The New York Times

Tuesday, April 7, 1998

UN Report Criticizes US for "Racist " Use of Death Penalty.

By ELIZABETH OLSON

GENEVA, April 6 - The United States has been accused of unfair, arbitrary and racist use of the death penalty by a United Nations special investigator in a report here at a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Overriding American objections, the commission voted last week for the second year in a row to call for a worldwide moratorium on executions.

The author of the United Nations report, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, a lawyer from Senegal, wrote that "race, ethnic origin and economic status appear to be key determinants of who will, and who will not, receive a sentence of death" in the United States. The report was presented to the commission last week.

Mr. Ndiaye is an independent expert appointed by the commission to investigate extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions worldwide.

He traveled in the United States from Sept. 21 to Oct. 8 last year and based his findings on meetings with Federal officials and officials in New York, Florida, Texas and California, and on visits to death rows.

In the 65-page report, Mr. Ndiaye said he found "a significant degree of unfairness and arbitrariness" in the death penalty's use. Considerations aside from the crime itself often

influence whether the death sentence is imposed, he said, contending that such considerations include the race and economic level of both the victim and the accused. Mr. Ndiaye urged that the United States stop executions at least until it can assure fair and impartial application.

He rejected the argument that there is broad public support for capital punishment in the United States. "In many countries, mob killings and lynchings enjoy public support as a way to deal with violent crime and are often portrayed as popular justice,' " he wrote. "Yet they are not acceptable in any civilized society."

He said that "allegations of racial discrimination in the imposition of death sentences are particularly serious in southern states such as Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas, known as the 'death penalty belt.' "

Some Federal and state officials refused to see him during his visit. Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the mission an "absurd U.N. charade," and urged the State Department not to cooperate. He made

his comments in an angry letter to the chief United States delegate to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, who later commented that the report would only "collect a lot of dust."

Mr. Ndiaye's report was issued late Friday, just before the Commission voted 26 to 13, with others abstaining, to continue its call for a general moratorium on executions, with the goal of eventually abolishing them globally.

The Commission has 53 delegate nations at any one time, with a system of rotating three-year terms.

In addition to the United States, the opponents included China, Congo and the Sudan. George Moose, the American delegate to the United Nations in Geneva, defended each country's right "to decide this issue through its own democratic process."

"We believe that in a democratic society, the criminal justice system, including the punishments prescribed for the most serious crimes, should reflect the will of the people freely expressed and appropriately implemented," Mr. Moose said at the commission meeting.

Despite the commission's vote, many countries retain the penalty. A recent report by the United Nations Secretary General says that 90 countries have capital punishment, wile 61 have formally abolished it.

But while the number of countries doing away with the death sentence has been increasing, the United States has greatly extended its use, since it was reinstated in 1976, particularly to punish Federal crimes, Mr. Ndiaye said.

The United States, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only countries where offenders under age 18 can be executed, the report said, adding that this violates international law.

Executing mentally handicapped defendants, a practice allowed in 28 of the 38 American States that have capital punishment, is a breach of international standards, the report said.