Every day, people are executed and sentenced to death by the state as punishment for a variety of crimes – sometimes for acts that should not be criminalized. In some countries, it can be for drug-related offences, in others this cruel punishment is reserved for terrorism-related acts and murder.

Some countries execute people who were under the age of 18 when the crime for which they have been convicted was committed, others use the death penalty against people with mental and intellectual disabilities and several others apply the death penalty after unfair trials – in clear violation of international law and standards. People can spend years on death row, not knowing when their time is up, or whether they will see their families one last time.

 

The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception – regardless of who is accused, the nature or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution.

Amnesty International holds that the death penalty breaches human rights, in particular: the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Both rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948. Over time, the international community has adopted several instruments that ban the use of the death penalty, including the following:

• The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty and Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty. Although international law says that the use of the death penalty must be restricted to the most serious crimes, meaning intentional killing, Amnesty International believes that the death penalty is never the answer.
  
  

Execution is the ultimate, irrevocable punishment: the risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated. Since 1973, for example, more than 197 people sent to death row in the USA have later been exonerated or released from death row on grounds of innocence. Others have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt and there are many cases of previous blotched executions.

Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/

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Two days after a judge sentenced a Fort Myers man to death in the brutal deaths of two Cape Coral women, the convicted killer pleaded no contest to charges in a jail drug case and received an immediate sentence - he was sentenced to prison for 12 years (atop his death penalty charges.)

Source: https://www.news-press.com/story/news/crime/2024/08/29/wade-wilson-on-way-to-florida-death-row-after-settling-jail-charges/74996801007/

Nolo contendere (/ˌnoʊloʊ kənˈtɛndəri/) is a type of legal plea used in some jurisdictions in the United States. It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense. It is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of guilty or not guilty. A no-contest plea means that defendants refuse to admit guilt but accept punishment, as if guilty. If one pleads guilty, he/she is telling the court they agree with the charges. Wade Wilson did not plea guilty in his testimony to conducting the crime he got the 12-year charge for. When a person pleads no contest, he/she is not explicitly admitting guilt. Most people who plead no contest will do so as a result of a plea bargain. 

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S.2299 - Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act

118th Congress (2023-2024)

S. 2299

To prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for any violation of Federal law, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled

Source: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/2299

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Death penalty is illegal in many countries.

In 1983, the Council of Europe adopted the first legally binding instrument providing for the unconditional abolition of the death penalty in peacetime: Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This text is currently ratified by all 46 member States.

In 2002, the Council of Europe adopted Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances, in other words, also in time of war or of imminent threat of war. Reservations to and derogations from the Protocol are not possible. The Protocol entered into force on 1 July 2003. It has to date been signed and ratified by 45 member States.

Source: https://www.coe.int/en/web/abolition-death-penalty/abolition-of-death-penalty-in-europe

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Most states retained the death penalty and some handed down death sentences, including for offences or acts protected under international law. 

Governments must immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/report-middle-east-and-north-africa/

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Torture and Other Ill-treatment

Torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (commonly known as CIDT or other ill-treatment) constitute one of the most heinous forms of human rights violations and are prohibited under various human rights treaties, conventions and laws at the domestic, regional and international levels. Most inmates, especially those on death row, live in unacceptable conditions, usually alone in their cells, which is difficult to withstand mentally, let alone live in the conditions they have to spend their lives in, until the date of their execution. 

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) adopted in 1984, is an international human rights treaty under the review of the United Nations that aims to prevent torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment around the world. The CAT further mandates State Parties to ensure that effective legislative, administrative and judicial measures are taken to prevent the torture of all and any kind under their territorial jurisdiction (Article 2) and prevent other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment (Article 16.)

National human rights institutions (NHRIs), as independent institutions of the state with a broad human rights promotion and protection mandate, play a crucial role in addressing torture and other forms of ill-treatment and contributing to its prevention.

Source: https://ganhri.org/torture-and-other-ill-treatment/

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The second type of violation – failure by the state to protect – occurs when there’s a conflict between individuals or groups within a society. If the state does nothing to intervene and protect vulnerable people and groups, it’s participating in the violations. In the United States, the state failed to protect black Americans when lynchings frequently occurred around the country. Since many of those responsible for the lynchings were also state actors (like the police,) this is an example of both types of violations occurring at the same time.

Civil rights, which include the right to life, safety, and equality before the law are considered by many to be “first-generation” rights. Political rights, which include the right to a fair trial and the right to vote, also fall under this category.

Source: https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/what-are-human-rights-violations/

 

Sign this petition to prevent the death penalty for Wade Wilson! As well as to support the prohibition of death penalty.