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U.S. Executed 1,000, As 70 Nations Abolished Death Penalty
AIUSA Says System Too Plagued with Error and Bias to be Fair, Just or Necessary
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ — With the United States poised to carry out the 1,000th state-sanctioned execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), along with a broad spectrum of human rights organizations and social justice groups, is calling on state and federal authorities to immediately end all executions. Since 1976, more than 120 of 194 countries are abolitionists in law or practice.
“One hundred and twenty two individuals have been exonerated from death row since 1973, meaning that one wrongfully convicted person has been released for every eight that have been executed,” said Dr. William F. Schulz, executive director, AIUSA. “Where else has the government been allowed to make this many serious mistakes before the public demanded change? Public officials should take note of both the gruesome nature of this milestone and the failures of a system that is allowed to function with such a high error rate. If they do, they will clearly see that the time to abolish the death penalty is long overdue.”
Statistics in the United States mirror the international trend toward abolition. Since the late 1990s, U.S. death sentences have declined by more than 50 percent. Executions are down by 40 percent since 1999, and the size of death row has declined every year since 2001. New York recently abandoned the death penalty, and Illinois and New Jersey have a hold on executions as numerous questions are being raised about the fairness and effectiveness of the capital punishment system. Persistent questions about whether the death penalty is applied accurately and fairly have resulted in greater public skepticism and raised serious doubts about capital punishment among many state and national officials.
Dr. Schulz went on to say, “The 1,000 executions remind us of the more than 1,500 murder victims that had families and friends. The victims and the people who knew and loved them all deserve justice. However, AIUSA does not believe that justice and the death penalty are synonymous. It is impossible for a system so fundamentally plagued with error and bias to be fair, just or necessary.”
Of the 122 wrongfully convicted people who have been released from death row, many were economically disadvantaged, people of color and those who had little or no access to competent counsel. Many suffered from mental retardation or were child offenders — groups that are exempt from the death penalty under international human rights standards. Others suffered from severe mental illness. Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court has since ruled that executing child offenders and those suffering from mental retardation is unconstitutional.
Eighty percent of all executions have been carried out in the South and concentrated in only a handful of states. Nearly half of the 1,000 executions took place in two states — Texas and Virginia.
For more information, visit: http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish.
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