"Okla. group pushes for repeal of death penalty," is the title of Sean Murphy's AP report, via the Alva Review-Courier.
A group of religious leaders and academics cited Oklahoma's frequency in imposing the death penalty and the number of condemned inmates who have been exonerated as reasons Monday to halt executions in the state.
The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty held a community roundtable at the Capitol as part of the 9th annual World Day Against the Death Penalty.
"Executions, regardless of the method used, are cruel and inhumane, and can and have gone wrong in many cases," said Kenny Fikes, co-chairman of the coalition.
The Rev. Edward Weisenburger of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City said religious leaders have a responsibility to speak out against the death penalty.
"Human life, in all its stages, is sacred," Weisenburger said.
Oklahoma has executed 96 inmates since 1976, putting the state third behind Texas and Virginia, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. But when weighted for population, Oklahoma leads the nation in both executions and death row exonerations, said Susan Sharp, a death penalty researcher at the University of Oklahoma.
"We're the state with the highest per-capita execution rate and the highest per-capita wrongful conviction rate," Sharp said. "There's something wrong with that picture."
The Tulsa World carries, "Oklahoma death-penalty critics point out problems." It's by Barbara Hoberock.
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs issued the statement, "The International Commission against the Death Penalty moves its headquarters to Geneva."
President of the Swiss Confederation Micheline Calmy-Rey today took part in the opening of the fourth meeting of the International Commission against the Death Penalty in Geneva. She welcomed the decision by the Commission to move its headquarters from Madrid to Geneva, where it will be integrated into the Academy of International Humanitarian Law and of Human Rights
The abolition of the death penalty is a central plank in Swiss human rights policy. This is why Switzerland supported Spain's initiative to establish an independent international commission against the death penalty. This decision was taken at the fourth World Congress against the Death Penalty in February 2010 in Geneva with the aim of persuading as many countries and actors as possible to commit themselves to the goal of abolition.
The Commission consists of high-ranking personalities from various countries and is chaired by Federico Mayor Zaragoza from Spain. It is assisted by a support group consisting of representatives of several countries. As of October 2011, the support group will be chaired by Paul Koller, the Swiss ambassador for human rights issues.
The Financial Channel posts, "The EU and the abolition of the death penalty in the world."
The global abolition of the death penalty is one of the main objectives of the EU’s human rights policy. In 2010, the EU issued more than 15 statements on the death penalty, most of which were on individual death penalty cases, and carried out numerous demarches against the death penalty. HR/VP Catherine Ashton also declared, in her speech to the European Parliament in June 2010, the EU’s work on abolishing the death penalty worldwide a “personal priority”.
The abolition of the death penalty is one of the thematic priorities under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). Since 1994, the European Commission has funded through the EIDHR over 50 projects worldwide, with an overall budget of more than €33 million.
"Today, October 10, is World Day Against Death Penalty," by JohnThomas Didymus is at Digital Journal.
Activists worldwide campaigning for abolition of the death penalty are today marking World Day Against Death Penalty. This year, opponents of the death penalty are emphasizing to governments that the death penalty is cruel and inhumane.A declaration by Catherine Ashton, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, in commemoration of the World Day Against Death Penalty, said:
"The European Union and the Council of Europe reaffirm their united opposition to the death penalty, and their commitment to its worldwide abolition. We consider capital punishment to be inhumane, and a violation of human dignity. Experience in Europe has taught us that the death penalty does not prevent an increase in violent crime, and nor does it bring justice to the victims of such crimes. Any capital punishment resulting from a miscarriage of justice, from which no legal system can be immune, represents irreversible loss of human life."
IPS News posts, "'The Death Penalty Has No Dissuasive Effect'," by Gustavo Capdevila.
Capital punishment continues to exist because in some countries people are barraged with propaganda depicting it as a curb on crime, which it is not, said Federico Mayor Zaragoza, chair of an international commission against the death penalty that inaugurated its new headquarters in Geneva Monday.
And:
So far, 104 countries have abolished the death penalty while another 35 have a moratorium on executions, Mayor Zaragoza pointed out. "That makes a total of 139 countries without executions, which is good news," he enthused.
"Death row: America's torture chamber. Inmates are locked up for 23 hours a day in solitary confinement for an average of 14 years. That meets the definition of torture," is by Rachel Meeropol for the Guardian.
Monday being the 9th anniversary of the World Day Against the Death Penalty seems an appropriate moment to examine why I believe this.
According to the Convention Against Torture, a treaty ratified by the US in 1994, torture is defined, in part, as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is inflicted on a person for such purposes as […] punishing him for an act he […] has committed or is suspected of having committed." The experience of American death row inmates fits this definition.
Among the approximately 3,250 prisoners on death row in the US, the vast majority will serve years in solitary and crippling conditions, awaiting execution. Of the 34 states that still kill people, at least 25 hold death row inmates in solitary confinement for 23 hours or more a day. Sensory deprivation is prevalent. On death row in Texas, hundreds of condemned men are isolated in 60-square-foot, single-person, solid-front cells for 23 hours a day. The prisoners exercise alone for one hour each day in a metal cage. Meals are served through a locking metal flap in the cell door. There are no work or group recreation programs; nor can the prisoners speak to each other through the solid cell walls and door.
Death row prisoners in the United States spend decades in these dehumanising conditions. Of the 52 people executed in the United States in 2009, the average length of time on death row was 169 months – over 14 years. Many spend much longer. Manuel Valle, for example, was executed last month by the state of Florida after 33 years on death row. Over those decades of lost time, it is not uncommon for prisoners repeatedly to come within hours of death, only to get a temporary reprieve, and then a new execution date.
Comments