Tallahassee Rally for Justice and Accountability
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MARCH 5, 2001
Justice and Accountability:
A Rally to Call for a Meaningful Review of Florida’s Death Penalty
On Monday, March 5, 2001, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., on the steps of the Old Capitol in Tallahassee, numerous statewide and community groups, churches, and organizations will come together for a rally and press conference to call attention to the injustices in the administration of capital punishment in Florida.
The posthumous exoneration of Frank Lee Smith is the most recent and graphic illustration of the serious problems with Florida’s death penalty. Florida leads the nation in the number of persons since 197 who were sentenced to death and later exonerated (20). The state with the second highest number of innocents on death row (13) is Illinois, where the Governor recently enacted a death penalty moratorium to reexamine their capital punishment system.
Other problems with Florida’s death penalty include the execution of the mentally retarded; racism in the application of capital punishment; the need for availability of DNA testing and other newly-developed scientific methods of examining case evidence; the sentencing of teenagers to death; inadequate funding for death row defense counsel; the need for a method to hold police and prosecutors accountable when evidence favorable to the defense is withheld; limitation of court access to death-sentenced persons; the need for a unanimous jury recommendation for death to be imposed; the recent enactment of a perjury statute that punishes recanting defense witnesses; and the lack of standards to determine which cases are death-eligible. These and other issues will be discussed at The Rally for Justice and Accountability.
- Speakers include:
- Barry Scheck, DNA expert, co-counsel on the Frank Lee Smith case
- Gerald Kogan, former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court and National co-chair of the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Executions
- Dave Keaton, who was death-sentenced in 1971 and exonerated in 1973
- Martin McClain, capital defense attorney and former counsel for Frank Lee Smith
- David Mack, defense invesigator who worked on the case of Frank Lee Smith
- Michael McCarron, Executive Director of the Florida Catholic Conference
- Jeff Walsh, investigator who worked on the case of Frank Lee Smith
- Larry Spalding, attorney with Florida ACLU
- SueZann Bosler, a member of Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation
- Walter Moore, chair of the Tallahassee Coalition for Alternatives for the Death Penalty.
Please add your voice to this Call for a Meaningful Review of Florida’s Death Penalty. Attend the rally and call, write, or visit your State Legislator! For more information contact the Capital Defense Project at 850-915-0695 or email Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty at [email protected].
Demand Justice and Accountability from our public officials!
No More Wrongful Convictions!
No More Immunity for Prosecutorial Misconduct!
Participating Organizations as of 2/26/2001 include:
Abolitionist Action Committee
American Civil Liberties Union (Florida)
Amnesty International USA
Amnesty International Group #248 – Miami
Amnesty International Group #519 – Orlando
Amnesty International – Florida State University
Amnesty International – University of Florida
Amnesty International – University of South Florida
Association of Students for Human Rights at Florida State University
Center for Participant Education at Florida State University
Citizens United For Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Florida Catholic Conference
Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice
Florida Council of Churches
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights
Florida State University College Democrats
Gainesville Citizens for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Jacksonville Citizens For A Moratorium
Journey of Hope …from Violence to Healing
Murder Victim’s Families for Reconciliation
Tallahassee Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Tallahassee Green Party
Tallahassee Moratorium Committee
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
800-973-6548
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2603 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy
Gainesville, FL 32609
(800) 973-6548
[email protected]