Article from Amnesty International Denmarks "Amnesty" magazine, released 16th of september 2009
Language: Danish. English version will be available shortly.
Welcome to The Free Will Project
The Free Will Project is an opportunity for you, personally, to exercise your opinion concerning the death penalty. By signing a Free Will there is a very good chance – in case you should ever be the victim of murder in a jurisdiction which enforces capital punishment - that your opposition to the death penalty will be heard and taken seriously.
If the state chooses to respect your Free Will, your voice, in fact, will have saved a life - the same life that took yours.
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Project founder signing the The Free Will
Martin Martensen-Larsen (The founder of The Free Will Project) is making a Free Will in front of two witnesses, Cecilie Gregersen and Alf Qvistgaard (the creator of the website for The Free Will Project).
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”In reality, the death penalty is the difference between civilization and anarchy. The very idea that you have the right to take the life of human beings, who are imprisoned and no longer pose a threat to the outside world, contradict all civilized conventions. Even in war, it is forbidden to kill people who have been captured and disarmed. For those reasons I support projects that aim at curtailing the death penalty. And if this initiative – The Free Will Project – can help save just one person’s life, it is great.”
Jørgen Poulsen, Member of the Danish Parliament and former secretary general of the Danish Red Cross
“The concept of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth does not work. As a society we agree on this. The concept is of no use, neither in cases of economical nor violent character. To imagine repaying a rapist by raping him is a repulsive thought. Another perspective of using prison sentences rather than death sentences, is that it gives the judicial system a possibility to reverse a verdict if it later learns that it imprisoned an innocent person. Thus the system is able to release the person and award him or her damages. This it not an option if the system chooses to sentence the same person to death and execute him or her. There is always a danger executing an innocent person. And are we not told that murder is exactly what we, as a society, are trying to prevent? Therefore the death penalty needs to be abolished”.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Actor
Ambassador for The Free Will Project
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau,
Lars von Trier,
Lars Normann Jørgensen,
Dr. Michael Radelet,
death penalty expert and Professor of Sociology, University of Colorado. Supporter
