Reprieve delivers justice and saves lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
Reprieve delivers justice and saves lives, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
Torture is a powerful word. It conjures up graphic images of abuse that until relatively recently, most British people were more likely to associate with history books or despotic regimes than the government they elected to lead them.
No longer. A cross-party human rights committee from both houses of parliament - the Commons and the Lords - has published a damning report that calls for an independent inquiry into what it describes as the "disturbing number of credible allegations of UK complicity in torture".
No one is suggesting that British intelligence agents tortured anyone themselves. Instead, they are accused of working with ...
In a 2-1 ruling , a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel said that upcoming Reynolds' execution should not proceed before a federal court considers the issues with the botched execution of Romell Broom. As a result Gov. Ted Strickland placed a hold on executions of 2 death row inmates.
The court pointed to "serious and troubling difficulties in executing at least three inmates" that raised questions about whether prison officials are "completely adhering to the Ohio lethal injection protocol."
Broom's execution was halted after two hours during which emergency medical technicians failed to find a suitable vein to hook ...
Texas Governor Rick Perry suddenly decided to fire three board members of the state agency, whose investigation into the controversial 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham could help establish that Rick Perry is the first Governor in the US to have signed the death warrant of an innocent man.
The move is compared by critics to Nixon's in the Watergate when Nixon fired the prosecutor Archibald Cox to avoid turning over the Watergate tapes.
The new chairman chosen by Rick Perry, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley is considered one of the most conservative, hard-line prosecutors in Texas. He ...
This Monday, the 5th October, Linda Carty will turn fifty-one in her Texas jail cell. Since losing her appeal at the start of September, Linda must live with the awful knowledge that this birthday may be her last. If her final appeal fails she will be executed by lethal injection.
Please send Linda a birthday card, with a message of hope or support for the future. It will be an immense comfort to her in her solitary cell to know that there are people who care about her plight.
The British grandmother of two was sentenced to death in ...
Reprieve's new database records extraordinary renditions and secret prisons worldwide.
Reprieve has been busy building a prisons database to store and analyse research on renditions and secret prisons – including testimonies, flight logs and articles.
Thanks to the hard work of a team of volunteers and a programmer, Reprieve was able to open the Renditions Database to five partner organisations in early September 2009. The Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International, Cage Prisoners, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Rendition, and NYU School of Law are now active users of the database, which has become a valuable resource, enabling greater ...
British barrister Hugh Southey visits Linda on death row in Texas.
Linda Carty was very upbeat when I went to visit her on 13 August. Like most people would be in her position, she is frustrated by the lack of progress and her continuing separation from her family. However, that inevitable frustration did not prevent her from demonstrating her normal lively personality.
After concluding a discussion of various matters related to her case, Linda wanted to discuss matters such as the position of the England cricket team. Unfortunately, the fact we were meeting just after the Headingly debacle meant that ...
An recent editorial in the New York Times reveals the immense economic drain on state governments generated by the death penalty.
States in the US waste millions of dollars on trials and lengthy appeals in death penalty cases. Reviewing those costs, the editorial argues that "Money spent on death rows could be spent on police officers, courts, public defenders, legal service agencies and prison cells".
For example:
A conference, the first of its kind organized by the the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights for Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, was held in Kigali last week to discuss the use of the death penalty on the continent.
50 representatives of various African Union member states and national human rights commissions appealed to African countries to emulate Rwanda by abolishing the death penalty from their legal systems.
In 2007, Rwanda became the first country in the Great Lakes region to repeal the death penalty, making it the 100th worldwide to abolish capital punishment. 14 countries in Africa ...
Under many circumstances, including when a person is killed or dies in apparently suspicious circumstances, an autopsy is required by the State of Texas.
The medical examiner is required to provide insight on how and why somebody has died, by examining the body and analysing lab results and clues from crime scenes.
However, as reported by an extensive article in the Star Telegram, a number of major autopsy failures is casting serious doubt on the system.
The article reports that over the years, Texas medical examiners have misidentified bodies, botched examinations and had to reconsider cases of individuals later exonerated ...
The world was recently shaken by the Romell Broom failed execution: After two hours, and a recount of 18 needles insertions failures, the execution team gave up his execution, facing the reality that they simply couldn't put him to death. The news hit the world as it was the first "failed execution" by lethal injection .
However, looking at history, botched executions by lethal injection are actually numerous (but resulted ultimately in the death of the inmate).
. The needle inserted in Raymond Landry's arm popped out a couple of minutes after the drugs had started to flow and it ...
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