Save energy, hang the murderer

NEW YORK — At the height of the energy crisis in the mid-1970s when oil prices zoomed in the world market, the United States launched a slew of self-imposed, energy-efficient conservation measures.

These included the minimum use of air conditioners and electrical appliances, and more significantly, a painful switch to smaller, compact cars in a consumer society notorious for its humongous gas-guzzlers.

Some of the States in mid-western USA were so rigid in their conservation of energy that it triggered a joke about a prison warden who decided to abandon the electric chair in favour of the hangman's noose for Death Row prisoners — primarily because he wanted to save on energy.

"Hang the bastards", he bellowed, desperately searching for a hangman's rope — long obsolete in the US and — once popular in the wild West ("Hang 'Em High" and "Hangman's Knot," Hollywood-style).

Last week both the energy crisis and the death penalty were in the news: a rise in oil prices is threatening the annual summer driving vacations in this country, while the highly-publicised execution by lethal injection of convicted Oklohoma city bomber Timoty McVeigh drew protests from Europeans — even as President George W. Bush was on his first familiarization tour of Europe.

The 15-member European Union (EU) is so obssessed with the death penalty that no country can join the Western European alliance unless and until it bans capital punishment.

The countries of Eastern Europe, which are knocking at the EU door, have to fulfil that one condition, among others, even before their membership form is accepted, perhaps by snail mail.

So when Bush toured Europe last week, he faced angry demonstrators protesting not only his policies on the environment and missile defense but also on abortion and capital punishment.

The New York Times reported Friday that at news conferences Bush gave "several erroneous, unclear or unwelcome characterizations of the issues he was addressing" making the Europeans even more furious.

Although Europeans admit the fact that McVeigh deserved to be punished for the bombing that killed 168 Americans six years ago, they think the death penalty is brutal.

The American Civil Liberties Union and several international human rights organisation have also criticised the death penalty arguing that too often the intentional or unintentional withholding of evidence by law enforcement officials unfairly decides the outcome of capital cases.

Worse still, several prisoners sentenced to death have later been exonerated of the crime. Their unfair deaths would have made the state guilty of murder — the very crime for which they were trying to put the prisoners to death.

Those who argue against it also say that the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on blacks and minorities. But McVeigh's case was different: he was white, he confessed to the Oklohama City bombing, had no remorse for his crime, and with little protest walked into the death chamber last week.

The story of the hangman's noose and the electric chair, on the other hand, brings into focus the impending energy crisis in the country.

The current price of crude oil - delicately orchestrated by the 11-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - is about $22 to $28 per barrel, up from about $12 to $14 about three years ago.

But an Iraqi decision to stop pumping oil, prompted by a Security Council decision to renew the UN oil-for-food programme for only 30 days instead of the customary six months, is threatening to jack up oil prices even further.

If Iraq stops its export of roughly 2.1 million barrels of oil per day, the decline in overall production is expected to have repercussions on the market worldwide, and particularly the US.

Addressing the Security Council last month, Annan said that if Iraq were to stop the programme or refused to participate in it, the UN Secretariat will have no means of providing assistance to the Iraqi people. "We use the resources from the sale of oil to do that."

"Everybody is waiting to see the impact on the market and on the political situation," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. The price of gasoline in the US is already on the rise— and even if the State of Texas decides to hang instead of fry its Death Row prisoners— Americans are bracing themselves for summer vacations in minis and the yet-to-be introduced European "smart car" which, incidentally, is reminiscent of the old Bug Fiat.