{ "model": { "rank": 1159, "code": "thing-q8454", "model_id": "vr.tr.capital-punishment", "name": "capital punishment", "purpose": "Let an agent describe the death penalty neutrally and accurately, by jurisdiction, legal status, crimes, procedures and human rights law, without graphic detail.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.PRC", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q8454/", "tier": 2, "score": 175, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "immurement", "slow slicing", "flaying", "Paredão", "capital punishment in North Korea", "Nine familial exterminations", "execution by starvation", "capital punishment in Mongolia", "Gokumon", "capital punishment in Zimbabwe", "capital punishment in Spain", "execution by hanging", "capital punishment in Bermuda", "capital punishment in Algeria", "capital punishment in Eritrea", "capital punishment in Uganda", "capital punishment in Djibouti", "capital punishment in Togo", "capital punishment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo", "capital punishment in Jordan", "capital punishment in Thailand", "capital punishment in Bangladesh", "capital punishment in Nigeria", "capital punishment in Benin", "capital punishment in Mauritania", "capital punishment in Senegal", "capital punishment in Sao Tomé and Principe", "posthumous execution", "Capital punishment in Belize", "capital punishment in Somalia", "Capital punishment in Burkina Faso", "Iranian executions during the 2026 Iran war", "capital punishment in Liechtenstein", "capital punishment in Greece", "capital punishment in Armenia", "capital punishment in Finland", "capital punishment in Latvia", "capital punishment in Albania", "capital punishment in Iceland", "capital punishment in Serbia" ], "aliasCount": 208, "merged": 208, "knownIn": 175, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q8454", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8454", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T04:52:40Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q8454", "registryId": "vr.tr.capital-punishment", "name": "capital punishment", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.PRC" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q8454/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.capital-punishment", "name": "capital punishment", "purpose": "Let an agent describe the death penalty neutrally and accurately, by jurisdiction, legal status, crimes, procedures and human rights law, without graphic detail.", "definition": "The state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for a crime, following a legal process; also called the death penalty.", "what_it_is_for": "A criminal sanction that some states retain and most have abolished; the model records its legal status and the debate around it.", "affordances": [ "abolish or retain it, through law", "impose it, only by courts in retaining states", "appeal, commute or pardon, through legal and executive processes", "study and report on it, with reliable data" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "State-sanctioned, following a legal process; distinct from extrajudicial killing", "Abolished in law or practice by a large majority of countries", "Restricted by international human rights law", "Historical and current practice differ widely" ], "appearance": "Not described here beyond legal process; the model deliberately avoids describing methods.", "visual_identification": [ "Legal texts providing for the death penalty", "Court judgments imposing death sentences", "Reports from human rights bodies on use and abolition" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "by status: abolitionist for all crimes, abolitionist for ordinary crimes, abolitionist in practice, retentionist", "by crime category: murder, drug offences, other offences", "historical practices, which are part of history rather than current law" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "criminal punishment", "why": "the most severe sanction" }, { "relation": "is governed by", "target": "law and human rights law", "why": "domestic and international" }, { "relation": "follows", "target": "crime", "why": "as a sentence" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "extrajudicial killing", "why": "without legal process" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 6", "Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR aiming at abolition", "Protocols 6 and 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights", "UN safeguards protecting the rights of those facing the death penalty" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Wrongful convictions, which cannot be remedied after execution", "Graphic or sensational description, which the model avoids", "Outdated status data, since laws change" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "legal-status", "name": "Legal status", "description": "Where it exists in law.", "rationale": "Status by jurisdiction is the core fact.", "layers": [ { "id": "status", "name": "Status", "description": "Abolitionist or retentionist.", "findings": [ { "id": "status-finding", "name": "Status", "description": "Legal status in a jurisdiction.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the legal status of the death penalty in this jurisdiction, as of when?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "For which crimes, if any, is it provided?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "international", "name": "International law", "description": "Treaties and obligations.", "findings": [ { "id": "international-finding", "name": "Treaty status", "description": "Treaty ratifications.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which relevant treaties has the state ratified?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What restrictions do they impose?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-safeguards", "name": "Process and safeguards", "description": "How cases proceed.", "rationale": "Safeguards are required by international standards.", "layers": [ { "id": "process", "name": "Legal process", "description": "Trial, appeal, clemency.", "findings": [ { "id": "process-finding", "name": "Process", "description": "The legal steps.", "questions": [ { "text": "What appeals and clemency procedures exist?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What legal representation is guaranteed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "protections", "name": "Protections", "description": "Groups excluded.", "findings": [ { "id": "protections-finding", "name": "Protections", "description": "Legal protections.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which groups are legally excluded, such as juveniles?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Are these protections respected in practice, according to monitors?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "data", "name": "Data", "description": "Use in practice.", "rationale": "Reliable data is scarce and must be sourced.", "layers": [ { "id": "numbers", "name": "Numbers", "description": "Sentences and executions.", "findings": [ { "id": "numbers-finding", "name": "Data", "description": "Counts with sources.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do reliable sources report on sentences and executions, and for what year?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "How complete are the data?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "trends", "name": "Trends", "description": "Abolition over time.", "findings": [ { "id": "trends-finding", "name": "Trends", "description": "Trends in abolition.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has the number of abolitionist countries changed?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "What recent legal changes have occurred?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "debate-and-handling", "name": "Debate and handling", "description": "Arguments and how to discuss it.", "rationale": "The subject is contested; an agent should be balanced and non-graphic.", "layers": [ { "id": "debate", "name": "Debate", "description": "Arguments on each side.", "findings": [ { "id": "debate-finding", "name": "Arguments", "description": "Main arguments and evidence.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the main arguments for and against, and what does evidence say about deterrence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which claims are contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "handling", "name": "Handling", "description": "Neutral, non-graphic.", "findings": [ { "id": "handling-finding", "name": "Handling rules", "description": "How the agent should discuss it.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the requested detail necessary, or would it be gratuitous?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How can the agent stay neutral and accurate?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "How should the legal status per country be recorded and kept current?", "How should historical practices be separated from current law?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific historical methods; should they be split off or kept as history only?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a capital punishment, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent describe the death penalty neutrally and accurately, by jurisdiction, legal status, crimes, procedures and human rights law, without graphic detail.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: immurement, slow slicing, flaying, Paredão, capital punishment in North Korea, Nine familial exterminations, execution by starvation, capital punishment in Mongolia, Gokumon, capital punishment in Zimbabwe, capital punishment in Spain, execution by hanging.", "208 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 175 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a capital punishment, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "immurement", "slow slicing", "flaying", "Paredão", "capital punishment in North Korea", "Nine familial exterminations", "execution by starvation", "capital punishment in Mongolia", "Gokumon", "capital punishment in Zimbabwe", "capital punishment in Spain", "execution by hanging" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 175 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 208 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one capital punishment from another, and a capital punishment from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a capital punishment sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a capital punishment from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a capital punishment passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a capital punishment between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a capital punishment, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a capital punishment is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a capital punishment proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a capital punishment, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a capital punishment and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a capital punishment consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a capital punishment takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What capital punishment is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of capital punishment are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is capital punishment operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of capital punishment and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of capital punishment?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as capital punishment?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a capital punishment came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a capital punishment and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a capital punishment is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a capital punishment, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a capital punishment, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a capital punishment is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }