Tutu Calls On U.S. to End Death Penalty

Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called on the United States to end capital punishment.

At a news conference preceding his receipt of an honorary doctorate from the University of Nevada at Reno, Tutu said not all of those who have been executed were guilty of the crimes for which they died.

“I don’t want a moratorium on the death penalty,” said Tutu, whose work to end apartheid in South Africa earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. “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.”