June 2000

Dear Moratorium Now!er,

These are optimistic times for those of us concerned about the death penalty!

The national and local dialogue now taking place around a moratorium on executions is stirring support from once unexpected places. Last month, death penalty proponent Pat Robertson told Meet the Press, "I think a moratorium would indeed be very appropriate." Robertson isn’t the only convert. Former Pennsylvania State Attorney General Ernie Preate, instrumental in restarting the state’s death penalty in the 1980s, now lobbies the Pennsylvania Senate to pass moratorium legislation. Conservative columnist George Will has also concluded that the death penalty is tainted by "careless or corrupt administration."

On the international front, the U.S. Ambassador to France recently told Newsweek that Europeans widely view the U.S. death penalty as "racist and discriminatory" and our nation’s expanding use of it undermines our moral authority abroad.

The crack in the wall of traditional support for the death penalty demonstrates the impact our movement is having.

Adding to our optimism, Senators Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Carl Levin (D-MI) introduced the "National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2000" (S. 2463) in April. The bill would impose a moratorium on executions until a national commission determines whether the death penalty can be imposed "fairly and with due process." The commission would investigate issues "plaguing the death penalty’s implementation," including racial, geographic and class disparities, as well as innocence and the inadequacy of legal counsel representing capital defendants. We are working with Senator Feingold’s office to help educate and raise support for this important bill.

The changing climate provides tremendous opportunities for the Moratorium Now! campaign. Our challenge is to expand and sharpen the impact of local and state campaigns, gathering together the national community of people necessary to halt executions.

Our organizers are traveling twice a month to places around the country where there is interest in organizing for a moratorium. These trips produce new contacts and activism. Every six weeks, these local and state activists are linked together via conference calls. Activists from 15 states – Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington – take part in these virtual meetings, which help our movement to "think globally and act locally."

Growing coordination and unity around our national strategy of gathering moratorium resolutions from official institutions, faith communities and grassroots organizations is beginning to pay off!

Twenty-two local governments, representing populations of over six million people, have now urged a moratorium – most recently, the cities of Buffalo and Rochester, NY as well asRollingwood, the first Texas city. Local government support is having its intended impact. In Maryland, for instance, Baltimore City and Prince George’s and Montgomery County have adopted moratorium resolutions – representing the three populous jurisdictions largely responsible for Governor Parris Glendening’s reelection in 1998. Elected officials from these jurisdictions now plan to meet with the Governor, stepping up the pressure on him to impose a moratorium as his two-year study of racial bias and the death penalty begins and as the state prepares to execute yet another African American man in June.

Grassroots support rising from local communities, like those in Maryland, is helping to catalyze dynamic discussion about the death penalty in the mainstream media. "Moratorium" is becoming a household word! We need your help to continue this important work:

­ Help us network state activists nationwide. A $60 contribution to Equal Justice USA will allow us to continue our conference calls, fueling local organizing. We have already seen over 100 resolutions come out the these calls. You can also make a gift on-line by visiting <www.quixote.org/ej/ejusaform.html>.

­ Ask your hometown to become the 23rd local government to urge a moratorium. A model moratorium resolution is enclosed, or call for statements already adopted by other cities. Recruit people in your community to press your local representatives to officially call for a moratorium. Take resolutions to your faith community or local group. It’s easier than you think (Model resolution in PDF format)!

­ Tell your Senators and Representative to co-sponsor and urge hearings on national moratorium legislation. Senate Bill 2463 and House Bill 3623 would each impose a nationwide moratorium on executions. Our action alert gives more details.

­ Collect signatures from people in support of a moratorium. Equal Justice USA is collaborating with Moratorium 2000, which is collecting individual signatures in support of a moratorium. Please return signed petitions to Moratorium 2000. The address is at the bottom of their enclosed petition, or sign it on online at <www.moratorium2000.org>.

Our thanks to you for all that you do to muster this national movement to halt executions. We cherish our work together to eliminate the inherent systemic biases of the death penalty!

P.S. Reflecting a growing concern about the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty, the New Hampshire Senate voted 14-10 to repeal the death penalty on May 18, 2000. The bill, approved by the House 191-163 in March, would have replaced the state’s death penalty with life in prison without parole. Unfortunately, Governor Jeanne Shaheen immediately vetoed the bill. But we take heart as this is the first state legislature to vote for abolition in over 20 years!

P.P.S. We said goodbye last month to Tony Banout, an Equal Justice USA staff member since 1997. We thank him for his service to the movement and wish him well in his upcoming studies at Washington Theological Union.