Atlanta Journal-Constitution

USA: Former first lady calls for halt to executions

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter called Monday for a national moratorium on executions, and condemned the death penalty as a tragic violation of human rights.

A mental health advocate since her time in the White House in the late 1970s, Carter told an audience at the American Bar Association's annual conference she was disturbed by the number of mentally ill, young, minority and poorly represented defendants sent to death row.

 "Executing mentally ill people does not make sense as a deterrence, and it undermines the integrity and fairness of our system of justice," she told an audience gathered to honor recipients of a pro bono legal service award. Carter said she was appalled at a recent study's finding that almost 7 of every 10 cases ending in death sentences contained "serious reversible error."

Carter commended Govs. Parris Glendening of Maryland and George Ryan of Illinois, who have stopped executions in their states. She also hailed pending legislation that would declare a national suspension of capital punishment and increase access to DNA testing in capital cases. 

Blacks convicted of killing whites are sentenced to death 22 times more often than blacks who kill blacks, and more than 7 times the rate of whites who kill blacks, said Carter, who co-founded the Atlanta-based Carter Center, a global development and human rights organization, with former President Jimmy Carter 20 years ago.

 She praised the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in June declaring execution of the mentally retarded as unconstitutional, but said the decision also must apply to the mentally ill and children.

 "It should be an embarrassment to every American that we execute children," she said. "The United States is the only country in the industrialized world that still executes anyone, and executing children puts us in the company of Somalia --- only Somalia."

 Carter said nearly 80 offenders who were under 18 at the time of their convictions sit on death row --- the highest number since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

 "We don't take care of children in our country the way we should, and then when they get in trouble, we punish them severely," she said.