It was a good day at the United Nations. On July 3, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on member states to abolish the death penalty. And he called for a universal moratorium on the death penalty by 2015.
"The taking of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict on another, even when backed by legal process," he said. "Where the death penalty persists, conditions for those awaiting execution are often horrifying, leading to aggravated suffering."
Mr. Ban gave the introductory remarks at a panel called "Moving away from the death penalty -- Lessons from national experiences" at U.N. Headquarters in New York. The event, a gathering of diplomats, legal practitioners and civil society, focused on those U.N. member states that have made positive steps towards abolition, and the human rights implications of the death penalty in those states that execute. Also present were Assistant Secretary-General Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Christof Heyns, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
Speaking at the forum was Federico Mayor, president of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, an initiative of the Spanish government that is supported by 15 countries. Mayor noted that one of the first steps taken by Spain after the Franco regime was the abolition of the death penalty.
A highlight of the forum was Witness to innocence member Kirk Bloodsworth, who spent eight years in prison, including two on Maryland's death row, for a murder that someone else committed. He was convicted of the murder and rape of a little girl. In 1993, Bloodsworth was the first death row prisoner to be exonerated through DNA testing. And he was released just months after his mother died.
Bloodsworth shared with an international audience the inherent problem of executing innocent people, of his experiences living in the hell that is death row, and the pain of being released from prison just a few months after his mother died.
Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project noted that only 5-10 percent of serious felonies have biological evidence for the purposes of DNA testing and proving one's innocence. Innocent people are sentenced to death for a number of reasons, including police and prosecutorial misconduct, incompetent lawyering, racism in the jury selection process, eyewitness misidentification, and others.
Reasonable people can differ about the death penalty, Scheck said, but no one can differ about the risk of executing innocent people. He also suggested that the U.S. Supreme Court would abolish the death penalty if the states demonstrate a trend towards abolition. The high court would conclude that the death penalty could not stand when limited to a small number of states in one region of the country.
In the past five years, five states -- New Mexico, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut -- have abolished the death penalty, for a total of 17 states that do not execute. And in November, California voters will have the opportunity to repeal the death penalty in the nation's largest state, thereby eliminating a quarter of America's death row.
Meanwhile, in 2007, the U.N. General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution for a worldwide moratorium. The U.S. voted against it. Over 150 nations have done away with the death penalty or do not practice it. Moreover, in 2011 only 21 nations executed prisoners.
On the day of the U.N. event I had an interesting conversation with two men, diplomats from a Muslim nation. I expressed my unequivocal opposition to the death penalty, and they explained to me why they believed the death penalty was fairly applied in their country -- the concept of blood money.
With blood money, the family of the murder victim can demand a payment from the accused criminal. If the accused is able to pay the amount demanded by the family, that person is spared. Otherwise, he or she is executed. And the family may decide not to accept blood money altogether, and the execution will proceed.
Whether they realized it or not, the two men articulated good reasons for ending the death penalty. If a person may be spared, and another executed for the same crime, then one can argue that no one should have to die.
The U.S. maintains its own arbitrary form of justice, where many murders are potentially death-penalty eligible, but the ultimate decision is made by petty local officials -- district attorneys on the county level, and U.S. attorneys in the federal system. Those who are prosecuted and condemned are typically poor, disproportionately of color, and almost exclusively in cases involving white victims.
Some studies show that universally, executions provide no deterrent effect. Capital punishment represents pure vengeance and retribution operating as public policy. It leaves no room for rehabilitation. Moreover, we cannot bring an innocent man or woman back from the grave.
Surely the day will come when the international community declares a moratorium on executions. The death penalty is the ultimate human rights violation. As long as humankind upholds the sentence of death, it tears down its own humanity.
David A. Love is the Executive Director of Witness to Innocence, a national nonprofit organization that empowers exonerated death row prisoners and their family members to become effective leaders in the movement to abolish the death penalty.
