Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], 212-633-4150, @strimel
(Annapolis, Md.) – Brian Evans of Amnesty International USA’s Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty made the following comments today in response to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s announcement seeking repeal of the death penalty in Maryland:
“Gov. O’Malley has taken a courageous stand in putting the full weight of his office toward repeal of the death penalty in Maryland. More than two-thirds of the world’s countries — 140 of them — have rejected capital punishment as the ultimate abuse of human rights. Support for the death penalty is waning in the United States as people come to recognize that executions are a costly and ineffective deterrent to crime. Polls show a majority of the population now prefers alternatives to the death penalty for the crime of murder. Amnesty International USA has fought to overturn the death penalty globally for decades and is encouraged to see the leader of a state moving toward this goal. Our activists are working in Maryland toward this victory.”
To learn more about Amnesty International’s campaign against the death penalty in the United States, please visit: https://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/campaigns/abolish-the-death-penalty.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.