Missouri bishops call for end to executions
Recalling Christ's death on Good Friday provides an opportunity to reflect on Catholic teaching and the death penalty, the Missouri bishops state in a new pastoral letter opposing executions.

"He was unjustly sentenced to death and executed on a cross, the cruelest form of capital punishment at the time," the bishops wrote. More violence, they added "is not a solution to society's problems." St Louis Review Online, 7th April 2006

Vietnam PM calls for amending capital punishment laws
Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has called for a review of capital punishment while authorities are seeking to replace the firing squad with remotely-fired weapons to shield the troops from any trauma. Thanh Nien, 8th April 2006

Death penalty cases flooding S.C.
Twelve death penalty cases are awaiting trial in the 11th Circuit - 10 of them in Lexington County . As many as five trials - including two in Edgefield County - could be heard this year. Edgefield County hasn't tried a death penalty case since 1993; Lexington County since 2003. "If you do three in a year, you're doing one every 120 days," 11th Circuit Deputy Solicitor Dayton Riddle said. "That's a brutal year." The State, 10th April 2006

Abolish death penalty, Catholic, other religious leaders urge S. Korean government
South Korean religious leaders have urged the government to hasten the process of abolishing the death penalty in the country. On April 4, the Pan-Religion Union for the Abolition of the Death Penalty held a press conference in the National Assembly building and released a statement calling for an urgent end to capital punishment. Catholic Online, 6th April 2006

The hangman's story
In a 24-year career, Albert Pierrepoint executed 435 people including Ruth Ellis and Lord Haw-Haw. But he later became a fierce opponent of the death penalty. As a film of his life opens, Cahal Milmo reports on a man immortalised by death. The Belfast Telegraph, 7th April 2006

Transcending the evil that men do
"It is a human response to be enraged against those who plotted to take the lives of so many innocent victims. To strike back is an instinctual human reaction toward such an outrageous violation against mankind. Yet to impose the death penalty diminishes our own humanity.

"Do we want to characterise ourselves as a nation committed to pure vengeance with nothing more to be gained? For we surely cannot think that imposing the death penalty will act as a deterrent against other terrorists. Cloaked in the rationalisation of carrying forth the will of God, the terrorists let their fear and hatred consume their last ounce of humanity. Let us not follow in their footsteps." Elizabeth Hayden, The Boston Globe, 31st March 2006

Amnesty International - The death penalty
As an organisation dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights, Amnesty International (AI) works for an end to executions and the abolition of the death penalty everywhere. This site contains a range of up-to-date resources and links to other like-minded sites.

web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-index-eng

Community of Sant'Egidio - No to the death penalty
The Rome based Community of Sant'Egidio is a movement of lay people dedicated to evangelisation and charity. Responding to the call of the Gospel to protect life in all situations, the Community has committed itself, at an international level together with other organisations, to campaign against the death penalty around the world. Find out what they do. Via their website you can support the appeal presented by the community asking for a worldwide moratorium of the death penalty, or write to a person who has been sentenced to death.

www.santegidio.org/en/pdm/index.htm

Robben Island
Former South African President Nelson Mandela spent seventeen years in prison on Robben Island . In this program he speaks about the conditions in the prison and the effects of working in the mine had on the inmates. He also speaks about how the experience has made him appreciate the importance of human contact, which he sees as essential for survival.

NB Mandela himself faced the death penalty during his terrorism trial under apartheid in 1964. He was eventually sentenced to life but released in 1990. Global Village, SBS TV, Thursday 13th April, 2006, 6:00 pm

A Prayer to Abolish the Death Penalty

God of Compassion,

You let your rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Expand and deepen our hearts so that we may love as you love,
even those among us who have caused the greatest pain by taking life.

For there is in our land a great cry for vengeance
as we fill up death rows and kill the killers
in the name of justice, in the name of peace.

Jesus, our brother,
You suffered execution at the hands of the state
but you did not let hatred overcome you.
Help us to reach out to victims of violence
so that our enduing love may help them heal.

Holy Spirit of God,
You strengthen us in the struggle for justice.
Help us to work tirelessly
for the abolition of state-sanctioned death
and to renew our society in its very heart
so that violence will be no more. Amen.

Sister Helen Prejean CSJ

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