10 October is the 24th WDADP
October 2026
This is written in the UK where the death penalty is no longer practised. It might therefore be wondered why we should continue to campaign for its abolition elsewhere in the world. It is partly because we believe the penalty to be a barbaric one and that applies across the world. We campaign for justice and human rights everywhere not just in our own backyard. We believe the penalty should be abolished in all circumstances and for all crimes.
There are currently 25,508 people on death rows somewhere in the world according to the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. 2,707 are known to be executed the highest number since 1981. Large numbers are executed in China but the numbers are a state secret. Thousands are executed in a ‘conveyor belt’ of killing there with mobile vans travelling the country to speed up the process. There is a bewildering number of crimes – over 40 – which attract the death sentence.
The top countries carrying out the executions are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the US. That a notionally civilized country should be in such company is telling.
Christa Pike
The death penalty has made it onto the news in the past few days with the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee. She was twice injected with lethal drugs but survived and has now partially recovered. There has been shock expressed around the world. Members of the Salisbury Group have written to the Governor to ask that her sentence be commuted.
Part of the problem is the difficulty in obtaining reliable drugs since firms and countries are unwilling to supply them. To overcome that problem, the firing squad is being introduced. Which leads to the truly bizarre, shameful and shocking proposal by Pete Hegseth to allow the live streaming of an execution. This is of Nidal Hasan who killed 13 in Texas. It is in a belief it will act as a deterrent.
Deterrence
The continued belief in the penalty is based on its supposed deterrent effect. However, a report released in April by the National Research Council of the National Academies based on a review of more than three decades of research, concluded that studies claiming a deterrent effect on murder rates by a use of the death penalty are fundamentally flawed. The report concluded: “The committee concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide is not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases, or has no effect on homicide rates”.
Many of the countries are using it not just to put series criminals to death, but as a form of coercion and intimidation.
Some reasons why it should be abolished
- It is degrading and inhumane. What is often forgotten is the effects it has on others including prison staff who have to carry out the task
- it is not a deterrent as we have argued
- the justice system is imperfect and often flawed. The poor quality of legal representation for the poorest in society often means there is injustice. Mistakes cannot afterwards be put right
- it is being used in some countries as a means of coercion and to intimidate those the state disapproves of
- It disproportionately affects the poorest and marginalised in society.
Action you can take
Following the shockingly botched attempts to execute Christa Pike on 1st October, please write a letter dated 10th October to Bill Lee, Governor of Tennessee, calling for the commutation of Ms Pike’s death sentence as a first step, followed by the commutation of the sentences of all those on death row and the establishment of an indefinite moratorium on executions.
Contact details: Bill Lee
Governor of Tennessee
State Capitol
600 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Nashville
TN 37243
USA.
Governor Lee’s email address is bill.lee@tn.gov but a letter would be preferable as he is more likely to see it.
You might want, as well as expressing your deep concern about what has happened, to recognise as positives the review he has ordered into the protocol and procedures, and the fact that he has paused executions at least until the end of the year – that of Gary Sutton will not now go ahead on 3rd December.
IT SHOULD BE ABOLISHED
Thank you for yet another inciteful analysis that places humanity at the core of the argument.
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