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Clarence Ray Allen Scheduled for Execution Next Week
GUEST: Dana Blanchard, organizer with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty

On Tuesday January 17th the state of California plans to execute Clarence Ray Allen, the oldest man to be put to death in the U.S. in over 60 years. Allen, a Choctaw Indian, is in very poor health, suffering from advanced heart disease and diabetes. He is confined to a wheelchair and nearly blind. He was convicted in 1982 for ordering the murders of three individuals while serving a life sentence at Folsom State Prison for the murder of a young woman in 1974. Billy Hamilton, the man who actually carried out the three murders, also received a death sentence. Allen’s attorneys have filed a petition for clemency to Governor Schwarzenegger.

To make a statement to Governor Schwarzenegger regarding Clarence Ray Allen’s clemency petition, call 916-445-2841. For more information, visit www.nodeathpenalty.org.

Black Commentator
GUEST: Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

The Black Commentator is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary is about Harry Belafonte.

The Black Commentator is online at www.blackcommentator.com.

What Happens to the Exonerated After They are Released?
GUESTS: Herman Atkins, exonerated inmate who spent 11.5 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and Jessica Sanders, writer, director and producer of “After Innocence”

What happens when innocent men are wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence? When exonerated men are finally released from prisons, they receive virtually no support for the trauma of wrong ful imprisonment, or the years of their lives lost. They also receive virtually no support to rebuild their lives. This travesty of American justice is the subject of a new film called After Innocence, which opens in LA for a week’s run at the Nuart theater. The film has won numerous awards, and was called “the most important film at Sundance” last year. I spoke yesterday with the writer, director and producer Jessica Sanders, as well as Herman Atkins, one of several of the exonerated men featured in the film.

Herman Atkins’ organization, LIFE (Life Interventions for Exonerees) can be reached at exonereelife@aol.com.

After Innocence will be playing for a week at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles (11272 Santa Monica Blvd in West LA) from Jan 13-19.

For more information, visit www.afterinnocence.com.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” — Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.