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Babcock, Sandra L. --- "Deciding who lives and who dies: eligibility for capital punishment under national and international law" [2019] ELECD 2530; in Steiker, S. Carol; Steiker, M. Jordan (eds), "Comparative Capital Punishment" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 54

Book Title: Comparative Capital Punishment

Editor(s): Steiker, S. Carol; Steiker, M. Jordan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Deciding who lives and who dies: eligibility for capital punishment under national and international law

Author(s): Babcock, Sandra L.

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

International human rights treaties have long exempted certain offenders from the application of the death penalty. While international law does not, broadly speaking, prohibit states from imposing capital punishment for certain serious offenses, it does impose constraints on who may be subjected to the death penalty-including, for example, juvenile offenders, pregnant women and individuals with mental disorders. In principle, these restrictions are relatively uncontroversial. In practice, however, states have failed to implement them consistently. At the same time, certain states have gone farther than what is required under international norms by excluding additional groups from the application of the death penalty, such as women and the elderly. This chapter explores these exclusions and their implementation, while also discussing ongoing efforts to expand their scope, with particular focus on the bright-line rule excluding individuals under 18 years of age from capital punishment in light of recent advances in neuroscientific research regarding the young adult brain.


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