ACLU Report on International Implications of Capital Punishment in the U.S.

A new report by the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project dis­cuss­es the United States’ posi­tion on the death penal­ty in the face of inter­na­tion­al con­cerns regard­ing this prac­tice. The report, How the Death Penalty Weakens U.S. International Interests, notes that many oth­er nations are mov­ing toward abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and are crit­i­cal of spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penal­ty in the U.S. Among the top­ics fea­tured in this resource are the ongo­ing inter­na­tion­al efforts to abol­ish the death penal­ty, for­eign inter­ven­tion in U.S. cap­i­tal cas­es, inter­na­tion­al extra­di­tion cas­es involv­ing the death penal­ty, rul­ings by the International Court of Justice, and how the death penal­ty has affect­ed America’s war on ter­ror. (ACLU Report: How the Death Penalty Weakens U.S. International Interests, December 2004). See Resources.

The American Prospect Issues Special Report on U.S. Human Rights

The lat­est edi­tion of The American Prospect fea­tures a series of arti­cles by promi­nent writ­ers and human rights lead­ers regard­ing the effect of the inter­na­tion­al move­ment for human rights on the U.S. Two of the arti­cles high­light U.S. death penal­ty poli­cies. Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh points out the con­flict between the U.S.‘s efforts to sup­port inter­na­tion­al human rights and our domes­tic prac­tices such as the use of the juve­nile death penal­ty. ​“In my view, by far the most dan­ger­ous and destruc­tive form of American excep­tion­al­ism is the asser­ta­tion of dou­ble stan­dards. For by embrac­ing dou­ble stan­dards, the United States invari­ably ends up not on the high­er rung but on the low­er rung with hor­rid bed­fel­lows — for exam­ple, such coun­tries as Iran, Nigeria, and Saudia Arabia, the only oth­er nations that have not in prac­tice either abol­ished or declared a mora­to­ri­um on the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty on juvenile offenders.”
A sec­ond arti­cle, Criminal Justice and the Erosion of Rights by human rights schol­ar Deborah Pearlstein, exam­ines the impact of leg­is­la­tion such as the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and The PATRIOT Act on cap­i­tal cas­es. Pearlstein notes, ​“While human-rights observers have right­ly focused on ter­ror­ism-relat­ed devel­op­ments in the U.S. crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, the trend toward lim­it­ed pro­ce­dur­al pro­tec­tions for defen­dants and a shrink­ing judi­cial role well pre­dates the September 11 attacks. Indeed, secu­ri­ty has been a cen­tral jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for rights-lim­it­ing changes in the crim­i­nal-jus­tice sys­tem for decades.” Among the oth­er authors in the series are Anthony Lewis, John Shattuck, Gay McDougall, Cass Sunstein, Gara LaMarche, and Mary Robinson. (The American Prospect, October 2004) See Juvenile Death Penalty and Federal Death Penalty.

Iran Poised to End Juvenile Death Penalty

According to an Iranian jus­tice depart­ment spokesper­son, the Iranian Parliament is expect­ed to approve leg­is­la­tion that would end the death penal­ty for offend­ers under the age of 18. The mea­sure would also pro­hib­it lash­ings for those under 18. Under pres­sure from the European Union to reform its human rights record, Iran has had no record­ed ston­ings since late 2002, and the par­lia­ment has enact­ed laws ban­ning tor­ture and the uphold­ing of cit­i­zens’ rights. (AFP, October 26, 2004). The U.S. Supreme Court recent­ly heard the case of Roper v. Simmons that will deter­mine the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of exe­cut­ing juve­nile offend­ers in the U.S.

Justice O’Connor Notes Importance of International Law

During a recent speech at Georgetown Law School, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor empha­sized the grow­ing impor­tance of inter­na­tion­al law in U.S. courts, say­ing judges would be neg­li­gent if they dis­re­gard­ed its impor­tance in a post-September 11th world of height­ened ten­sions. O’Connor said the Supreme Court is tak­ing cas­es that demand a bet­ter under­stand­ing of for­eign legal sys­tems, not­ing, ​“International law is no longer a spe­cial­ty. … It is vital if judges are to faith­ful­ly dis­charge their duties. Since September 11, 2001, we’re remind­ed some nations don’t have the rule of law or (know) that it’s the key to lib­er­ty.” She stat­ed that inter­na­tion­al law is ​“a help in our search for a more peace­ful world.” (Associated Press, October 27, 2004) See Supreme Court.

