Repeal "Preventing the Execution of Innocents"
Category: Repeal | Resolution: GAR #443
Category: Repeal | Resolution: GAR #443
Affirming that member states should take all reasonable steps to avoid executing an innocent person;
Regretting that GAR #443, "Preventing the Execution of Innocents", sought to accomplish this goal by establishing an international judicial mechanism for reviewing capital convictions (herein referred to as the "Division") that is grossly unfair, absurdly complex, full of ambiguities, and seems designed to ban capital punishment in all but name;
Criticizing the target resolution in particular for:
- demonstrating a fundamental lack of respect for the judicial systems of member states by subjecting every capital case to invasive World Assembly oversight, even when there is zero evidence of negilgence or malpractice,
- engaging in unjust discrimination on the basis of member state population by requiring member states to submit "no more than than one capital case per million inhabitants per year" to the Division, rendering it difficult or impossible for smaller nations of fewer than one million people to use capital punishment,
- contributing to violations of the basic principles of justice by forcing member states to treat similarly situated convicts differently with respect to their eligibility for capital punishment, depending on whether the member state happened to exceed the aforementioned quota,
- blocking valid limits to discovery, such as personally identifying information that is not material to the case, by requiring that the defense be provided with "all evidence collected in the process of investigation" without exception,
- blocking valid limits to the admission of evidence, such as proof of fabrication, by requiring member states to "prohibit evidentiary barriers from barring the defence admission of evidence" without exception,
- requiring member states to meet the effectively impossible standard of proving that "there could not arise evidence (foreseeable at the time of trial) that would cast doubt on the guilt of the defendant" rather than the more common standard of proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt,
- creating needless delay by requiring an additional post-sentencing discovery period of six months each by the Division and the defense, and by arbitrarily requiring these periods to occur serially rather than concurrently,
- arbitrarily prohibiting the execution of those who have brutally tortured and killed only one person as opposed to several,
- arbitrarily prohibiting member states from extraditing criminals to nations with capital punishment, even those who agree to abide by the protections of the target resolution,
- seemingly permitting a defendant to avoid capital punishment by simply not "exhaust[ing] all available appeals" because then the Division cannot certify the case, and
- arbitrarily expiring Division certification after only one year even if there have been no material changes to the case record, and providing no clear mechanism for certification to be renewed;
The General Assembly,
Repeals GAR #443, "Preventing the Execution of Innocents".
