From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Subject: NEWS:DC Votes NO on Death Penalty/ww
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 20:50:50 GMT


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

D.C. TURNS THUMBS DOWN ON DEATH PENALTY

By Pam Parker

Washington

A vote on the death penalty that was forced upon the residents of
DC by an arrogant and racist U.S. Congress was overwhelmingly
defeated in the Nov. 3 elections. Although the issue had been
framed in terms of congressional interference in District affairs
by the DC leadership, it nonetheless represents a tremendous
setback for the racists in Congress.

Congress had been lobbying unsuccessfully for the death penalty
in DC since it was overturned in 1981. Each attempt to reverse
that decision has been met with heated protests by residents and
progressive leaders of the city.

Sen. Richard Shelby (D-Ala.) used the unfortunate murder of his
young aide and the brutal rape/murder of a young woman--both
white--as an excuse to reopen the issue in DC.

Originally Congress, exercising their "right," planned to simply
impose the measure regardless of the sentiments of DC residents,
but the rich history of rebellions against racism and police
brutality in the city stayed their hand.

Instead they have used graphic descriptions of these murders,
along with people's honest exasperation and frustration with the
toll drugs and violence have taken on their communities, to try
to whip up sentiment in favor of the measure. All their efforts
have proved fruitless.

A clear pattern of racism has been proven in the charging and
sentencing of the death penalty. Over 50 percent of death row
inmates are people of color, 40 percent African American men,
both significantly higher numbers than they represent in the
general population.

African Americans also show a higher chance of being sentenced to
death if implicated in the death of a white person. By contrast,
in the history of the death penalty in the U.S., not one white
person has ever been sentenced to death for killing a person of
color.

Knowing full well these facts, has the government "by and for the
people" moved to strike down the racist death penalty? No, on the
contrary in 1991 every branch of government moved to expand it.

The U.S. Supreme Court drastically restricted the right of death
row inmates to bring constitutional challenges to federal court.
Up until that point, some 40 percent of all death sentences were
commuted in federal courts on the grounds that there were
constitutional errors in convictions and sentencing.

In the fall of 1991, the U.S. Congress voted down a crime bill
specifically designed to address the pattern of racial
discrimination in the application of the death sentence. In its
place a presidential initiative proposed that statistical
evidence never again be used to show an unjust bias against
people of color.

The bill would also extend the death penalty to include 50 other
"crimes" outside of first degree murder that could be punishable
by death, including crimes against property. The bill has since
been tabled, but is scheduled to be re-presented.

District residents watched in disbelief as Congress rejected a
concession by the City Council that would have given judges the
right to impose life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole.

Many residents have taken to the streets and blocked morning rush
hour traffic in an attempt to show their outrage at the arrogance
and racism of Congress, and to demand DC statehood.

The push for the death penalty in this largely Black city, bigger
than several states in area and population, but still having no
"representation" in Congress, has again raised an outcry for DC
statehood and an end to the racist death penalty.

                          -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
"workers@mcimail.com".)


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