International Community Praises Governor Ryan’s Actions

Legal schol­ars and law­mak­ers from around the world have voiced their sup­port for Illinois Governor George Ryan’s recent deci­sion to clear the state’s death row. Walter Schwimmer, sec­re­tary gen­er­al of the Council of Europe, said, ​“On mak­ing this deci­sion, he proves a shared com­mit­ment and belief with the Council of Europe, that the death penal­ty has no place in a civ­i­lized soci­ety. I sin­cere­ly hope that this is a step for­ward in the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in the whole of the United States.” Ryan also received high praise and con­grat­u­la­tions from Mexican pres­i­dent Vincente Fox and Kenyan jus­tice min­is­ter Kiraitu Murungi. Kenya, where more than 1,000 peo­ple have been sen­tenced to death even though there have been no exe­cu­tions since 1984, is now work­ing to abol­ish the death penal­ty. ​“We think the fun­da­men­tal human right to life should be respect­ed, and no human being should have the author­i­ty to take the life of anoth­er. Capital pun­ish­ment is a bar­bar­ic pun­ish­ment,” said Murungi. (New York Times, January 14, 2002)

Germany Urges U.S. to Drop Death Penalty Prosecution

Germany’s inte­ri­or min­is­ter, Otto Schily, urged the U.S. to drop its plans to seek the death penal­ty against Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been charged with involve­ment in the September 11 ter­ror attacks. Germany has refused to turn over its intellin­gence files on Moussaoui, a French cit­i­zen, as long as the U.S. insists on pur­su­ing the death penal­ty in the case. (N.Y. Times, Oct. 26, 2002).

Philippines Halts Executions as Legislators Consider Abolition of the Death Penalty

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople recent­ly told European Union ambas­sadors that the Philippines is sus­pend­ing exe­cu­tions while its Congress ​“is still debat­ing the mer­its of the death penal­ty.” In hon­or of the deci­sion, Rome’s gov­ern­ment and the Sant’ Egidio reli­gious group lit up the Colosseum for two days. Rome’s Colosseum is bathed in gold­en lights for two days every time a death penal­ty is sus­pend­ed or com­mut­ed or a nation abol­ish­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. (Kyodo News, October 1, 2002, and Reuters, October 1, 2002).

EU Justice Ministers, Ashcroft to Discuss Death Penalty, Extradition

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is sched­uled to meet with European Union jus­tice min­is­ters in Copenhagen this week to try to boost coop­er­a­tion in extra­di­tions and to address EU con­cerns about the United States’ use of the death penal­ty. While EU mem­ber nations have expressed a will­ing­ness to coop­er­ate more close­ly with the United States in the fight against ter­ror­ism, offi­cials do not want any extra­di­tion deal that could lead to their cit­i­zens fac­ing the death penal­ty. Nations belong­ing to the EU enforce a manda­to­ry ban on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. (Reuters, September 4, 2002)

Earlier this month, Germany — a EU mem­ber nation — told the United States it will with­hold evi­dence against Sept. 11 con­spir­a­cy defen­dant Zacarias Moussaoui unless it receives assur­ances that the mate­r­i­al won’t be used to secure a death penal­ty against him.

Germany Seeks Assurances that Death Penalty Will Not Be Sought

Germany has told the United States it will with­hold evi­dence against Sept. 11 con­spir­a­cy defen­dant Zacarias Moussaoui unless it receives assur­ances that the mate­r­i­al won’t be used to secure a death penal­ty against him, Germany’s jus­tice min­is­ter said in remarks released Saturday. Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin said Germany would pro­vide doc­u­ments on Moussaoui to the United States on con­di­tion that they ​“may not be used for a death sen­tence or an exe­cu­tion.” (Associated Press, Sept. 1, 2002.)

Business Leaders Criticize U.S. International Record

The deci­sion by Mexican President Vincente Fox to call off a vis­it to Texas and a meet­ing with President Bush due to the state’s recent exe­cu­tion of a Mexican for­eign nation­al prompt­ed the Latin America Advisor to probe how pro­fes­sion­al busi­ness lead­ers view the U.S.‘s record on hon­or­ing its inter­na­tion­al treaty oblig­a­tions. The fol­low­ing respons­es were among those fea­tured in the newsletter:

James R. Jones, Co-chair of Manatt Jones Global Strategies LLC: ​“The U.S. gov­ern­ment needs to enforce the right of immi­grants and oth­er for­eign vis­i­tors to con­tact their native coun­try’s con­sular offices at times of arrest much bet­ter than we do present­ly.… [W]e should do it for the ben­e­fit of U.S. cit­i­zens trav­el­ing abroad who should expect the same legal rights.”

Tony Smith, Partner at Schmeltzer, Aptaker & Shepard: ​“The U.S. record is ter­ri­ble .… Clearly, Americans are at risk, as more and more trav­el and do busi­ness in foreign countries.”

Robert C. Helander, Managing Partner of InterConsult LLP: ​“Observing a sus­pec­t’s Miranda rights is not suf­fi­cient in the case of a for­eign nation­al from a coun­try with which the U.S. has diplo­mat­ic rela­tions … [T]here needs to be bet­ter train­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion between the fed­er­al author­i­ties and the local and state lev­els of policing.”

(Latin America Advisor, August 27, 2002). See also, New Voices.

Support for Death Penalty Has Declined in the United Kingdom

An arti­cle in The Guardian not­ed that British sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has dropped since 1995. A MORI poll of res­i­dents in the United Kingdom found that, even in the wake of rev­e­la­tions about the recent mur­der of two young girls, pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty remains low. In 1995, when the issue of rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty was debat­ed and sub­se­quent­ly defeat­ed in Parliament, 76% of British respon­dents sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. A poll tak­en after the high­ly-pub­li­cized child mur­ders found only 56% sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. (The Guardian, August 21, 2002). See also, Public Opinion.

