EU Policy On The Death Penalty
EU Presidency
2234 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
January 15, 2004
Dear Governor Perry,
The European Union has learned that Mr. Scott Panetti is
to be executed in the State of Texason 5 February, 2004. On behalf of the European
Union, Ireland, as current
Presidency, together with The Netherlands, the subsequent Presidency, and
the European Commission would like to make an urgent humanitarian appeal to spare
the life of Mr. Scott Panetti.
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 countries which have
not yet abolished the death penalty, this penalty should not be imposed on persons
suffering from a mental disorder. Mr. Panetti has a long history of severe mental
illness from before the crime. He has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia,
characterized by hallucinations and delusions, and manic depression. Panetti was
hospitalised, both voluntarily and involuntarily, for mental illness fourteen
times in six different hospitals before his arrest for capital murder in 1992.
The EU strongly believes that the execution of persons suffering
from a mental disorder is contrary to widely accepted human rights norms and is
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 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 the death penalty on a person suffering from
any form of mental disorder or to execute any such person.”
We therefore respectfully urge you,
Governor, as we have also urged the members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles
of Texas, to take these factors into account and to exercise all the powers vested
in your office to grant Mr. Panetti relief from the death penalty.
Sincerely,
Noel Fahey
Ambassador of Ireland |
Wilhelmus J.P. Geerts
Deputy Head of Mission
The Netherlands
|
Günter Burghardt
Ambassador, Head of Delegation, European Commission |
Letter to Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
Embassy of Ireland
2234 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 462-3939 Fax (202) 232-5993
Website: http://www.irelandemb.org/
