Capital punishment

History

The capital punishment implies a crime committed by condemned. In the primitive companies, the judgment was carried out by the victims, at the time of an act of Vengeance. To avoid the cycles without end of revenge, was founded the principle of the Loi of the Retaliation, which implies the right reciprocity between the committed crime and pains it. Thus the formula is stated an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, life for life . This right reciprocity was not applied in all civilizations, where during a certain time the Vendetta persisted.

Ancient Greece

With time, the application of the law of the Retaliation, which was then spring of the victim or her family, amounted to the hand of the judicial Power, alone ability condemning to dead a criminal. It was the case in Europe in the Greece and the ancient Rome. It is in these companies and in particular in Greece, that reflections on the role of the capital punishment appeared.

Protagoras (of which the thought is reported by Plato) criticized the principle of revenge because once the evil is made, it can be cancelled by no action. Thus if the capital punishment were to be inflicted by the company, it is only to protect the latter against the criminal or with a dissuasive aim.

Plato for its part sees in the capital punishment a means of Purification, because the crimes are one stain . Thus in the Laws , he considers necessary the execution of the animal or the destruction of the successor in title object the death of a Homme by accident. For the murderers, he considers that the act of homicide is not natural and is not fully agreed by the criminal. The homicide is thus a disease of the heart, which should as far as possible be rehabilitated. And in last spring, to condemn to death, if no rehabilitation is possible.

Aristote, for which the free will is the characteristic of the Man, the citizen is responsible for its acts. If crime there were, a Juge must define the sorrow making it possible to cancel the crime by compensating for it. Thus pecuniary allowances appeared for the least recalcitrant criminals and whose rehabilitation is considered to be possible. But for the others, the capital punishment is necessary for Aristote.

This philosophy aiming on the one hand at protecting the company and on the other hand to compensate in order to cancel the consequences of the committed crime will inspire the Western criminal law until the 17th century, time when the first reflections appear on the complete abolition of the capital punishment.

Ancient Rome

In the ancient Rome, the application of the capital punishment against the Roman citizens and was considered to be not very current like exceptional, auquelle one preferred alternative sentences to him going according to the crime and the criminal of the private or public reprimand, with the exile or torture, or the prison and in last spring, death. It was different for the foreigners who were regarded as inferiors with respect to the Roman citizen and especially the slaves, considered as a thing in the inheritance ( LMBO in patrimonio ).

For the Romans, the capital punishment, in addition to protecting the company was to make it possible to satisfy the victim, like in the case of the exemplary sorrows, to dissuade the criminals. This aspect of Roman philosophy is resulting from the Greek Callistrate, who wrote in Digeste that the assassins of main road would undergo the sorrow of the cross at the place even where they committed their crimes so that, by this terrifying spectacle, the others are dissuaded from similar fixed prices, also so that this sorrow, inflicted on the place even of the infringement, that is to say a consolation for the parents and the close relations of the victims . The utilitarian role of the capital punishment was reinforced during the last two centuries of the République.

The increasingly large influence of the Christian Religion had very little influence on the capital punishment in ancient Rome, contrary to the Moyen-âge.

The Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, the Christian religion had a considerable importance. The King S and prince S reigned while taking the advice of the Church. The latter was according to the committed times, and especially crimes, more or less reticent with the application of the capital punishment, because preventing the Rédemption. The fact that it is the justice of the Men which pronounced the sorrows was also a critical subject for the Church, because the latter considered that this justice is nonnatural, contrary to the divine Droit, alone ability to take again what it had given.

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, according to the areas, one preferred with the capital punishment the pecuniary remunerations. The king frankly Clovis legislated in particular on this subject and codified a broad series of crimes in the Salic law. This price, the Wergild (or price of the Man), fixed the sum to be paid for a removed life, like for other crimes considered as low registers. This law aimed to prevent the private brawls and other revenges in order to guarantee the Paix. This last point is the raison d'être of the salic law. Thus the culprit had the obligation to pay with the victim or its family a certain sum, the latter had the obligation to accept it. Once that made, the business was closed.

