| Death
Penalty Developments in 2000 |
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作者: 不详 |
文章来源：Amnesty International |
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| 中国死刑观察(www.chinamonitor.org) 文献资料 转载 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GLOSSARY ACHR American Convention on Human Rights AI Amnesty International COE Council of Europe ECHR European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (''European Convention on Human Rights''). ECOSOC United National Economic and Social Council EP European Parliament EU European Union IACHR Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ICCPR International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights ICJ International Court of Justice JCPC The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London OAS Organization of American States OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UN United Nations UNCHR United Nations Commission on Human Rights UNCRC Convention on the Rights of the Child [Please note that comments in square brackets are relevant events/decisions which occurred after the end of the year 2000.]
THE DEATH PENALTY WORLDWIDE: DEVELOPMENTS
IN 2000
ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY (a) Countries which abolished the death penalty for all crimes Malta Malta abolished the death penalty in 1971 for all offences in the Criminal Code, the last execution for a civil crime being in 1943. However it was retained under the Armed Forces Act of 1970 for certain offences committed in time of war by those subject to military law, such as aiding the enemy, desertion and taking part in a mutiny. On 21 March the Armed Forces (Amendment) Act 2000 was promulgated, following approval by the House of Representatives and President Guido de Marco. The bill was moved by the Minister of Home Affairs and had the support of both the government and the opposition. Under its provision life imprisonment replaces the death penalty for all offences. Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire has been abolitionist in practice for several decades. The country's first president, Höuphouet Boigny, who held office from independence until 1993, was opposed to the death penalty. Although death sentences were handed down he never allowed executions to be carried out. In 1995 parliament adopted a law which extended the scope of the death penalty to cover offences such as robbery with violence. Executions would be carried out by firing squad and in public. This was justified by the then Minister of Justice who publicly supported capital punishment and indeed had offered to join the firing squad shooting people on the beaches. However the law was never ratified by the President at the time, Henri Konan Bédié, and no executions were carried out although death sentences continued to be imposed. On 24 December 1999 the government of President Bédié was overthrown in a military coup and the new government drafted a new constitution which excluded the death penalty. The new constitution was adopted by referendum on 23 July. Under Ivorian law the constitution takes precedence over penal law thus courts can no longer hand down death sentences. Ukraine In November 1995, upon entry to the Council of Europe, Ukraine had made a commitment to abolish the death penalty and to ratify Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR with three years. Neither of these commitments had been fulfilled by the deadline of November 1998, or even by the extended deadline of June 1999, although a moratorium on executions had been introduced in March 1997. In June 1999 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe threatened to annul the Ukraine delegation's credentials to the Assembly if progress was not made towards reforms on human rights, however at the same time the deadline for abolition was extended until January 2000. In December 1999 the Ukraine Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty in the criminal code was unconstitutional which ruling effectively abolished the death penalty (see items in ''The Death Penalty Worldwide: Developments in 1999", AI Index ACT 50/04/00, pages 7 and 19). The Ukraine parliament removed the death penalty from the criminal code in February 2000, replacing it with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and at the same time Ukraine ratified Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR. On 22 March President Leonid Kuchma signed abolition of the death penalty into law. (b) Countries which abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes only Albania - 21 September 2000 Albania introduced a moratorium on executions in 1995 upon its entry into the Council of Europe, however death sentences continued to be imposed by the courts. In December 1999 the Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty was incompatible with the Albanian Constitution. On 4 April 2000 Albania signed Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR and on 13 June it was reported that the government had approved draft legislation which would allow its ratification. This legislation had not been passed by the end of the year 2000, but on 21 September 2000 Albania ratified Protocol No. 6, thus making Albania abolitionist except in time of war or when war is imminent. At the end of the year Albania still retained the death penalty for certain crimes under its military code. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska - 21 June 2000 On 21 June the parliament of the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia-Herzogovina adopted a new criminal code which no longer included the death penalty. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other Bosnian entity, had already done so in November 1998 to conform with provisions included in the Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia- Herzegovina signed in December 1995, which ended the civil war in the country. This makes the whole of Bosnia-Herzegovina abolitionist for ordinary crimes only. (c) Moves towards abolition South Korea A group of 92 South Korean legislators presented a bill in the National Assembly proposing that capital punishment be replaced with a sentence of imprisonment for life. This is the first time a bill to end the death penalty, one of the most contentious human rights issues in the country, has been proposed. It is not expected to become law but its supporters hope that it will stimulate public debate on the issue. There have been no executions since President Kim Dae-jung came to power in February 1998. USA - New Hampshire The House of Representatives in March, and the Senate in May, passed a bill to repeal the state's death penalty. However the Governor of the State, Jeanne Shaheen, vetoed the bill. New Hampshire had the USA's lowest state murder rate in 1998, had no capital murder trials pending and had no one on death row. The last execution in New Hampshire was carried out in 1939. India The first national conference of the Campaign against the Death Penalty an umbrella organization of different activists wishing to coordinate work around the death penalty, was held in New Delhi on 22-23 July. The conference, which brought together eminent jurists and human rights campaigners headed by former Supreme Court Justice Krishna Iyer, was attended by 100 delegates from 15 states who urged the central and state governments of India to amend all laws which provide for the death penalty. The conference pointed out that the state consistently takes no constructive action to prevent crime, fails to initiate effective prosecutions and then turns to the death penalty as the popular response to crime. The delegates passed a resolution seeking a total moratorium for 10 years to be followed by abolition in all 25 states. (See also related item under ''Moves towards the establishment of moratoria'', page 8.) Chile On 1 November the Senate voted in favour of ending capital punishment for ordinary crimes. The bill is to be submitted to the Constitutional Committee. By the end of the year it had not become law. Kyrgyzstan On 14 November President Askar Akayev when extending the moratorium on executions, first introduced in 1998 (see related item under ''Moratorium Extended'' on page 6) also urged his government to give consideration to abolishing the death penalty before July 2001. MORATORIA (a) Moratoria established Philippines President Joseph Estrada announced a moratorium on executions on 24 March, to last for the rest of the year. He said he had made this decision in deference to the Roman Catholic Church's observance of a Jubilee Year in celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. Despite the moratorium announcement one prisoner was taken to the lethal injection chamber in preparation for his execution. He was only saved from