EU Policy On The Death Penalty
Royal Danish Embassy
Washington, DC
EU Presidency
Milton E. Nix, Jr.
Chairman of the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles
Floyd Veterans Memorial Building
Balcony Level, East Tower
2 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, S. E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4909
File: 27.USA.1
12 November, 2002
Dear Chairman Nix,
The European Union has learned that Mr. James Brown
is facing imminent execution in the State of Georgia. On behalf of
the European Union, Denmark, as current
President, together with Greece, the
subsequent President, and the European Commission would like to make an
urgent humanitarian appeal to spare the life of Mr. James Brown.
As stated in the EU memorandum on the Death Penalty (www.eurunion.org/legislat/deathpenalty/eumemorandum.htm), the European
Union opposes the death penalty in all cases and accordingly aims at its
universal abolition, seeking a global moratorium on the death penalty as a
first step.
The European Union considers that in those countries, which
have not yet abolished the death penalty, this penalty should not be imposed
on persons suffering from a mental disorder. Mr. Brown has a long history
of severe mental illness from before the crime. He has been diagnosed with
chronic paranoid schizophrenia. His mental illness led to a sustained plea
of insanity in the original trial.
The EU strongly believes that the execution of persons suffering
from a mental disorder is contrary to widely accepted human rights norms and in
contradiction to the minimum standards of human rights set forth in several international
human rights instruments. Among them are United
Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Resolution 1989/64
of 24 May 1989 on the implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection
of the rights of those facing the death penalty as well as
Resolution 2002/77 adopted at the last session of the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights. This resolution specifically urges all states still maintaining
the death penalty "not to impose the death penalty on a person suffering
from any form of mental disorder or to execute any such person."
We therefore respectfully urge you, Mr. Chairman, to take these factors into account
and to exercise all the powers vested in your office to grant Mr. Brown
relief from the death penalty.
Royal Danish Embassy
3200 Whitehaven Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008-3683
(202) 234-4300 Fax (202) 328-1470
E-mail: wasamb@um.dk
Website:
http://www.denmarkemb.org/
