'Inhumane and flawed': global business leaders urge governments to end death penalty

Initial signatories of campaign include billionaires fashion mogul Francois-Henri Pinault and Arianna Huffington

Global business leaders launched a campaign on Thursday declaring their opposition to the death penalty, urging governments everywhere to end the practice and asking their peers to join them.

Speaking to the virtual South by Southwest festival, Sir Richard Branson, one of the campaign's leaders, said: The death penalty is broken beyond repair and plainly fails to deliver justice by every reasonable measure. It is marred by cruelty, waste, ineffectiveness, discrimination and an unacceptable risk of error.