Germans were outraged when they
learned of the impending executions in Arizona’s gas chamber. How could a state that had condemned genocidal
use of lethal gas during the Nazi holocaust allow its use for capital
punishment? Five of the 38 states with the death penalty offered lethal
gas as an option, and ten of the 500 executed since 1983 had died in the
gas chamber.
After an excruciating, eleven-minute asphyxiation in 1992 Arizona required lethal injection; those already sentenced had the option of lethal gas. Members of Germany’s Parliament called for sanctions against the U.S. Two other German nationals were on Arizona’s death row, and another awaited execution in Florida. No Germans had been executed in the U.S. since the World War II hangings of two spies.
|
West Germany abolished
capital punishment in 1949 and East Germany in 1987. German diplomats
worked actively to eliminate the death penalty in the European Union
and at the United Nations. They lead the campaign for protocols
abolishing the death penalty to the European Convention on Human
Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
At the U.N. Commission on Human Rights Germany became the
leading sponsor of annual resolutions protesting the execution of
foreign nationals and calling for a moratorium. [10] The European Court of Human Rights heard
a case involving a German national arrested in Britain who resisted
extradition to Virginia on murder charges. The Court found that
extradition of an accused killer to the U.S. would violate the regional
human rights convention, unless assurances were given that capital
punishment would not be used.
[11] France withheld assistance when the U.S.
sought the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national
accused in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Weeks before Karl LaGrand’s
scheduled execution, German President Roman Herzog and Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder contacted President Clinton, German Justice Minister
Herta Daeubler-Gmelin wrote U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and
the Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer wrote
Secretary of State Albright requesting their support for clemency
appeals to Governor Hull. Germany’s Ambassador to the U.S., Juergen
Chrobog, met privately with the governor. [12] Along
with a member of Parliament, he testified at Karl’s hearing before
the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency on February 23. After claiming
for years that they had been unaware of the LaGrands’ German citizenship,
the Attorney General’s office conceded at the hearing that their
nationality had been known since 1982.
[13] Based on that admission, but too late
for Karl, the German government filed an appeal at the ICJ and U.S.
Supreme Court challenging a U.S. violation of the Vienna Convention
on Consular Relations. Thirty minutes prior to his appointed hour on February 24, Karl agreed to lethal injection. His execution was delayed two hours to make the necessary arrangements. Before the needle was inserted, Karl offered an apology and plea for forgiveness. [14]
|
