Cuba's top prosecutor defended the island's continued...

Cuba's top prosecutor defended the island's continued use of the death penalty as a deterrent to atrocious common crimes, but noted that the measure is used selectively.Although there have been no executions in Cuba in more than two years, "there is no modification from a legislative point of view," Attorney General Juan Escalona told reporters.Cuba, along with the United States, is among few countries in the Western Hemisphere that apply the death penalty. The European Union has called on Cuba to remove capital punishment from its penal code.In a rare public reference to a multiple homicide that occurred a year ago, Escalona said prosecutors sought the death penalty for those convicted of slaying five people - four from the same family - during a highway robbery in central Cuba.Among those killed were a couple living in South Florida and their young grandson. The crime was especially shocking in communist Cuba, where such multiple slayings are extremely rare.The attorney general said that the death penalty was also being sought in the slaying of five members of the same family on a ranch outside Havana in August.Along with especially grievous common crimes, Cuba maintains the death penalty for crimes against state security, Escalona said.Two Salvadorans were sentenced to death for such crimes in 1999 in a string of bombings at Cuban tourist locales, but their executions have been delayed pending appeals.