A black man, convicted in the American state of South Carolina (southeast) by an exclusively white jury for the murder of a cashier in 1999, was executed on Friday, according to American media. The convicted person claimed to have acted in self-defense.
The execution of the 59-year-old man is the 21st in the United States since the start of the year. They were all carried out by lethal injection with the exception of two in Alabama (south) by nitrogen inhalation, a method denounced by the UN which compared it to a form of “torture”.
The convict received the death penalty in 2001 for the murder of a cashier at a convenience store which he entered without a weapon. An altercation broke out, the cashier pulled out a gun and both men were injured, one fatally. The condemned man then left the store with the money in the cash register.
Clemency requested by the judge
A petition to spare him had been signed by more than 50,000 people. The initiative received support from a former South Carolina Department of Corrections director, who in a video recording, points out “that this would not have been a death penalty case in most states.”
The judge who presided over the trial wrote to the governor urging “clemency,” saying the case was “unique” among South Carolina’s death row inmates. His lawyers notably argued that he was the only one of them to have been tried by a jury that did not include any black people.
South Carolina carried out its first execution since 2011 in September. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 American states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions by decision of the governor.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
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