Abolish the Death Penalty Worldwide

Six thousand one hundred and forty-nine is the number of days Gregory Taylor spent on death row in North Carolina (United States), despite being innocent. That number ceased to increase on February 17 when, for the first time in U.S. history, the verdict of an independent commission appointed by the state to handle doubtful cases, led to his release. There are 137 innocents, many of whom have never been exonerated, but have spent years on death row. For example, Curtis McCarthy spent 21 years in the model prison of McAlester (Oklahoma), built underground. One can never see the sunlight.

The largest death row facility on earth is in San Quentin, California. There are 647 inmates. Their number increases by thirty each year. The number of executions is very low. In addition to bankruptcy, because of the overflow of Supreme Court appeals, which is detrimental to the rest of the judicial system, there is the prospect of being sentenced to death without the certainty of being executed in the next 20 to 30 years. That is a form of torture that no one ever considered.

One hundred and forty countries worldwide practice capital punishment. But it is a recent trend. Over the centuries, philosophers and states, from Aristotle to Kant, from Saint Augustine to Hegel, considered capital punishment to be normal even if the first Christian states were regarded with suspicion by the Roman army because they did not like to kill. At the beginning of the 1970s, only 23 countries had abolished capital punishment. Today, there are 103 countries that have abolished it under all circumstances. Thirty-eight more have abolished it either during times of peace or de facto, in the sense that they have not executed anyone who received the sentence in over 10 years.

The following is what transpired from the first report on capital punishment established by the General Secretary of the United Nations (U.N.), Ban Ki-moon. The report itself marks a historic turning point: the approval of the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution for a universal moratorium on capital punishment, on December 18, 2007. The death penalty is no longer a mere domestic matter pertaining to individual states’ judicial systems, but one of general interest in the sense that it pertains to human rights. The document is not binding. But the fact that there was, during fifteen years, a willingness to block the resolution is proof that this text is important.

Thus, in 1998, the European Union (E.U.) withdrew the resolution on the day preceding the vote, as a result of a newly formed opposing front, which described the resolution as a “neocolonialist” initiative created by a superpower, i.e. the E.U., to impose its vision of human rights.

It took nine more years for the project to get back on its feet. During that period, the first conference against the death penalty was celebrated in Strasbourg; a strong French and Italian dynamic on the topic was noted, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty was created in Rome, specifically in Sant’Egidio, at the initiative of more than a dozen international organizations. This was the largest ever intercultural mobilization on the topic. It was brought to life by an outreach effort that resulted in millions of new memberships and signatures from the main religious and lay leaders of the world, all delivered to the U.N. on the day preceding the vote, to invalidate the thesis of “neocolonialism.”

Even in the countries that have maintained capital punishment, the two big international events (non-ritual) — “International World Day Against the Death Penalty,” on October 10, and “Cities for Life, Cities Against the Death Penalty,” on November 30 — saw an increase in participation, while regional coalitions and networking capabilities were reinforced. More than a hundred abolitionist movements, as well as many governmental delegations, will participate in the next World Conference in Geneva on February 24.

The capacity for synergy between movements of civil society and independent states has increased. The refusal to practice capital punishment has become part of the identity of the E.U., which was able to concurrently take a step backward and collaborate fir the birth of an “inter-regional” front, in order to create the largest support movement in the U.N. General Assembly. This is a challenge that will need to be taken up again in the fall, when the new resolution is to be presented to the Assembly, in order to demonstrate an even larger approval rate.

Despite a decade of war in Iraq and against terrorism, the use of the death penalty has receded. Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, in addition to Gabon, Togo and other African countries, have made the difference, while receiving support from NGOs and other states for their abolitionist turning points. Some of these developments were promoted in Sant’Egidio and Rome, in addition to the movement for peace. In the United States, in two years, New Jersey and New Mexico — the east coast and the west coast — broke the front-line by abolishing capital punishment.

In China, the Supreme Court motioned for limiting capital punishment to “very serious cases” and took away the local courts’ power to apply the sentence. Asia is moving: The Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), a regional coalition, was created; the Philippines has once again taken the road to abolition; the president of Mongolia this year started down the abolitionist path. Taiwan stopped executions years ago. Signs of openings are noticeable in South Korea and even in Iran, even though the number of executions is increasing and despite the fact that they are held in public settings. In Japan, this past year was the first year without any executions. In India, there is an ongoing debate at the Supreme Court level; the same is true in Pakistan, where 7,000 executions were stopped.

Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan can accelerate changes in the Mediterranean region. Morocco has de facto ended the practice and the demand for abolition is growing. The world is looking to Obama’s America, which believes in the need to be in better harmony with other countries. There is an historic possibility that the next U.N. resolution, coming in the fall, will see the United States, Japan and India abstain from voting, while approvals will rise in the rest of the world. It is an objective worth working toward.

Mario Marazziti is the spokesman for the Sant’Egidio community and the coordinator of the campaign for a universal moratorium [on the death sentence].