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North west carolina

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Death-penalty opponents meet to plan push for a moratorium

Parmon, Womble lead forum with local activists at City Hall South By David Ingram JOURNAL REPORTER Legislation calling for a state moratorium on the death penalty may be stalled in the N.C. House, but that hasn't slowed down death-penalty opponents who say that the punishment is being applied unfairly.

About 10 activists gathered yesterday at City Hall South to express their frustration with the legal system and to make plans to push for a moratorium. They discussed statistics showing that black and other minority suspects are more likely to be sentenced to death than are whites, and that a similar disparity exists between poor and wealthy suspects. 

A moratorium, they said, would prevent unjust deaths. 'This is not an issue of being soft on crime, and this is not an issue of abolishing the death penalty,' said Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth, who organized the hearing with Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth.  'This is an issue of us not knowing whether our system is effective,' she said. 

The N.C. Senate passed a bill April 30 that would stay executions for two years, but the House version of the bill did not come up for a vote before the General Assembly adjourned for the year. Death-penalty opponents have vowed to resume their fight next year. Parmon and Womble said that moratorium proponents are about six votes short of a majority in the House.

Moratorium opponents say that such a measure would eventually lead to getting rid of the death penalty permanently. Participants in yesterday's forum denied that is necessarily the case, while also questioning the morality of putting prisoners to death. 'I am concerned about how the death penalty is applied, but I'm also concerned about the reason it's applied,' said Judy Dancy of Winston-Salem. 'I believe a moratorium is a first step before we can work on abolition.' Others emphasized the danger of putting to death a convict who might be innocent. 'Nobody wants to see innocent people get executed, and that's the biggest issue for me,' said Laura Bartels, a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Parmon and Womble said that they have received hundreds of e-mail messages and telephone calls from people in favor of the bill, and they urged others to continue organizing through contact with legislators and by demonstrating. 'Do anything that's legal,' Parmon said. 'Write letters, make telephone calls, write e-mails, carry your placards.' Three North Carolina prisoners are scheduled to be put to death in the next few weeks: Henry Lee Hunt on Sept. 12 -- Joseph Bates on Sept. 26 -- and Edward Hartman, whose execution has not yet been scheduled but is expectedthis fall.