5 a) Since 2000, no execution of death sentences has been carried out; this is because Decree Nº 32-200 repealed Decree Nº 159 that vested on the President the power to grant a measure of grace; b) On February 12, 2008, the Republic of Guatemala Congress passed the “Law Governing Commutation of Death Sentences” [Ley Reguladora de la Conmutación de la Pena para los Condenados a Muerte], which “vests on the President the power to hear and decide on a measure of grace”; c) Said act would present many drawbacks, namely: “it does not establish the administrative body responsible for receiving the pardon, [;] does not estipulate the legal basis for the pardon[;] does not estipulate the right to a hearing […] does not contemplate a probatory period [, and] it creates the institution of tacit denial, by which, if the President does not issue a ruling within a term of 30 days, the remedy is considered denied [...], and within the following twenty-four (24) hours the convict is immediately executed”; c) "The Republic of Guatemala Congress did not approve the Law on Commutation of Sentences in order to comply with the obligation ordered by the Inter-American Court in its judgments but, on the contrary, it did it just to execute the people sentenced to death.” d) The different banks of the Congress argued that “by approving this Law, people sentenced to death can be executed and offenders will be dissuaded from committing any felonies”, and e) The way the measure of grace is regulated characterizes it as “ a previous bureaucratic formalism, which is not aimed at complying with the role of protecting the right to life.” 19. The request made by the representatives in order for the Court to, under the terms of Article 63(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter, the "Convention" or the "American Convention"), a. Request the State of Guatemala to adopt, forthwith, such measures necessary to protect the life and personal integrity of the people who are, at present, sentenced to death and to extend such protection to all those persons who are under a situation of danger; b. […] in order to fully comply with the order of the […] Court in [the] case[s] of Raxcacó Reyes and Fermín Ramírez […] request the State of Guatemala to stay the approval of Decree 6-2008. c. Request the State to inform the Inter-American Court of Human Rights [...] on the court orders that it has adopted in order to comply with these provisional measures. 20. The note of the Secretariat of the Court of March 4, 2008, whereby the State and the Commission were requested to, no later than March 25, 2008, submit the observations they deem relevant regarding the request of extension submitted by the representatives (supra Having Seen clause 18). Furthermore, it requested the State to submit, in addition to the brief of observations, a list enumerating all the persons who are sentenced to death penalty, the crimes committed and the corresponding criminal classification according to which they were convicted. 21. The brief of March 25, 2008, by which the State pointed out that Decree N° 62008, approved by the Congress, which contains the Law Governing Commutation of Death Sentences, “has been sent to the President for his approval.” On March 14, 2008, “the President of the Republic, in a press conference, informed that in exercise of his right to veto, was not passing Decree 6-2008, thus such document returned to the Congress so that in a period of time no longer than thirty days, it will reconsider or reject the veto.” Finally, the State expressed that “the request for extension of the