Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News Volume XXIII Number 11, November-December 2015 UPCOMING EVENTS PLEASE NOTE NO MONTHLY MEETING FOR NOVEMBER OR DECEMBER. Saturday, December 5, 10 AM to 3 PM. Letter writing marathon for Human Rights Day at Zephyr Coffee House, 2419 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Come join us for a while, write some letters on behalf of Prisoners of Conscience and enjoy coffee and food. Sunday, December 13, 6:00 PM. Rights Readers Human Rights Book Discussion and Group Holiday Potluck at Laura and Ted Brown's place, 949 N. Hill Ave, Pasadena. (Cross street is Mountain. Plenty of street parking.) Call 626-429-8858 for more info. We will discuss "1914" by Jean Echenoz. JANUARY ACTIVITIES Tuesday, January 12, 7:30 PM. Letter writing meeting at Caltech Athenaeum, corner of Hill and California in Pasadena. This informal gathering is a great way for newcomers to get acquainted with Amnesty. Sunday, January 17, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers Human Rights Book Discussion group. This month we read "Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees" by Caroline Moorehead. Thursday, January 28, 8:00 PM. Monthly Meeting. We meet at the Caltech Y, Tyson House, 505 S. Wilson Ave., Pasadena. (This is just south of the corner with San Pasqual. Signs will be posted.) We will be planning our activities for the coming months. Please join us! Refreshments provided. COORDINATOR'S CORNER Hi everyone I can't believe it's almost Christmas already! Time flies when you're having fun...or not! Robert, Joyce, Dominique, Alexi and I attended the Western Regional Conference this past weekend at a hotel near LAX. Topics that were focused on were: use of lethal force by law enforcement, Syrian refugee crisis, human rights of sex workers (Joyce and I attended this workshop which was controversial). Our old AI friend Ali gave a very interesting presentation on the situation in Yemen. Be sure to read about the conference experiences of Joyce, Robert and Alexi in this newsletter. BTW, we also saw our former western field organizer, Kalaya'an Mendoza, who was looking very sharp and as enthusiastic as ever! Kathy RIGHTS READERS Human Rights Book Discussion Group Keep up with Rights Readers at http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com BOOK REVIEW [The New York Times Sunday Book Review] By Max Byrd Jan. 24, 2014 Grand Illusions '1914,' by Jean Echenoz The story could hardly be simpler. Five young Frenchmen leave their village to fight in the Great War. Some will be grievously injured, some won't return. But in the hands of France's literary magician Jean Echenoz, this exceedingly short, bare narrative - 118 pages, counting eight pages of translator's notes - feels like an epic. Here is history compressed to the density of a poem. The novel begins on the first day of August 1914 (the marking of time will be a theme), in a radiant pastoral landscape. A cyclist, Anthime, looks down from a hill on the market towns below, disturbed only by a loud "unseasonable eruption of wind rampaging everywhere." When it dies away, he hears church bells somberly ringing the tocsin, a signal of mobilization. That noisy, disorderly gust of wind is no clumsy symbol. It is as close as we will get to an analysis or explanation of the hostilities to come. Unseen forces, natural and naturally indifferent, are about to sweep Anthime and his friends toward the trenches of the Somme. Echenoz's novels are often the opposite of realistic - playful fantasies in which characters bounce in and out of sight like acrobats on a trampoline, with plots that hopscotch wildly over time and space. But in "1914" numerous details pin us to a precise historical reality: the brand name of a camera, the "Rve Idal," or the "licorice-brown canvas" of a French soldier's knapsack. In a Farman F-37 biplane, one of the crew members pulls out "a Savage pistol especially adapted for aviation, fitted with a screen to catch spent casings so they won't stray into the propeller." Such authenticity creates a world of objects that are brought to life by Echenoz's unmistakable voice. Witty, passionate, by turns intimate and coolly distant, it is a voice fond of long, lovingly assembled Rabelaisian lists that provide a perfect foil to the chaos of combat. One remarkable chapter describes all the notable animals of World War I, from the largest and most useful (cows) to the smallest and most hated (lice), with a bleak coda on the rat. Another inventories the "astonishing variety of furniture woods" in a bedroom and concludes that they do not get along, "they cannot even stand one another." At times this form of narration may strike readers as grotesquely dispassionate. Horrifying scenes are rendered in a tone drained of all emotion: "Anthime and Bossis could see the incineration of two airmen killed on impact and still strapped in, transformed into sizzling skeletons hanging by their seat straps." Elsewhere, Echenoz defuses shock with ludicrous mathematics: "a bullet travels 40 feet through the air at 3,280 feet per second at an altitude of 2,300 feet to enter the left eye of Nobls." And then, unexpectedly, an image flies off the page to create a human context: A piece of shrapnel is "as clipped as a postscript: an iron