C HAPTER 32. P RISONERS UNDER SENTENCE OF DEATH OBJECTIVE Many countries have now abolished the death penalty and the international community encourages this development. However, capital punishment still remains on the statute books in several countries. Prison administrations have no responsibility for the imposition of the death penalty, but they sometimes have to deal with its consequences and implementation, i.e. holding prisoners under sentence of death, sometimes for many years when there are lengthy appeal procedures or when a State has suspended executions but has not abolished the death penalty or commuted existing sentences. Prison administrations are sometimes also responsible for carrying out executions. These tasks place a heavy burden on the staff who are involved. The objective of this chapter is to define how prisoners who are under sentence of death should be treated according to the international instruments. ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES Every human being has the inherent right to life, which shall be protected by law. In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, it shall be imposed only for the most serious crimes and after a final judgement rendered by a competent court. The death penalty shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below the age of 18 and shall not be carried out on pregnant women, nor on new mothers or persons who have become insane. Where capital punishment occurs, it shall be carried out so as to inflict the minimum possible suffering. Abolition of the death penalty is encouraged. These principles should be presented visually and remain on display throughout the session. BASIS IN INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS Exercise: Using the Compilation of Instruments, the trainees should work in pairs in order to discover the basis for each of these principles. Their findings should be reported back to the group. IMPLICATIONS This is an extremely difficult and distressing area of a prison officer’s work; it is essential that this fact is recognized in the presentation of this section. The main point is that the international instruments encourage abolition of the death penalty. This is not something the trainees can do anything about, but it is important that they are aware of the position. The second point is that, where capital punishment 147