German politicians across the political spectrum responded...

German politicians across the political spectrum responded with surprise and harsh criticism to a comment by US presidential candidate Barack Obama calling for the death penalty for child rapists. 'The death penalty is the ultimate violation of human rights and the right to life,' Green party leader Claudia Roth told the Bild newspaper. Obama should be working for abolishing the death penalty in the United States, not for expanding it, she added. The head of the conservative, Bavaria-based Christian Social Union, Erwin Huber, said that although 'child rape is one of the most heinous crimes, the ban on the death penalty must be absolute.' Former Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger of the Free Democrats echoed that position, arguing that the death penalty should be abolished world-wide. 'The death penalty is just as inhuman as the crime of child rape,' she told the Bild newspaper.