Last Reviewed - November 2022

Children and the death penalty: Amnesty International’s written statement for the UN Human Rights Council’s annual full-day meeting on the rights of the child: 19th session of the Human Rights Council.

Last Reviewed - February 2019

Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral of the former gang boss Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who was executed in California. A series of celebrity speakers at the service, held in south Los Angeles, criticised the California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, for his refusal to grant clemency to the 51-year-old convicted murderer.

Last Reviewed - May 2017

The execution of those with mental illness or “the insane” is clearly prohibited by international law. Virtually every country in the world prohibits the execution of people with mental illness.

Last Reviewed - May 2017

"It would become harder to execute men one after another, as is done in our country today, if those executions were translated into vivid images in popular imagination."

~ Albert Camus

Last Reviewed - November 2022

Which state executes the most people? The death penalty across the US was in the news with the case of Troy Davis. See who has been executed in the US in 2011 and how states compare with each other.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

As the U.S. observes the eighty-third birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this is a perfect time to reflect on the slain civil rights leader, Nobel laureate and death penalty opponent. "I do not think that God approves the death penalty for any crime, rape and murder included," King said.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an alliance of more than 160 NGOs, bar associations, local authorities and unions, was created in Rome on 13 May 2002. It was created as a result of the commitment made by the signatories of the Final Declaration of the 1st World Congress Against the Death Penalty organized by the French NGO Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) in Strasbourg in June 2001.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

Countries that carried out executions in 2011 did so at an alarming rate but those employing capital punishment have decreased by more than a third compared to a decade ago, Amnesty International found in its annual review of death sentences and executions.

Last Reviewed - April 2006

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in Roper v. Simmons, that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment on those who committed crimes while juveniles.

Last Reviewed - September 2000

Being charged with a capital crime is surely bad news anywhere but there’s no place worse than Texas. After the state Board of Pardons turned down Karla Faye Tucker’s petition, she became the 146th person executed by Texas after the Supreme Court voted to reinstate the death penalty in 1976. Texas is also a trend setter when it comes to killing the mentally retarded and children.

Last Reviewed - July 2018

Since the Supreme Court legalized capital punishment in 1976, Harris County, Texas, has executed 126 people. That's more executions than every individual state in the union, barring Texas itself. Harris County's executions account for 23 percent of the 545 people Texas has executed. On the national level, the state alone is responsible for more than a third of the 1,465 people put to death in the United States since 1976.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) is a nation­al non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion whose mis­sion is to serve the media, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, and the gen­er­al pub­lic with data and analy­sis on issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the peo­ple it affects. DPI does not take a posi­tion on the death penal­ty itself but is crit­i­cal of prob­lems in its application.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

A series of photographs is currently making the rounds on the internet in China. As Celia Hatton reports, the death row images are shedding new light on a country that executes far more people than any other country in the world.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

China executes more people than the rest of the world combined and former railways minister Liu Zhijun is the next to get killed for massive corruption. Except his death sentence has been given a two year reprieve.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports on death row inmate Troy Davis, who was executed in Georgia for the 1989 murder of a police officer despite no physical evidence linking him to the crime and despite the fact that seven of the prosecution's original nine witnesses recanted their testimony.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

With the US continuing to execute prisoners, Fault Lines presenter Josh Rushing looks at the politics driving capital punishment in the US. Eighty per cent of the executions the US carries out occur in a handful of states in the South - where it is popular for politicians to run "tough on crime" campaigns.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

State vs. Reed" is a 60 minute documentary that explores an explosive capital murder trial in Texas that has resulted in a questionable death penalty conviction of Bastrop, Texas' Rodney Reed. Reed, a then-28 year-old black male with a minor criminal record, was convicted in 1998 of the murder of Stacey Stites.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

Today, there are over 50 countries around the world which continue to use the death penalty. Individuals who break the law can face a firing squad in China, lethal injection in the USA, and a hangman's noose in Singapore.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

Tom Maher, executive director of The Center for Death Penalty Litigation, discusses the Supreme Court's recent decisions on the death penalty, and the state of capital punishment in North Carolina. Sponsored by the American Constitution Society.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

The inevitable story of failure which every American anticipated but hoped would never have to be told. This documentary takes the "Innocent Man on Texas Death Row" tale to a dark corner feared by all - - proving that an innocent man has been executed by the State.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

A September 17, 2009, Nightline report on the execution of an innocent man in Texas. Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted and executed of arson murder based mainly on discredited arson analysis.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

In a half-hour interview, death row prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams speaks from his cell in San Quentin about his case, his life and his redemption. He helped start the Crips street gang–his greatest regret–but behind bars he has become a leading advocate for the end of gang violence.

Last Reviewed - November 2022

Actor Jeremy Irons outlines arguments against capital punishment in a clip to support Amnesty International's campaign against the death penalty.

Last Reviewed - February 2023

A series of recordings from the Friends of Richard Lapointe dedicated to securing his freedom of Richard is a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for 26 years.

Last Reviewed - February 2023

In 2001, radio producer Dave Isay released “The Execution Tapes,” 19 recordings of electrocutions carried out by the state of Georgia since 1984. They remain the only recordings of executions in the United States. They were recorded internally by the Georgia Department of Corrections as a secret official record of the executions.