Only certain crimes could not be punished wergild and required the capital punishment, like the violences against the king. That was explained by the fact why the sovereign did not have a price because was not a simple Man, but the representative of God on Earth. Thus only in some exceptional cases like this one, the capital punishment could be marked. This limited application of the capital punishment was for the Free men, for thefree ones it was different.

This philosophy of the criminal law fluctuated with time, sometimes being more severe and sometimes more flexible. In France, under the reign of the Carolingian , the number of the types of punishable offenses of the capital punishment increased, as well as the total severity of the other sorrows. That came owing to the fact that the sovereigns wished to found the order in an empire in full decomposition after the death of Charlemagne. Here, it was the dissuasive side which preceded.

Lights

Whereas during the Middle Ages the expiatory aspect of the capital punishment was taken into account, it is not any more the case under the Lumières. The latter define the place of the Man within the company either according to a divine rule, but as a contract establishes with the birth between the citizen and the company, it is the social Contract. As from this moment, the capital punishment must be seen like useful for the company, by its dissuasive effect, but also like means of protection of the latter with respect to the criminals. Determinism human of certain philosophers, like Julien Offray of Mettrie and Denis Diderot which considers that since the Man is not free of his actions (which are dictated to him by its environment, his physical constitution or his feelings), the only aspect which prevails in the capital punishment is the protection of the company. On this subject, Diderot is rather clear: Malfaisant is a Man whom it is necessary to destroy and not punish .

Thomas Hobbes considers that the social Contract exists to ensure the order in the company, thus guaranteeing the conservation in the time of the latter. By breaking this contract, the criminal threatens the company, the latter is thus in right to protect itself while condemning to dead the culprit. John Locke insists on the dissuasive aspect by writing that in the state of nature any Man to the capacity to kill an assassin in order to divert the others to cause a similar damage .

It is well the state security, by the respect of the social Contract which precedes at the time of the Lights. This logic is pushed to the extreme at the time of the French revolution, where nonthe revolutionists (or at least judged as such) must be destroyed to ensure the success of new the mode, it is the introduction of the Terreur.

Abolition

In 1757 in Paris, following the cruelty of the Torture which undergoes Robert François Damiens during his execution for the aggression against Louis XV, a free trade movement appears.

According to the councils of the criminologist Beccaria, the Pierre-Léopold large-duke of Tuscany (future Germanic emperor under the name of Léopold II) was the first sovereign to abolish the capital punishment, in 1786 in Toscane.

The Venezuela abolishes it in 1863, following the federal Guerre, under the presidency of Juan Crisóstomo Falcón, with the Decree of Guarantees. This abolition will be registered in the news Constitution of 1864. The Republic of San Marino abolishes the capital punishment for all the crimes in 1865, after having abolished it for the crimes of common right in 1843. With the Kingdom of the Portugal, the capital punishment was abolished in 1867 for the common rights and the last execution goes back to 1849.

With the Canada the capital punishment is abolished officially since the July 16th 1976 for all the crimes except certain crimes committed by soldiers. Between 1968 and 1976 the law held the capital punishment with the murderers of police officers and prison warders. In the facts, no execution took place since 1962. For the Canadian soldiers, the capital punishment was abolished officially in 1998 although no soldier was condemned to died by a tribunal military and carried out since the Second world war (only one execution). Lastly, the Supreme court of Canada ruled the February 15th 2001 that no defendant could be extradited abroad without the Government of Canada not obtaining guarantees that the capital punishment neither necessary nor would be applied if this defendant were extradited.

Since the beginning of the Years 1980, many Democracy S, like the France or the Germany, abolished the capital punishment.

