100TH DEATH ROW INMATE FREED DUE TO ACTUAL INNOCENCE TCASK

Calls for Immediate Halt to Executions Nationwide

On Monday April 8th Ray Krone became the nation's 100th person to be released from death row after being sentenced to death in 1992 for a crime he did not commit. In light of this shameful milestone, the statewide Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK) has renewed its call for a moratorium on executions.

Ray Krone served 3 years on Arizona's death row and seven years of a life sentence before evidence proved him innocent of the rape and murder of cocktail waitress Kim Ancona. Krone's exoneration comes in the midst of heightened national concern about the fairness of the death penalty system.

"One hundred innocent people have almost been executed in this country," Randy Tatel, the state director of TCASK. "These exonerated people represent the exception to the rule in the US capital punishment system - meanwhile other innocent people awaiting their executions on death row may be erroneously killed,"

"This 100th exoneration should be a turning point in our evaluation of the death penalty," said Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "This is a wake-up call for all who believe that only the guilty are sentenced to death. These 100 cases have surely taught us that states are taking unreasonable risks with innocent lives."

"The United States joins China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran in having the highest execution numbers in the world, even while the question of innocence looms over the country," said Kate Ranganath, AIUSA Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator in Tennessee. "Our shameful record of executions makes a mockery of US claims to be a leader in human rights practices."

Nationwide, 2,000 groups have called for a moratorium on executions according to the national Quixote Center, whose Moratorium Now! campaign maintains a National Tally of groups calling for a moratorium. Among the 2,000 are 66 local governments including Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, the American Bar Association, six state and 14 county bar associations, the American Psychological Association, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, the National Conference of Black Mayors, and most of the nation's major religious denominations.

"This is not a problem that exists somewhere else," said Tatel. "This could happen here. An exoneration based on DNA evidence will occur in Tennessee within the next 12 months. Are we going to let an innocent person be executed in the Volunteer state? It's time to step back and look at what's happening. A system slated to execute 100 innocent people can be called many things, successful and equitable are not among them. Now is the time for our Governor and legislature to act. Now is the time to implement a moratorium on state killings."

The Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing is a statewide coalition with 6 chapters across the state and more than 1700 active supporters. For more information send an e-mail tcask@earthlink.net or call 615-329-0048 [This is no longer the correct TCASK State Office number. The number was changed to 615-463-0700 in February 2005 .].

For more information on the 100th Death Row Exoneration visit:

http://www.ncadp.org/html/apr9.html

http://www.aclu.org/news/2002/n040902b.html

http://justice.policy.net/cjreform/newsroom/100exon/

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-041002free.story

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0410kronefolo10.html