De facto abolition
The 2015 target to establish a universal moratorium on executions — proposed by the Spanish Prime Minister at the Fourth World Congress against the Death Penalty held recently in Geneva — is likely to revive momentum on the 2007 non-binding resolution adopted by the U.N. General Assembly to evolve a realistic strategy to discourage states from [...]
Hate Begets Hate
Uganda’s government, which has a shameful record of discrimination against gay men and lesbians, is now considering legislation that would impose the death sentence for homosexual behavior. The United States and others need to make clear to the Ugandan government that such barbarism is intolerable and will make it an international [...]
Moratorium on Executions
The Russian Constitutional Court decision to extend a decade-old moratorium on carrying out death sentences reflects a global trend among states to halt executions forthwith, pending commensurate reform of the criminal law. If the global trend has evolved in the face of mounting evidence undermining the presumed efficacy of capital punishment, the [...]
There Is No ‘Humane’ Execution
This is what passes for progress in the application of the death penalty: Kenneth Biros, a convicted murderer, was put to death in Ohio last week with one drug, instead of the more common three-drug cocktail. It took executioners 30 minutes to find a vein for the needle, compared with the two hours spent hunting for a vein on the last prisoner [...]