Stop Child Executions! Ending The Death Penalty For Child Offenders by Amnesty International 5:28pm 2nd Feb, 2004   Napoleon Beazley was executed in 2002 in Texas for a murder committed eight years earlier when he was 17 years old. At the trial the white prosecutor described him as an "animal" in front of the all-white jury. Witnesses at the trial cited his potential for rehabilitation. He was a model prisoner.    The use of the death penalty against child offenders – people under 18 at the time of the crime – is clearly prohibited under international law, yet a handful of countries persist with child executions.    Since January 1990 Amnesty International has documented 35 executions of child offenders in eight countries– the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the USA, China and Yemen. The USA carried out 19 executions – more than all other countries combined.    Child executions worldwide – a dwindling practice. During the same period, several countries raised to 18 the minimum age for application of the death penalty, in accordance with international law. Yemen and Zimbabwe raised the minimum age to 18 in 1994, as did China in 1997 and Pakistan in 2000. A similar move is under way in Iran.    Stop child executions    The execution of child offenders must stop. As a step towards total abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International is campaigning with other organizations to end its use against child offenders.    Stop child executions in Pakistan    Please write to President Musharraf of Pakistan urging him to commute the death sentences of all child offenders in Pakistan, and to ensure that no further child offenders are sentenced to death, in accordance with Pakistan's obligations under international law.    Philippines: Child offenders sentenced to death    At least seven child offenders are currently under sentence of death in the Philippines.    Child executions violate international law    Click on the link below to take action. Visit the related web page
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