death because a prison chaplain made a telephone call to a local radio station, which was able to contact the President's chief aide and stop the execution from going ahead. Prison officials later claimed that they had only learned of the moratorium through the media and had not received any formal order to halt executions. The European Union made a statement in which it welcomed the decision and expressed its hope that the moratorium would be extended after the end of the year and might constitute an important step towards the future abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines. USA - Illinois On 31 January Governor Ryan announced a moratorium on executions, saying he would not approve any more executions until completion of a review and reform of the state's capital justice system. His decision arose when it was revealed that since 1977, when Illinois reinstated the death penalty, there have been 13 cases of wrongful conviction. As during this same period 12 prisoners had been executed this meant that the state of Illinois has released more prisoners from death row than it had executed. When making the announcement the Governor said: ".......I cannot support a system which, in its administration, has proven to be so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state's taking of innocent life....." (b) Moratorium extended Kyrgyzstan On 14 November President Askar Akayev signed a decree prolonging the moratorium on executions originally put in place in 1998. This decree means that the moratorium will now be extended for another year until December 2001 (see also related item under ''Moves towards abolition'', on page 5). (c) Moves towards the establishment of moratoria Worldwide On 18 December at the United Nations in New York, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, was presented with a petition for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty signed by 3,213,974 people from around the world. Signatures on the petition had come from 146 countries and members of all the world's main religions. United States of America (i) National American Bar Association (ABA) Three years ago, in February 1997, the ABA called for a national moratorium on capital punishment. In July 2000 the incoming President of the ABA, Martha Barnett, called again for a moratorium on the federal death penalty and challenged lawyers across the country to work to suspend the death penalty in their states until it can be shown that it is imposed fairly. American Psychiatric Association(APA) The APA Assembly passed a resolution on 14 May at its plenary assembly requesting that the APA Board of Trustees develop a policy statement calling for a moratorium on capital punishment in the USA. Poll supports moratorium A national poll of 802 voters conducted in August found that 53% of those surveyed are in favour of a moratorium on executions until a study is carried out on the fairness of how the death penalty is used. The poll was conducted by two companies: Peter D Hart Research and American Viewpoint. (See also related item under Public Opinion/Opinion Polls/Surveys on page 32) (ii) Federal Senators Russell Feingold and Carl Levin introduced the "National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2000" in April. The bill would have imposed a moratorium on executions until a national commission determines whether the death penalty can be imposed "fairly and with due process". The moratorium would have been in place until the two-year commission completed its work and the US Congress took action on its final report. Senator Feingold also urged President Bill Clinton to suspend federal executions until it could be determined that no innocent people had been sentenced to death. In April the European Parliament made the same plea to the President, also to all the candidates in the American presidential election. In July the French Presidency of the EU sent a letter to the President asking for a moratorium on federal executions. The President rejected all these calls. (iii) States The Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Philadelphia Bar Association and the Louisiana Bar Association have all called for a moratorium on the death penalty. On 25 March the Texas Criminal Defence Lawyers Association called on the then Governor, George W Bush, to impose a moratorium on executions in Texas. On 10 June the Resolution Committee of the Texas Democratic Party passed a resolution calling for an immediate halt on all executions in Texas and the country until new policies and procedures are implemented. The resolution passed with only one dissenting vote. More than two dozen municipal authorities have adopted resolutions urging their state legislators to impose a moratorium on executions including Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. India Eminent jurists and human rights campaigners called for a "death sentence on the death sentence" saying that the death penalty was a violation of fundamental human rights and of the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. They asked that the process "...begin with a total moratorium on the death penalty for 10 years and be followed by absolute abolition as a pragmatic process." The resolution was passed in July at the first national conference of the Campaign against the Death Penalty (see related item under ''Moves towards Abolition'' on page 5). COMMUTATIONS Philippines On 10 December, Human Rights Day, President Joseph Estrada announced that all prisoners whose death sentences had been confirmed by the Supreme Court would have their sentences commuted. This was expected to apply to over 110 prisoners. However by the end of the year only 13 prisoners had had their sentences commuted, those whose execution dates had been set. Earlier the President had announced that he was considering commutations of all the approximately 1400 death sentences imposed since the death penalty was restored in late 1993 and that he would support Congressional repeal of the death penalty law. However he was impeached and removed from office before either of these actions could be implemented. [President Estrada ordered the commutation of a further 90 confirmed death sentences before being removed from office in January 2001.] Nigeria No death sentences have been carried out since the return to civilian rule in May 1999. President Obasanjo, who has stated his opposition to the death penalty, in January 2000 granted an amnesty to prisoners under sentence of death: those who had been awaiting execution for 20 years were to be pardoned and released; those under sentence of death for between 10 and 20 years were to have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. This cessation of executions is an important development after many years in which Nigeria had one of the highest execution rates in the world. Thailand 30 prisoners under sentence of death had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment as part of the Royal Amnesty on the occasion of the 73rd birthday on 5 December of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Uganda In July President Museveni commuted the death sentences of 16 prisoners to life imprisonment. The move was reported by the press and welcomed by the Ugandan Human Rights Commission. INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (a) United Nations (UN) Sixth Quinquennial Report In 1973 the UN Economic and Social Council invited the UN Secretary-General to submit to it, at five-yearly intervals, periodic updated and analytical reports on capital punishment, the first one to be produced in 1975. In the report submitted in 1995 the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty was also covered. The Council decided that these reports should continue to cover the implementation of the Safeguards and also to draw on all available data, including current criminological research. The sixth in the series "Capital Punishment and implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty", UN document no. E/2000/3, which covered the period 1994-1998, was issued on 31 March 2000. In order to gather information for the sixth quinquennial report a questionnaire was designed and sent to all member states of the UN. Comments were also invited from relevant intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, UN entities and the network of institutes. Only 53 governments responded, 10 less than had supplied information for the previous report in 1995. Of these only 11 replies were from countries which retained and used the death penalty at the end of 1999. By the end of the year 2000 a further 10 governments had responded making the total 63, with the number of countries which retain and use the death penalty increasing to 14. [A new version of the report, incorporating analysis of