Websites
NEWS PORTALS on the death penalty:
Death Penalty News in English – top post is “featured post”, new posts below!
Collected death penalty news in English language; probably the most detailed site of its kind – Editor: Rick Halperin
Daily news about the death penalty – USA and worldwide – in German language; including petitions and execution dates
BLOGS in English on the death penalty:
The blog “Minutes Before Six” regularly publishes essays, poems and artwork by prisoners – not all, but most are death row inmates in the USA. What began in 2007 with one death row inmate in Texas now includes writers in the triple digits, not only in Texas, but also in California, Florida, Virginia, and Washington.
This blog was created with the intention of giving readers a look behind the walls and bars of the U.S. prison system. Written from an insider’s perspective, the posts offer descriptions of the situation and the groups of people involved that can hardly be found elsewhere. (Also available in German.)
The blog of the “Connect Death Row” project talks about life on death row in the USA and gives an insight into the world of those who have to live there. Inmates, their family members and pen pals, as well as relatives of victims have their say and share their experiences in interviews and stories.
BLOGS & WEBSITES from actual prisoners:
Charles Raby has lived on Texas’ death row for 25 years for a murder he falsely confessed to in order to protect his girlfriend and her baby.
Crandell Ojore McKinnon has been on California’s death row since 1999 and maintains his innocence.
Arthur Lee Williams II was one of the oldest prisoners on Texas’ death row. In December 2018, his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
Darlie Routier has been on Texas’ death row since 1997.
Anti-death penalty ORGANIZATIONS
Anti-Death Penalty Coordination Group of Amnesty International
Amnesty International, which grew out of a purely prisoner aid organization, has since become one of the world’s leading human rights organizations. The international secretariat of Amnesty regularly launches actions and campaigns against the death penalty.
The task of the German coordination group is to pass on these actions in Germany and to inform about the issue of the death penalty here as well.
The Swiss organization Lifespark has specialized mainly in the mediation of pen-pal relationships with prisoners on death row. Lifespark places special emphasis on the care and support of its members who have such pen pals.
The Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) – Switzerland is a human rights organization that has been in existence since 1981 and is headquartered in Bern. With over 1500 members in the German, French and Italian parts of Switzerland, ACAT works for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty and torture.
ACAT advocates for those who have been tortured and sentenced to death – regardless of their ideology, religion or ethnicity, and regardless of their alleged or actual crime. ACAT also intervenes in cases of arbitrary detention and unfair trials, and advocates for persecuted human rights defenders or refugees to be repatriated to countries where they face torture or the death penalty.
Amnesty International – Abolish the death penalty
Official international site on Amnesty International’s death penalty abolition efforts. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner.
ADPAN Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network
The Anti-death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) is an independent informal network committed to working for the abolition of the Death Penalty within the Asia Pacific Region. The network is not linked to any political party or religion and is independent of all governments.
Death Penalty Action
Death Penalty Action (DPA) provides high visibility resources, leadership, support, educational and direct action events and activities within the broader anti-death penalty movement. DPA is led by seasoned anti-death penalty organizers and movement leaders in the USA. DPA is prepared to assist various local, state and national groups in their work to end the use of the death penalty.
Death Penalty Focus
Death Penalty Focus is one of the largest nonprofit advocacy organizations in the United States of America dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment through
public education; grassroots and political organizing; original research; media outreach; local, state and nationwide coalition building; and the education of religious, legislative and civic leaders about the death penalty and its alternatives.
Death Penalty Information Center
The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment.
The Center was founded in 1990 and prepares in-depth reports, issues press releases, conducts briefings for journalists, and serves as a resource to those working on this issue. The Center is widely quoted and consulted by all those concerned with the death penalty.
DUI HUA 对话
Dui Hua (对话) is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that seeks clemency and better treatment for at-risk detainees through the promotion of universally recognized human rights in a well-informed, mutually respectful dialogue with China.
Established in 1999, Dui Hua focuses on Chinese political and religious prisoners, juvenile justice, women in prison, and issues in criminal justice. The work rests on the premise that positive change is realized through constructive relationships and exchange.
The Equal Justice Initiative is a private, nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners within the United States who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system. Located in Alabama, the Initiative litigates on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged with violent crimes, poor people denied effective representation, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct across the United States.
Hands Off Cain
Hands Off Cain is a league of citizens and parliamentarians for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. It was founded in Brussels in 1993. Hands Off Cain is a non-profit organization and located in Italy.
Reprieve
Reprieve is an organisation of courageous and committed human rights defenders. Founded in 1999 by British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve provides free legal and investigative support to some of the world’s most vulnerable people: those facing execution, and those victimised by states’ abusive counter-terror policies – rendition, torture, extrajudicial imprisonment and extrajudicial killing.
Sant’Egidio
The lay religious community of Sant’Egidio works worldwide for the abolition of the death penalty. It has launched the worldwide campaign “Cities for Life”.
World Coalition against the Death Penalty
The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is an alliance of about 160 NGOs, bar associations, local bodies and unions.
The aim of the World Coalition is to strengthen the international dimension of the fight against the death penalty. Its ultimate objective is to obtain the definitive abolition of death sentences and executions in those countries where the death penalty is in force. In some countries, it is seeking to obtain a reduction in the use of capital punishment as a first step towards abolition.
Witness to Innocence is the only American organization founded and run by former death row inmates. Members are innocent people released from death row and their families. Members of Witness to Innocence speak about their experiences around the world, playing an important role in the anti-death penalty movement.
Innocence Project
The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing is an organization led by murder victim family members joined by death row family members, family members of the executed, the exonerated, and others with stories to tell, that conducts public education speaking tours and addresses alternatives to the death penalty.
Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights
MVFHR is an international, non-governmental organization of family members of murder victims and family members of the executed, all of whom oppose the death penalty in all cases.
GENERAL HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS:
Amnesty International Germany Section
Homepage of the German section of Amnesty International with country reports, letter-writing, urgent actions and campaigns.
International Society for Human Rights
The IGFM supports people who campaign non-violently for the realization of fundamental rights in their countries or who claim them and are persecuted for this reason. It provides information about human rights violations, provides humanitarian aid in the form of package drives and transports of relief supplies, and has carried out a number of projects over the past 10 years, such as the search for witnesses and victims of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, with financial support from the European Commission.
Amnesty International
Official international website of Amnesty International.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, HRW gives voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes.
Reprieve uses the prevailing law to enforce the human rights of detainees, whether they are held on death row or at Guantánamo. Reprieve focuses on cases in which detainees have been charged with the most extreme crimes, such as murder or terrorist offenses, because it is in such cases that human rights are most at risk of being ignored or undermined. In particular, cases involving the world’s most powerful governments will be scrutinized, including those that should be held to the highest standards of fair trial.