Death Penalty

1. Death Penalty

2. Facts and Figures Over half of the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. • 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

3. 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)

4. Offences ?

5. Offences For any reason sometimes a pretext for persecuting political opponents

6. Executions 2001 • at least 5,265 sentences to death in 69 countries • at least 3,048 executions in 31 countries TRUE FIGURES ARE HIGHER!

7. 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)

8. 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

9. Executions of Juvenile Offenders International Human Rights Treaties, such as • 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.

10. 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).

11. 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)

12. 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:

13. Mental Retardation / Illness 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: • Japan • Kyrgyztan • USA (35 executions of people with mental retardation 1976-2001)

14. 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)

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

16. 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.

17. 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) 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

18. 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 Executions of Innocent Situation in the USA: Factors leading to wrongful convictions

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

20. 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):

21. 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) 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

22. Deterrance • Studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime. • On the contrary: DP has a brutalization effect.

23. Brutalization Studies found incidence that DP has a brutalization effect. • 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 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)

24. WHY DO YOU KILL PEOPLE TO SHOW THAT THE KILLING OF PEOPLE IS WRONG?

25. It’s up to you! Contact: amnesty international Österreich Arbeitsgruppe für verfolgte GewerkschafterInnen Moeringgasse 10/1 A-1150 Wien Speaker: Sabine Vogler Tel.: +43 664 171 92 99 e-mail: Sabine.Vogler@blackbox.net http://www.amnesty.at/gruppe/gew/