USA - Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in a preliminary statement issued after completing an official visit to the US

Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, in a preliminary statement issued after completing an official visit to the US, where he met with federal and state officials, judges and civil society groups in Washington, DC, New York, Alabama and Texas, said he was disturbed by how authorities in Alabama and Texas had responded to recognized flaws in their systems.
Alabama has the highest U.S. per-capita rate of executions, which was the reason Alston went there during an official visit to the United States. He also went to Texas, which has the highest number of executions and prisoners on death row.
Speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York, Alston, an Australian who teaches law at New York University, said a number of officials in Texas acknowledged that innocent people might have been executed and expressed a desire to improve their criminal justice system.
"In Alabama, the situation remains highly problematic," he said. "Government officials seem strikingly indifferent to the risk of executing innocent people and have a range of standard responses, most of which are characterized by a refusal to engage with the facts."
According to Alston, a major problem is that in Alabama, elected judges have the right to change jury decisions on sentencing. Most changes in sentences are from life sentences to the death penalty, he said.
He added that the judges there appeared to be under political pressure to execute criminals.
"Alabama should relieve judges of this invidious role by repealing the law permitting judicial override," Alston said.
On the subject of the U.S. military prison on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Alston said all proceedings against detainees there under the Military Commissions Act -- suspected terrorists labeled "alien unlawful enemy combatants" -- should be discontinued, and called on the US Government to release the results of investigations and autopsies into the death of 5 detainees who died in 2006 and 2007.
"All trials should respect due process standards under international human rights and humanitarian law," he said, adding that the United States has an obligation to provide fair trials with "all essential judicial guarantees."
He also spoke about Afghanistan. He praised the United States and other countries whose forces are active there, saying he found no evidence of "widespread intentional killings in violation of human rights or humanitarian law."
Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, rejected the conclusions of Alston.
"We know our system isn't perfect but we afford everyone the presumption of innocence and due process," he said. "Mr. Alston's sweeping judgments of our system after briefly visiting two out of 50 states show his personal dislike of the system we have, not fundamental problems with it."
Mr. Alston will report on his findings to the UN Human Rights Council later this year.
On the Net ----www.un.org/
The press release and the statement is at: http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/2008/06/30/un-special-rapporteur-concludes-official-visit-to-the-united-states/">http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/2008/06/30/un-special-rapporteur-concludes-official-visit-to-the-united-states/