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Within the EU Parliament, the voice of 370 million Europeans, a vast majority cannot understand why the United States is the only major democratic state in the world that carries out the death penalty.
Rocco Derek Barnabei�s case has given rise to particularly strong reactions in Europe both because there were once again doubts as to his guilt and because, while he is an American citizen, his family originally came from Italy, one of the European Union's Member States.The diplomatic approaches made to the Governor of Virginia at the request of the prisoner's friends and relatives and the organisations supporting his cause have been in vain.
I take this opportunity of addressing this open letter to you, simply to engage in an open and frank dialogue, in keeping with the bonds of friendship which exist between Europe and the United States.
On this side of the Atlantic, no one disputes the fact that your great country is widely seen as a symbol of freedom and democracy. We have not forgotten all that Europe owes your country, which helped it regain its freedom, shedding the blood of its young people in the process, during the two world wars. No one disputes the fact that the death penalty has been recognised by the US Supreme Court as constitutional. No one disputes the right of any organised society to protect itself against criminals who threaten the safety of individuals and their property, nor the right to inflict a punishment on those criminals that is proportionate to the crimes committed.
Europe has not forgotten that, until recently, it applied the death penalty itself, often in a cruel manner. Certain countries abolished it long ago by repealing the relevant criminal law provisions or by deciding no longer to apply them.
However, as recently as two decades ago, certain leading European nations, such as my own country, France, though deeply attached to human rights and universal values, had not yet abolished this sentence. And when their parliaments eventually took the step of abolishing it, the political debate was every bit as heated as it is at present in the United States. Nowadays, it is no longer a matter of controversy.However, a collective awareness has developed throughout Europe, removing any remaining doubts. This new awareness, which I now call upon the American people to embrace, is based on the following considerations: no objective research has ever shown that the death penalty acted as a deterrent against serious crime and, in none of the European countries that have abolished the death penalty in recent years, has such crime increased; modern societies have sufficient means of protecting themselves other than by violating the principle that human life is sacred; punishment by the death penalty is an archaic remnant of the old law of "an eye for an eye."
I am aware that the majority of people in your country still favour maintaining the death penalty and that, in any democracy, the people are sovereign. However, is this argument enough to ease the conscience of those responsible for guiding their country, with due regard for modern-day values? When President Lincoln abolished slavery, did he enjoy the support of a majority of the southern states? When President Roosevelt committed the United States to fighting alongside the people of Europe to restore peace and freedom in a world devastated by the Nazis and their allies, did he from the outset have the support of a majority of Americans? When President Kennedy put an end to the racial segregation that was still in place in certain states, he had the courage, probably at the risk of his own life, to go against the wishes of a large number of people who were determined to maintain the existing system even by violent means.
Do today's politicians really wish to appear a pale shadow of those great visionaries who forged the American nation's unity and set it on the path to greatness?
Not out of any desire to stand as judge, but in a spirit of true friendship towards one of the world's leading countries, I express the wish that the United States will join Europe in banning the death penalty, a punishment which no longer has any place in our world as the new millennium opens.
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