Saw the commencement in Paris of the European tour...

Saw the commencement in Paris of the European tour conducted by former Governor of Illinois George Ryan and Leroy Orange, the ex death row inmate he pardoned. Both have joined Hands Off Cain in the campaign for a UN moratorium on capital executions. HOC President Marco Pannella who, together with French Green Party representative Noel Mamere, participated at the conference held at the Assemblée Nationale, commented on Berlusconi's UN speech on Europe's support for "requesting that its (the death penalty's) application be impeded through a general moratorium on executions".
"We are satisfied," declared Pannella, "but what is needed now is a formal motion to get a vote at the UN General Assembly".
The meeting was characterised by differences between the organisation presided over by Pannella and Amnesty International. Reminding those present that in 1994 the battle for a moratorium was lost at the General Assembly by 8 votes, Pannella said that "those eight votes were from abolitionist states".
In practice Amnesty is for the abolition of the death penalty and not in favour of a moratorium vote at the General Assembly, which it considers too risky in case of defeat. Of opposing views Marco Pannella stated that "statistics say we can make it. There are 95-100 countries in favour of a moratorium, 22-31 would abstain or are undecided, 61-65 against. But we need to vote on the issue in the next few days. We are certain to win."
During the press conference, the former governor of Illinois and Hands Off Cain Honorary President, said that before being elected he was a "fervent supporter of the death penalty".
It was by seeing the state of the justice system with the death penalty, prisoners locked up for years awaiting death and innocent people on death row, that he changed his mind and became the first governor of an American state to impose a moratorium on executions, freeing, upon leaving office, four prisoners awaiting execution whose innocence he was personally convinced of.
Amongst these was Leroy Orange who is accompanying the Governor on the European tour. "I thank the Italian presidency of the EU for its stance," said Orange launching an appeal for a united stance within Europe. Leroy Orange spent 19 years on death row after confessing under torture to a crime he did not commit. He was freed 9 months ago, those who tortured him have already been convicted.