General rapporteur appalled by execution of two men with intellectual disabilities | WPN World People News

“I am gravely disturbed at the execution this week, in Georgia and Texas respectively, of Warren Hill and Robert Ladd – both of whom seem to have a well-documented intellectual disability,” Marietta Karamanli (France, SOC), General rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, said on January 30.

“The death penalty not only stands in stark contrast to the values of the Council of Europe, with which the United States enjoy observer status; these latest executions also appear to run counter to the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution – prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment – which the US Supreme Court has found to proscribe the execution of persons with intellectual disabilities.”

The General rapporteur said she was particularly troubled that Texas continues to determine intellectual disability by relying on controversial and vague social criteria (the “Briseño factors”) that are not recognised by any clinical or scientific body.

“I strongly condemn the executions of Warren Hill and Robert Ladd, and reiterate my call upon the US authorities to impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty,” Ms Karamanli added.

source: Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe