Death sentence and life imprisonment: Incompatible sanctions to the American Convention on Human Rights

Abstract

This article of reflection and of a legal nature, addresses from a qualitative research with a bibliographic review, the analysis of the death penalty and life imprisonment in terms of human rights. The death penalty and life imprisonment are severe sanctions used by States since ancient times; however, with the passing of time, human thought and the social construction of the concept of human dignity have generated an evident decrease in this type of conviction in domestic legal systems; especially, in those States that have complied with the international obligations acquired at the time of ratifying human rights instruments. However, in some States that claim to respect the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter A.D.H.), there are still certain practices that are far from what is contemplated in the aforementioned international instrument, as is the case of the death penalty in Guatemala and Jamaica and the so-called life imprisonment in Argentina, as well as the changes introduced in the Colombian legal system at the time, since these are sanctions that can become attacks on the human dignity of the prisoner and fail to comply with the resocializing purpose of the sentence, and that they question the real commitment to comply with international provisions by the States involved. In that order, an attempt will be made to analyze the existing tensions, always trying to highlight a constitutional guarantee.