The Commission is ready to engage Congress in a frank and factual conversation about the death penalty.
We are ready to present the ineffectiveness of the death penalty and offer viable programs that result in crime prevention and lowering crime incidence. These include police visibility or increasing police to population ratios and community vigilance. We fully support these initiatives that do not diminish our principles to uphold the right to life.
We also have to ensure that our legal obligations as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Second Optional Protocol aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty are respected and fulfilled. As a state party to these human rights treaties, we have perpetually committed not to impose nor reintroduce capital punishment.
The Commission does not want crime to go unpunished. However, the apprehension, prosecution, conviction and punishment of those who have committed wrong doings must be in accordance with human rights standards and principles.
