Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

The Diet Members’ League for Abolition of the Death Penalty, a par­lia­men­tary group of the gov­ern­ing Liberal Democratic Party, has draft­ed leg­is­la­tion to replace the death penal­ty with life in prison. In addi­tion, the bill would estab­lish pan­els in both Houses of the Diet to study cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The bill does not pro­pose an imme­di­ate aban­don­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but instead impos­es a four-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. During this time, the…

In​“Last Meal,” Jacquelyn C. Black recre­ates the last acts of 23 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in Texas. Photographs depict­ing each inmate’s last meal are accom­pa­nied by descrip­tions of the inmates, and tran­scripts of their last words before exe­cu­tion. The book also con­tains gen­er­al infor­ma­tion about the death penal­ty. Award-win­n­ing direc­tor Liz Garbus notes,​“This pow­er­ful and dis­turb­ing book gives invalu­able insight into the inhu­man­i­ty of the death penal­ty, while providing…

A new Amnesty International report exam­ines the case of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, a Tennessee death row inmate sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 18. His case involves ques­tions of inad­e­quate defense and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The report notes that after learn­ing of excul­pa­to­ry and mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that was kept from the jury at Abdur’Rahman’s tri­al, eight of the orig­i­nal tri­al jurors said that they no longer have con­fi­dence in their sen­tenc­ing ver­dict. In…

A new Amnesty International report exam­ines the case of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, a Tennessee death row inmate sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 18. His case involves ques­tions of inad­e­quate defense and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The report notes that after learn­ing of excul­pa­to­ry and mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that was kept from the jury at Abdur’Rahman’s tri­al, eight of the orig­i­nal tri­al jurors said that they no longer have con­fi­dence in their sen­tenc­ing ver­dict. In…

American mil­i­tary offi­cials say that a Canadian teen being held at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba could be eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. The 17-year-old boy was cap­tured in Afghanistan last July and is accused of killing a U.S. medic dur­ing bat­tle as a mem­ber of al-Qaida. After 18 months of impris­on­ment, none of the 700 detainees have been offi­cial­ly charged, but a review of their cas­es by President George W. Bush is pend­ing. Some of the cas­es could involve capital…

Although he beheads up to sev­en peo­ple a day, Saudi Arabia’s lead­ing exe­cu­tion­er, 42-year-old Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi, says that he leads a nor­mal life and is car­ry­ing out God’s will. Using a sword giv­en to him as a gift by the gov­ern­ment, Al-Beshi has per­formed pub­lic exe­cu­tions since 1998 and has since trained his son, Musaed, to also become an exe­cu­tion­er.​“An exe­cu­tion­er’s life, of course, is not all killing. Sometimes it can be ampu­ta­tion of hands and legs. I use…

North Carolina’s Attorney General has announced that the state will retry Alan Gell, whose death sen­tence was vacat­ed last year when a North Carolina judge ruled that pros­e­cu­tors with­held impor­tant evi­dence that might have exon­er­at­ed Gell at his 1998 tri­al. After acknowl­edg­ing that pros­e­cu­tors from his office vio­lat­ed court orders and the U.S. Constitution by not hand­ing over the evi­dence, Attorney General Ray Copper announced that the state will not seek the death…

Despite the fact that the Constitution defin­ing Puerto Rico’s sta­tus as a self-gov­­­ern­ing com­mon­wealth asso­ci­at­ed with the United States uncon­di­tion­al­ly bans cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the U.S. is seek­ing the fed­er­al death penal­ty in the tri­al of two Puerto Rican men. The tri­al has spurred grass-root protests against the death penal­ty. Gov. Sila M. Calderon, the Commonwealth’s top elect­ed offi­cial, said the case demon­strates the need to fur­ther reform the U.S. — Puerto…

States have been spend­ing tens to hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars extra per year in order to pur­sue the death penal­ty, while crime fight­ing strate­gies that have been proven effec­tive are start­ing to suf­fer as states face severe bud­get deficits. The New York Times recent­ly col­lect­ed some of the cut­backs to essential…

Despite con­cerns that errors made by poor­ly paid pri­vate attor­neys who are unfa­mil­iar with death penal­ty lit­i­ga­tion could risk inno­cent lives in Florida, Governor Jeb Bush will soon close one of the state’s three Capital Collateral Regional Counsel (CCRC) offices. The offices are designed to defend death row inmates in their post-con­vic­­­tion appeals. Bush is clos­ing the Tallahassee office, where attor­neys have suc­cess­ful­ly freed wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed death row inmates.