Feingold Statement on the Severe Injustices of Capital Punishment

Nov. 1, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: US Senator Russ Feingold
Zach Lowe (202) 224-8657

Feingold Statement on the Severe Injustices of Capital Punishment

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold made the following
statement on the severe injustices in capital punishment systems nationwide
following the Supreme Court's decision to block an execution in Mississippi,
widely seen as an effective halt to executions until the court rules on a
case involving the death penalty next year.

"With the Supreme Court issuing yet another stay in a death penalty case
this week, it appears likely that states will suspend executions at least
temporarily. This de facto moratorium on executions by lethal injection
gives us a chance to recognize just how deeply flawed the implementation of
capital punishment in this country is. Indeed, the Supreme Court's stay
comes just one day after a call by the American Bar Association for a
nationwide moratorium on capital punishment based on its detailed study of
state death penalty systems, which found racial disparities, convictions
based on bad evidence, grossly inadequate indigent defense systems, and a
host of other problems with the implementation of capital punishment in this
country. We should take advantage of this apparent pause in executions to
consider the severe injustices within the system as a whole."

Senator Feingold, a longtime opponent of capital punishment, is the author
of S.447 - the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act.

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Source : Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1101-03.htm