OntheWilderSide

New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty
www.nyadp.org

[For details about presentation taped on the video go to When DNA Is Not Enough 4/21/07 1p]

Here we go again. Despite the fact that New York has the dubious distinction with Texas in leading the nation in wrongful convictions, Republicans in the Senate are once again tinkering with the machinery of death. This tuesday the Senate Codes Committee will vote on a bill to bring back the death penalty to New York.

This legislation ignores the proven likelihood that an innocent person could be sentenced to death in New York.

Most of the 25 exonerations occurred years after all appeals had run out. If these innocent New Yorkers had been sentenced to death, then they would have been executed years before their innocence was demonstrated. Two of the wrongful convictions occurred despite the fact that DNA did not match the defendant’s. One wrongful conviction occurred despite the fact that the defendant was not in the country at the time of the murder.

Murder victim family members across the country argue that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

Several murder victim family members who supported the death penalty asked the New Jersey Death Penalty Commission to replace the death penalty with life without parole. They testified that death sentences caused them more pain due to the endless appeals and constant press coverage. The commission found that abolishing the death penalty was in the interest of murder victim family members. Similar testimony was heard in Maryland, Montana, Colorado and at New York’s Assembly hearings.

On your list of things to do today, take the 2 minutes to call your Senator and tell them you do NOT want executions brought back into New York: Vote NO to Senate Bill 4632! If a majority of New Yorkers prefer life without parole to the death penalty, We MUST ensure our “representatives” actually REPRESENT US! I’ve included a list of Long Island Senators with their phone numbers, district maps, and contact information below by district number. I’ll keep you posted on the results next week–let’s make this another victory for the abolitionist movement!

1st district:
Kenneth P. LaValle
325 Middle Country Road, Suite 4
Selden, NY 11784
(631) 696-6900
http://senatorlavalle.com/district_map.asp

2nd
John J. Flanagan
260 Middle Country Road, Suite 203
Smithtown, New York 11787
631-361-2154
631-361-5367 FAX
http://www.senatorflanagan.com/district_map.asp

3rd
Caesar Trunzo
NYS Office Building, Veterans’ Memorial Highway
Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 360-3236
http://senatortrunzo.com/district_map.asp

4th
Owen H.Johnson
http://www.senatorowenjohnson.net/district_map.asp
23-24 Argyle Square
Babylon, NY 11702
(631) 669-9200

5th
Carl L.Marcellino
http://www.senatormarcellino.com/district_map.asp
250 Townsend Square
Oyster Bay, NY 11771
(516) 922-1811

6th
Kemp Hannon
224 7th Street,
Garden City, NY 11530
516 739 1700
http://www.senatorhannon.com/district_map2003.gif

7th
Craig M.Johnson
151 Herricks Road
Suite 202
Garden City, New York 11040
516-746-5923

8th
Charles J.Fuschillo
http://www.senatorfuschillo.com/district_map.asp
30 South Ocean Avenue
Freeport, New York 11520
516-546-4100

STILL UNSURE OF YOUR SENATOR?
To identify and find out how to reach your State Senator, please visit
http://www.lwvnyc.org/TRY_find.html (if you live in one of the 5 boroughs)
http://www.capwiz.com/lwvny/state/main/?state=NY (elsewhere in New York State; scroll down to My Elected Officials and click on View)

Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, Anti-War, Death Penalty, Electronic Voting, New York State Politics, Political Websites, social & economic justice, To Study Up On Nonviolence, video Tagged: | book of the month, Debates, Uncategorized