Amicus, an organization based in the United Kingdom that assists in the legal representation of those awaiting capital trials in the United States, will be hosting a mock trial at the Emmanuel Centre (pictured) in Westminster, London on Tuesday, March 2, beginning at 6:30 PM. The question is whether the death penalty in the U.S. perverts the course of justice. The trial will be presided over by Lord Woolf, Geoffrey Robertson, QC, and Sir Louis Blom-Cooper, QC, and will feature prominent death penalty experts including Prof. Paul Cassell (former federal prosecutor and former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia), Prof. Robert Blecker (NY Law School) and Kent Scheidegger (Criminal Justice Legal Fdn.) defending the death penalty, and Prof. Julian Killingley (Birmingham City Univ.), Rev. Cathy Harrington (Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation), and Nick Trenticosta (Center for Equal Justice) prosecuting the death penalty. The program hopes to raise awareness of issues surrounding the application of the death penalty in the United States. Click here for more details about his event.
Over 1,000 human rights activists from over 100 countries gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, for the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty. Many participants hope to achieve a moratorium on the imposition and execution of the death penalty around the world. At present, 56 states and territories still have the death penalty, including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and the United States. In 2007, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. In recent years, the number of countries that have repealed capital punishment has been accelerating. The World Congress issued a resolution on February 26, calling for a series of steps toward ending the death penalty: "We call, from the host city of international organizations and a symbol of peace . . .[for] the universal abolition of capital punishment."