European Union Opposes U.S. Trump Administration’s Resumption of Death Penalty
View of the execution chamber in a Florida prison.
By Gary Raynaldo / DIPLOMATIC TIMES
The European Union Friday said it strongly opposes the decision of the United States Department of Justice to resume the federal death penalty and is calling on the U.S. to reconsider and not proceed with executions due to begin next week. Last year, the Trump administration reactivated executions in the federal criminal justice system for the first time in 17 years.
“The European Union strongly opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances. It is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, incompatible with the inalienable right to life, fails to provide effective deterrence to criminal behaviour, and is irreversible. We urge the U.S. administration to reconsider and not proceed with the federal executions due to take place starting on 13 July. This decision runs counter to the overall trend in the United States and worldwide to abolish the death penalty, either by law or in practice.”
-Spokesperson for European Union External Action, Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
EU Will Continue to Work Towards a Universal Abolition of Death Penalty
The EU said it stands firmly and unequivocally by the victims of crimes and their families, and supports the application of effective, non-lethal punishments. The EU pledges to continue to work towards a universal abolition of the death penalty.
U.S. Supreme Court Clears Way For Trump Administration to Carry Out Executions
Last month, after a series of legal challenges, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to carry out the first executions in the federal criminal justice system in 17 years. Four inmates convicted of murdering children are set to be put to death by lethal injection. One of them, Daniel Lewis Lee murdered a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl. He’s been on death row since 1999; his execution is scheduled for July 13.
Many view Trump’s resumption of federal executions as a re-election strategy to score votes under a banner of “law-and-order” and to paint the Democrats as “weak on crime”.
Death Penalty is Plagued with Racial Disparities: NAACP
In states across the country, African Americans are disproportionately represented on death row and among those who have been executed. Black people make up 13 percent of the population, but they make up 42 percent of death row and 35 percent of those executed, according to a recent report by the NAACP. In addition, many studies have found the race of the victim to affect who receives the death penalty, with homicides of white victims more likely to result in the death penalty.
Innocent people have been sentenced to death and executed. If innocent people can be convicted, sentenced to death, and executed, the criminal justice system cannot be trusted to reliably separate the innocent from the guilty, according to the NAACP. Between 1973 and 2016, 156 people who had been sentenced to death were subsequently determined to be innocent. During the same period, 1,142 people have been executed.
‘The death penalty has no place in the 21st century’ – UN Chief
Credit: By Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times/ United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
“The death penalty does little to deter crimes or serve victims.” -UN Chief Guterres
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in 2017. The UN chief has staunchly opposed the detah penalty over the years, and has called on all countries which have not forbidden the extreme practice to urgently stop executions. “Some governments conceal executions and enforce an elaborate system of secrecy to hide who is on death row, and why,” Guterres noted at the time, underscoring that lack of transparency showed a lack of respect for the human rights of those sentenced to death and to their families, as well as damaging administration of justice more generally.
EU Welcomes Decision of State of Colorado to Abolish Death Penalty
The EU praised the decision of the State of Colorado to abolish the death penalty last March. Colorado abolished the death penalty, making it the 22nd state to do away with capital punishment since it was reinstated in 1976.
“The decision of the State of Colorado further encourages the growing trend to abandon capital punishment in the United States. This is in line with the trend worldwide, where the number of countries with no executions for at least 10 years has already reached 160. The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and no compelling evidence exists to show that it serves as a deterrent to crime, while any miscarriages of justice are irreversible.”
-European Union
