AI USA‘s
Death Penalty News & Cases

We oppose the death penalty. 
Why? Check this video and/or read below.

ACTION: Sign a petition for Troy Davis.

Why Amnesty International opposes the death penalty:

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception.

The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

There can never be any justification for torture or for cruel treatment. Like torture, an execution constitutes an extreme physical and mental assault on an individual. Consider the disgust most people feel when they hear accounts of individuals receiving 100 volts of electricity to sensitive parts of the body as a method of torture. Surely we should feel even more disgusted by the use of 2000 volts applied to a person's body with the intent to deliberately kill? The physical pain caused by the action of killing a human being cannot be quantified, nor can the psychological suffering caused by foreknowledge of death at the hands of the state.

The death penalty is discriminatory and is often used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. It is imposed and carried out arbitrarily.

The death penalty legitimizes an irreversible act of violence by the state and will inevitably claim innocent victims. Since human justice is fallible, the risk of executing the innocent will never be eliminated. Amnesty International continues to demand unconditionally the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. ⁴

Others oppose the death penalty. In the Amnesty International report Death Sentences and Execuitons 2009 ² only 18 countries are known to practice executions -- down from 49 in the 2008 report which shared the decreasing number of legal executions in the United States since 1994. The 2009 report found that more than 90 percent of the executions are conducted by 5 countries -- China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United States. ³

New York State

Call your State Assemblyperson or Senator and tell them you're a constituent and do not want or need the death penalty.

To identify and contact your:

      -- Assembly Member visit this site

      -- State Senator, visit this site

Check New York Legislature Bills and Laws, etc.

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References to quotes and facts

^[1]www.peaceheroes.com/PeaceHeroes/mahatmagandhi.htm
^[2]http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/international-death-penalty/death-penalty-statistics-2009/page.do?id=1691051
^[3]http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/003/2009/en/0b789cb1-baa8-4c1b-bc35-58b606309836/act500032009en.pdf
^[4]www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty