CRIME & JUSTICE Abolishing the Death Penalty This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of IPS and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union. 4 IMPRINT © Inter Press Service (IPS) International Association Publisher: IPS-Inter Press Service Europa gGmbH European Regional Office Marienstr. 19/20 D-10117 Berlin Coordinator: Ramesh Jaura Editor: Petar Hadji-Ristic Layout: Birgit Weisenburger, Berlin Photos: Diverse sources duly acknowledged inside Printed in Germany, November 2007 5 CONTENTS PREFACE 6 MARIO LUBETKIN, IPS DIRECTOR-GENERAL HELP STOP CYCLE OF REVENGE 7 ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU EUROPE & CENTRAL ASIA 9 AFRICA 35 MIDEAST & MEDITERRANEAN 61 ASIA - PACIFIC 93 LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN 147 U.N. & USA 169 6 Mario Lubetkin Preface Rome - It was a historic year. In 2007 the tide of opinion against The reports are immensely varied. They range from NGO websites and copied into diverse human rights blogs. the death penalty gathered in strength as never before, sweeping dispatches from Central Asia to one on the bunged lethal The reports represent a part of IPS coverage on the death to every corner of the world. The number of abolitionist coun- injection execution in Florida that dragged out for minutes - penalty. News stories for the general IPS service have not tries rose. The number of executions declined. Long in place 34 excruciatingly painful ones - not seconds. As a follow-up been included. moratoriums held and new ones came into force. And as the year to this, an IPS correspondent reports on the U.S. supreme After two days of debate in the U.N. human rights drew to a close, proof of this seemingly irresistible tide of court calling a country-wide moratorium while it reviews the committee in November, 99 countries voted for a global change came with the powerful vote in the U.N. for a global legality of this form of execution. There are many scores of moratorium on executions. Everyone who has raised aware- moratorium on executions. different datelines here from IPS correspondents around the ness about the death penalty and the call for its abolition can The IPS 'Death Penalty Abolition Project', supported by world. feel justified pride at this achievement. the European Union, has recorded the voices of many of those Filing the dispatches here required considerable I would like to express my thanks here to everyone who have played a key role in this fast-moving journey towards reporting skills and enterprise; despite the claims that the involved in this IPS project, particularly to the project coordina- a death-penalty-free world. In doing so, IPS has been guided by death penalty is a deterrent, most countries keep the workings tor, Ramesh Jaura, the editors Alison Langley (2006), Petar the purposes and principles contained in the Charter of the of their machinery of death well hidden from the eyes of pry- Hadji-Ristic (2007) and all the IPS correspondents whose names United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ing journalists. When those on the other side of prison gates you will see here. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the do speak out, they do so at personal risk; at least one dissi- But the U.N. vote (99-52) was still far from unanimous. Convention on the Rights of the Child. dent jail official lost his job and was transferred out of reach It was an important milestone in a campaign that has captured Collected here are some 100 reports from dozens of for expressing his opposition to capital punishment to IPS. the world's imagination. In 2007 worldwide death penalty aboli- countries and every continent. The voices of those who have The features first appeared in English on the IPS tion did seem within reach - as long as this great human rights spoken out here - many hundreds in number - include acti- 'death penalty' website which has been operating since 2006. endeavour continues. vists, academics, lawyers and, of course, those waiting for They have been re-published widely in many other langua- that dreaded last knock on their cell door. ges. Within minutes of release, they have also been placed on Mario Lubetkin, Director-General IPS 7 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Help Stop Cycle of Revenge Cape Town - For most of the 20th century the majority of the world's remember the parents of Napoleon Beazley, a young African If we are to break these cycles, we must eliminate govern- nations used the death penalty. But as the millennium approached, American man executed in Texas after a trial tainted by racism. ment-sanctioned violence. The time has come to abolish the death many societies questioned whether killing their fellow citizens through Their pain was evident as the killing of their son by the state to penalty