Press Release

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

31 July 2000          

Contact: Jeff Garis
(267) 251-2818
        
DEATH PENALTY OPPONENTS PLAN DAY OF PROTEST TOMORROW,
CALLING G.O.P. CONVENTION THE "EXECUTIONERS' BALL"

PHILADELPHIA, PA (July 31, 2000) - Final plans are being made for an
afternoon of protest against the death penalty, culminating in a rally near
City Hall at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.  A coalition of social justice, religious,
and community groups is calling on "people of conscience and resistance" to
join them to protest "politicians intent on using body counts as stepping
stones to positions of greater power."  GOP presidential candidate George W.
Bush is being singled out for carrying out 138 executions - more than any
other current or recent governor.

Participants also plan to expose the city of Philadelphia, with a
well-established record of police scandal and brutality and a death row
larger than that of 37 states, as the "capital of capital punishment". 
Nearly 90% of the 132 people sentenced to death from "the City of Brotherly
Love" are people of color.  The state of Pennsylvania has the country's
fourth largest death row, 67% of which is people of color in a state where
people of color make up less than 15% of the population.

"The Republican party has decided to run a presidential candidate whose
primary claim to fame is as a prolific executioner, said Jeffrey Garis,
Executive Director of PA. Abolitionists.  "Gov. Bush has amassed a body
count that would put any serial killer to shame.  The GOP talks about
family values, but what values are young people learning from Mr. Bush? 
The lesson he is teaching by his example is that violence is a good
solution to violence.  Even a child can see that killing people who
kill people is illogical and ineffective."

Speakers will oppose the execution of Philadelphia journalist Mumia
Abu-Jamal and decry the recent series of shootings and videotaped
beatings by Philadelphia police.

On July 27, after a week of negotiating, the city granted a permit for
the rally at Thomas Paine Plaza next to the Municipal Services Building
north of City Hall.

The following events are part of the day's activities: 
   
12:00 p.m.  Press Conference: Democracy & The Death Penalty?
Old First Reformed Church, 4th and Race Streets.
Author Jonathan Kozol (Amazing Grace, Savage Inequalities); Robert
Meeropol (son of Ethel & Julius Rosenberg); Julia Wright (journalist,
daughter of the late novelist Richard Wright) will join professors
Marcus Rediker, Farah Jasmine Griffin and Mark Taylor to explain
their opposition to the death penalty as an "affront to democratic
values."  Rediker, a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh,
will present some of his recent research on the history of Pennsylvania's
use of the death penalty.
        

1:30 p.m.  An Interfaith Convergence Against the Death Penalty
Friends Center, 15th and Cherry.
Organized by the Religious Organizing Chapter of Pennsylvania Abolitionists,
the event will include a "speak-out", time of prayer and reflection,
discussion groups and vigils around Center City.

All Day "Honk for Mumia"                               
At major intersections.
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal protests his
planned execution, police brutality, and the death penalty.

4:30 p.m.  Rally Against the Death Penalty and the Execution of Mumia
Abu-Jamal
Thomas Paine Plaza, JFK Boulevard & 15th Street.  
A rally to "unmask the executioners " will highlight the murderous
record of George W. Bush, who has killed 138 people in Texas, and
convention host Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, who signed more
than 200 death warrants in the past five years.  Speakers from the
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Mothers Organized
Against Police Terror, Refuse & Resist!, the International Concerned
Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Citizens United for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty, American Friends Service Committee, International
Action Center, Academics for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the MOVE organization,
Philly Freedom Summer youth volunteers, and Pennsylvania Abolitionists
United Against the Death Penalty will appear.

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SENT BY:

************************************************************
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP)