Honourable Senator/Honourable Assemblyman-woman,

The Parliament of Albany, you yourself as each of your colleagues, will soon be called upon to pronounce yourself as to the reintroduction of the death penalty in the legal system of your State. As a citizen who believes in the force of democracy, and in the value of life and human and civil rights as its primary basis, I take the liberty of asking you to vote NO.

I am perfectly aware of the very serious problems caused by crime. But when a State kills and shows that it is possible and permissible to take life away from a person, ferocity is spread, ferocity is taught; the rate of violence in society is increased.

Every day you are called upon to make democracy live, as a citizen and as a legislator. Democracy, the hope in the values of freedom and justice upon which it is based, imposes the duty to extend it, "export" it to where it does not exist, and this is possible only if democracy, freedom, justice are credible, entirely applied, practised, experienced and made to live: the death penalty is the denial of these values. The reintroduction of the death penalty in your State would mean a legitimation of the worst abuses which are being largely committed throughout the world, damaging the individual and the community.

For this reason your vote, the vote of the Congress in Albany concerns and is of interest to me, even if my life is lead far away. I am interested in the fullness of democracy, the force of justice and law, as values which do not and cannot have limits, which must spread, with no other force than their own.

Your responsibility cannot be restricted to an area such as the State of New York or the United States of America. Your responsibility is extended much more, it also concerns me, it concerns our mutual hopes. This is why, with the greatest trust, I ask you to vote no to the reintroduction of the death penalty: in order to give the whole world a new hope in the law and in the rights of all.

Thank you.