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Announcement :: Protest Activity |
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University Of Illinois Students Gather To Protest Capital Punishment |
Current rating: 0 |
by Mike Bullerman and Margot Finn
Email: smargotfinn (nospam) hotmail.com (verified)
Phone: 217-367-4287 |
25 Oct 2002
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Press Release concerning an October 29 Protest against the Death Penalty |
(Urbana, IL) Local anti-death penalty activists will gather Tuesday at the "Meet the Candidates Forum" hosted by various student organizations, including Illinois Student Government, College Republicans and College Democrats. Attending the forum, which will be held at 7 pm Tuesday October 29th at 213 Gregory Hall will be representatives for Jim Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, gubernatorial candidates, Naomi Jakobsson and Tom Berns, local candidates for State Representative, and Rick Winkel and Dan McCollum, local candidates for State Senator. Death penalty opponents seek answers from Jim Ryan about his involvement in the convictions of Rolando Cruz, an innocent man, and answers from all the candidates about their position on the continuation of what they consider to be an inherently flawed capital punishment system in Illinois.
"The eyes of the world are watching Illinois' decisions regarding capital punishment, and the candidates have not sufficiently addressed the issue, beyond paying lip-service to the moratorium. Governor Ryan's moratorium has become a politically safe way for candidates to avoid taking a firm stance on state-sanctioned executions." Margot Finn, senior in LAS.
The moratorium on executions has been in place since January 31st, 2000. Governor Ryan said that he would not allow an innocent man to die on his watch. Many voters, including the students protesting at Greg Hall on Tuesday, want to know if either of his possible successors shares his commitment to justice. Between the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976 and the 2000 moratorium, Illinois executed twelve men and exonerated thirteen.
"Jim Ryan claims that the thirteen men exonerated from death row prove that the system works. But what he refuses to recognize is that these mens' innocence was not discovered in their appeals. Most of them are free today only due to the efforts of students from Northwestern University and anti-death penalty activists. Ryan himself participated in the repeated conviction of an innocent man, prosecuting Rolando Cruz twice even after another man confessed to the crime." Mike Bullerman, senior in LAS.
Students protesting this Tuesday want the participants in the forum and those attending to hear the arguments against the death penalty and recognize that many Illinois voters oppose capital punishment. They will be distributing information about the death penalty and the convictions of Rolando Cruz, talking to people coming to the forum about the problems with the death penalty, and calling on the candidates to commit to death penalty abolition in Illinois. |
