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MEDIA ADVISORY
27 February 2001
Contact: Abe Bonowitz
800-973-6548
ANTI-DEATH
PENALTY ACTIVISM IS ON THE RISE!
Activists to Mark 154 Years Without Death Penalty
Dozens of Anti-death penalty organizations throughout the United
States are organizing around Thursday, March 1st, in celebration of
International Death Penalty Abolition Day, the 154th anniversary of
the date in 1847 when the State of Michigan officially became the
first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish the death
penalty.
FOR A LISTING OF EVENTS SCHEDULED ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, visit http://www.cuadp.org
and click on the Abolition Day Banner.
"Americans are beginning to take a hard look at how our
criminal justice system is failing," said Abe Bonowitz,
Director of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
"As a registered Republican, a fiscal conservative, and a
former supporter of the death penalty, it is clear to me that anyone
who examines the system from a non-emotional standpoint will find
that economically, socially and morally, the practice of the death
penalty is bad public policy."
Organizers of "Abolition Day" events point to the State of
Michigan as an example that viable alternatives to the death penalty
exist. "They got rid of the death penalty because they found
that they could not trust themselves to use it fairly, and they
learned too late that they had killed an innocent man," said
Bonowitz. Michigan has been without the death penalty for 154
years. The first act of their new legislature when Michigan
became a state was to abolish the death penalty.
"Politicians owe it to the people of this country to take a
serious look at the alternatives to the death penalty already in use
across this country," said Bonowitz. "Violent
criminals can be punished, and society protected, through the use of
long-term prison sentences before a convicted person can be
considered for parole. It works in Michigan and in other
states like California, which has the oldest 'Life Without Parole' (LWOP)
statute in the country. Not one of the people sentenced to
LWOP has been released. We are saying to the people our
country, 'Don't make us become that which we deplore. Don't
kill in our names. We can do better.'"
FOR DETAILS ON THE HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION
DAY, PLEASE VISIT
<http://www.cuadp.org> and
click on "Abolition Day."
*****
For more information, please contact Abe Bonowitz at 800-973-6548.
Free information is available to the public from Citizens United for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP), a Florida-based national
organization working to increase the level of informed dialogue
about viable alternatives to the death penalty. CUADP may be
reached toll-free at 800-973-6548 or on the internet at <http://www.cuadp.org>.
POSTED BY:
************************************************************
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP) |
