A three-year study of the capital punishment system in eight states has strongly bolstered the view of the American Bar Association that the death penalty is profoundly flawed and a moratorium is necessary. The study confirmed the flaws that death penalty opponents have been proclaiming for years, including the racial disparities in the application of the death penalty and the poor quality of the lawyering received by capital defendants.
While the ABA does not call for the outright abolition of capital punishment, it has called for a moratorium until these major problems are studied.
The ABA is not the only organization making the call for a moratorium. A delegation of death penalty opponents will present the President of the United Nations General Assembly with a 5 million signature petition calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions on Friday, November 2, 2007. Almost 100 countries are co-sponsoring the moratorium resolution.
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