By Erica Laster
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
WASHINGTON, United States – In the past 20 years, the United States has killed over 1,000 people in its execution chambers under the death penalty. Georgia’s execution of a man with inadequate representation as well as Virginia’s execution of a woman with borderline mental retardation have cast a spotlight on the enduring practice of capital punishment. The implications of human rights violations have left many in the legal field, legislature and human rights coalitions in doubt over its practicality, effectiveness and Constitutionality.
Brandon Rhodes, a former Georgia inmate, was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and organic brain damage. Rhodes became the 40th execution this year in the state of Georgia for a crime committed at the age of 18, despite a suicide which left him wholly incompetent. One medical expert declared that Rhodes was “actively disassociating, losing his grip on reality.” Six days after the attempt, Rhodes was put to death by lethal injection on September 27, 2010.
Similarly, a Virginia woman was sentenced to death after being convicted of being the “mastermind” behind the murders of her husband and stepson in 2002. Assessed as having “borderline mental retardation,” Lewis became the first woman executed in nearly 100 years in Virginia on September 23, 2010. Lewis confessed to planning both murders for money, for which she hired her lover and a second gunmen who carried out her wishes.
Despite their convictions for these crimes, Amnesty International and various Human Rights groups have condemned the United States for their practice of utilizing capital punishment. Both the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church and the ARC of Virginia, advocates for the mentally disabled, petitioned for a reduction in Lewis’ sentence to life in prison without success.
In its report to the United Nations, the United States defended its stance on the death penalty indicating that subject to procedural safeguards, the death penalty may be imposed on those who commit heinous crimes. This echoes the United States Supreme Court’s indication that “capital punishment must be limited to those offenders who commit a narrow category of the most serious crimes and whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution.”
Amnesty International argues that despite the abolition of the death penalty in 139 countries, selection of individuals for capital punishment in the United States is little more than a lottery where race, politics, lack of representation and jury composition affect the outcome.
For More Information Please Visit:
CNN – Georgia Death Row Inmate Denied High Court Review – 4 October 2010
Washington Post – Virginia Executes Teresa Lewis for Role in Slayings of Husband, Stepson in 2002 – 23 September 2010
Amnesty International – USA: Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading: 40th Execution of the Year Approaches – 24 September 2010
Amnesty Internatinoal – USA: Death Penalty Still A Part of the “American Experiment,” Still Wrong – 22 September 2010
