Amnesty International opposes executions in all cases, without reservation, regardless of the heinousness of the crime. The death penalty is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution to it. The death penalty offers no answers to the many questions that arise from violent crime, and diverts energy and resources away from humane, constructive alternatives to confronting this pressing social problem. It encourages feelings of vengeance, division, intolerance, and hatred. It is an entirely destructive exercise with no measurable societal benefit.
Executions carry the official message that killing is an appropriate response to killing.
That is the same reasoning said to lie behind the carnage in Oklahoma City on 19 April 1995. The USA's increasingly isolated resort to this cruel, brutalizing and irrevocable punishment is a matter which cries out for leadership at the highest level. Because of the scale of the crime of which Timothy McVeigh was convicted, national and international attention to his impending execution will be enormous, in contrast to the scant coverage given to the majority of executions since 1977. As such, the case provides President Bush with a singular opportunity to announce to the widest possible audience that he will no longer allow those who kill to set the moral tone, and that he will not allow federal executions to resume at a time when more than half the countries of the world have stopped executions and when domestic concern about the death penalty is at unprecedented levels. President Bush can declare a moratorium on federal executions under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, of the US Constitution which gives him the Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States .