Austin, TX March to Abolish DP

Dear Mary,

 

This Saturday, November 3, is the 13th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty in Austin at the Texas Capitol. It starts at 2 PM. Meet on the South Side of the Capitol.

Visit the March page on Facebook. The march will be led by four exonerated death row survivors who each spent many years on death row waiting to be executed for crimes they did not commit. They made it out of the system alive, but there are many innocent people still on death row and other innocents who did not make it out alive. 

Speakers at the march will also include family members of people currently on death row, community leaders, activists and others. We represent a growing number of people across Texas and the nation who oppose the death penalty. 

We need your help to show the world that opposition to the death penalty in Texas is growing, so please attend the march. 

If you cannot attend the march, please forward this email to people you know who might be interested.

You can also support the march by making a donation. Click here to donate by credit card or send a check to:

Texas Moratorium Network
3616 Far West Blvd, Suite 117, Box 251
Austin, Texas 78731 

Texas has executed 488 people since 1982 (as of Oct 28, 2012). The 250th execution under Rick Perry is scheduled for Halloween on October 31. Twelve people have been exonerated while on death row in Texas, the most recent being Anthony Graves in 2010.

Ron Keine, an innocent man who spent 2 years on death row in New Mexico, will be a special guest at the 13th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. He will join exonerees Shujaa Graham, Albert Burrell and Clarence Brandley at the march. They are coming courtesy of Witness to Innocence. 

"This is fast becoming one of the biggest anti-death penalty events in the country. I'll be there", said Ron Keine.


"As they see what the death penalty really means, in my case and others, more and more Texans believe that Texas can do without the death penalty," said exonerated death row survivor Clarence Brandley, from Conroe, Texas, who has been fighting for compensation from the state of Texas for over twenty years. 

Each year since 2000, people from all walks of life and all parts of Texas, the U.S. and other countries have taken a day out of their year and gathered in Austin to raise their voices together and loudly express their opposition to the death penalty. The march is a coming together of activists, family members of people on death row, community leaders, exonerated former death row prisoners and all those calling for repeal of the Texas death penalty. 

The annual march is organized as a joint project by several Texas anti-death penalty organizations: Texas Moratorium Network, the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Witness to Innocence, Texas Civil Rights Project, International Socialist Organization, Amnesty International at The University of Texas, Texas Death Penalty Education and Resource Center, Kids Against the Death Penalty, The Austin Chronicle, Nokoa - the Observer, Democrats for Life, the Gray Panthers and Texas Democrats Against the Death Penalty.

We hope to see you Saturday at the march!

Your friends at
Texas Moratorium Network

13th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty

Join Our Page on Facebook

Visit Our Page on Facebook

Texas Moratorium Network

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email: admin@texasmoratorium.org

phone: 512-961-6389

web: http://www.texasmoratorium.org

Mentally Ill on Death Row

 
John Errol Ferguson Case: Daniel T.K. Hurley, U.S. District Judge, Grants Stay Of Execution

MIAMI -- A federal judge on Saturday granted a stay of execution for a convicted mass killer in Florida, who is mentally ill and was scheduled to be put to death on Tuesday, October 23, 2012.

U.S. District Judge Daniel T. K. Hurley granted the motion for a stay in the case of John Errol Ferguson, who was to be executed Tuesday after 34 years on Florida's death row ... Ferguson's attorneys maintain he is insane and that the Constitution prohibits the state from executing him.

"The issues raised merit full, reflective consideration," the court said.
See the entire article at this link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/20/john-errol-ferguson-case_n_1994917.html

Many people object to Ferguson being executed because of his schizophrenia. The Disability Rights Committee issued an "Emergency Resolution in Opposition to the Execution of John Ferguson, a Mentally Ill Florida Death Row Inmate" that helps us understand the issue of mental illness and capital punishment. The Committee wrote in part:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD, MEETING AT ITS OCTOBER 2012 CONVENTION IN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, condemns in the strongest terms the scheduled execution of John Errol Ferguson, a severely mentally ill African American man who has spent the last 34 years on death row, on the ground that it would be cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and would also violate international conventions on human rights to which the United States is a party, including the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and urges officials in the State of Florida to stop the scheduled execution and commute Mr. Ferguson’s death sentences to life imprisonment.
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There have been numerous executions of mentally incompetent persons despite the constitutional law against unusual punishment. Jonathan Green, a mentally ill Texan, was killed on October 10. See a report from Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) below:
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MENTAL ILLNESS: Federal Court Stays Texas Execution Because of Inadequate Hearing

UPDATE: The U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the stay of execution and Green was executed on Oct. 10.  Earlier: Jonathan Green was scheduled for execution in Texas on October 10, but a federal judge issued a stay because the state did not afford him due process in examining his mental competency.

Scotus Stayed Texas Murder of Anthony Haynes

EXCELLENT NEWS! THE TEXAS EXECUTION OF ANTHONY HAYNES WAS STAYED BY SCOTUS! Congratulate Hayes on breathing after October 18 at the following address:

ANTHONY HAYNES #999330
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, TX 77351

The following anti-dp post was initially prevented at MaryLovesJustice Facebook wall 

https://www.facebook.com/marylovesjustice 

(I doubt if the link gets people to my "real" Facebook wall)

State Murder of Anthony Haynes, sponsored by the people of Texas, scheduled for Oct 18, 2012.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Preparations are underway for the planned execution Thursday of Anthony Haynes. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering Haynes' request for a stay of execution so that his case may be reviewed by the high court ... Haynes argued that he would not have received the death penalty if his attorney had represented him effectively at trial.

ALL UNREPENTANT MURDERERS WILL GO TO HELL, 

INCLUDING PEOPLE ENGAGED IN STATE-SPONSORED MURDERS.