23/08/2007 President
Strasbourg, 23.08.2007 – René van der Linden, President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), and as such representing a 47-nation “death-penalty-free zone” in Europe, strongly condemned today’s execution of Johnny Ray Conner in Texas.
“This 400th execution since Texas resumed the death penalty in 1982, after an 18-year moratorium, is a macabre milestone in the state’s history,” Mr van der Linden said.
Texas Governor Rick Perry’s reply to the EU appeal to halt executions and consider a moratorium on the death penalty was unacceptable, he said. “The death penalty is not, as Governor Perry put it, ‘a just and appropriate punishment’. Death is not justice and never will be.”
“Despite the potential unpopularity of the measure, capital punishment must be totally removed in all countries which strive to uphold democracy, the rule of law and human rights”, he added.
Mr van der Linden finally recalled that, as a country with observer status in the Council of Europe, the United States is violating the commitment of all observers to share the Council’s basic values.