Press Release
Greetings all,
I forward the following. Please also visit <http://www.cuadp.org/bush.html>
for background and story leads. I am also available for
comment.
Sincerely,
--abe
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
800-973-6548
TEXAS:
Anti-Death Penalty Groups to March on Texas Governor's Mansion
To: National Desk
Contact: Dana Cloud, 512-471-1947 or 512-731-1025
Lily Hughes, 512-494-0667
Scott Cobb, 512-680-7806
http://www.texasmoratorium.org/mom.htm
News Advisory:
Proponents of a moratorium on capital punishment in Texas will
gather from around the state on Sunday, Oct. 15, to march on the
Texas Governor's Mansion. The event, organized by a coalition of
organizations called the Moratorium March on the Mansion Network,
will begin at 3 p.m. on Oct. 15 at Republic Park, 4th and Guadalupe,
in Austin. The demonstrators will march to the Governor's mansion at
4 p.m. with a rally at the Mansion scheduled for 5 p.m..
Organizers expect between 1,000 and 2,000 opponents of the death
penalty to take part in the day's events. "It's going to be the
biggest anti-death penalty demonstration in the history of
Texas," said one network member. Members of the moratorium
march network sent out more than nine thousands mailers reading,
"There's something wrong with the death penalty in Texas. You
know it. I know it. And on Oct. 15, we're going to let George Bush
know it."
The march on the mansion is taking place in the context of growing
public attention on and concern about evidence that innocent and
mentally ill people have been executed in Texas and that capital
punishment is applied in ways that discriminate against minorities
and the poor.
"There's a real buzz about our march," said march
organizer Lily Hughes. "We are part of a growing national
movement demanding that executions be stopped. The spotlight is on
the racism of the death penalty in Texas and on George Bush's record
of killing poor people, innocent people, battered grandmothers, and
the mentally ill."
Speakers at the rally include family members of current and former
death row inmates -- including some who have been executed --
alongside activist leaders in the anti-death penalty movement. On
the list to speak are the Reverend Maggie Demps, Greater Christian
Church; Delia Perez-Meyer, sister of current Texas death row inmate
Louis Castro-Perez, Yolanda Cruz, mother of Oliver Cruz who was
executed August 9; Lois Robison, mother of Larry Robison, the
mentally ill man executed on January 21; exonerated former death row
inmate Randall Dale Adams, Elanora Graham, stepmother of Shaka
Sankofa (Gary Graham), executed on June 22; Marlene Martin, national
coordinator of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty; the Reverend
Charles Moore, Texas Campaign to End the Death Penalty; Cheryl
Haynes, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement; Steve Hall, Texas
Stand Down Project; Will Harrell, ACLU of Texas; Carol Byars, Murder
Victims Families for Reconciliation; Jim Harrington, Texas Civil
Rights Project; and Edwin Smith, Chaplain to Texas death row inmates
at the Terrell Unit.
In addition, the rally will feature an original work of street
theater by Austin performers dramatizing the limitations of justice
in Texas.
(source: U.S. Newswire) |