Follow David A. Love on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidalove
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Burundi and Togo, both in Africa.
Countries WITHOUT the Death Penalty:
-Canada, Mexico, most of Europe (only little-known Belarus and Tajikistan still have the Death Penalty and Tajikistan has had a moratorium in place since 2004), much of Latin America, and Australia and New Zealand. Russia has issued a moratorium on executions, in place since 1999.
Approx. number of people in the world sentenced to death in 2009 over 2,000
Approx. number of countries with the Death Penalty 60
Approx. number of countries that performed executions in 2009 20
5 countries with the most executions:
China
thousands*
Iran 390
Iraq 120
Saudi Arabia 70
United States 50
Racial makeup: In 2010, about 55 per cent of the prisoners on Death Row were white and about 40 per cent were black. 5 per cent were listed as other, unspecified ethnicities. More than 28% of Afrikans are executed to 7% of Whites?
Now tru that person will not kill again BUT what if he never did what he was accused of What about wrongful convictions? That is what really makes the DP so arbitrary and capricious
On average per year, there are:
20,000 murders.
15,000 arrests for murder (not all crimes are solved).
14,000 murder cases taken to court (not all cases have strong enough evidence).
10,000 murder convictions.
3,000 persons eligible for the DP (usually 1st degree murder with aggravating circumstances).
115 death sentences handed down.
45 executions.
This makes the Death Penalty arbitrary which means not applied evenly or fairly. Not everyone eligible for the Death Penalty is being sentenced to death and executed. Yet some are. Why is that
Race
demographics
who died
what age
Finances??? Arbitrary?
2 states have recently ended executions: New Jersey (in 2007) and New Mexico (in 2009). New Jersey made their new law retroactive, meaning all 8 inmates on Death Row had their sentences changed to life in prison. New Mexico didn't, so the state has 2 inmates on Death Row still awaiting execution.
Location of Federal and Military Death Rows:
Federal Death Row is at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, IN for men and at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, TX for women. They are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Military Death Row is at Fort Leavenworth, KS for men (called the U.S. Discliplinary Barracks and operated by the Army) and at Miramar in San Diego, CA for women (called the Naval Consolidated Brig and operated by the Navy).
In 2010, 4 states with death penalty laws did not execute anyone: Indiana, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee.*
*these numbers were calculated for the year 2010 by the Death Penalty Information Center
States with the fewest Death Row inmates:
Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Virginia, and Washington state have fewer than 20 inmates (but more than 5) on Death Row.
The U.S. Military has several more than 8 people awaiting death.
Colorado, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota have 10 or fewer people on Death Row.
If you aren't familiar with the state abbreviations used below, you can check this list on the U.S. Postal Service website.
AL 200 KY 35 OK 85
AZ 135 LA 85 OR 30
AR 40 MD 5 PA 220
CA 695 MS 70 SC 60
CO 3 MO 60 SD 3
CT 10 MT 2 TN 90
DE 20
NE 10 TX 335
FL 400 NH 1 UT 10
GA 105 NV 80 VA 15
ID 15 WA 10
IL 15 NM* 2 WY 1
IN 15 NY 1 Feds 60
KS 10 NC 170 Military 8
OH 170
Wisconsin was the 2nd state to end its Death Penalty, in 1853. Wisconsin had only executed one person, a farmer who drowned his wife. His hanging became a public spectacle and may have led to the end of the Death Penalty.
35 states plus the Federal Government and the Military
Number of states without Death Penalty and year they repealed it
Alaska --------------1957
Hawaii---------------1948
Iowa -----------------1965
Maine----------------1887
Massachusetts-----1984
Michigan-------------1846
Minnesota-----------1911
New Jersey----------2007
New Mexico---------2009
New York------------2007
North Dakota-------1973
Rhode Island-------1984
Vermont-------------1964
Washington, D.C.--1981
West Virginia-------1965
Wisconsin-----------1853
*15 plus Washington, D.C. which is a district, not a state