Europe Condemns McVeigh Execution

M A D R I D, Spain, June 11 -- The execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh today unleashed condemnationacross Europe on the eve of President Bush's first official visit to the continent.

European opposition to the death penalty outweighedabhorrence at McVeigh's crime when he was put to death bylethal injection at an Indiana prison for a 1995 blast thatgutted a federal office building and killed 168 people.

Critics of capital punishment called it a barbaric,blood-thirsty way of making McVeigh pay for his crime.

"By executing the first federal death row prisoner innearly four decades, the USA has allowed vengeance to triumphover justice and distanced itself yet further from theaspirations of the international community," theLondon-based human rights group Amnesty International said.

The United States' penchant for the death penalty puts it ethicallyat odds with its traditional European allies, which have allbanned it. The last person executed in the European Union waskilled by guillotine in France in 1977.

"The death penalty is a barbarism inappropriate to ourtimes," said Antonio Maria Pereira, president of the Portuguesehuman rights group Law and Justice.

Shadow Over Bush Visit

Controversy surrounding McVeigh's execution could cast ashadow over Bush's five-nation tour, which is expected to drawstreet protests not only against the death penalty but alsoagainst his policies on missile defense and global warming.

Some European media have depicted Bush as a "serialexecutioner" because of his record as governor of Texas where152 executions took place during his nearly six years inoffice.

The United States and Japan are the only two rich,industrialized democracies that still regularly put convictedcriminals to death.

Many Europeans are puzzled that the United States, acountry that holds itself up as a model of democracy and humanrights, continues to carry out death sentences.

An Inauspicious First Stop