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Show THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Former Prisoners Gather to Protest Death Penalty January YTednespay, 7 8, 2003 Building an Appetite: CAMPBELL ROTH Daily Northwestern Northwestern University EVANSTON, 111. When Ray Krone was being sentenced in 1992 in the stabbing death of a Phoenix woman, the victim's mother stood in the courthouse galley pleading with authorities to sentence Krone to death. Shortly thereafter, they did. Ten years later, in 2002, DNA tests revealed that Krone had been wrongfully imprisoned on death row. Soon after, the woman's mother extended her condolences to Krone. At the National Gathering of the Death Row Exonerated, held Dec. 15 and 16 on the Chicago Campus and hosted by Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, Krone said he was gripped by one woman's ability to correct her mistakes but astonished by the state's inability to do the same. "That woman's apology was the most touching personal experience of my life," Krone said. "I always want to be that forgiving. I never got an apology from the state, by the way." One by one, 35 men stood at the lectern at the Law School's Thorne Auditorium in front more than 700 people and told stories similar to Krone's stories of incompetent defense attorneys and indifferent judges, of years spent on death row, of coming hours from execution. Exonerated men from across the country converged on Illinois, the current battleground for a national debate on the death penalty's failures. They lit 102 candles one for each inmate who has been exonerated from death row in the United States and pleaded with outgoing Gov. George Ryan, who wasn't present, to save others from their ordeal. The next day, the same men walked 37 miles in a relay, "Dead Man Walking," from Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, 111., to the state's James R. Thompson Center in Chicago to deliver a letter to Ryan urging him to "heed the lessons" of their stories. TO FIX A 'BROKEN SYSTEM Death penalty reform advocates spoke at the forum, criticizing a "broken system" of justice and encouraging Ryan to continue the moratorium on executions he established in January 2000 by commuting the sentences of 160 men and women on death row in Illinois before he leaves office this month. "Tremendous strides have been made to alert America and the world of the deep flaws that pervade our justice system," Lawrence Marshall, legal director for the Center on Wrongful Convictions, told the audience. "They teach us that the system is incompetent to decide who should live and who should die." Marshall called Ryan's decision in 2000 a "brave, heroic act" but said any attempts to reform the system short of blanket commutation would be fa,...lU.j.1ll, - - r Frank Bernalo, Leo Franco, Ruben Herrera and Eliso Carreron T ' Mirt Bush Takes Steps to Stop Drunk Driving mobile deaths last year were KRISTEN MITCHELL Scroll Brigham Young University-IdaREXBURG, Idaho elated, ho Traffic acci- dents caused by drunk driving tra- ditionally increases around the holiday season, and in an effort to decrease deaths, officials nationwide sponsored safety campaigns to increase public awareness. President Bush declared December National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month, with the hope of lowering the number of people driving drunk during the holidays. Bush said that drunk driving accidents take a life every 30 minutes, and almost 35,000 Americans were killed in alcohol-relate- d crashes during the past year. Forty-on- e percent of total auto alcohol-r- Bush said. According to statistics recently compiled "by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, about three in every 10 Americans will be acciinvolved in an alcohol-relate- d dent at some time during their lives. "To Hniir Twr-T-f-- continued from page jlil1,ifrll,i process since then, he said. Dalton is skeptical, nonetheless. "Wood occurs naturally. Even with a shorter half-lifthere arc still danchemicals used. Even if they gerous reduce the amount of chemicals, they'll find more later," he said. Hollis, who has a voice but not the final say in the choice of dinner-warcan sec both sides of the argument. "I don't think there's a right answer. There arc pros and cons whichever way you go," he said. 1 e, "If anybody would do the research, they would find that styro-foahas a shorter half life than at paper a landfill," he said. In addition, there isn't a need to cut down trees, he said. According to Paulus, a toxic gas called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, were previously used in the production of styrofoam. It has been removed from the m e, ahasnainchronicle.utah.edu better protect our citizens and decrease the number of drunk and drugged driving traffic accidents, we must work together to educate our communities about the seriousness of this offense, and we must raise awareness of its devastating consequences," Bush said. In an effort to help Bush educate Americans, the Mothers Against Drunk Driving society sponsored a national holiday campaign called "Tie One On for Safety." DO YOU HAVE BETTER THINGS TO WRITE? Staff writers needed. Report to Union Room 240. Wi JL-- $frj&m&f vwj --i or you'll miss this week's Skatin' Utes hockey games. I 222 So. ' 4 t American roou 1300 East 0 582-720- 0 wreck (M Since 1982 .... -- .. ifISi 1 'Oaisframi 1 iuJgSS j I duce sufficient reform. The Illinois General Assembly currently is debat- w -."riMr ririiinil-- w TRAX line along Wasatch Drive. t- STYROFOAM inadequate. A commission established by Ryan to investigate Illinois' death penalty system concluded that many changes to the system were necessary to pro- ing the changes. "How could anyone trust a system with that track record and those defects?" Marshall asked. which would convert all capital punishments to sentences of life without parole Ryan's advisers have suggested he consider separating the cases into two remaining death-rogroups. The first group would contain every case in which Ryan is certain of an inmate's guilt. Any inmate whose guilt is doubted would be placed in a second group. j-- take a lunch break from working on the rt . 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