change language
you are in: home - news newslettercontact uslink

Support the Community

  
May 2 2013

MARYLAND ABOLISHES THE DEATH PENALTY

From the Baltimore cathedral to Rome: A victory for the worldwide movement for a justice that respects life. The Community of Sant’Egidio joins the celebration for the signing of the law abolishing the death penalty, which will take place in Baltimore at 18.30 Rome time. Maryland is the sixth U.S. state in six years to abolish capital punishment.

 
printable version

 2 May 2013. Today is a special Thursday for Maryland, for the United States and for the world. Today at 10:30 a.m. local time (18.30 in Italy), Governor O’Malley will sign into law SB276, which abolishes the death penalty in Maryland.

Maryland becomes the sixth U.S. state since 2007 to exclude the death penalty from its laws, following similar measures in New Jersey, New Mexico, New York state, Illinois, and Connecticut. This movement brings to 18 the number of U.S. states that have opted for a system of justice that respects life in every circumstance.

For years, the Community of Sant’Egidio has worked alongside American abolitionists and, with the City of Rome, will celebrate this great victory by lighting up the Colosseum in a special way.

This is a great victory that has progressively won the support of a significant majority of Maryland citizens. Several attempts to pass a law abolishing capital punishment failed by just a few votes. Following the approval by the Senate and the House last March -- with a final vote in the House of 82 to 56 -- the official signing of the law is part of an important season for efforts to abolish the death penalty throughout the United States. Gov. O’Malley has long been a supporter of the proposal and has said the resources saved thanks to the abolition of capital punishment will be used to help the families of murder victims. This is unlike what was contemplated in the proposal for a referendum in California to ban capital punishment; the measure would have devoted the justice system’s savings to police and other public safety measures.

 

The Maryland law was supported by several associations of victims’ families and by the entire Catholic Church. Baltimore Archbishop William Lori and Auxiliary Bishop Denis J.Madden testified in hearings against capital punishment and were part of the special commission set up before the legislature began working to dialogue with the public and lawmakers. Many political and religious leaders joined them in the work.

 Kirk Bloodsworth and Shuja Graham, who were freed from death row after their innocence was recognized, and Vicki Schieber, a Maryland citizen whose daughter was brutally murdered in Philadelphia in 1988, all gave moving testimonies about their opposition to capital punishment so as not to increase the number of innocent victims and to move away from an erroneous sense of justice as vengeance and compensation for the victims’ families. “Do not kill again in our name,” “The death penalty is a failure; it only adds death to death and should be abolished,” they said.

On the occasion of the governor’s signing the new law, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has announced it will illuminate in a special way the outside and the inside of the Baltimore cathedral, the Basilica of the Shrine of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which has served as the cathedral since 1821 and is the oldest cathedral in the United States. The signing of the law is a victory for life, strongly supported by the U.S. Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which will symbolically become a member of the Cities for Life movement.

 

 


 ALSO READ
• NEWS
November 25 2017

Thanksgiving with the poor in New York

IT | EN | ES | FR | PT
October 19 2017

THANKS to all those who signed the appeal for Anthony Shore: his execution was stopped tonight. Let's keep signing the appeal

IT | EN | DE
October 10 2017

On 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty let us visit the poorest convicts in Africa

IT | EN | DE | ID
October 5 2017

Sant'Egidio in USA calls for a long-term campaign for a violence-free America

IT | EN | ES | DE | ID
June 11 2017
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

At a prayer at Old S.Patrick Cathedral Sant'Egidio remembers those who lost their life for guns in the US in 2017

IT | EN | DE
June 9 2017
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

Sant’Egidio and the UN join forces for peace: a strategic alliance to be signed in New York

IT | EN | PT | HU
all the news
• PRINT
February 24 2018
La Repubblica

Solo chi ha pazienza e forza d'animo...

February 19 2018
Vaticannews

Appello della Chiesa Usa per salvare la vita di due condannati a morte

December 2 2017
Corriere della Sera - Ed. Roma

Al Colosseo artisti contro la pena di morte

November 30 2017
Corriere della Sera - Ed. Roma

Live contro la pena di morte

November 29 2017
SIR

Pena di morte. Impagliazzo (Comunità Sant’Egidio), “difendere la vita di un condannato è difendere la vita di tutti”

November 29 2017
Notizie Italia News

Per un mondo senza pena di morte. #PENADIMORTEMAI

all press releases
• EVENTS
November 28 2017 | ROME, ITALY

10th Int'l Congress of Justice Ministers ''A World without the Death Penalty''

ALL MEETINGS OF PRAYER FOR PEACE
• NO DEATH PENALTY
September 24 2015

Pope Francis calls on Congress to end the death penalty. "Every life is sacred", he said

March 12 2015
Associated Press

Death penalty: a look at how some US states handle execution drug shortage

March 5 2015
Associated Press

Nitrogen gas executions approved by Oklahoma House

February 28 2015
Reuters

Australian PM strikes conciliatory note over Indonesia executions

February 28 2015
AP

US Supreme Court won't lift stay in Florida execution

February 25 2015
Reuters

Saudi court gives death penalty to man who renounced his Muslim faith

February 21 2015
AP

New Oregon governor will continue death penalty moratorium

February 15 2015

Archbishop Chaput applauds Penn. governor for halt to death penalty

go to no death penalty
• DOCUMENTS

Statement by Minister J. Kamara on the death penalty in Sierra Leone

Vice President Mnangagwa: Zimbabwe's steps toward the abolition of the death penalty

Mario Marazziti: rifiutare la logica della pena di morte per non cedere alla trappola del terrore

Cambodian Minister of Justice, Ang Vong Vathana: Cambodia as a model of Asian country without the death penalty

Rajapakshe, Minister of Justice: Sri Lanka to protect the right to life, against the death penalty

Tanni Taher: the commitment of Sant'Egidio against the death penalty in Indonesia

all documents

PHOTO

482 visits

455 visits

492 visits

507 visits

515 visits
all the related media
MORE