No alla Pena di Morte - NO to the Death penalty

China, Iran, the United States and Vietnam were the world's top users of the death penalty in 2003, accounting for 84 % of known executions, human rights body Amnesty International said Tuesday.

More than 1/2 of known executions were in China, where the true toll could be more than 10 times higher, according to the British-based Amnesty's annual report.

But during the year, 6 countries either abolished capital punishment or suspended it, bringing the total who have halted executions to 117 out of a total of 195, the report said.

"This year's figures show that the majority of countries follow an abolitionist path, while others choose to remain on the wrong side of the justice divide," spokeswoman Judit Arenas Licea told a news briefing.

The report said the number of known executions world-wide last year had dropped to 1,146 in a total of 28 countries from 1,526 in 31 countries in 2002. China was known to have executed at least 726, Iran 108, the United States 65 and Vietnam 64, according to the group.

But Amnesty cautioned that its numbers -- based largely on official figures, media monitoring and private reports -- might be showing only the tip of an iceberg, especially in countries where the statistics were a closely-guarded secret.

The report quoted an unidentified senior Chinese parliamentarian as saying last month that his country executed nearly 10,000 people annually.

Arenas told the news briefing, called during the annual 6-week session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, that Amnesty was especially concerned at the introduction of "mobile units" to speed up executions in China.

These were converted minibuses with four-member teams trained to carry out death sentences rapidly by lethal injection, sometimes within little more than an hour of a hearing, and then move on to another site.

In the United States, she said, very old electric chairs were still in use in some cities which take a long time to kill and inflict "excruciating suffering," while in Iran crucifixion was still on the statute books as a legal means of execution.

Last year the 53-member Commission -- whose members include several other "death penalty" countries including Saudi Arabia which Amnesty says executed at least 50 people last year -- called by majority vote for a moratorium on such punishment.

Amnesty said it was urging Commission members, among whom are European Union members and Australia which are strong opponents of capital punishment, to renew the appeal this year.

"It is time for all governments to comply with their international obligations," Amnesty said. "The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment and a flagrant denial of the right to life."

By abolishing the death penalty in law or practice over half the countries in the world have set the path for the remaining states who continue to violate the right to life, said Amnesty International today.

Releasing its statistics on worldwide executions carried out during 2003, Amnesty International called on the UN Commission on Human Rights to take strong action against the death penalty at its annual session, currently sitting in Geneva, and to move to end all executions.

In a resolution adopted last year, the Commission on Human Rights called on countries that retain capital punishment "to establish a moratorium on executions". A similar resolution is due for consideration at the current session. Amnesty International urged all states to support it.

The organization also urged the Commission to reiterate its opposition to the use of the death penalty against child offenders -- people who were under 18 at the time of the offence. 2 child offenders were executed in 2003, one in China and one in the USA.

Amnesty International's report revealed that China, Iran, the USA and Viet Nam accounted for 84 % of the 1,146 known executions carried out in 28 countries in 2003.

In China, limited and incomplete records available to Amnesty International indicated that at least 726 people were executed in 2003, but the true figure was believed to be much higher. A senior Chinese legislator suggested in March 2004 that China executes "nearly 10,000" people each year. At least 108 executions were carried out in Iran. 65 people were executed in the USA. At least 64 people were executed in Viet Nam.

At least 2,756 people were sentenced to death in 63 countries in 2003, according to Amnesty International's reports. The true figures were certainly higher.

Amnesty International's figures also showed that 77 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes by the end of 2003. This year the Samoan parliament adopted a bill in January abolishing the death penalty, while in March a royal decree abolishing capital punishment was issued in Bhutan.

"This year's figures show that as the majority of countries follow an abolitionist path, others choose to remain on the wrong side of the justice divide", Amnesty International said.

"Countries retaining the death penalty because of its supposed power as a unique deterrent to crime are flying in the face of scientific studies that fail to establish any such effect."

In Canada, for example, the homicide rate per 100,000 population has fallen 40 % since the abolition of the death penalty for murder in 1975.

Furthermore, the death penalty always carried the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated."

Since 1973, 113 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death. Some came close to execution after spending many years under sentence of death. Recurring features in their cases include prosecutorial or police misconduct; use of unreliable witness testimony, physical evidence, or confessions; and inadequate defence representation. Other US prisoners have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts over their guilt.

"It is time for all governments to comply with their international obligations. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a flagrant denial of the right to life," Amnesty International said.

A total of 1,146 people were executed in 28 countries last year, with China, Iran and the United States topping the list of nations that use the death penalty, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

The London-based human rights watchdog released its survey to coincide with the annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which it urged "to move to end all executions."

"The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a flagrant denial of the right to life," Amnesty said.

The 2003 figure was a drop from 1,526 in 2002 and from almost double that figure the year before, when China alone executed 2,468 in a crackdown on crime, it said.

"The large number of executions are actually carried out by a very small number of countries," Amnesty spokeswoman Judit Arenas said. "Eighty-four per cent of the executions in 2003 were carried out by only four countries."

