The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.10           March 15, 1999 
 
 
Boston Rally: No Death Penalty  

BY TED LEONARD
BOSTON - "Paul Cellucci, we say no, the death penalty has to go!" chanted 150 people in front of the Massachusetts State House on February 17. The action was in response to Governor Paul Cellucci, who the day before introduced a bill that called for death by lethal injection for 16 different categories of first-degree murder.

"Stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal," "Stop Legal Lynching," and "Stop the Racist Death Penalty," read some of the signs at the February 17 rally.

A death penalty bill has been introduced and defeated in the Massachusetts State legislature nine times since 1990. In 1998 the death penalty bill nearly became law when the House voted it up by one vote. A week later one legislator switched his vote in a vote to reconsider, and the bill failed.

On February 6, anticipating Cellucci would introduce a death penalty bill this session of the legislature, more than 250 people, most of them youths, rallied in front of the State House.

At Celluci's press conference where he announced the new bill, the governor described those convicted of murder as "monsters" who "do not deserve hope." Many speakers at the rally took this up. One speaker called on people to "reject Cellucci's politics of scapegoating and resentment."

Most of the speakers and participants at the rally were students from area colleges and universities. Addressing the rally, Aaron Judge, a student from Wellesley College, described the death penalty as "racist and classist." She also explained the main reason young people and students are against the death penalty is because "we refuse to embrace the cynicism of the legislature, instead we embrace hope for the future."

Ted Leonard is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

 
 
 
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