The death penalty report for September/October 2017 is attached thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it.
China remains the world’s largest executioner of its citizens but the statistics are a state secret.
Death Penalty report
Death penalty report
September 2017
Latest death penalty report available
The latest report is now available thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. Note that China remains the world’s largest execution but details are a state secret.
Amnesty success
650 prisoners released last year
It sometimes seems like a forlorn battle being an Amnesty supporter. The tide of executions, arrests for peacefully protesting, torture and other state crimes seems inexorable. Despite countries signing solemn pledges in the UN, persecution by states of their own people and minorities continues on a grand scale around the world.
But a light sometimes does shine and in a recent report, Amnesty claims that 650 prisoners were released last year due in part to our
campaigning. Albert Woodfox was released from 44 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana, USA and he said:
Even when it feels like you are not going to win, when you grow disillusioned with politics which put geed before people’s human rights. when you don’t think you can make a difference – please remember that if you had not taken a stand and joined hundreds of thousands of activist around the world, I may not have been able to write this to you today.
Death penalty report
The latest death penalty report covering four weeks to mid August is attached thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. Please remember China 
remains the world’s biggest executioner but details are a state secret.
Reggie Clemon’s trial delayed
Clemon’s trial delayed again until January
The trial of Reggie Clemons in Missouri has been delayed yet again until January. This has come about because the defense has claimed that Reggie’s phone calls and visitor logs have been accessed by the Attorney General’s office since March 2016. They claim that at least three of these calls to his lawyers and may have revealed names of expert witnesses to called to testify at his trial. The Attorney General office deny these claims and said that Clemons had waived his attorney client privilege.
He has been in prison now for 22 years and the trial had been set for August.
The group sent a card to Reggie in anticipation of the trial taking place in August.
Here is a factsheet produced by Amnesty USA giving background to this disturbing case.
Sources: St Louis Dispatch and Amnesty USA
Death Penalty report
Latest Death Penalty report
The latest death penalty report for June/July is available thanks to group member Lesley for the hard work in compiling it.
If you would like to join the local group – because for example you have strong convictions against the use of the death penalty – you would be most welcome. Or you can just write using one of the urgent actions in the report above.
China is the world’s leading executioner.
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Death penalty report
The latest monthly death penalty report is now available thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. There is news of Reggie Clemons who has been on death row for 26 years now and we have heard from a family member.
Death penalty report
Attached is the Death Penalty report for April – May prepared by group member Lesley. It contains an update on the rush to execute people in Arkansas USA because of the imminent expiry of the drugs used. There is also an update on the situation with Reggie Clemons.
Death penalty
Five reasons to end the death penalty
We are attaching the recent post issued by RightsInfo which gives 5 reasons to end the death penalty. There is a rising tide of executions around the world as the recent Amnesty report makes clear with China the country which leads the world (if ‘lead’ be the appropriate word) in executing the greatest number which it keeps a secret. Saudi Arabia and Iran are also major executioners often in barbaric circumstances.
Our local group produces a monthly report and these can be found on this site.
Briefly, the Rights Info report, entitled: 5 Reasons the UK is Trying to Stamp Out the Death Penalty Worldwide, says that the death penalty:
- will often execute the innocent. We have documented many instances on this site where for various reasons, the wrong person has been executed. Once done, it cannot be undone
- is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and often involves people incarcerated for decades under threat of execution
- it has no effect on crime rates, indeed there are more murders in those states in the United States where capital punishment is used
- it damages international crime fighting because we cannot extradite individualswhere there is the risk of someone being executed
[we were unable to find a fifth in the report]
5 Reasons the UK is Trying to Stamp Out the Death Penalty Worldwide – RightsInfo copy (pdf)
Arkansas: petition
Petition to the Governor Asa Hutchinson to stop the execution due this week
The rush to carry out executions in Arkansas, USA, continues apace with another one due tomorrow (Thursday 27th). This is a petition (see below) to send to the Governor asking him to stop. The panic to get the executions done is because the drugs being used are due to expire. Adds a new meaning to ‘sell by date’ we see on our foodstuffs.
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights, as it violates the right to life. It is also a cruel and inhumane punishment that may constitute torture.
Amnesty always oppose the death penalty in every case because it violates rights. The idea of lethal injection as a ‘humane’ form of execution is simply a myth. There have been numerous cases of ‘botched’ executions by lethal injection in the US in recent years, with prisoners failing to die quickly or ‘quietly’. See our post on the process to be followed in California.
If you get time to send an urgent email that would be appreciated.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 