[DP-Announce] 400th Execution Wednesday!!

[Carole Johnson]

Folks--

400th Execution this Wednesday, August 22, 2007!

VIGIL INFORMATION : Meet at 5:30--6 pm Wednesday evening at "Protest Park" 
at TAMU's eastgate to hold the STOP EXECUTIONS banner with us.  And those of 
you with lawn signs--please put them up all day Wednesday. Thanks.

Carole Johnson
Barbara McGuirk

This from TCADP:

The 400th execution since December 1982, when Texas resumed the use of 
capital punishment, is scheduled to occur on Wednesday, August 22nd when 
Johnny Conner will be put to death at the Walls Unit of the State 
Penitentiary at Huntsville.  Vigils will be held across the state that 
evening, and will include one in front of the State Capitol in Austin.

The overall number of executions carried out in Texas is more than four 
times that of any other state in the nation.  This year alone, Texas has 
executed 20 people and is scheduled to execute 11 more by the end of 2007.

Four states with the death penalty have not carried out a single execution 
since 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court approved newly revised death penalty 
statutes.  Another 14 death penalty states have each executed fewer than 6 
people in the past quarter century.  This year, states as diverse as New 
Jersey, Montana, Maryland, and New Mexico have considered doing away with 
the death penalty altogether.

Johnny Conner's execution represents 400 instances of failed public policy 
for Texans.  Death sentences continue to be arbitrary and are based on such 
factors as the race of the victim and a county's financial ability to 
bankroll a capital trial.  The death penalty is also bad for victims' 
families, according to Linda White, with the Texas chapter of Murder 
Victims' Families for Reconciliation, "The death penalty offers a false 
promise of closure at the time of execution, but in reality, it does little 
more than divert precious resources away from meaningful victims' services 
and services like drug treatment, education/job opportunities, and mental 
health services that could prevent crime." The crimes for which these 
individuals have been put to death involved more than 500 murder victims.

While executions in Texas have continued at an alarming pace, new death 
sentences have decreased significantly both in this state and nationally in 
the past five years.  Texas juries and prosecutors may be realizing that the 
pursuit of a death sentence is not worth the time, effort, financial 
investment, or the risk of executing the innocent, when society can be 
protected with the statutory provisions of either a mandatory 40-year-prison 
sentence or a sentence of life without parole.  If the inmate is found to be 
innocent at a later date, then the mistake can be rectified; this is not the 
case if they are executed.  "Eight people have been released from death row 
in Texas due to evidence of their wrongful conviction," said Rick Halperin, 
President of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.  "How many 
more innocent people will we risk executing before our elected leaders 
finally recognize that the death penalty system is too flawed to fix?"

Members of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty plan to mark 
this somber occasion with vigils throughout the state.  For information on 
times and locations, please visit http://www.tcadp.org/vigils.php.



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Upcoming Executions:

August 28: Daroyce Mosley, August 29: John Amador, August 30:  Kenneth 
Foster

There are ongoing efforts to stop Kenneth Foster's execution due to his 
being tried on the Law of parties statute.  See www.freekenneth.com for more 
details.



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Upcoming Events:

Music for Life Tour with Sara Hickman, First United Methodist Church - 
Austin, October 3 www.tcadp.org.musictour.php

Texas Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing, October 13 - 27, 
www.journeyofhope.org

8th Annual March to Stop Executions - Houston, October 27

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