Arizona Public Health Association Resolution
Abolition of the Death Penalty
The Arizona Public Health Association, referencing the American Public Health Association resolution number 86 I 1; and
Understanding that there is no method for terminating human life which is assuredly instantaneous or painless. and asserting that an interest in the health and well-being of the American public legitimately extends to the human condition of society’s condemned; and
Believing capital punishment is cruel and produces severe psychological terror in those condemned to death and has a negative influence on the psychological health of the public; and
Recognizing that adequate alternatives are available to punish offenders such as institutionalizing offenders for life in prison without provision for parole; and
Recognizing that empirical studies fail to establish capital punishment as a deterrent to crime, and Believing that absent a deterrent effect, the death penalty is mere vengeance and that the State cannot sanction the deliberate execution of individuals to accomplish revenge consistent with the underlying principles of the Bill of Rights to preserve and protect human dignity; and
Observing that executions are arbitrary moral judgments guided by passions and prejudice, and are not rationally related to the heinousness of the crime or the culpability of the criminal; and
Noting further that capital punishment has impacted discriminatorily on minorities and the poor; and Concluding that procedural safeguards and legal due process standards cannot eliminate arbitrary and capricious imposition of the death sentence and cannot redress the fundamental human rights violations;
therefore Arizona Public Health Association
1. Calls upon the state legislature to abolish capital punishment;
2. Urges executive officials to use their power to prevent the imposition or execution of the death sentence; and
3. Encourages its members and other professional organizations of health workers to work for the abolition of capital punishment.