National Death Penalty Resolution

WHEREAS
The death penalty is an offensive violation of basic human rights:

WHEREAS
The existence and implementation of the death penalty is an excessive application of state power:

WHEREAS
Death sentences are reserved for the poor:
About 90 percent of all people facing capital charges cannot afford their own attorney.
No state has met standards developed by the American Bar Association (ABA) for appointment, performance and compensation of counsel for indigent prisoners.

• In 1987, in McCleskey v. Kemp, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to act on data demonstrating the continuing reality of racial bias.
  
• In 1990, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported "a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in charging, sentencing and imposition of the death penalty."
  
• Nationwide, 82 percent of those put to death had been convicted of murdering a white person, even though people of color are the victims in more than half of all homicides.
  
• The U.S. Congress has failed repeatedly to pass the Racial Justice Act, which would allow Prisoners to challenge their death sentences using standards normal in civil racial discrimination cases.

WHEREAS
The current judicial process is flawed to such an extent that prosecutorial misconduct, fabricated and suppressed evidence are a common occurrence such as in the case of:

• Henry "Hank" Skinner
  
• Mumia Abu Jamal

WHEREAS
Prisoner appeals have been severely curtailed, increasing the risk of imprisonment and execution of innocent people:

• In a series of rulings since 1991, the Supreme Court has drastically restricted the rights of death row Prisoners to appeal their convictions and death sentences in federal courts, even in cases where prisoners present compelling evidence of innocence.
  
• In 1996, new legislation drastically limited federal court review of death penalty appeals and gutted public funding of legal aid services for death row prisoners.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT
The Missouri Prisoners Labor Union calls on the Governor and our State representatives, and President Clinton and our representatives in Congress, to enact and adopt legislation imposing a moratorium on executions at least until this state and nation implement policies and procedures which:

• Ensure that death penalty cases are administered fairly and impartially
  in accordance with basic due process.
  
• Eliminate the risk of executing innocent people.
  
• Prevent the execution of mentally disabled persons and people who were under the age of 18 at the time of their offenses.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED
That copies of this resolution shall be forwarded to the Governor, , Missouri State Representatives, President Clinton and our Representatives in Congress.

Ratified by

Missouri Prisoners Labor Union

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Contact Persons
Jerome White Bey #37479 President Moberly Correctional Center P.O. Box 7 Moberly, MO 65270	Bruce Cummings #36911 National Representative Jefferson City Correctional Center P.O. Box 900 Jefferson City, MO 65102	Sheik Mark Moor El #990115 National Cooridinator Jefferson City Correctional Center P.O. Box 900 Jefferson City, MO 65102
Michael Lee National Communications Office 2435 E. North St. PMB 255 Greenville, SC 29615	Financial Charla Greene Abolition Road P.O. Box 3055 Rohnert Park, CA 94927