28/05/2015 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, welcomed the decision taken yesterday by the US state of Nebraska to abolish the death penalty.
“Last month, I welcomed the vote in the Nebraska Legislature in favour of replacing capital punishment with life imprisonment, urging the state’s lawmakers to maintain their firm stance against this inhuman punishment. Today, I must congratulate them for their unfailing support for the bill to abolish the death penalty in the state, which enabled the Parliament to override Governor Pete Ricketts’s veto,” stated Ms Karamanli.
“There is still a long way to go to make the United States, which has observer status with the Council of Europe, a death penalty-free country, but I am confident that this latest success in Nebraska will encourage parliamentarians in other states to follow this outstanding example,” she added.