French Senator Crusades Against Death PenaltyBy



- Gregg Re <http://www.thehoya. com/taxonomy/ term/1820>

| Sep 26 2008

The United States must follow the lead of European countries and outlaw the
death penalty, French Senator and former French Minister of Justice Robert
Badinter said yesterday as he brought his crusade against capital punishment
to Gaston Hall.

The 80-year-old outspoken critic of the death penalty and former minister
responsible for its elimination in France outlined his opposition to capital
punishment, noting that European nations are far ahead of the curve on this
issue.

"Europe has freed itself completely of the death penalty. For men of my
generation, this is a most remarkable moral progress," he said.

Badinter said that one of the most significant points against the death
penalty is its racial bias.

"Racial prejudice does exist," he said. "In my country, the number of North
African or colored people executed for the same crime was three times higher
than for the others."

According to a report from Amnesty International, 90 countries have
abolished the death penalty, while 60 countries, including the United
States, still use the death penalty. At least 24 countries executed people
in 2007, with a majority of the executions in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan and the United States.

In Islamic states with the death penalty, Badinter stressed that Muslims,
not Western outsiders, are best suited to abolish the death penalty because
they are more familiar with Islamic law and customs.

"The abolition of the death penalty in Muslim states should be carried out
by Muslims," he said.

Badinter continues to work toward abolishing the death penalty in China and
the United States.

"Ninety percent of executions in the world are the practice of only a very
few states. The first one, far ahead from the others, is China, which runs —
like they do in the Olympics — ahead," Badinter said.

His crusade against the death penalty first began in 1965 as a criminal
lawyer in France defending Roger Bontems against a murder charge. Bontems
was an inmate at Clairvaux Prison in 1971 when he and Claude Buffet led a
revolt. Bontems took a nurse and a prison guard hostage and Buffet killed
both when the police raided the prison. While it was determined in the court
that Bontems was not the murderer, he was still sentenced to death. Outraged
by the decision, Badinter decided to dedicate himself to abolishing the
death penalty.

Badinter served as Minister of Justice for France from 1981 to 1986 and
introduced legislation that abolished the death penalty in the country. From
1986 to1995, he served as the president of the French Constitutional
Council, the highest constitutional authority in France.

He is currently serving a term as French senator for the Socialist Party.

The senator concluded his address by assessing the future of the death
penalty in the United States.

"When it comes to [the] death penalty of the United States, I am thoroughly
optimistic," he said, noting that the number of executions in the past eight
years has dropped by 50 percent.

http://www.thehoya. com/node/ 16519

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