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Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movements, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, The International Socialist Organization, Harris County Green Party, Green Party of Texas, Amnesty International 23 - Houston, The Journey of Hope
Minister Robert Muhammed, Ed Banks, Jarvis Butler, Lenwood Johnson, Funmilayo Folayan, Major Kenyha Shabazz, Ernest Babalola Goodrich, Brother Zin — SOS Radio, Mocha Lite Cafe’, Elnora Graham — stepmother of Shaka Sankofa, Jewel Nelms — mother of Frances Newton, Peoples Party III, Rev. Ray Martin — PABA, Inner city Emergency Response Team, Ester King, Ray Hill - Host of KPFT's Prison Program, Lee Greenwood - mother of Joseph Nichols, Deloyd Parker - Exec Director of S.H.A.P.E. Center, Dominican Sisters, WILPF - Women's International League for peace and Freedom, 1st Unitarian Universalist Church, Sister Helen Prejean, Lorenzo Cano - Associate Director of Mexican American Studies (University of Houston), Marcario Ramirez - Casa Ramirez Folk Art Shop, Pastor Earnest Charles - St. Savior Church, Houston Peace News, Lee Loe, Clarence Brandley - Exonerated Texas Death Row Inmate, Ada Edwards - Houston City Councilwoman District D, Brian Crowther - former Amnesty International U.K. Coordinator
for USA Death Penalty, Ozell Brandley - leader of the Coalition to Free Clarence Brandley and brother to Clarence, Kerry Max Cook - Exonerated Texas Death Row Inmate, Free Radicals Protest Samba School Drum Core, Maria Jimenez - Special Projects Coordinator of CRECEN/America Para Todos, Paolo Cifariello - Gary Graham Justice Committee Italy, Arianna Ballotta - President Italian Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty - Biagio, Santoro - Member of the Board Italian Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Chiara Silva - Secretary Italian Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Carmen Mantovan - Rome, Italy, Francesco Saverio Peccerillo - Naples, Italy, Derry Trades Union Council, Ireland, Padraig Pearse Sinn Féin Cumann - Derry, Ireland, Representative Dora F. Olivo, Lucia J. Gallagher, Houston Animal Rights Team - Alma Williams, Anita R. Robinson, Dr. Jim Whitley, Rachael and Tony Egbuna Ford,
Dr. Evelyn Bethune- (CEO Mary McLeod Bethune Educational Legacy Foundation, Inc. Grand-daughter of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune), Anna Rita Pani, Maurizio Cancedda, Eamon Mc Mahon - Family Therapist, Belfast, Ireland, Valeria Oddo, Italy, Texas State Representative Harold Dutton, KPFT 90.1 fm - Radio for Peace, Michael Franti & Guerrilla Management, Jaribu Hill- Mississippi Worker's Center for Human Rights, Elisabetta Menini, Dr. Michael P. Williams - Running for Houston City Council District D, Sylvia Brooks, J. Brad Batteau - Running for Houston City Council District I, Cristina Canciani, Ted Weisgal, International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sisters of SHAPE, Lawrence Foster - Grandfather of Kenneth Foster, Molly Taylor Stevenson - American Cowboy Museum Ovide Duncantell Black Heritage Society, Harold Clark, Rev. Fana - Chairman of the Operational Unity Network, Pastors for Peace, Sonic Visions Artist Collective, Gray Panthers, Robert Jennings - Texas Death Row Inmate #000956, Ronald Reynolds - Canidate for State Rep. HD 27, Susan Sarandon, Omowale Lithuli - Director of International Friendship Development, Howard Paul Guidry - Texas Death Row Inmate, Regina Guidry - Wife of Howard Guidry, Joyce Guidry - Mother of Texas Death Row Inmate Howard Guidry, Houston Peace Forum Annie Lee Smith - D.D., Chairperson S.H.A.P.E. Community Center and Elders Institute of Wisdom, Carol Mims Galloway - Branch President Houston N.A.A.C.P., Mumia Abu-Jamal, Fort Bend County Commissioner Grady Prestage, Sunni Patterson - Activist and Poet, Garnet F. Coleman - Texas House of Representatives District 147 and more...
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Ona Move! Of course I'll support such an effort! Sign me up...
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This was a statement read at the March by Regina Guidry
Remaining Vigilant
The greatest thing has happened this year. And that is, the commuted death sentence to life of Kenneth “Haramia” Foster Jr. For most, this was a surprise victory, but, for those of us who struggled by his side to bring this victory about, it was not so much a surprise as something that was expected. What we wanted to do, and what we did, is make it hard for the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and then Governor Rick Perry, to say “No”. To present Kenneth’s case in such a way that it’d truly show the heartlessness of the so-called clemency process if they did turn Kenneth down, because Kenneth’s innocence was not in dispute, his culpability for a crime he didn’t predict would take place was. And if Kenneth had been denied clemency, then we feel victory would still have come against the Death Penalty as practised here in Texas. Because without a doubt, Texas would have killed an innocent man! Thank God that didn’t happen. And so, we celebrate a rare victory in this battle to end the Death Penalty. Kenneth Foster is alive. And it is a victory worthy of celebration.
But, the fact remains, we must remain vigilant in our efforts to end the Death Penalty. Yes, the constitutionality of lethal injection is before the Supreme Court. Yes, there is a moratorium on lethal injections until the issue is decided. But the fact also is that state and federal sanctioned killing is very much legal in the United States. And as long as this is the case the state and federal government can devise more and more “creative” ways to kill its citizens. It can also expand on the criteria of those who qualify for execution.
Over the past few years or so, we have seen a ban against executing juveniles and the mentally retarded. Juveniles are off the Row. But, people just a few days or months past their 18th birthday remain here. The mentally retarded, even when they have a proven history of mental retardation and mental illness, if they have anything in their cells beyond a comic strip which is deemed “reading material”, it is seized and used to “prove” they are not mentally deficient. They cannot write or even fill out a commissary slip. If they do, they are said to be “normal” and they are killed by the state. This was the fate of Michael Rashad. And this is the case of many men here on Death Row who were initially declared mentally retarded, but whom the state is vigorously pursuing with “new” and “newer” tests until these men fail and can be declared “normal”. Of if that fails, “proof” of reading/writing is used against them. So, it’s not over. We must remain vigilant.
Recently, the Texas legislature passed House Bills that made sexual predators open to execution regardless of whether or not their victim was killed. And while sexual predators should be condemned is their death the answer? The Death Penalty was originally ended because of its arbitrary nature and application. That really hasn’t changed. While we celebrate our victories the Pro Death Penalty lobby celebrates theirs. And it won’t end there. You can expect people who brutally rape, beat, or maim people, to be added to the list of those for whom execution is deemed appropriate. We celebrate the victory of Kenneth “Haramia” Foster Jr. But we must remain vigilant in our commitment to end the Death Penalty for all people! Thank you.
Always,
In Strength and In Spirit!
Tony E Ford
For more information about Tony's case please visit:
www.tonyegbunaford.com
www.myspace.com/tonyegbunaford999075
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Michael Franti and Guerrilla Management Collective all endorse the march 100%. Thank you for the work you do. Blessings.
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click on the banner to find out what you can do to help!
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I believe that the death penalty in Texas is unfairly administered and that our criminal justice system is flawed. I support a moratorium on the death penalty in Texas; in 2005 I filed HJR 73 to institute a two-year moratorium on the death penalty in Texas.
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