Why is the EU concerned about the death penalty in the USA?

Question

http://www.eurunion.org/legislat/deathpenalty/deathpenhome.htm

Its bad enough they forced the UK to abolish it but why are they so concerned about it in America?

Answer 1

Good question.  Actually, many Americans are taking a look at the death penalty system in action, and  asking themselves whether only purpose it serves is retribution or revenge and whether there is a serious and continuing risk of executing innocent people.

129 people on death rows have been released with proof that they were wrongfully convicted. DNA, available in less than 10% of all homicides, can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people.

The death penalty doesn't prevent others from committing murder. No reliable study shows the death penalty deters others. Homicide rates are higher in states and regions that have it than in those that don’t.

Life without parole, on the books in 48 states, also prevents  reoffending. It means what it says, and spending 23 of 24 hours a day locked in a tiny cell is not a picnic. Life without parole costs less than the death penalty.

The death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison, mostly because of the upfront costs of legal process which is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people. (upfront=before and during the initial trial)

The death penalty isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people with money. When is the last time a wealthy person was on death row, let alone executed?

The death penalty doesn't necessarily help families of murder victims. Murder victim family members have testified that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

Problems with speeding up the process. Over 50 of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade. Speed up the process and we will execute innocent people.

Sources:

Death Penalty Information Center, www.deathpenaltyinfo.org,  for stats on executions, reports on costs, deterrence studies, links to FBI crime stats and links to testimony (at state legislatures) of victims' family members.

FBI   http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/tab...  

The Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.org

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/COcostte... page 3 and 4 on why the death penalty is so expensive

http://www.njadp.org/forms/signon-surviv... for statements of victims’ families

Answer 2

Because the EU is a secular society which is very Liberal and left wing. They have no problem murdering millions of unborn Children but yet they call the death sentence Murder.....

Answer 3

Why are you so concerned about what the EU thinks?

Answer 4

The EU is concerned globally about human rights and conditions.  The treatment of it's citizens is a major area of concern in dealing with any government.  The American government routinely denounces other governments for their human rights violations.  You must understand when other governments have the same concerns about the United States.

Answer 5

Reciprocity is a bit murky.  We don't have to send their bad guys back to the EU if they do bad things here.  We'll extradite them back to stand trial in their own countries for bad deeds they did THERE, but if they do them HERE, all bets are off.

Remember the boy who got caned in Singapore?  It was big news that another country could administer corporal punishment deemed "cruel and unusual" here to a person not from their country.

Say your buddy from Belgium comes to visit.  He has rights in the EU as an EU citizen, but in the US he has only the same human rights that the UN sets forth, but no rights as a citizen.  

For whatever reason, he goes postal. He gets caught and put on trial.  Found guilty,  he's sentenced to death.

Belgium can protest saying, "That's MY murdering slimeball.  YOU don't get to put our citizens to death!  WE get to punish him."

From the US perspective, we say, "Your murdering slimeball committed his crime in our country against one of our citizens. He'll die here."

Texas put a Mexican national to death today.  Another country that practices the death penalty (China, for example) can do the same to us.

That's why they're concerned about the death penalty in the States...their citizens are not immune.

Answer 6

It has to do with the extradition of felons to countries outside the EU that still have the death penalty and since the US still follows this method of punishment it is becoming less likely that criminals wanted by America will be handed over if there is a possibility this might be the resulting sentance. Most members of the EU disagree with capital punishment and have signed the 6th protocol on human rights

Btw, the EU never "forced" the UK to abolish it considering this was done by the British government in 1965 in regards to homicide, 2 years before the UK even joined the forerunner of the EU. The last offences that still carried the death penalty (treason and p****y with violence) were abolished by an amendment to the Crime and Disorder Act that was pushed through by the House of Lords with no interference from the EU.