Catholics against Capital Punishment
http://www.cacp.org/

Dalai Lama's view on the death penalty
http://www.engaged-zen.org/HHDLMSG.html

Pew Forum on Religion on Public Life
http://www.pewforum.org

Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty is an organization of many faiths working to abolish the death penalty
http://www.deathpenaltyreligious.org/

Sister Helen Prejean's Moratorium Campaign:
http://www.moratorium2000.org

QUOTES ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY

"I don't want a moratorium on the death penalty. I want the abolition of it. I can't understand why a country that's so committed to human rights doesn't find the death penalty an obscenity.''
Bishop Desmond Tutu

"A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 27). I renew the appeal ...for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.''
Pope John Paul, Homily, St. Louis, Missouri, January 27, 1999

"As a Buddhist monk I am completely against any form of violence, particularly the killing of the other sentient beings. And in the case of the death penalty we are actually faced with killing that is decided and carried out by a country's justice system. I think this quite immoral and wrong.''
Dalai Lama, interview, published in Hands Off Cain, October 1998

"The Torah clearly says that there are crimes that deserve the punishment of death. However, Jewish tradition makes it equally clear that only under the most exceptional circumstances can a human court be so certain of the guilt of the accused that an execution can be carried out. These restrictions include the requirement of two eye-witnesses of unquestionable character and the prohibition of circumstantial evidence and of self-incrimination, even confession. These and other rules make a death sentence virtually impossible in a Jewish court. The procedures and rules governing capital cases in the judicial system of the United States is entirely unacceptable according to Jewish tradition.''
Jewish Peace Fellowship, 1999

"The majority of those on death row are poor, powerless, and educationally deprived. Almost 50 percent come from minority groups. This reflects the broad inequities within our society, and the inequity with which the ultimate is applied. This alone is sufficient reason for opposing [the death penalty] as immoral and unjust.''
General Board of the American Baptist Churches, Resolution on Capital Punishment, passed June, 1977

"This is a time for a new ethic--justice without vengeance. Let us come together to hold people accountable for their actions, to resist and condemn violence, to stand with victims of crime and to insist that those who destroy community, answer to the community. But let us also remember that we cannot restore life by taking life, that vengeance cannot heal, and that all of us must find new ways to defend human life and dignity in a far too violent society.''
Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, from "Witness to Life: The Catholic Church and the Death Penalty", his address to the National Press Club, Thursday May 25, 2000

"WHEREAS, although Church Women United is deeply concerned about the present high rate of crime in the United States, and about the value of the life taken in murder or homicide, we also believe the life of the victim is further devalued by the taking of another life as punishment.''
Church Women United, Resolution passed by vote, 1981

"Friends accept the biblical teachings that every human life is valuable in the sight of God, that man need not remain in his sinful state but can repent and be saved, [and] that God loves the sinner and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but longs that the wicked turn from his way and live. (Ezekiel 22:11) We oppose capital punishment because it violates the gospel we proclaim, and promotes the evils of vengeance and injustice through the agencies of government intended to advance righteousness and justice. We believe the Christian way to deal with crime is to seek the redemption and rehabilitation of the offender, promote penal reform, and work more diligently at the task of preventing crime.''
Friends United Meeting, Statement approved July 21, 1960

"People ask me, "How is it that you, a Catholic nun, became involved in the death penalty?" The answer is very simple. I say: "Because I got involved in poor people." The death penalty is a poor person's issue. Always remember that: after all the rhetoric that goes on in the legislative assemblies, in the end, when the deck is cast out, it is the poor who are selected to die in this country. In the history of the death penalty it has always been that way.''
Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, chair of the Board of Directors of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and author of Dead Man Walking

"However horrible the act they have committed, I believe that everyone has the potential to improve and correct themselves. Therefore, I am optimistic that it remains possible to deter criminal activity, and prevent such harmful consequences of such acts in society, without having to resort to the death penalty. My overriding belief is that it is always possible for criminals to improve and that by its very finality the death penalty contradicts this.''
Dalai Lama, statement read by Kobutsu Shido at Creating a Legacy event, April 9, 1999

"In 1974, out of a commitment to the value and dignity of human life, the Catholic bishops of the United States declared their opposition to capital punishment. We continue to support this position in the belief that a return to the use of the death penalty can only lead to the further erosion of respect for life in our society.''
U.S. Catholics Conference, Committee on Justice and World Peace, March 1, 1978