Death Penalty

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Death Penalty

Facts and Figures

76 countries - for all crimes

15 countries - for all but exceptional crimes (e.g. wartime crimes)

20 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice (they retain the DP in law, but have not carried out executions for the past 10 years)

111 countries have abolished DP in law or practice

84 other countries retain and use the DP

Over half of the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

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Death Penalty

Facts and Figures2 Trends

Progress towards worldwide abolition:more than 3 countries a year on average have abolished the DP for all crimes in the past decade

Moves to reintroduce the death penalty:once abolished, the DP is seldom reintroduced (since 1985, only 4 abolitionist countries reintroduced DP vs. abolitions in over 40 countries)

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Death Penalty

Offences

?

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Death Penalty

Offences

For any reason

sometimes a pretext for persecuting political opponents

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Death Penalty

Executions 2001

at least 5,265 sentences to death in 69 countries

at least 3,048 executions in 31 countries

TRUE FIGURES ARE HIGHER!

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Death Penalty

Executions 2001 - Countries

90 percent of all known executionstook place in

China (at least 2,468 executions - true figure much higher)

Iran (at least 139 executions)

Saudi Arabia (at least 79 executions)

USA (66 executions)

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Death Penalty

Executions in the USA

71 executions in the year 2002,

bringing to 820 the total number executed since the use of the DP was resumed in 1977

over 3,700 prisoners were under sentence of death as of 1 January 2002

38 of the 50 US states provide for the death penalty in law

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Death Penalty

Executions of Juvenile Offenders

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

American Convention on Human Rights

Convention on the Rights of the Child

prohibit anyone under 18 years old at the time of crime being sentenced to death.

International Human Rights Treaties, such as

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Death Penalty

Executions of Juvenile Offenders

More than 100 countries whose laws still provide for the DP for at least some offences have laws specifically excluding the execution of juvenile offenders.

BUT:

Since 1990, 7 countries are known to have executed juvenile offenders: Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen (Pakistan and Yemen have now abolished executions of juvenile offenders in law)

The USA carried out the greatest number of known executions of child offenders (17 since 1990).

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Death Penalty

Executions of Juvenile Offenders

»I don’t think we should be proud of the fact that the United States is the world leader in the execution of child offenders.«

(U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, November 11, 1999)

»I don’t think we should be proud of the fact that the United States is the world leader in the execution of child offenders.«

(U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, November 11, 1999)

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Death Penalty

Mental Retardation / Illness

Not to impose it on those under the age of 18 at the time of the crime.

Not to impose it on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder (mentally ill and/or mentally retarded).

In April 2000, the UN Commission on Human Rights urged all states that maintain the DP:

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Death Penalty

Mental Retardation / Illness

Japan

Kyrgyztan

USA (35 executions of people with mental retardation 1976-2001)

U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has received reports of the executions of people with mental retardation in only 3 countries:

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Death Penalty

USA: Racial Discrimination

»... a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty ...«

»... i.e. those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks.«

(U.S. General Accounting Office, Death Penalty Sentencing, 1990)

»... a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty ...«

»... i.e. those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks.«

(U.S. General Accounting Office, Death Penalty Sentencing, 1990)

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Death Penalty

USA: Racial Discrimination

Since 1977, over 80% of the death row defendants have been executed for killing whites (nationally only 50% of murder victims are white).

Several studies concluded: In the US, holding all other factors constant, the single most reliable predictor of whether someone will be sentenced to death is the race of the victims.

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Death Penalty

USA: Racial DiscriminationRace of the defendants

A study on the city of Philadelphia (1998): the odds of receiving a death sentence in Philadelphia are nearly 4 times higher if the defendant is black

Differential treatment of Afro-Americans at every turn: from initial decisions to plea bargaining to jury sentencing

All-white juries are still commonplace. Prosecutors may, in most states, remove potential black jurors - without giving any reasons.

98% of chief District Attorneys (=responsible of overseeing the decision on whether to seek a death sentence) are white.

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Death Penalty

Socio-Economic Discrimination

»Race, ethnic origin and economic status appear to be key determinants of who will, and who will not, receive the death sentence« in the United States.

(UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Abritary Executions, 1997)

»Race, ethnic origin and economic status appear to be key determinants of who will, and who will not, receive the death sentence« in the United States.

(UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Abritary Executions, 1997)

USA:

95% of death row inmates cannot afford a lawyer

poor people are subjected to convictions and death sentences that equally or more culpable but more affluent people would not have received

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Death Penalty

Executions of Innocent

since 1990, 350 people have been wrongfully convicted of capital crimes

of these, 23 were executed

between 1973 and 2002, 99 people in 24 US states have been released from death rows after evidence of their wrongful convictions emerged

inadequate defense

police and prosecutorial misconduct

false testimony / mistaken eyewitness testimony

racial prejudice

suppression of evidence / misinterpretation of evidence

community pressure

Factors leading to wrongful convictions

Situation in the USA:

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Death Penalty

Cost

A New York study estimated the cost of an execution at 3 times than of life imprisonment.

In Florida, each execution costs the state $3.2 million, compared to $600,000 for life imprisonment.

USA: Capital punishment is a far more expensive system than one whose maximum penalty is life in prison:

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Death Penalty

Why is it so expensive?

under a DP system, trials have 2 separate phases (conviction and sentencing) - they are typically preceded by special motions and extra jury selection questioning

more investigative costs are generally incurred in capital cases

The greatest costs of the DP are incurred prior to and at trial (not in post-conviction proceedings):

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Death Penalty

Deterrance

»Research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment and such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming.«

(Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-Wide Perspective,1996)

»Research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment and such proof is unlikely to be forthcoming.«

(Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-Wide Perspective,1996)

People who murder are rarely rational at the time they commit the crime: influence of drugs/alcohol

in the grip of fear or rage

suffering from mental illness/retardation

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Death Penalty

Deterrance

Studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime.

On the contrary: DP has a brutalization effect.

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Death Penalty

Brutalization

Study on Texas: high number of executions, high murder rate

Study on California: after the 1st execution in 1992 (after 25 years) - increases in homicides in the year following the execution

American-wide study: higher crime rates in countries with DP

Studies found incidence that DP has a brutalization effect.

New Times survey (Sept. 2000): homicide rate in states with DP has been 48% to 101% higher than in states without the DP

Falling of homicide rates in abolitionist countries (e.g. Canada)

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Death Penalty

WHY DO YOU KILL PEOPLE

TO SHOW

THAT THE KILLING OF PEOPLE

IS WRONG?

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Death Penalty

It’s up to you!

Contact:amnesty international ÖsterreichArbeitsgruppe für verfolgte GewerkschafterInnenMoeringgasse 10/1A-1150 WienSpeaker: Sabine VoglerTel.: +43 664 171 92 99e-mail: Sabine.Vogler@blackbox.nethttp://www.amnesty.at/gruppe/gew/