Introduction
"The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment... It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society."
- United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Each year since 1976, three more countries a year have added their names to the list of countries that have abolished the death penalty. A majority of nations have ended capital punishment in law or practice.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission has passed a resolution calling for all nations that continue to execute to restrict the number of offenses for which the death penalty may be imposed and to suspend executions with a view toward abolishing the death penalty.
While most nations have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, the U .S. continues to join a handful of nations with the highest numbers of executions. The U.S. has executed over 800 people since 1976, and as of December 2002, over 3,700 men and women were on death rows across the country.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/summary.do
CHRISTIANITY AND THE DEATH PENALTY
The Church at large is giving serious thought to capital punishment. Church councils and denominational assemblies are making strong pronouncements against it. We are hearing such arguments as: "Capital punishment brutalizes society by cheapening life." "Capital punishment is morally indefensible." "Capital punishment is no deterrent to murder." "Capital punishment makes it impossible to rehabilitate the criminal."
But many of us are convinced that the Church should not meddle with capital punishment. Church members should be strong in supporting good legislation, militant against wrong laws, opposed to weak and partial law enforcement. But we should be sure that what we endorse or what we oppose is intimately related to the common good, the benefit of society, the establishment........
