NEW YORK, October 10 (RIA Novosti) – The United States continues to violate international human rights standards by executing people who suffer from mental health problems, the global issues director for the pressure group Amnesty International told RIA Novosti.
"Askari Abdullah Muhammad was executed in Florida on 7 January 2014 for a prison murder committed in 1980. He had a long history of serious mental illness, including diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia," Amnesty International's Audrey Gaughran said on Friday.
"In Florida, Amnesty International is highlighting the cases of two death row prisoners – Frank Walls and Michael Zack – who both have a background of severe mental trauma and have exhausted their appeals process."
The UK-based rights watchdog has also documented cases of sufferers of mental health problems facing execution or being executed in Japan and Pakistan. It urged nations to halt executions on World Day against the Death Penalty, October 10.
"We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances – it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," Gaughran added.
"But in those countries that still execute, international standards, including those prohibiting the use of capital punishment on certain vulnerable groups, must be respected and implemented, pending full abolition," the activist said.
The United States is one of the world's leading countries for the number of executions. According to an August report by Amnesty International, the country was sixth in 2013 — after China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and North Korea. The US Supreme Court brought back capital punishment after it was declared unconstitutional from 1972-1976.
