Resources

This report examines the role and effectiveness of legal representation in death penalty cases in Bangladesh, a jurisdiction that continues to expand the use of capital punishment and where more than 2,600 people currently live under sentence of death. Drawing on empirical data and legal analysis, the study finds that individuals facing capital charges are routinely denied effective and competent…

In 2025, we provided direct representation or legal assistance to 20 individuals facing the death penalty. This included working with 13 British nationals facing death sentences abroad. Three people ultimately avoided a death sentence, and one person had their death sentence overturned. We also held high level engagements with policymakers and diplomatic allies in eight countries, published two reports exploring…

Entre maintien et abolition : Comprendre la peine de mort sans exécutions Ce rapport marque le 40e anniversaire de l’adoption de la catégorie « abolitionniste de facto » (ADF) dans les rapports quinquennaux des Nations Unies sur la peine de mort. Aujourd’hui, 42 États sont classés dans la catégorie ADF – États où aucune exécution n’a eu lieu depuis au…

This report marks the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the ‘abolitionist de facto’ (ADF) category in the UN’s quinquennial reports on the death penalty. Today, 42 states fall under the category of ADF – countries where no executions have taken place for at least a decade, but where the death penalty remains in law. Though an absence of executions…

One of the most deeply entrenched arguments in favour of capital punishment is the perceived demand for retribution by and for victims of crime and their families – ‘justice’ in the form of death sentences and executions. Much is at stake in this assertion of the value of retributive punishment, from the complex needs of victims in the aftermath of a traumatic…

One of the most deeply entrenched arguments in favour of capital punishment is the perceived demand for retribution by and for victims of crime and their families – ‘justice’ in the form of death sentences and executions. Much is at stake in this assertion of the value of retributive punishment, from the complex needs of victims in the aftermath of a traumatic…

This report provides an overview of progress and achievements during 2024, as well as our plans for 2025.

This report provides a review of our work and achievements across 2023, as well as our upcoming plans for 2024.

This report provides an overview of our work and achievements across 2022, as well as insight into our up-coming work in 2023.

This three-year research project (2022- 2025), co-directed by the Death Penalty Research Unit and The Death Penalty Project, will test the veracity of assumptions about who is convicted of drug offences and the deterrent effect of the death penalty. It will generate new empirical knowledge about who is on death row for drug offences and the factors that influence decisions…

In 2020-2021, The Death Penalty Project, in partnership with Community Legal Aid Institute, LBH Masyarakat, commissioned The Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU) at the University of Oxford, in association with University Centre of Excellence HIV/AIDS Research Centre-HPSI at Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia (AJCU),  to conduct the research building empirical knowledge on who is being convicted for drug offences…

At the end of 2021, more than 80% of all recorded death sentences in Indonesia were imposed for drug related offences. Together with LBH Masyarakat, we commissioned the Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU), University of Oxford and Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia (AJCU) to undertake research investigating the economic and social motivations for entry into Indonesia’s illicit drugs trade,…