1. Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries
Over half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in
law or practice.
Amnesty International's latest information shows that:
making a total of 112 countries which have abolished the death penalty
in law or practice.
2. Progress Towards Worldwide Abolition
More than three countries a year on average have abolished the death penalty for
all crimes in the past decade. Over 35 countries and territories have abolished
the death penalty for all crimes since 1990. They include countries in Africa
(examples include Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa),
the Americas (Canada, Paraguay), Asia (Hong Kong, Nepal) and Europe
(Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro,
Turkmenistan and Ukraine).
3. Moves to Reintroduce the Death Penalty
Once abolished, the death penalty is seldom reintroduced. Since 1985, over 50
countries
have abolished the death penalty in law or, having previously abolished it for
ordinary
crimes, have gone on to abolish it for all crimes. During the same period only four
abolitionist countries reintroduced the death penalty. One of them - Nepal -
has since
abolished the death penalty again; one, the Philippines, resumed executions but
has
since suspended them. There have been no executions in the other two (Gambia,
Papua New Guinea).
4. Death Sentences and Executions
During 2002, at least 1,526 prisoners were executed in 31
countries and at least 3,248 people were sentenced to death in 67
countries. These figures include only cases known to Amnesty International; the
true figures are certainly higher.
In 2002, 81 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran
and the USA. In China, the limited and incomplete records available to Amnesty
International at the end of the year indicated that at least 1,060
people were executed, but the true figure was believed to be much higher. At
least 113 executions were carried out in Iran. Seventy-one people
were executed in the USA.
5. Use of the Death Penalty Against Child Offenders
International human rights treaties prohibit anyone under 18 years old at the
time of the crime being sentenced to death. The International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child all have provisions to this effect. More
than 110 countries whose laws still provide for the death penalty for at
least some offences have laws specifically excluding the execution of child
offenders or may be presumed to exclude such executions by being parties to one
or another of the above treaties. A small number of countries, however,
continue to execute child offenders.
Seven countries since 1990 are known to have executed prisoners who were
under 18 years old at the time of the crime - Congo (Democratic Republic),
Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen. The country which carried
out the greatest number of known executions of child offenders was the USA (17
since 1990).
Amnesty International recorded three executions of child offenders in
2002: all three of them were in the state of Texas in the USA. Another child
offender was executed in the state of Oklahoma in April 2003.
6. The Deterrence Argument
Scientific studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that
the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments. The
most recent survey of research findings on the relation between the death
penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and
updated in 2002, concluded that "it is not prudent to accept the
hypothesis that capital punishment deters murder to a marginally greater extent
than does the threat and application of the supposedly lesser punishment of
life imprisonment".
(Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective,
Oxford University Press, third edition, 2002, p. 230)
7. Effect of Abolition on Crime Rates
Reviewing the evidence on the relation between changes in the use of the death
penalty and crime rates, a study conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and
updated in 2002 stated that "The fact that the statistics... continue to
point in the same direction is persuasive evidence that countries need not fear
sudden and serious changes in the curve of crime if they reduce their reliance
upon the death penalty".
(Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective,
Oxford University Press, third edition, 2002, p. 214)
Recent crime figures from abolitionist countries fail to show that abolition
has harmful effects. In Canada, the homicide rate per 100,000 population fell
from a peak of 3.09 in 1975, the year before the abolition of the death
penalty for murder, to 2.41 in 1980, and since then it has declined
further. In 2001, 25 years after abolition, the homicide rate was 1.78
per 100,000 population, 42 per cent lower than in 1975.
8. International Agreements to Abolish the Death Penalty
One of the most important developments in recent years has been the adoption of
international treaties whereby states commit themselves to not having the death
penalty. Four such treaties now exist:
Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights is an agreement to
abolish the death penalty in peacetime. The Second Optional Protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Protocol to
the American Convention on Human Rights provide for the total abolition
of the death penalty but allow states wishing to do so to retain the death
penalty in wartime as an exception. Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention
on Human Rights provides for the total abolition of the death penalty in
all circumstances.
9. Execution of the Innocent
As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent
can never be eliminated.
Since 1973, 107 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA
after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were
sentenced to death. Some had come close to execution after spending many years
under sentence of death. Recurring features in their cases include
prosecutorial or police misconduct; the use of unreliable witness testimony,
physical evidence, or confessions; and inadequate defence representation. Other
US prisoners have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts over their guilt.
The then Governor of the US state of Illinois, George Ryan, declared a
moratorium on executions in January 2000. His decision followed the exoneration
of the 13th death row prisoner found to have been wrongfully convicted
in the state since the USA reinstated the death penalty in 1977. During the
same period, 12 other Illinois prisoners had been executed.
In January 2003 Governor Ryan pardoned four death row prisoners and commuted
all 167 other death sentences in Illinois.
10. The Death Penalty in the USA