CONTACT: Laura Burstein / Fenton Communications /(202) 822-5200 x 222

Alessandra Filograno / Nessuno tocchi Caino / Rome ph. (06)68979214

U.S. Ignores International Pleas to Limit Death Penalty

As Executions Reach Record Numbers,

says New Report

Top International Experts and Human Rights Leaders

to gather in New York this week anticipating

UN General Assembly Vote on Death Penalty

Niece of Executed Canadian, Dead Man Walking Author and Emma Bonino to speak at Press Conference Tuesday, October 12

Earlier this year the U.S. joined such human rights violators as China, Rwanda and the Sudan in opposing the UN Commission on Human Rights' resolution to impose a moratorium on the death penalty.

According to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center to be released at a press conference on Tuesday, October 12, this is just one of a growing number of international statements calling for limits on the death penalty that the U.S. has rejected. This is despite the fact that a record number of countries have stopped performing executions, and such world leaders as Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, have called for the abolition of the death penalty.

By executing juvenile offenders and the mentally ill, the U.S. stands in direct opposition to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. By executing citizens from other countries without informing them of their basic legal rights, the U.S. is not only violating the law, but may be putting U.S. citizens traveling abroad at risk.

WHEN: Tuesday, October 12, 1:00 PM

WHERE: Roosevelt Hotel, 45 East 45th St. (@ Madison Ave.), East End Suite

WHO:

* Sister Helen Prejean

author of the book and subject of the film Dead Man Walking, is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

* Barbara Allen

is the niece of Stanley Faulder, a Canadian citizen executed by the state of Texas on June 17, 1999. Faulder was not informed of his right to confer with the Canadian consulate.

* Richard Dieter

Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center is the author of the new report, International Perspectives on the Death Penalty: A Costly Isolation for the U.S.

* Emma Bonino

Member of the European Parliament and former European Commissioner, is a representative of Hands Off Cain / Nessuno tocchi Caino, an organization challenging the death penalty.