ACTION: Please contact the sponsors, expressing your appreciation for their leadership.

SB 169, would abolish the death penalty. Sponsored by Sen. Ed Quick (D-KC) 573-751-4524, equick@senate.state.mo.us;

SB 22, would institute a moratorium on executions while a commission studies the death-penalty system. Sponsored by Sen. Mary Groves Bland (D-KC) 573-751-2770, mbland@senate.state.mo.us;

SB 312, would move the age from 16 to 18 at which individuals can be considered for the death sentence. Sponsored by Sen. Jon Dolan (R-Lake St. Louis) 573-573-751-4964, jdolan@senate.state.mo.us;

SB 256, would restore sentencing decision for juries in capital trials. Sponsored by Sen. Wayne Goode (D-St. Louis), 573-751-2420, wgoode@senate.state.mo.us;

Individuals are welcome to present comments, but it would be best to submit your comments in writing as we are already lining up 3-4 individuals to testify orally for each bill, with the coordination of the sponsors of the House and Senate bills.

Car-pooling from Columbia: meet at Boone County courthouse to leave by 6:00 p.m. after the vigil against the execution of Louis Jones (see below).

Contact President Bush to urge his intervention (202-456-1111) to halt his killing by the state.

The United States is scheduled to execute Louis Jones, a black man, March 18 for the 1995 murder of Tracie Joy McBride in San Angelo, Texas. This pending federal execution - just the third in the modern era of capital punishment - is set for March 18 at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The only two previous executions by the U.S. government since 1976 - Timothy McVeigh and Juan Raul Garza - took place within an 8-day period in June 2001.

Jones allegedly bludgeoned the 19-year-old U.S. Army private to death with a tire iron after abducting her at gunpoint at Goodfellow Air Force Base on Feb. 18, 1995. Police investigators found evidence of sexual assault after Jones confessed to the murder and led them to McBride's body, which was under a bridge approximately 20 miles outside of San Angelo.

Prior to the McBride murder, Jones served for 22 years in the U.S. Army Airborne Rangers. He rose through the ranks to reach the very top of enlisted personnel, and retired with an honorable discharge in 1993 as a master Sergeant. He led his platoon in the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983, and fought in the Gulf War in 1991, where he was exposed to nerve gas and brain toxins. Medical evidence now reveals that the toxins Jones was exposed to in the Gulf cause damage to deep brain structures including the basal ganglia, a problem that often results in aggressive, abusive, and violent behavior.

The link between exposure to dangerous nerve gas in the Gulf War and damage to deep brain structures had not yet been made when Jones went to trial. Considering this newly discovered medical evidence (on top of the other mitigating circumstances of the case, including the fact that he suffered physical and sexual abuse as a child), the United States should recognize the horrifying effects of Gulf War Syndrome and commute his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Since the murder, Jones has accepted full responsibility for the murder and repeatedly expressed his remorse. He offered a significant amount of mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of his trial, but the jury voted for the death penalty regardless. Two of the jurors claimed afterward that the judge's instructions were unclear, and that given proper instructions concerning its options, the jury would have given Jones a sentence of life without parole instead of death. In 1999, an appeal regarding those jury instructions reached the U.S Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 to uphold the sentence.

Sadly, when this clemency petition reaches its destination, it will land in the hands of President George W. Bush - one of the most relentless death penalty supporters in U.S. history. In the six years he served as governor of Texas, he authorized more than 150 executions, nearly one fifth of the total executions in the United States since 1976. In fact, President Bush has presided over more executions than any other elected official alive today.

Like so many political leaders, President Bush refuses to recognize that the death penalty system is arbitrary and capricious, that it discriminates based on racial and economic factors, and that it risks the execution of innocent human beings. Furthermore, he simply does not consider mitigating factors relevant, and classifies people in one of two categories: good or evil.

The federal government should recognize the vicious side effects of war and treat Jones with more compassion. He suffered severe brain damage as a result of his service to this country in the Gulf War, and executing him for a crime linked to that damage shows blatant disrespect for veterans and the problems they face in their post-war lives.

The hearing for HB200 was cancelled
Currently, if juries deadlock in sentencing after the guilt phase of a capital trial, the court directs the trial judge to impose either a sentence of life or death. Under this bill, if jurors deadlock during the sentencing phase, the court would automatically impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole (this would restore the law as it was implemented before being changed in 1984.

The bill could well be scheduled the following Tuesday, the 25th. The Feb. 18 hearing was cancelled with pressure from the Republican House leadership. Instead the committee will consider the carry and conceal gun bill at the time. If this bill, which in my opinion, could only help greatly propogate the number of guns being carried and along with that, tension, fear and shootings as well(of assailants perhaps, but also of hapless bystanders and loved ones too) in our society-- respond accordingly.

It is begining to seem likely that all the death penalty bills in the Senate may be considered on the same night, before the Judiciary committee, likely in the next 1-3 weeks. I will let you know more details as they develop. For more information about the bills e-mail or call Jeff Stack (573-449-4585).

Joe Amrine seeks new trial: inmates recant testimonies
His Lawyers presented Amrine's case to the Missouri Supreme Court yesterday in Jefferson City

Anti-Death Penalty Bills filed for the 2003 Legislative Session
Contact your legislators and ask them to support the anti-death penalty bills. Please thank the bill sponsors for their moral leadership.

To find your legislators check the Missouri government site.

January 14, 2003
Illinois Governor George Ryan granted clemency to all death row inmates in Illinois

Death row cases legal
Attorney general says Missouri complies with the Supreme Court's Ring decision in June
In response, Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty held a news conference challenging his claim

Faye Copeland, 81, Finally Freed from Prison for Medical Reasons
Former State Prosecutor U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof Made Political Hay Securing Death Sentence Against Women Involved Marginally in Murders

Executing retarded unlawful
Supreme Court Ruling could mean reprieve for inmates

The session has ended for the Missouri House and Senate

Buchanan Receives Death Penalty
In a move which would be impossible had House Bill 1766 becomes law, Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton sentenced Buchanan to death after the Jury was unable to come to a decision.