this additional information will be published in 2001.] The report found that in the five years from 1994 to 1998, when fewer new states came into existence than in the previous five-year period, 17 countries abolished capital punishment. Four more did so in 1999, making a total of 21 countries. Citing figures from different regions, the report states that "there is evidence that the abolitionist movement is becoming more widespread across the regions of the world", although it did note that one country reintroduced the death penalty (but it had not carried out an execution) and eight countries and territories which had not carried out any executions for at least 10 years resumed executing during the period. In paragraph 127 the report concludes that '' ...at the advent of the new millennium, the gathering pace of the abolitionist movement has shown no sign of faltering". When considering the implementation of the UN Safeguards on the Death Penalty the report notes that the problem identified in the previous quinquennial report with regard to the first Safeguard (restriction of the death penalty to the most serious crimes, those with lethal or other extremely grave consequences) still persists, and that capital punishment has been retained in the laws of many countries for a wide range of offences far beyond the crime of murder. It concluded that there remained considerable scope for reducing the number of offences for which it is applied. Because so few retentionist countries replied to the questionnaire very little could be gathered about the actual number of executions carried out throughout the world. The report recommended that some means of ensuring that the Secretary-General is furnished with more complete information from retentionist countries should be a matter for serious consideration. Presentation of Petition for a Worldwide Moratorium On 18 December at the UN in New York the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, was presented with a petition for a world-wide moratorium on the death penalty. It had been signed by over three million people from 146 countries. The petition, in the form of a leather-bound book, was presented by representatives of the three organizations which organized and coordinated the appeal: the Community of Sant' Egidio from Rome, Moratorium 2000 founded in the USA by Sister Helen Prejean and Amnesty International. When accepting the petition Mr Annan said: "The forfeiture of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process. Let the states that still use the death penalty stay their hand lest in time to come they look back with remorse knowing it is too late to redeem their grievous mistake." (See also related item under '' Moves towards the establishment of moratoria'' on page 7.) UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) The UNCHR held its 56th session in Geneva in May. Once again the European Union (EU) tabled a resolution on the death penalty. The text was similar to that adopted the previous year calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions and adherence to UN safeguards in capital cases. However this year an additional paragraph welcoming the Secretary-General's sixth quinquennial report on capital punishment was included. The resolution was co-sponsored by 68 countries and was adopted on 27 April by 27 votes to 13 with 12 abstentions. Following its adoption 50 states issued a statement dissociating themselves from the text asserting that it was inappropriate to make a universal decision on this question or to propose such action in the forum of an international organisation. UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights The UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights is a sub-commission of the UNCHR which holds an annual meeting over a period of three weeks in Geneva. During the 2000 session, on 17 August, the Sub-Commission passed resolution 2000/17 condemning the imposition and execution of the death penalty on those aged under 18 at the time of the commission of the offence. It called upon states which retain the death penalty for people under 18 at the time of the crime to abolish that punishment for these young offenders as soon as possible and to remind judges that the imposition of the death penalty in such cases violates international law. In its concluding point 6 it recommended that the UNCHR confirm ".......that international law concerning the imposition of the death penalty in relation to juveniles clearly established that the imposition of the death penalty on persons aged under 18 years at the time of the offence is in contravention of customary international law." (b) Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) At the Implementation Meeting on Human Dimension Issues, held in Warsaw in October under the agenda item entitled: ''Exchange of information on the question of the abolition of capital punishment'' the following recommendations were made:
(c) European Union (EU) In 1999 a Convention was set up by the heads of state and government of the Member States of the EU to draft a Charter of Fundamental Rights which would combine in a single text the civil, political, economic, social and human rights which hitherto have been laid down in various international and national sources. The European Council, meeting in Nice, France on 7-9 December 2000, welcomed the joint Proclamation by the Council, the European Parliament and Commission, of this Charter of Fundamental Rights. Each of the charter's 50 articles, which set out individuals' rights or freedoms is taken from a ''precursor'' text which can be another charter, a convention, a treaty or jurisprudence. The main reason for the Charter is to make these rights more visible for citizens. The Charter includes fundamental economic and social rights as well as civil and political rights and citizens' rights resulting from Community treaties. Article 2 of the Charter states:
2. No one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed. Article 19 states: No one should be removed, expelled or extradited to a State where there is a serious riskthat [one] would be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The European Council stated that it would like to see the Charter disseminated as widely as possible amongst the EU's citizens, but decided that the question of the charter's force would be considered at a later date. The Proclamation represents a solemn commitment by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission to respect the Charter. (d) European Conference of Ministers The 50th anniversary of the adoption of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) was celebrated by a conference of ministers from some 50 European states in Rome on 4 November. Among other concerns, the ministers referred to the recommendation adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 1994 calling for the creation of a further protocol to the ECHR which would provide for the abolition of the death penalty in time of war. To this end the conference passed resolution 11B on the abolition of the death penalty which invites "(i) the member States which still have the death penalty in respect of acts committed in time of war or of imminent threat of war, to consider its abolition; (ii) the Committee of Ministers to consider the feasibility of a new additional protocol to the Convention which would exclude the possibility of maintaining the death penalty in respect of acts committed in time of war or of imminent threat of war." COURT DECISIONS (a) International Courts (i) Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) In a judgement which may have far-reaching consequences on death penalty cases in the English-speaking Caribbean, the JCPC in England commuted the death sentences of six convicted prisoners in Jamaica on 12 September. The JCPC which serves as the final appeal court for English-speaking Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Bahamas, ruled that it is unlawful to execute prisoners whose appeals are pending before international bodies such as the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee. The JCPC also ruled that the Jamaican Privy Council (Mercy Committee) when considering whether to exercise the prerogative of mercy, must provide prisoners with an effective and adequate opportunity to participate in the mercy process, including notification of the date on which the Mercy Committee will consider the case and the opportunity to make informed representations to the Committee and to challenge any inaccurate information before it. This judgement overrules previous decisions of the JCPC and other Caribbean courts, including the 1996 decision from the Bahamas, in which the JCPC had held that a condemned prisoner had no rights before the Mercy