05 October 2024 :
September 17, 2024 - USA. Richard Branson, business leaders renew call to end 'inhumane' death penalty ahead of scheduled executions----'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."
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."
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."
