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Breaking 2,000

The Moratorium Now campaign hits a milestone

What do the following places have in common? A church basement. A Democratic Club board meeting. City council chambers. A union hall. In places like these across the country, ordinary people debated the death penalty, examined the issues, and decided collectively to add their group’s name to the National Tally of groups calling for a moratorium on executions. Four years after Equal Justice USA launched the Moratorium Now! campaign, that Tally has reached 2,000 groups.

Concerns about the death penalty range from racial and class bias to ineffective lawyers to the execution of the mentally retarded and the mentally ill. Resolutions give groups representing any one of those concerns the opportunity to join a national movement to halt executions.

Local governments continue to weigh in as well, with Nashville, TN, Dayton, OH, New Castle, NY, and Macon, GA among the most recent. Because crime, law enforcement, and the funding of prosecutors’ offices all begin at the local level, local governments are the most logical way for elected leaders at the city level to represent the concerns of their citizens to representatives at the state level.

State legislators in Ohio attended the Cincinnati City Council hearing to testify in favor of the council passing a moratorium resolution, explaining that the action would have an impact on their efforts at the statehouse.

What next?

The resolution drive is continuing through the 2,000 mark. Resolutions continue to be a valuable tool for state and local groups to build support for a moratorium on executions. The opportunity to effect public opinion is priceless.

You can still make a difference! Taking a resolution to your faith community, city council, or other local group is easier than you think. Our organizers can walk you through it step-by-step. For sample resolutions and the full National Tally, see www.quixote.org/ej or call us at 301-699-0042.

Who makes up the National Tally?

Mental health groups like…
…the American Psychological Association
…The Arc (the Association of Retarded Citizens) of Arizona and Virginia
…the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Nashville, TN Chapter
…the New Jersey Association of Black Psychologists

Attorney’s groups, including…
…6 state bar associations
…14 county or regional bar associations
…the American and National Bar Association

Labor unions, such as…
…the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Hospital Workers (Rochester, NY)
…the Central Oklahoma Labor Council

Civil rights groups like…
…the NAACP
…the Western Regional Office of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Businesses, such as…
…Deluxe Cleaners (Roxboro, NC)
…Crabtree Farms of Chattanooga, TN

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100th Death Row Innocent Walks Free

On April 8, 2002, Ray Krone walked out of the Arizona State Prison in Yuma after spending 10 years behind bars, nearly three of them on death row, for a crime he did not commit. Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said at a press conference on the day of Krone’s release that an injustice was done and that Krone deserved an apology.

Krone is the 100th person in two dozen states found to be wrongly convicted and sentenced to die. “I can’t be (the) only one,” Krone told an Arizona Republic reporter yesterday. “People need to address this issue.”

A common “mistake”?

Ray Krone was twice convicted for the sexual assault and murder of Kim Ancona in a Phoenix lounge in 1991. The evidence that detectives relied on was largely circumstantial. Recent DNA testing proved that Krone was innocent and that another man committed the crime.

Just how common are such mistakes? We may never know with certainty how many other innocent people are on death row or have already been executed because some piece of evidence wasn’t tested, was covered up, or was simply ignored by an incompetent defense lawyer.

As DNA becomes more accessible and advanced, old cases like Ray Krone’s will continue to turn up wrongful convictions. However, most cases have no biological evidence to test. Only 12 of the 100 death row exonerations involved DNA. While DNA is a strong indicator that the system is riddled with problems, DNA testing alone cannot solve those problems.

Taking Action

Hours after Ray Krone walked out of prison, the Town Council of Norlina, NC voted unanimously to become the 70th local government nationwide to call for a moratorium. Nationwide, groups are speaking out about the exoneration of 100 wrongly convicted death row inmates.

Press conferences, letter writing campaigns, and other public events marked this shameful milestone in New Jersey, Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. State and national groups, including Equal Justice USA, have called upon citizens to ask, Isn’t 100 innocent people being sentenced to death enough?

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VICTORY! Maryland Governor Declares Moratorium

May 9, 2002. The state of Maryland is set to execute Wesley Baker in less than a week. Thousands of calls have been pouring in to the Governor from around the country calling for him to halt executions. Whatever the Governor’s decision, we know it will have to come sometime in the next two days. Then, at 11:45 in the afternoon, Governor Parris Glendening issued the announcement that made Maryland the first state since Illinois and only the second state in the country to impose a moratorium on all executions.

Speaking to the press, Governor Glendening promised to halt all executions until the University of Maryland completes its study of racial bias and the Governor, the legislature, and the public have fully reviewed its findings. The moratorium came just days before the state was set to perform its first execution since 1998.

