U.S. Statement to OSCE on Death Penalty, Housel Execution

March 14: Douglas A. Davidson statement to Permanent Council

International law does not prohibit use of the death penalty, U.S. diplomat Douglas A. Davidson told the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) March 12 in Vienna.

Instead, international law "limits the death penalty to the most serious crimes and requires stringent due process safeguards," Davidson said during a discussion on the death penalty. The issue was raised in response to the execution of Mr. Tracy Housel March 12 by the U.S. state of Georgia after having been tried and convicted of murder.

Davidson also noted that a pre-trial report held Housel to be competent and suffering from "no major mental illness."

Following is the text of Davidson's statement:

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United States Mission to the OSCE
Vienna
March 14, 2002

STATEMENT ON THE EXECUTION OF TRACY HOUSEL

Delivered by Charge d'Affaires Douglas A. Davidson to the Permanent Council

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Since there is some lively discussion this afternoon of the death penalty, let me do what we forbore from doing on February 28 when the European Union first raised the issue, which is to address this particular case in the state of Georgia. As was just pointed out, indeed Mr. Tracy Housel was executed on Tuesday night. He was tried and convicted of the murder of a woman named Jean Drew.

In the earlier intervention to which the European Union has just alluded, Mr. Housel was reported to be suffering from a mental disorder. I simply like to note that a pre-trial report found that Mr. Housel was "competent and suffered from no major mental illness." This was in fact corroborated by a previous psychological report from the State of California assessing Mr. Housel's intelligence and psychological state.

Mr. Chairman, allow me to point out that international law does not prohibit use of the death penalty. Rather it limits the death penalty to the most serious crimes and requires stringent due process safeguards. Each state, therefore, has the right to decide through its own democratic processes whether or not its domestic laws should allow capital punishment in accordance with international law. In the case of the United States, currently 38 of our 50 states, plus the United States Federal Government, provide for the use of the death penalty. The United States Supreme Court has upheld this use of the death penalty for the most serious crimes provided that its use is in accordance with stringent procedural safeguards as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and by relevant state constitutions.

Thank you very much.

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)