From: cbcox-AT-rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Carrol Cox)
Subject: Re: M-FEM: !*Angela Davis Speaks: Pledge to Abolish The Death Penalty
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 19:31:50 -0500 (CDT)


	The following extract from *Prison Legal News* June 1997 gives
some interesting context to the announcement which Yoshie forwarded
to the list. Incidentally, PLN is one of the most interesting journals
published in the U.S. A one-year subscription is $20 for individuals
($15 for prisoners). The address is 
		Prison Legal News
		2400 NW 80th Street #148
		Seattle, WA 98117
Its editors are both prisoners in the Washington State prison system.

Carrol
--------------------------------------------------

Speedy Death Penalty Provisions Enjoined in California

	A federal district court in San Francisco enjoined the state
of California from putting its death row prisoners ont a federal
court habeas "fast track." In the August, 1996, issue of *PLN* we
reported enactment of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act (AEDPA). One of the act's provisions is that states
who provide competent counsel to death row prisoners in state
court proceedings can then get an expedited review in federal
court and if things go well for the state, kill prisoners
faster.

	This case involves a class action suit under 42 U.S.C.
& 1983 by prisoners facing the death penalty in California. The
district court granted the plaintiffs' motion for Preliminary
Injunction (PI) by finding that the state of California had
no provisions to provide, and pay, competent counsel, in all
state court proceedings involving death row prisoners. Thus,
they could not benefit from AEDPA's speedy review provisions.
The court gave extensive discussion to the propriety of
class action suits to challenge statutes. See: *Ashmus v.
Calderon*, 935 F. Supp. 1048 (ND CA 1996).


Date: Fri, 01 Aug 1997 11:00:20 +0000
From: Marpessa Kupendua <nattyreb-AT-ix.netcom.com>
Subject: !*Angela Davis Speaks: Pledge to Abolish The Death Penalty


FORWARDED MESSAGE
==================
>Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 16:45:58 -0700 (PDT)
>X-Sender: radioqc-AT-pop.sirius.com
>From: Noelle Hanrahan <radioqc-AT-sirius.com>
>Subject: Angela Davis Speaks: Pledge to Abolish The Death Penalty
>
>Please Forward:
>
>Hundreds join Downtown San Francisco Protest: Hear Angela Davis & Jimmie
>Dexter Simmons Steven Bright, Magdelano Rose Avila
>
>Pledge of Resistance: Abolish the Death Penalty
>
>        Rally, 5pm   **  Monday August 4th
>
>        California State Building
>        Van Ness & McAllister
>        San Francisco, CA
>
>        (Street theater including large Puppets, and Neon signs)
>        (to sign up for civil disobedience call 415-648-4505)
>        (Car caravan to the San Quentin vigil after the rally)
>
>Hear Angela Davis, Steven Bright (Brilliant Death Penalty Attorney, Southern
>Center for Human Rights), Magdelano Rose Avila, Jimmy Dexter Simmons (former
>death row inmate in Walla Walla Washington, who Leonard Weinglass defended)
>& Karen Rudolph (director of Dexter-Simmon's defense committee), among
others.
>
>On August 4th at midnight Tommy Thompson will be executed by the state of
>California.  Thompson was convicted for the murder of Ginger Fleischli in
>1981. Thompson's case is hotly debated.  Seven pro-death penalty prosecutors
>(one of whom wrote the California death penalty statute) have filed court
>papers opposing the execution because they harbor doubts about his guilt.
>They even went as far as to state that this case should have never been
>tried as a capital case.
>
>
>text of the Pledge:
>
>The Pledge of Resistance: Abolish the Death Penalty
>
>We oppose the death penalty because it is racist, arbitrary, cruel and
>inhumane and has nothering to do with justice or prevention of violence.
>California has hte largest death row in the owrld and we condemn the State's
>plans to step up the pace of executions this year.  We will not stand by and
>allow state sponsored murder.
>
>P.S. If you agree and want to get updates and be on the ZAP fax alert send
>your email address to: radioqc-AT-sirius.com.