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Arguments for and against capital punishment

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Is capital punishment ethically acceptable? Arguments for capital punishment Arguments against capital punishment The future of capital punishment in Britain Should capital punishment be re-introduced? Alternatives to capital punishment Life without parole

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Gayatri's intro

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Hi!

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In this video I will be talking about myself. (By the way, this video is a bit bad but enjoy!)

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Animoto turns your photos and video clips into professional video slideshows in minutes. Fast, free and shockingly simple - we make awesome easy.

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Hope you enjoy!

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Hi everyone, I'm Julia.

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Hello everyone my name is Harper

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DEBATES Round 1 start March 5! Let's start the debating

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DEBATES Round 1 start March 5! Let's start the debating

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The SCHEDULE and Voicethread links are on this doc:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XSpKWN7MTuAXJxf_oJsiU-3RptBstWDyROCm0hH1u4M/edit#gid=0

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Use this Voicethread whenever students need to practice how to use this tool for our debates. Also use this to check if you can access and record via Voicethread - it is a sandbox just for you and your students.

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Workflow doc - a place to check important links and updates

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Workflow doc - a place to check important links and updates

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ej8TOYTreYXRWNJE8Jdda2mbxtXHWkkfX3TVf23uIw/edit?usp=sharing

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Hi,  I'm Sarah and I go to SAS. I just arrived at SAS in January. A fun fact about Singapore is that there is no Winter, ever. A fun fact about me is that I haven't spent a year

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Are you ready for the debate?

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Hi, I’m Isabel 🦔

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List from Amnesty - not much supporting cap pun on this list

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Posted 19 Jan 2017, 1:25pm By GuestBloggers
By Bashayer Aljaber, Amnesty Speaker Programme Volunteer
Short films and videos can be useful conversation starters for teachers, educators, facilitators or anyone wishing to learn more about human rights. Here are some freely available films about the death penalty.

There may be content that is unsuitable for some audiences, therefore we recommend you watch each clip in full to check that its suitable for the audience before you use it in an educational setting.

1. Amnesty International: Death to the death penalty

This powerful advertising film replicates various scenes of execution using wax figures that melt and leaving the Amnesty candle standing unscathed.

2. AJ+: What if the death penalty disappeared in America?

What are the practical implications of getting rid of capital punishment in the US? This video explains the economic benefits of getting rid of the death penalty, as well as outlining the fact that the death penalty doesn't deter crime, is disproportionately applied to ethnic minorities and that rulings can get it wrong - innocent people have been killed by the system.

3. Amnesty International: The death penalty in 2015

Every year, we produce a report on the number of known executions around the world, and where they're happening. 2015 saw the highest number of executions for a quarter of a century. Find out more about executions in 2015

4. Vice: Should there be a death penalty?

Vice News asked people from around the world about their views on the death penalty. This video shows people with a range of opinions and attitudes - with some opposed to, and some in favour of capital punishment.

5. Amnesty International: One last chance

In the US, it is customary to offer inmates on death row an option for their last meal. This animation shows several meal choices in an effort to highlight the theatrical nature of the death penalty in the US.

6. Human Rights Watch: Executing juvenile offenders in Yemen

Yemen is one of the few states that executes juvenile offenders, many of whom admit to alleged crimes after being tortured.

7. National Geographic: Inside death row

This series looks at death row from the perspective of former execution wardens.

8. Amnesty International: Behnoud's story

This moving animation tells the story of a lawyer in Iran, Mohammad Mostafaei, who tries to save the life of a young man on death row, Behnoud Shojaee.

9. One for Ten

For every ten people executed in the US since the death penalty was brought back in 1976, one person is exonerated - ie. found to be innocent of the crimes they're due to be executed for. The One for Ten series comprises ten short films about former death row prisoners in the States who were each found to be innocent and released.

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Nine videos to help you talk about the death penalty

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Posted 19 Jan 2017, 1:25pm By GuestBloggers By Bashayer Aljaber, Amnesty Speaker Programme Volunteer Short films and videos can be useful conversation starters for teachers, educators, facilitators or anyone wishing to learn more about human rights. Here are some freely available films about the death penalty.

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against cap pun

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At Amnesty International, we firmly believe that no one - including any government - has the right to take away someone else's life. We're working to end the use of the death penalty around the world, and won't stop until every country in the world has abolished it.

What is the death penalty?

The death penalty (also known as capital punishment) is the premeditated, judicially sanctioned killing of an individual by a state. It's an irreversible and violent punishment that has no place in any criminal justice system.

We oppose the use of the death penalty in every single case. No matter what the crime, who the alleged criminal is, or the method proposed to execute them - we will always stand against it.

Why are we against it?

There are many reasons that the death penalty is an unacceptable punishment.

1. It's the ultimate denial of human rights

First and foremost, sentencing someone to death denies that individual two vital human rights guaranteed under international law, as established by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR):

the right to life (Article 3)

the right not to be tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment (Article 5).

Our aim at Amnesty is for every person on the planet to enjoy their human rights, as enshrined in the UDHR and similar international human rights standards. The death penalty violates basic human rights in every case.

2. It doesn't deter crime

People in favour of the death penalty often say that it's a useful deterrent for the most abhorrent crimes in society - but evidence shows that this isn't the case.

A 2012 report by independent researchers at America's National Research Council of the Academies found that US states using the death penalty have a similar murder rate to states that don't use it: the threat of capital punishment did not appear to prevent homicides.

'If the death penalty is not a deterrent, and it is not, and if the death penalty does not make us safer, and it does not, then it is only high-cost revenge.'
Florida judge Charles M Harris

3. It's irreversible, and mistakes happen

Execution is the ultimate, irrevocable punishment: the risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated. And such mistakes cannot be unmade.

Since 1976, 143 US death row prisoners have been exonerated completely for their crimes. Who knows how many have been executed for a crime they did not commit? The flaws in state systems that dole out the ultimate irreparable punishment have been documented in the One for Ten film project.

4. It's often used within unfair justice systems

The countries executing the most people are often the same countries about which we have serious concerns regarding the fairness of their judicial systems.

The 'top' three executing countries in 2012 - China, Iran and Iraq - are all guilty of issuing death sentences under circumstances that are far from transparent.

China is the world's most prolific executioner. But use of the death penalty in the country is regarded as a state secret; we suspect, based on all the evidence we have, that thousands of people are executed in China every year, but without credible information from the Chinese state government, we cannot know how many death sentences are issued and executions carried out every year.

In both Iraq and Iran, many death sentences are issued after convictions relying on 'confessions' from prisoners that have been obtained by force, often through torture in detention. We have reliable information that prisoners later sent to Iraq's death row have been beaten with cables, suspended by their arms, and subjected to electric shocks.

5. It discriminates

You are more likely to be sentenced to death if you are a member of a minority group within a state that executes. The death penalty disproportionately affects members of racial, ethnic and religious minorities, as well as those living in poverty.

In the US, there's extensive evidence of racial bias on death row. The race of the victim remains the single most reliable factor in determining whether a defendant will be given a death sentence. For example, a 2007 study in Connecticut showed African American defendants to be three times more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants, where the victims are white.

Serious mental health issues are also common in defendants sent to death row. At least one in ten prisoners executed in the US between 1977 and 2007 had experienced severe mental health problems that meant they were literally unable to comprehend the crime they were alleged to have committed, and unable to understand the terms of their sentence and imminent execution.

6. It can be used as a political tool

You are more likely to be sentenced to death if state authorities see you as a threat.

Authorities in Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia all have a track record of issuing death sentences to opposition activists or potential threats to those in power.

Where is the death penalty used?

A small number of countries around the world continue to sentence people to death. The number of states carrying out executions is steadily decreasing, year on year: we have charted a worldwide trend towards abolition since we began campaigning for it.

Thousands of people remain on death rows awaiting execution in prisons around the world, and many hundreds are still executed in a minority of states every year.
See our latest stats on the death penalty in 2016

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Why we're working to end the death penalty

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At Amnesty International, we firmly believe that no one - including any government - has the right to take away someone else's life. We're working to end the use of the death penalty around the world, and won't stop until every country in the world has abolished it.

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1 minute

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Amnesty International France in collaboration with advertising agency TBWA produced two short advertisements to coincide with Amnesty International's Death Penalty Campaign and will be launched on the 4th October 2010. The film was awarded a Bronze Lion at the Cannes International festival

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Stats from 2016 - worldwide

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Every year, we record the people executed by governments around the world, and publish the figures. This helps us see which governments are continuing to use the death penalty and campaign for its end - and to show that over the years use of the death penalty is very gradually declining.

The full report: Death penalty statistics 2016 (PDF)

1. Executions decreased dramatically from 2015

At least 1,032 people were executed in 23 countries around the world in 2016. This is a big step down from 2015, when executions were at their highest for 25 years.

