On Wednesday 12 April, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) expressed concern at the seven executions by lethal injection planned by the US state of Arkansas between 17-27 April.
In a press release she explained that these executions, “would break the de-facto moratorium on the death penalty observed by this US State since November 2005”. She added that Arkansas would also become the first state in the US to conduct seven executions over an 11-day period since the resumption of the use of the death penalty in 1977 in the United States”.
The urgency of these executions corresponds to the close expiry date of stocks of midazolam used in lethal injections and the difficulty the state of Arkansas is experiencing in procuring this substance.
The spokesperson explained that, “We therefore call on the Governor of Arkansas to commute the sentences of Mr Bruce Earl Ward, Mr Don Williamson Davis, Mr Ledell Lee, Mr Stacey Eugene Johnson, Mr Jack Harold Jones, Mr Marcel W. Williams, Mr Kenneth D. Williams, as well as the sentence of Mr Jason F. McGehee, which has been temporarily stayed, and grant them relief from the death penalty”.
The General rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, Yves Cruchten, said that he was shocked by the executions resuming in Arkansas and by the speed with which they are going ahead. He considers that, “It is made all the more deplorable by the fact that the urgency of these executions is dictated by the close expiry date of stocks of midazolam, a highly controversial sedative used in lethal injections”. He called on the Governor of Arkansas not to carry out these executions and for the United States to carefully consider the very nature of the death penalty, “which in any circumstances is a cruel and inhumane sanction”. (Camille-Cerise Gessant and Francesco Gariazzo)