Armband Alert: 08/07/12,Wilson,TX; 08/08/12,Cook,AZ

Marvin Wilson’s poisoning by the government of the state of Texas remains scheduled for today, 08/07/12, in spite of international protests over the execution of person with an IQ of 61.  This violates the intention of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v Virginia as well as international standards of humanity.

Please wear a black wrist band tonight and tomorrow in silent protest of the executions of Mr. Wilson and of Daniel Cook, who is scheduled to die tomorrow at the hands of the government of the state of Arizona for the 1987 murders of friends and co-workers Kevin Swaney and Carlos Cruz-Ramos.

Arizona must clear up a docket full of legal problems with its administration of the death penalty before exacting its pound of flesh from Daniel Cook. Governor Brewer reconstituted the state’s parole board at the end of April this year, packing it with three new members having obvious prejudgments about the death penalty. One is even a member of a police organization that publicly advocates the death penalty.  If the legal problems are ever resolved, then Arizona must deal with Mr. Cook’s trial issues.  Factors mitigating his culpability in this crime were never reviewed during the trial, amounting to unconstitutionally inadequate representation. Also, at the time of the crime Daniel Cook and his co-defendant were in the middle of a night of drug and alcohol induced frenzy during which they were not in control of their own behavior.  In the best traditions of this country we do not exact punishment if no culpability can be established.  Arizona cannot let this injustice take place!