The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights, and that’s why Amnesty International opposes it in all cases and works to abolish it. We are making tremendous progress – today, 19 states in the U.S. and two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty.
The Problem
Human rights violations
All people have the right to life, and we all have the right to be free from cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. These are human rights that people have, regardless of whether they have been convicted of crimes.
A Broken System
The flaws in the death penalty are too deep to fix.
- The risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated. More than 150 people sent to death row in the U.S. have later been exonerated, and others have been executed despite serious doubt about their guilt.
- There is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime or improves public safety.
- The death penalty is applied disproportionally against people of color and poor people.
- In some countries, the death penalty is used by people in power to punish their political opponents.
Amnesty In Action
Changing lives and policies
Amnesty International has helped delay or overturn death sentences in individual cases, and has helped abolish the death penalty in several states in the U.S. and in other countries.
- We campaign to stop executions of specific individuals in the U.S. and around the world. Take action in urgent cases today.
- We conduct research on the use of the death penalty around the world, to shine a light on this human rights abuse and to fuel reform. Read our most recent annual report on the death penalty worldwide.
- We mobilize grassroots activists to pass legislation abolishing the death penalty and defeat legislation that would reinstate it. Take action today to stop the death penalty in the U.S.
Case Study
Ivan Teleguz
23
Number of countries that executed people in 2016 (including the U.S.).
20
Total number of executions in the U.S. in 2016, a 25-year low.
19
Number is states in the U.S. that have abolished the death penalty.
In 2006, Ukranian national Ivan Teleguz was sentenced to die for allegedly hiring someone to murder a woman in Virginia. The alleged hit-man was spared the death penalty in exchange for his testimony against Ivan. Another man testified that Ivan arranged a murder in Pennsylvania, and prosecutors used that “pattern” to persuade jurors to give Ivan the death penalty. Years later, the man who testified about the Pennsylvania case admitted he fabricated most of his testimony against Ivan to avoid the death penalty himself.
Ivan maintained his innocence throughout. In March 2017, a month before he was scheduled to be executed, Amnesty International launched a campaign pressing the Governor of Virginia to commute his death sentence. Thousands of people across the United States and around the world wrote to the governor.
Just five days before Ivan was set to be executed, Governor Terry McAuliffe commuted his sentence, permanently sparing him the death penalty in the case. Ivan’s attorney thanked Amnesty International’s activists, noting: “He is incredibly touched that people from all over the world – who do not even know him – have been speaking out on his behalf. And it worked.”