19/12/2000

Annan receives signatures, hopeful for execution ban

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed hope yesterday for a global ban on the death penalty after being presented with petitions signed by 3.2 million people urging a moratorium on executions.

"What happens when you discover that it is a mistake? Recently we have seen many who have been found not guilty as a result of DNA and other new evidence. If they are dead, how do you correct the error?" he told death-penalty foes.

The petitions were presented by representatives of the Community of Sant'Egidio, the Rome-based peace group that organized the campaign, Amnesty International, and Moratorium 2000.

Sister Helen Prejean, the founder of Moratorium 2000, pledged to return next year with 10 million signatures and said sentiment against capital punishment was picking up in the United States, where polls show that most people back the death penalty since the Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976.

"In the United States we are just beginning to see a shift in public attitude," said Prejean, who wrote "Dead Man Walking," an anti-death penalty book later made into a film starring Susan Sarandon.

Organizers said the petition's signers hail from 146 countries. Although many countries have abolished capital punishment, executions remain legal in some 90 countries.