Alabama executions "highly problematic": U.N. envoy

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The criminal justice system in the U.S. state of Alabama needs to be improved to ensure that no innocent people are executed but officials there seem indifferent to the problem, a U.N. envoy said on Monday.

A U.S. official, however, rejected the envoy's views.

Alabama has the highest U.S. per-capita rate of executions, which was the reason Philip Alston, U.N. Human Rights Council special envoy on executions, 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 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."

Yahoo

Maybe Bush should threaten a preemptive strike against Alabama to ensure human rights?