Strasbourg, 19.03.2009 - Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein/EPP), the Parliamentary Assembly’s Rapporteur on “The death penalty in Council of Europe member and observer countries – an unacceptable violation of human rights” congratulated New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for signing into law the abolition of the death penalty in this State.
“The reason given by Governor Richardson – that DNA evidence has shown that innocent people have been condemned to death in the past – is but one of many good reasons, pragmatic and principled, to rid the world of this barbaric form of punishment.”
She called on all other American States that still have the death penalty on their books, as well as the Federal authorities, to follow the example of New Mexico and addressed one more appeal to Governor Richardson:
“For the very reason given by Governor Richardson, the law on abolition should apply retroactively and not only to crimes committed after the entry into force of the law in July 2009: the Governor should make sure that no death sentence is executed any more, from now on.”
