On June 17 prison authorities here killed Eddie Johnson, the 23rd inmate executed in Texas this year, breaking the 1935 state record of 19 inmates put to death in a single year. There were four executions during the third week of May and the first week in June.

"There are many states that don't see four executions in 25 years and we have it in one week," said David Atwood, coordinator in Houston of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. In Texas at least 11 executions are scheduled for June. Some 3,000 people are sitting on death row in the United States, including more than 900 prisoners in Texas and California.

Since 1982 when Texas reinstated the death penalty, the state is leading the nation with nearly 130 inmates executed as of June 18. About 386 executions have been carried out since 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment. Virginia and Florida ranked second in legalized murder with 39 each since that year. The pace of executions has accelerated this year through new laws designed to rush the appeals process of longtime inmates.

Irineo Montoya, an undocumented Mexican, was put to death June 18, after spending nearly a dozen years on death row.

Beatriz Torres, head of "Madres Unidas Defendiendo la Libertad de sus Hijos" (United Mothers Defending their Children's Freedom), explained Montoya was coerced into signing a document that he was led to believe was a deportation order back to Mexico. The authorities instead had deceived him into signing a confession written in English stating that he had committed murder, despite the fact that he does not speak English. Although this was admitted as evidence, Montoya was convicted and sentenced to death. The Mexican government issued a protest against the execution, but Texas governor George Bush rejected the request for a delay. Out of the 33 Mexican citizens on death row in the United States, 10 of them have been sentenced to death in Texas - second only to the state of California where 12 inmates face execution. There is a growing campaign in Mexico to demand clemency for Mexican death row inmates. Protests were held at the U.S. embassy in Mexico during President William Clinton's visit there May 5.

Opponents of the death penalty are planning a number of activities in the coming weeks. For more information contact NCADP at (888) 286-2237.  
 
 
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