On April 25, Equal Justice USA led a delegation that met with Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and urged her to call for a moratorium. A week later, Washington Post quoted Townsend calling upon the Governor to halt executions pending results of the study. Townsend said she was particularly moved by the report released weeks before by the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment, which recommended 85 different reforms for the death penalty (see our article: IL Commission Issues Landmark Report).

Charges of racial bias have long plagued Maryland’s death penalty. The Governor commissioned a $225,000 study of racial bias two years ago. Since then grassroots groups have been urging him to impose a moratorium while the study takes place. “It is imperative that I, as well as our citizens, have complete confidence that the legal process in capital cases is fair and impartial,” Glendening said in announcing the moratorium.

While the halt is open-ended, Glendening estimated that the completion and review of the study would take about a year. Because the in-coming Governor in 2003 will have the authority to change the terms of the moratorium, work to ensure its continuation will remain important.

A grassroots coalition spearheaded by Equal Justice USA, the Maryland Catholic Conference, the State Conference of the NAACP, Amnesty International, and others has been actively pressuring for a halt to executions over the last several years. We won a significant victory last March when the Maryland House of Delegates passed a moratorium bill 82-54. A filibuster in the Senate precluded the anticipated majority vote in that house.

Both the Governor and Lt. Governor have maintained their strong support of the death penalty in principle. They join other high-profile death penalty supporters nationwide who have, over the last few years, become increasingly aware of flaws in the system and recognized that executions could not continue in the face of such doubts.

The historic Maryland victory will give a boost to state campaigns nationwide. Fourteen states introduced moratorium bills this year, and several are still pending. To get involved in efforts in your state, visit the State by State portion of our website at www.quixote.org/ej, or call us at 301-699-0042.

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Maryland Campaign Accomplishments

  • developed and mailed an action alert to 25,000 Marylanders.
  • published an ad in a Sunday edition of The Sun in Baltimore with a readership of nearly a half million people; over 400 Marylanders signed the ad’s call for a moratorium, including three U.S. Congressional Representatives, the current and former Mayors of Baltimore, two county executives, filmmaker John Waters, and other prominent residents.
  • presented a clear and informed message to the media, the legislature, and the public that helped shape the moratorium debate.
  • contacted approximately 1,000 Quixote Center constituents in Maryland by phone, and coordinated with Amnesty International’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, which mobilized its state phone tree.
  • coordinated an e-mail group of coalition members and e-mailed up-to-date action alerts to hundreds of groups and individuals around the state.

 

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Movement Gains in 2001

  • Moratorium bills passed the Nevada Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates. A moratorium amendment lost by only 3 votes in the Connecticut House, while Texas bills passed committees in both legislative houses.
  • Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, and North Carolina enacted legislation banning the execution of the mentally retarded.
  • 17 states improved access to post-conviction DNA testing.
  • Investigative reports examining fairness in death sentencing ran in the Houston Chronicle, the Tennessean, and the Seattle Post-Intellegencer.
  • Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist was fired after an F.B.I. report revealed that her work went “beyond the acceptable limits of forensic science.”
  • The Council of Europe threatened to revoke the United States’ Observer Status if we did not halt executions immediately.
  • Chile, Yugoslavia, and the Ukraine joined the majority of world nations by eliminating executions.
  • Five wrongly convicted death row prisoners were exonerated, bringing the total to 98 since 1973.
  • U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor publicly acknowledged, “the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed.”
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Northeast Field Office

In March, we deepened our long-term commitment to state capacity building by establishing our first Field Office and hiring Celeste Fitzgerald to run it. She is a talented organizer who emerged from the moratorium movement in New Jersey. Celeste provides technical assistance in organizing, strategic planning, message development, lobbying, and organizational capacity building to a Northeast cluster of state organizations moving moratorium initiatives in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, and Delaware. At the same time, she brings an extra set of capable hands to state organizing initiatives. She has quickly become a beloved and respected ally and resource for state activists. “Celeste has been an invaluable asset to our work,” says Jeff Garis, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty. “She is accessible and enthusiastic. We wouldn’t have had such success with our moratorium week in October without her assistance.”

In 2002, the Northeast Field Office’s priority states will be NEW JERSEY and PENNSYLVANIA, where we are eyeing victories in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Funding permitting, we look to duplicate this regional organizing model in other parts of the country.

