MW Richard Branson, business leaders renew call to end 'inhumane' death penalty ahead of scheduled executions

By James Rogers

'The death penalty is the ultimate injustice: It's inhumane, it's irreversible and it's riddled with errors,' Virgin Galactic founder says

Ahead of executions scheduled in the U.S. in the coming weeks, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and more than 350 fellow business leaders renewed their call Tuesday for a global end to the death penalty.

In a new video campaign, Branson called on business leaders to "be a voice for change" and sign the Business Leaders' Declaration Against the Death Penalty.

"All of us in business must speak up against broken systems and practices that don't make communities safer," the Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. $(SPCE)$ founder said in the video. "The death penalty is the ultimate injustice: It's inhumane, it's irreversible and it's riddled with errors."

Related: Richard Branson says business leaders must join the fight to end 'brutal' and 'deeply flawed' death penalty

The declaration, launched in 2021 by Branson and the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice, has received backing from business leaders including former Meta Platforms Inc. (META) Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, former Unilever PLC $(UL)$ Chief Executive Paul Polman, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington and Ben & Jerry's co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

"Business leaders care about justice," Maha Jweied, CEO of the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice, said in a statement. "They care about the impact our flawed systems of justice have on their employees, their customers, and the communities they serve. They care about it when it impacts their operations, and they also care when it is simply unfair and cruel."

There are 11 executions scheduled in the U.S. for the remainder of 2024, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

"On September 24, the state of Missouri plans to execute Marcellus 'Khaliifah' Williams, who has strong claim of innocence," the RBIJ said in its statement. "And on September 26, Alan Eugene Miller in Alabama could become the second person to be put to death by 'nitrogen suffocation,' a new and violently cruel method in which a person is killed by breathing nitrogen gas through a mask."

Alabama's controversial use of nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that forces an inmate to inhale pure nitrogen gas, came under scrutiny earlier this year when the state executed Kenneth Eugene Smith.

Related: Alabama executes man with nitrogen gas, the first time the method has been used

The first-of-its-kind execution attracted global attention. The United Nations' human-rights office had called on Alabama state authorities to halt Smith's execution, saying that it "could amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human-rights law." The Vatican-affiliated Catholic charity Sant'Egidio Community also urged Alabama to halt the execution.

Branson, a vocal advocate on a range of social issues, recently told MarketWatch why he became a campaigner against the death penalty and believes other corporate leaders should join him in opposing it.

"Businesses generate jobs, wealth and a significant amount of government revenues. And we would like to see these revenues spent in a way that benefits everyone - on infrastructure, on education, on quality public services," he said in a Q&A via email. "Instead, states are wasting these precious public resources on a costly machinery of death that doesn't deliver justice, doesn't serve as a deterrent and doesn't make communities safer."

-James Rogers

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September 17, 2024 17:59 ET (21:59 GMT)

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