Tomorrow is the the anniversary of the first ever abolition of the death penalty by a state -- the Grand Duchy of Tuscany on 30 November 1786 -- celebrated for the past few years as the International Day of the Cities for Life campaign organised by the Rome-based Catholic community of Sant'Egidio. It begins tonight with a vigil (watch here) in Rome; 1,300 other cities across the world -- 61 of them capital cities -- in 85 countries will light up a monument or a square, to declare themselves against the death penalty. It is the largest international mobilisation against the death penalty there has ever been, bringing together local governments and civil society organisations under the slogan, "No justice without life".
This movement, part of the World Coalition against the Death Penalty, has had remarkable success in persuading country after country to renounce capital punishment, leaving a minority of just 54 who still practise it. The campaign has also led to thousands of death sentences being commuted to life -- and to a UN vote in favor of an international moratorium.
Speaking at the Sant'Egidio vigil at the Coliseum tonight are a number of Americans, including Derrick Jamison (an innocent man who spent 17 years on Death Row), Marietta Jaeger Lane and Ron Carlson.
David, one word Catholic answer: redemption.
I cannot think of anything that would make a criminal more interested in redemption than his imminent death by execution.
And the Jesuits and the Kennedy's were at the fore front of the acquiescence of the Catholic Church to the acceptance of abortion. They met in 1964, nine years before Roe vs. Wade, for a few days at the Kennedy's request and developed a strategy on how that acquiescence would take place. We now have the famous line
''they were personally opposed to abortion, but''
Sant-Egidio also sponsors an illumination of the Coliseum in Rome each time that a nation (or state/province) abolishes the death penalty. On December 17, 2007, it was illuminated to mark the abolition of the death penalty by New Jersey, and again on April 17, 2009. God willing, we will see it illuminated again in 2011 when Connecticut abolishes the death penalty.