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An Eye on States

The near victory in Maryland demonstrated a new political strength for the moratorium movement. Grassroots support, which in Maryland included moratorium resolutions adopted by local governments representing the state’s three most populous jurisdictions, can indeed be translated into political change! Our Maryland campaign provided us intensive on-the-ground training which has enriched our organizing staff’s capacity to coach, mentor, train, and otherwise assist organizers in other states. In 2001, we provided training to groups in Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee.

MORATORIUM NOW! also provided emergency assistance to advocates in NEVADA when its Senate unexpectedly passed a moratorium bill in April. We mobilized Nevadans to support the bill via phone banking and mailed an urgent action alert. While the moratorium ultimately failed to pass the state Assembly, a study bill was approved. We continue to provide needed technical assistance to the state coalition in its efforts to inform the study commission and prepare for the state’s next legislative session in 2003.

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From the grassroots to the statehouse!

Since Equal Justice USA launched MORATORIUM NOW! in 1997, we’ve played a unique national role by forging strong ties to state organizations. States are the frontline of our movement. They are where the vast majority of prisoners are sentenced to death and executed and where grassroots pressure for a moratorium can have the most impact. Our focus on unfairness in how the death penalty is applied has generated new energy and allies for state organizers.

Our goal remains to translate Illinois’ imposition of a moratorium in 2000 into a national phenomenon. 2001 was a breakthrough year for advancing the campaign’s strategy of driving national momentum for a moratorium by winning victories state by state. All total, 19 states considered moratorium legislation in 2001, nearly double the number in 2000.

Our first chance for a win came in January in our home state of MARYLAND. Responding to a ripe political climate, including new leadership from the Senate Majority Leader and the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, we launched a grassroots mobilization. The coalition included moratorium bill sponsor State Delegate Salima Siler Marriot [D], the Maryland Catholic Conference, Amnesty International, the Maryland Coalition Against State Executions, The Justice Project, and the Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

MORATORIUM NOW! mounted a highly effective Maryland campaign.

Our efforts were rewarded in March when a bill imposing a two-year moratorium passed the Maryland House of Delegates by an 82-54 vote! The win attracted daily local and national news headlines. Ultimately, democracy did not prevail. The Senate’s widely anticipated vote for a moratorium bill was short-circuited when a handful of Senators filibustered in the last few days of the session to deny a Senate vote.

After the legislative session ended in April, the newly unleashed grassroots pressure for a moratorium shifted to the Maryland Governor. Throughout 2001, demands mounted on Governor Glendening to impose a moratorium by executive order, pending completion of his own study of fairness in death sentencing.

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Expanding Grassroots Momentum and Organization

Nationwide, 63 local governments and nearly 2,000 national, state, and local organizations and faith communities have adopted resolutions urging a moratorium. Equal Justice USA maintains this national listing on its National Tally.

Momentum continued after September 11 with the Lincoln, Nebraska City Council; West Hollywood and Santa Clara County, California; and Cincinnati, Ohio all adopting resolutions urging a halt to executions. Moratorium resolutions continue to be considered everyday in communities around the country. Notable additions in 2001 included the Medical Society of the State of New York, the American Psychological Association, and the National Conference of Black Mayors.

Throughout 2001, Equal Justice USA’s MORATORIUM NOW! campaign continued to serve the national movement as an information and organizing clearinghouse. Our national organizing staff provided materials, training, support, and encouragement to activists on a daily basis. For the third year in a row, we coordinated the Moratorium Organizing Committee, a network linking activists from 24 states via e-mail and conference calls.

Our website has been expanded and made more user friendly. A new comprehensive STATE BY STATE section went on-line in December, which includes links to state contacts, action alerts, state legislation, and other news and information.

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Hope for 2002: State by State

In many ways, 2001 was a laboratory year in which state-based moratorium strategies were tested and strengthened. 2002 offers new openings to advance the national movement.

We embark on a multi-year organizing offensive, State by State: from the grassroots to the statehouse. The aim is to improve and expand our national efforts to strategically sharpen, capacitate, and resource promising state moratorium initiatives.

Our first opportunity for a 2002 win comes in the spring of this year in the NEW JERSEY State Legislature, where a moratorium bill has been introduced with bi-partisan support. Via our Field Office and reinforcements from our national organizing staff, we will provide priority assistance to our state partner, New Jerseyans for a Death Penalty Moratorium, with a push for a victory this year.

At the same time, MORATORIUM NOW! will provide training and technical assistance to over a dozen state initiatives throughout the country, cultivating future moratorium opportunities, state by state by state. We are consolidating our organizing materials into a comprehensive Legislative Toolkit, drawing on the experience of state and national organizers around the country.

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