Press Release

Please note: Abe Bonowitz, Director of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty http://www.cuadp.org and also Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty http://www.fadp.org will be participating in this event. Bonowitz may be reached by pager at 888-319-1369. (see also http://www.abolition.org for other juicy upcoming stories....)

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jeffrey Garis
July 6, 2000 215-724-6120
267-251-2818


Death Penalty Opponents to Demand Moratorium at Governors’ Meeting

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – With the death penalty facing greater scrutiny than it has in more than two decades, opponents of capital punishment will stage major protests at the annual meeting of the National Governors’ Association this weekend.

Death penalty abolitionists from across the United States will demand that the governors follow the lead of George Ryan by imposing immediate moratoriums on executions in their respective states. Earlier this year, the Illinois governor declared a halt on executions after it became clear that his state’s death sentencing procedures were fraught with errors.

During the four-day meeting that will draw more than 40 governors and President Clinton, anti-death penalty activists will hold at least two major demonstrations. The first protest will take place at 5:30 p.m. Saturday on Allen Street at College Avenue in downtown State College.

On Sunday afternoon, abolitionists will attempt to meet with the governors at the Penn Stater Conference Center. If they are not granted a meeting, activists plan to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to express in clear terms their demand that the governors enact moratoriums on executions.

"The governors need to be informed that people are no longer going to tolerate their acceptance of human rights violations in their own states," said Jeffrey Garis, executive director of Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty, the group organizing the demonstrations. "If necessary, we’re going to sit outside the building in an effort to get the governors to agree to meet."

More than 1,000 grassroots organizations nationwide are lobbying for a moratorium on executions. As evidence of the death penalty’s inherent unfairness continues to surface, even many supporters of capital punishment are showing concern about a system that discriminates against the poor and people of color, and frequently sentences innocent people to death.

"You don’t have to be a bleeding heart, you don’t have to be soft on crime, to say there is something fundamentally wrong with what is happening in this country with the death penalty," Garis said. "The governors ultimately have the power of life and death in their hands, and they should have the courage to do the right thing by ending state-sanctioned killing."