EU urges Texas to end executions

"There is no evidence to suggest that the use of the death penalty serves as a deterrent against violent crime."

It certainly keeps the individual convicted of the crime from committing any more crimes.

EU urges Texas to end executions
BBC News

The European Union has urged the governor of Texas to stop all executions as the state prepares to carry out its 400th death penalty.

Johnny Ray Conner, 32, will be executed on Wednesday in America's busiest death penalty state for the 1998 fatal shooting of a grocery store clerk.

The EU expressed "great regret" at the impending sentence and renewed its call to the US to halt judicial killings.

The punishment was "cruel and inhumane," said the EU.

The statement from the Portuguese presidency of the 27-nation bloc said: "The European Union strongly urges Governor Rick Perry 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."

It continued: "There is no evidence to suggest that the use of the death penalty serves as a deterrent against violent crime and the irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice, which are all inevitable in all legal systems, cannot be redressed."