In France, the vote of abolition dates from the September 18th 1981 (National Assembly in 2nd reading). The law of abolition was promulgated the October 9th 1981, under the presidency of François Mitterrand. After three executions at the end of the five years of the presidency of Georges Pompidou, under the presidency of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, 1974 with 1981, three capital executions were carried out: those of Christian Ranucci the July 28th 1976 and of Jerome Carrein the June 23rd 1977 and finally last capital execution in France, that of Hamida Djandoubi the September 10th 1977. Jacques Chirac, adversary notorious of the capital punishment, concluded its presidency in Constitution nalisant its abolition, step initiated in January 2007 by the adoption of the text in first reading with the National Assembly. The senators and the deputies assembled in congress on February 19th, 2007 confirmed by 828 votes against 26 the adoption of this text. Article 66-1 thus written was added to the constitution: " No one cannot be condemned to mort."

With the the United States, thirty-eight of the fifty federate States and the Federal state itself took again this practice after a short suspension in the Années 1970. The the United States are one of the rare democracies with the Japan and the India to continue to apply it.

Except in certain American States - which thus restored it - the question of abolition seldom was the subject of consultations chief clerks. In the majority of the countries of the world, including the democracies, the public opinion is rather favorable to the capital punishment, it is however necessary to moderate this situation in the United States. Indeed, the majority of the States authorizing the capital punishment almost do not apply it. Much of them has also a sorrow with perpetuity, which is really carried out (contrary to the sorrows with perpetuity as in France and to the Canada which is never entirely accomplished). Only about fifteen States like the Texas, the Virginia, the Florida or the California apply it regularly.

The protocol number 6 of the European Convention of the human rights prohibits the capital punishment safe in time of war. This protocol was signed by all the members of the the Council of Europe, except the Russia. The protocol number the 13 interdict in all circumstances, including in time of war, but of many members did not sign it.

Execution of the sorrow

Methods of execution

Others " died légales"

The capital punishment is distinguished from the Euthanasie, which is fully authorized by the patient.

The elimination of individuals considered to be undesirable (physical or mental handicapped people…), having sometimes been practiced (as in the Nazi Germany) is not regarded as a capital punishment, because the latter implies a Châtiment following a crime.

The application of the self-defense, in particular by members of the police force, which is of the representative of the State, does not constitute an application of the capital punishment. It is the same for the deaths caused by military operations, except in particular cases contravening the Droit of the war.

The civil Mort is a form of capital punishment removing the legal Personality of the person who is condemned there. It is thus found juridically dead and not being able to enjoy its rights.

Discusses

The capital punishment is a very discussed subject. In certain countries where it was abolished, certain parties or political groups ask for its re-establishment, with an aim of better fighting against criminality.

in France, it is the case of the National front, of Philippe de Villiers, Alain Madelin, but also of deputies of the right parliamentary, and of Charles Pasqua - and of which some deposited private bills for this purpose.

In Italy, old the president of the council Silvio Berlusconi stated to be with personal capacity in favor of the capital punishment.

With the Canada, the Conservative party of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper (in function since February 2006) is resulting from a formation (Canadian Alliance) which supports the principle of a consultation on the capital punishment. In 1994, Harper had supported that the capital punishment was the answer to the rise of the Criminalité. In 2004, it still affirmed qu'" it will not file in bills on morals questions like the Avortement or the capital punishment but only, if a simple deputy took the initiative of it, there would be a free vote with the House of Commons " . If it withdrew this proposal for a its electoral program of 2006 in order to allure an electorate Centriste, it does not remain about it less than the preserving party is regarded as a party overall favorable to the principle of the capital punishment.

In Poland, the president Lech Kaczynski (elected in 2005) was explicitly declared in favor of the reintroduction of the capital punishment.

the Capital punishment in the United States does not depend only on the federal law, but especially on those of each federate State. Certains States oscillated during the times between abolition and re-establishment (the Supreme court of the State of New York for example declared in June 2004 the procedure as regards capital punishment incompatible with the constitution of the State just like had briefly done it the Supreme court of the United States at the beginning of the Années 1970). On his side, encouraged by the opinion polls, the governor of the Massachusetts, Mitt Rommey, proposed a law at the Parliament of the State in order to reintroduce the capital punishment for certain crimes whereas the States of the Illinois and the Maryland observed a moratorium. The last State to have reintroduced the capital punishment is the Tennessee by the means of the referendum in 1998. The Federal state readopted the capital punishment in 1988 for certain federal and military crimes. The acceptance of the capital punishment by 38 of the 50 States, is one of the subjects of cultural controversy between this country and other political countries or groups, in particular in Western Europe.

