At a recent event spon­sored by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon encour­aged mem­ber nations to work towards end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Mr. Ban par­tic­u­lar­ly focused on the risk of wrong­ful exe­cu­tions, say­ing, ​“We have a duty to pre­vent inno­cent peo­ple from pay­ing the ulti­mate price for mis­car­riages of jus­tice. The most sen­si­ble way is to end the death penal­ty.” The event – ​“Moving away from the death penal­ty – Wrongful Convictions” – fea­tured the film West of Memphis, a doc­u­men­tary about three Arkansas teenagers who were con­vict­ed of a bru­tal crime they almost cer­tain­ly did not com­mit. The three were freed in 2011. Damien Echols, who had been sen­tenced to death for the crime, was among the speak­ers at the event. Since 2007, the UN General Assembly has passed four res­o­lu­tions call­ing for a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, and six coun­tries have abol­ished the death penal­ty in that time. About 150 UN mem­ber coun­tries are now abo­li­tion­ist by law or in practice. 

(Newsroom America, ​“Countries Urged to Abolish the Death Penalty,” July 1, 2013.) See International and New Voices.

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