Reprieve

Description

Reprieve is a nonprofit organization of international lawyers and investigators working against extreme human rights abuses.

It focuses on the death penalty, indefinite detention without trial, extraordinary rendition and extrajudicial killing. It uses legal action and public education, representing prisoners facing execution and detainees held in places such as Guantanamo Bay. It also investigates international complicity in renditions and drone strikes, and has filed petitions on behalf of civilians harmed by counterterrorism operations.

Reprieve UK, the founding organization, was set up in London in 1999 by a human rights lawyer. Sister organizations followed, including Reprieve US, founded in New Orleans in 2001 and later headquartered in New York, and the Capital Punishment Justice Project, founded in Melbourne in 2001 and formerly known as Reprieve Australia. These organizations share Reprieve’s mission and work in partnership while remaining independent of one another.

Reprieve’s lawyers have represented death row prisoners across the southern United States and helped secure the release of Guantanamo detainees, including people held at facilities such as Bagram in Afghanistan. Current and past casework covers clients accused in mass trials, stateless and unlawfully detained individuals, and children sentenced to death. The organization also campaigns publicly against practices such as capital punishment by nitrogen and drone strikes that killed civilians.