Poland Rejects Death Penalty

Polish lawmakers narrowly voted Friday against reintroducing the death penalty following a series of killings that outraged the nation, including the case of a young woman who was tortured and killed on a train, then dumped out the window.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski had threatened to veto the proposal if lawmakers chose to bring back capital punishment seven years after the country abolished it to meet European Union human rights standards.

Parliament's lower house voted 198-194 with 14 abstentions to reject the proposal by the opposition Law and Justice party.

The vote meant that "concern for criminals prevailed over compassion for the innocent victims," said Law and Justice Party member Zbigniew Ziobro, one of the authors of the proposal.

The Justice Ministry welcomed the decision. If the death penalty had been reintroduced, Poland would come into conflict with other members of the European Union, spokeswoman Barbara Makosa-Stepkowska said.

It would have "compromised Poland in the international arena," she said. "We should stick to democratic standards."

Friday's vote followed a series of headline-grabbing murders in Poland, including the case of a young woman who was tortured and killed on a train, then dumped out of a train window in what the killers said was a celebration of one of their birthdays.

The killings prompted conservative legislators in June to propose bringing back the death penalty for murders committed with extreme cruelty and motives "deserving special condemnation." Murders in Poland dropped 12.5 percent in 2003, to 1,039 from 1,188 the year before, according to Polish police.

Poland, which joined the EU on May 1, eliminated the death penalty in 1997 while moving to adopt the bloc's standards. In 2000, Poland ratified a protocol to the European Charter on Human Rights that pledges it not to use capital punishment.