| Return to Napoleon Beazley's Homepage |
Council of Europe Appeals
for Inmate
Europe's leading human rights organization
urged the governor of Texas to
spare Napoleon Beazley from being executed
Wednesday for a crime he
committed as a teen-ager.
The 43-nation Council of Europe reaffirmed
its unequivocal opposition to
the death penalty as an inhuman punishment
which has no place in a
democratic country.
Council President Lord Russell-Johnston
and Secretary-general Walter
Schwimmer said execution of Beazley
would run counter to international
legal standards and the norms of civilized
society.
"We call on you to show restraint in
the case of Napoleon Beazley whose
life now depends entirely on your decision,"
they said in the statement
late Tuesday to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
"It is a matter of human decency
to right the wrong before it is too
late."
Beazley, now 25, is to be executed in
Texas later Wednesday, becoming the
19th criminal in the United States
to be sentenced to death since 1976
for a crime committed as a teen-ager.
His case has drawn international attention
because of his age at the time
of the slaying, but also because the
victim's son is a judge on the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The
case has also fractured the U.S.
Supreme Court, drawn a crowd of death
penalty opponents and led to
renewed criticism about Texas' criminal
justice system.
The Council of Europe is the guardian
of the 1952 European Convention on
Human Rights. In June, it threatened
the United States and Japan with the
loss of their observer status unless
they stopped practicing capital
punishment by 2003.
(source: Associated Press)
Governor Perry
State Capitol
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Dear Governor Perry:
Belgium, holding the Presidency of the
European Union, together with Spain,
subsequent Presidency, and the European
Commission – with reference to our letter of July 20, 2001 – would like
to convey and reiterate to you and to the Members of the Board of Pardons
and Paroles of Texas, our urgent appeal to spare the life of Mr. Napoleon
Beazley.
As was stated in our letter of July
20, Mr. Beazley has been condemned to capital punishment for a crime he
committed when he was 17 years old, and the European Union considers that
the death penalty should not be imposed on persons under 18 years of age
at the time of the crime, in the spirit of article 6 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Alex Reyn
Agustin Nuñez
Wilfried Schneider
Ambassador of Belgium
Chargé d'Affaires
Embassy of Spain
Chargé d'Affaires, Delegation of
the European Commission
| Return to Napoleon Beazley's Homepage |
