Overwhelming evidence of wrongful executions, and public pressure in the form of protest actions, formed part of the picture that moved the pro-death penalty governor to describe the situation in Illinois as "a shameful record of convicting innocent people and putting them on death row."

Feingold urged Clinton to institute the moratorium on federal executions until it could be determined that no one had been wrongly sentenced. Clinton instead used the bourgeois arguments, put forward by Feingold and others, that the main problem associated with the executions is poor legal representation of defendants. Instead of a moratorium, he said he was "favorably disposed" toward a bill by Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy that would require states to pay for "better" legal defenses for those accused of so-called capital crimes, and ostensibly to ensure that death row inmates can pursue claims of innocence if new evidence comes to light.

Far from ending the death penalty, the U.S. Supreme Court just last November gave the green light to the first federal execution since 1963 for an alleged killer and drug smuggler. In 1999, under the Clinton administration, a record-breaking 98 prisoners in the United States were put to death.

The debate on capital punishment is percolating in ruling-class circles and the big-business press all over the country. Philadelphia became the eighth and largest municipality to urge a halt in executions February 10. Besides Pennsylvania, legislatures in Maryland, Alabama, New Jersey, Washington state, and Oklahoma are also considering moratoriums.

While a number of state governments are moving towards or discussing moratoriums, others are killing people at a record rate. Texas governor and Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush led the charge with 118 put to death in five years. Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, one-third of the 612 executions have occurred in Texas. In January, seven of the 12 executions were there. Bush justifies the fact that innocent men and women have been executed with reactionary, anticrime demagogy. "In this imperfect world citizens are required to take certain risks in exchange for relative safety," said the superrich, hand-picked presidential candidate. "Putting a murderer away for life just isn't good enough," he said. "As long as the murderer lives, there is always a chance, no matter how small, that he will strike again."

Texas has no system of public defenders, which led Amnesty International to conclude the state's clemency process fails to provide any genuine opportunity for death row inmates to seek and obtain sentence reductions.

In Washington, D.C., Attorney General Janet Reno is seeking the death penalty in an alleged Starbuck's triple killing. This has sparked debate in the U.S. capital where executions have not taken place in nearly 30 years. Washington's city council repealed the death penalty in 1981 and it was voted down again in 1993 in a U.S. Congress-imposed referendum. Federal prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty in Los Angeles, where a man alleged to be a white supremacist is being charged with shooting five people in a day care center and killing a mail carrier. Buford Furrow, the accused, was formerly a patient in a mental hospital.

Some 38 states now carry out state-sponsored executions. Despite the enormous obstacles death row prisoners must overcome to exonerate themselves, during the period in which the 600-plus prisoners were executed, 81 were able to prove their innocence, some in the final hours before their scheduled death.  
 
 
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