Partisans of the capital punishment

Their arguments

The partisans of the capital punishment are it for various sometimes implicit reasons. Let us quote in particular:

the capital punishment is a means of dissuasion with respect to the criminals, as it the result of a study of Paul R. Zimmerman suggests, who by using the Probabilité S.A. calculated that over the period going of 1978 with 1997 in the United States, each execution would have avoided an average of fourteen murders.

Ainsi, studying the period 1933-1967, Isaac Ehrlich declares in an article of 1975 that each execution dissuades eight murder. -->

the set of themes of the miscarriage of justice would not be really relevant: up to now American justice recognized forever officially as innocent somebody who would have been carried out beforehand|date= August 29th, 2007 .

In France, the left writer of Gilles Perrault exploited the rhetoric of the miscarriage of justice much through a book and a film “ red Pullover ”, supposed works of fiction to clear, by the setting in front of this disconcerting vestimentary element, Christian Ranucci, carried out on July 28th 1976 for the removal and the murder of a young girl. But the cinematographic assembly does not resist the facts:

Ranucci led itself the investigators on the spot where it had buried the weapon of the crime;
mackled pants of blood (of the same group as its victim) and a hair similar to that of its victim were found in its Peugeot.

the problem of the miscarriage of justice is not that of the nature of the sorrow, it is that of the proof. Justice is a human and consequently fallible institution. The existence of miscarriage of justices is thus inescapable. However, their gravity can be considerable and not only in the case of the capital punishment: to deprive a man of freedom when it is innocent can lead it to the suicide. Thus one of the innocent defendants of the Affaire of Outreau put an end to its days. The journalist Jean Yves Gallou put the question " then; Is necessary it for as much removing any form of detention préventive" ?

the capital punishment is an adequate sanction in the companies where the degree of individual responsibilisation is higher. According to this argument, each one is responsible for its acts and can pay it with the full price;

the capital punishment is a case of self-defense by subrogation. The company subrogates the victim which did not have the possibility of using its right to the self-defense.

the execution of the murderers gets to the families, with the friends of the victim satisfaction not to see the assassin of their close relation continuing to live (Vengeance).

the capital punishment guarantees that dangerous criminals will never be released and again in situation to repeat. Indeed, in many countries, the custodial sentences with life (perpetuity) are not it and condemned can be released after a certain number of years (examples: Patrick Henry, Lucien Leger).

the criminal lost the right to assert its humanity to escape the capital punishment in the case of crimes known as " absolus" (for crimes against humanity for example). However, this assertion is in contradiction with the Universal declaration of the human rights. Indeed, the human rights are regarded there as inalienable rights and inherent in any person because of her human condition, the fact of establishing that a person cannot assert her humanity any more would not rest then on any legal basis, but on a philosophical base. " All the human beings are born free and equal in dignity and droits." , this basic principle applying even to the criminals.

a death sentence is often less cruel than a prolonged custodial sentence, particularly under conditions which can be required by the public for odious criminals (that can be conceived like against argument, because a partisan of the sorrow is supposed petitioning being of the most severe sanction).

the capital punishment is a means economic to get rid of dangerous criminals, whose continued detention is expensive (food, housing, expenses of the detention conditions) and risky (they do not fear anything to try to escape or to make other murders on fellows-prisoner or the guards). However, the economic argument knows some limiting, in particular within the framework of the legal procedures which, because of their duration and their complexity, can generate high costs. The example of some States of the United States of America being most convincing.

in the democratic regimes, there exist authorities of calls allowing condemned in first authority to deny one second (even a third) time by means of arguments of funds (evidence) and form (violation of its rights) whereas its supposed victim was entitled to no recourse.

the capital punishment is tolerated by the Bible (Loi of Retaliation in the companies of origin Judeo-Christian) and by the Coran under the terms of the Charia (for the Moslems).

