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MEDIA ADVISORY
28 February 2002
Contact: Abe Bonowitz 561-371-5204
(mobile)
DEATH PENALTY FOUNDATIONS CRUMBLING
Activists to Mark 155 Years Without Death Penalty
Dozens of Anti-death penalty
organizations throughout the United States are
organizing around Friday, March 1st, in celebration of
International Death Penalty Abolition Day, the 155th
anniversary of the date in 1847 when the State of
Michigan officially became the first English-speaking
territory in the world to abolish the death penalty.
FOR A LISTING OF EVENTS SCHEDULED
ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, as well as background
information, please visit http://www.cuadp.org
and click on the Abolition Day Banner.
"Americans are beginning to take a
hard look at how our criminal justice system is
failing," said Abe Bonowitz, Director of Citizens
United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "As a
registered Republican, a fiscal conservative, and a
former supporter of the death penalty, it is clear to me
that anyone who examines the system from a non-emotional
standpoint will find that economically, socially and
morally, the practice of the death penalty is bad public
policy."
Citizens United for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty (CUADP) notes the following very current
events which point to a crumbling of the foundations of
the death penalty in the modern era:
-
Conservative voices and policy
makers continue to acknowledge at least the need for
a Time-Out on executions in the form of a moratorium
on the death penalty pending review and reform of
legal systems throughout the nation.
-
Error rates in death sentencing
continue to be exposed as unusually high, putting at
risk all confidence in the accuracy and efficiency
of our legal systems.
-
More than 100 prisoners have been
exonerated and released from death rows in the
United States - SO FAR.
-
The US Supreme Court has taken no
fewer than three potentially landmark cases and will
soon decide the constitutionality of the execution
of the mentally retarded, the role of judges and
juries in death sentencing, and the role of racism
in the process of jury selection. These decisions
could dramatically alter the way the death penalty
is used in this country, and will potentially affect
as many as 1,000 or more current death row
prisoners.
-
On February 27, 2002, Serbia became
the latest country to abolish the death penalty.
-
Last week, the Council of Europe
affirmed that the death penalty must be totally
abolished by all its member nations, and a spokesman
reiterated that the United States risks losing its
observer status at the Council if it fails to take
steps toward abolition of the death penalty before
the deadline early next year.
-
And more. It's getting difficult to
stay on top of it all....
Organizers of "Abolition Day"
events point to the State of Michigan as an example that
viable alternatives to the death penalty exist.
"They got rid of the death penalty because they
found that they could not trust themselves to use it
fairly, and they learned too late that they had killed
an innocent man," said Bonowitz. Michigan has been
without the death penalty for 154 years. The first act
of their new legislature when Michigan became a state
was to abolish the death penalty.
"Politicians owe it to the people
of this country to take a serious look at the
alternatives to the death penalty already in use across
this country," said Bonowitz. "Violent
criminals can be punished, and society protected,
through the use of long-term prison sentences before a
convicted person can be considered for parole. It works
in Michigan and in other states like California, which
has the oldest 'Life Without Parole' (LWOP) statute in
the country. Not one of the people sentenced to LWOP has
been released. We are saying to the people our country,
'Don't make us become that which we deplore. Don't kill
in our names. We can do better.'"
FOR DETAILS ON THE HISTORY OF
INTERNATIONAL DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION DAY, PLEASE VISIT
<http://www.cuadp.org>
and click on "Abolition Day."
*****
For more information, please contact Abe
Bonowitz at 800-973-6548. Free information is available
to the public from Citizens United for Alternatives to
the Death Penalty (CUADP), a Florida-based national
organization working to increase the level of informed
dialogue about viable alternatives to the death penalty.
CUADP may be reached toll-free at 800-973-6548 or on the
internet at <http://www.cuadp.org>.
POSTED BY:
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Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
(CUADP)
PMB 335, 2603 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy,
Gainesville, FL 32609
800-973-6548 <http://www.cuadp.org>
<abe@cuadp.org>
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