fragment shaped like a polished lithic ax, smoking hot." Or the downy lightness of Echenoz's French - perfectly captured by the translator, Linda Coverdale - turns grimly lyric. In a town emptied of all its young men, "Blanche sees only old fellows and kids, whose footsteps sound hollow on a stage too large for them." And once or twice, Echenoz's profound and hopeless fury, held in check by the brevity and reserve of his storytelling, breaks through the latticework of words: "We all know the rest." AUTHOR BIO Son of a psychiatrist, Jean Echenoz studied in Rodez, Digne-les-Bains, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Paris, where he has lived since 1970. He published his first book, Le Meridien de Greenwich in 1979, for which he received the Feneon Prize in 1980. He has published twelve novels to date and received about ten literary prizes, including the prix Medicis 1983 for Cherokee, the Prix Goncourt 1999 for I'm Off (Je m'en vais), and the Aristeion Prize for Lac (1989). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Echenoz] JANUARY BOOK Rights Readers Meeting Sunday, Jan. 17, 2015 6:30 PM Vroman's Bookstore 695 E. Colorado Blvd Pasadena Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees by Caroline Moorehead Publisher Comments An arresting portrait of the lives of today's refugees and a searching look into their future The word refugee is more often used to invoke a problem than it is to describe a population of millions of people forced to abandon their homes, possessions, and families in order to find a place where they may, quite literally, be allowed to live. In spite of the fact that refugees surround us -- the latest UN estimates suggest that 20 million of the world's 6.3 billion people are refugees -- few can grasp the scale of their presence or the implications of their growing numbers. Caroline Moorehead has traveled for nearly two years and across four continents to bring us their unforgettable stories. In prose that is at once affecting and informative, we are introduced to the men, women, and children she meets as she travels to Cairo, Guinea, Sicily, the U.S./Mexico border, Lebanon, England, Australia, and Finland. She explains how she came to work and for a time live among refugees, and why she could not escape the pressing need to understand and describe the chain of often terrifying events that mark their lives. Human Cargo is a work of deep and subtle sympathy that completely alters our understanding of what it means to have and lose a place in the world. Caroline Moorehead, a distinguished biographer, has served as a columnist on human rights for The Times (London) and The Independent (London). More recently, she has worked directly with African refugees in Cairo as a founder of a legal advice office in addition to raising funds for a range of educational projects. She is the author of Gellhorn and lives in London. A National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee In Human Cargo, Caroline Moorehead takes readers on a journey to understand why millions of people are forced to abandon their homes, possessions, and families in order to fins a place where they may, quite literally, be allowed to live. In spite of the fact that refugees surround us -- recent UN estimates suggest that their numbers approach 20 million, few grasp the scale of their presence. Moorehead's experience living and working with refugees puts a human face on the news, providing indelible portraits of not only refugees but also the countries from which they fled, as well as those that host them, the men and women who help them, and, finally, those who have not. Moorehead has traveled for nearly two years and across four continents to bring us these unforgettable stories. In prose that is at once affecting and informative, she introduces us to the men, women, and children she meets as she travels to Cairo, Guinea, Sicily, the U.S.-Mexico border, Lebanon, England, Australia, and Finland. Among others, we learn about Salaam, an Iraqi Catholic persecuted by Saddam Hussein's regime, and his struggle to reach San Diego through Mexico with his sister; and Mary, a fifty-year-old American who works with the International Rescue Committee in Guinea to provide schooling for refugees from Iran who escaped a Tehran prison to establish a trauma center in England for victims of torture. Moorehead vividly illustrates why the "problem" of 20 million people stuck in limbo -- unable to work, educate their children, or otherwise contribute to society -- is on a par with global crises such as terrorism and world hunger. Western Regional Conference Report by Joyce Wolf The AIUSA Western Regional Conference took place Nov. 20-22 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel near LAX Airport. Group member Dominique joined me as I arrived Saturday morning. She informed me that at the opening session Friday evening an award was given to our late and much missed leader, Lucas Kamp. Since she was the only member of our group present at the time, she accepted the award on behalf of Group 22. It's wonderful that Amnesty remembered and honored Lucas's many years of human rights work. We'll look forward to seeing the actual award. Thank you, Dominique! Group members Kathy and Robert and Alexi also arrived Saturday morning. AIUSA