Act Now - South Dakota Peace and Justice Center

Reject Death Penalty: Declaration of Life

The Declaration of Life is a formal, legal affidavit by which signers abjure the death penalty in the event that they themselves are murdered. Their declaration is not that murder should go unpunished but that Society's answer to the crime should not be judicial killing.

The signing should be done in the presence of a notary public and two witnesses. (Two witnesses are required in South Dakota. In some other states one witness may be sufficient. Check with your county clerk for the number required in your state.)

Signers should notify their families or close friends of their action and file the Declaration with their will or other important papers which their families are advised to examine after their death.

Click to download the Declaration of Life

The Declaration of Life was drafted in 1994 by Indiana attorney John B. Milford, and a national request for signers was initiated by some Catholic Sisters of Mercy in Brooklyn, New York. Since that time the Declaration has been made by persons of many faiths, not just Catholic sisters. This is unsurprising since almost every major religious denomination in the United States maintains a strong position against use of the death penalty.

Hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that's the strong person...who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil.
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Click to download the Declaration of Life