Resources

Behind the Prison Gates provides a detailed account of the findings of a visit to the Belize Central Prison by Joseph Middleton, a leading human rights lawyer in the UK. The visit and the report were commissioned by The Death Penalty Project in order to identify general issues of concern in Belize Central Prison, with a particular focus on those still…

This report on wrongful convictions in capital cases was published in association with the Centre for Criminology at Oxford University, the Centre for Prisoners’ Rights in Japan and the University of Virginia School of Law. The report, The inevitability of error: The administration of justice in death penalty cases was launched at events held in Puerto Rico and Japan. The report provides a…

This report, published in association with the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, examines Taiwan’s legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Taiwan passed legislation to incorporate the ICCPR into the domestic legal order in 2009, yet the current death penalty practice is largely out of line with the contemporary understanding of the ICCPR as…

On 28th January 2014, The Death Penalty Project’s third annual lecture was held at the Inner Temple. Professor William Schabas delivered and inspiring lecture entitled: “Universal Abolition: Only a Decade Away” 

This report, launched in association with the Bar Council Malaysia, presents the findings of a public opinion survey on the mandatory death penalty carried out in Malaysia. In October 2012, the DPP commissioned Professor Roger Hood, Professor Emeritus of Criminology at the University of Oxford, to design and analyse the findings of a public opinion survey on the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia. The…

This report, produced in collaboration with the Centre for Prisoners’ Rights, examines Japan’s death penalty from two perspectives. The first is a doctrinal approach to capital punishment based on human rights principles enshrined in international human rights law. The second perspective critically explores the notion that majority public support for the death penalty is an obstacle to abolition. Part One of the report…

This Handbook is designed specifically to assist mental health professionals and lawyers engaged in capital trials, sentencing hearings, appeals and mercy hearings. In far too many cases, individuals who have been sentenced to death are found to be suffering from mental illness and/or an intellectual disability. In order to protect those with mental illness from the imposition of the death penalty…

To mark International Human Rights Day 2012, we launched our short video which provides a snapshot of the organisation and an insight into our work.

For more than 20 years, The Death Penalty Project has worked to protect the human rights of those facing the death penalty. As a result of our work, the mandatory death penalty has been abolished in ten Commonwealth Caribbean countries as well as Uganda, Kenya and Malawi, and the lives of hundreds of prisoners facing execution have been saved. This…

In collaboration with the Independent Jamaican Council of Human Rights (1998) Ltd (IJCHR),  we assisted James Robottom, a barrister from 7 Bedford Row Chambers, to visit Jamaica and conduct ground research on current conditions of detention in Jamaica’s prisons. This Observation Report presents the findings from this visit, providing an insightful account of the conditions of detention in Jamaica. An overview…

This report, by Professor Roger Hood and Dr Florence Seemungal, presents findings from a public opinion survey carried out with a representative sample of 1,000 residents of Trinidad on the subject of the death penalty. In particular, the study investigates attitudes towards the use of the mandatory death penalty for murder under Trinidadian law. The data was collected in Trinidad…

The DPP assisted local lawyers in Singapore in the case of Yong Vui Kong, who faced execution after being convicted of drug trafficking.