How can the efforts to overturn the death penalty go forward under Bush and John Ashcroft?
Slowly. President Bush is intending to prove that he is president of the entire country. I hope he lends some energy to that pursuit. Attorney General Ashcroft has demonstrated that, in spite of the fact that he’s a fundamentalist, a Bible-believing Christian, he’s no opponent of killing people that are dispensable. This is one of those situations in which the people are going to lead the political leadership. There will be a meeting here at the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors Chambers here tomorrow, talking about this county going on record in support of a moratorium in California. That has already been done in San Francisco. It’s already been done in Alameda, in Berkeley and in a couple of other places. Death Penalty Focus is working on a California-wide moratorium movement that will soon be supported by members of the State Legislature. In Illinois, Governor Ryan ended executions when he saw the facts before him that could not be ignored, and did an extraordinarily courageous thing
