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Region: URA


URA World Assembly Recommendation

Repeal: Preventing the Execution of Innocents
General Assembly Resolution #443 “Preventing the Execution of Innocents” (Category: Civil Rights; Strength: Mild) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

Recalling the extensive history of World Assembly delegations addressing the question of capital punishment,

Rejecting the condemnable practice of sacrificing equal protection under the law and the obstruction of justice in order to prevent the execution of convicted felons,

Recognizing GA #535 "Death Penalty Ban" and GA #545 "Military Death Penalty Ban", two extant resolutions that enact bans on capital punishment without handicapping the ability of member states to pursue justice,

The World Assembly hereby repeals #443 "Preventing the Execution of Innocents" on these grounds:

  1. The target dishonestly disguises a death penalty ban as mere regulation for the purpose of preventing wrongful executions.

  2. The target converts member states into safe havens for suspected mass murderers, mobsters, war criminals, and terrorists as a result of the extradition restrictions in section 7.

  3. Several sections make a mockery of justice, embarrassing the World Assembly by their continued existence.

    1. By the creation and application of the Capital Cases division of the Judicial Committee of the Compliance Commission, a committee originally intended solely for the purpose of overseeing the publication of international agreements, the World Assembly imposed cumbersome and excessive oversight of the justice systems of member states. The Capital Cases division practiced oversight over every case in which a convict received a capital sentence, regardless of whether there existed any basis to suspect wrongdoing, negligence, or miscarriage of justice on the part of the member state.

    2. The capital punishment quota established in section 2 obstructed equal protection under the law, requiring member states to sentence criminals convicted of similar crimes to unequal punishments.

    3. Section 4.e facilitated disruptions in judicial proceedings, increasing the frequency of mistrials and the need for appellate verdicts, as a result of demolishing all limits to the defense's admission of evidence, including proof of fabrication or falsification, failure in the chain of custody, and standards of confidentiality.

    4. Section 4.f requires member states to prove that additional evidence, true or false, could not arise to "cast doubt on the guilt of the defendant for any charge which could carry a capital sentence". This raises the standard for conviction from "guilt beyond reasonable doubt" to an impossible standard of "guilt beyond any doubt".

    5. Section 5.a required member states to, following a guilty verdict at trial, grant the defense six months to review evidence, and grant the Capital Cases division another six months after that for the same reason, before carrying out any execution. In conjunction with section 8, which provided that trial certification by the Capital Cases division (and with it the authority to carry out an execution) expires after one year, this prohibited any execution in most member states.

    6. Section 8 permitted convicted criminals to avoid execution indefinitely and to obstruct the course of justice by merely refusing to "exhaust all available appeals".

  4. Section 6 required member states to only adopt execution methods "proven beyond any reasonable doubt not to cause pain or suffering". Since the threat of death itself produces emotional suffering in almost all individuals, and since no authority can prove that any form of execution causes no degree of physical pain or suffering, this again prohibited all execution methods.

  5. GA #535 "Death Penalty Ban" and GA #545 "Military Death Penalty Ban" exceed the desired effects of the target resolution, rendering its restrictions obsolete.

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Whereas there is considerable disagreement in the Assembly about the merits of banning capital punishment:

And whereas it is best to set a compromise, where the Assembly does its best efforts to permit, with effective regulations, capital punishment so to best reduce the chance of it falling upon those who have not committed the crime they are accused of:

Be it enacted by the World Assembly, as follows :—

  1. Subject to World Assembly legislation, member nations are permitted to sentence and carry out capital punishment within their jurisdictions.

  2. There shall be created a Capital Cases division in the Judicial Committee of the Compliance Commission, here referred to as the Division, staffed with competent jurists and forensic scientists, to review submitted cases. To prevent the Division from being overwhelmed by requests for review, any one jurisdiction shall submit no more than than one capital case per million inhabitants per year. For the purposes of avoiding confirmation bias in assessments, the Division shall not keep records of capital punishment procedures.

  3. Member nations shall not attempt to pervert justice by unduly influencing the defendant or defence counsel. Nor shall member nations require or coerce the defendant or defence counsel to make decisions which may damage their defence or, in the case of counsel, the welfare of their client.

  4. Member nations, when prosecuting capital cases, shall:

    1. establish an office of a solicitor, specialised in the prosecution of capital cases, who shall conduct the prosecution of all capital cases within their jurisdiction,

    2. provide the defendant with adequate representation at the state's expense, barring concurrent representation, if the defendant is unable to pay for such counsel,

    3. provide the defence with all evidence collected in the process of investigation,

    4. provide the defence ample time, no less than one year, to review and examine that evidence,

    5. prohibit evidentiary barriers from barring the defence admission of evidence,

    6. prove, such that there could not arise evidence (foreseeable at the time of trial) that would cast doubt on the guilt of the defendant for any charge which could carry a capital sentence, and

    7. submit for review, to the Division, all facts of the case and conclusions reached at trial, at which time the Division shall decide whether to certify that all burdens of proof are met, there has been due process, and all conclusions on evidence are justifiable. If certification is withheld, the Division may dismiss or remand the case.

  5. In all cases where a capital sentence is issued, before it is carried out,

    1. member nations shall serially provide the Division and all counsel assigned or associated with a case, six months to discover, examine, and verify exculpatory evidence which could exonerate the defendant,

    2. permit the defendant full access to the national appellate system and appeal to the Division upon discovery of possibly exonerating evidence or admissible evidence which casts into doubt the narrative put forth by the prosecution at the time of trial, and

    3. provide to the defendant, in any legal proceedings related to their capital conviction, the same privileges afforded to defendant during and after the original trial.

  6. Member nations shall not issue a capital sentence on any mentally incompetent person, as punishment for any non-violent crime, or as punishment for any crime not directly affecting more than one person. All capital sentences shall be carried out via a method which is, upon review demanded by any party to a capital case, proven beyond any reasonable doubt not to cause pain or suffering.

  7. Member nations shall not extradite, except to World Assembly judicial institutions or jurisdictions without capital punishment, any person charged or likely to be charged with a capital offence. Nor shall any person be extradited to a place likely to commence judicial proceedings, which would contravene World Assembly legislation, against that person.

  8. No member nation shall carry out a capital sentence on any person which has not had their case record certified by the Division within the last year. Nor shall member nations carry out such a sentence before the Division has certified that there exist no irregularities in the case record, the defendant has exhausted all available appeals, or the Division has certified that all procedures involved with carrying out that capital sentence comply with provisions set forth in World Assembly legislation.

  9. All individuals currently sentenced to capital punishment or charged of a capital crime shall be afforded the protections of this resolution.

This General Assembly resolution was written by Wallenburg to repeal "Preventing the Execution of Innocents," which was written by Imperium Anglorum. You can find the drafting thread on the forums here.

The United Regions Alliance recommends that you vote FOR the resolution

This resolution repeals GAR#443 "Preventing the Execution of Innocents," which mandates certain legal procedures and rights to those being prosecuted for capital offenses. "Preventing the Execution of Innocents" was written before capital punishment was totally abolished by "Death Penalty Ban" and "Military Death Penalty Ban". That fact by itself lends support to repealing GAR#443. This repeal argues that aspects of GAR#443 "make a mockery of justice" through measures such as needlessly expanding WA bureaucracy to deal with every single capital punishment case and requiring an impossibly high burden of proof for conviction. This is coupled with numerous loopholes which outright prevent capital punishment, such as giving the defense and the Division twelve months to review a verdict while requiring executions to occur within a year or requiring a suffering-free execution method. The Alliance recognizes the huge flaws in "Preventing the Execution of Innocents" due to its overbearing requirements and numerous loopholes, and furthermore believes it to be completely obsolete anyway due to "Death Penalty Ban." Therefore, the URA strongly supports this repeal effort.


The following comments were given during discussion on the LinkURA Discord server:

Conch Kingdom resident Kursibar wrote,

Kursibar wrote:Repeal it and never reinstate anything like it. Too many capital punishment bans, it's not funny anymore.


This document was authored by Scalizagasti on behalf of the United Regions Alliance. Please do not reproduce it without permission.

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