2. China, the world's most prolific executioner, keeps its executions secret

Our figures do not account for the number of people executed in China - where executions are a state secret, so we are unable to count and verify the numbers of people killed by the state. We believe it to be in the thousands.

3. Five governments account for the majority of executions

Most executions in 2016 took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan - in that order.
China remained the world's top executioner.

Excluding China, 87% of all executions took place in just four countries - Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan.

4. Executions were down in the USA

For the first time since 2006, the USA was not one of the five biggest executioners, falling to seventh behind Egypt. The 20 executions in the USA was the lowest in the country since 1991.

5. Overall, fewer countries are using the death penalty

During 2016, 23 countries, about one in eight of all countries worldwide, are known to have carried out executions. This number has decreased significantly from twenty years ago (40 countries carried out executions in 1997). Belarus, Botswana, Nigeria and authorities within the State of Palestine resumed executions in 2016; Chad, India, Jordan, Oman and United Arab Emirates -all countries that executed people in 2015 − did not report any executions last year.

6. But the number of people on death row has increased

At least 18,848 people were on death row, awaiting their execution, at the end of 2016.

We recorded 3,117 death sentences in 55 countries in 2016, a significant increase on the total for 2015 (1,998 sentences in 61 countries). We recorded significant increases in death sentenced for 12 countries, but for some, such as Thailand, the increase is due to the fact that the authorities provided us with detailed information that we had not had access to in previous years.

How we record the numbers

Our records cover 'judicial use of the death penalty' - that is, where governments have sentenced prisoners to death before a court or executed them - for a calendar year (in this case, January to December 2016). These numbers are minimal figures, where we have enough information to corroborate an execution or death sentence. The true numbers are likely to be higher.

We get our information from a variety of sources, including figures published by states; information from individuals sentenced to death and their families and representatives; reporting by other civil society organisations; and media reports.

Many governments do not publish information on their use of the death penalty. In Belarus, China and Vietnam, data on the use of the death penalty is classified as a state secret. During 2016 little or no information was available on some countries - in particular Laos, North Korea, Syria and Yemen - due to restrictive state practice and/or armed conflict.

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The death penalty in 2016: facts and figures

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Every year, we record the people executed by governments around the world, and publish the figures. This helps us see which governments are continuing to use the death penalty and campaign for its end - and to show that over the years use of the death penalty is very gradually declining.

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A doc about Cap pun.

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Lush Presents: EXONERATED | A documentary about the death penalty

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(in association with Amnesty). Good intro for students!

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Rootless Films ad for Amnesty International. With Colin Firth.

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Solid lesson plan from Amnesty International

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Solid lesson plan from Amnesty International

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Maybe a bit high-brow for students but well laid-out arguments here.

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Top 10 Pro & Con Arguments - Death Penalty - ProCon.org

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Should the death penalty be allowed? Morality Constitutionality Deterrence Retribution Irrevocable Mistakes Cost of Death vs. Life in Prison Race Closure for Victims' Families Attorney Quality Physicians at Execution 1. Morality "[W]e reserve the death penalty in the United States for the most heinous murders and the most brutal and conscienceless murderers.

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Penal Reform International website

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Report

PRI has launched its annual flagship publication, Global Prison Trends 2017, at the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

Global Prison Trends 2017 is the third edition in our annual Global Prison Trends series, which identifies the topical developments and challenges in criminal justice and prison policy and practice. It is published in collaboration with the Thailand Institute of Justice, and features a foreword by HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, UNODC Regional Goodwill Ambassador on the Rule of Law in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and the President of the Thailand Institute of Justice.

Global Prison Trends 2017 explores:

Trends in the use of imprisonment, such as pre-trial detention and life imprisonment

Prison populations, such as the specific needs of women, foreign nationals and elderly prisoners

Developments and challenges in prison management, including security issues and violence, prison labour, and violent extremism in prison

The role of technology in the criminal justice system, such as e-learning and video visitation

Prison alternatives, including the use of electronic monitoring and community service orders

A Special Focus section looks at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to criminal justice, using examples from a range of countries to highlight specific issues and summarising why criminal justice and criminal justice reform must play a part in achieving the goals set out in the 2030 Agenda.

Read the report:

If you download a resource, please link to it from your website or share with your professional network.

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Global Prison Trends 2017 - Penal Reform International

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Report PRI has launched its annual flagship publication, Global Prison Trends 2017 , at the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Global Prison Trends 2017 is the third edition in our annual Global Prison Trends series, which identifies the topical developments and challenges in criminal justice and prison policy and practice.