Committee. (ii) International Court of Justice (ICJ) The ICJ held public hearings in the LaGrand case (Germany v the USA) from 13 - 17 November in The Hague. For the first time in its history, the ICJ has been asked to determine what remedies are required under international law when arrested foreign nationals are not informed of their consular rights and are then sentenced to death. German nationals Karl and Walter LaGrand were sentenced to death in Arizona, USA, for killing a bank manager during a robbery in 1982. Although the local authorities were aware of their nationality, the two brothers were arrested, tried and sentenced to death without being advised of their right to consular notification and assistance, as required under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Germany maintains that the treaty violation contributed to the death sentences by preventing consular assistance in the gathering of mitigating evidence for presentation at the sentencing stage of the trial. German consular officers only became aware of the case 10 years after the trial when they were contacted by the LaGrands, who had finally learned of their right to consular assistance, not from the Arizona authorities but from other prison inmates. Under the US legal doctrine of ''procedural default'' the failure to first raise the treaty violation on appeal in state court proceedings prevented the federal courts from considering it as grounds for reversal of the conviction and sentence. Despite appeals for clemency by the German authorities, Karl LaGrand was executed by lethal injection on 24 February 1999. On 2 March 1999 Germany instituted proceedings at the ICJ for violations of the Vienna Convention committed by the USA. In a unanimous order dated 3 March 1999 the Court called on the USA to take all measures at its disposal to ensure that the execution not take place pending a final decision in the proceedings. Walter LaGrand was executed in the Arizona gas chamber later that same day. Germany has asked the ICJ to declare that the United States must provide effective review and remedies for death sentences imposed in cases where German nationals were not informed of their consular rights. Germany also requested a guarantee of the non-repetition of the illegal acts and a judgement that the USA violated its international legal obligations by applying the domestic doctrine of procedural default to override the treaty provisions. The USA admitted the breach of its obligations under the Vienna Convention but asked the ICJ to reject Germany's demand for legal reparation, arguing that an apology and a promise of future compliance are the only remedies available. The Court's ruling is expected to establish an important precedent regarding the effect of international treaty obligations on the domestic use of the death penalty. By the end of the year the Court had not finished its deliberations and has yet to deliver its verdict. The Court's judgement will be binding on both parties under international law and without appeal. (iii) European Court of Human Rights In Turkey in January the government decided to halt the procedures related to the execution of Abdullah Öcalan pending a decision on his case by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Öcalan, who had been convicted of treason and separatism and sentenced to death, had applied to the Court for a ruling, claiming that his treatment had infringed 12 articles of the European Convention on Human Rights which Turkey is bound to respect as a member of the Council of Europe. The Court accepted Öcalan's case in December announcing that it would be tried by a Grand Chamber of 17 judges. In December 1999 Turkey was accepted as an applicant state for membership of the EU and has been urged to abolish capital punishment to membership standards. Finland, the then Chair of the EU, warned that if Öcalan were to be executed it would gravely jeopardise Turkey's bid to join the Union. No one has been executed in Turkey since 1984. [In January 2001 the court admitted Turkey's complaint against the transfer of the case to the Grand Chamber, thus the case will be heard instead by the 1st Chamber. It is expected that it will be several months before a ruling is announced.] (b) National Courts USA Louisiana In October in New Orleans the Federal Appeals Court ruled that a defendant in a capital murder trial does not have an absolute constitutional right to have an attorney who stays awake for the entire trial. The ruling was made in the case of Calvin J Burdine, during whose trial in 1983, his court-appointed lawyer frequently fell asleep. In 1999 a federal district judge in Houston had ordered a new trial for Burdine, saying that "a sleeping counsel is equivalent to no counsel at all." However by a 2-1 majority the panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The judges maintained they were not condoning sleeping by defense counsel during a capital murder trial but said that from the trial record it was impossible to determine whether counsel's sleeping actually hurt Burdine's case. Canada On 23 May the Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments in the case of Atif Ahmad Rafay and Glen Sebastian Burns, two Canadian citizens facing extradition to the USA on capital murder charges. Lawyers for the two men argued that their return without satisfactory assurances against the death penalty would violate Canadian constitutional protections and international human rights standards. In written and oral submissions, Amnesty International urged the Court to require death penalty assurances in extradition cases regardless of the nationality of the accused, based on evolving human rights norms and the practices of other abolitionist countries. Among other interveners in the case was the Italian Senate, which was given unprecedented permission by the Court to submit a written brief on the European prohibition against extradition to face the death penalty. The Italian Senate asked the Supreme Court to consider whether Canada, which does not have the death penalty, should be forced to seek guarantees that its citizens will not be executed when they are sent to other countries to face charges for crimes for which they could receive the death penalty. Under Supreme Court rules, intervener status can be granted when a party establishes that it has an "interest" in a case and will make legal arguments which are useful and different to those of other parties. The Italian Senate, argued that it is in an advantageous geographical position to apprise the judges of legal developments across Europe, where extradition to countries imposing capital punishment is prohibited. [In a unanimous decision issued on 15 February, 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canadian authorities must routinely seek and obtain assurances against the death penalty before allowing extraditions, in all but exceptional circumstances. Burns and Rafay were later surrendered to face trial after the prosecutor in the state of Washington provided the necessary assurances. Amnesty International welcomed the historic ruling, which brings Canada's extradition policy into line with the standard practice of those other nations that have completely abolished the death penalty.] Guatemala On 14 November the Constitutional Court of Guatemala repealed the death sentences imposed in 1998 on five members of a band of kidnappers. Article 4(2) of the American Convention of Human Rights (ACHR) which Guatemala ratified in 1978, prohibits member states from extending the death penalty to crimes other than those already included in national legislation at the time of ratification. Nevertheless, in March 1995 the Guatemalan Congress approved Decree 14-95 which extended the death penalty to kidnapping. In giving its decision the court ruled that in matters of human rights, international law prevails over national legislation. Local analysts hope that the acceptance in this case of this important principle in international law will set a significant precedent for future sentencing in cases of kidnapping where the victim does not die. ATTEMPT TO REINSTATE THE DEATH PENALTY Sri Lanka On 13 March 1999, the office of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga announced that death sentences would no longer be automatically commuted when they come before the President. A press release from the President's office stated: (1) Death sentences imposed by the court in cases of murder and drug trafficking will be carried out and will not be commuted to life imprisonment if, in accordance with the relevant constitutional and statutory procedure, the judge who heard the case, the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice unanimously recommend the execution of such sentence. (2) Death sentences