On October 12, former President Jimmy Carter stated:

During my earlier years in public office I have supported the death penalty for some especially heinous crimes.  The Supreme Court's approval of the death penalty came in 1977, but I was quite relieved that there were no executions in the United States when I was Governor or President.  Beginning with special studies of human rights abuses at The Carter Center, I became increasingly concerned about the extremely distorted and abusive executions of poor, minority, and mentally deficient accused persons in America.  In my book, "Living Faith," published in 1996, I expressed some of these concerns."

President Carter also said he supported remarks made by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter at an American Bar Association conference at The Carter Center. "I agree fully with the statement of my wife Rosalynn to the ABA meeting in Atlanta today that calls for a federal and state moratorium on the death penalty."  At the conference, Call to Action: A Moratorium on Executions, Mrs. Carter spoke to lawyers, judges, and policymakers about the need for a moratorium, and issued the following statement:

 "I am morally and spiritually opposed to the death penalty.  Even for those who do not share my belief, the questions that have been raised about the unfairness of the system, the conviction of the innocent, poor quality of legal representation, racial discrimination, and the imposition of the death penalty on mentally ill or mentally retarded people and even children clearly call for a moratorium in order to have a thorough examination of these issues.

I commend and support the American Bar Association, an organization that does not take a position on the death penalty, in calling for a federal and state moratorium on executions."