Several letters signed by the heads of America s leading civil rights organizations, top religious leaders and over 500 law professors were delivered to the White House late yesterday. The groups share the CMFE S concern that the federal death penalty process is marred by significant and troubling disparities of race and geography. The Department also revealed that nearly half of the recommended federal capital prosecutions come from less than one-third of the nation s prosecutors, concentrated in death penalty states with large death rows. Juan Garza is a Hispanic man from one of these states, Texas.
Several signers are supporters of the death penalty.
On November 21, the American Bar Association issued a news release announcing that it was pleased the CMFE had joined the ABA in making this public appeal to the President.