For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the social contract which establishes a company right aims to guarantee the conservation of the contractors and their freedom. To carry out this end the company can resort to the means which she considers necessary. The criminal by breaking his pact with respect to the company ceases being member about it and becomes at the same time his enemy from where it rises that the conservation of the State requires its execution.

Nor Voltaire, Locke, Montesquieu or even Kant does not object to this principle. The fight of the majority of the philosophers of the Lumières against the practices of their times does not call into question the capital punishment, but generally the course of the lawsuits (where, according to them, reign the religious insanity and passions) or some practical considered to be cruel as torture. For Hegel ( Principles of the philosophy of the right , 1821), the capital punishment for a murderer is only one act of recognition of the humanity of this last. Indeed, if justice consists in acting so that we can “universalize the maxim of our action” (the categorical imperative at Kant) then to kill the murderer consists in making him honor, and applying to him the choice of its own maxim.

In France, the National front is favorable to the capital punishment for several cases: assassins of children, paedophiles and serial killers. In 1986, the members of Parliament frontists had deposited a request for re-establishment of the capital punishment. Charles Pasqua and Philippe de Villiers also raises the question of a revision of the law about this subject.
According to a survey carried out in September 2006 by TNS Sofres, 42% of the French wish the re-establishment of the capital punishment.

However, the surveys relating to the capital punishment do not give the same results according to the context in which they were carried out. A business of murder, concerning particularly the public opinion, can result in to increase the favorable opinions with the capital punishment.

Pleas for the capital punishment

In 1976, some time after the assassination of the small Philippe Bertrand by Patrick Henry, the singer Michel Sardou made public a named song I am for where it described a father affirming his determination to kill the assassin of its child (inspiration of the case of the father of the child assassinated by Lucien Leger). This song having caused some movements at the opponents with the capital punishment, the singer affirmed, thereafter, that itself was not necessarily favorable to the capital punishment, and that he regretted not rather not to have named his song: the retaliation . Then Michel Sardou reconsidered his opinion, declaring on October 29th, 2000 with Michel Drucker who it is finally for the capital punishment on the plate of Highly Sunday (France 2).

The January 16th 2006 in France, ten prisoners of the power station of Clairvaux (Paddle) condemned to the life imprisonment Co-signed a plea claiming the active re-establishment of the capital punishment to their fate of “alive trapped miners”. “We prefer to finish good once for very of them to see us bursting with small fire, without hope of any following day, after good more than 20 years of absolute miseries”. This apparent plea for the capital punishment is in fact an indictment against perpetuity, because their principal matter is the complaint not to have “any real prospect for release at the conclusion of their minimum recommended sentence”. The answer of the Minister for Justice is based on this ambiguity: “If one took them with the word, how much would present themselves? ”

In France, the capital punishment meets also a continuous support on behalf of the extreme-right-hand side.

In Poland, the Political party Droit and justice, with the capacity since October 2005, commits itself restoring the capital punishment if it gains the legislative elections of October 2007. He also refused to make take part the country in the European Journée against the capital punishment of October 10th, 2007. In China, Teng Xingshan was carried out for the murder of his wife in 1989, whereas one found it in 2005. Moreover, Wang Zhenchuan admits publicly that “the majority of the miscarriage of justices in China are the consequence of consents extorted under torture”. A study of the Université of Columbia in the United States showed that nearly 7 death sentences on 10, pronounced between 1973 and 1995, had to be revised by the judges following serious deficiencies with the law.