During 2003 China is known to have executed 726 people, "but the true figure was believed to be much higher," Arenas said. The previous year Amnesty recorded 1,060 executions in China.

Iran was in 2nd place with at least 108 executions, followed by the United States with 65, Vietnam with 64 and Saudi Arabia with 50, she said.

Arenas said it is always difficult to obtain a full accounting of imposition of the death penalty, but that the organization believes the global figure accurately reflects a downward trend.

Amnesty International said the 53-nation Human Rights Commission should pass a resolution again this year calling for a moratorium on executions and restate its opposition to the use of the death penalty for a crime committed by anyone under 18. China and the United States each carried out one such execution last year, Arenas said.

She said the number of countries that have abolished the death penalty rose to 77 last year as their ranks were joined by Samoa and Bhutan.

The risk of executing wrongly convicted people was underscored by the release of two people from death row in the United States last year when they were found to be innocent after new evidence came to light, Arenas said.

That brought to 113 the number of prisoners released from death row in the United States since 1973 because evidence emerged that they were innocent.

"Some came close to execution after spending many years under sentence of death," Amnesty said, adding that such convictions often involved misconduct by police or prosecutors. "Other U.S. prisoners have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts over their guilt."

AI Index: ACT 50/012/2004 (Public)----News Service No: 074 Death Penalty: Latest worldwide statistics released

Amnesty International's report revealed that China, Iran, the USA and Viet Nam accounted for 84 % of the 1,146 known executions carried out in 28 countries in 2003.

In China, limited and incomplete records available to Amnesty International indicated that at least 726 people were executed in 2003, but the true figure was believed to be much higher. A senior Chinese legislator suggested in March 2004 that China executes "nearly 10,000" people each year. At least 108 executions were carried out in Iran. Sixty-five people were executed in the USA. At least 64 people were executed in Viet Nam.

At least 2,756 people were sentenced to death in 63 countries in 2003, according to Amnesty International's reports. The true figures were certainly higher.

"This year's figures show that as the majority of countries follow an abolitionist path, others choose to remain on the wrong side of the justice divide", Amnesty International said.

"Countries retaining the death penalty because of its supposed power as a unique deterrent to crime are flying in the face of scientific studies that fail to establish any such effect."

In Canada, for example, the homicide rate per 100,000 population has fallen 40 % since the abolition of the death penalty for murder in 1975.

Furthermore, the death penalty always carried the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated."

"It is time for all governments to comply with their international obligations. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and a flagrantdenial of the right to life," Amnesty International said.

"Death sentences and executions in 2003" http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGACT500062004

"The death penalty worldwide: Developments in 2003", http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGACT500072004

"Facts and Figures on the death penalty", http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGACT500082004

"The death penalty: List of abolitionist and retentionist countries" http://web.amnesty.org/deathpenalty

European Convention on Human Rights = European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

By the end of 2003, 77 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes. A further 15 countries had abolished it for all but exceptional crimes, such as wartime crimes. At least 25 countries were abolitionist in practice: they had not carried out any executions for the previous 10 years or more and were either believed to have an established practice of not carrying out executions or had made an international commitment not to do so. Seventy-eight other countries and territories retained the death penalty, although not all of them passed death sentences or carried out executions during 2003. (See Table 1)

Regular updates on abolitionist and retentionist countries are posted on the death penalty page on the Amnesty International website at www.amnesty.org/deathpenalty.

On 29 September Armenia ratified Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights), thereby abolishing the death penalty in peacetime. Earlier, in July, President Robert Kocharian had commuted all outstanding death sentences to life imprisonment. In May parliament adopted a new criminal code which banned the death penalty in peacetime but contained a provision that would have allowed the use of the death penalty in a case then before the Armenian courts.

Stays of execution were announced in the cases of two women, Afsaneh Nourouzi and Kobra Rahmanpour, who had been sentenced to death for murder. Both said they had been acting in self-defence. The stays of execution were announced following widespread public opposition to the sentences.

In his annual address to the nation in April, President Nursultan Nazarbayev urged the government to create the necessary conditions for introducing a moratorium on the death penalty. However, officials in Kazakstan were unable to confirm whether a de facto moratorium on executions was in place after a press release issued in July on behalf of President Nazarbayev by an international consultancy group in France claimed that no executions would be carried out in Kazakstan until January 2004 when a moratorium would enter into force. In November Amnesty International learned that five men had been executed. In December, President Nazarbayev signed into law a moratorium on executions.

Kyrgyzstan
President Askar Akaev announced in January that the moratorium on executions which had been in place since 1998 would be extended until the end of the year.

President Gloria Arroyo announced the lifting of a moratorium on executions in December for prisoners convicted of kidnapping or drug offences. At year end no one had been executed. A de facto moratorium had been in place since 2000 when former President Joseph Estrada announced a suspension of executions to mark the Christian Jubilee year.

Tajikistan
In July the parliament approved a draft law, proposed by President Imomali Rahmanov, amending the criminal code. Among the amendments were the abolition of the death penalty for all women and for men aged under 18, and a reduction from 15 to five in the number of articles in the criminal code carrying a possible death sentence. The amendments became law in August.

