B4-0638, 0646 and 0660/95

Resolution on the impending executions in the USA

The European Parliament,

A.recalling its previous resolutions opposing the use of capital punishment in individual cases in many different countries as well as its opposition to the death penalty in principle,

B.deeply shocked at the number of executions due to take place in the USA during the next few weeks,

C.distressed that, after an interval of 32 years, the State of Pennsylvania plans to resume executions by putting three men to death between 4 April and 2 June, although two of them, Mr Martin Appel and Mr Keith Zettlemayer, are believed to be mentally ill and the third, Mr Joseph Henry, is a black man who was convicted by an all-white jury for the murder of a white women,

D.distressed that the Governor of the State of Florida has refused to reprieve Mr Raleigh Porter although, when he was sentenced to death for two murders in 1979, the jury voted unanimously that he should be sentenced to life imprisonment, and that this recommendation was overruled by a judge who was reported as 'wearing brass knuckles and fondling a pistol',

E.distressed that the State of Georgia intends to put to death Mr Nicholas Ingram, a British citizen who also holds American nationality, although there is serious doubt as to Mr Ingram's guilt since he was arrested wearing the same clothes he had worn on the day of the murder on which there were no bloodstains and the murderer was described by the surviving victim of the crime as having 'long hair and a hairy chest', when Mr Ingram had neither,

F.stressing that Mr Porter has been under sentence of death since 1979, Mr Zettlemayer since 1980, Mr Ingram since 1981 and Mr Henry since 1987,

1.Appeals to the Governors of the States of Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania to exercise their right of reprieve in the cases for which they are responsible;

2.Considers that to keep human beings for many years under sentence of death constitutes cruel and inhuman punishment which is contrary to the Constitution of the USA;

3.Points out that, after electrocution, the method of execution in Florida and Georgia, signs of life can continue for up to half an hour;

4.Reaffirms its total opposition to capital punishment;

5.Appeals to the competent US authorities to place a moratorium on death sentences as an initial step towards the total abolition of capital punishment in the USA;

6.Instructs its Delegation for Relations with the United States to raise the question of the death penalty at its next meeting with the US Congressional Delegation to the European Parliament;

7.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the US Congress, the Governors of Florida, Pennsylvania and Georgia and the US Supreme Court.