An opportunity for the USA to reflect on its human rights record This week's visit to the USA by Pope John Paul II, coupled with his recent statements against the death penalty, should serve as a timely reminder to the USA that it is high time for the country to examine its own human rights record, Amnesty International said today. These obligations include the global ban on the use of the death penalty against children.
Several prisoners are due to be executed in the USA within the coming weeks.
One of them, Sean Sellers, would be the first US prisoner put to death for a crime committed when under 17. As such, his killing would represent a further disturbing development in the USA s attachment to the death penalty. Another death penalty case currently being highlighted by Amnesty International is that of Randolph Reeves, a native American who was tried before an all-white jury and convicted of capital murder despite mitigating circumstances. Hours before his 14 January date with death, Mr Reeves received a stay of execution from the Nebraska Supreme Court. Amnesty International fears that this stay will be lifted in the future and Mr Reeves will die at the hands of the state.