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- From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
- Subject: NEWS:DC Votes NO on Death Penalty/ww
- Message-ID: <1992Nov10.205050.16882@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
- Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 20:50:50 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 94
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-
- Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
-
- D.C. TURNS THUMBS DOWN ON DEATH PENALTY
-
- By Pam Parker
-
- Washington
-
- A vote on the death penalty that was forced upon the residents of
- DC by an arrogant and racist U.S. Congress was overwhelmingly
- defeated in the Nov. 3 elections. Although the issue had been
- framed in terms of congressional interference in District affairs
- by the DC leadership, it nonetheless represents a tremendous
- setback for the racists in Congress.
-
- Congress had been lobbying unsuccessfully for the death penalty
- in DC since it was overturned in 1981. Each attempt to reverse
- that decision has been met with heated protests by residents and
- progressive leaders of the city.
-
- Sen. Richard Shelby (D-Ala.) used the unfortunate murder of his
- young aide and the brutal rape/murder of a young woman--both
- white--as an excuse to reopen the issue in DC.
-
- Originally Congress, exercising their "right," planned to simply
- impose the measure regardless of the sentiments of DC residents,
- but the rich history of rebellions against racism and police
- brutality in the city stayed their hand.
-
- Instead they have used graphic descriptions of these murders,
- along with people's honest exasperation and frustration with the
- toll drugs and violence have taken on their communities, to try
- to whip up sentiment in favor of the measure. All their efforts
- have proved fruitless.
-
- A clear pattern of racism has been proven in the charging and
- sentencing of the death penalty. Over 50 percent of death row
- inmates are people of color, 40 percent African American men,
- both significantly higher numbers than they represent in the
- general population.
-
- African Americans also show a higher chance of being sentenced to
- death if implicated in the death of a white person. By contrast,
- in the history of the death penalty in the U.S., not one white
- person has ever been sentenced to death for killing a person of
- color.
-
- Knowing full well these facts, has the government "by and for the
- people" moved to strike down the racist death penalty? No, on the
- contrary in 1991 every branch of government moved to expand it.
-
- The U.S. Supreme Court drastically restricted the right of death
- row inmates to bring constitutional challenges to federal court.
- Up until that point, some 40 percent of all death sentences were
- commuted in federal courts on the grounds that there were
- constitutional errors in convictions and sentencing.
-
- In the fall of 1991, the U.S. Congress voted down a crime bill
- specifically designed to address the pattern of racial
- discrimination in the application of the death sentence. In its
- place a presidential initiative proposed that statistical
- evidence never again be used to show an unjust bias against
- people of color.
-
- The bill would also extend the death penalty to include 50 other
- "crimes" outside of first degree murder that could be punishable
- by death, including crimes against property. The bill has since
- been tabled, but is scheduled to be re-presented.
-
- District residents watched in disbelief as Congress rejected a
- concession by the City Council that would have given judges the
- right to impose life imprisonment without the possibility of
- parole.
-
- Many residents have taken to the streets and blocked morning rush
- hour traffic in an attempt to show their outrage at the arrogance
- and racism of Congress, and to demand DC statehood.
-
- The push for the death penalty in this largely Black city, bigger
- than several states in area and population, but still having no
- "representation" in Congress, has again raised an outcry for DC
- statehood and an end to the racist death penalty.
-
- -30-
-
- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
- if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
- St., New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
- "workers@mcimail.com".)
-
-
- NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
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