Executive Director Steven Hawkins exhorted us to remember the three Cs -- be creative, contagious, and courageous! He explained that by "contagious" he meant we should share our activism with family and friends. Board Chairman Ann Burroughs spoke about human rights of refugees. After the welcoming remarks, it was time to choose one of the half dozen options in Programming Block 1. Sessions attended by our group members included "Your Activism Saved My Life: Stories of Former Prisoners of Conscience" and "Migrant Justice Movement". Kathy and I attended "Sex Workers' Rights Are Human Rights" (more about that later). The Plenary "From Moment to Movement" featured three activists from protest movements. Muna Sharif is a young Muslim woman who founded Jibreel Project, a student organization; she also keeps tabs on Homeland Security's Department of Countering Violent Extremism. Jennicet Gutierrez works for transgender immigrant women and became famous for interrupting President Obama with her protest. Damon Turner is an artist and cultural entrepreneur, working with BlackLivesMatter and creator of the Bulletproof T-shirts. Kathy and Robert attended the lunchtime Local Groups Caucus. I wandered through Action Alley, signing all the petitions I could find. I was very pleased to see that the AIUSA Women's Rights Group had a petition for Narges Mohammadi, Group 22's adopted Prisoner of Conscience from Iran. Some years it's hard for the conference to get the quorum of at least 40 AIUSA members required to start the Sunday morning Resolutions Voting Plenary. Not this time. Attendees had strongly held opinions about Resolution 2, which called upon Amnesty International to reconsider their August decision to recommend "full decriminalisation of all aspects of consensual sex work". That decision sparked much controversy, as detailed in these articles in the New York Times and The Guardian. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/world/ europe/amnesty-international-votes-for-policy- calling-for-decriminalization-of- prostitution.html http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/au g/11/amnesty-approves-policy-to- decriminalise-sex-trade Resolution 2 was amended and simplified to ask that AI "call for the decriminalization of prostituted persons only, while pimps, procurers, traffickers and buyers shall remain criminalized". One speaker after another lined up at the microphone to make impassioned pleas for or against the resolution. Many of them were survivors of trafficking with harrowing stories to share. The moderator did a superlative job of keeping order with humor and compassion. She asked that there be no applause (or finger-snapping, which is what the students nowadays often prefer to clapping). The resolution failed: 29 for, 80 against, 7 abstaining. The conference concluded with an interactive plenary, "Building AIUSA Together: Strategic Visioning". Consultants who are helping develop the next strategic plan asked us to imagine Amnesty in 2020 and what its big impacts might have been. Western Regional Conference Migrant Justice Movement Panel Report by Alexi Daher Speakers: Patricia Ortiz Program Director_Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project; Douglas Greco Director of Programs_Equality California; Jorge Gutierrez Organizer, Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement; Jennicet Gutierrez Activist and Organizer, Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement According to Jorge Gutierrez, activist and organizer of Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement, there are currently more than 200,000 undocumented LGBT incarcerated in detention centers in the US; facing attacks on their diverse identities being lesbian, gay, transgendered, bisexual, undocumented, Latino or Asian. LGBT undocumented people find themselves at the crossing of two already marginalized groups -the LGBT population and the undocumented population, so they are among society's most impacted and most discriminated against. LGBT group is furthermost impacted due to discrimination within the communities they belong to. In this forum, the panel spoke mainly of strategies to support the Migrant Justice Movement, by working on: - Inclusion and leadership solidarity with other mainstream campaigns - Changing the narrative and - Building relationship within the community Jorge Gutierrez and Jennicet Gutierrez discussed that mainstream campaigns often use divisive strategies, which do not allow the inclusion of the most marginalized. They stressed that the essential strategy that organizing groups can achieve inclusion of LGBT issues was by working on leadership solidarity. Douglas Greco, Director of Programs Equality California, said that first groups needed to invest a lot of time in establishing trust and relationships, which included the one-on-one meetings with health care providers, training with clinics, attending host on Town Hall meetings, etc... Another effective way was by shifting the narrative. Today all issues matter, migrant rights, Native American rights, Black and Women's rights. It's important to mention the contribution of each group. In other words, it is equally important to take a stand not only on Black Lives Matter, but also on any civil right or human right campaign. Based on Greco's experience working in Bakersfield and Texas, many researchers and non-profit organizations come and leave. It generally takes 2 to 3 months to develop trust with community leaders. But once trust or a relationship is achieved, a non-profit group can count on building a sustainable solution for a marginalized group. SECURITY WITH HUMAN RIGHTS By Robert Adams by guest writer Gay Gardner, Amnesty International USA member October 30, 2015 I'm an activist with Amnesty International, and today is a reminder of why I have been doing this for more than 30 years. Shaker Aamer is finally returning to his family in the U.K., after being held without charge at Guantanamo for more than 13 years. Amnesty's campaign, along with the work of countless activists around the world, has helped get the U.S. government to release him. It is the unwavering defense of the dignity of individuals such as Shaker Aamer that inspires me and keeps me active in Amnesty. Amnesty was born when British lawyer Peter Benenson published his 1961 article The Forgotten Prisoners in The Observer newspaper protesting the arrest of two Portuguese students for raising their wine glasses in a toast to freedom. Benenson's outrage lit a spark that ignited a global human rights movement. Amnesty demonstrated to ordinary citizens that they could make a difference in righting injustices affecting other individuals even in remote parts of the world. Amnesty's mission of defending human dignity - of preventing human rights from being a mere abstraction in the public mind - is, if anything, even more desperately needed now than when I first joined the movement as a volunteer activist in 1983. The ordeal of Shaker Aamer is one of many personal stories that show why this is so. 1. Who is Shaker Aamer? Shaker Aamer was swept up in the wide net cast by the U.S. military after the 9/11 attacks. Granted permanent residency status in the U.K. based on his marriage to a British national, he had moved his family to Afghanistan in 2001, after a decade of living in the U.K. He was arrested by Afghan forces in the fall of 2001, subsequently transferred to U.S. custody, and sent to Guantanamo in February 2002. Through his lawyers, Shaker Aamer has alleged that he was subjected to torture, including severe beatings, and other ill-treatment while being held in secret detention and interrogated at Bagram, Afghanistan, in early 2002. He has claimed that men who identified themselves as officers of the U.K. Security Service (MI5) were present, along with U.S. officials, at interrogations during which his head was "repeatedly banged so hard against a wall that it bounced." In the years following his transfer to Guantanamo Bay, Shaker Aamer repeatedly alleged that he had been tortured there, too. Throughout his imprisonment at Guantanamo, his lawyers expressed concern about his physical and mental health, which they say was exacerbated by the lack of adequate medical treatment for the multiple illnesses from which he suffers. 2. Was Shaker Aamer's Detention Unlawful? Yes. Indefinite detention without trial, like torture, is recognized as a profound assault on human dignity under international law. The international committee of experts set up under the United Nations Convention against Torture to monitor compliance with the Convention considers indefinite detention to be per se a violation of the Convention. 3. Why did the U.S. hold Shaker Aamer for so long? We don't know the reason. What's clear is that, as part of its "war on terror," the U.S. government has discarded the fundamental values it has historically espoused. In the name of national security, it has dispensed with the rights that bring real security. Like so many others, Shaker Aamer was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for more than 13 years without ever being charged with a crime or allowed to see and challenge any evidence the government may have had against him. Moreover, the U.S. continues to flout its obligation under domestic and international law to impartially investigate the credible allegations of torture in his case and to prosecute anyone found responsible for torture. 4. Why is he being released now? We don't know why it's happening now. Amnesty members in the U.S. and around the world have campaigned for his return for years, as it became clear that he was not going to be charged with a crime and tried in a fair proceeding. Amnesty and its coalition partners, particularly in the U.S. and the U.K., played a very important role in pressing for this outcome. Yet to say it was long overdue is an enormous understatement. After all, he had been approved for transfer by the Bush administration as long ago as 2007 and again in 2009 after an interagency task force set up by the new Obama administration determined that he was not a threat to U.S. national security. Moreover, officials at the highest levels of the British government, including Prime Minister David Cameron, had repeatedly sought his return to the United Kingdom. 