Pardoned and Exonerated U.S. Death Row Prisoners to Address 2003 World Social Forum

["Giancarlo Summa - WSF Press" <wsfpress@uol.com.br> (by way of Alessandro Marescotti <a.marescotti@peacelink.it>)]

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM PRESS OFFICE

MEDIA ADVISORY                                      CONTACT:   Sarah Insanally

for SATURDAY, JANUARY 25                  3354 1108



Pardoned and Exonerated U.S. Death Row Prisoners to Address 2003 World 
Social Forum

Via Videoconference



"We are excited to be at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, since the 
international community recognizes the death penalty for what it is: a 
human rights violation that must come to an end," said Joan Parkin, 
national organizer of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. "The pardons 
and commutations are a tremendous victory--the biggest since the U.S. death 
penalty was reinstated more than 25 years ago. Now we need to fight to 
abolish it," she added.



On January 10th, outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted 167 death 
sentences, fully pardoning three wrongly-convicted men. Ryan's 
decision--the biggest blow against the U.S. death penalty in 
decades--stunned the world and sparked a new national debate on the death 
penalty.



The pardoned men who are free today--Leroy Orange, Aaron Patterson and 
Madison Hobley--were part of a group victims of police torture in Chicago 
known as the Death Row Ten. All of the Death Row Ten are African-American, 
highlighting the racist character of the death penalty. Their long struggle 
exposed systematic police torture of more than 60 prisoners, in a Chicago 
police station from the early 1970s into the 1990s.



The U.S. death penalty raises issues of human rights and social justice 
that are central to the concerns of the World Social Forum, where more than 
100,000 people are expected from around the world.



  WHO:            Pardoned and exonerated Illinois Death Row prisoners,

                         Aaron Patterson, whose case was a major focus of 
Amnesty

                         International's report on police abuse in the U.S. 
and Leroy Orange.

                         Joan Parkin and Hector Reyes, Comite Exigimos 
Justicia.



WHAT:            Videoconference of Seminar in Chicago

                         sponsored by the Center for Economic Research and 
Social Change.



WHEN:         Saturday, January 25th at 2:30PM local time





Parkin is available for interviews and can be reached in Porto Alegre via 
cell phone at (55) (11) 9655-9115.


####