Issue #146 of the Week Online
last summer featured coverage of the Juan Raul Garza federal drug kingpin
death penalty case, including an interview with anti-death penalty activist
and Hollywood actor/producer Mike Farrell (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/146.html).
The Associated Press reported
on Tuesday that allies of President Clinton are asking him to declare a
moratorium on federal executions and commute Garza's sentence to life in
prison. The group wrote, "Unless you take action, executions will
begin at a time when your own attorney general has expressed concern about
racial and other disparities in the federal death penalty process."
Garza, who was convicted of committing three murders in the course of drug
trafficking, is scheduled to be executed on December 12th, which would
make him the first person since 1963 to be executed under federal criminal
statutes.
Among the 40 signatories,
according to the AP, are US Civil Rights Commission Chairwoman Mary Frances
Berry, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond,
civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, former Notre Dame President Theodore
Hesburgh and entertainers Barbra Streisand and Jack Lemmon.
The AP reported that White
House spokesman Jake Seiwert said the letter had been received but no decision
had been made. According to Siewert, the President is "troubled by
the disparities... that were turned up by the Department of Justice report
[on the death penalty]... That's something we're still examining."
-- END --
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Issue #161, 11/24/00
Business As Usual on the Border: More Cops, More Drugs Seized, No Impact on the Street | Follow That Story: Discredited Supersnitch Rises from the Ashes to Testify Again | Follow That Story: Asset Forfeiture Reform a Big Hit at Southern Legislative Conference | Andean Update: Peru's Fujimori and Coca Eradication Gone, Colombia's Peace Talks on Hold as Country Braces for Drug War | US Anti-Drug Aid Endangering Indigenous Communities and Amazon Biodiversity, Experts Charge | Newsbrief: New Polish Drug Bill Ends Experiment, Outlaws Possession for Personal Use | Newsbrief: Sweden Survives MTV Festival | Newsbrief: Clinton Allies Call for Commutation of Drug Kingpin Death Penalty, Moratorium on Federal Executions | Coalition for Jubilee Clemency | Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: Sentencing Project Releases Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers | The Reformer's Calendar | A Thanksgiving Note to Our Readers
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