Human Rights Education: The 4th R, Human Rights Education
Resource Guide, Vol. 6, No.1 summer 1994.

Death Penalty, Torture, and Other Human Rights Abuses

Amnesty International USA (1985). Torture by Governments. San Francisco: Amnesty International. Amnesty International, 500 Sansome E. St., #615, San Francisco, CA 94118, tel 415-291-9233.

The curriculum presents issues related to political rights and torture through poetry, prose, and art work of those who have endured it. The curriculum consist of readings and related research, action activities, and discussion questions. Because the material is very serious, explicit, and highly sensitive, teachers must judge the appropriateness in terms of their students. This material may be used in a number of different disciplines.


Amnesty International USA (1991). The Death Penalty and Juvenile Offenders. New York: Amnesty International Publications. $6.00. Amnesty International Publications, 322 8th Ave., New York, NY 10001, tel 212-807-8400, fax 212-463-9193.

The issue details the history, laws, and practice regarding the execution of juvenile offenders in the U.S. Cases of 23 juveniles sentenced to death are described as well as the influences of physical and sexual abuse and drug and alcohol addiction. This publication is also available in Spanish.


Amnesty International (1989). When the State Kills The Death Penalty: A Human Rights Issue. New York: Amnesty International Publications. $10.00. ISBN 0-939994-45-3. Amnesty International Publications, 322 8th Ave., New York, NY 10001, tel 212-807-8400, fax 212-463-9193.

An extensive international study of the death penalty. Contains two chronicles of the international abolition movement with detailed country entries that document worldwide legislation and practice of the death penalty from 1985-88. This study is aso available in Spanish and Arabic.


Prejean, Helen, C.S.J. (1993). Dead Man Walking. New York: Random House. $21.00. ISBN 0-679-40358-2. Tel 212-572-2710.

Sister Helen Prejean is a Roman Catholic nun who counsels both death row inmates convicted of hideous crimes and the families of their victims. The book is Sister Helens gripping first-hand testimony--an intensely candid meditation that puts a human face on this complex ethical issue. It is addressed to those millions for whom the issue of capital punishment remains unclear.


Radelet, Michael L., Hugo Adam Bedau, and Constance E. Putnam (1992). In Spite of Innocence. Boston: Northeastern University Press. $29.00. ISBN 1-55553-142-3. Tel 617-373-5481.

Few errors made by society can compare with the horror of executing a person wrongly convicted of a crime. This sobering book, which includes an expanded preface, tells the personal stories of more than 400 innocent Americans convicted of capital crimes. Some individuals were actually executed; most suffered years of incarceration, many on death row.


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