Mercedes Benz is
moving its USA headquarters to Georgia, a death penalty state which is actively carrying out executions, from New Jersey, a state which abolished the death penalty in 2007.
Georgia executed a mentally retarded man, Wayne Holsey, with an IQ of 70, on December 9, 2014. It executed Andrew Brannan, a severely mentally ill 66-year-old mentally ill Vietnam veteran, on January 13, 2015. Georgia plans to execute mentally retarded Warren Lee Hill, also with an IQ of 70, on January 27, 2015.
Why would a German company like MB move to a state that so starkly evokes Germany's Nazi past, which included mass executions of the mentally ill and disabled? Are they aware of what is going on in Georgia, a state which seems to be embracing executions even as the rest of the country appears to be abandoning capital punishment? Would Daimler/Mercedes Benz reconsider its move to a human rights violator like Georgia?
If you want to ask Daimler AG (Mercedes Benz's parent company) these questions, you can email them at dialog@daimler.com or use this interface to send a query.
I'm sure they would appreciate any inquiry and a public airing of this moral quandary for the company!