the capital punishment is in contradiction with the principle of redemption (without particular religious connotation). One gives up the possibility that the criminal can change and to improve, to be able to regret its action and to take again a place in the company. There be in this direction in the United States several debates on the relevance of the execution of criminals who, sometimes twenty years after the facts, had entirely changed. A justice which applies the capital punishment thus locates in a logic of punishment and not of rehabilitation. Justices " modernes" democracies (except notable for the United States) tending to evolve to a logic of rehabilitation of the criminals rather than a punitive logic, it is logical that they give up this sorrow.
Certains crimes is made in a passion state , where the assassin is unable of any logical reasoning, thinking that the death of its victim is more important than its clean dead. The dissuasive rational side of the law would be then ineffective.
According to the abolutionnists, the abolition of capital punishment would not have a dissuasive effect on criminality. In the United States, where the capital punishment is applied, the number of crimes largely exceeds that of other countries where it is not it, as in Western Europe. The criminologist Roger Hood, which studied on the scale of planet the application and the results of the abolition of the capital punishment, concluded that no increase in the homicides was observed and that no research proved that the executions had an effect more dissuasive than the custodial sentences with perpetuity.
To use death to punish a murderer would return to " to lower itself with its niveau" and would not be compatible with the human values.
the judgment can be faded by peripheral and contextual elements, like the service of shown at the time of the audiences, its appearance, the possible racism of the judge or of sworn, the social position of the defendant, the quality of his lawyer… A judgment become unjust because of one or several of the elements quoted previously leading to died of the defendant is unacceptable.
If it is admitted that criminality is partly the consequence of promiscuity and the injustices and frustrations generated by the company (what one calls the extenuating circumstances), consequently, it can be seen as unjust that this same company carries out criminals for faults of which it carries at least a share of responsibility - what consists in transferring a share from the responsibility for shown on the company.
That the State shows a contempt for the human life at the point to kill its subjects for the example is against-productive.
the nondemocratic modes can use theoretically if necessary the capital punishment like a legal means definitively to get rid of political opponents (even if in practice, they resort directly to summary executions without being encumbered legal quibbles).
According to Amnesty the USA, the capital punishment would be more expensive than perpetuity. The USA the capital punishment costs on average 1,26 against million dollars: 740000 dollars for a life sentence.
the only great democracies applying the capital punishment nowadays are the India, the the United States and the Japan. The criticism of the capital punishment is sometimes related to a criticism of these companies.
One should not in no case to confuse justice (recognition of the undergone damage) with revenge (will to cause a wrong). The first can constitute a first step towards a cure of the victim while the second locks up the victims in negative feelings.
the international law can also constitute an obstacle. France belonging to the European Union and being thus subjected to the Community legislation, a reform aiming at restoring the capital punishment (as political parties can promise it) would be difficult even impossible to set up because of the European texts. In 1981, the the European Parliament decided for the abolition of the capital punishment to a majority of 143 votes (32 against, 20 abstentions). In addition to this vote, the Charte of the basic rights of the European Union stipulates in its article 2 that no one cannot be condemned to the capital punishment, nor carried out .

In the Last Day of one condemned (1829), Victor Hugo watch which the capital punishment can appear a crime. Admittedly it kills before a whole criminal, but by doing this it also indirectly kills her old mother and his sick wife who cannot live without her support. Condemned then wonders what will become his/her daughter (the effect of a life sentence is not evoked by the author).

Fight against the capital punishment

Today of many associations or international organizations fight against the capital punishment in the world. One can in particular quote the International federation of the human rights (FIDH), Amnesty International, Ensemble against the capital punishment (ECPM), or the Action of the Christians for the abolition of torture (ACAT) According to the countries, the abolitionists tackle the capital punishment differently. Whereas in Europe it is mainly for reasons morals that the capital punishment was abolished, with the the United States, the abolitionists prefer to tackle the capital punishment on its principal weak point, the miscarriage of justices. The reason is that a vast majority of the American population (between 66 and 80% according to the times) does not see a moral disadvantage with the sorrow of mort.

