NEW VOICES: Nobel Laureates Oppose Death Penalty, Decry Execution of Juvenile Offenders

A Rome sum­mit gath­er­ing of Nobel Laureates con­clud­ed with a com­mon state­ment call­ing for abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty and specif­i­cal­ly decry­ing the juve­nile death penal­ty. The state­ment not­ed ​“the death penal­ty is a par­tic­u­lar­ly cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment that should be abol­ished. It is espe­cial­ly uncon­scionable when imposed on chil­dren.” Among those in atten­dance at the sum­mit were Mikhail Gorbechev, for­mer Israel Prime Minister Simon Peres, the Dalai Lama, and Costa Rican President Oscar arias Sanchez. The sum­mit par­tic­i­pants addressed issues relat­ed to glob­al peace, includ­ing pre­em­tive war, eco­nom­ic glob­al­iza­tion, sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, and chil­dren and the death penal­ty. (December 3, 2003, American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center) Read more about the sum­mit. See Juvenile Death Penalty and International Death Penalty.