Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.
If you are a member of the press, please reach out to [email protected]
Press Release
Amnesty International Delivers Thousands of Petitions to Alabama Governor, Asking Her to Grant Clemency to Rocky Myers and Commute His Death Sentence
The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. With a swipe of her pen, Governor Ivey could end the injustice that has tarnished Rocky Myers’ case for three decades.
March 21, 2024
Press Release
Amnesty International USA Condemns Alabama’s Execution of Kenneth Smith, Calls for Moratorium on Use of the Death Penalty as First Critical Step
The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and accounts of Kenneth Smith’s last moments simply show that there is no humane way to take someone’s life.
January 26, 2024
Press Release
Amnesty International USA: Cruel Planned Execution of Kenneth Smith by State of Alabama Must Be Stopped
Amnesty International USA urges Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to use her clemency power to stop the execution of Kenneth Smith before it’s too late.
January 23, 2024
Update
Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back – Updates on the Death Penalty in 2023
On 16 May, Amnesty International released its annual Death Sentences and Executions report which documents the global developments on the use of the death penalty in 2022. As the restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane in 2022, Amnesty International documented a spike in known executions around the world, with sharp increases in Iran and Saudi Arabia. The USA was no exception to this spike, seeing its execution numbers increase by 64% despite remaining at historically low levels. US exceptionalism on the death penalty was also perpetuated as the country was the lone executing country in…
August 4, 2023
Press Release
DEATH PENALTY 2022: Recorded Executions Skyrocket to Highest Figure in Five Years
Recorded executions in 2022 reached the highest figure in five years, as the Middle East and North Africa’s most notorious executioners carried out killing sprees, Amnesty International said today as it released its annual review of the death penalty.
May 16, 2023
Press Release
Sri Lanka: Biden Must Respond to Dangerous Anti-Terrorism Act
“The draft Anti-Terrorism Act categorically fails on every human rights benchmark. If the Biden administration values the rights of the Sri Lankan people, they need to send a clear message to President Ranil Wickremesinghe that this law must be overhauled entirely or scrapped altogether.”
April 14, 2023
Press Release
Depths of Degradation, Heights of Hypocrisy: USA’s First Execution of 2023
Paul O’Brien, Amnesty International USA A macabre ritual, incompatible with human dignity but enacted over one and a half thousand times in the USA in the past four and a half decades, is set to continue into 2023. On 3 January, the State of Missouri carried out the USA’s first execution of the year, and the 1,559th since the US Supreme Court upheld new capital statutes in 1976. Almost 90% of these executions have been conducted since June 1992 when the USA ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), article 6 of which protects the right to…
January 4, 2023
Press Release
First Executions in Myanmar in Decades Mark Atrocious Escalation in State Repression
Responding to reports that Myanmar’s military authorities have carried out executions for the first time since the late 1980s, Amnesty International’s Regional Director Erwin van der Borght said:
July 25, 2022
Report
Biden Must Take Action on Promise to End Federal Death Penalty
Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Furman v. Georgia ruling, which temporarily outlawed executions in the USA, Amnesty International reminds President Biden and the federal authorities of the urgent need to meet his promise to work for permanent eradication of the death penalty. Justin Mazzola, Deputy Director, Research, at Amnesty International USA, said:
June 27, 2022
Press Release
“Death Sentences” Against Three Foreign Members of Ukrainian Forces by Separatists’ “Courts” a Blatant Violation of International Law
Responding to the news that a separatist “court” in Russia-occupied Donetsk ordered the death of two captured two British nationals and a captured Moroccan national, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:
June 9, 2022
Report
Death Penalty 2021: State-Sanctioned Killings Rise as Executions Spike in Iran and Saudi Arabia
2021 saw a worrying rise in executions and death sentences as some of the world’s most prolific executioners returned to business as usual and courts were unshackled from Covid-19 restrictions, Amnesty International said today in its annual review of the death penalty.
May 23, 2022
Press Release
Oklahoma Seeks to Revive Machinery of Death Despite Unanswered Legal Questions
Today, an Oklahoma District Court held a hearing on the preliminary injunction to halt upcoming executions scheduled from October 2021-February 2022 for four people on the state’s death row.
October 25, 2021