Famous abolitionists

South Africa: Desmond Tutu | Nelson Mandela

Germany: Friedrich Nietzsche | Rosa Luxemburg

Belgium: Baudouin Ier, which systematically used the Royal pardon until official abolition

the United States: George Ryan | John Kerry | John Paul Stevens | Michael Dukakis | Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Stephen Breyer | David Souter | Arthut Goldberg | Clarence Darrow | William O. Douglas | Thurgood Marshall | William J. Brennan | Jesse Jackson

France: Voltaire | Duport, politician of the 18th century | Marquis de Sade | Frederic Bastiat | Robert Badinter (Minister for the Justice of François Mitterrand and principal craftsman of the abolition of the capital punishment in France) | Albert Camus | Jean Ferrat | Victor Hugo | Jean Jaurès | Aristide Briand | Gaston Leroux | François Mitterrand, president under whom the capital punishment was abolished in France | Maximilien de Robespierre | Philippe Séguin | Jacques Chirac | Victor Schoelcher | Georges Brassens | Jean Shoed |.

Italy: Cesare Beccaria

Morocco: Driss Benzekri

Poland: Jean-Paul II | Lech Wałęsa | Aleksander Kwaśniewski | Jan Olszewski

Russia: Fedor Dostoïevski

Geopolitics of the capital punishment

Applying country the capital punishment

In 2003, Amnesty International listed 1146 official declarations of executions in twenty-eight country. The China (726), the Iran (108), the the United States (65) and the Vietnam (64) account for 84% of these declarations. The real number of executions is probably quite higher: Amnesty International estimates that sixty-three countries applied the capital punishment this same year, and only for China, the figure of: 10000 executions was advanced by a Chinese deputy in March 2004.

According to the Daily Le Monde of the June 25th 2005, at least 5476 executions took place in 2004 in the world (5523 according to ONG Hands off Cain): the China remains in the forefront (5000 executions at least), then come the Iran (at least 197 executions in 2004), the Vietnam (at least 82), the the United States (59 compared with 65 in 2003), the North Korea (several tens), the Ouzbékistan (approximately 50), the Saudi Arabia (at least 38), the Pakistan (29), the Bangladesh (13), the Kuwait (9), the Bielorussia (5), the Egypt, the Sudan and the Somalia (on the whole 9 for Africa).

On the whole in 2005, quatre-vingt-six country gave up or suspended the capital punishment (latest to date the Liberia) of which seventy completely prohibited it. Five of these quatre-vingt-six country follow a moratorium and fifteen others are free trade in fact. The Russia suspended its application; it had been committed abolishing it in 1996, to be able to enter the the Council of Europe. Ten years later, the capital punishment still is not officially abolished in this country. Nourpachi Koulaev, a taking hostages of Beslan, was condemned to died by a court of Ossétie of North on May 26th, 2006. Being given the Moratory on the capital punishment, this sentence was transformed into prison with perpetuity.

Seventy-eight countries preserve in their criminal law the capital punishment including at least four democracies which carried out 65 people in 2004: Taiwan (3), the Japan (2), the India (1) and the United States (59). The number of executions is in fall these last years in the United States: 71 in 2002, 65 in 2003 and 59 in 2004 and 53 in 2006. In the same way, the number of death sentences was divided by three into ten years, passing from 317 in 1996 with 114 in 2006.

The capital punishment in Asia

In Japan

In Singapore

The December 2nd 2005, Nguyen Tuong Van, a Australia N of origin Vietnamese twenty-five year old, condemned to died to have introduced four hundred grams of Héroïne to Singapore (where the capital punishment is planned for any person found in possession of more than fifteen grams of this drug) was hung after the failure of multiple calls to leniency. The business scandalized part of the public opinion in Australia (free trade country where according to the surveys, the population remains very divided on the recourse to the capital punishment, 47% of Australian supporting the execution of Nguyen Tuong Van against 46%). The Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, justified the recourse to the capital punishment.

