LEROY ORANGE, AN AMERICAN STORY

The Death Penalty Worldwide, evidencing the “positive signs” coming from the United States.
“On the whole the number of executions and capital sentences are amongst the lowest since the 90s. Despite the attacks of September 11 public backing for the death penalty is lower than it was in the 90s, whilst the number of those detained on death row is on the decrease,” said Zamparutti.
“I’m trying to lead a normal life, to find myself a job, but following the pardon I feel obliged to talk about what happened to me wherever people are fighting for civil rights or against the death penalty,” said Leroy Orange at the press conference.
“His is an American tale of good and evil,” declared Hands Off Cain Secretary Sergio d’Elia. “Of Evil due to the death sentence and the 19 year wait, of good because American justice and American politics showed that it had the antibodies to react. The death penalty is a strong contradiction for American democracy, but only a democracy can have the strength to abolish it. Something of the sort would not have been able to happen in illiberal regimes, which are responsible for 98 per cent of all executions.”
Steven Block, Illinois Criminal lawyer representing Leroy Orange since 1998, also partook in the press conference and reiterated the importance of anti-death penalty initiatives and expressed hope and optimism for the recent House panel vote against the death penalty in Illinois. Talking about the issues surrounding the death penalty Mr. Block said that “Police use of torture for extracting confessions, ineffective lawyers, unreliable eye witness testimony, lack of funding for defence counsel and technical legal arguments to prevent the introduction of exculpatory evidence are all factors contributing to the conviction of innocent people on death row.”
At the end of the press conference Leroy Orange was presented with a T shirt of the Nazionale Italiana Cantanti, a fundraising charity of Italian singers who sustain Hands Off Cain’s campaign for a UN moratorium on capital executions.