EU Policy On The Death Penalty
Embassy of Italy
EU Presidency
3000 Whitehaven Street
Washington, DC 20008
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
30 October, 2003
Dear Mr. Chairman,
Further to the letter
sent to you on November 12, 2002, during the Danish Presidency
of the European Union, Italy, as its current President, together with Ireland,
its subsequent President, and the European Commission would like to convey to
you an urgent humanitarian appeal on behalf of Mr. James Brown, who has been sentenced
to death and is scheduled to be executed on November 4, 2003.
As stated in the EU Memorandum
on the Death Penalty (http://www.eurunion.org/legislat/deathpenalty/eumemorandum.htm)
which has been shared with you, the European Union is opposed to 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 established before the crime. He has been
diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia. His mental illness led to a 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 of 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
2003/67 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 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.
Sincerely,
Sergio Vento
Ambassador of Italy |
Noel Fahey
Ambassador of Ireland
|
GuenterBurghardt Ambassador, Head of the European
Commission Delegation |
Embassy of Italy
3000 Whitehaven Street
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 412-6400 Fax (202) 518-2154
E-mail: stampa@itwash.org
Website: http://www.italyemb.org/
