Death row splits US and Pope

BY ADAM EASTON IN MANILA AND LUKE COPPEN
THE POPE'S forthcoming visit to the United States has forced embarrassed officials to grant a two-week stay of execution to a convict on death row in Missouri.
Darrell Mease, convicted ten years ago of killing a couple and their handicapped son, won the reprieve after officials discovered his death by lethal injection would coincide with a papal visit to the state capital, St Louis.
The state supreme court has postponed the 52-yearold' s death by fortnight, and Mease's lawyers believe the Holy Father's visit may now lead to longer-term clemency for their client.
But the White House has made it clear that it will not alter its support for the death penalty. A spokeswoman said this week that President Clinton will not seek to abolish capital punishment, in defiance of the John Paul II' s Christmas Day plea to nations to "defend life and put an end to the death penalty".
"We appreciate the Pope's viewpoint", said Presidential spokeswoman Amy Weiss in Washington, "but the President's position on the death penalty is already well known."
The Pope is expected to raise the question of the death penalty during his four-day visit to the US, which includes a face-toface meeting with Bill Clinton. The Holy Father could ask the President for clemency for 3,500 American convicts currently on death row awaiting execution.
Meanwhile, Church leaders in the Philippines have strengthened their anti-death penalty campaign after the country's first execution in 22 years was postponed with just three hours to go.
Convicted rapist Leo Echegeray, 38, was three hours away from a lethal injection last Monday when the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order to give legislators more time to consider the law.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines hopes to submit a nationwide petition to Congress, as it reviews death penalty legislation.
The stay of execution til mid-June has caused tremendous controversy. "Rarely has a decision so polarised our nation in its aftermath" the bishops said in a statement.
"The non-restoration of the death penalty will send a very strong message to our violence-tom nation that we want to break the role of violence. It is very urgent to see and hear that message today," More than 800 people are currently on death row. So far, however, no one has been executed.
Echegeray has always denied raping his common law wife's 10-year-old daughter in 1994.
The Vatican, European Union and Canada have all expressed their disapproval of the resumption of executions.