[GPCA Updates] Release: Greens 'humane treatment' in call for end todeath penalty

[Jim Stauffer]

                   News Advisory
           THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
                www.cagreens.org

             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 					     
            Monday, January 15, 2006


Green Party cites ‘humane treatment' in call
for moratorium on death penalty on eve of
execution of blind man in wheelchair

SACRAMENTO (January 15, 2006) – The Green Party of California Monday
repeated its call for a moratorium on executions in California – on the eve
of the killing of Clarence Ray Allen, who turns 76 today and is due to die
by lethal injection shortly after midnight.

"We recognize the need to protect society from violent criminals, but
support a basic right to life and humane treatment. We therefore implore
our leaders to call for an end to the death penalty and seek other forms of
punitive actions, such as life in prison without the possibility of
parole," said Susan King, a GPCA spokesperson in San Francisco.  

Allen is the second Californian to die at the hands of the state in a
little more than month – Stan Tookie Williams was executed in December.
Williams' supporters begged the Governor to grant clemency for the former
gang leader, who developed a "Protocol for Street Peace" which has been
used by rival  gangs around the country and the world to broker gang
truces. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Price five times. He was still
executed.

Allen will become the oldest man put to death in California since voters
restored capital punishment in 1978. His age, and the fact that he is
legally blind, diabetic and will need a wheelchair to make his way to the
death chamber has led to calls for clemency.

The Green Party – unlike the Republican and Democratic parties – opposes
the death penalty because "executions are motivated more by vengeance than
by justice, (and) evidence is mounting that shows innocent people are being
sentenced to death due to inadequate defense, and false testimony from
other criminals seeking reduction of their sentence."

King quoted from the GPCA platform, noting "over-zealous prosecution and
executing criminals has not proven to be an effective deterrent to crime
(and) it does not address the underlying causes of crime: lack of economic
opportunity and education, drug use, child abuse and other factors."