Brussels, 09/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Union called on George W Bush, Governor of Texas and Republican Candidate for the United States Presidency, to commute the sentence of the mentally retarded prisoner and turn it "into a sentence, which is compatible with international law". Oliver Cruz, 33 years old, was condemned to death for the rape and murder of a women, has an IQ estimated at only 64. The execution of his sentence was planned for this Thursday, 18pm (local time).
The French Presidency, the up-coming Swedish Presidency and the European Commission, under the signature of three of their Washington representatives wrote , on Tuesday, to George W Bush "in the on going process of the EU search for a world moratorium on the death penalty". Particularly, in support for the pardon for Mr Cruz, the EU underlines that the execution on a mental retard "would be contrary to rules widely recognised in the protection of human rights". The United Nations Economic and Social Council reminds that it has adopted in 1989 a resolution calling on all the United Nations Member States "to no longer apply the death penalty to people suffering from mental deficiencies or whose intellectual capacities are very limited". The American Bar Association also wrote to the Governor of Texas to call on him to abandon this execution.