Death penalty protest in Texas capital

Nearly 500 protesters, many in town for a conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, marched here against executions on Oct. 29. In November, the number of people executed since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976 is scheduled to top 1,000. Some 35 percent of these official killings have been in Texas.

Texas is ‘the hellhole of human rights.’

Rick Halperin, professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, told the crowd at a pre-march rally, “You are in the hellhole of human rights.”

The march was led by Journey of Hope, an organization of murder victims’ families who oppose the death penalty. They had just completed a two-week tour of the state, speaking before 130 audiences at churches, universities and community organizations. Their contingent included exonerated death row prisoners, families of executed prisoners and families of people on death row. In the group was New Orleans evacuee and community activist Eloise Williams, whose son was murdered in Texas just a month before Hurricane Katrina forced Williams from her home.

The protesters chanted, “They say death row, we say hell no!” and “What do we want? Abolition! When do we want it? Now.”

Speakers highlighted the cases of Tony Ford and Rodney Reed. Ford has been protesting the inhuman conditions of isolation and sensory deprivation on Texas death row. The pro test is being spearheaded by a group known as Death Row Inner-communalist Vanguard Engage ment. See

www.drivemovement.org.

Juan Robert Melendez told of spending 17 years, eight months and one day in a Florida jail. He was released after a tape-recorded confession by the true killer was found. Some 121 people proved to be innocent have been released from death rows in the U.S. since 1993.

As the rally ended, the crowd surrounded the Governor’s Mansion with yellow crime scene tape. Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network explained that “the biggest crime in Texas is committed by the government.”

Death penalty abolitionists are planning protests around the country to mark the 1,000th execution.