commuted to life imprisonment in the absence of such a unanimous recommendation will not be further reduced to a specific period of time until the prisoner has served a period of at least 20 years in prison nor be eligible for any remission under general amnesty till then. This is a change from the present practice of considering such a reduction after a prisoner has served a period of 4 years. (3) General amnesties will be granted only to mark the Independence Day. This is a reduction from the six occasions annually when amnesties are granted at present. During 2000, amid a rise in crime in the country, appeals for the resumption of executions increased. In late November the Cabinet discussed a recommendation by the People's Alliance Executive Committee (the main party in the coalition government) to reintroduce executions. The cabinet decided in favour of a resumption. No executions had been carried out by the end of the year 2000. The last hanging in Sri Lanka was on 23 June 1976 and the country has for the last 24 years been abolitionist in practice. After the United National Party (UNP) assumed office in July 1977 the then President commuted all death sentences that were imposed and no executions were carried out. However, certain crimes which are punishable by death remained on the statute books and death sentences continue to be imposed by the courts in Sri Lanka. A state of emergency has been in force in Sri Lanka nearly continuously since 1983. EXECUTIONS (a) Resumption of executions after periods with none Qatar According to information received by Amnesty International executions resumed after 12 years when two men and a woman, all Indian nationals, were executed in Doha Prison on 14 June. Qader Aktar Hassan, Aris Qassem Dahnassi and Fatima Yussef al-Din Sayed had all been convicted of murder. USA Robert Coe was executed by lethal injection on 19 April 2000 at Riverbed Prison near Nashville, Tennessee. The last execution took place in Tennessee in November 1960, nearly 40 years earlier. Coe had twice come within 24 hours of execution before courts granted temporary stays to assess whether the state had given him an adequate hearing into his mental competency i.e. whether he understood the reason for, and reality of, his punishment. However the US Supreme Court rejected his appeal on this issue. Robert Coe was the 627th prisoner executed since the USA resumed executions in 1977 and Tennessee was the 31st of the 38 US states which allow for the death penalty to carry out an execution since the 1977 resumption. Malaysia On 21 November two men, Ng Sin Huat and Yap Bok Seng,were executed. They had both been sentenced to death for drug trafficking offences. Under Malaysian law anyone found in possession of more than 15 grams of heroin is presumed, unless the contrary can be proven, to be trafficking in the drug and faces a mandatory death sentence. A government official stated that the executions were the first since 1996 but, according to AI's information, two other executions took place in 1997. (b) Public Executions Afghanistan In February a report was received of an execution in front of thousands of spectators gathered in a football ground. They were there to watch a 10-year-old boy execute the man convicted of the murder of his father. A Taleban soldier reportedly assisted the boy to hold the rifle and helped him shoot the man, Mohammad Hashem, three times. In September two men accused of working with opposition forces and carrying out bomb attacks in the capital Kabul, were hanged in public. They were blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs and then hanged by ropes attached to two separate cranes. The bodies remained on the cranes all day. Iran At least 16 executions were carried out in public in Iran during the year, one of them being of a 17-year-old boy, Jasem Ebrahimi (see related item under ''Use of the Death Penalty Against Child Offenders'' on page 21). In October reports were received of the execution of three prisoners, all Afghans, who were hanged simultaneously at 8am at a crossroads in Kerman, Southern Iran. They had been convicted of rape. Guatemala On 29 June two convicted kidnappers were put to death by lethal injection in executions shown live on Guatemala television. Those watching saw Amílcar Cetino Pérez strapped to a gurney and injected with the fatal mix of chemicals. The television showed the heart monitoring machine as the line flattened. This was followed by the execution of Tomás Cerrate Hernández, shown shaking badly as he was led into the death chamber. Both deaths took several minutes more than expected, apparently due to a machine malfunction. The executions were continually rebroadcast for hours on nearly all of Guatemala's TV channels. USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY AGAINST CHILD OFFENDERS Child offenders are people convicted of committing crimes when they were under the age of 18. International human rights treaties prohibit anyone under 18 years of age at the time of the crime being sentenced to death. The ICCPR, the ACHR and the CRC all have provisions to this effect. One hundred and fifteen countries whose laws still provide for the death penalty either have provisions in their laws which exclude the death penalty against child offenders, or may be presumed to exclude such use by virtue of becoming parties to the above treaties without entering a reservation to the relevant article of those treaties. UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights The Sub-Commission, at its annual meeting in August in Geneva, passed a resolution condemning the imposition and execution of the death penalty on those aged under 18 at the time of the commission of the offence. (See related item under ''Intergovernmental Organizations'' on page 11) Asia Pacific Forum of Human Rights Institutions Meeting in Rotorua, New Zealand in August the Advisory Council of Jurists, which is one of the bodies reporting to the above Forum, considered the death penalty, one of two issues referred to it by the Forum. In its final report issued in December the Council said that it ''......accepts as a minimum the restrictions placed on the categories of persons that can be executed as set out int the ICCPR namely persons who commit an offence while below eighteen years of age........
Pakistan The government of Pakistan on 1 July 2000 issued the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 which prohibits the death penalty for anyone aged below 18 at the time of the alleged offence. This comes exactly 10 years after Pakistan ratified the UNCRC which makes it obligatory for states parties to ban the death penalty for juvenile offenders in domestic legislation. Legislation relating to juvenile offenders had been discussed in the national parliament and had not been passed, while some of the provinces had passed relevant legislation but had failed to officially notify it in the gazette whereby a piece of legislation becomes legally binding. The Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 was officially notified on 1 July and came into force on that date. Around 50 people who were below the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offence still remain under sentence of death in Pakistan. No attempt had been made to review these cases in conformity with spirit of the UNCRC by the end of the year. Iran A 17-year-old boy, Jasem Ebrahimi, was executed in January in Gonaveh on the Persian Gulf coast. He was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of an 18-month-old child. He was executed in public.