Many African Nations Abandoning Death Penalty

During the past 15 years, the num­ber of African nations aban­don­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has risen from one to 10, and anoth­er 10 nations have abol­ished the death penal­ty in prac­tice accord­ing to a recent tal­ly by Amnesty International. As this trend toward abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty con­tin­ues, few­er Africans than ever are being exe­cut­ed by their gov­ern­ments. The anti-cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment move­ment has been espe­cial­ly pow­er­ful in West Africa, where the num­ber of coun­tries in the Economic Community of West African States that have either banned exe­cu­tions or halt­ed them has risen to 10. Southern Africa, where the death penal­ty is now out­lawed in five coun­tries and at least two addi­tion­al nations have aban­doned it in prac­tice, has also shift­ed towards end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Among the issues shap­ing Africa’s atti­tude toward cap­i­tal pun­ish­ments are inno­cence, the impact this pun­ish­ment has on those who car­ry out exe­cu­tions, and doubts about deter­rence. (New York Times, October 20, 2004).

Brutalization Effect: Children Die Imitating Recent Execution in India

In the two weeks since India’s first hang­ing in 13 years, two chil­dren have died and a third young boy was near­ly killed as a result of imi­tat­ing the high­ly pub­li­cized exe­cu­tion. A 14-year-old boy died after he tied one end of a rope around his neck and swung the oth­er end on a ceil­ing fan in his home to re-enact the exe­cu­tion. The boy’s father said that his son was very curi­ous about the nation’s first exe­cu­tion and had close­ly fol­lowed the days lead­ing up to it by watch­ing news accounts. The sec­ond child to die, a 12-year-old girl from West Bengal, acci­den­tal­ly killed her­self when she tried to demon­strate for her younger broth­er how the exe­cu­tion was con­duct­ed. A third 10-year-old West Bengal vic­tim near­ly died as he and his friends act­ed out the exe­cu­tion, tak­ing roles as the defen­dant, the hang­man, a doc­tor, and the prison war­den. (Reuters, August 25, 2004) See Deterrence.

European Union Urges Iraq Not to Reinstate Death Penalty

European Union for­eign min­is­ters have urged Iraq’s inter­im gov­ern­ment not to rein­state cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as it con­tin­ues to devel­op the nation’s jus­tice sys­tem. ​“The European Union recon­firms its oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty in all cas­es,” the min­is­ters said in a draft state­ment to Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari. ​“The mes­sage has been very clear … We have this pol­i­cy, and we will main­tain this pol­i­cy,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot at a news con­fer­ence with Zebari. The European Union has a long-stand­ing pol­i­cy against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and all 25 mem­ber nations have aban­doned the prac­tice. Although the death penal­ty was sus­pend­ed in Iraq dur­ing the U.S.-led occu­pa­tion, some senior-lev­el Iraqi politi­cians have pub­licly stat­ed that they intend to rein­state the death penal­ty for cer­tain crimes now that con­trol of the gov­ern­ment has been giv­en back to the Iraqi peo­ple. The dis­cus­sion about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment took place as Zebari, him­self an oppo­nent of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, met with European Union lead­ers to dis­cuss EU sup­port for rebuild­ing efforts in Iraq. He not­ed that the nation is fac­ing an ever-dete­ri­o­rat­ing secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion and that fund­ing from the EU is essen­tial to orga­niz­ing upcom­ing elec­tions. (Reuters, July 12, 2004)

