USA: Prisoner-assisted homicide - more 'volunteer' executions loom

USA: Prisoner-assisted homicide - more 'volunteer' executions loom

Index AI: AMR 51/087/2007
Date de publication: 17 mai 2007
Catégories: États-Unis d'Amérique, Amériques

\nRobert Comer, Christopher Newton and Elijah Page are assisting their government in its efforts to kill them. They have given up their appeals and are "volunteering" for execution. About one in 10 of the men and women put to death in the USA since judicial killing resumed there in 1977 had given up their appeals. Four of the first five executions in the USA after 1977 were of "volunteers". Defendants and prisoners should not have the option of asking for execution, because the state should not have the option of imposing the death penalty at all.