The January 26th 2007, two Africans, Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, a 21 year old Nigerian, and Okeke Nelson Malachy, a 35 year old stateless person, were hung, recognized guilty of heroin traffic. Tochi had been stopped with the airport Changi in November 2004 in possession of 727 grams heroin. Malachy had been stopped then, after being identified like the recipient of the narcotics. In spite of many calls to the leniency of which that of the president of the Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. Singaporean the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong did not commute the sorrow, calling upon “ the interests of the Singaporeans ”. He declared that “ He is of our duty to protect their lives from its fellow-citizens, who could differently be put in danger by the trusts of drug ” in his answer to the Nigerian president. The rapporteur of the council of UNO for the human rights, Philip Alston, had shown Singaporean justice not to have respected the rights of defense. According to him, the judges themselves recognized perhaps that Tochi did not know that it transported drug inside capsules.

With 4,4 million inhabitants, Singapore has the rate of capital execution per capita highest in the world with approximately 420 prisoners hung between 1991 and 2004, according to Amnesty International.

In China

Crimes being able to involve a death sentence

Here a nonexhaustive list of the crimes being able to involve a death sentence:

for “economic crimes” (Corruption):

China

for Murder:

Saudi Arabia, China, the United States (38 of the 50 States), Iran.

for drug trafficking (sorted by procedure):

by Decapitation: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen.
by Firing squad: China, Libya, Syria, Tadjikistan, Thailand, Vietnam.
by Hanging: Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore.
unknown Procedure: Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Oman, Pakistan, Turkménistan.

for Adultery (for women and men)

Lapidation: Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia.

for religious proselytism:

Saudi Arabia, Bengladesh, Iran, Pakistan.

for crime against the Chastity

Saudi Arabia, Iran

It is it should be noted that in time of war, the capital punishment is applied in several countries to the soldiers refusing to fight.

Minors at the time of the facts

Since 2005, the capital punishment for the minor was removed in the United States: in its stop on the business Roper against Simmons , returned on March 1st 2005, the Supreme court abolished the capital punishment for the minor criminals (of less than 18 years) at the time of the facts with 5 votes against 4. The court judged that the capital punishment for the minors was unconstitutional by violating the 8th amendment of the Constitution of the United States which prohibits the cruel or disproportionate punishments.

The China, the Congo-Brazzaville, the Iran, the Nigeria, the Pakistan, the Saudi Arabia and the Yemen continue to carry out the people convinced of crime while at the same time they were minor at the time of the facts.

Free trade countries

Today, 128 countries are free trade of right or fact while 69 countries maintain on the contrary the capital punishment. Italy received mandate of the European Union to create a moratorium on the executions which it will present to UNO in 2007.

Country practitioner an abolition in fact

Since abolition in right of the capital punishment by Chile in 2001, the capital punishment is abolished of right or fact in all the Latin-American States, except for Cuba and of the Guatemala (in Cuba, the law 87 on February 15th 1999 envisages on the contrary the extension of the capital punishment for the serious cases of drug trafficking, of corruption of minors and of armed robbery but no execution took place since 2003).

Victor Hugo mentions a king of the French Restoration if opposed to the principle of the capital punishment which it made systematically use of his right of reprieve, “and that of sound living the capital punishment like was abolished in fact”.

Recent abolitions

the June 24th 2006, the president Gloria Arroyo signed the decree abolishing the capital punishment with the Filipino , following the votes in this direction of the Parliament. Since her election, the president had opposed the execution of the 1200 condemned to died and had commuted to prison with perpetuity all the new judgments.
With the Rwanda, the law abolishing the capital punishment, adopted by the National Assembly at the beginning of June and the Senate on July 11th, was published in the Official journal and thus takes effect on July 25th.
the September 14th 2007, an official statement of the Council of Ministers of the Gabon announced abolition in right of the capital punishment (it is not practiced already any more since 1988); a vote of the Parliament must ratify this measurement.

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