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Death penalty: Council of Europe keeps up pressure on Washington

An eleven-member delegation from the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly recently helped to give the US debate on abolition of the death penalty a major new impetus, by organising two conferences - in Springfield (Illinois) and Washington, DC. In her interview, Renate Wolhwend (Liechtenstein), Chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, regrets that in Washington, at the federal level, the Council’s call for abolition of capital punishment is seen as interference in domestic affairs.

Mrs Wohlwend, a conservative, suggests that in future, the Council should chiefly campaign against executions in the individual states, and work more closely with civil rights organisations. She says that, at its session in June or September, the Assembly will be giving serious thought to the possibility of revoking America’s observer status, since Washington has so far taken no convincing steps towards abolition.

Interview (14.04.2003)

Question: The Council’s taking political action in the US to get the death penalty abolished is certainly spectacular but did the conferences have any impact, with the war in Iraq in full swing?

Wohlwend: It’s true that the war in Iraq is pushing everything else into the background. To that extent, our experiences were mixed. In Springfield, a lot of senators and congressmen from Illinois were interested in what we were doing. In Washington, on the other hand, we only got people from civil rights associations. There wasn’t a single politician in sight, which was a bit frustrating. Still it has to be said that, basically, the time is never right for this kind of initiative. On the whole, politicians in the US don’t like being confronted with this whole problem of capital punishment. But the independent organisations working for abolition did insist that the Council’s presence in the debate was important.

Question: For the US, is the Council’s involvement unacceptable interference in domestic matters?

Wohlwend: You have to make a distinction between the federal authorities in Washington and the civil rights associations. The associations welcome the things we’re doing as support for their own work. In Washington, there’s a tendency to see them as unwanted interference. But one thing may be a sign that there’s still a certain openness. In both Washington and Illinois, it was thanks to parliamentarians that we were able to hold our conferences at all – that’s a faint light in the darkness.

Question: What did your visit achieve? Did you see any signs of a move towards abolition of the death penalty or at least a moratorium on executions?

Wohlwend: Of course, our visit can’t produce any direct political consequences. But the Council of Europe has shown that it really takes this difficult issue seriously. We’re not just passing resolutions in faraway Europe or sending off fact-finding missions – we’re tackling the problem on the spot. I think we put some important new ideas into the US debate on abolition. The media people took an interest in our conferences too.

Question: What about your hope that the lifting of the death sentence on over 150 prisoners in Illinois would encourage the abolitionists and help the Council to make its case in Washington - did it?

Wohlwend: Yes, it most certainly did. But we shouldn’t be over-optimistic. We still have to see whether Governor George Ryan’s decision, just before leaving office, was anything more than a flash in the pan. The US has a long way to go. One thing is enough to show that. People are sometimes released after years on death row, because their innocence has been proved – but the judges and law officers responsible for these blatant miscarriages of justice keep their jobs.

Question: Will you be working more closely with civil rights associations in the US?

Wohlwend: Obviously, the first thing we want is dialogue with the politicians after all, they’re the ones who make the laws. But independent initiatives are a very important part of fighting the death penalty. Perhaps the Council of Europe should concentrate on campaigning against the death penalty in individual states 38 of them still have it instead of trying to influence federal policy in Washington. And that the grass roots is the level where civil rights associations can really do a lot, and play a big part in spreading the Council’s message.

Question: The Parliamentary Assembly has threatened to deprive both Washington and Tokyo of their observer status unless they take serious steps to abolish the death penalty, or at least declare a moratorium on executions. Will it actually do this?

Wohlwend: The question will be on the agenda of the session either in June or in September. There’s one important difference between Tokyo and Washington. In the Japanese Parliament, a sizable group of members has been campaigning against the death penalty for years but there’s nothing like that in the US Congress. At least, there hasn’t been any notable progress along the lines we advocated in the resolution we adopted in summer 2001 which Washington totally ignored. If we want the Council to stay credible, we need to think very seriously about the next step.