Unofficial sources reported that the President had instructed the Clemency Commission to recommend more prisoners on death row for clemency. At least two death sentences were overturned on appeal.

Kenya
The Minister for Home Affairs and National Heritage announced on 25 February that 28 prisoners who had each spent between 15 and 20 years under sentence of death had been released by order of the newly elected President Mwai Kibaki. The sentences of 195 others were commuted to life imprisonment.

The announcement came soon after the Minister for Home Affairs and National Heritage, Moody Awori, had visited various prisons and made public his concern at the conditions in which prisoners were housed. In Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, where those waiting to be hanged following the rejection of their court appeals were incarcerated, the prisoners had been kept in perpetual darkness in grossly overcrowded cells.

Moody Awori said the freed prisoners had all shown "reformist behaviour" and were released "in the spirit of reforms". Mr Awori also stated that he wanted the death penalty in Kenya abolished and that he planned to introduce a bill in Parliament to that effect.

The Commissioner of Prisons, Abraham Kamakil, praised this "historic event", saying that the death penalty should be abolished because it claims innocent lives. He was quoted in The Daily Nation newspaper on 26 February saying: "We are longing for the day Parliament will remove the death penalty from our Constitution."

Convictions for murder and armed robbery carry a mandatory death sentence in Kenya. The last executions were in the mid-1980s.

Mexico
President Vicente Fox commuted the death sentence of Sergeant Angel Velï¿½zquez Pï¿½rez, who was sentenced to death by a military court in 1997 for the murder of a superior officer. President Fox also committed himself to commuting the death sentence of Lieutenant Herï¿½n Varela Flores, who was convicted and sentenced to death by a military court in November for the murder of a superior officer.

The death penalty has been abolished in Mexico for ordinary crimes but is retained under military law. The presidential commutation of death sentences imposed under military law has been a long-standing practice. However, the government has now committed itself to seeking to abolish the death penalty for all crimes and enshrining abolition in the constitution.

Saudi Arabia
Alexander Mitchell, a UK national, and William Sampson, a Canadian national, who had both been sentenced to death on charges of lethal bombings in Saudi Arabia in 2000, were granted clemency and released in August.

USA
On 11 January George Ryan, the outgoing Governor of the state of Illinois, commuted the death sentences of 167 prisoners and pardoned four others - Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard - who he believed had been tortured into confessing to crimes they did not commit.

In January 2000 Governor Ryan had announced that he was suspending executions pending an investigation into the state's system of capital punishment, stating: "Until I can be sure. . . that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate." At that time, 13 cases of wrongful conviction in capital cases had emerged since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977. After suspending all executions, Governor Ryan appointed a Commission on Capital Punishment, which in April 2002 recommended over 80 specific reforms to the system. Its report, however, acknowledged that the Commission's 14 members were unanimous "in the belief that 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 October 2002 Governor Ryan ordered the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to hold clemency hearings for death row inmates and hear the views of relatives and friends of murder victims as well as prosecutors. In the end, Governor Ryan decided that the system under which the prisoners had been sentenced was so flawed that a blanket commutation was the fairest option.

At a re-sentencing in November in Oklahoma, Mexican national Gerardo Valdez was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The Pardon and Parole Board had recommended clemency for him when he had faced execution in 2001. The Governor had rejected the recommendation, but a state court had stepped in to stop the execution and subsequently overturned his death sentence.

On 26 June, Governor Bob Taft of Ohio commuted the death sentence of Jerome Campbell on the eve of his execution. Governor Taft said: "In this case, two important pieces of information have come to light that were not available to the jury at the time the death penalty was imposed. First, Mr Campbell presented significant new DNA evidence that was not available to the jury at the time of trial. Although this new evidence does not exonerate Mr Campbell, it does contradict an impression that was left in the minds of some jurors during the trial. Second, attorneys for Mr Campbell have presented evidence bearing on the credibility of two important prosecution witnesses. It is now apparent that two informants who were incarcerated at the time of their testimony were, in fact, interested in seeking more lenient treatment from prosecutors as a result of their testimony. This information was not presented at trial even though it would have enabled the jurors to more fully assess the veracity of the witnesses' testimony." The Governor said that he agreed with the Ohio Parole Board's conclusion that the jurors could have reached a different sentencing decision if they had not relied on evidence and testimony the credibility of which was now in doubt. He said: "When such a possibility exists, and in view of the finality of the death penalty, I believe the most responsible course of action is to commute the death sentence in this case to one of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole."

During 2003, at least 1,146 people were executed in 28 countries. At least 2,756 people were sentenced to death in 63 countries. These figures include only cases known to Amnesty International; the true figures were certainly higher.

As in previous years, the vast majority of executions worldwide were carried out in a tiny handful of countries. In 2003, 84 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran, the USA and Viet Nam. (See Table 2)

Chad
Nine people were executed in November, the first known executions in the country since 1991. Seven men were executed in the capital, N'Djamena, and another man in the eastern town of Abeche, by firing squad. Another man who had escaped execution in N'Djamena on 6 November when fellow prisoners prevented attempts to take him from the prison, was executed there on 9 November.

