The "populism" of vengeance” “

Last year 34 countries carried out 4,693 death sentences. Of these, 4,445 were in Asia, 161 in Africa, 21 in Europe (Chechenia) and 66 in America. These are the data of the 2002 Report on the death penalty drawn up by the association “Let no one touch Cain” and released in recent days. In the course of her six months’ presidency of the European Council in 2003, Italy intends to renew her appeal to the United Nations for a world moratorium on capital executions. Moreover, in its session of 4 June 2002, the Italian Chamber of Deputies approved the first reading of a constitutional bill for the complete abolition of the death sentence in Italian law, including the military penal code in time of war. Some days before this vote, the world coalition against the death penalty was officially founded in Rome. Numerous testimonies of prisoners condemned to death were presented on that occasion. Joaquin Josè Martin, for example, spent five years on death row in a penitentiary in Florida (USA), accused of double homicide, before being released. During his detention the youth received letters of support from Spain (his homeland), Italy, Morocco and Venezuela: “During the third month [of my detention] I received some 400 of them: they gave me strength”, recalled Martin, astonished to see “people so different in origin, race and religious beliefs” come together in a global coalition against the death penalty. An ecumenical commitment. The Anglican Church of England and the Lutheran Church of Sweden have also appealed for the abolition of capital punishment. According to the Lutheran bishop of Oslo, Gunnar Stålsett, “the problem of the death sentence is juridical, moral and political, but above all religious. Religious belief has been used in the past to support the death penalty and is still being so used today”; on the contrary, “religious convictions ought to inspire us to make the death sentence disappear from the face of the earth”. The Lutheran bishop recalled that in the USA “the Catholic bishops have strenuously opposed capital punishment, as also have other Churches and Christian communities. But in many States the death penalty is based on the populism of vengeance”. Yet it is just in the context of interreligious dialogue – says the Lutheran bishop of Oslo – that Christians and Moslems should try to reach an agreement between their sacred traditions, as enshrined in the Bible and in the Koran and in their successive interpretations”. According to the Report for 2002, there are 77 countries in the world where the death penalty has been totally abolished. The 69 nations in which it is still in force include Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Iran, Iraq and the USA. The St. Egidio Community, one of the signatories of the Coalition against the death penalty, has also promoted an awareness-raising campaign: it is called “Cities for life against the death penalty”. The cities that have already pledged their support, including Rome, Venice, Barcelona and Grenoble, “will donate” a monument to the cause of the abolition of the death penalty which will be lit up in a particular manner when significant steps have been taken towards this goal. Chiara Santomiero