Protest of Juan Garza Execution, 5AM Tuesday, Oakland Federal Bldg.

MEDIA ADVISORY
For More Information:
Lance Lindsey, 415-243-0143

PROTEST OF JUAN GARZA EXECUTION, RESUMPTION OF FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY AT OAKLAND FEDERAL BUILDING TUESDAY MORNING

Groups Oppose Death Penalty System Marked by Serious Flaws

Life Sentence Without Possibility of Parole Offered as Alternative to State Killing

WHAT: Demonstration by human rights, civil rights and community leaders and organizations opposed to use of seriously flawed federal death penalty and state-sanctioned killing.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 19, 5-7 a.m.

WHERE: Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, Downtown Oakland (12th St. BART)

BACKGROUND: A coalition of civil rights, human rights, religious and community organizations opposed to capital punishment will speak out against the execution of Juan Garza, only the second prisoner to be executed under federal death penalty statutes since 1963. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was the first, executed by lethal injection last Monday after weeks of delay due to evidence withheld in the case by the FBI.

“The death penalty system is clearly broken and all executions must be stopped,” says Lance Lindsey, executive director of California-based Death Penalty Focus (DPF). DPF, the largest membership-based organization in the country working to abolish the death penalty, is part of a growing chorus of organizations calling on President Bush today to halt the June 19 execution of Mexican-American Juan Garza and declare an immediate moratorium on the federal death penalty. A recent study by the Department of Justice shows both racial and geographic disparities in the implementation of the Federal Death Penalty. From 1988 to 1994, the study found that federal prosecutors recommended the death penalty in 52 cases, and that 75 percent involved black defendants, 10 percent involved Hispanics, 2 percent involved Asians or American Indians and only 14 percent involved whites. Of the 19 defendants now awaiting execution under federal law, 15 are people of color.

“Criminal justice in this country is not color-blind," said Rachel King, Legislative Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Until the Administration understands and accepts that reality, entire groups of American citizens will have serious cause to question the integrity of the criminal justice system in the United States."

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