Delivered by George Ryan

Thank you Mr Chairman.

I speak on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party and its international campaign against the death penalty run by Hands Off Cain, of which I am honorary chairman.
I am here to speak in favour of the resolution - to be presented by Ireland on behalf of the EU - calling for a world-wide moratorium on the death penalty.
In January of last year, I commuted the death sentences of a 167 men to life in prison without parole, because my state’s capital punishment system was - and still is – broken, racist and inaccurate.
Between 1977 and 2002, 12 men were executed in Illinois while 17 others, originally sentenced to die, were exonerated and freed from prison. That is like flipping a coin, heads or tails, live or die.
I called a moratorium to stop the death machinery so we could study the system.
The study revealed even more problems, among them the fact that 35 African Americans had been convicted by all white juries and 46 men had been sent to die based on testimony by jailhouse informants.
On a world-wide scale the application of the death penalty is no better and in many countries much worse.
I endorse a moratorium for the entire United States as well as other countries that have the death penalty. In the name of human rights, morality and mercy – I ask why not stop the machinery of death to study its accuracy, its fairness and its faults?
In countries where new democratic governments have been elected like Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Mali moratoriums have been introduced and parliamentary debates have begun that may lead to abolition.
On the other hand, I note with concern that in non-democratic countries, information on the death penalty is a state secret. In some countries, thousands of people each year are sentenced to death and immediately executed, with no opportunity to appeal. The death penalty in these countries is a humanitarian emergency and the international community has the duty and obligation to intervene. A moratorium now will stop all executions and save thousands of lives.
Mr Chairman,
This Commission has supported resolutions urging a moratorium on the death penalty since 1997, with increasing support. It is now time to strengthen the process for abolition through a moratorium established by the UN General Assembly. How many innocent people have died because of inaction?
America’s greatest president Abraham Lincoln once said “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” The moratorium will provide the mercy that is needed for the abolition of the death penalty and I urge your support for it and the resolution on the death penalty.