News and Developments 2008: International

A new book, Against the Death Penalty: International Initiatives and Implications, features leading scholars on the death penalty and their analysis of both the promotion and demise of the punishment around the world. It considers the current efforts to restrict the death penalty within the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the African Commission, and the Commonwealth Caribbean. It also investigates perspectives and questions for retentionist countries with a focus on the United States, China, Korea, and Taiwan.  Among the authors in this compendium are Roger Hood, William Schabas, Peter Hodgkinson, and DPIC's Executive Director, Richard Dieter.

As many countries prepare to mark the international World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, recent trends indicate that the world is shifting away from capital punishment. According to a report published by Reprieve, an organization that represents death row prisoners around the world, 91 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes by the end of 2007, followed by three more so far in 2008. Even in Central Asia where executions are part of a long tradition, several countries have restricted or placed moratoriums on the use of the death penalty. In Africa, Rwanda abolished its death penalty in the past year while several other African nations have taken steps toward abolition. Overall, 137 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, while 60 countries continue to utilize capital punishment. Almost all state executions in 2007 were carried out by only five nations – China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States. At least 1,252 executions took place in 24 countries over the course of the year, 88% of them in the five nations listed above.

As a continent, Asia continues to lead the world in the greatest number of executions, the bulk of them occurring in China. Several nations, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Sudan, allow the death penalty for crimes not involving murder, such as adultery and consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex. Additionally, both Iran and Saudi Arabia executed juveniles in 2007. In Europe, where the European Union does not allow membership to any country with capital punishment, Belarus is the only nation that has retained the death penalty.

Since 2003, the United States has been the only country in the Americas to carry out executions. However, 2007 saw the lowest number of executions in over a decade and death sentences continue to drop across the nation.

In a 5-4 vote on August 5, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a stay of execution for Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen, who was then executed in Texas that night. On August 7, Heliberto Chi, an Honduran citizen, was also executed in Texas. Medellin's case had come before the Supreme Court on two previous occasions because the International Court of Justice had ruled that the U.S. had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not informing him and other foreign nationals of their rights under that treaty. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, without further action by Congress, Texas was not bound to hold up the execution, despite the treaty violation. In the most recent majority opinion rejecting Medellin's stay, the Court said that the prospect of Congress acting soon on this issue was remote. The four Justices who dissented from the denial of the stay each wrote separately about their concerns. Excerpts from some of their opinions follow:

The International Court of Justice has granted Mexico’s request for an order to stay the execution of five Mexican citizens on death row in the U.S. Mexico had requested the U.N.'s highest court, commonly referred to as the World Court, to intervene because the United States has failed to comply with an earlier ICJ judgment ordering a hearing to review the trials of the Mexican citizens. The World Court ruled in 2004 that the U.S. violated the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations because it had not provided the Mexican inmates access to their home country’s consular officials prior to their trials.

The ICJ held that the convictions and death sentences of 51 death row inmates required further review. President Bush acknowledged the judgment of the ICJ and ordered state courts to review the cases. Texas, however, refused, and the issue of the President's power went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jose Medellin, one of the death row inmates in Texas and a Mexican citizen, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce the ICJ's ruling and the President's memorandum. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal on March 25, 2008, stating that Bush had overstepped his authority. The majority opinion stated that the Constitution, “allows the President to execute the laws, not make them.”