Anti-Death Penalty Activists Claim a Victory in North Carolina

"85% of all executions in the US take place in the South," writes the Christian Science Monitor today. "For that reason alone, anti-death penalty activists claimed a major victory when North Carolina last week became the first state in the union to establish a government commission that will review evidence and, if warranted, send a recommendation of innocence to a three-judge panel."

The creation of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission "gives our criminal justice system yet another safeguard by helping ensure that the people in our prisons in fact belong there," said Democratic Governor Mike Easley, a Roman Catholic and former attorney general and prosecutor, as he signed the 8-member commission into law last week.

Reports the Christian Science Monitor, "It's an idea with appeal: Lawmakers in at least 12 other states - including Texas, where nearly half of all executions take place each year - are considering filing similar legislation next year, according to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty."

This new North Carolina law comes as DNA technology advances have caused felony convictions nationwide to be overturned, fueling what the Christian Science Monitor dubs a "broader national inquiry into the moral responsibility of legal executions."

Belief in the immorality or morality of capital punishment is a very personal decision. As a Christian, I strongly believe that the premeditated killing of a human being by the state is cruel, inhumane and remarkably immoral, and should be abolished. Many Christians believe as I do, and just as many Christians disagree with my view.

I wrote the Pros & Cons of the Death Penalty so that you can quickly digest the basic facts and judge for yourself. What I found most startling was the list of countries that condone capital punishment, and the countries that have abolished it as morally unacceptable.

I'd never before imagined the US as being classified with some of the world's most barbaric nations, but you judge for youself...

Related Reading
Pros & Cons of the Death Penalty & Capital Punishment
North Carolina to Look at Innocence Claims, Charlotte Observer on August 4, 2006