5. What happens next? With all of this in mind, the end of Shaker Aamer's Guantanamo ordeal brings many of us not elation, but relief. Of course, we are mindful that he will likely to continue to suffer the consequences of these policies after his transfer and will be in need of medical treatment and rehabilitation. Additionally, it is hard to feel celebratory in the midst of so much evidence of how the "war on terror" continues to distort our values as a society. The "war on terror," like the 9/11 terror attacks that spawned it, can be seen as a stark manifestation of human beings' diminishing ability or willingness to see one another as distinct individuals endowed with basic human dignity. This "forever war," boundless in time and space, has led many Americans to embrace an "ends justify the means" mentality. It has led many to believe that their physical survival can only be assured by trampling the rights of others. Consequently, it has become easier to dismiss, as inevitable "collateral damage," instances in which individuals suffer unjustly from measures deemed necessary to protect national security. As this happens more and more, allegiance to the rule of law erodes. And as the rule of law erodes, the United States loses a little more of what many people cherish as making it worth defending. We need to embrace and nurture that spark that Peter Benenson lit 54 years ago. That is the spirit of Amnesty International, and the world needs its healing power more than ever. There are still 112 detainees left at Guantanamo. Join us in telling the President and Congress: it's time to shut down Guantanamo. DEATH PENALTY NEWS By Stevi Carroll Reggie Clemons After 22 years on death row, Reggie Clemons no longer needs to face his execution. His conviction and death sentence was thrown out by the Missouri Supreme Court. Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of AIUSA said, "Reggie Clemons' case has long highlighted many of the flaws in the U.S. death penalty system. The decision by the Missouri Supreme Court is an acknowledgement of the deeply flawed process that led to his death sentence. From the police investigation to the appeals process, his case was dogged by serious problems, allegedly including police brutality, racial bias, a stacked jury and prosecutorial misconduct. "Clemons says he confessed as the result of a violent police interrogation. ... "Four federal judges found the conduct of the prosecutor in the case to be 'abusive and boorish,' and Clemons' legal representation was inadequate. His lead attorney was later suspended from practicing law following numerous complaints. "The question of race overshadowed the investigation and trial as well. Clemons was one of three black defendants convicted of killing the two white victims, and both key witnesses were white. Blacks were disproportionately dismissed during jury selection." Because Mr. Clemons has a conviction not related to this case, he will remain in prison. The Death Penalty in California The 2016 election may see two death penalty ballot initiatives. Californians for Death Penalty Savings and Reform paid attention to Proposition 34's emphasis on the cost of death penalty cases to the State. Member of CDPSR began collecting donations to fund professionals to collect signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. Part of their initiative will have inmates work and pay restitution. What they also want is a quicker trip to the gurney and needle by changing the appeal time from as long as 30 years to 10 to 15 years. Members of this group, which includes members of law enforcement, district attorneys, and family members of murder victims, are alarmed by the number of states that have abolished the death penalty and the diminution of prosecutors to pursue death sentences. Mike Ramos, the district attorney in San Bernardino County said, "We need to fix the death penalty or it's going to go away, ... It's that simple." Going away is not an option this group wants. Should they win in 2016, they hope other states will follow their lead Death Penalty Focus, on the other hand, believes this general election is a good time to bring back the abolition of the death penalty and the commutation of death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. Mike Farrell has taken a leave of absence as president of Death Penalty Focus to work on a ballot initiative called The Justice That Works Act of 2016. One concern is that should the appeals process be lessened, the need to train the number of lawyers required to represent death row inmates adequately would negate the savings the DPSR members say they can achieve. Of course, the ballot initiative will be funding and other support if it is to get on the ballot and succeed. I contacted Mr. Farrell who replied, there will be an announcement about the potential initiative in the upcoming week. If the decision is positive, I'm sure your members' interest and willingness to help will be greatly appreciated." I know we will hear more about this as next November nears and opportunities for us to be involved are available. California single-drug protocol I know you remember that because those pesky pharmaceutical companies decided they did not want to sell drugs for state-sanctioned murder to State corrections departments, California has not executed anyone for years. Well, not to be deterred, our corrections department has decided to go to a single-drug protocol. To keep this process open and transparent, the DC will take public comments on the new proposal until January 22, 2016. In this case, 'public' also means inmates, including inmates on death row. When I first heard about death row inmates being able to comment on this proposal, and thus perhaps choose the drug that will kill them, I thought about the parent who sends the errant child out to get the switch with which he or she will be beaten, but in this case, the switch will be the one that's thrown to open the line through which the lethal poison will flow. That's creepy to me. If you would like to send your public comment, email LI.comments@cdcr.ca.gov. To read more about this, go to http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-me-pol- ca-execution-protocol-20151105-story.html. Support our Troops Although veterans are seven percent of the general population, a new report released earlier this month says that 10 percent of the people on death row are veterans. Battle trauma and home front violence are not considered during capital trials of veterans. Kent S. Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation said in an LA Times article, "In short, I don't think it'll work for the jury." There has been an 89 percent rise in homicides by veterans following the invasion of Afghanistan when compared with a six-year period prior to September 11, 2001. One third of the victims of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have been family members or girlfriends. Richard C. Dieter, the author of the study from the Death Penalty Information Center (an anti-death penalty group) said this information dovetails into the results of another study that found an increase in death rates for middle-aged white men, many of whom may have sought out military enlistment as job opportunities dwindled in the USA. When these veterans return, they are faced with few employment opportunities since many of them are from rural and semi-rural areas, and they lack adequate mental-health care. In the report, Mr. Dieter says, "For [those soldiers] who have crossed an indefinable line and have been charged with capital murder, compassion and understanding seem to disappear." As Bernie Sanders says, "If you can't afford the veterans, don't go to war." But we have gone to war, and now we have an obligation to our veterans, even those who commit capital crimes. An Art Show Windows on Death Row Art from Inside and Outside the Prison Walls Thursday, October 22 to Friday, December 18 Annenberg East Lobby, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University Park Campus Exonerations Russell Faria State: MO Date of Exoneration: 11/6/2015 In 2013, Russell Faria was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of his wife in Troy, Missouri, despite strong alibi evidence. He was acquitted at a retrial in 2015 after previously concealed police pictures confirmed his description of the crime scene. Tyjuan Anderson State: IL Date of Exoneration: 11/6/2015 Tyjuan Anderson, Lumont Johnson and Anthony Ross were sentenced to 50 years in prison for the 2002 fatal shooting of 8-year-old DeMarcus Hanson in Rockfort, Illinois. They were granted a new trial after it was revealed that witnesses had been abused by police and had lied, and they were acquitted in November 2015. source: http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration Stays of execution November 3 Julius Murphy TX 3 Terrick Terrell Nooner AR* 3 Stacey Eugene Johnson AR* 3 Ernest Lee Johnson MO 6 Richard Glossip OK+ 17 Cleveland R Jackson OH^^ 17 Robert Van Hook OH 17 Nicholas Sutton TN Executions October 29 Jerry Correll FL Lethal Injection 1-drug (pentobarbital) November 18 Raphael Holiday TX Lethal Injection 3-drug (midazolam) 19 Marcus Johnson GA Lethal Injection 1-drug (pentobarbital) + On October 2, 2015 The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted the Attorney General's request to indefinitely stay all pending executions to allow for review of lethal injection procedures. * On October 8, the Arkansas Circuit Court granted a temporary restraining order staying all eight scheduled executions so that already pending judicial review of the state's execution procedures could take place. ^On January 30, 2015, the Ohio State Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections announced that it would postpone all of the six executions scheduled in 2015 to that point. All of these executions would be scheduled in 2016 to allow time for the state to obtain new drugs for lethal injections. The new drugs that Ohio announced it would be trying to obtain were sodium thiopental and pentobarbital. ^^On September 8, 2014, the Ohio State Department of Rehabilitation Corrections revised its execution schedule for all death sentences previously scheduled from March 2014 and beyond. This was done in order to comply with the August 6, 2014 Federal Court ruling that no executions could be carried out until at least January 2015. The court imposed this moratorium in order to compel a review of Ohio's lethal injection protocol. For more information about the ruling, click here. GROUP 22 MONTHLY LETTER COUNT UAs 17 POC 23 Total 40 To add your letters to the total contact aigp22@caltech.edu Amnesty International Group 22 The Caltech Y Mail Code C1-128 Pasadena, CA 91125 www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/ http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.