The death penalty’s dark side revealed

speaking at the launch of Hands Off Cain’s launch of the 2001 Report on the death penalty, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Margherita Boniver said the newly-elected Italian government will take up where the previous administration left off in the field of human rights, particularly the death penalty.
She emphasised that the new administration has not defined the specific duties of each Cabinet member, but said she hoped to be made responsible for human rights. She gave her personal pledge to combat the death penalty, defining it “an evil that must be fought.”
Oliviero Toscani, the controversial photographer, publicly disassociated himself from Benetton’s formal apology to the families of the victims of the death row convicts featured in the Italian clothing company’s promotional catalogue released last year.
“I don’t feel I should apologise because the project’s purpose was not to hurt the victims’ families, but to fight against the death penalty,” Toscani said Hands Off Cain’s press conference.
Benetton paid 50,000 dollars to the Missouri Crime Victims Compensation Fund in compensation for the “We, on death row” promotional campaign catalogue compiled by Toscani. The campaign led to the break-up of ties between the photographer and the clothing company.
“I was hoping to engage economic forces in the battle against the death penalty because I believed that if economic interests interfered with this system of justice perhaps some countries would become more sensitive towards the issue,” Toscani said.
“However, it was a great let down as I could see that that human rights had no place where profit is concerned.”
Rocco Toscani presented his video filmed in death rows in the United States whilst his father was photographing the inmates. Of the 26 protagonists, one, Harvey Lee Green was executed in 1999, another, Jeremy Sheets was released on June 12th due to insufficient evidence, a third, Jerome Mallet, is scheduled for execution on July 11th in Missouri.
“A lot is said and written about the death penalty in the United States, but Hands Off Cain’s report aims to shed a light on the darker side of the death penalty,” Hands Off Cain Secretary Sergio D’Elia said.
“In China over a thousand executions were carried out in 2000. This year in just over five months the figure has already surpassed 1,100 executions.
“As we compiled this report we came across other shocking facts like the execution carried out by a ten-year-old boy in Afghanistan. He stood in front of thousands of people gathered in a football stadium, and with the help of a soldier, fired three shots into the back of the man accused of being his father’s murderer. Under the Sharia law strictly imposed by the Taleban, it is the duty of the elder male family member to carry out the execution. His mother, sister and six-year-old brother were looking on.”
This was just one of the facts contained in the 2001 Report. The editor, Elisabetta Zamparutti listed the most significant statistics derived from the report.
“As of now there are 124 abolitionist countries of various types: 77 are fully abolitionist, 13 are abolitionist for ordinary crimes, 29 are de facto abolitionist (they haven’t carried out a death sentence in at least ten years), 2 are engaged in abolishing the death penalty as members of the Council of Europe, 3 currently have a legal moratoria on executions. Seventy two states still retain the death penalty.
“The increase in abolitionist countries in the last year is due to an Ivory Coast referendum last July, which saw the approval of a new Constitution in which the death penalty was abolished, and Antigua and Barbuda which became a member of the de facto group of countries, not having executed anyone in the last decade. Moreover Malta became a totally abolitionist country having abolished capital punishment for military crimes. Lastly, on the 10th April 2001, the Chilean Parliament decided to abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes.”