The Danish Medical Group Against the Death Penalty has worked against the death penalty on an international scale since 1982. Being the only one of its kind, the group has had a great impact in several countries, putting pressure on authorities, medical associations and the pharma industry all over the world.
Amnesty International Death Penalty Report 2022
2022 saw the highest recorded number of executions in five years. 20 countries executed at least 883 people – making it a rise of 53% compared to 2021. According to Amnesty International Death Penalty Report Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt stood for 90% of all executions outside of China, which remains the world’s leading executioner.
Report Highlights
· The number of executions recorded in 2022 is the highest number in 5 years.
· China remained the world’s leading executioner.
· Outside of China, 90% of the world’s known executions were carried out by Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. The USA ranks the fifth highest executioner.
· Recorded executions in Iran went from 314 in 2021 up to 576 in 2022, an increase of 83%.
· Six countries abolished the death penalty either completely or partially, bringing the total number of countries that have abolished the death penalty completely to 112.
· The use of the death penalty for drug-related offences has increased alarmingly in 2022.
CURRENT ISSUES
Global
Some Medical Supply Manufacturers Ban Use of IV Equipment in Lethal Injection Executions
World Psychiatric Association Releases Report Opposing the Death Penalty for People with Mental Illness or Development and Intellectual Disabilities
USA
“The World is Watching: Witnesses Report Kenneth Smith Appeared Conscious, “Shook and Writhed” During First-Ever Nitrogen Hypoxia Execution
Glynn Simmons Exonerated 48 Years After He Was Sentenced to Death in Oklahoma
South Carolina Ready to Resume Executions by Lethal Injection After Acquiring Drugs
Court Documents Reveal Widespread Irregularities in Tennessee Executions
Autopsies Show Excess Fluid in Lungs of All Four Prisoners Put to Death in Oklahoma Execution Spree
Former South Carolina Death-Row Doctor: “I’m Supposed to be Saving People, Not Killing People”
Expert Calls Arizona’s First Execution in Eight Years ‘Botched’ After Witnesses Report Problems Inserting IV
South East Asia
Over 8,000 people on death row in South Asia
Pakistan: Supreme Court judgement bans executions of prisoners with mental disabilities
The work and purpose of the group
The groups raison d’être is the abolishment of the death penalty on a general level and preventing physicians and other health professionals from participating in the death penalty on a specific level. To achieve this goal the group works in a range of different ways, such as letter writing and raising media-awareness.
Country specific information
All over the world doctors and other health personnel participate in executions due to their profession-specific knowledge. This happens in as different countries as the US and Saudi Arabia, Japan and Uganda. 53 countries in the world have the death penalty. The Danish Medical Group has chosen to focus on a handful of these countries, and you can learn more about these countries in this section.
Resolutions against capital punishment
Resolutions and policies are the medical associations’ possibility to take a stand on a policy field. Over the years many national as well as international medical associations have chosen to do so in relation to capital punishment. On this site you will find some of the most important.
The medical execution and medical assistance at executions
In 1977, Oklahoma Medical Examiner, Dr. A. Jay Chapman, marched into the Oklahoma Statehouse and dictated the formula for a cocktail of three drugs to a lawmaker looking for a more humane way to execute prisoners.
As Chapman spoke, Rep. Bill Wiseman scribbled on a legal yellow pad. That afternoon, Wiseman introduced the bill that made Oklahoma the first state to adopt “lethal injection”, the medical execution killing prisoners with medicine.
Death penalty and mental illness
Many countries have a Mental Health Law that includes a wide variety of legal topics and pertain to people with a diagnosis or possible diagnosis of mental illness. Laws relating to mental illness may include criminal laws, including laws governing fitness for trial or execution.
The groups raison d’être is the abolishment of the death penalty on a general level and preventing physicians and other health professionals from participating in the death penalty on a specific level.
List of doctors involved
Group Coordinator
Erik Sørensen
esoerensen@amnesty.dk