Acknowledgements
This report builds upon research conducted by Delphine
Lourtau in 2015 with the support of Cornell Law School’s
Avon Global Center for Women and Justice. The current
report was co-authored by Delphine Lourtau, Sandra
Babcock, Sharon Pia Hickey, Zohra Ahmed, and Paulina
Lucio Maymon. Katie Campbell, Julie Bloch, Kyle
Abrams, Cassandra Abernathy, Leigha Crout, Christine
Mehta, and Elizabeth Chambliss Williams provided
substantial research, writing, and editing. Many thanks to
Elizabeth Brundige for her keen understanding and early
support for the project. A very special thank you to our
partner, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
and to Aurélie Plaçais for obtaining the resources
necessary to produce this report, and for her close
collaboration and expert guidance in the drafting of the
report. We are grateful to Aurélie for her constant support.
Cornell students Avery Cummings, Caroline Markowitz,
Grace Oh, and Xiaofei Xie provided substantial research.
We are grateful to Randi Kepecs for providing comments
and technical assistance.
The authors are immensely grateful to the many
individuals and organizations who shared their time,
knowledge, and insights with us. We are deeply indebted
to the individuals featured in our case studies, and their
families and lawyers for allowing us to present their
stories. We are very grateful to our local partners who
collected hard-to-find data and shared countless insights
in personal interviews. Without their contributions, this
publication would not have been possible. We are
particularly indebted to the following organizations and
individuals who conducted on-the-ground investigations
that informed the country chapters:
IN INDIA: Project 39A in National Law University, Delhi
undertakes research on various aspects of the criminal
justice system in India and also provides pro bono legal
representation to under-trial prisoners and those on death
row. It is formally a part of NLU Delhi and draws
inspiration from Article 39-A in the Constitution of India
on equal justice and equal opportunity. Project 39A
currently undertakes research on forensics, torture, legal
aid, forensic psychiatry, sentencing and the death penalty.
NLU Delhi started its engagement with the death penalty
through the Death Penalty Research Project and the
Centre on the Death Penalty between 2013-18, which has
subsequently transitioned into Project 39A for a broader
engagement with the criminal justice system in India.
IN INDONESIA: LBH Masyarakat is a not-for-profit non-
governmental organization, based in Jakarta, that provides
free legal services for the poor and victims of human
rights abuses, including people facing the death penalty or
execution; undertakes community legal empowerment for
marginalized groups; and advocates for law reform and
human rights protection through campaigns, strategic
litigation, policy advocacy, research and analysis.
IN JORDAN: Iyad Alqaisi is a practicing lawyer based in
Amman and the director of Justice Clinic, an NGO
focused on legal reforms. He is a member of the Jordan
Bar Association and the Palestinian Bar Association. An
Open Society Foundation Rule of Law Fellow, he holds
an LL.M from Syracuse University, New York and an
LL.B from Jordan’s Yarmouk University.
IN MALAWI: We relied heavily on data generated by the
Malawi Capital Resentencing Project, spearheaded by the
Malawi Human Rights Commission in collaboration with
the Cornell Law School International Human Rights
Clinic, Reprieve, the Paralegal Advisory Services
Institute, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Legal Aid,
the Malawi Law Society, Chancellor College of Law, and
the Malawi Prisons Service. Through this project,
paralegals, students, Reprieve Fellows, and volunteer
lawyers gathered mitigating evidence for more than 150
prisoners who had received mandatory death sentences.
After hearing this evidence in accordance with a new,
discretionary sentencing regime, the high courts released
131 prisoners; the rest received reduced sentences.
IN PAKISTAN: Justice Project Pakistan is a legal action
non-profit organization based in Lahore, Pakistan. It
provides direct pro bono legal and investigative services
to the most vulnerable Pakistani prisoners facing the
harshest punishments, particularly those facing the death
penalty, the mentally ill, victims of police torture, and
detainees in the War on Terror. JPP’s vision is to employ
strategic litigation to set legal precedents that reform the
criminal justice system in Pakistan. It litigates and
advocates innovatively, pursuing cases on behalf of
individuals that hold the potential to set precedents that
allow those in similar conditions to better enforce their
legal and human rights. Its strategic litigation is coupled
with a fierce public and policy advocacy campaign to
educate and inform public and policy-makers to reform
the criminal justice system in Pakistan.
IN THE UNITED STATES: Cassandra Abernathy is an
attorney with the law firm Perkins Coie LLP. Cassandra
focuses her pro bono practice on prisoners’ rights and
death penalty defense. Perkins Coie LLP generously
supported Ms. Abernathy to continue her work on women
on death row in the US through this project.
We are also grateful to the following experts for their
invaluable assistance: Teng Biao, Pamela E. Berman
(IANGEL), Danthong Breen (Thailand Union of Civil
Liberties), Katie Campbell, Sandrine Dacga, Vijay
Hiremath, Hannah Hutton (IANGEL), Yuliya
Khlashchankova (Belarus-Helsinki Committee), Juli King
(IANGEL), Cecilia Lipp (IANGEL), Yanan Liu, Nicola