Elie Wiesel, acclaimed author, human rights activist, Nobel Peace lau­re­ate and Holocaust sur­vivor, spoke about his oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty dur­ing a lec­ture on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at Wesleyan University in Connecticut in October. Wiesel, who lost both par­ents and a sis­ter in the Nazi death camps, focused his remarks on fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims. He said that mur­der­ers should be pun­ished more harsh­ly than oth­er pris­on­ers and encour­aged the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem to focus efforts on the sur­vivors of vio­lent crimes ​“so that fam­i­lies will not feel cheat­ed by the law.” ​“But,” he said, ​“death is not the answer.” He said that he might change his stance if the death penal­ty could bring back vic­tims. He remarked, ​“I know the pain of those who sur­vive. Believe me, I know… Your wound is open. It will remain. You are mourn­ing, and how can I not feel the pain of your mourn­ing? But death is not the answer.”

(K. Florin, ​“For Elie Wiesel, death penal­ty is not the answer,” The Day (CT), October 27, 2010). See Victims and New Voices.

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