Governance & funding

The Death Penalty Project is a not-for-profit company (05579286) and a registered charity (1115035).

The Death Penalty Project Limited Company is the operating arm of the organisation and responsible for our work. The Charitable Trust is a sister charity and fundraising arm of the organisation that provides funds to The Death Penalty Project Ltd to conduct charitable objectives. They have a joint framework agreement and separate governance structures.

The company was established due to the Charity Commission’s restrictions on charitable objectives as they relate to ‘political activity’ under human rights work. We are opposed to the death penalty, for all people in all circumstances, and want to see the punishment consigned to history. For that reason, our legal structure operates under two entities to allow us to explicitly undertake work which advocates for full abolition of capital punishment – alongside our wider charitable objectives defending the human rights of people in prison.

Our Trustees oversee and direct the work and administration of the Charitable Trust. They ensure we comply with all Charity Commission requirements and other statutory obligations, while also contributing their expertise to the Trust’s governance and fundraising. Trustees serve in an individual capacity rather than as representatives of the Limited Company. Half of our Trustees are fully independent, meaning they are not also members of the Limited Company’s Board. All Trustees must work in the best interests of the Charitable Trust when carrying out their duties and must disregard any conflicting interests.

The Board of The Death Penalty Project Ltd is responsible for the oversight and overall management of the non-profit Limited Company. Accountable to our funders and other key stakeholders, their role is to ensure sound governance, legal compliance, prudent financial management and sustainability and effective delivery of the organisation’s objectives.

We receive grants and donations from a range of institutional, governmental and individual donors to both The Death Penalty Project Limited Company and The Death Penalty Charitable Trust, depending on the requirements of each donor. We manage our finances in accordance with policies and procedures approved by our Board of Directors and Trustees.

We are incredibly grateful for the continued support of all our funders and individual donors who make our work possible.

The Death Penalty Project’s origins began in the law firm Simons Muirhead Burton LLP (SMB), which, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, increasingly took on death penalty cases pro bono for people on death row in the Caribbean. In the 1990s, the firm hired our Co-Executive Directors Saul Lehrfreund and Parvais Jabbar as dedicated death penalty and human rights specialists. Within a decade, their work had grown to the degree that The Death Penalty Project was formally registered as an official, independent entity.

As well as nurturing our beginnings, SMB continue to provide us with critical support. They have always housed us within their offices in Soho, and through their generous in-kind and financial support, contribute to our core costs. Trainee lawyers at SMB are able to spend time with The Death Penalty Project as part of their training contract. In addition, several staff members of SMB sit on our Board of Directors and act as Trustees for the Charitable Trust.

Over five decades since SMB began working on death penalty cases, together, we’re making marked progress towards of our vision of a world without the death penalty.