EU Policy On The Death Penalty
18.05.2007
OSCE: Statement of the European Union on Death Penalty in the USA
666th Meeting of the Permanent Council
The EU reiterates its longstanding and active opposition to the death penalty in
all circumstances. We consider that the abolition of the death penalty
contributes to the enhancement of human dignity and the progressive development
of human rights. On the other hand, the death penalty does not serve as an
effective deterrent, and any miscarriage of justice, which is inevitable in any
legal system, would be irreversible.
While aiming for the universal abolition of the death penalty the EU seeks a
moratorium in all countries that retain capital punishment as a first step
towards this end. The EU is therefore concerned about an imminent breach of the
de facto moratorium in the State of Arizona. The EU has learned that Mr. Robert
Charles Comer is to be executed on 22 May 2007. This would be the first
execution in that state since November 2000. The EU wishes to encourage the
appropriate authorities in the State of Arizona to continue the moratorium on
the death penalty and urges them to grant clemency to Mr. Comer.
The EU trusts that the competent authorities in the State of Arizona will be
informed of this statement.
On a different matter the EU has learned that the Nebraska Supreme Court has
stayed the execution of Carey Dean Moore on 2 May 2007 over concerns about a new
electrocution protocol. Nebraska is the only US federal state which still relies
solely on the electric chair for capital punishment. The EU has intervened in
this case on the basis of the breaking of a de facto moratorium in the state.
The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and
potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia,
EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as
well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this
statement.
Letter to Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano;
Letter to Arizona Board of Executive Clemency, May 1, 2007
