20/06/2014 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Marietta Karamanli (France, SOC), general rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty expressed dismay about the latest executions in the United States.
“I strongly deplore that Florida, Georgia and Missouri have executed three death row inmates, within 24 hours. As one of the most cruel forms of denial of human rights, as recent botched executions by lethal injection have shown, the death penalty can never achieve the restoration of justice, irrespective of the crime for which it had been imposed,” said the rapporteur.
After nearly 30 years on death row, John Henry was executed in Florida on 18 June, making him the third prisoner to have been executed in the United States within 24 hours and the 23rd this year. On Tuesday, Marcus Wellons in Georgia and John Winfield in Missouri died by lethal injection. These were the first executions since the end of April, when the 43-minute agony of Clayton Lockett following a botched execution by lethal injection in Oklahoma raised serious concern about the method used.
Ms Karamanli recalled that the Assembly had consistently and unequivocally condemned all forms of the death penalty as amounting to inhuman and degrading punishment. She underscored in the strongest possible terms the call for an immediate moratorium on executions across the United States, which enjoy observer status with the Council of Europe.