�         Amnesty International ha chiesto al presidente degli Stati Uniti Bill Clinton una moratoria sulle esecuzioni capitali decise in base alle leggi federali, e innanzitutto, in tale ambito, la grazia per il condannato a morte Juan Raul Garza. ''L'esperienza crudele, disumanizzante e macchiata di errori irrimediabili costituita dall'applicazione della pena capitale e' un fallimento, ed e' ora di cambiare rotta'', afferma l' organizzazione per i diritti umani, in un comunicato diffuso a Losanna. In programma per il 12 dicembre prossimo, l'esecuzione di Juan Raul Garza sarebbe la prima dal 1963 in applicazione della legge federale. L'uomo e' stato condannato a morte nel 1993 da una Corte federale in Texas per aver ucciso tre trafficanti di droga, crimine che - al pari di spionaggio e tradimento - ricade sotto la giurisdizione federale. ''L'applicazione della pena di morte e' altrettanto arbitraria a livello federale e a livello degli Stati'', afferma Amnesty in un memorandum di 43 pagine inviato nei giorni scorsi a Clinton. Negli Usa - precisa l'organizzazione - circa 3.600 detenuti sono in attesa di esecuzione in base alle leggi dei singoli Stati, 21 per leggi federali.

          Amnesty Appeals to Clinton to End U.S. Executions - By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Holding up a picture of his only daughter who died in the Oklahoma City bombing, Bud Welch joined human rights activists Tuesday in urging President Clinton (news - web sites) to end his term by abolishing the death penalty.

Seen by some as an unlikely supporter of the campaign to end capital punishment in the United States, Welch said the execution of his daughter Julie's killer, Timothy McVeigh, who is on death row in Indiana, would not bring him peace.

``I can assure you it (execution) does not bring any closure to the families,'' Welch told a news conference called by the human rights group Amnesty International.

``The day they take Tim McVeigh out of his cage in Indiana, for the purpose of killing him won't bring Julie Marie Welch back. It won't bring me any peace or anyone else any peace. God simply did not make us to feel good by killing another human being,'' said Welch.

Amnesty International sent a letter to Clinton Tuesday in which it urged him to finish his eight years in power by declaring a moratorium on federal executions and by granting clemency to convicted drug smuggler and murderer Juan Raul Garza, who is scheduled to die on Dec. 12.

``Juan Raul Garza's life is in your hands. But so too is the international human rights reputation of your country,'' said the letter, released by Amnesty.

Garza's death will be the first execution by the federal government in 37 years unless he is granted clemency.

``He (Clinton) must send a clear message to his country that its cruel and brutalizing and lethally flawed experiment with capital punishment has failed,'' said Ajamu Baraka, acting director of Amnesty International's U.S. Program to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Rights advocate Bianca Jagger said if Clinton wanted to assure his legacy as the 42nd U.S. president, he should consider granting a moratorium on death penalty cases.

``It's my hope that President Clinton will hear us and that when he leaves office he will become known as the first president to declare a moratorium,'' Jagger said.

Amnesty's appeal comes two months after a U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) report said it saw racial disparity in death penalty cases with blacks, Hispanics and other minorities accounting for 74 percent of such cases since 1995.

``We believe that you cannot, in good conscience, allow any federal execution to proceed in light of the Justice Department's findings,'' Amnesty wrote to the president.

Amnesty also pointed to the decision last January by Illinois to suspend executions because of concerns some death row inmates had been wrongly killed when they were innocent.

Clinton has little over two months in office and his successor -- either Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) or Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush (news - web sites) -- both support the death penalty.

Bush's state of Texas is expected to break its own U.S. record for the most executions in a year when it puts three men to death this week, the last of whom is said to be so mentally ill he still believes in Santa Claus.

Welch said he understood why some people were fixed on retribution. He had always opposed the death penalty but immediately after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, he was so outraged he wanted his daughter's killers ``fried.''

About eight months later he was standing outside the bomb site when he realized it was time ``to move forward.''

``I realized that the day they were executed would be an act of rage and revenge and that's why Julie and 167 others are dead in that great city today,'' Welch said.

About two years ago, Welch visited Timothy McVeigh's father and realized how much pain his family was going through. Welch said he told him he did not want his son to die. ``It was as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I never felt closer to God,'' he said.

There are over 3,600 prisoners on state death rows in the United States, having been convicted of violating state capital laws, Amnesty International said. There are more than 20 under federal sentence of death, convicted of breaking federal capital laws.