Leading French politician Raymond Forni visited death...

Leading French politician Raymond Forni visited death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal and urged both US presidential candidates to "take a chance and be brave" enough to abolish the death penalty. Forni, the speaker of France's National Assembly, sharply criticised Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush for the death penalty record in Texas. But he was quick to say Democratic presidential hopeful Al Gore should also be pressed to abolish the death penalty. Forni said that even after his country abolished the death penalty in 1981, more than 60 percent of the French population still favoured it. "We need all the democracies of the world to understand that the death penalty is immoral," he said.