Death penalty foes rally in Pennsylvania
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A rally held Saturday in Harrisburg called for a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania.
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HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- About 1,000 people converged on the state Capitol to urge a suspension of the death penalty, joined by the former Illinois governor who imposed a moratorium there.
Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan suspended executions in 2000 after 13 death-row prisoners were found to have been wrongfully convicted.
He said Saturday that Pennsylvania is in a similar position now. "You've exonerated more than you've executed. Why would you do that?"
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell opposes a death-penalty moratorium. Since taking office in January, he has signed 10 death warrants.
During Ryan's final days in office in January, the Republican pardoned four death-row inmates and commuted the sentences of all 167 of the state's condemned prisoners, most of them to life in prison without parole.
"There is no politics when you call for a moratorium. A moratorium will give you a chance to look at and to stop the machinery of death," Ryan said at the rally.
Sylvester Schieber, whose daughter was murdered in her Philadelphia apartment five years ago by a serial rapist, said he and his wife have never wavered in their opposition to the death penalty.
"We need to start staring our political leaders in the face and find out why they are trying to kill these people," Schieber said on the steps of the state Capitol.
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