(See also item under ''Public Executions on page 19). Also in January, another 17-year-old convicted murderer, Morteza Amini Moqaddam, was granted clemency just seconds before he was due to be hanged. Under Iran's Islamic legal system the family of the victim has three choices - to execute the murderer, to accept financial reparation or to pardon him although, even if pardoned, a prison term follows. Moqaddam was to be hanged from a crane on a truck 30 feet from the electronics shop where he committed the crime. However as the noose was put around his neck, Ali Mohebbi, the victim's father, spoke to the judicial officials saying he had forgiven Moqaddam saying: ''If I forgive him, maybe millions of people who would watch the news would learn about forgiveness - and that is the message of Islam.'' Democratic Republic of Congo Despite a declaration in December 1999 by the Minister for Human Rights that the government was observing a moratorium on executions, a 14-year-old child soldier named Kasongo was executed on 15 January within 30 minutes of his trial by the Cour d'ordre militaire (COM), Military Order Court. He and four other soldiers had been found guilty of murdering a driver. Those convicted by the COM can only appeal to the President for clemency but with the execution taking place so soon after sentencing it is doubtful that the President had time to consider appeals. USA Four child offenders were executed during the year in the USA. They were Douglas Christopher Thomas, Steve Edward Roach, Glen Charles McGinnis and Gary Graham (Shaka Sankofa). Douglas Christopher Thomas was executed on 10 January for a crime committed when he was 17 years old. He was convicted of the murder of the parents of his 14-year-old girlfriend and was sentenced to death for the murder of the mother, Kathy Wiseman. He was 26 when he was executed by in the state of Virginia. Steve Edward Roach was put to death on 13 January. He was 17 years old when he committed the crime for which he was sentenced, the murder of Mary Ann Hughes. He was 23 when he was executed in the state of Virginia. Glen Charles McGinnis murdered Leta Ann Wilkerson during a robbery at a laundry when he was aged 17. He was executed by lethal injection in the state of Texas when aged 26. Gary Graham (Shaka Sankofa) was sentenced to death for the murder of Bobby Lambert in 1981 when he was 17 years old. Gary's execution was stayed several times and even on the day of execution it was stayed for two hours while courts considered last-minute appeals. By five votes to four the US Supreme Court refused to intervene. He was aged 36 when he died by lethal injection in the state of Texas. There remain serious doubts about his guilt. A fifth person Alexander Williams, a mentally ill young man who was 17 years old at the time of the crime, was 48 hours from execution in August in Georgia, when the State Supreme Court granted a reprieve. In a separate case execution by electric chair in Georgia has been challenged as unconstitutional and Alexander Williams' reprieve is pending this decision. The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy, expressed his grave concern over the planned execution of Alexander Williams maintaining that the death sentence may have been imposed due to the incompetence of Mr. Williams' State-appointed attorney. He also suggested that the State may be in breach of its obligations under Principle 6 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers - that a lawyer of experience and competence commensurate with the nature of the offence was not provided. Thailand The death penalty and life imprisonment for people aged under 18 years at the time of the crime could be banned if a bill, submitted by the Attorney General's office and on the agenda for discussion in the Thai parliament in December, becomes law. It is suggested that the two penalties are replaced with a maximum penalty of 50 years in jail. The change is necessary in order to bring laws into line with the UNCRC, to which Thailand is a party. However there was no news of any cabinet discussion of the bill by the end of the year. TABLE 1. EXECUTIONS OF CHILD OFFENDERS (1990 - 2000)
* In 2000 Pakistan set the minimum age for the use of the death penalty at 18 years at the time of the offence. **In 1994 in Yemen the minimum age for the use of the death penalty was raised to18 years at the time of the offence USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY AGAINST WOMEN Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hiep, a woman from Toronto, Canada, was executed in Vietnam in April after having been convicted of the offence of drug trafficking. She had dual Canadian and Vietnamese citizenship, however dual nationality is not recognized by Vietnam. She had been under sentence of death since March 1997 but there were grave doubts about her guilt and, beginning in 1997 the government of Canada had appealed for clemency on a number of occasions, including interventions by the Prime Minister, the Foreign Affairs Minister and the Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific Affairs. It was alleged that Nguyen Thi Hiep was kept in shackles during her imprisonment. Following her execution Canada withdrew its ambassador to Vietnam and cut off all non-humanitarian aid for a period of time. Nguyen Thi Hiep's mother Tran Thi Cam, aged 74, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the same offence. She was released under an amnesty. USA Betty Lou Beets, aged 62, was executed in Texas on 24 February 2000, two weeks before her 63rd birthday. The jury which sentenced her to death was left unaware of evidence directly contradicting the prosecution's claim that she had killed her husband for financial gain - the aggravating factor in the crime which made it punishable by death. Neither did the jury hear crucial mitigating evidence including her traumatic history of severe physical and sexual abuse from an early age. Expert testimony in post-conviction proceedings established that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, battered woman syndrome and organic brain damage. The UN Special Rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and on violence against women, Asthma Jahangir and Radhika Coomaraswamy, were among those who called for the execution to be stopped. They expressed their concern that '' the abuse and extreme violence suffered by Betty Lou Beets were not considered by the investigating authorities or by the courts when convicting and sentencing her for murder.'' Christina Riggs was executed in Arkansas on 2 May. She was the first woman to be executed in Arkansas for over 150 years, the last woman executed in the state being Lavinia Burnett in 1845. USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY AGAINST THE INNOCENT USA Concern is increasing over the fairness and reliability of the US capital justice system. By the end of 2000 some 90 prisoners had been released from US death rows since 1973 after evidence of their innocence emerged. This is the equivalent to a rate of approximately one acquittal to every seven executions. Innocence Protection Act In February the Innocence Protection Act was introduced in the US Congress. The proposed legislation has broad bipartisan support and would provide important new legal safeguards in capital cases, including: 1. Establishing procedures to preserve DNA evidence and making DNA tests available to death row inmates where such testing might establish their innocence. 2. Providing mechanisms to ensure competent legal representation for all defendants facing a death sentence. 3. Encouraging judges to inform juries in death penalty cases of all sentencing options, including alternatives to the death penalty. [The Act had not been passed by the end of the year and was reintroduced in the US Congress in March 2001 with over 130 co-sponsors. When the bill was first introduced there were 85 reported cases in the USA in which inmates had been exonerated after long stays on death row. By March 2001 the number had risen to 95.] ''Innocence'' Committee In May a bipartisan committee was formed consisting of death penalty supporters and opponents who agree that the risk of wrongful executions in the USA is unacceptably high. The committee is chaired by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan, who stated: "We are Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, pro-death penalty and anti-death penalty. What we share is a common abhorrence that innocent people are at risk of execution because of failures in the legal system." Now known as the Death Penalty Initiative, the group is comprised of former high-level public officials, including judges, prosecutors, police and prison chiefs, scholars, journalists, attorneys, and religious leaders. Their mission is to investigate current criminal justice practices and procedures, as well as recent cases of wrongful convictions from around the country. The committee will also make policy recommendations and develop guidelines for reform. (See related items under Moratoria Established (Illinois) on page 6 and under Studies (A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995 James S. Liebman) on page 32) USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY AGAINST THE MENTALLY ILL AND MENTALLY RETARDED (a) Mental Illness Yemen Hussein bin Hussein Al-Ma´mari, who has been diagnosed as schizophrenic, was sentenced to death for murder in December 1998 by a court in the capital, Sana´a. The verdict and sentence were upheld by the Appeal Court in September 2000. The case is now before the Supreme Court pending the last appeal. When Hussein bin Hussein Al-Ma'mari went on trial, his lawyer argued that he was mentally ill and should not be held responsible for his actions, under article 33 of the Yemeni Penal Code. Doctors who examined him confirmed that he had a history of schizophrenia prior to the murder, backed up by medical reports from Egypt, Jordan, and England, where he had sought treatment. The doctors also found that