Four of those executed in N'Djamena had been sentenced to death on 25 October for the murder of a Sudanese member of parliament and the Director of the Chad Petroleum Company. Serious flaws in their trial included the use as evidence of incriminating statements allegedly made after torture.

Limited and incomplete records available to Amnesty International at the end of the year indicated that at least 726 people were executed. The Chinese government keeps national statistics on death sentences and executions secret; the true figures are believed to be much higher.

In January Lobsang Dhondup, a Tibetan from Sichuan province, was executed after being convicted in an unfair trial of "causing explosions" and other offences. The authorities stated that his trial was held in secret because it involved "state secrets", without providing further clarification. He was executed hours after his sentence was passed, without his case being referred to the Supreme Court as required under Chinese law, and despite official assurances to the USA and the European Union (EU) that his case would receive a "lengthy" review.

In October Shaheer Ali, an ethnic Uighur from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwest China, was reportedly executed after being forcibly returned in January 2002 to China from Nepal, where he had sought asylum. He was sentenced to death at a secret trial in March 2003 after being convicted of offences including "separatism and organizing and leading a terrorist organization."

Shaheer Ali was among several Uighurs recognized as refugees by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In radio interviews while in Nepal, he claimed to belong to a non-militant organization called the East Turkestan Islamic Reform Party and to have been tortured while imprisoned in Guma (Pishan) in the XUAR in 1994.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
On 7 January, 15 people were executed in secret in the capital, Kinshasa, the first executions known to have taken place since December 2000 and the first following the government's suspension in September 2002 of a moratorium on the death penalty. The 15 detainees were reportedly executed at a military camp close to Kinshasa's international airport, and the bodies were buried in a common grave nearby.

The Military Court, which had conducted unfair trials and sentenced to death large numbers of people, including civilians, was abolished by presidential decree in April. Other courts continued to sentence prisoners to death.

Iran
At least 108 people were executed in 2003, many in public. The death penalty was carried out on long-term political prisoners, apparently to intimidate political or ethnic groups such as Kurds and Arabs.

In February, long-term political prisoner Sasan Al-e Ken'an, a supporter of the banned Komala party, was executed. At the time of his execution his mother was in the capital, Tehran, seeking a meeting with members of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention who were visiting Iran. On her return home to the town of Sanandaj, she went to visit her son in prison. She was informed that he had been hanged and was told not to make a "fuss" but to bury him quickly.

In November, four men in northeastern Iran were sentenced to death by stoning on allegations of rape and adultery. EU officials had been informed in March that the Head of the Judiciary had called on judges not to pass sentences of stoning and to find alternative punishments. On 13 December, however, revised regulations appeared to provide instructions on the implementation of the death penalty, including stoning and crucifixion. Amnesty International is studying the regulations.

Saudi Arabia
At least 50 people were executed in 2003. Nineteen of them were Saudi Arabian nationals; the rest were foreign nationals, including 19 Pakistani and six Afghan nationals. Twenty-six were convicted of drug-related offences and 24 were found guilty of murder.

The number of those who remained under sentence of death was not known, but they included two female domestic workers, Sara Jane Dematera, a Philippine national, and Sit Zainab, an Indonesian national. They had been accused of murdering their employers and were sentenced to death after secret and summary trials in 1993 and 1999 respectively.

USA
Sixty-five people were executed in 2003, bringing to 885 the total number of prisoners put to death since the US Supreme Court lifted a moratorium on executions in 1976. The US government carried out its third federal execution since 1963. All three were carried out under the current administration of President George W. Bush. The state of Texas carried out its 300th execution since 1976 and accounted for 24 of the USA's executions in 2003.

Viet Nam
In 2003 there was a dramatic rise in the reported imposition of the death penalty, particularly for drug-related offences and economic crimes.

According to information collated from official sources, 103 people were sentenced to death in 2003; 63 were convicted on drug-related charges and four women were convicted of fraud. There were reports that 64 people were executed, many in public. The true figures are believed to be much higher.

Four men and one woman were executed on 5 November in front of nearly one thousand onlookers at Thu Duc execution ground on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. Nguyen Ngu Dung, Nguyen Thi Loan and Nguyen Anh Tuan had been sentenced to death in July 2001 for trafficking 13.5kg of heroin. Duong Ho Vu and Luu Kim Hien had been sentenced to death in 2002 for murder.

In March, the Hebei Legal Daily reported that Zhao Lin, aged 18, had been executed in January for a murder committed in Jiangsu Province in May 2000 when he was 16 years old.

In October 1997, Article 44 of the Chinese Criminal Law had been revised to eliminate the practice of imposing death sentences on prisoners convicted of crimes when they were under 18 years old. However, reports have indicated that people under 18 at the time of the offence have continued to be executed because the courts do not take sufficient care to determine their age.

Iran
In December the parliament approved a bill raising to 18 the minimum age for imposition of the death penalty. At year end the bill was awaiting approval by the Guardian Council, the country's highest legislative body.

USA
On 3 April, Scott Hain was executed in the state of Oklahoma for a crime committed when he was 17 years old.

