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III December 09, 2003
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Martin Luther King III called Tuesday for the end of the death penalty,
describing it as archaic and unjust especially when applied to children.
In a speech to about 100 people gathered for a juvenile justice
conference, King recalled how his father, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and grandmother were murdered.
"I should be on the front line for those advocating the death penalty,"
King said.
But the values instilled by his parents prevent him from believing the
death penalty is just.
"We have always been consistently against the death penalty," he said.
The second annual "Under Our Wings" conference began Monday at the
Circus Circus hotel-casino. Founded by Bishop Thomas Masters, the
conference is aimed at eliminating the death penalty for those under the
age of 18 and to ceasing the practice of prosecuting children as adults.
Masters, pastor of the New Macedonia Baptist Church in Rivera Beach,
Fla., described the conference as a grass-roots coalition and said they
plan to discuss statewide initiatives banning the use of the death penalty
in juvenile cases.
King, who recently stepped down from the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference to take over as president of the
King Center for Nonviolent Social Change,
called for Americans to "create a society where children can be children."
"A nation is judged by how it treats its most precious resource," King said. "And certainly, our most precious resource
is our children."
King urged conference attendees to question
candidates during the 2004 campaign about how they regard the death
penalty.
"If we really want to see legislation protecting children ... we've got
to elect people who have that view," King said.
In his speech, King also criticized
President Bush, saying he should have focused more on why terrorists hate
the United States instead of going to war.
"It's not because we have democracy. It's not because we have freedom.
It's more about how we treat people around the world," King said. "You can never foster peace by engaging in
war."
He also targeted the Patriot Act, which he said gives authorities a
license to harass people.
"They spent millions of America's taxpayer dollars trying to discredit
my father," King said. "The things they did to
him are now legal.
"The freedoms we once had, they no longer exist."
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