Oct. 21
UNITED KINGDOM/PENNSYLVANIA:
Activists fight US death penalty
A suburban semi became the unlikely focus of a passionate demonstration by
exonerated former death-row inmates against the death penalty this week.
The house in Coombe Lane, Raynes Park, is the well-disguised home of the
State of Pennsylvania Investment Agency, which encourages business to
invest in the US state.
By demonstrating outside, the Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against
the Death Penalty hoped to persuade businesses not to invest in the state
until, at the very least, it declares a moratorium on executions.
Director Jeffrey Garis said: "Since the death penalty was reintroduced in
the US in 1976, for every 8 executions they realised 1 person was
innocent.
"If an airline had 8 successful flights and then 1 crashed, you had better
believe that the Government would say the airline doesn't take off until
we know what the problem is."
The abolitionists are at the beginning of a tour of Europe, in which Nick
Yarris, William Nieves and Ray Krone, 3 ex-death row inmates from
Pennsylvania, talk of their experiences.
Although the demonstration in Wimbledon on Monday probably did not achieve
the impact they had hoped, interviews on ITV 1's This Morning and the BBC
that day and an address to the House of Commons on Tuesday helped them air
their argument more effectively.
Nick Yarris spent 22 years on death row before a DNA test finally proved
he could not have committed the murder of which he had been convicted.
He said: "It's amazing that I have gone from this little box where they
were trying to murder me to actually speaking on the floor of the House of
Commons.
"I think if we persuade companies enough maybe they will put pressure on
the Pennsylvanian legislature to stop the execution until a moratorium is
put in place."
William Nieves' appeal succeeded when a witness came forward seven years
after prosecutors had prevented him giving evidence at the original trial.
2 weeks after his release, he joined the campaign. He said: "I was always
against the death penalty. It never made sense to me to kill somebody just
because that person is alleged to have committed a murder. If a person is
innocent, you can't bring that person back to life."
(source: Wimbledon Guardian)
