The fifth edition of this highly praised study charts and explains the progress that continues to be made towards the goal of worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The majority of nations have now abolished the death penalty and the number of executions has dropped in almost all countries where abolition has not yet taken place. Emphasising the impact of international human rights principles and evidence of abuse, the authors examine how this has fuelledchallenges to the death penalty and they analyse and appraise the likely obstacles, political and cultural, to further abolition. They discuss the cruel realities of the death penalty and the failure of international standards always to ensure fair trials and to avoid arbitrariness, discrimination andconviction of the innocent: all violations of the right to life. They provide further evidence of the lack of a general deterrent effect; shed new light on the influence and limits of public opinion; and argue that substituting for the death penalty life imprisonment without parole raises many similar human rights concerns.This edition provides a strong intellectual and evidential basis for regarding capital punishment as undeniably cruel, inhuman and degrading. Widely relied upon and fully updated to reflect the current state of affairs worldwide, this is an invaluable resource for all those who study the death penalty and work towards its removal as an international goal.

Introduction; 1 The Abolitionist Movement: Progress and Prospects; 2 In the Vanguard of Abolition; 3 Where Capital Punishment Remains Contested; 4 The Scope of Capital Punishment in Law; 5 The Death Penalty in Reality: The Process of Execution and the Death Row Experience; 6 Excluding the Vulnerable from Capital Punishment; 7 Protecting the Accused and Ensuring Due Process; 8 Deciding Who Should Die: Problems of Inequity, Arbitrariness, and Racial Discrimination; 9 The Question of Deterrence; 10 A Question of Opinion or a Question of Principle?; 11 The Challenge of a Suitable Replacement; Appendices; Bibliography; Cases Cited; Index