his state of health had improved but recommended he continue to receive treatment. However, the doctors said that his state of health at the time of the crime was not known, and they left it to the court to decide how great a part his illness played in the killing. The court ruled that the defense had failed to prove that Hussein bin Hussein Al-Ma'mari was ill at the time of the crime. As such it decided that he was criminally responsible and sentenced him to death. USA Larry Robison, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic more than 20 years ago, was executed on 21 January in Texas. He never denied the crimes for which he was sentenced but always claimed that they were the result of his mental illness. His mother maintained that she had attempted without success to get him appropriately treated by the state before he turned violent. Thomas Provezano, executed in Florida on 21 June had a history of serious mental illness, including paranoid schizophrenia. On 20 June he was granted a stay of execution 11 minutes before he was scheduled to be put to death. However on 21 June the stay was dissolved and Thomas Provezano was executed. Tennessee's first execution for 39 years was of a man with a long history of mental illness. Robert Coe was described by prosecution mental health experts as suffering from various mental disorders. A psychiatrist called by the defense said he suffered from brain damage and chronic paranoid schizophrenia. Despite these medical opinions, he was executed by lethal injection on 19 April (see related item under Executions on page 18). (b) Mental Retardation USA Oliver Cruz, with an IQ estimated at only 64, was executed on 10 August despite appeals to the then governor of Texas, George W Bush, from the EU and the American Bar Association. The President of the ABA wrote:
The US Congress was debating the issue as part of the Innocence Protection Act of 2000, a bill designed to risk of innocent people being executed (see related item under Use of the Death Penalty against the Innocent on page 25). RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES St. Lucia Regional Roman Catholic Bishops, at the Antilles Episcopal Conference held as part of the Antilles Eucharist Congress held in St Lucia in May, publicly stated their wish to see the abolition of the death penalty. The president of the conference, Edgerton Clarke, Archbishop of Kingston, Jamaica, said that while he and his colleagues were mindful of the support for capital punishment in the region they saw life as being of tremendous value. ''When we speak of capital punishment and we look upon it as something we would like to see abolished, we are thinking of the experiences of life in the Caribbean region,'' he added. Capital punishment was one of several issues discussed at the Episcopal Conference which is a forum through which Caribbean bishops examine what is happening in the church and society. The Congress was attended by some 20,000 Catholics from the regional and international community. Italy At a papal mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II at Rome's Regina Coeli Prison on 9 July, prayers were offered for prisoners on death row who were awaiting the end of their existence, and for those kept in inhuman conditions. ''May the death penalty, an unworthy punishment still used in some countries, be abolished throughout the world'' the Pope said. During the year 2000, the Jubilee Year of the Roman Catholic Church, the Coliseum in Rome has been lit up with a bright white light every time a country abolished the death penalty or announced a moratorium on executions. It was also illuminated if a death sentence was commuted or a prisoner sentenced to death was found to be innocent and released. Russian Federation Meeting in Moscow, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on 16 August called for an end to the death penalty. The church gave as its reasons for opposing the death penalty the fact that it can make a judicial error irreparable and also because the penalty causes controversy in society. USA In February the pastor of President Bill Clinton, the Reverend Philip Wogaman, senior minister at Washington's Foundry Methodist Church, called for a review of the death penalty, adding his voice to those concerned that innocent people have been condemned and that sentencing is prone to racial bias. ``Maybe there are circumstances in which historically one can justify this. I'm not sure there are anymore,'' the Reverend said in a sermon attended by Clinton, ``I hope we will be in for a season of serious re-examination of that issue.'' In May in California Cardinal Roger Mahony, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles which is the largest Catholic archdiocese in the United States, urged the state governor to issue a moratorium on executions. He said that the California authorities had an obligation to thoroughly review the operation of the death penalty in the light of growing evidence that innocent people may have been condemned to death in error. In a letter the cardinal stated that he believed that an objective study would provide substantial factual data to support moral and ethical questions raised by the Catholic bishops of California and the United States regarding the death penalty. On 20 November a letter was delivered to the White House signed by 40 religious and political leaders asking President Clinton to declare a moratorium on federal executions in the closing days of his presidency. A similar letter, circulated by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and signed by more than 50 religious leaders, was sent to President Clinton on 28 November. Pakistan Mohammad Yousuf Ali, aged about 50 years and a member of a small Sufi order, was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death on 5 August in Lahore, Pakistan. He was convicted of blasphemy under section 295C of the Pakistani Penal Code which carries a mandatory death sentence for allegedly defiling the holy name of the Prophet Mohammad. He was also convicted on related charges and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment with hard labour and fined - to be served and paid before his execution. MEDICAL PERSPECTIVES Resolution on Physician Participation in Capital Punishment Following concern about the introduction on an execution method (lethal injection) which threatens to involve doctors directly in the process of execution, the World Medical Association Secretary-General issued a press statement opposing any involvement of doctors in capital punishment. The 34th Assembly of the World Medical Association, meeting in Lisbon some weeks after the issuing of the press statement, endorsed the Secretary-General's statement. The Resolution was revised in Edinburgh in October 2000 and now says:
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) Testing For what is believed to be the first time in US legal history, DNA testing was conducted which had the potential to exonerate a man posthumously. Ellis Wayne Felker was executed in Georgia, USA in November 1996 after being convicted of rape and murder. Lawyers for Ellis Wayne Felker had gained access some weeks before his execution to the prosecution's files on his case and found undisclosed evidence which had not been subjected to DNA testing. However the execution went ahead on 14 November. Three newspapers and a television network obtained an order under the Georgia Open Records Act to perform DNA tests even though Mr Felker was dead. However the tests reportedly proved inconclusive, neither linking Mr Felker to the death nor clearing him of the crime. In another case in Virginia, USA, DNA testing led to the absolute pardon on 2 October of Earl Washington, 17 years after he was convicted of the rape and murder of a woman. He was not released immediately, however, as the state governor declined to set him free decreeing that he should remain in prison to finish serving a 30-year sentence for a separate burglary and assault conviction. His lawyers contended that had he not been convicted of capital murder, state figures showed that he would have served an average term of 10 to 11 years imprisonment instead of the 17 years he had served. [He was eventually released on parole in February 2001.] Since 1973 over 90 people who had been sentenced to death in the USA have been proved wrongfully convicted; of those, ten were exonerated as a result of DNA testing. A poll conducted jointly by both political parties in 2000 showed that when reminded of cases in which death row inmates had ultimately been released on the basis of DNA evidence, 64% of Americans favoured a temporary halt to executions while steps were taken to ensure that the system worked fairly. (See related item under ''Public Opinion Polls/Surveys'' on page 