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Amnesty criticizes US for executing children

The US is the only country that still openly uses the death penalty against child offenders, Amnesty International said.

In its latest count of such cases, the human rights organization said Wednesday there have been 34 recorded executions of child offenders since 1990, 19 of them in the US. The other 15 were in seven countries: China, Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Five of the seven countries have either changed their laws over the last decade to ban the execution of child offenders or are considering such legislation, the London-based group said. The other two -- Nigeria and Saudi Arabia -- do not openly acknowledge capital punishment for child offenders. Each is reported to have executed one adult for childhood offenses since 1990.

Two other countries -- Barbados and Zimbabwe -- have also outlawed the death penalty for child offenders in recent years, even though they have not reported any such executions since 1990.

That leaves the US as the only country that openly acknowledges executing adults who committed crimes as children, Amnesty said.

"The USA promotes itself as global human rights champion, yet it accounts for 13 of the 19 known executions of child offenders reported since 1998," Amnesty International said. "As other violators drop away, the United States could be said to be the least progressive country in the world on this issue."

Three states -- Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia -- have executed child offenders since 2000, with Texas accounting for the majority.

Three more Texas prisoners -- Edward Capetillo, Raul Villareal, and Efrian Perez -- are scheduled to be executed in Texas by the end of June for crimes committed when they were 17, it said.

"In Texas, these men are not considered children," said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "They are considered adults and therefore do face the same penalties that adults would face for committing capital murder."

Under state law, those convicted of capital murder for crimes committed when they were 17 or older can receive the death penalty, Lyons said. Those who were 16 receive automatic life in prison if convicted of capital murder.

Since 1982, Texas has executed 12 inmates who were 17 at the time of their crimes, and about 25 additional inmates who were 17 at the time of their crimes are on death row, state records show.

"I think foreign countries would be better off leaving Texas to be run as Texas citizens want to see it run, and that includes carrying out the death penalty," Lyons said.

Capetillo was convicted of killing two people in a robbery in Houston, Texas on Jan. 16, 1995, when he was 17. Villareal and Perez were among five people convicted for killing two teenage girls in Houston in 1994. The victims were raped, strangled, beaten and stomped to death.

In a second report issued Wednesday, Amnesty International highlighted the case of Nanon Williams, on death row in Texas for a crime committed when he was 17.

"His case also illustrates wider problems in US capital cases, including inadequate defense representation and the state's use of unreliable evidence," the report said.
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