USA: Arbitrary, discriminatory, and cruel: an aide-mémoire to 25 years of judicial killing

Index Number: AMR 51/003/2002
Date Published: 17 January 2002
Categories: Americas, USA

On the occassion of the 25th anniversary of the resumption of judicial killings in the United States Amnesty International issues a report recalling the cases of some 200 of those executed since 1977. It looks at a number of issues surrounding the use of the death penalty inlcuding the execution of juvenile offenders and the mentally ill, racial discrimination, unfair trials and the death penalty as cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It also examines other factors such as the brutalizing nature of the death peanlty, its futility and its role in the political process.