Death Penalty

What is the problem?

The death penalty is cruel and inhumane.

Amnesty International holds that the death penalty – also known as capital punishment – is a violation of 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.

We are making tremendous progress – today, nearly half of the states in the U.S. and more than 70 percent of the world’s countries have abolished the death penalty, but much more needs to be done.

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.

Why is it an issue?

The death penalty is too flawed to fix.

The death penalty is irreversible. The death penalty is the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights. The risk of executing a wrongly convicted person can never be eliminated. Hundreds of prisoners sent to death row in the United States have later been exonerated or released from death row on grounds of innocence. Others have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt.

The death penalty does not stop crime. Governments that execute commonly, but erroneously, say the death penalty is a way to deter people from committing a crime. This claim is false: there is no evidence that the death penalty uniquely deters crime or improves public safety.

The death penalty is often used after unfair proceedings. In many cases recorded by Amnesty International, people were executed after being convicted in unfair trials without legal representation. In some countries, death sentences are mandatory punishments for certain offenses, meaning that judges cannot consider the particular circumstances.

The death penalty is discriminatory. The death penalty is applied disproportionately against Black and brown people and poor people in a racially biased way. Over 41% of the death row population in the United States is Black, even though Black people make up about 13% of the U.S. population.

The death penalty is used as a political tool. The authorities in some countries, including  Iran and Sudan, use the death penalty to punish political opponents.

The death penalty is arbitrary. Only a minority of U.S. states actively execute prisoners, and only a fraction of counties within those states pursue death penalty sentences. In other words, capital punishment doesn’t target people based on the severity of a crime, but on where the crime was committed.

Change is possible

When Amnesty International started its work in 1977, only 16 countries had totally abolished the death penalty. Today, that number has risen to 113 – more than 70% of the world’s countries.

We have helped stop the executions of countless death row prisoners – and there’s much more work ahead. We must continue to press governments and legislators to end the death penalty everywhere.

Our campaigns to abolish the death penalty focus on individual cases and raising awareness about the injustice of the death penalty and the urgent need to end it. We work in multiple ways to end this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.