February 16, 2012 – If you are reading this article, you are probably against the death penalty, and you probably know that the climate for abolishing the death penalty has drastically changed. Death sentences and executions are down, bills to repeal the death penalty have been introduced in most states with death penalty statutes, and a growing number of states have actually ended the use of capital punishment – my former state of Illinois most recently.
We can take great pride in knowing that in every state in which the death penalty has ended, lives that would otherwise be in jeopardy have been saved and resources that would have been used to kill might now be used to heal and make our communities safer.
What you may not know is how working against the death penalty in your state can help save lives even if you don’t have the death penalty or repeal legislation is not pending in your legislature immediately. After running the campaign in Illinois I can’t stress enough how important those early voices for abolition were. A lot of the attention goes to the states that are close to abolishing the death penalty and rightly so. But you can make just as big a difference saving lives in states that are further away from repealing the death penalty.
Source: Catholic Mobilizing Network, Jeremy Schroeder, National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Feb. 16, 2012
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