11 July 2008 :

the European Parliament adopted a resolution proposed by the Radicals and reaffirmed their active commitment against the death penalty. The Parliament ruled in favour of Troy Davis, a US citizen sentenced to death by a Court in Georgia. His execution is scheduled for the end of July.
The European Parliament "asks countries in which the death penalty is still applied to complete the necessary steps towards its abolition. We request that, in light of the numerous attempts to overturn the sentence, the court responsible offers Troy Davis a new trial. His death sentence should therefore be commuted. We ask the Georgia Pardon Board to urgently commute the death sentence, and we invite the Council President and the European Commission delegation in the United States to urgently address the issue with the American authorities."
The resolution was adopted by the EP in Strasbourg at the same time that another 130 European parliamentarians, from all political groups, joined the hundreds of celebrities in the appeal launched by Marco Pannella to stop the probable and imminent death sentence of Tareq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's ex foreign minister.
Among the signatories of the appeal are Group presidents Daul (PPE), Schultz (PSE), Watson (ALDE), Wurtz (GUE), Cohn-Bendit (Verdi), Muscardini (UEN) and the vice presidents of the European Parliament, Mauro and Morgantini.