U.S. May Be Wavering on Respecting Extradition Conditions from Other Countries

The U.S. Justice Department indi­cat­ed that it may no longer feel bound by extra­di­tion orders from oth­er coun­tries against the seek­ing of the death penal­ty in the U.S., a sig­nif­i­cant pol­i­cy shift that experts feel could hin­der inter­na­tion­al rela­tions. In a pre­lim­i­nary case memo by fed­er­al District Court Judge Jack Weinstein, it was not­ed that a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor had stat­ed that offi­cials in Washington believe a Dominican judge’s order to not seek the death penal­ty for an extra­dit­ed man is ​“not bind­ing.” Weinstein’s memo stat­ed that he believes the U.S. should hon­or the extra­di­tion order to not seek a cap­i­tal con­vic­tion, as it has in all pre­vi­ous orders issued by extra­dit­ing nations. Although the Justice Department lat­er announced that it would not seek the death penal­ty against the defen­dant, Weinstein has insist­ed that fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors pro­vide fur­ther expla­na­tion of their asser­tion. A Justice Department spokes­woman said that ​“as a mat­ter of pro­ce­dure” all fed­er­al death penal­ty deci­sions are reviewed by depart­ment offi­cials in Washington and that ​“in this spe­cif­ic case” offi­cials decid­ed not to seek the death penal­ty. Hofstra University law pro­fes­sor Eric Freedman not­ed: ​“If the coun­tries of the world are to be left in doubt on this point, I would expect you are not going to see extra­di­tions until that doubt is removed.” (New York Times, June 19, 2004)

Death Penalty Fading Away in Europe and Central Asia

In a unan­i­mous vote that will soon add their nation to a lengthy list of coun­tries around the world that have either halt­ed exe­cu­tions or aban­doned cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment alto­geth­er, the low­er house of Tajikistan’s Parliament has adopt­ed a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. Passage by the upper house and the sig­na­ture of the President are report­ed­ly assured. The Tajik mora­to­ri­um will leave Uzbekistan as the only repub­lic in Central Asia that con­tin­ues to car­ry out exe­cu­tions. Experts on Central Asia believe that pres­sure from lead­ers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union, which has the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty as one of the main ele­ments of its for­eign pol­i­cy in rela­tions with third coun­tries, has facil­i­tat­ed much of the shift toward abo­li­tion in this region. ​“The move of Tajikistan is part of a wider trend with­in the OSCE region,” said Anna Crawford, a Warsaw-based human rights offi­cer for the OSCE. ​“Over the past years we’ve grad­u­al­ly seen the OSCE states intro­duc­ing mora­to­ri­ums and mov­ing to full abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. There are 55 par­tic­i­pat­ing states in the OSCE region. And fol­low­ing this move of Tajikistan, there are now only three states that car­ry out exe­cu­tions in the OSCE region: Belarus, the United States of America, and Uzbekistan.” Last year, Tajikistan reduced the scope of its death penal­ty by lim­it­ing the num­ber of crimes pun­ish­able by death from 15 to five and revok­ing its use against women and minors. In April, Tajikistan’s President Imomali Rakhmonov called for a mora­to­ri­um to be put into place, not­ing through a rep­re­sen­ta­tive to par­lia­ment that courts in the nation are already abid­ing by a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um. (RFE/​RL News, June 3, 2004)

Insistence on the Death Penalty May Interfere with tri­al for Saddam Hussein

Great Britain may refuse to hand over evi­dence of Saddam Hussein’s crimes to Iraqi pros­e­cu­tors or per­mit gov­ern­ment staff to tes­ti­fy against the for­mer dic­ta­tor because of the nation’s oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. Despite human rights objec­tions from British offi­cials who helped estab­lish the spe­cial tri­bunal that will try Hussein and oth­er senior mem­bers of his regime, Iraqis have insist­ed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment remain a sen­tenc­ing option for some crimes. Coalition forces have sus­pend­ed the death penal­ty dur­ing their occu­pa­tion of Iraq, but it is antic­i­pat­ed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment will be rein­stat­ed fol­low­ing the return of pow­er to the Iraqi peo­ple at the end of June, which is pri­or to Hussein’s tri­bunal. ​“The U.K. gov­ern­ment has made it clear that it oppos­es the use of the death penal­ty. It will be up to the new Iraqi gov­ern­ment to deter­mine whether this pun­ish­ment will be rein­stat­ed fol­low­ing the trans­fer of author­i­ty. After the trans­fer of pow­er to the new Iraqi gov­ern­ment, we will con­tin­ue to lob­by against the death penal­ty,” said British Foreign Office min­is­ter Bill Rammell. (Scotsman​.com News, May 23, 2004)

