VI. WEAK EVIDENTIARY STANDARDS IN CAPITAL TRIALS Pakistan's evidentiary standard does not meet that required under international law for the imposition of the death penalty. International law enshrines the presumption of innocence in its requirements for a fair trial. The ICCPR provides that “[e]veryone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.”154 This presumption of innocence “is fundamental to the protection of human rights.”155 The ECOSOC Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty develop further this requirement, stipulating that a death sentence may only follow “when the guilt of the person charged is based upon clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts.”156 While Pakistan asserts that “courts operate on the salutary principle that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty,”157 the reality on the ground suggests differently. Coerced confessions, ineffective counsel, and the resource constraints confronted by both defendants and police, all work together to call into question courts' adherence to the standard presumption of innocence. These deficiencies are greatly amplified by a series of problematic Supreme Court decisions dating from the early 2000s. Most significantly, in a 2002 decision, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that if a court “is satisfied that the offence has been committed in the manner as alleged by the prosecution, the technicalities should be overlooked.”158 According to the International Federation of Human Rights, “small discrepancies in the evidence” increasingly have been overlooked and more questionable evidence let in since that ruling.159 This trend is even more acute under the ATA framework, which expressly shifts the burden of proof from the prosecution to the accused.160 This shift has been reinforced by subsequent anti-terrorism legislation in the form of the Protection of Pakistan Act (PoPA). Article 15 of the PoPA states that those arrested for suspected terrorism offenses “shall be presumed to be engaged in waging war or insurrection against Pakistan unless he establishes his non-involvement in the offense.”161 Because Pakistan does not abide by the stringent evidentiary standard demanded under international law, it is likely that many prisoners on death row are innocent. The conviction of Kanizan Bibi,162 who has always maintained her innocence, was based on sparse and highly suspect evidence. Aside from her coerced “confession,” the prosecutors' only other evidence was blood-stained clothing, which they alleged Kanizan was wearing upon her arrest, thirteen days after the murder. A “MOST SERIOUS CRIME”: PAKISTAN'S UNLAWFUL USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY 19