The United Nations Human Rights Commission called on Wednesday for a worldwide suspension of the death penalty. The United States joined with a number of Arab, African and Asian states in voting against the non-binding motion, which also called for a ban on the execution of juvenile offenders. The US has come under criticism for its continued use of the death penalty, a practice which has been effectively outlawed by all 43 member states of the Council of Europe. Renate Wohlwend, the Council of Europe's special representative on the abolition of the death penalty, may recommend that the US be expelled from its observer status with the Council of Europe, which it has held since 1996, due to its stand on executions.
Japan is the only other country with observer status that practices capital punishment.
There have been signs that the US political establishment and judiciary are becoming uneasy over growing public opposition to the death penalty, prompted in part by revelations of wrongfully convicted death row inmates. Twenty-six men and one woman have been executed in the US so far this year, a rate comparable with last year's toll, when 85 condemned inmates were sent to their deaths. So far in April, five men have been executed. Jason Massey died by lethal injection on April 3 in Texas for the murders of Christina Benjamin and James King. David Lee Goff was executed on April 25 for the 1990 murder of a drug counselor.