The U.S. Congress had ruled that a referendum be held in the District of Columbia, seat of the federal Capital, Washington (one of the 15 legislatures which have still not reinstated capital punishment after it was suspended in 1972), to coincide with the presidential elections, on the reinstatement of the death penalty on that territory.

We the undersigned signatories believe that

- A State, and especially a democratic one, can never and in no circumstance decide on the life of its citizens or of other persons living on its territory, providing for the death penalty in its legal system as a consequence of crimes, even if heinous one;

- That the United States of America, an example of democracy and freedom for the entire world, should expel the death penalty from its federal legal system - as well as from the legal systems of its member States - because it represents an intolerable contradiction and because it damages the credibility itself of the U.S. democracy;

- That a democratic State can never and in no circumstance submit the decision on the reinstatement of the death penalty to a referendum.

We the undersigned

Address the Government, the Congress of the United States and the authorities of the District of Columbia with concern, urging them to realize that the referendum on the death penalty to coincide with the presidential elections and at the presence of a public opinion which is increasingly alarmed by the increase of heinous crimes, far from representing a moment of direct democracy, is a macabre and cruel instrument of demagogy.

Lastly, we address the press organs, urging them not to ignore the risk that the death penalty could prevail as a barbarity of our time, using precisely the ways and the rituals of democracy.

George Wald, USA, Premio Nobel per la Medicina

Elie Wiesel, USA, Premio Nobel per la Pace

Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Irlanda, Premio Nobel per la Pace

Abdus Salam, Pakistan, Premio Nobel per la Fisica

Alexandr Alexandrov, Russia, matematico, decano dell'Università di S.Pietroburgo

Enzo Bettiza, Italia, giornalista

Larissa Bogoraz, Russia, Comitato Helsinki

Elena Bonner Sacharova, Russia

Noam Chomsky, Usa

Ramsey Clark, Usa

Milan Djukic, Croazia, vice presidente del Parlamento

Pavel Dostal, Cecoslovacchia, presidente deputati socialdemocratici

Evgheni Evtuscenko, Russia, poeta

François Fejtö, Ungheria, storico

David Grossman, Israele, scrittore

Henri Laborit, Francia, scrittore

Adam Mestrovic, Croazia, presidente dei deputati HDZ

Lord Northampton, Inghilterra

Marco Pannella, Italia, leader del Partito Radicale

Fernando Savater, Spagna, scrittore, editorialista di "El Pais"

Coretta Scott King, Usa

Emil Scuka, Cecoslovacchia, segretario generale Unione Mondiale Rom

Zdravko Tomac, Croazia, già vice-premier

Mamuka Tsagareli, Georgia, vice-ministro

Arhady Vassberg, Russia, scrittore