Vol. 146               WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2000               No. 31

Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I rise to mark International Abolition Day. This day marks the occasion in 1847 when the state of Michigan became the first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish capital punishment. As one of the first acts following conferral of statehood on Michigan, the Michigan legislature abolished the death penalty for all crimes except treason. I note, with tongue and cheek and with all due respect to my distinguished colleagues from Michigan, that the date marking International Abolition Day probably should be 1853, when my great state, the state of Wisconsin, became the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes. Wisconsin has been death penalty-free for nearly 150 years. It is clear that the people of the Midwestern states have shown great courage and leadership on this issue since almost the birth of our great Nation.

Mr. President, International Abolition Day is a day to remember the victims and survivors of violent crimes perpetrated by individual criminals. But it is also a day to remember those killed by state-sponsored executions. And it is a day for education and discussion of alternatives to the death penalty.

Just as the people of Michigan over 150 years ago learned the painful reality of the fallibility of our criminal justice system and confronted the death penalty's main use, as a tool of vengeance, people throughout the United States today are beginning to question their longstanding support for the death penalty. On January 31, Governor Ryan effectively imposed a moratorium on executions in Illinois until a state panel can examine the administration of the death penalty and why so many innocents have sat on Illinois' death row. In a recent Gallup poll, even though a majority of Americans still support the death penalty, support for the death penalty is at a 19-year low. And when asked whether Americans prefer the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, support for the death penalty drops even further.

These are just some of the many positive developments that have nurtured the reawakening of the American conscience to the great responsibility and stain that state-sponsored executions place on our society. I look forward to the day when our federal government and the 38 states with the death penalty will recognize the adequacy of sentencing alternatives and abolish this barbaric punishment for all time.