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Schwarzenegger's Death Penalty Stance Causes Backlash in Austria

Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in a tiny village near the picturesque town of Graz, Austria, to a poor farmer. He attended school in Graz, and the town was proud of its native son after his achievements in America. However, this hero worship turned to swift indignation over the California Governor's refusal to commute the death sentence of Crips gang founder-turned-youth-peace activist Stanley Tookie Williams. Over the Christmas holidays, the town of Graz removed his name from the "Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium".

Graz designated itself via unanimous vote of the City Council, to be Europe's first official city of human rights, and created the European Training Centre for Human Rights five years ago. It is a human rights academy designed to promote respect for the rule of law, especially among the new democracies of Eastern Europe. Even the conservative mayor of Graz is against the death penalty, which is seen as a "medieval atrocity".

Kudos to the authorities and people of this lovely town, which I had the pleasure to visit several years ago. I was impressed by this pristine, clean place of museums, old onion church steeples, art nouveau architecture, good food and friendly people -- where one can stroll around in complete safety at any hour enjoying the sights and peaceful ambience.

" Sometime over the Christmas holidays, the authorities of Graz, a classically pretty Austrian town, took down the sign that for the past seven years has identified the local 15,000-seat sports arena as the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium, and as they did so, a rare combination of local hero worship, European indignation at the death penalty, and provincial Austrian politics came to a climax.

The stadium had been named after Schwarzenegger in 1997 as an act of a kind of fealty toward the poor farmer's son and international celebrity who, though born in a little village nearby, was educated in Graz and has always readily identified it as his native place.

But when Schwarzenegger, now governor of California, declined to commute the death sentence for Stanley Tookie Williams, the former Los Angeles gang leader who was executed in California two weeks ago, the reaction in Graz, where the death penalty is seen as a medieval atrocity, was swift and angry."

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posted by Annamarie at 12:11 AM