At least two people were sentenced to death during the year for crimes committed when they were under 18. Tonatihu Aguilar was sentenced to death in Arizona in June for a crime committed when he was 16 years old, and Nathan Ramirez was re-sentenced to death in Florida in December. He was aged 17 at the time of the 1995 crime. He was originally sentenced to death in 1996, but this was overturned on appeal

In August the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of a child offender in the case of Roper v. Simmons, saying that it was unconstitutional to execute people who were under 18 at the time of the crime. Christopher Simmons is on death row in Missouri for a crime committed when he was 17 years old. The state of Missouri then appealed the decision. to the US Supreme Court.

(Update: On 26 January 2004 the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal by revisiting the decision it made in 1989 (Stanford v. Kentucky) allowing the execution of people for crimes committed when they were 16 or 17 years old.)

On 8 December the outgoing Governor of the state of Kentucky, Paul Patton, commuted the death sentence of Kevin Stanford, who was on death row for a crime committed in 1981 when he was 17 years old. Governor Patton had described the death sentence as an "injustice" because of Stanford's age at the time of the crime. Governor Patton commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, contravening the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 37(a) of which precludes sentences of life imprisonment without possibility of release for people who were under 18 at the time of the crime.

USA
James Colburn was executed in Texas on 26 March and James Willie Brown was put to death in the state of Georgia on 4 November. Both men had long histories of mental illness, including diagnoses of schizophrenia. The Georgia state parole board denied James Willie Brown clemency despite a renowned schizophrenia expert's testimony that Brown was mentally ill. A former inmate stated that she had lied at the trial when she told the jury that James Willie Brown had told her that he was faking his mental illness.

In October the US Supreme Court refused to hear Arkansas death row prisoner Charles Singleton's appeal against a lower federal court ruling that the state could forcibly medicate him for his mental illness even if that rendered him competent for execution.

USA
Edward Hartman was executed in the state of North Carolina on 3 October. The state governor refused to stop the execution despite evidence that the prosecution had used Edward Hartman's homosexuality against him at the trial as part of its successful bid to obtain a death sentence.

Morocco
On 28 May the authorities passed a new "anti-terrorist" law that widens the scope of crimes subject to the death penalty and contains a broad and unspecified definition of "terrorism". By the end of the year, at least 16 death sentences had been handed down since the new legislation came into force. No executions have taken place in Morocco since 1993.

China
In early 2003 it was reported that to improve "efficiency" and "cost-effectiveness", Chinese Provincial authorities were introducing "mobile execution vans". Officials in Yunnan Province explained that only four people are required to carry out executions in the mobile vans: the executioner, a member of the court, an official from the procuratorate and a forensic doctor.

According to reports, 18 converted 24-seater buses were being distributed to all intermediate courts and one high court in Yunnan Province. The windowless execution chamber at the back contains a metal bed on which the prisoner is strapped down. Once the needle is attached by the doctor, an act which breaches international medical ethics, a police officer presses a button and an automatic syringe inserts the lethal drug into the prisoner's vein. The execution can be watched on a video monitor next to the driver's seat and can be recorded if required.

The newspaper Beijing Today reported that use of the vans was approved by the legal authorities in Yunnan Province on 6 March. Later that same day two farmers, Liu Huafu, aged 21, and Zhou Chaojie, aged 25, who had been convicted of drug trafficking, were executed by lethal injection in a mobile execution van. Zhao Shijie, president of the Yunnan Provincial High Court, was quoted as praising the new system: "The use of lethal injection shows that China's death penalty system is becoming more civilized and humane." Execution by lethal injection was introduced as an alternative to shooting in the revised Criminal Procedure Law in 1996 after being used experimentally in Yunnan Province earlier that year.

Thailand
Four people were executed by lethal injection, which replaced the firing squad as a method of execution following an amendment to Article 19 of the Criminal Code in October. The Director-General of the Corrections Department, Siva Saengmanee, has said that relatives of the condemned prisoners, justice officials, police, prosecutors and reporters may be invited to witness executions by lethal injection.

USA
llinois State Governor Rod Blagojevich on 24 July signed into law a bill barring doctors and nurses from participating in executions. The law states that "the Department of Corrections shall not request, require, or allow a health care practitioner licensed in Illinois, including but not limited to physicians and nurses. . . to participate in an execution".

USA
In July, Joseph Amrine was released after more than 16 years on Missouri's death row for the murder of a fellow prisoner. He had been convicted on the basis of testimony from other inmates which was later retracted. Joseph Amrine because the 111th person to be released from death row in the USA since 1973 on the grounds of innocence. The 112th such case occurred in December when a Pennsylvania prosecutor announced that he would not retry Nicholas Yarris, who had been on the state's death row for two decades. A federal judge had ordered a new trial after DNA testing supported Yarris' claims of innocence.

Czech Republic
A regional court in Brno decided in March that it would not extradite Wen-min Zhang, a Chinese citizen, because it did not consider sufficient the guarantees given by China that he would not be executed.

Wen-min Zhang was accused of committing a robbery in China, but the extradition request was inconsistent about the location of the alleged crime. Seven alleged accomplices of Wen-min Zhang have already been executed.

