www.naacp.org
Bruce S. Gordon
President and Chief
Executive Officer
Chairman, Board of Directors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John C. White,
410-580-5125
NAACP SUPPORTS CONSENSUS STATEMENT IN
OPPOSITION TO THE DEATH PENALTY
The
The NAACP joined prominent
Marylanders in opposition to the death penalty, calling for a moratorium on
further executions until there has been a re-examination and overhaul of the
current system.
Bruce S. Gordon, NAACP
President & CEO, today urged Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to
correct systemic problems in the criminal justice system that fail to protect
the rights of poor and minority citizens.
Gordon said, “The NAACP is deeply concerned by patterns of racial
discrimination that reveal the murder of a white victim in Maryland is twice as
likely to result in a death sentence than the murder of a black victim. The
probability of execution is even higher if the defendant is black.” The NAACP also asked for
On
January 20, 2006, the NAACP joined the American Civil Liberties Foundation of
Maryland, Maryland Citizens Against State Executions and death row inmate
Vernon Evans Jr in filing a complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief to
stop the State of Maryland from performing any more executions until the
Division of Corrections comes into compliance to ensure that its execution
protocol is carried out properly and humanely. Evans was sentenced to death for
the 1983 killings of two motel clerks.
Angela Ciccolo, Deputy General Counsel said,” The
NAACP’s interest in this case is based on a number of factors, including
conflicting witness statements about the identification of Mr. Evans as the
shooter, the 2003 University of Maryland Study which demonstrated the death
penalty in Maryland is being applied in a racially biased manner and the
failure of the sentencing jury to receive accurate information about Mr. Evans’
parole eligibility, or
the option of sentencing him to life without the possibility of parole.”
(more)
Page 2-Oppositon to Death
Penalty
Others supporting an overhaul of the Maryland system
include: Mt. St. Mary's professors Indrani Mitra, Richard Buck and Mike Miller; Dick Dowling of the
Maryland Catholic Conference; Episcopal Bishop Robert Ihloff;
The Episcopal Church; Dioceses of Maryland; Liaison for Justice and Peace; Delegate Salima
Marriott; Rushern Baker; Sumayya Coleman, Legislative Advocate
Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church; Julie
Erickson, Director of Public Policy, The Presbytery of Baltimore; Peter K. Nord,
Counsel for Plaintiffs
include
A. Stephen Hut Jr., Todd Zubler, Kalea
Seitz Clark, Anne Harden Tindall, Anne H. Geraghty, of the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and
Dorr LLP, Jeffrey O’Toole and Julie S. Dietrich.
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and
largest civil rights organization. Its
adult and youth members throughout the
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