World Day Against the Death Penalty: Reprieve Calls for Worldwide Abolition of the Death Penalty
10.10.07
Ahead World Day Against the Death Penalty (October 10th) Clive Stafford Smith, Director of Reprieve, UK charity which provides frontline investigation and legal representation to prisoners on death row, said:
“As the UK marks the World Day Against the Death Penalty, America is right now caught up in a farcical argument about whether the lethal injection is ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment. This is a process that can paralyse while failing to anaesthetise, leaving prisoners in unimaginable pain but unable to call out for help as the final drug induces massive heart failure and death. “Cruel and unusual” doesn’t really cut it.
“The time has come for the Americans to face up to reality: there is no humane way to execute someone.
“And we too are complicit in the grim example America sets to the rest of the world. Nearly forty years after Briton abolished the death penalty the government continues to allow other states to sentence our citizens to death. Across the world today 10 Britons are condemned to die. Some of them are certainly innocent. Others have seen vital forensic evidence disallowed in court – simply for reasons of flawed legal process. Even more have suffered the worst legal representation because they were too poor to pay. Yet all too often the British government does not intervene early enough. So this day of action is not just about countries that still execute prisoners. We need to look to ourselves.”
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For further information or interviews, please call the Reprieve press office on 020 7131 3609.
Reprieve provides frontline investigation and legal representation to prisoners denied justice by powerful governments across the world, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.
We prioritise the cases of prisoners held governments that should be upholding the highest human rights standards enshrined in international law.
We help prisoners facing the death penalty, particularly in America or when British nationals are involved. And we help prisoners denied justice in the name of the “war on terror”, such as those held without charge or trial in Guantánamo Bay and the countless secret prisons beyond. None of these prisoners can afford to pay for representation.
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