A WAR CRIME AGAINST THE POOR & OPPRESSED

· The death penalty is racist. Forty-two per cent on death row are African American, though Blacks are just 13 percent of the US population.

· The death penalty kills children. This practice has been condemned in nearly every major human rights treaty, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Over 70 kids are on death row, 25 in Texas alone.

· Under the 1963 Vienna Convention foreign nationals must be allowed to contact their embassies when arrested. Almost all of the 74 foreign nationals on death row were not allowed to do so.

· The death penalty kills the innocent. Seventy-six innocent people have been released from death row. Hundreds have been sentenced to death. In the 12 years since Illinois reinstated the death penalty, it has executed 12 people and released 12 innocent people.

· The death penalty is used on the mentally ill and the mentally retarded. Over 300 mentally retarded people are on death row and 33 have already been executed in the US. Clinton presided over the Arkansas execution of a man so retarded that he was saving his dessert, a piece of chocolate cake, for after his execution.