Greenberg Statement on Execution of Garry Mark Gilmore

Press Release
January 17, 1977

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Peggy Cooper Davis Oral History

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Press Releases, Volume 6. Greenberg Statement on Execution of Garry Mark Gilmore, 1977. d10be844-bb92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/d27c6476-a13a-41df-96da-0cef39a9238e/greenberg-statement-on-execution-of-garry-mark-gilmore. Accessed November 23, 2025.

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    2%6 

= 

Mein o from: 

Jack Greenberg 

January 17, 1977 

Statement by Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel 

of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 

Fund, following the execution of Garry Mark 

Gilmore. 



1:30 P.M. 
1/17/77 

Jack Greenberg 
Jim Nabrit 
Peggy Davis 

David Kendall 

1. Capital Punishment Statement went out on PR Newswire 
at 11:14 A.M. Distributed throughout Eastern Seaboard. 

2. Following received hand-delivered statements: 

Amsterdam News 
Daily News 
The New York Times 
Time Magazine 
Newsweek 
AP 
UPL 

3. Follow-up on telephone: 

a 
The New York Times: Tom Goldstein is doing gtory. He has 

the statement, plus breakdown on death row inmates, 
and will contact Peggy for further questions. He 

may also call Jack. 

AB _- City Desk 
UPI- Bill Riley, City Desk 
Daily News, Telegraph Desk 
New York Post - City Desk 

Washington Post - National Desk.amd Dictated statement & 
breakd@wn on death row. 

CBS News - received statement 
received statement 
w York Now)- Dictated statement on tape; to 
-broadcast between 4:30-6:30 P.M. 

Ps Tom Matthews, Natl Affairs and Jerry Footlick 
off today. Will call tomorrow. 

xR 
Time Magazine: Ferrer not in. Will call again this afternoo: 

Maivey to Ed Tivnanw 

DP acisiie ~ABCTV With haa 
| 

Gh — ah, Nall Coquerin= a. Cllr Brel 



ZA 

LL B iA) NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
egal efense lund 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 « (212) 586-8397 

January 17, 1977 

The shooting of Gary Mark Gilmore ends a ten year de facto 

moratorium on the use of the death penalty in this country. The tUnited 

States now departs from the prevailing standard of Western democracies 

joining the Soviet Union and South Africa in this barbaric punishment. This 

bizarre execution should not prejudice the litigation which we are continuing 

on behalf of numerous indigent Death Row clients, since Gilmore's execution 

will in no way affect the adjudication of the legal claims we are raising 

on behalf of our clients. Our commitment to the abolition of capital punish- 

ment is unabated, and we hope that the circumstances of the Gilmore execution 

may in fact hasten the demise of this racist, archaic, futile, and barbarous 

institution. For it is clear that Mr. Gilmore's homicides, committed as 

they were after the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the per se 

constitutionality of the death penalty in July, 1976, by a person with a 

history of psychiatric problems and suicide attempts, were motivated at 

least in part by a desire to die. The State of Utah has now granted this 

wish, but in doing so, it has illustrated yet another repugnant feature 

of the death penalty, long known to psychiatrists: that the existence 

of capital punishment actually encourages the commission of homicides 

by certain deranged persons. 

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Greenberg Statement on Execution of Garry Mark Gilmore

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