Amnesty International condemned plans by Jamaica's...

Amnesty International condemned plans by Jamaica's government to resume hangings. The London-based human rights group urged Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to resist mounting pressure to resume executions as a way of tackling crime in Jamaica. "We fully understand the anger of Jamaican citizenry in the face of violent crime," Amnesty said in an advertisement published in the Gleaner newspaper. "But we urge you not to reply to that anger with the brutality of state killing." Restoring the death penalty would only lead to more brutality and the execution of innocents, not the reduction of crime, Amnesty said. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the widow and son of Martin Luther King Jr. signed the letter, which appeared on the eve of a U.S. federal holiday honoring the life of the civil rights leader.