The EU “deeply regrets” the execution of a prisoner in the US and calls for the abolition of the death penalty

April 10 () –

The European Union (EU) said this Wednesday it “deeply regrets” the execution of a prisoner in the US state of Missouri and has reiterated its call for a “universal abolition” of the death penalty, including a moratorium on those in which It is applied as a first step towards that end.

“The EU deeply regrets the execution of Brian Dorsey in the state of Missouri. Dorsey's execution was the first carried out this year in Missouri, which means resuming this inhuman and degrading practice,” said a spokeswoman for the European Service of Foreign Action.

Thus, he recalled that “to date 37 states in the United States have abolished capital punishment in their laws or in practice” and added that the bloc hopes that Missouri “at some point will join those states.” State authorities executed four people in 2023.

“On principle, the EU firmly opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances. It is a violation of the right to life, does not act as a deterrent to crime and makes miscarriages of justice irreversible,” he said. argued, while emphasizing that “to date, 197 innocent people have been exonerated from death row in the United States.”

Dorsey, 52, was executed by lethal injection after being convicted of a double murder in 2006 and after Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a Republican, denied clemency despite dozens of prison officials asking him to spare his life. .

The man was found guilty of killing his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband on December 23, 2006, in the couple's home. Court records indicate that earlier that day Dorsey had called Sarah to borrow money to pay off two drug dealers who were at her home.

Dorsey's lawyers had argued for a pardon, saying that in addition to being “deeply remorseful,” the murders occurred while he was suffering from a “drug-induced psychosis and alcohol blackout” after years of using substances to self-medicate chronic depression. However, Parson stressed days ago that the execution of the sentence “would do justice.”