Abolition of the Death Penalty Gaining Ground in Africa

During the past 10 years, most Commonwealth African coun­tries have moved toward abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty and today almost half of these coun­tries have aban­doned the prac­tice accord­ing to Amnesty International. Government lead­ers from around the con­ti­nent recent­ly met in Entebbe, Uganda, for a two-day sum­mit to dis­cuss cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Five Southern African Development Countries have abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and the num­ber of coun­tries end­ing the death penal­ty in the Economic Community of West Aftican States region and Mauritania jumped from one to 10 in just one decade. In addi­tion, Presidents from sev­er­al nations, includ­ing Zambia, Nigeria, and Kenya, have tak­en sig­nif­i­cant steps toward com­mut­ing death sen­tences and work­ing toward abo­li­tion. ​“Only Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone have car­ried out exe­cu­tions in the last decade. Amnesty International wel­comes pos­i­tive action across Africa to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment,” not­ed Amnesty International in a state­ment. ​“Worldwide, an aver­age of three coun­tries a year abol­ish­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” (Mail & Guardian Online, May 11, 2004)

Amnesty International Issues Latest Report on Worldwide Executions

According to Amnesty International’s lat­est report on exe­cu­tions around the world, China, Iran, the United States, and Vietnam account­ed for 84% of the 1,146 known exe­cu­tions car­ried out in 21 nations in 2003. China car­ried out at least 726 exe­cu­tions, Iran exe­cut­ed 108 peo­ple, the United States car­ried out 65 exe­cu­tions, and Viet Nam report­ed 64 exe­cu­tions last year. Among those exe­cut­ed in 2003 were two juve­nile offend­ers, 1 in China and 1 in the United States. The report not­ed that 77 coun­tries around the world have abol­ished the death penal­ty, includ­ing Samoa and Bhutan in 2003. Amnesty International shared its find­ings with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which is cur­rent­ly in ses­sion in Geneva, and asked the Commission to sup­port a res­o­lu­tion call­ing on all nations to imple­ment a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. A sim­i­lar mea­sure was passed in 2003. (Amnesty International Press Release, April 6, 2004).

China recon­sid­ers Broad Use of Death Penalty

The Chinese gov­ern­ment is plan­ning to imple­ment judi­cial reforms that could sharply reduce its use of the death penal­ty. China will restrict the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment by requir­ing its high­est court, the Supreme People’s Court, to review all death penal­ty cas­es before exe­cu­tions are car­ried out. Currently, the high court reviews only a minor­i­ty of such cas­es, allow­ing the provin­cial courts that hand down death sen­tences to review their own judg­ments. ​“Criticism of the legal sys­tem in soci­ety is ris­ing. The Chinese Communist Party, as a rul­ing par­ty that attach­es impor­tance to sta­bil­i­ty, knows that if it does­n’t reform the judi­cial sys­tem, it would be bad for sta­bil­i­ty,” said Liu Renwen, a schol­ar of law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. China, which does not release sta­tis­tics on death sen­tences or exe­cu­tions, has long been crit­i­cized for its high num­ber of exe­cu­tions. Based on state-run media reports, Amnesty International esti­mat­ed that China con­duct­ed 1,060 exe­cu­tions in 2002 and 2,468 exe­cu­tions in 2001. A recent book about the Chinese lead­er­ship cit­ed inter­nal par­ty doc­u­ments when it report­ed that about 15,000 exe­cu­tions took place every year between 1998 and 2001. Occasional cas­es of inno­cent peo­ple who have been exon­er­at­ed from China’s death row have shak­en the gen­er­al pub­lic’s con­fi­dence in China’s death penal­ty sys­tem. (Washington Post, January 18, 2004)

Samoa to End the Death Penalty

The Pacific island of Samoa has begun for­mal mea­sures to abol­ish the death penal­ty. Samoa has not con­duct­ed an exe­cu­tion in more than 50 years, and death sen­tences that are still deliv­ered by judges are always com­mut­ed to life impris­on­ment. As he intro­duced the statute to abol­ish the death penal­ty, Prime Minister Sailele Malielegaoi told par­lia­ment that the death penal­ty should not be on the law books if it is not going to be car­ried out. (ONE News and AAP, January 16, 2004)