The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area life of the individual, although definitions of mental retardation differ from state to state. However, there is no constitutional bar against the execution of individuals who are mentally ill but are not classified as “insane”, e.g., persons diagnosed with schizophrenia. Fair-trial guarantees By statute, Congress provides for the appointment of highly qualified counsel to represent federal capital defendants at all stages of a capital prosecution, from indictment through post-conviction review.113 In addition, the federal government provides counsel for state capital defendants when their convictions are reviewed in federal court.114 All death-penalty states have adopted procedures of their own to provide experienced, competent counsel to represent indigent capital defendants in state court. The federal government maintains a system for carefully examining each potential federal death-penalty case, without consideration of the defendant’s race, to ensure that the federal death penalty is sought in a fair, uniform, and non-discriminatory manner nationwide.115 Federal law specifically prohibits relying on a defendant’s race or national origin in deciding to seek or impose the death penalty, and the federal death-penalty statute additionally requires a sentencing authority to certify that the defendant’s race was not considered in deciding the defendant’s sentence.116 In its concluding observations on the periodic report of the United States in 2006, the Human Rights Committee observed that, despite the Committee’s previous concluding observations, the United States had extended the number of offences for which the death penalty is applicable. The Committee urged the United States to review federal and state legislation with a view to restricting the number of offences carrying the death penalty; to assess the extent to which the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on ethnic minorities and on low-income population groups, as well as the reasons for this; and to adopt all appropriate measures to address the problem. The Committee recommended that the United States place a moratorium on capital sentences, bearing in mind the desirability of abolishing the death penalty.117 In its concluding observations on the periodic report of the United States in 113  18 U.S.C. §§ 3005, 3599. 114  18 U.S.C. § 3599. 115  18 U.S.C. §§ 3591-3598. 116  18 U.S.C. § 3593. 117  Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: United States of America, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/USA/CO/3, 15 September 2006, para. 29. 36