Commutations of sentence and acts of clemency
Archive theme
A death sentence can be turned into a prison sentence by an act of clemency: commutation, pardon, amnesty, remission. These rest with heads of state, courts and clemency boards, and not infrequently arrive within hours of an execution.
For the association they are a concrete front: every commutation is a life, and the countries that grant many of them are often the ones closest to a moratorium in fact. This page collects the news on commutations, pardons and acts of clemency.
Latest news
- OCTOBER 28, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Abia State governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu may grant...
The Abia State governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu may grant the prerogative of mercy to four condemned persons by commuting their convicts to prison terms
- OCTOBER 28, 2002Trinidad & TobagoDEATH PENALTY
Dana Seetahal, an independent legislator and former...
Dana Seetahal, an independent legislator and former magistrate here told the Senate that she has been lobbying the Mercy Committee that is chaired by the Minister of National Security for a number of years to pardon convicted killers who had spent 16 year
- OCTOBER 28, 2002IllinoisDEATH PENALTY
Illinois' marathon death penalty clemency hearings...
Illinois' marathon death penalty clemency hearings drew to an end after more than two weeks of gruesome accounts and tearful pleas by victims' families
- OCTOBER 24, 2002IllinoisDEATH PENALTY
For nearly two weeks, the details of the most gruesome...
For nearly two weeks, the details of the most gruesome murders in recent Illinois history have been replayed for the public in a marathon set of clemency hearings that death penalty opponents now believe may have backfired and hurt their cause
- OCTOBER 21, 2002TaiwanDEATH PENALTY
The prosecutor-general of the Shihlin District Prosecutors'...
The prosecutor-general of the Shihlin District Prosecutors' office, Wu Chen-huan, said that abolishing the death penalty is a policy and it has nothing to do with morality
- OCTOBER 20, 2002IraqDEATH PENALTY
The Iraqi government announced an amnesty for all Iraqi...
The Iraqi government announced an amnesty for all Iraqi prisoners in an apparent attempt to rally domestic and international support in the face of U
- OCTOBER 18, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Prime Minister John Howard promised no mercy for the...
Prime Minister John Howard promised no mercy for the Bali bombers
- OCTOBER 14, 2002IllinoisDEATH PENALTY
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- OCTOBER 3, 2002TürkiyeDEATH PENALTY
Turkey's state security court formally lifted the death...
Turkey's state security court formally lifted the death sentence passed on Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan after his capture and trial in 1999, the state-run Anatolian news agency said
- SEPTEMBER 27, 2002South AfricaDEATH PENALTY
The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) appealed to...
The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) appealed to the Nigerian government to set aside the ruling of the Sharia Court that sentenced Amina Lawal to death by stoning for having had a baby outside wedlock
- SEPTEMBER 27, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) appealed to...
The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) appealed to the Nigerian government to set aside the ruling of the Sharia Court that sentenced Amina Lawal to death by stoning for having had a baby outside wedlock
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia is maintaining diplomatic pressure on Vietnam...
Australia is maintaining diplomatic pressure on Vietnam to waive the death penalty against an Australian woman convicted of drug trafficking
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2002VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Australia is maintaining diplomatic pressure on Vietnam...
Australia is maintaining diplomatic pressure on Vietnam to waive the death penalty against an Australian woman convicted of drug trafficking
- SEPTEMBER 9, 2002NigeriaDEATH PENALTY
Rome conferred honorary citizenship on a Nigerian woman...
Rome conferred honorary citizenship on a Nigerian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning by an Islamic court but acquitted on appeal after an international outcry
- SEPTEMBER 6, 2002IllinoisDEATH PENALTY
The decision to commute Illinois death sentences to...
The decision to commute Illinois death sentences to life in prison should be "for everybody or for nobody," despite a review board's plan to hear almost 160 separate clemency cases in October, Governor George Ryan said
- AUGUST 17, 2002IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A Thai and an Indian, namely Saelow Praset, 55, and...
