there have been 242 death sentences. Twenty-eight (28) of the people condemned to death sentences have been executed. Sixty-six (66) individuals remain on death row in the midst of appeals or litigation concerning the validity of their conviction or death sentence. One hundred and twenty-eight (128) of these death sentences have been reversed. Ten (10) additional individuals convicted since 1977 have been exonerated and released. An additional ten (10) death row prisoners have died on the row of natural causes or suicide while their appeals remained pending. Commentators have noted that Louisiana has the highest reversal rate in the country, and one of the highest per capita exoneration rates. Little has been written about the actual cost of Louisiana's death penalty. Costs of capital punishment include defense costs, prosecution costs, court costs (including the costs of court reporters, sequestered juries, transcripts and security), costs of maintaining a separate death row, and as well the costs of preparing for, defending and administering execution protocols. We have undertaken an analysis of the total cost of maintaining a death penalty system, including defense costs, prosecution costs, court costs, and the costs associated with maintaining death row. Between 2008 and 2017, Louisiana spent an average of at least $15,600,000 total criminal justice costs per year to maintain a capital punishment system. The state executed one person over that period. The actual costs may be significantly higher, as the costs do not include the prosecution or court costs spent on capital cases that ultimately did not go to trial as a capital case, or the costs of Louisiana Supreme Court review. Under conservative estimates, maintaining a system of capital punishment for an offense committed after August 1, 2019 through the person's trial in 2022 and through an execution in 2037 would cost: two hundred and eighty-one million dollars ($281,000,000). For this cost, the capital punishment system produces little results. Ninety-six percent of every potential capital case results in a reduced charge, a non-capital trial or a plea. Of the cases (the 4% of total cases) that proceed to trial, 60% result in sentences other than a death sentence. This means that only 1.6% of the potential capital cases result in a death sentence. Of the 1.6% of cases that result in a death sentence, 83% are ultimately reversed with others resulting in a natural death before appeals are exhausted. The greatest likelihood in every case is death in prison, despite the broad costs expended on the death penalty. Other state assessments have suggested that the costs per capital case are significantly higher than non-capital cases. These assessments reveal that the death penalty costs between $750,000 to $4,000,000 per case more than non-capital cases. These costs are higher because of unique breadth of capital cases, procedural and substantive constitutional protections imposed on states, as well as heightened concerns over wrongful executions. Staffing costs across the board, from defense to prosecutor function, from courts to Department of Corrections are all significantly higher. Costs previously expended on maintaining a capital defense system are nonrecoverable. However, given past costs, consideration of future expenditures is important. It is noteworthy that the office of Louisiana's Chief Public Defender has reported extensive delays and at times, including currently, lengthy waiting lists for the assignment of defense counsel to indigent defendants facing capital prosecutions, suggesting that future costs may be higher, and that the periods between the initiation of proceedings and their conclusion may be longer than estimated in this paper. We can say, with confidence, that the costs for maintaining a capital defense system for the foreseeable future, for instance between the charging of defendants now with a capital offense and the date upon which one such defendant may ultimately be executed are monumental. These costs are described more fully herein. Details: New Orleans, Louisiana: Loyola University of New Orleans, 2019. 125p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 22, 2019 at: http://law.loyno.edu/economic-cost-death-penalty-louisiana-paper Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: http://law.loyno.edu/sites/law.loyno.edu/files/images/Economic%20Cost%20Paper%20LA%205.1.2019.pdf Shelf Number: 155996 Keywords: Capital Punishment Costs Criminal Justice Reform Death Penalty |
Author: Lundberg, Alexander Title: On the Public Finance of Capital Punishment Summary: A capital trial is a costly affair. When a local government bears the expense of trial, it must raise funds or reallocate them from other sources. In Texas, among other states, the cost of trial is borne primarily at the county level. A panel of Texas county spending over the last decade, constructed from audited financial statements, shows counties meet the expense of trial by raising property tax rates and by reducing public safety expenditure. Property crime rises as a consequence of the latter. The death penalty may therefore impede criminal deterrence if its finance is left to local, rather than centralized government. Details: Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University, 2019. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 23, 2019 at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3367170 Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332939649_On_the_Public_Finance_of_Capital_Punishment Shelf Number: 156019 Keywords: Capital Punishment Cost of Death Penalty Criminal Deterrence Death Penalty |