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…
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…
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….
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…
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,…
Plagued with campaign trail questions about the moratorium in Illinois, and the likelihood that the innocent will be executed, Governor George Bush keeps insisting on the guilt of everyone he has executed. No wonder. Already this year, Texas has sent 13 people to its execution chamber, including 62-year old domestic violence victim Bettie Lou Beets….
Innocence Bill Introduced in Senate Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. introduced HR 3623, “The Accuracy In Judicial Administration Act of 2000” (AJA), on February 10. The AJA would impose a minimum 7-year national moratorium on all U.S. executions until all inmates currently sitting on death row have an opportunity to explore potentially exculpatory DNA and…
With populations around one million people, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco and Pittsburgh are the largest U.S. cities to date to call for a moratorium on executions. Each city’s action came within a month of Governor Ryan’s declaration of a moratorium in Illinois. Eight other local governments have also asked lawmakers to stop and take a closer…
On January 31 – the day Governor George Ryan announced a moratorium in Illinois – Senator Russ Feingold took to the Senate floor to urge President Clinton to impose a moratorium on federal executions. “The problems of inadequate representation, lack of access to DNA testing, police misconduct, racial bias and even simple errors are not…
Governor George Ryan declared an indefinite moratorium on executions in Illinois on January 31. Calling the prospect of executing an innocent person “the ultimate nightmare,” Ryan declared, “Until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing lethal injection, no one will meet that fate.” Illinois has exonerated more…