USA: The experiment that failed: A reflection on 30 years of executions

Index Number: AMR 51/011/2007
Date Published: 16 January 2007
Categories: Americas, USA

There are signs that the USA is slowly turning against the death penalty. An erosion of the public's belief in the deterrence value of the death penalty, an increased awareness of the frequency of wrongful convictions in capital cases, and a greater confidence that public safety can be guaranteed by life prison terms have all contributed to the waning of enthusiasm for capital punishment. This document urges that to end the death penalty is to abandon a destructive, diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values. The death penalty should be abolished.