Brussels Calling
August 21st, 2007 at 4:27 pm
On the eve of Texas’ landmark 400th execution, the European Union is calling on Gov. Rick Perry to scrap the death penalty. The EU, which has an all-out ban on capital punishment in member nations, directly asks Guv Goodhair in a statement “to exercise all powers vested in his office to halt all upcoming executions and to consider the introduction of a moratorium in the State of Texas.” The Europeans apparently regard executions as “cruel and inhumane” and the elimination of the practice as “fundamental to the protection of human dignity, and to the progressive development of human rights.”
Um, EU, I don’t know how to tell you this but asking a Texas governor to pull the plug on executions is like asking a Frenchman to lay off the vin and brie - you’re li’ble to get hurt. Perry, in particular, is unlikely to be responsive. He holds the record for most executions on his watch, besting even former governor George W. Bush. As such, Perry’s spokesman - and professional sassmouth Robert Black - fired back at the EU with a statement, the first line of which blends Thomas Paine with Yosemite Sam.
“230 years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination.”
The statement goes on: “Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens.” (To which a bumper sticker in Austin replied: Why do we kill people who kill people in order to show that killing people is wrong?)
Perry’s brief statement concludes on a softer note: “While we respect our friends in Europe, welcome their investment in our state and appreciate their interest in our laws, Texans are doing just fine governing Texas.”
“Welcome their investment”?! At first blush that seems like a bit of a non sequitur. But remember, Europe is the largest source of foreign investment in Texas. And companies across the pond are under pressure from shareholders and activists to restrict investments in states that use the death penalty. Perry’s no fool and he just may recognize that the death penalty could prove to be bad for bidness. One can sense, perhaps, a promising new front in the international movement to ban capital punishment.