32.) A key provision under the proposed ''Innocence Protection Act'' introduced into Congress in June is a requirement that states establish some legal forum in which death row inmates could bring forward exculpatory evidence from DNA testing, even after the expiration of time limits for new evidence and appeals. (See item under ''Use of the Death Penalty Against the Innocent'' on page 25) Rejecting a resolution from the American Association of Public Health Physicians, delegates of the American Medical Association (AMA) attending their annual House of Delegates meeting in June refused to endorse a call for a national moratorium on executions. The AMA decided that the death penalty was not a medical issue but a legal one. However they endorsed more use of appropriate forensic techniques such as DNA testing in capital cases. Despite rejecting the resolution on a proposed moratorium the existing policy of the AMA precluding physician participation in executions remains in place. Lethal Injection in Thailand In January a bill to change the method of execution to lethal injection was endorsed by the Cabinet of Thailand. The Corrections Department, in order to assess opinions on this change, invited representatives from the Justice Ministry, the Department of Probation, the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the National Police Office, the University Affairs Ministry and the Public Health Ministry to a meeting in March to discuss the proposal. However medical officials from the Public Health Ministry refused to discuss the issue of the execution of criminals by lethal injection, deeming the topic to be a gross violation of medical ethics. General support for the proposal however was given by the Justice Ministry, the Department of Probation, the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the National Police Office and the University Affairs Ministry. The Public Health Ministry also maintained that - taking into account medical ethics - health professionals could not teach Corrections Department staff how to give lethal injections. Dr Supachai Khunnarattenapruek, Deputy Permanent Secretary and Secretary-General of the Medical Council said the Council wished to distance itself from participating in any debate on the topic. He also rejected the suggestion that organs of criminals be used in transplants, maintaining that the taking of organs ''was not the business of physicians''. The bill was scheduled to be forwarded to the Council of State and if passed by the Council it will go on to the House of Representatives for their consideration. However no further developments had been reported by the end of the year. PUBLIC OPINION/OPINION POLLS/SURVEYS Guatemala A poll on the death penalty taken in Guatemala City, the capital, in June, found that 74% of those interviewed were in favour of the death penalty. 78.5% supported the execution of two men the previous week, who had been sentenced to death for kidnapping. However only 20.5% thought that the executions would cause crime rates to fall. The poll was conducted by the Departamento de Mercado of the Prensa Libre (a Guatemalan newspaper). Uzbekistan On 5 December the results of a poll were published in the newspaper ''Vatanparvar''. The aim of the survey had been to ascertain public attitudes to the punishment for terrorism. It was carried out by the Ijtimoiy Fikr Public Opinion Study Centre and was held just before a session of Parliament scheduled to take place on 14 December which was expected to adopt a draft law on the fight against terrorism. The question the public were asked was what kind of punishment the law should envisage for those citizens of a country who, with weapons in their hands, belonged to organized extremist and terrorist bandit formations which wanted to overthrow the government and change existing social and political systems. 57 per cent said the punishment should be death and 20 per cent said it should be life imprisonment. It was reported that the survey was conducted in Tashkent and all the regions and involved representatives of all sections of the population - residents of towns and villages, women and men, people of different ages and ethnic origin. USA Several national and state polls carried out over the year indicated a softening of support for the death penalty. However one poll - because it was taken nationwide, because it was conducted by both Democrat and Republican polling firms (Peter D Hart Research and American Viewpoint) and also because it was the first poll to specifically ask nationwide about support for a moratorium or suspension of executions - was of particular significance. The survey was conducted from 18 - 23 August. Sixty per cent of those polled supported the death penalty, 21% were against it and 19% were undecided - a lower figure of support than had been ascertained from similar polls for many years. However other figures were equally significant. Sixty-four per cent of those surveyed wished executions to be suspended entirely until issues of fairness have been resolved. Support for suspension appeared to cross both parties with 50% of Republicans and 70% of the Democrats questioned being in favour. Other concerns addressed also showed important results. Eighty-nine per cent favoured providing access to DNA evidence in capital cases and 83% supported the provision of qualified, experienced lawyers in cases where the death penalty could be imposed. More than half said it is not enough to require access to DNA testing without also ensuring competent and experienced legal assistance. STUDIES USA In June Professor James S Liebman leading a team of lawyers and criminologists at Columbia University published a study (A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases 1973-1995) based on a search of state and federal court records. It found that two out of three death penalty convictions were overturned on appeal, mostly because of serious errors by defense lawyers or overzealous police and prosecutors who withheld evidence. The death penalty was imposed in 5,760 cases from 1973 to 1995. The study examined the 4,578 cases among them that were resolved ( the remainder were still on appeal when the study ended). The state or federal courts ordered retrials in 68% of the cases examined and in over 80% of the cases which were retried it was determined that the defendant deserved a sentence less than death after errors were corrected, and 7% of those retried were found to be innocent. Only 18% were sentenced to death upon retrial. A survey carried out in September by The New York Times using government statistics in a state by state analysis, has revealed that over the past 20 years the homicide rates in states with the death penalty has been between 48% and 101% higher than in states without the death penalty. In 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment the homicide rates are below the national average despite having similar demographic profiles to those states which retain the death penalty. The Study also found that homicide rates rose and fell along roughly symmetrical paths in the states with and without the death penalty, suggesting that the threat of the death penalty rarely deters criminals. In another survey carried out in September, the US Justice Department released the findings of its review of the federal death penalty. The survey showed marked racial and geographical disparities in the application of the death penalty at federal level. Around 80% of federal death row inmates were from racial or ethnic minorities and such minorities accounted for about three quarters of the cases in which federal prosecutors sought the death penalty. An example of geographical disparities is that just three federal judicial districts, in Virginia, Puerto Rico and Missouri, accounted for nearly a quarter of the 183 cases since 1995 in which the prosecutor recommended that a death sentence be sought. Federal prosecutors in nearly half of the USA's 94 such districts have never recommended the death penalty. STATISTICS Canada In July 2000, Statistics Canada issued the annual crime rate statistics for the year 1999. The homicide rate per 1,000,000 population has been steadily declining since its peak at 3.02 in 1975, the year before abolition of the death penalty for murder and 2.84 in 1976, the year of abolition. In 1999 the rate was 1.76 for every 100,000 people, 4.7% lower than 1998. 536 homicides were reported by the police, 22 fewer than in 1998. Also down is the overall crime rate and the incidence of violent crimes. Singapore In the second session of the Ninth Parliament of Singapore in January 2001 statistics were given concerning the numbers of persons hanged during the years 1991 - 2000. They are as follows:
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