worldwide. The case for abolition becomes more compelling the judicial system served a positive purpose. I am delighted that the which they paid taxes approached. I can only imagine the unbea- with each passing year. Everywhere experience shows us that execu- death penalty is being eliminated from the globe. As a Christian whose rable emotional pain they went through as they said their final tions brutalise both those directly involved in the process and the belief system is rooted in forgiveness, the death penalty is unaccepta- goodbye to him on the day of his execution. society that carries them out. Nowhere has it been shown that the ble. One hundred and thirty countries from every region of the world Advocates of the death often ask, ''What if your child was death penalty reduces crime or political violence. In country after have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Since 1990, 50 murdered?'' and it is a natural question. Rage is a natural reaction to country, it is used disproportionately against the poor or against raci- countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. In 2006, only the homicide of a loved one, and the desire for revenge is understan- al or ethnic minorities. It is often used as a tool of political repres- 25 countries carried out executions, six of them in Africa. dable. But what if the person condemned to death were your son? sion. It is imposed and inflicted arbitrarily. It is irrevocable and Such is the world sentiment against the death penalty - with No one raises his or her child to be a murderer, yet many parents suf- results inevitably in the execution of people innocent of any some notable exceptions, like the USA, China, and Singapore - that fer the grief of knowing their child is to be killed. In 1988, the crime. It is a violation of fundamental human rights. a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions and the abolition parents of those on death row in South Africa wrote to the President, I urge the governments of Africa to vote yes for a mora- of capital punishment is to go before the United Nations General "To be a mother or father and watch your child going through this torium on executions at the United Nations. This should be seen Assembly. The world community will decide what its position is on living hell is a torment more painful than anyone can imagine." as a first step towards total abolition of the death penalty on the the morality of capital punishment. As an opponent of the death pen- We must not put the sons and daughters, the mothers and continent. Let us all join South Africa, Rwanda, Senegal, alty, I have experienced the horror of being close to executions, not fathers of our neighbours to death. It is to inflict horrific and unac- Liberia, Namibia, Mozambique, and the many other countries just in the Apartheid era of South Africa, which had one of the hig- ceptable suffering upon them. Retribution, resentment, and reven- that have denied the state the right to kill. hest execution rates in the world, but in other countries as well. ge have left us with a world drenched in blood. The death penal- I have witnessed the victims of the death penalty that the aut- ty is part of that process. It says it is acceptable to kill in certain Desmond Tutu, Archbishop of Cape Town, horities never speak of: the families of the person put to death. I circumstances and encourages the practice of revenge. Nobel Prize for Peace 1984 afafgagayxvdsvbs EUROPE & CENTRAL ASIA CENTRAL ASIA KUBAN ABDYMEN ABOLITION CLOSE, BUT SPECTRE OF DEATH REMAINS 10 CENTRAL ASIA KUBAN ABDYMEN CENTRAL ASIA NEARING ABOLITION 12 EUROPE MARIO DE QUEIROZ IGNORING POLAND, EUROPE DECLARES DAY AGAINST DEATH PENALTY 14 EUROPE JULIO GODOY A LIFE DEFENDING LIVES 16 FRANCE JULIO GODOY SOME WAY YET TO KILLING OFF THE DEATH PENALTY 18 FRANCE JULIO GODOY DEATH PENALTY BETTER THAN SLOW EXECUTION 20 FRANCE JULIO GODOY GERMANS STRUGGLE TO RESOLVE JUSTICE ISSUES 22 GERMANY KUBAN ABDYMEN ABOLITION CAMPAIGNERS PRESS ON 24 KYRGYZSTAN KUBAN ABDYMEN SPARED BUT NEAR STARVING 26 KYRGYZSTAN ZOLTÁN DUJISIN POPULISM SEEN BEHIND DEATH PENALTY TALK 28 POLAND JULIO GODOY “A KEY STEP FORWARD ABOLITION” - INTERVIEW WITH AMNESTY 30 INTERNATIONAL´S MARTIN MACPHERSON UNITED KINGDOM JULIO GODOY “RATIONAL DEBATE ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT LACKING” - INTERVIEW WITH 32 PETER HODGKINSON, CENTRE OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT STUDIES WASHINGTON UNITED KINGDOM 10 EUROPE & CENTRAL ASIA - CENTRAL ASIA Kuban Abdymen Abolition Close - Spectre Of Death Remains Bishkek - The hastening end to state executions across Central Asia "Uzbekistan has not yet introduced a moratorium but it is also could turn out to be only a temporary reprieve for many as the new cate- taking steps towards abolition," Gulnara Kaliakbarova said.