[Peace] Fwd: [sf-core] Fwd: Legislation to abolish the death penalty in Illinois (an item not in Ken Urban's report on the u/cprogressive meeting)

[Belden Fields]

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>From: Belden Fields <a-fields at uiuc.edu>
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>Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 11:59:58 -0600
>Subject: [sf-core] Fwd: Legislation to abolish the death penalty in Illinois
>
>Let's write letters to the Champaign, Springfield, and Chicago papers
>supporting this bill to abolish the death penalty.  I suggest now that we
>delete the reference to the more modest reforms on the agenda.  Let's focus
>on abolition and not undercut that drive.  What do people think?
>
>Also, a member of Socialist Forum suggests that we add to the elections
>portion of the agenda, public funding of elections as is done in Maine and
>Texas.  What do people think about that?
>
>Belden
>
>
> >Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 18:03:16 -0600
> >From: Aviva Futorian <futorian at rcnchicago.com>
> >User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2)
> >Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01
> >X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
> >To: Persons interested in the death penalty <futorian at rcnchicago.com>
> >Subject: Legislation to abolish the death penalty in Illinois
> >
> >This press announcement is pasted and attached.
> >
> >>****PLEASE NOTE: NEW TIME AND ADDITIONAL SPEAKERS****
> >>
> >>January 19, 2003
> >>
> >>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> >>
> >>PRESS CONFERENCE:
> >>HOUSE BILL ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY INTRODUCED BY STATE
> >>REPRESENTATIVE ART TURNER
> >>
> >>State Representative Art Turner will be joined by exonerated death row
> >>prisoners Aaron Patterson, Gary Gauger, Anthony Porter, Steve Smith, and
> >>Perry Cobb, State Representative Constance Howard, State Representative
> >>Louvanna Jones, The Campaign to End the Death Penalty and The Illinois
> >>Coalition Against the Death Penalty in support of Representative Turner s
> >>recently introduced bill to Abolish the Death Penalty in Illinois.
> >>
> >>Date: Monday, January 20, 2003
> >>Time: 11:30 am
> >>Location: Hotel Allegro, 171 W. Randolph, Chicago, IL
> >>
> >>Contacts:    State Representative Art Turner- 773.277.4700
> >>         Coy Pugh- 773.636.7844
> >>         Joe Moreno, Campaign to End the Death Penalty- 708.721.8999
> >>         Jane Bohman, IL Coalition Against the Death Penalty- 312.213.4250
> >>
> >>
> >>Statement from Representative Art Turner
> >>
> >>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was clear in his opposition to the death
> >>penalty and repeated throughout his life that violence is a "descending
> >>spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy."
> >>We must abolish the death penalty, which begets the very thing it seeks
> >>to destroy: violence. We know everything we need to know. We know that we
> >>have sentenced innocent people to death--seventeen times. We know that an
> >>astonishing two-thirds of the inmates who were on death row in our state
> >>were African American.  We know that capital punishment overwhelmingly
> >>impacts poor people.  We know that the death sentence is not applied
> >>evenly or fairly.  A murder in rural Illinois is five times more likely
> >>to result in death than a murder in Cook County.  In Illinois and in the
> >>nation, two percent of the people convicted of murder are sentenced to
> >>death. We know that executions do not deter murder.  We know that men
> >>have been sentenced to death after being tortured into confessing to
> >>crimes they did not commit.  All four recently pardoned men were members
> >>of the Death Row 10, all of whom were tortured into confessing. We know
> >>they are not the only ones. In the twelve states that have abolished the
> >>death penalty, the homicide rate has not increased.  We know that 8 of
> >>the 13 members on Governor George Ryan's Blue-Ribbon Commission on the
> >>Death Penalty voted to abolish it.  Most importantly, we know that we do
> >>not need executions to enact justice--in fact; we now know that the death
> >>penalty makes justice impossible.
> >>Capital punishment cannot be reformed.  You cannot "reform" killing any
> >>more than you can "reform" slavery.  Some practices that violate the most
> >>basic of human rights must be abolished. We do not have to choose between
> >>caring about the family members and friends of murder victims and caring
> >>about democratic principles.  We can and must be committed in our actions
> >>and our thoughts to both. We have been told that the best thing we can do
> >>for the survivors of murder victims is to strap the convicted person to a
> >>gurney and inject a lethal solution.  This is not justice.  This is
> >>vengeance.  And it demeans all of us.
> >>I am calling for the state to replace the death penalty with the sentence
> >>of life without parole.  This sentence is a sufficient and severe penalty
> >>that allows the state to punish homicide without risking irreversible
> >>error and without participating in homicide itself.  ("Homicide" is the
> >>official cause of death for people executed in Illinois.)
> >>Dr. King's message to us is simple and demanding:  "Always avoid
> >>violence."  In 1967 at the Riverside Church in New York City, he insisted
> >>that the United States can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or
> >>bow before the altar of retaliation.   Illinois finds itself at a similar
> >>crossroads.  I hope that we can begin the "true revolution of values"
> >>that Dr. King called for thirty-six years ago as we work to insure
> >>equality and justice, not for the few, but for all.
> >>
> >>END
>
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