[CUADPUpdate] Fast & Vigil Updates

[abe@cuadp.org]

Greetings from Washington, DC!

When you are the coordinator of a big event, the laast thing you want to
do is when you finally get some free time is sit down in front of a
computer.  Now having slept, I have a few minutes before it is time roll
out for day THREE!

There are TWO BLOGS that you can check out for personal reflections on the
F&V.  The NCADP Blog is at http://www.deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com/  and
the official F&V Blog is at http://fastnvigil.blogspot.com/

Things seem to be going very well.  Those who need housing have gotten it,
although it is really unfortunate to not have a community space for
everyone once the "work" day is done.  The good thing is that it appears
that enough sponsorship money has come in or will come in that I'll be
able to write a check now to guarantee space within 5 blocks of the Court
for next year's Fast &  Vigil activist housing.

In addition, I also believe that we'll have enough funds to pay for the
expenses of the video crew we have flown up from Florida who are
professionally documenting all of the speakers in our evening teach-ins,
which thus far have been incredibly powerful and moving.  In particular, I
thank Mike Vasilinda, of Vasilinda Productions for providing the crew and
the equipment.  All we have to pay is their travel, accomodations and
expenses, which will still add up to several thousand dollars, but the
value received is very well worth it.  We hope to have quicktime videos of
each speaker available in a few weeks.

So I once again thank all of the co-sponsors - please take a look at the
list here: http://www.abolition.org/starvin13.sponsors06.html#sponsors06

If you are in the area, come on down!  Tonight's program is equally
strong, as is that of Sunday's rally and evening Teach-in.  The schedule
is here:  http://www.abolition.org/starvin13.schedule06.html

Below is the one news hit that I have found so far from our press
conference, and at some point in the next 24 hours I will share some
messages we have received from folks in solidarity with us.

Yours in the Struggle,

--abe

Groups Mourn 30 Years of the Death Penalty in the US
By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
June 30, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - The United Methodist Church and Amnesty International
marked Friday's 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision
allowing capital punishment to continue in the U.S. with a vigil outside
the nation's high court, calling on the public to "remember the victims,
but not with more killing." But the groups' detractors say the proper
venue to debate the death penalty would be the constitutional amendment
process, not before the Supreme Court.

Bill Pelke, whose grandmother was murdered and saw her killer sentenced to
death, called for "compassion."

"This is what murder victim families need, they don't need revenge, they
don't need to see another life taken, they need healing," Pelke said.

Larry Peterson, who spent 19 years on death row for murder but was
exonerated last month, added, "If there was death, you can never correct
the error that has been made, but if you give someone life, you can find
out later that they were innocent and you can go back and correct the
error that was made."

Almost 3,400 people are currently sitting on death row. Since 1976 there
have been 1,029 people executed, and since 1973, Amnesty International
claims that 123 death row inmates have been exonerated.

The United Methodist Church (UMC) says they were the first church to come
out against capital punishment.

"Fifty years ago, the United Methodist Church gave a bold yes to life,"
said UMC Bishop Ray Chamberlain, "and a resounding no to the death
penalty.

"Fifty years ago we said no to capital punishment because it is morally
indefensible to deliberately destroy life. 'No' we said to the death
penalty which is shear retribution. We said 'no' to the state devaluing
life to the ultimate extreme. We said 'no' to the state continuing the
cycle of violence by killing the one who kills," Chamberlain said.

"We said it then, and we say it now," Chamberlain said.

Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International, called capital
punishment the "ultimate cruel and inhumane degrading punishment."

Cox added that it is "arbitrary, racially biased and unfair," referring to
claims that the system targets minorities.

"African Americans are disproportionately represented among people
condemned to death in the USA," Amnesty International claims on its
website. "While they make up 12 per cent of the national population, they
account for more than 40 per cent of the country's current death row
inmates, and one in three of those executed since 1977."

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, African-Americans were
charged with committing 36.9 percent of all violent crimes that might have
been eligible for the death penalty in 2004, the most recent year for
which nationwide statistics were available.

Phyllis Schlafly, president of Eagle Forum, argues that the Supreme Court
is not the proper venue to debate the death penalty.

"If they want to get rid of the death penalty, well, they are perfectly
free to propose an amendment to the Constitution to do that," she said.

Schlafly told Cybercast News Service that she agrees with the Constitution.

"The United States Constitution authorizes the death penalty," Schlafly
concluded, "and anyone who wants to change that is perfectly free to get
someone in Congress to pass an amendment and get it ratified. Let them go
for it."


http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200606/CUL20060630b.html