Organizing Packet: Model Press Release

RESOLUTION URGES MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS Hometown City Council Joins Nationwide Call for Temporary Halt to Executions HOMETOWN, PA. The Hometown City Council voted 12-3 tonight for a resolution - directed at the Pennsylvania Senate and Governor Rendell - calling for a moratorium on all executions until a study can be organized to determine if the death penalty is being applied fairly.	Open with your news: local body takes action!
Hometown has sentenced 125 of the 226 people now on death row in Pennsylvania. Nearly 90% of these prisoners are people of color. Pennsylvania has the fourth largest death row in the nation, behind California, Texas, and Florida. Over 90% of the state's death row prisoners were too poor to afford their own attorney. Hometown in responsible for over half of all death sentences pending in the state. Blacks are 38% more likely to be sentenced to death than whites in Hometown. Hometown city council member Dorothy Jones stated, "We wanted to send a clear message to our leadership in Harrisburg that we are deeply concerned about Pennsylvania's racist and immoral pursuit of the death sentences."	Quote group representative and highlight local reality
In passing tonight's resolution, Hometown joins more than 4,600* national and local groups, including 152 other city councils, throughout the U.S. that have called for a moratorium on executions. Moratorium Now! - a grassroots campaign of the Quixote Center - works with groups across the country to pass moratorium resolutions. More information about the national Moratorium Now! campaign: www.ejusa.org or 301-699-0042 General information about the death penalty: www.deathpenaltyinfo.orgor 202-289-2275 - END -	Offer national context and resources