The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

lowly, but impressively, international law and opinion are beginning to have an impact on law in the United States, and particularly on the death penalty. While the law and practices of other countries may not have played a significant role in the past in the evaluation of our society’s standards of decency, recent Supreme Court opinions indicate that that influence may be growing. And while the American public strongly supported the death penalty during periods when many of this country’s closest allies were renouncing capital punishment, public opinion in the U.S. is now shifting. The prospects for profound change in the death penalty in the U.S. are stronger O C T O B E R 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 31 T HERE ARE PROSPECTS FOR PROFOUND CHANGE IN THE DEATH PENALTY IN THE U.S. A NEW CONCERN FOR WORLD OPINION IS PART OF THE REASON . B Y R ICHARD C. D IETER F O C U S O N D I P L O M A C Y & T H E D E A T H P E N A L T Y S I NTERNATIONAL I NFLUENCE ON THE D EATH P ENALTY IN THE U.S. Adam Niklewicz