The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area  dom and Canada. In light of the results of this probationary period, the parliaments of these two states voted for definitive abolition. Can it really be seriously believed that, if the results had been otherwise and faced with an anxious population, the governments of abolitionist states would not have been forced to reinstall the death penalty? Obviously, its suppression does not lead to a reduction in criminality, but violent crime evolves for reasons other than the presence or not of the death penalty in a state’s legislative armoury. The death penalty is unjust. When practised legally, recourse to capital punishment brings with it all that is poisonous and unjust in society. • First, social inequality: on death row, the largest proportion of detainees comes from the most disadvantaged social groups; • Racial inequality: nothing can prevent the fact that, when faced with a terrible crime, a desire for vengeance and hatred forms among the public and some juries. Passions and racist prejudices, even if repressed until that point, emerge in these circumstances. Racism does not spare justice, it dishonours it. In this respect, again, analysis of the death-row prison population is significant: the proportion belonging to ethnic minorities or socially rejected racial majorities is far greater than their proportion in the population as a whole; • Financial inequality: to fight an effective legal case against powerful state machinery that has all the resources of an organized police force at its disposal, a defendant needs a team of experienced lawyers who are familiar with the difficulties of criminal procedure and who are able to call upon competent experts. This kind of mobilization for the defence of the accused requires significant financial resources that only the wealthy or members of organized-crime groups can rely upon. Without this, a defence carried out by poorly paid state-appointed lawyers who have limited technical and scientific means available to them cannot benefit from the equality of arms that the legal process requires. Consequently, a large number of legal errors are made in the administration of capital punishment. This was particularly found to be the case in numerous studies carried out in the United States; • Finally, the death penalty is degrading. It disregards society's first human right: the right to life. Yes, a killer does not respect this right, but the authorities should not adopt the code of criminals by killing them in turn in cold blood. Practising the death penalty has a negative effect on a society's sense of morality and, moreover, constitutes a negation of the democratic ideal founded on human rights.