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Amnesty International UK / Issues
Death penalty amnesty-candle
Death penalty intro
Depending on where you live, you can be beheaded for charges of
sorcery, stoned for adultery, or hanged for drugs smuggling. This is
2015, and the death penalty is still very much alive.
We campaign for an end to all executions around the world - no matter
what the circumstances.
Find out the latest on our work to end the death penalty, the ultimate
denial of human rights.
Title: Death penalty
Video
Wrongly imprisoned on death row in Texas: Anthony's story
Anthony Graves faced execution in Texas for 18 years before he was
cleared of the crime that put him there.
How does it feel to spend 6,641 days on death row, knowing that you
shouldn't be there? Watch Anthony tell his story.
Blog
People can change – if you let them live
Indonesia has executed eight men for drugs offences, despite
international outcry. One prisoner, Mary Jane Veloso, was spared
execution.
The executions will not fix the drugs trade. Their needless deaths only
wrench apart the families of prisoners who have served their time. And,
as Australian prisoner Myuran said, people can change.
Campaign lowdown
Why we’re working to end the death penalty
There are plenty of countries still executing civilians, even today. So
why are we doing all we can to work for an end to executions?
Find out why the death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights,
and why you should care about its use around the world.
Show More
Blog
The long road to death penalty abolition in Mongolia
"It has been a long and difficult road to finally convince the
Mongolian authorities to abolish this cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishment. We faced many challenges along the way, but never lost
hope."
Our campaigner in Mongolia on the historic abolition of the death
penalty in the country.
Article
An execution every two days: Saudi Arabia's surge in killings
In the first six months of 2015, Saudi Arabia has executed more people
than in all of last year.
The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to claim they only use the death
penalty for the ‘most serious crimes’, and only after thorough judicial
proceedings. We don't agree.
Juvenile offender Shafqat Hussain executed in Pakistan
Shafqat was 14 when he was sentenced to death, after he was tortured
into 'confessing' a crime. During 2015 had five executions set, but
there were concerns about his age and 'elegibility' for execution.
A decade after he was sentenced to death, Pakistan hanged Shafqat,
after resuming executions across the country.
Show More
Exhibition
Paintings from Indonesia's death row - an exhibition by Myuran Sukumaran
Myuran Sukumaran has been on death row in Indonesia for ten years for
drugs charges. He is due to face a firing squad. To help raise
awareness of his case, we hosted an exhibition of his paintings from
death row. Here you can see some of the artworks included.
Blog
The immoral maze of the death penalty
Treating execution like an operating procedure may make it more
palatable to the executioners - and in wider society.
A number of American states have sought alternative methods to lethal
injection as the drugs dry up. But is death by firing squad, nitrogen
gas or the electric chair any more or less barbaric than lethal
injection? And does it matter?
Real lives
Escaping the gallows in Nigeria
ThankGod spent nearly two decades on death row in Nigeria. He told us
that every night he had the same nightmare - a guard would open the
prison cell door and walk ThankGod to the room where he would be
executed.
Eventually, ThankGod's nightmare became reality - but miraculously, he
has survived to tell his story of his time on death row.
Show More
Death sentences and executions in 2014
By the start of this year, nearly 20,000 people were awaiting execution
- many more people than the previous year. So who are the worst
offenders? And what about the countries executions are a secret?
We aim to record all executions and death sentences around the world -
unfortunately the death penalty remains very much alive.
Blog
'I felt the shadow of execution over my head': A letter from Iran's death row
Hamed was hanged along with five other men in Iran. All of them were
executed for the vague crime of 'enmity against god'; each was a Sunni
Muslim from Iran's Kurdish minority.
Before Hamed was hanged in March this year, he snuck out a letter
detailing his experience on death row, awaiting execution every day.
Ten ways that Saudi Arabia violates human rights
Raif Badawi is now known worldwide as the blogger Saudi Arabia flogged
for advocating free speech, but he is just one of many people punished
for exercising their human rights in the Kingdom.
We list some of the rights denied by King Salman's regime in Saudi
Arabia today.
Show More
Blog
This is not a lawful execution: Iran’s attempt to kill Saman Naseem
"They told me that they would kill me right there and would cover my
grave with cement."
Saman was just 17 when he was arrested. Tortured by police till he
couldn't bear it any more, threatened with beatings by the judge at his
trial, 22-year-old Saman has been appallingly mistreated - and now his
execution is imminent.
Action
'Awaiting my execution': Stop Saman's execution
Saman Naseem awaits execution any day. Just 17 when he was arrested in
Iran for being a member of an opposition group, he was sentenced to
death after an unfair trial and torture in detention.
Ask the Iranian authorities not to execute Saman, and instead review
his case and investigate his claims of torture.
British grandfather Mohammad Asghar awaits execution for blasphemy in
Pakistan
70-year-old British grandfather Mohammad Asghar is currently awaiting
execution in Pakistan for 'blasphemy'.
We are calling on the government of Pakistan to release Mohammad
immediately, and let him return home to his family in Edinburgh, where
he can receive medical support for his paranoid schizophrenia.
Show More
Blog
Is 'the Penalty' worth the price? Lifting the lid on the death penalty
Last year, filmmaker Will Francome set out across America to record ten
stories investigating what it was like to be innocent and on death row.
Now Will's going back to look at how the death penalty affects everyone
it touches - the families, lawmakers, police - and the choices the US
makes when it keeps executing.
The last British death sentence, 50 years ago today
Half a century since the last hanging in Britain and public support for
the death penalty is falling. The death penalty is a relic of the past.
Here's why we should continue to campaign to keep it that way.
Blog
Do you believe in the death penalty?
Arizona executed Joseph Wood using a secret cocktail of drugs. Wood had
filed a legal case over the unknown contents of the injection, but it
was overturned. After being injected, he convulsed and gasped for two
hours before he eventually died.
Surely it's time for America to review its tortuous capital punishment
system?
Show More
Meriam Ibrahim freed from death row in Sudan
Six weeks after she was sentenced to be hanged for apostasy, Meriam
Ibrahim, a 27-year-old mother in Sudan, has been freed from death row.
Over a million people around the world joined our call to Sudan to free
Meriam - including a quarter of a million people in the UK. Thank you.
You have been heard, and Meriam's death sentence has been overturned.
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