02/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU criticises new execution of a person with an intellectual disability. On Friday 30 January, the European Union criticised the execution of Robert Charles Ladd the previous day by the US State of Texas, “in spite of the evidence that he was affected by an intellectual disability”. His execution “is contrary to international human rights law,” stated the spokesperson for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. Another man with a mental disability was executed in the US on 29 January (see EUROPE 11242). Mogherini's spokesperson reiterated that the death penalty is “cruel, inhuman and irreversible and does not serve any deterrent purpose”. The EU is opposed to the use of capital punishment in all circumstances and aims at its universal abolition, Mogherini's spokesperson added. Ladd, who was 57, was sentenced to death for strangling a woman in 1996, whilst he was on parole after 16 years in prison for having killed a woman and her two children. (CG)