A Paris-based human rights group said that most of...

A Paris-based human rights group said that most of those on death row in the United States had not received a fair trial and called on US Supreme Court judges to declare the death penalty unconstitutional.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) published a 56-page report on its website in which it concluded the conditions in which those condemned to the death penalty were held constituted "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment".
"The study carried out by FIDH experts has revealed that the majority of those condemned to death in the United States, particularly when they are poor and destitute, have not benefited from a fair trial," FIDH said.
The report, based on a six-person fact-finding mission to the United States in April, said it feared that moratoriums on the death penalty planned by various states were aimed only at improving the procedures leading to capital punishment.
"The FIDH demands that United States Supreme Court judges, who alone can enforce the abolition in all states, to declare this punishment unconstitutional," the report said.
The death penalty is undergoing a scrutiny not seen in the United States since it was reintroduced in 1976.