Room for a view

Views & News-Short takes, updates and calls to action

Death Penalty Moratorium in Illinois
Three cheers to Illinois Governor George Ryan, who ordered a moratorium on executions in his state this past January once he saw that the number of Death Row inmates proven innocent and released (13) since 1977 exceeded the number (12) that the state had executed in that same time period. Today’s approximate Death Row population of 3,500 is not only the largest in US history, but also the largest in any country in the world.
Introduction of a bipartisan bill to the House of Representatives in February echoed rising concerns about the national problem of innocent people being sentenced to death. The Innocence Petition Act, authored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and sponsored by Representatives Ray LaHood (R-IL) and William Delahunt (D-MA), would help states provide competent legal services at every stage of a death penalty prosecution, ensure that Death Row inmates have access to DNA testing, and ensure court appeals based on DNA testing. Lack of DNA testing and incompetent lawyers, combined with factors regarding race—36% of Death Row inmates are black while they represent only 12% of the population; poverty—less than 2% of California’s Death Row population (513—the largest in the US) was represented at trial by retained counsel; and interestingly enough, geographic location—in general, states in the Deep South hand down significantly more death sentences than those in the rest of the country.
“A Day for Mumia,” a rally to protest the death penalty and to call for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, will be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City on May 7 at 2 p.m. Abu-Jamal is a black journalist who waits on Death Row in Pennsylvania to be executed for the shooting of a Philadelphia police officer. Abu-Jamal has gained support from around the world as he protests his innocence. Scheduled to appear at “A Day for Mumia” are the Indigo Girls, Rage Against the Machine, Rev. Al Sharpton, Angela Davis, Pam Africa and Susan Sarandon, as well as many others.
For information call (212) 633-6646
—Lorna Tychostup

A Place to Plug in
Looking for meaningful campaign finance reform? Tired of feeling powerless? Check out Public Campaign, an Internet-based political reform movement based on the promise that “YOU can help fix it.” Public Campaign offers online news and analysis, an email newsletter called “Ouch!” and easy-to-navigate links to related sites. From Public Campaign’s current Corruption Perception Index:
“Ratio of extreme weather-related disasters worldwide, 1990s versus 1950s, a probable result of global warming: 5:1.
“Number of deaths worldwide attributed to extreme weather during the 1990s: 330,129.
“Federal campaign contributions from oil and gas, mining, electric utilities and auto industry in the 1998 elections: $48.2 million.
“Federal campaign contributions from environmental groups in 1998 elections: $814,712.
“Status of US approval of 1997 Kyoto Protocol global climate change treaty, which requires Senate ratification: stalled.”
Public Campaign’s site is located at www.publicampaign.org. You can sign up for weekly email bulletins at www.publicampaign.org/emailform.html.
—Todd Paul

Power to the Pupil
Fifteen-year-old Bill Wetzel, who had been a straight-A student for most of his scholastic career, began feeling frustrated with the creeping stupidity that seemed to infuse his public high school. The result was an underground newspaper, The Voice of Liberation, in which Wetzel interviewed dissatisfied students and frustrated teachers. Of course, he got in trouble with the school administration, who were faced with a kid who, when called into the principal’s office, came armed with Supreme Court free-speech rulings.
Now 19, Wetzel is the creator of Power to the Youth, an organization that encourages students to take charge of their own educational experience. As many students have noted, schools take input from all parties—taxpayers, teachers, parents—everyone, in fact, but the students whom they are ostensibly there to serve. Wetzel finds this idea absurd; he envisions a time when students will be freed from the current public school system, which he refers to as “jail”, and will instead participate in open schools where they set their own curriculum, vote on classes to be offered and flow freely into and out of the community at large.
Through his website and cross-country bike trips, Wetzel urges students to take charge of their schools and their world. “Let’s face it: Most schools today are some of the most boring and unhappy places around,” says Wetzel. “But we don’t have to spend our childhood and adolescence responding to bells, whistles, multiple-choice tests and report cards. We can either try to improve our schools, or just not go to them in the first place!… We do not have to do whatever our television tells us. The world is crying for our help. Plain and simple, this place is getting ugly and we are going to do something about it.” To visit Wetzel’s website, point your browser to www.youthpower.net.
—TP