Has the time come for South Dakota to repeal the death penalty?
A call for nonviolence
Presentation Sisters raise awareness and share with others the systemic injustices in our country and world. They support a seamless approach to life issues partaking in local, state and national meetings and conferences; working to abolish abortion and the death penalty and actively opposing possession of nuclear weapons.
View or print SB 121 (prospectively repeal the death penalty) HERE
View article in the Aberdeen News with a six-legislator panel discussing the SB 121
STATEMENT OPPOSING DEATH PENALTY
Following is a statement endorsed by the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose motherhouse is in Aberdeen SD. It was released on January 1, 2002, on the day designated by Pope Paul VI in the l960’s as a “Day of Prayer for Peace.”
“We, the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Aberdeen, SD, believe that the death penalty is immoral and should be abolished. As women committed to nonviolence, we seek a penal system that supports conversion and reconciliation, rather than one that perpetuates the cycle of violence and vengeance. We believe the death penalty flows from the assumption that problems in our society will be resolved through violent means, which is the same assumption that led to the attacks of September 11, 2001.
“We support a consistent ethic of life, believing that all life is sacred from the moment it begins until its natural death. The death penalty promotes the idea that the life of the condemned is no longer sacred in the eyes of God. We believe that all persons are redeemable and loved by God.”
