We must continue to fight against the death penalty says MEP

3.14.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 10th Oct 2008

Liz Lynne, the Liberal Democrat MEP for the West Midlands has said that it is vital that people continue to fight for a world wide abolition of the death penalty.

Her comments coincided with the second annual European Day Against the Death Penalty. In 2007 the EU decided to mark October 10th as a day to reaffirm Member States opposition to the practise.

In the same year, the European Parliament was instrumental in the creation of a United Nations General Resolution calling for a global moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Liz Lynne, who is a member of the European Parliament's Sub-Committee on Human Rights, has been a long time campaigner against capital punishment.

Most recently she wrote to the American Ambassador to the UK as part of eleventh hour attempts to prevent the execution of Troy Davis, a black man who was convicted, despite serious flaws in the evidence, of killing a white police officer in Georgia, USA. Mr Davis' execution was finally halted just two hours before he was due to be put to death.

Speaking today Liz said:

"The European Day Against the Death Penalty is an important reminder of the European Union's commitment to ending capital punishment around the world.

"The decision to put someone to death cannot be turned around after the event; the death penalty offers no second chances. This is why I, along with the European Parliament and the other institutions of the EU, have fought so hard for the abolition of this barbaric practise.

"It is my hope that we shall someday see a world without the death penalty, and that the numerous examples of states mistakenly putting to death innocent human beings will be a thing of the past."

ENDS