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We are writing to make an impassioned plea that you do all you can before you leave office to ensure that the federal death penalty will not become a civil rights disaster during the next four years.

We are grateful for the first step you took in relation to this crisis: your intervention in the case of Juan Raul Garza on December 7, 2000. The reprieve of Mr. Garza's execution until June 19, 2001, was particularly significant because of your acknowledgment of the unexplained racial and geographic disparities that beset the federal government's decisions to seek the death penalty. Your willingness to address the troubling direction that the federal death penalty has taken, and your recognition that executions would be intolerable until the disparities are better understood and necessary remedies considered, are predicates for the steps that must be taken before you leave office.

On December 7, you stated that "the gravity and finality of the [death] penalty demand that we be certain that when it is imposed, it is imposed fairly." You explained the need for "continuing study" of "possible racial and regional bias" by declaring that "[i]n this area there is no room for error." When you addressed the nation on December 7, the result of the presidential election was uncertain. The outcome is now final. Your immediate and decisive action will help assure that the leadership in the next Administration carries out your stated objective to thoroughly examine and address racial and geographic disparities in the federal death penalty system before the United States "goes forward with an execution in a case that may implicate the very questions raised by the Justice Department's continuing study." To this end, we ask you to take several additional steps before January 20, 2001.

First, a reliable, credible and comprehensive study of these disparities must be undertaken. Such a study cannot possibly be concluded by April, 2001. Attorney General Reno, Deputy Attorney General Holder, and Acting Director of the National Institute of Justice Julie Samuels agree that April is not a realistic deadline for completion of the thorough examination and evaluation to which you committed in your December 7 statement. The timetable for a reliable, credible and comprehensive investigation cannot be set arbitrarily. It is dependent upon the design of the study. A blueprint for such a study can and must be developed before you leave office. A realistic timetable will emerge from that blueprint and the date for completion can then be re-scheduled. To assure its viability and integrity, the study must be undertaken under the supervision and authority of a citizens' advisory committee. This committee can be established and given appropriate responsibilities and authority under the Federal Advisory Committee Act before the end of your term in office.

Second, the blueprint for the study, the timetable for its completion, and the citizens' advisory committee must be embodied in appropriate executive actions, to emphasize the importance of these matters to the nation and to help ensure that the next Administration completes these critical tasks. An executive order addressing these issues and directing the Attorney General to establish a citizens' advisory committee is imperative. Moreover, the citizens' advisory committee must be established before January 20, 2001, with the duty to report to Congress and the Library of Congress at the conclusion of its responsibilities.

Third, a moratorium on federal executions must be ordered, with appropriate reprieves, before you leave office. Without this, there is no assurance that those who are affected by the disparities will not be executed before the necessary process of study and remediation has been completed.

The substance of your remarks on December 7 led the nation to believe that you acted with full appreciation of the significance of the task that lies ahead. The steps that we have outlined will solidify this belief and strengthen the nation's commitment to equal justice under law. They will also help assure that any consideration of this issue in the new Administration takes place in the open, with full debate illuminating all sides of this important issue.

Because time is of the essence, we reiterate our request for a meeting with you. Some of our representatives are already working with members of Deputy Attorney General Holder's staff to consider the DOJ study design and the need for a citizens' advisory committee. We believe that a discussion with you is essential if the three measures we have outlined are to be adopted before January 20.

We look forward to meeting with you at the earliest opportunity.

Respectfully,

Dr. Mary Frances Berry
Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Julian Bond
Chairman of the Board, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Kerry Kennedy Cuomo
Human Rights Activist; Founder and Former Executive Director of the RFK Center for Human Rights

Most Reverend Joseph A. Fiorenza
Bishop of Galveston-Houston; President, National Conference of Catholic Bishops

Dr. John Hope Franklin
Chair, Advisory Board One America: The President's Initiative on Race

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Detroit

Wade Henderson
Executive Director, Leadership Council on Civil Rights (LCCR)

Antonia Hernandez
President and General Counsel, Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)

Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C.
President Emeritus, University of Notre Dame

Reverend Jesse Jackson
Civic and Political Leader; President and Founder, Rainbow Coalition/PUSH

Fred Korematsu
Japanese American Civil Rights Leader

Dean Anthony Kronman
Dean of Yale Law School

Reverend James Lawson, Jr.
Pastor Emeritus, Holman United Methodist Church, Los Angeles

Robert Litt
Former Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ)

Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery
Co-Founder and President Emeritus, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Cardinal Roger Mahony
Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Kweisi Mfume
President and CEO, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Angela E. Oh
Member, Advisory Board One America: The President's Initiative on Race

Professor Robert Reich
Former U.S. Secretary of Labor

Michael Rosier
President-elect, National Bar Association

Rabbi David Saperstein
Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

The Honorable H. Lee Sarokin
Retired Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Stanley Sheinbaum
Economist; Founding Publisher, New Perspectives Quarterly

Sidney Sheinberg
Former President and Chief Operating Officer of MCA, Inc./Universal Pictures

Senator Paul Simon
U. S. Senate, 1984-1997, U.S. House of Representatives, 1974-1984

Dr. Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich
Executive Director, Black Leadership Forum

John Van de Kamp
California Attorney General, 1983-1991

Arturo Vargas
National Latino Leader

Ray Velarde
National Legal Advisor, League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

Reverend C.T. Vivian
Founder and Board Chair, Center for Democratic Renewal (formerly the National Anti-Klan Network); President, Black Action Strategies and Information Center (B.A.S.I.C.)

Reverend Jim Wallis
Editor-in-Chief/Executive Director, Sojourners magazine

Bud Welch
Board Member, Murder Victims Family for Reconciliation

Ambassador Andrew Young
President, GoodWorks International; Former UN Ambassador