Until the infallibility of human judgment shall have been proved to me, I shall persist in demanding the abolition of the death penalty

No system, given human nature and frailties, could ever be devised or constructed that would work perfectly and guarantee absolutely that no innocent person is ever again sentenced to death.

In reality the death penalty is reserved for people who do not have enough money to defend themselves.

A bold and brave act by the outgoing governor of Illinois, commuting all death sentences in the state:

• Speech by Gov. George Ryan at Northwestern University College of Law, 11 January 2003:
  “I will not stand for it.”

The US is in bad company:

• Pacific News Service, August 2002:
  Death penalty nations marked by extremism
• Michael Kroll, Pacific News Service, June 1999:
  America’s growing isolation on the death penalty and juvenile justice

The argument for abolition:

• Amnesty International on the death penalty
• American Civil Liberties Union on the death penalty
• Hugo Adam Bedau: The Case Against the Death Penalty
• Jack Greenberg: Against the American System of Capital Punishment
• Lafayette on the death penalty (in the original French)
• but what about treason?: Thomas Jefferson

What the Bible says:

• crimes punishable by death
• methods of execution
• standard of evidence
• words of Jesus of Nazareth

The relative costs of execution and life imprisonment without parole:

• North Carolina: The death penalty costs $2.16 million more per execution than the cost of a non-death penalty murder case with life imprisonment (Duke University, May 1993)
• Texas: a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. (Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992)
• California: In Los Angeles County, an average death penalty case costs $2,087,926, vs. $1,448,935 for life imprisonment without possibility of parole—cost of the death penalty in California

World atlas of the death penalty and rates of incarceration:

• death penalty worldwide:
  
  • maps | list of abolitionist and retentionist countries
• death penalty in USA:
  
  • maps | tables
• rates of incarceration worldwide — the USA is #1:
  
  • maps | tables

International human rights treaties:

• 2nd Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
  • who has ratified: maps | tables
• Protocol #6 to the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the abolition of the death penalty in times of peace (ETS #114)
  • who has ratified: maps | tables
• Protocol #13 to the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances (ETS #187)
  • who has ratified: maps | tables
• Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty A-53
  • who has ratified: maps | tables

Statistics in graphic perspective:

• Death Penalty Information Center graphs

Recommended reading:

• Mark Costanzo, Just Revenge: Costs and Consequences of the Death Penalty (New York: St. Martin’s, 1997)

Links:

• American Civil Liberties Union: death penalty
• Death Penalty Information Center
• Derechos Death Penalty Links
• From Denmark: Fight the Death Penalty in USA
• A view from death row: Deadman Talking