Mexico Abolishes Death Penalty

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government formally abolished the last vestiges of its death penalty on Friday.

President Vicente Fox described as "historic" the publication in the official gazette of the constitutional changes, which were approved by the Mexican Congress in June and by a majority of state legislatures in the intervening months.

"Mexico shares the opinion that capital punishment is a violation of human rights," Fox said. "Today, the death penalty has been abolished."

The Mexican legal system has not put anyone to death since 1961, and courts usually refuse to extradite suspects to the United States or other countries if there is a chance they could wind up on death row.

But capital punishment was, until Friday, still technically legal, especially in military courts.

Mods: This is the whole story; I couldn't find it posted earlier. Hope it's not a dupe.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/world/3515342

Maybe we should follow the lead of our more enlightened brethren to the south.

News
All News
EU News 78/2005 - 2005/10/10

http://jpn.cec.eu.int/home/news_en_newsobj1379.php


European Union and Council of Europe call for Abolition of Capital Punishment on World Day against the Death Penalty

The UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, speaking as Presidency on behalf of the EU, issued a statement on 10 October, World Day against the Death Penalty, calling on all countries to respect the right to life by abolishing capital punishment...

:thumbsup: