EU condemns US execution of American-Hungarian citizen despite indications that he was severely mentally ill.

William Charles Morva was put to death on Thursday, despite indications he suffered from severe mental illness.

The EU’s diplomatic service on Friday condemned the execution of a Hungarian-American citizen in the U.S. state of Virginia despite indications that the man suffered from severe mental illness.

In a statement, the European External Action Service said killing a mentally ill person “is contrary to widely accepted human rights norms and to the minimum standards set forth according to international human rights law.”

“Death penalty remains an unacceptable denial of human rights and dignity and fails to act as a deterrent to crime. The European Union is strongly and unequivocally opposed to the use of capital punishment under all circumstances and aims at its universal abolition,” a spokesperson said.

William Morva, 35, was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 9:15 p.m. local time Thursday. He was convicted of the 2006 killing of a security guard and a deputy sheriff, but his lawyers argued that he was severely mentally ill.

The U.S. Supreme Court has in the past ruled that people with severe mental illness cannot be executed and that doing so violates the Constitution. But even though the practice is prohibited by American and international law, watchdogs claim the mentally ill are still executed in the United States.

Morva was a dual citizen of the United States and Hungary. The EU and the the Hungarian Embassy in Washington called on Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to grant clemency. Although McAuliffe, a Democrat, opposes the death penalty, he refused to do so.

“The record before me does not contain sufficient evidence to warrant the extraordinary step of overturning the decision of a lawfully impaneled jury following a properly conducted trial,” McAuliffe said in a statement.

Morva was killed using a controversial three-drug cocktail including midazolam, which has been used in multiple botched executions, including the bloody death of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma in 2014.

American states have increasingly turned to untested drug combinations and drugs sourced through unconventional means because European pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell drugs to be used in executions, causing a shortage.

A spokesperson from the Virginia Department of Corrections said the execution drugs worked as planned, but some media described Morva as having gasped for air. Virginia is one of eight U.S. states where execution by electric chair remains legal.

Morva’s execution is not the only time an American state has put an EU national to death in controversial circumstances. In 1999,  German Walter LaGrand was executed in Arizona despite a federal appeal court ruling the method used — gas chamber — was a “cruel and unusual punishment.” His brother Karl was executed a week earlier. Arizona authorities did not formally inform the LaGrand brothers of their consular rights until several weeks before their execution, 17 years after their arrest.

Then German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder directly appealed to U.S. President Bill Clinton to intervene, but the execution proceeded.

As of May 2017, there are EU nationals or possible EU dual nationals on American death rows from countries including Estonia, France, Ireland and Lithuania, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In Arizona, lawyers claim German national Michael Apelt is mentally ill and unfit to be executed. His brother Rudi had his death sentence overturned in 2009 for the same reason. Lawyers claim the Apelt brothers were not properly informed of their consular rights.

Morva’s execution was the 13th in the United States this year. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up his case in February.

disgusting behaviour.