The commission responded by calling for an immediate moratorium on capital punishment. Also in 1997, the American Bar Association, concerned about incompetency of counsel in death penalty cases and racial bias toward either the victim or the defendant, called for a moratorium on the death penalty. Several others, however, have been mistakenly executed. And, two months ago, Illinois Gov. George Ryan, dismayed that his state had proven innocent nearly as many death row inmates as it had executed, announced a moratorium on executions. The United States must fall in line with the prevailing principles of international law and the community of civilized nations by abolishing the death penalty.
Treaties ratified by the United States become the law of the land under the Constitution.
In honoring these treaties, norms of international law must also be followed regarding international displeasure with the death penalty. Even Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sandra Day O'Connor have considered international law in their rulings. Like virtually all other civilized countries, the United States must take the high road and abolish the death penalty. We must choose and affirm life, not death. This article was published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal on April 6, 2000.