Turkish Parliament Passes Legislation to Abolish the Death Penalty

Turkey’s par­lia­ment approved a pack­age of rights, includ­ing abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty, in an effort aimed at increas­ing its chances of join­ing the European Union. The leg­is­la­tion will replace the death penal­ty with life in prison with­out parole, although cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment will remain on the books dur­ing times of war. After Turkey became a can­di­date for mem­ber­ship in the European Union in 1999, the Union made abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty a con­di­tion for mem­ber­ship. (New York Times, 8/​4/​02)

Juvenile Offenders on Pakistan’s Death Row Get Life Sentence

As Pakistan’s fed­er­al gov­ern­ment enforces the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2002 in Punjab, 74 juve­nile offend­ers had their death sen­tences con­vert­ed to life impris­on­ment, accord­ing to Punjab Law Minister Rana Ijaz Khan. (Pakistan News, July 25, 2002.) According to the American Bar Association, in the last three years, the num­ber of nations that exe­cute juve­nile offend­ers has dropped sig­nif­i­cant­ly to only three: Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the United States. See also Juveniles and the Death Penalty.

Montenegro Abolishes Death Penalty

The Montenegrin par­lia­ment has abol­ished the death penal­ty, clear­ing the way for Yugoslavia’s admit­tance to the Council of Europe. Yugoslavia, com­prised of Montenegro and Serbia, had pre­vi­ous­ly applied for admis­sion to the Council of Europe, but abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty was a con­di­tion for the coun­try’s accep­tance. The fed­er­al and Serbian par­lia­ments had already abol­ished the death penal­ty. (Agence France-Press, June 19, 2002).

Council of Europe Ends War-Time Death Penalty Exception, Urges U.S. to Halt Executions

During a recent meet­ing in France, the 44-mem­ber Council of Europe dis­card­ed a 1982 clause in its orig­i­nal pro­to­col that allowed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment dur­ing war time. The ban was sup­port­ed by 36 mem­bers of the coun­cil. ​“It’s a strong polit­i­cal message…to our friends out­side Europe,” said Walter Schwimmer, Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The mem­bers also urged the United States and Japan, which both have observ­er sta­tus on the Council, to halt exe­cu­tions. (Agence France Presse, May 3, 2002).

Mandatory Death Penalty in Caribbean Countries Found Unconstitutional

On March 11, 2002, the Privy Council’s Judicial Committee unan­i­mous­ly ruled that manda­to­ry death penal­ty laws are uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The Committee, which is the court of final appeal for many of the United Kingdom​’s over­seas ter­ri­to­ries, found that the laws vio­late Belize’s Constitutional pro­hi­bi­tion against ​“inhu­man and degrad­ing pun­ish­ment or treat­ment.” The rul­ing is not lim­it­ed to pris­on­ers in Belize, but extends to include hun­dreds of pris­on­ers in the Eastern Caribbean coun­tries of St. Christopher and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Dominica. (Daily Telegraph, 3/​12/​02 and Amnesty International, AI Index AMR 05/​004/​2002)

Serbia Abolishes the Death Penalty

On February 26, 2002, Serbia’s par­lia­ment abol­ished the death penal­ty. Last year, the Yugoslav fed­er­al par­lia­ment abol­ished the death penal­ty, and the two repub­lic par­lia­ments of Serbia and Montenegro had been expect­ed to pass sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion. Serbia’s abo­li­tion will become effec­tive once it is announced in the offi­cial gov­ern­ment gazette. A pro­pos­al to end the death penal­ty has been intro­duced in Montenegro’s par­lia­ment. Yugoslavia has had a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions for the past 10 years. (Associated Press, 2/​26/​02)

De Facto Moratorium on Executions in Cuba

The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation has report­ed that the Cuban gov­ern­ment has applied a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. Currently, about 50 pris­on­ers are under sen­tence of death in Cuba, but the coun­try has not exe­cut­ed any­one since 2000. ​“This rep­re­sents a very impor­tant and pos­i­tive change from the macabre record of thou­sands of exe­cu­tions car­ried out dur­ing the first 42 years of the cur­rent gov­ern­ment,” said the Commission. The Commission is urg­ing Cuban author­i­ties to switch to a for­mal mora­to­ri­um and com­mute the sen­tences of all death row inmates as soon as pos­si­ble. (Agencia EFE, 1/​9/​02)

Kyrgyszstan Announces Plan to Abolish the Death Penalty

Kyrgyszstan President Askar Akayev signed into law an exten­sion of the coun­try’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions and announced plans to elim­i­nate cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in an effort to con­firm the nation’s ​“com­mit­ment to basic human rights and free­doms.” Earlier this year, the Central Asian coun­try adopt­ed a human rights pro­gram which pro­vid­ed that the death penal­ty would be abol­ished by 2010. (New York Times, 1/​17/​02)

Taiwan Abolishes Mandatory Death Penalty Law

On January 8, 2002, Taiwan’s leg­is­la­ture abol­ished a 1944 law that required the death penal­ty for cer­tain vio­lent crimes, includ­ing kid­nap­ping and gang rob­bery. “[W]e failed to deter crime even by impos­ing the sever­est crim­i­nal pun­ish­ment,” said the Justice Ministry, which sees the move as a cru­cial cru­cial step that could lead to total abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty with­in the next few years. (Associated Press, 1/​8/​02)