Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Austen IvereighNovember 29, 2010

Tomorrow is the the anniversary  of the first ever abolition of the death penalty by a state -- the Grand Duchy of Tuscany on 30 November 1786 -- celebrated for the past few years as the International Day of the Cities for Life campaign organised by the Rome-based Catholic community of Sant'Egidio. It begins tonight with a vigil (watch here) in Rome; 1,300 other cities across the world -- 61 of them capital cities -- in 85 countries will light up a monument or a square, to declare themselves against the death penalty. It is the largest international mobilisation against the death penalty there has ever been, bringing together local governments and civil society organisations under the slogan, "No justice without life".

This movement, part of the World Coalition against the Death Penalty, has had remarkable success in persuading country after country to renounce capital punishment, leaving a minority of just 54 who still practise it. The campaign has also led to thousands of death sentences being commuted to life -- and to a UN vote in favor of an international moratorium.

Speaking at the Sant'Egidio vigil at the Coliseum tonight are a number of Americans, including Derrick Jamison (an innocent man who spent 17 years on Death Row), Marietta Jaeger Lane and Ron Carlson.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Chris Boscia
13 years 4 months ago
"And why is keeping a human being penned in a cage for years or the rest of his life so much better than simply ending his life?"

David, one word Catholic answer: redemption.   
Marie Rehbein
13 years 3 months ago
"NO JUSTICE WITHOUT LIFE" is right.  There is no justice, first, because taking a life does not automatically result in a lifetime imprisonment, and, second, even when it does, that prisoner is well fed, clothed, housed, entertained, and visited, while the loved ones of the deceased are left to their grief. 

I cannot think of anything that would make a criminal more interested in redemption than his imminent death by execution.
Stephen Murray
13 years 4 months ago
Now, if America would only include life- in- the- womb- waiting- to- be- born, a complete theological statement would result.
13 years 4 months ago
''that abortions and wars and the other various deadly-force scenarios have far too much popular support''


And the Jesuits and the Kennedy's were at the fore front of the acquiescence of the Catholic Church to the acceptance of abortion.  They met in 1964, nine years before Roe vs. Wade, for a few days at the Kennedy's request and developed a strategy on how that acquiescence would take place.  We now have the famous line


''they were personally opposed to abortion, but''
David Cruz-Uribe
13 years 4 months ago
In the United States we can also commemorate March 1, the date on which the newly formed state of Michigan abolished the death penalty, the first state in the Union to do so.  The state was moved to take this step by the execution of an innocent man.  Michigan was soon followed by Wisconsin. 

Sant-Egidio also sponsors an illumination of the Coliseum in Rome each time that a nation (or state/province) abolishes the death penalty.  On December 17, 2007, it was illuminated to mark the abolition of the death penalty by New Jersey, and again on April 17, 2009.  God willing, we will see it illuminated again in 2011 when Connecticut abolishes the death penalty.

The latest from america

The 12 women whose feet were washed by Pope Francis included women from Italy, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Peru, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"We, the members of the Society of Jesus, continue to be lifted up in prayer, in lament, in protest at the death and destruction that continue to reign in Gaza and other territories in Israel/Palestine, spilling over into the surrounding countries of the Middle East."
The Society of JesusMarch 28, 2024
A child wounded in an I.D.F. bombardment is brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on March 25. (AP Photo/Ismael abu dayyah)
While some children have been evacuated from conflict, more than 1.1 million children in Gaza and 3.7 million in Haiti have been left behind to face the rampaging adult world around them.
Kevin ClarkeMarch 28, 2024
Easter will not be postponed this year. It will not wait until the war is over. It is precisely now, in our darkest hour, that resurrection finds us.
Stephanie SaldañaMarch 28, 2024