Nigeria
On 25 September the Upper Sharia Court of Appeal of Katsina State in northern Nigeria overturned the sentence of death by stoning passed on Amina Lawal at Bakori in March 2002. The appeal court ruled that neither her conviction nor her confession was legally valid, and that no offence had been established. She had been convicted of zina, defined as sexual intercourse with any person "over whom [the perpetrator] has no legal rights" and in circumstances "in which no doubt exists as to the illegality of the act", after bearing a child outside marriage. Her death sentence had been upheld by a lower Sharia court of appeal.

Trinidad and Tobago
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in England, which serves as the highest court of appeal for Trinidad and Tobago and other countries in the English-speaking Caribbean, ruled on 20 November that the mandatory death penalty for murder in Trinidad and Tobago was unconstitutional and that sentencing discretion should be left to judges. The JCPC concluded by a three-to-two majority that the country's laws intend that a death sentence be regarded as the maximum sentence possible and not a mandatory one because homicide cases are too complex to impose a single mandatory sentence in all such cases and because of the possibility of executing someone who may have been wrongly convicted.

The ruling was handed down in appeals, brought by Balkisson Roodal and Haroon Khan, who had both been sentenced to death for murder.

In light of this ruling the cases of at least 80 men and four women currently under sentence of death in Trinidad and Tobago will have to be reviewed. The ruling will also have implications for at least 200 prisoners sentenced to death in the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica, where the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty will also have to be decided.

International Court of Justice
In January, Mexico brought a case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on behalf of more than 50 of its nationals on death row in the USA. The case concerned alleged violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which requires states to inform foreign nationals upon arrest of their right to seek consular assistance. There were more than 100 foreign nationals on death row in the USA in 2003, the majority of whom were denied this right. The ICJ is expected to reach a decision in 2004.

UN Commission on Human Rights
The UN Commission on Human Rights in April urged states that still maintain the death penalty "not to extend its application to crimes to which it does not at present apply". The call came in the Commission on Human Rights' resolution on "the question of the death penalty", the seventh such resolution adopted since 1997. Resolution 2003/67 was adopted at the Commission's annual session in Geneva on 24 April by a vote of 24 in favour and 18 against, with 10 abstentions. Seventy-five countries co-sponsored the resolution, seven more than in 2002. However, the strong disagreement of many states was shown by the fact that 63 countries signed a statement dissociating themselves from the resolution, one more than in 2002.

ï¿½ It called on states not to carry out executions "in public or in any other degrading manner", and "to ensure that any application of particularly cruel or inhuman means of execution, such as stoning, be stopped immediately".
ï¿½ It called on states to exclude mothers with dependent infants from capital punishment.
ï¿½ In an attempt to do away with executions being carried out in secret, it called on states "to make available to the public information with regard to any scheduled execution".
The resolution also called on all states that still maintain the death penalty not to impose it for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age. The previous year's resolution had a similar provision but placed it in the context of states complying with their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which exclude the use of the death penalty against offenders aged under 18. Resolution 2003/67 is stronger than the previous year's because it applies to all states regardless of their obligations under the above treaties. Similarly, in resolution 2003/67 language urging states to impose the death penalty only for the "most serious crimes" and to uphold fair trial safeguards in capital cases is no longer linked to states' obligations under the ICCPR and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as in previous resolutions.

The resolution also welcomed the annual report on capital punishment which had been prepared for the Commission on Human Rights by the UN Secretariat (UN document E/CN.4/2003/106). That report stated that "the trend towards abolition continues" and noted "an increase in the number of countries which have ratified international treaties providing for the abolition of the death penalty". The report and the resolution are available on the website of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, www.unhchr.ch.

On 1 July, Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights entered into force. It had been ratified by 15 countries.

Protocol No. 13 is the first international treaty to ban the death penalty in all circumstances with no exceptions permitted.

Council of Europe: Observer status of Japan and the USA
In a resolution and a recommendation adopted in October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe warned Japan and the USA that they are violating their obligations as observer states by continuing to use the death penalty.

The Parliamentary Assembly comprises members of parliament from the 45 countries that make up the Council of Europe. Japan and the USA were granted observer status in 1996. In June 2001 the Parliamentary Assembly had called for an immediate moratorium on executions in both countries and resolved to establish a dialogue on the issue with their parliamentary counterparts in the two countries.

In resolution 1349 (2003), adopted on 1 October 2003, the Parliamentary Assembly noted that it had succeeded in initiating a dialogue with Japanese members of parliament but had "largely failed in its efforts to promote transatlantic parliamentary dialogue". It resolved "to intensify its dialogue" with Japanese members of parliament and to continue its efforts to enter into a dialogue with US state legislators and members of the US Congress.

In recommendation 1627 (2003), also adopted on 1 October, the Parliamentary Assembly asked the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers to make it a "minimum requirement" for retentionist states wishing to have their observer rights extended to "show their willingness to engage in a fruitful dialogue at parliamentary and governmental level" with the Council of Europe on the death penalty.