A Thai and an Indian, namely Saelow Praset, 55, and Ayodya Praset Combay, 57, both sentenced to death for trying to smuggle heroin into Indonesia, expressed complaints to the press over the long delay concerning the reply to their application for a Presid
- AUGUST 17, 2002IndonesiaDEATH PENALTY
A Thai and an Indian, namely Saelow Praset, 55, and...
A Thai and an Indian, namely Saelow Praset, 55, and Ayodya Praset Combay, 57, both sentenced to death for trying to smuggle heroin into Indonesia, expressed complaints to the press over the long delay concerning the reply to their application for a Presid
- AUGUST 17, 2002ThailandDEATH PENALTY
A Thai and an Indian, namely Saelow Praset, 55, and...
A Thai and an Indian, namely Saelow Praset, 55, and Ayodya Praset Combay, 57, both sentenced to death for trying to smuggle heroin into Indonesia, expressed complaints to the press over the long delay concerning the reply to their application for a Presid
- AUGUST 11, 2002IndiaDEATH PENALTY
In May 1991, they blew up the man who would be India's...
In May 1991, they blew up the man who would be India's Prime Minister
- AUGUST 8, 2002IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Three persons wiped out an entire family in cold blood...
Three persons wiped out an entire family in cold blood due to sibling rivalry and were sentenced to death
- AUGUST 7, 2002PhilippinesDEATH PENALTY
More than a hundred Philippines death convicts have...
More than a hundred Philippines death convicts have a new lease on life
- JULY 16, 2002BelarusDEATH PENALTY
About 1,900 inmates will be released from prisons in...
About 1,900 inmates will be released from prisons in keeping with a law on amnesty signed by Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko
- JULY 15, 2002Trinidad & TobagoDEATH PENALTY
A regional Caribbean human rights group welcomed an...
A regional Caribbean human rights group welcomed an Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) order that Trinidad and Tobago [must] update its laws on the death penalty, in compliance with international standards
- JULY 11, 2002TürkiyeDEATH PENALTY
The relatives of prisoners, in collective statements,...
The relatives of prisoners, in collective statements, called for the elimination of the death penalty and for passing a general amnesty in Turkey
- JULY 10, 2002Trinidad & TobagoDEATH PENALTY
Trinidad and Tobago's attorney general said the government...
Trinidad and Tobago's attorney general said the government would wait for courts to test a ruling by a human rights tribunal telling the country not to execute 32 death row prisoners
- JUNE 29, 2002BarbadosDEATH PENALTY
The High Court of Barbados granted a stay of execution...
The High Court of Barbados granted a stay of execution for four prisoners who were to have been hanged on July 2 in the Caribbean nation's first executions since 1984
- JUNE 29, 2002TürkiyeDEATH PENALTY
Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said that provision...
Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said that provision that the terrorist convicts who were sentenced to death penalty and whose punishment was commuted to life imprisonment would not benefit from conditional release could be included in a law that would b
- JUNE 28, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Frank and Laurel Gilford finally put to rest the demons...
Frank and Laurel Gilford finally put to rest the demons associated with the murder of Mr Gilford's sister Yvonne in Saudi Arabia in 1996 as the new children's day surgery unit at the Women's and Children's Hospital [in Adelaide, Australia] was inaugurated
- JUNE 11, 2002TürkiyeDEATH PENALTY
Deputy Prime Minister and Motherland Party (ANAP) leader...
Deputy Prime Minister and Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Mesut Yilmaz said that the parties in Parliament were searching for an agreement on the issues of the death penalty and teaching and broadcasting in mother tongues
- JUNE 7, 2002VietnamDEATH PENALTY
Vietnam executed a school teacher for raping six pupils...
Vietnam executed a school teacher for raping six pupils aged between seven and eight, despite an appeal for clemency by parents' of his victims, a court official said