NCJ Number
189925
Journal
Punishment & Society Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2001 Pages: 331-354
Date Published
July 2001
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the extent to which the international movement to abolish capital punishment has been successful and discusses some of the influences that have produced a remarkable increase in the number of abolitionist countries in the past two decades.
Abstract
The modern movement to abolish the death penalty has its roots in the liberal utilitarian and humanistic ideas spawned by the enlightenment in Europe at the end of the 18th century. When Norval Morris reported on the status of capital punishment across the globe, he found that by 1965 12 countries had abolished it, and an additional 12 had abolished it for ordinary crimes in peace-time; however, over the last 35 years, the number of abolitionist countries has increased more than three-fold; as of December 2000 the number was 87, with the vast majority of these countries having abolished the death penalty for all crimes in peace-time or in time of war. This rapid increase in the number of abolitionist countries has meant that the abolitionist movement has become more widespread across the regions of the world. Still, a total of 107 countries have capital punishment on their statute books. Capital punishment is embedded in the religiously based cultures of the Islamic states and is widely supported on the grounds of its supposed deterrent effects in Southeast Asia, China, and the Caribbean. Thirty-eight U.S. States have capital-punishment laws, although 7 of them have yet to execute any person since the constitutionality of the death penalty was affirmed in 1976. Since then, nearly two-thirds of the executions have occurred in five States: Texas, Virginia, Florida, Missouri, and Louisiana. On January 1, 2001, 3,726 inmates were housed on the United States' death rows. Action that might be taken to fuel the international movement to abolish capital punishment in countries where it remains entrenched include continuing diplomatic pressure, reduction in the scope of capital punishment, continuing legal challenges, more information and research, and political action in opening up dialog. 4 tables, 5 notes, and 45 references