ARIZONA'S ATTEMPT TO SILENCE PRISONER JUSTICE GROUPS CHALLENGED.
Thursday July 18, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arizona - The Canadian Coalition Against The Death Penalty (CCADP);
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (CUADP); and Stop
Prisoner Rape (SPR) are being represented by the ACLU in a constitutional
challenge against HB 2376 which punishes prisoners who contact advocacy groups that
maintain an internet website; and also attempts to legislate what these advocacy groups
can post on their websites for public consumption.

The CCADP maintains over 350 active webpages for prisoners sentenced to
death across the USA, including several dozen Arizona death row
prisoners.   Free webpages are available to all prisoners under sentence
of death, as part of the organizations educational and outreach efforts.
Prisoner pages can include anything from detailed legal transcripts
highlighting claims of innocence, to prisoners writings, artworks, and
requests for correspondence.

Arizona Death Sentenced prisoners have been represented on the CCADPs
pages since 1998.  The Canadian Coalition has stated since the inception
of   HB 2376 in 2000, that they do not recognize the validity of this
legislation.  The CCADP  refers to the attempts to curtail prisoners
contact with the outside world as  "the new iron curtain," descending
around the Arizona State prison system. Beginning in April of 2002,
prisoners began to recieve notice that this legislation was being
enforced  which led to the CCADP's contacting the ACLU and other
concerned prisoner advocacy groups.

At this time the CCADP is refusing to remove any prisoner information on
the site. CCADP claims it is unacceptable that the state government
would attempt to silence the voice of human rights advocates providing
information to the general public about the cases and circumstances of
prisoners sentenced to death.  CCADP's Co-Director Dave Parkinson, based
in Toronto Canada,  says  "This is not just a local issue, some of the
prisoners represented on the CCADP's Arizona prisoner pages include
foreign nationals from Germany, France, Thailand, El Salvador, and
Mexico.  Should the  respective governments or countrymen of these
prisoners become involved in their defense or advocacy and use the
internet in any way to disseminate information about their citizen under
sentence of death, are we to understand this legislation would allow for
the prisoner then to be persecuted by the government in the United
States of America? "

The ACLU maintains that  "There can be no doubt that the purpose and
effect of this legislation is to suppress the flow of information from
prisoners to the outside world, and to chill the advocacy of CCADP and
other anti-death penalty and prisoner rights organizations. "

CCADP Co-Director Tracy Lamourie agrees with the ACLU's contention,
stating,  "there is no justification for this legislation.  It is a
clear case of the state attempting to control and censor our website's
content and information that may be critical of their conduct, actions,
or trial system. "

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT :

Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Tracy Lamourie or Dave Parkinson, Directors
416-693-9112
info@ccadp.org
http://www.ccadp.org
http://ccadp.org/arizona.htm

Kara Gotsch, ACLU National Prisons Project
kgotsch@npp-aclu.org (202) 393-4930).

OTHER PLAINTIFFS :

Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
www.CUADP.org
Director:  Abe Bonowitz
Contact:  800-973-6548

Stop Prisoner Rape
Contact: Lara Stemple, Executive Director
(tel) 323.653.7867
lstemple@spr.org
www.spr.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RAIFORD, FLORIDA - Today, the Canadian Coalition Against the Death
Penalty joins with Florida Support on behalf of Amos King, Florida death
row prisoner scheduled for execution on July 10th, 2002, to demand that
Governor Jeb Bush do all in his power to immediately stop this
execution.  It is shocking that Governor Bush continues to insist that
Florida rush to execute Amos King, even in the light of the recent
Arizona Vs. Ring case, affecting all of Florida's death row, and in
light of evidence that Amos King is very possibly innocent of the crime
for which he is to be executed.  If Jeb Bush refuses to stop this
execution, and if he is so sure that it is right to execute Amos King,
Florida Support and the CCADP, on behalf of Amos King, are extending a
formal invitation to Governor Bush that he have the courage of his
convictions and attend the execution, the killing of this probably
innocent man, to see the pain of his family and friends, and, for the
first time, to view in person the results of his decision.

King has always maintained his innocence, and now thanks to Florida
Support and Amos' international supporters; extensive case information,
evidence, trial transcripts, evidence of police and prosecutorial
misconduct and much more are now in the public domain and available
online at Amos' official page, http://www.amosking.com . The CCADP also
maintains a site for Amos that dates back to 1998 at
http://www.ccadp.org/amosking.htm .  If King is executed, these sites
will be maintained and additional material and any evidence and
investigations  will continue to be added, - the State of Florida will
not be able to hide evidence of their wrongdoing in this case.  We are
certain that any rational person who looks over this newly available
evidence will see clearly that Amos King SHOULD NOT be executed, and we
ask Governor Bush to do the right thing and immediately stop this
execution.

Since Jeb Bush was elected governor of Florida, he has attempted to do
everything in his power to speed up executions, disregarding the fact
that Florida alone has exonerated so many prisoners once sentenced to
death that even supporters of the death penalty are questioning the
integrity of Florida's justice system.   As Jeb now hopes to be
re-elected governor, will he have the courage of his convictions, to
attend this latest execution that he has endorsed ?  Or is Jeb unable to
face up to what it really means when he signs his name on a persons
death warrant ?  Is Governor Bush so sure that he is right in ordering
King's death ? If he is, he will accept the invitation to witness the
results of his actions and have the courage to look the man in the eye
in his dying moments.

The Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty, an international
advocacy group for death sentenced prisoners; and Florida Support - a
support group for family and friends of prisoners on Florida's death
row,  on behalf of Amos King, are formally inviting the governor to
attend the state sanctioned murder of Amos King, who is to be killed on
July 10, 2002, by order of Governor Jeb Bush.

 The eyes of the world are watching now.  We await a response.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT :

Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Tracy Lamourie or Dave Parkinson/ Directors
info@ccadp.org    416-693-9112

http://www.ccadp.org
CCADP maintains free webpages for over 350 death sentenced prisoners,
and penpal requests for 700 more.

FLORIDA SUPPORT LETTER TO GOVERNOR BUSH :
http://www.amosking.com/legal/pressreleases.htm

press release URL : http://www.amosking.com/legal/today.htm
FRENCH  : http://www.amosking.com/legal/ccadpfrench.htm
SPANISH : http://www.amosking.com/legal/ccadpspanish.htm
ITALIAN : http://www.amosking.com/legal/italianccadprelease.htm
GERMAN : http://www.amosking.com/legal/ccadpgerman.htm

                  The CCADP offers free webpages to over 500 Death Row Prisoners
                                              Contact us for more information.
            
                                                       "The Eyes Of The World Are Watching Now"