Death Penalty
Latest news
Canada must not renege on its death penalty commitments
Saudi Arabia: Juvenile offender beheaded
MDE 23/031/2007
3 August 2007
Iraq: Amnesty International deplores execution of Saddam Hussein
Iraq: Amnesty International condemns Iraqi Appeal Court verdict against Saddam Hussein and co-accused
MDE 14/044/2006
28 December 2006
China: review of death penalty by supreme court welcome, but abolition needed
ASA 17/057/2006
31 October 2006
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Recent Reports
"Will this day be my last?":The death penalty in Japan
"Life is precious. One human life is of more importance than the whole earth. The death penalty is certainly the grimmest of all punishments. It is the ultimate one and is indeed unavoidable. The reason is simply that it involves the eternal deprivation of life, the source of dignified human existence".
Excerpt from a decision of the Japanese Supreme Court, 12 March 1948 (1)
ASA 22/006/2006
7 July 2006
FACTS AND FIGURES ON THE DEATH PENALTY (1 January 2006)
The following document is regularly updated on the Amnesty International website, www.amnesty.org
ACT 50/006/2006
20 April 2006
Death sentences and executions in 2005
During 2005, at least 2,148 people were executed in 22 countries. At least 5,186 people were sentenced to death in 53 countries. These were only minimum figures; the true figures were certainly higher.
ACT 50/002/2006
20 April 2006
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:The execution of mentally ill offenders
I cannot believe that capital punishment is a solution – to abolish murder by murdering, an endless chain of murdering. When I heard that my daughter’s murderer was not to be executed, my first reaction was immense relief from an additional torment: the usual catastrophe, breeding more catastrophe, was to be stopped – it might be possible to turn the bad into good. I felt with this man, the victim of a terrible sickness, of a demon over which he had no control, might even help to establish the reasons that caused his insanity and to find a cure for it...
Mother of 19-year-old murder victim, California, November 1960(1)
AMR 51/003/2006
31 January 2006
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:The execution of mentally ill offenders: Summary Report(1)
I cannot believe that capital punishment is a solution – to abolish murder by murdering, an endless chain of murdering. When I heard that my daughter’s murderer was not to be executed, my first reaction was immense relief from an additional torment: the usual catastrophe, breeding more catastrophe, was to be stopped – it might be possible to turn the bad into good. I felt with this man, the victim of a terrible sickness, of a demon over which he had no control, might even help to establish the reasons that caused his insanity and to find a cure for it...
Mother of 19-year-old murder victim, California, November 1960
Today, at 6pm, the State of Florida is scheduled to kill my brother, Thomas Provenzano, despite clear evidence that he is mentally ill.... I have to wonder: Where is the justice in killing a sick human being?
Sister of death row inmate, June 2000
AMR 51/002/2006
31 January 2006
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