An estimated 400-500 protesters took to the streets for the sixth annual March to Stop Executions.
photo by John Anderson of the Austin Chronicle

Click here to read a news story and the scroll down on the following page to click on the video link and watch a video clip of the march.

University Star article on the march

Each October since 2000, people from all walks of life and all parts of Texas, the U.S. and other countries have taken a day out of their year and gathered in Austin to raise our voices together and loudly express our opposition to the death penalty. We demanded a stop to executions of people with mental retardation and the U.S. Supreme Court banned such executions in 2002. We demanded a stop to executions of juvenile offenders and the U.S. Supreme Court banned such executions in 2005.

10 am to 2 pm - Brunch to benefit the Inside Books Project $5, 300 Allen St.

3:00 pm - Gather at Austin City Hall Plaza ( Between Lavaca and Guadalupe on W. Cesar Chavez Street). Parking available in city garage or nearby streets.

4:00 pm - March to the Texas Governor's Mansion (1010 Lavaca)

4:30 pm - Rally at the Texas Governor's Mansion

5:30 pm - Surround Governor's Mansion in Yellow Crime Scene Tape

Speakers include:

• Bud Welch - On April 19, 1995, Bud Welch’s 23-year old daughter, Julie, and 167 others were killed in the bomb blast that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City. Bud is President of the Board of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights
• Juan Melendez - Juan Melendez spent seventeen years, eight months and one day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit. Upon his exoneration and release from death row on January 3, 2002, he became the 99th death row inmate in the country to be exonerated and released since 1973.
• Shujaa Graham - a former death row prisoner who spent 12 years behind bars in California before he was finally exonerated and set free
• Sandra Reed - mother of Rodney Reed, an innocent man on Texas Death Row
• Diann Rust-Tierney - Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
• Rick Halperin - President of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
• Jeannine Scott - Campaign to End the Death Penalty and wife of Michael Scott, wrongfully convicted in the Yogurt Shop case
• Gary Bledsoe - president Texas NAACP
• Gloria Rubac - Committee to Free Frances Newton and Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
• Bill Pelke - president of Journey of Hope ... From Violence to Healing
• Sue Vaughn - Director of Amnesty International USA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty
• Michele Taube - President of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
• Hooman Hedayati - President of Texas Students Against the Death Penalty
• Delia Perez-Meyer - whose brother, Louis Castro-Perez, is an innocent man on Texas' death row.
• MC's: Lily Hughes of Campaign to End the Death Penalty and
  Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network

Texas Moratorium Network
602 West 7th, Suite 202B
Austin, Texas 78701

Donations to TMN are not tax-deductible.

Two Photos from 2nd March in 2001.

Photo Album of 3rd Annual March in 2002.

More Pictures from 2002 March.

Click Here for Pictures of the 2003 March to Stop Executions

More 2003 Pictures

Pictures of 2004 March to Stop Executions

More Photos from 2004

The march is organized by people from many different groups working together as the March to Stop Executions Coalition. If your organization wants to be listed as a sponsor of the march, please let us know. The 6th Annual March to Stop Executions Coaliton includes:

To get involved, email us at: admin@texasmoratorium.org Or call us at: 512-302-6715.