In a report published in September, the Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights had noted that on the part of the USA "there is little willingness to engage in parliamentary dialogue with us on this important issue". It stated that the Committee was "certainly not made to feel welcome" at a meeting on the death penalty in a US Senate building in April when not a single member of Congress attended the event.

The EU's Annual Report on Human Rights - 2003 disclosed that demarches (diplomatic approaches) had been made to 20 countries and territories between July 2002 and June 2003, under the organization's EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty, adopted in 1998. The countries and territories that were the object of demarches included Barbados, Belize, Burma, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Laos, Nigeria, Palestinian Authority, the Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Uganda and the USA. The demarches were made in individual cases which did not meet the "minimum standards" set out in the Guidelines, and in situations where a country's death penalty policy was in flux - for example, where a moratorium on executions was under threat.

The community of nations has adopted four international treaties providing for the abolition of the death penalty. One is of worldwide scope; the other three are regional.

The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty provide for the total abolition of the death penalty but allow states parties to retain it in wartime if they make a reservation to that effect at the time of ratifying or acceding to these protocols. Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights) concerning the abolition of the death penalty provides for the abolition of the death penalty in peacetime. Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights) concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances provides for the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances, including time of war or of imminent threat of war. Any state party to the ICCPR, the American Convention on Human Rights or the European Convention on Human Rights can become a party to the respective protocols.

Paraguay and Timor-Leste ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR in 2003. San Marino signed the protocol, indicating the government's intention to ratify it at a later date. At year end 51 countries were parties to the Protocol and eight others had signed it.

There were no new signatures or ratifications of the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty during 2003. At year end eight countries had ratified the Protocol and one other had signed it.

Armenia and Turkey ratified Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights in 2003. Serbia and Montenegro signed the Protocol. At year end 43 countries had ratified the Protocol and two others had signed it.

Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights entered into force in July 2003 (see above, INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS). In 2003, 15 countries - Andorra, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom - ratified the Protocol, raising the total number of ratifications to 20 at year end. Twenty-one other countries had signed the Protocol by the end of 2003.

(Up-to-date lists of states parties and other signatories of international treaties on the death penalty are available on the death penalty page of the AI website at www.amnesty.org/deathpenalty. For a printed list, see Amnesty International, Ratifications of international treaties to abolish the death penalty (1 January 2004), AI Index: ACT 50/004/2004.)

The World Day against the Death Penalty was commemorated on 10 October with local events in over 60 countries and an Internet appeal calling on the highest authorities of all countries that retain the death penalty "to ensure that executions cease immediately, and to abolish the death penalty for all crimes".

The World Day was organized by the World Coalition against the Death Penalty (WCADP), a coalition established in 2002 that unites national and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, bar associations, trade unions and local and regional governments. Official statements welcoming the initiative were made by the EU, the Council of Europe, the Belgian government and the foreign ministries of Canada, France and Mexico. A world organization of parliamentarians against the death penalty was created in Belgium on the occasion of World Day.

On 30 November public buildings in over 100 cities around the world were illuminated as part of the "Cities for Life - Cities against the Death Penalty" initiative. The event was organized by the Italian organization Sant' Egidio with the collaboration of other organizations including Amnesty International sections.

The 4th Global Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, meeting in Rome on 30 November, stated: "After a special session, the Nobel Peace Prize Winners have agreed that the death penalty is a particularly cruel and unusual punishment that should be abolished. It is especially unconscionable when imposed on children."

TABLE 1: ABOLITIONIST COUNTRIES AT YEAR END, 1981-2003TABLE 4: ABOLITIONIST COUNTRIES AT YEAR END, 1981 - 2001

Year	No. countries abolitionist for all crimes	No. countries abolitionist in law or practice
1981	27	63
1982	28	63
1983	28	64
1984	28	64
1985	29	64
1986	31	66
1987	35	69
1988	35	80
1989	39	84
1990	46	88
1991	46	83
1992	50	84
1993	53	90
1994	54	96
1995	58	101
1996	59	100
1997	63	102
1998	69	105
1999	72	108
2000	74	108
2001	75	111
2002	77	111
2003	77	117

TABLE 2: RECORDED WORLDWIDE EXECUTIONS BY YEAR, 1980-2003

(NA = figures not available)

Year	No. countries carrying out executions	No. executions recorded	No. countries with over 100 executions	% of all recorded executions in countries with over 100 executions
1980	29	1229	NA	NA
1981	34	3278	NA	NA
1982	42	1609	NA	NA
1983	39	1399	NA	NA
1984	40	1513	4	78%
1985	44	1125	3	66%
1986	39	743	3	56%
1987	39	769	3	59%
1988	35	1903	3	83%
1989	34	2229	3	85%
1990	26	2029	4	84%
1991	32	2086	2	89%
1992	35	1708	2	82%
1993	32	1831	1	77%
1994	37	2331	3	87%
1995	41	3276	3	85%
1996	39	4272	4	92%
1997	40	2607	3	82%
1998	37	2258	2	72%
Year	No. countries carrying out executions	No. executions recorded	No. countries with over 100 executions	% of all recorded executions in countries with over 100 executions
1999	31	1813	4	80%
2000	28	1457	2	77%
2001	31	3048	2	86%
2002	31	1526	2	77%
2003	28	1146	2	73%

