Ken Saro-Wiwa: The Legacy of an Environmental Defender

Ken Saro-Wiwa: The Legacy of an Environmental Defender

Update: Ken Saro-Wiwa was the the inspiration for Amnesty 133’s first Get on the Bus for Human Rights event. Full post @ Human Rights Now.

Wrong

Troy Davis is on death row in Georgia, his execution imminent.
Everything wrong with this case is what is wrong about the death penalty in general.
There were nine “witnesses” but seven have recanted and one of the other two is the guy that most likely actually committed the murder.
The witnesses have spoken of police intimidation, another common thread in death penalty cases.
Even if the witnesses had not recanted, all research points to eyewitness testimony being unreliable, particularly the way most police including in this case, elicit the testimony.
There is no physical evidence in this case. Convict a person in such a case? Maybe convict them, but with the uncertainty it is madness to put such a person to death.
Do you think that it is a coincidence that Troy Davis is black and about to be executed? Think again. Blacks and whites are murder victims in nearly equal numbers of crimes, but 80% of people executed since the death penalty was reinstated have been executed for murders involving white victims. More than 20% of black defendants who have been executed were convicted by all-white juries.
Most people think that there are endless appeals and these cases “tie up the courts.” In fact, Troy Davis has never even had a day in court to bring up all the facts about the tainted evidence that convicted him.
This execution is wrong. The death penalty is wrong. Most of the world has abolished the death penalty and most of the world have lower murder rates than the United States. It is time to stop the execution of Troy Davis and it is time to end the death penalty.
Join Group 133 and people all around the world on May 19th protesting the death penalty of Troy Davis.
“There but for the grace of God go you or I”
I AM TROY DAVIS!

I AM TROY DAVIS

News!

Before I go any further, I would like to introduce myself.  My name is Stuart, and I am a recent member of Group 133 in Somerville, MA.  Even though I’m still fairly new to the area, it has been a great experience over the last few months to get to know this dedicated group of individuals, to the point where I’ve even offered to donate a fair share of my time helping out the local organization.  With my roots in the land of Wellstone and Mondale, I find it very gratifying to help out an organization like Amnesty International at the grassroots level - and it’s my belief that the greatest strength of AI is its ability to network at the local level.  If you have any interest at all in human rights advocacy and activism, I would strongly suggest you attend at least one meeting.  With that said, let me throw out a quick update as to what we’re doing on the organizational end of the group.

Not only are we looking forward to a great summer after the successful Get on the Bus from last month, we are also looking forward to several new improvements to our presence on the web!  Within the next month or so we will have a brand new website at http://www.amnesty133.org, with deeper integration into our blogs (http://blog.amnesty133.org/ and http://getonthebustonyc.blogspot.com/).  I am in the process of migrating the Get on the Bus blog from the blogger platform to a new subdomain, like I’ve done with the “everyday” Amnesty133 blog.  We won’t be getting rid of out wordpress.com or blogger.com blogs, they will just be simultaneously updated in conjunction with the blogs hosted under our own domain name.  This is a huge improvement and will give us the ability to integrate the blogs into the new website design, when finally finished.  I’m hesitant to give a deadline, but I’m hoping it will be completed before mid-July.

To appease everyone’s curiosity, I will include the obligatory screenshot:

Fourth draft of design concept (click for full-size)

Please drop some comments with suggestions for improvements, criticism for my lack of color-coordination, and general encouragement.  And come to a meeting!  June 9th, 7:00pm at the regional office in Davis Square!

Also, please consider dropping by our local action for Troy Davis next Tuesday in Davis Square (also at amnesty133.org).  Tuesday, May 19, 5:30-7:00pm.

Despicable

Yesterday the Sri Lanka government shelled a hospital and killed at least 49 people. The day before they shelled defenseless civilians and killed over a thousand men, women and children. The Sri Lanka government disputes this information. If the information is inaccurate that is just one more reason to criticize the Sri Lanka government because it is the Sri Lanka government that has waged a campaign of death, intimidation, and arrest of the independent journalists in their country.

Group 133 recently held a vigil in Harvard Square in behalf of J S Tissainayagam. He is considered a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International, being held in detention by the Sri Lanka government for no reason apparently except to stifle the truth from being told about what is going on in Sri Lanka government.

Vigil led by Amnesty Group 133 for J S Tissainayagam

This vigil featured Priya Suntharalingam a high school student who recently staged a hunger strike to focus attention on the atrocities going on in Sri Lanka. You can read her statement here.
You can read more about J.S. Tissainayagam here and you can take action to stop Sri Lanka’s attack on civilians here.