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Featured Article
Mar
31
Cardinal calls overturned death sentence in U.S. victory for life
Posted By reynor | Filed Under News & Current Events
By Cindy Wooden Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY (CNS) — A U.S. appeals court decision to overturn the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of killing a police officer in 1981, is a victory for human life, said Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
A panel of judges from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld Abu-Jamal’s murder conviction March 27, but also upheld a lower court ruling vacating his death sentence.
In an interview published on the front page of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, March 28, Cardinal Martino said: “Justice is not accomplished by punishing with another crime. For this reason, every death sentence not carried out is a victory for man and for life.”
Cardinal Martino said the basis of all human rights is the right to life.
“Therefore, even the criminal who committed a crime has the right to live” and to have the possibility to make amends for his crime and to be rehabilitated, he said.
Pope Benedict XVI publicly has expressed his opposition to the death penalty on several occasions, the cardinal said.
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