Communist Web Sunday 27th February 2000 9.30pm gmt Feel the mo'! Stop the death penalty The weekly rant by Terrie Albano You can feel the mo'. (That's "momentum" in case you are not a sports fan.) The momentum is building. It's possible to put a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty this year. I have to be perfectly honest - until the Illinois moratorium I didn't think it was on the radar screen. But after this action taken - by of all people, a Republican governor - all bets are off. Public opinion is shifting, people are re-thinking the use of the death penalty and it is having an impact on public officials. The Illinois moratorium was just the beginning. Now the Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution urging a stop on executions. Moratorium Now! a project of Equal Justice USA, is on the move. They are doggedly building public pressure to force moratoriums across the country by collecting resolutions and organizing other grass-roots actions. Now five Democratic Senators asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on the death penalty. In a letter to Judiciary Chairman, Orrin Hatch, Sens. Feingold, Durbin, Kennedy, Levin and Torricelli wrote, "We fear the problems of fairness and accuracy associated with the death penalty including inadequate representation, lack of access to DNA testing, police misconduct, racial bias and even simple errors - are not unique to Illinois." Feel the mo'! In a system where racism and class standing play a dominant role in deciding who lives and who dies, who has access to "good" lawyers and who is targeted by law enforcement why should the state be... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/fee/fee.html
