HANDS OFF CAIN PROPOSES HONORARY PRESIDENCY TO OUTGOING ILLINOIS GOVERNOR

Hands Off Cain is well aware that George Ryan is not an abolitionist. However we recognise his great merit in being the first governor of a US state to introduce, three years ago, a legal moratorium on executions. In appreciation of this initiative, HOC in 2000 had dedicated its annual report The Death Penalty Worldwide to him.
“Since then, in America, cracks have appeared in the erstwhile seemingly solid wall of certainty regarding the death penalty: over the years there has been a decline in capital sentences and executions, public support for the death penalty is at an all time low and the whole capital punishment system is being questioned,” noted the organisation.
Gov. Ryan’s decision to empty death row, a move that HOC had urged in a public appeal in view of the expiration of his mandate, has prompted the abolitionist organisation to propose an honorary Presidency to George Ryan in a decisive year for the international campaign for a moratorium on executions.
HOC has, in fact, asked the European Union and the Italian government, which will holdthe EU’s term presidency during the second half the current year, to present to the UN General Assembly a proposal for a universal moratorium on capital executions.
´´If he accepts the presidency of Hands Off Cain, Ryan will be an excellent speaker for the international moratorium campaign, because he’ll be able to give voice and hope not only to others condemned in the United States, but also to those forgotten on death row, the convicts that are put to death in dictatorial and illiberal regimes amongst general silence and indifference,´´ declared Sergio D’Elia, Secretary General of the organisation.