Facts and figures on the death penalty

The following document is regularly updated on the death penalty page of the Amnesty International website www.amnesty.org/death penalty

Over half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

In the past decade, three countries a year on average have abolished the death penalty in law or, having done so for ordinary crimes, have gone on to abolish it for all crimes. Over 35 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes since 1990. They include countries in Africa (examples include Angola, Cï¿½te d'Ivoire, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa), the Americas (Canada, Paraguay), Asia and the Pacific (Hong Kong, Nepal. Samoa, Timor-Leste) and Europe (Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkmenistan and Ukraine).

Once abolished, the death penalty is seldom reintroduced. Since 1985, over 50 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or, having previously abolished it for ordinary crimes, have gone on to abolish it for all crimes. During the same period only four abolitionist countries reintroduced the death penalty. One of them - Nepal - has since abolished the death penalty again; one, the Philippines, resumed executions but later stopped. There have been no executions in the other two (Gambia, Papua New Guinea).

During 2003, at least 1,146 people were executed in 28 countries and at least 2,756 people were sentenced to death in 63 countries. These figures include only cases known to Amnesty International; the true figures are certainly higher.

In 2003, 84 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran, the USA and Viet Nam. In China, the limited and incomplete records available to Amnesty International at the end of the year indicated that at least 726 people were executed, but the true figure was believed to be much higher: a senior Chinese legislator suggested in March 2004 that China executes "nearly 10,000" people each year. At least 108 executions were carried out in Iran. Sixty-five people were executed in the USA. At least 64 people were executed in Viet Nam.

International human rights treaties prohibit anyone under 18 years old at the time of the crime being sentenced to death or executed. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the American Convention on Human Rights all have provisions to this effect. More than 110 countries whose laws still provide for the death penalty for at least some offences have laws specifically excluding the execution of child offenders or may be presumed to exclude such executions by being parties to one or another of the above treaties. A small number of countries, however, continue to execute child offenders.

Eight countries since 1990 are known to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of the crime - China, Congo (Democratic Republic), Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen. China, Pakistan and Yemen have raised the minimum age to 18in law, and Iran is in the process of doing so. The country which has carried out the greatest number of known executions of child offenders is the USA (19 since 1990).

Amnesty International recorded two executions of child offenders in 2003, one of them in China and one in the USA. Another child offender was executed in Iran in January 2004.

Scientific studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments. The most recent survey of research findings on the relation between the death penalty and homicide rates, conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and updated in 2002, concluded: ". . .it is not prudent to accept the hypothesis that capital punishment deters murder to a marginally greater extent than does the threat and application of the supposedly lesser punishment of life imprisonment."

(Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-wide Perspective, Oxford, Clarendon Press, third edition, 2002, p. 230)

Reviewing the evidence on the relation between changes in the use of the death penalty and homicide rates, a study conducted for the United Nations in 1988 and updated in 2002 stated: "The fact that the statistics continue to point in the same direction is persuasive evidence that countries need not fear sudden and serious changes in the curve of crime if they reduce their reliance upon the death penalty".

Recent crime figures from abolitionist countries fail to show that abolition has harmful effects. In Canada, for example, the homicide rate per 100,000 population fell from a peak of 3.09 in 1975, the year before the abolition of the death penalty for murder, to 2.41 in 1980, and since then it has declined further. In 2002, 26 years after abolition, the homicide rate was 1.85 per 100,000 population, 40 per cent lower than in 1975.

(Reference: Roger Hood, The Death Penalty: A World-wide Perspective, Oxford, Clarendon Press, third edition, 2002, p. 214)

One of the most important developments in recent years has been the adoption of international treaties whereby states commit themselves to not having the death penalty. Four such treaties now exist:

Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights is an agreement to abolish the death penalty in peacetime. The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights provide for the total abolition of the death penalty but allow states wishing to do so to retain the death penalty in wartime as an exception. Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights provides for the total abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances.

As long as the death penalty is maintained, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated.

Since 1973, 113 prisoners have been released from death row in the USA after evidence emerged of their innocence of the crimes for which they were sentenced to death. Some had come close to execution after spending many years under sentence of death. Recurring features in their cases include prosecutorial or police misconduct; the use of unreliable witness testimony, physical evidence, or confessions; and inadequate defence representation. Other US prisoners have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts over their guilt.

The then Governor of the US state of Illinois, George Ryan, declared a moratorium on executions in January 2000. His decision followed the exoneration of the 13th death row prisoner found to have been wrongfully convicted in the state since the USA reinstated the death penalty in 1977. During the same period, 12 other Illinois prisoners had been executed. In January 2003 Governor Ryan pardoned four death row prisoners and commuted all 167 other death sentences in Illinois.

65 prisoners were executed in the USA in 2003, bringing the year-end total to 885 executed since the use of the death penalty was resumed in 1977. The 900th execution was carried out on 3 March 2004.