19/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU condemns execution of mentally impaired man. The spokesperson for High Representative Federica Mogherini repeated on Wednesday 18 March that executions of mentally impaired persons are “contrary to international human rights law”, after the US state of Missouri had carried out the death penalty, the previous day, on Cecil Clayton, “despite evidence indicating that his mental capacities were seriously damaged”. Clayton, 74, had had part of the frontal lobe of his brain removed after an accident and had suffered mental problems from that time. He was sentenced to death for killing a police officer. This execution follows several other executions of mentally impaired persons in the United States, the spokesperson said. “The death penalty is cruel, inhuman and irreversible, and does not serve any deterrent purpose. The EU believes that the abolition of the death penalty is essential to protect human dignity and to the progressive development of human rights”, she stated. (CG)