International opinion helped end segregation in the United States and apartheid in South Africa. International opinion helped convince the U.S. Supreme Court to ban executions of people with mental retardation (although Texas prosecutors are still trying to circumvent that decision). Many individuals, non governmental organizations, national governments, and supranational organizations such as the European Union have already taken positions in support of a moratorium. In many cases, they have directed their calls for a moratorium to the United States government or to the United Nations. They have also sent letters and emails to governors, but such communications to the Texas governor have apparently had little effect. To better influence the moratorium debate in Texas, the world needs to focus its attention more on local governments. In Texas, the Legislature does not meet again until 2005, so right now, the world needs to ask local governments in Texas to pass moratorium resolutions, so that we can build support for a moratorium by 2005. We need the world to "Talk to Texas" and say, "Stop Executions!"

In 2002, the Italian city of Reggio Emilia began a dialogue about the death penalty with its sister city of Fort Worth. The Fort Worth city council responded that it has no influence on the death penalty debate. Yet, more than 80 city councils in the United States have passed moratorium resolutions. In April, the Travis County Commissioners Court became the first major Texas local government to pass a moratorium resolution. In July, the Austin City Council approved a $9 million settlement after an innocent man sued Austin for Austin´s role in his wrongful conviction. A moratorium is a local issue. City councils in Texas need to pass moratorium resolutions to send the message to the next Texas Legislature that Texas needs a moratorium. Otherwise, local governments will continue to foot the bill for the problems in the criminal justice system.

The goal of the "Talk to Texas" campaign is for cities that already have partnerships to use those connections to work together on an issue that causes concern for citizens in each partner city. We expect the end result of working together to pass moratorium resolutions will be to strengthen the ties between the partner cities.

The inaugural event in the "Talk to Texas" campaign occured on July 4th in Leipzig, Germany, a sister city of Houston. TMN, cooperating with ALIVE - Koalition gegen die Todestrafe and amnesty-international Leipzig organized a panel discussion in Leipzig. After the panel discussion, representatives of TMN and Amnesty met with a member of the Leipzig city council to discuss a proposed Leipzig city council resolution asking the Houston city council to support a moratorium on executions. The council member was very supportive. He predicted many prominent Leipzig personalities would sign a letter asking for a moratorium.

Event in Leipzig, Germany on July 4, 2003

What can you do as part of the "Talk to Texas" campaign?

The process is similar whether you live in Texas or in a sister city of a Texas city. First, find out if your city has a sister city. If you live in a Texas city, you can contact us and we will put you in contact with other people in your community who have expressed an interest in working on a moratorium resolution. If you live in one of Texas´ international sister cities, also let us know that you are working on this, so we can share some ideas. Then, round up some more supporters (groups such as Amnesty International, churches and synagogues are a good place to start looking for supporters), download our sample resolution, modify it if you need to, then contact your local city council members and mayor and ask them to sponsor the resolution. It will also be helpful to ask influential people in your community to sign a letter of support or to contact the city council themselves. You might also want to collect signatures from the public, so that you can present them to both your city council and the sister-city council. If your city is planning a trip to its sister city, you can contact us and we can work together to plan a couple of death penalty related events and we can arrange for you to meet people in your sister city who also want a moratorium on executions. Read our City Council page for more tips.

Texas is out of step with much of the rest of the world when it comes to the death penalty - especially with regard to executions of juvenile offenders, people with mental retardation, non-U.S. citizens whose rights to contact their consulates were denied, and the sheer number of executions. Texas is now more famous for the death penalty, than it is for NASA, Big Bend National Park, our beaches, Tex-Mex food or our music. That is a shame.

People around the world need to "Talk to Texas" and ask why we allow people to be sentenced to death without providing them a competent, non-sleepy lawyer. How can we Texans tolerate a system where all-white juries are allowed to sentence African-Americans such as Clarence Brandley, Thomas Miller-El, Napoleon Beazley or Delma Banks to death. What crystal ball allows us to sentence people to death based on their probability of "future dangerousness"? An expert witness testified that Randall Adams should be executed because, if sentenced to life in prison, Adams would certainly kill again. As it turned out, Adams never killed anyone and was proven innocent and released. Many others sit on death row based on unscientific, bogus predictions from "expert" witnesses that they will kill again. Why was Texas the only place on Earth in 2002 that executed juvenile offenders?

Check this list from Texas Sister Cities International to see if your Texas city has a sister city around the world (Note: This list seems to have one or two errors). You can also check this list from Sister Cities International, however a few cities have established sister city relationships that are not on these lists. The list below combines various sources, including individual city sites and association lists. It is not yet complete, since there seem to be lots of independent relationships, particularly between smaller cities.

Abilene
Chita , Russia
Corinth , Greece
Herrlisheim , France
Rio Cuarto , Argentina

Arlington
Bad Konigshofen, Bavaria Germany

Austin
Adelaide, Australia
Koblenz, Germany
Lima, Peru
Maseru, Lesotho
Oita City, Japan
Orlu, Nigeria
Saltillo, Mexico
Taichung City, China
Xishuangbanna, China
KwangMyong, Korea

Beaumont
Beppu , Japan

Benbrook
Bled , Slovenia

Bryan/College Station
Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Germany

Cleburne
Comonfort , Mexico

Corpus Christi
Keelung City, China
Agen, France
Toledo , Spain
Veracruz, Mexico
Yokosuka, Japan

Dallas
Brno, Czech
Dijon, France
Monterrey , Mexico
Riga, Latvia

Dallas is considering forming a sister city relationship with Wuerzburg, Germany, because one of the city council members in Wuerzburg is the father of Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.

Denison
Cognac, France

Denton
San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico

Farmers Branch
Bassettlaw District , UK
Garbsen, Germany
Markham, Canada

Fort Worth
Budapest, Hungary
Nagaoka, Japan
Reggio Emilia, Italy
Toluca, Mexico
Trier, Germany

Fredericksburg
Montabaur, Germany

Grand Prairie
Charlesbough , Canada

Houston
Baku, Azerbaijan
Chiba , Japan
Grampian Region , UK
Guayaquil, Ecuador
Huelva, Spain
Istanbul, Turkey
Leipzig, Germany
Nice, France
Perth, Australia
Shenzhen, China
Stavanger, Norway
Taipei Municipality, China
Tyumen, Russia

Huntsville
Niharu, Japan

Irving
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Espoo, Finland
Marino, Italy
Merton, UK

Killeen
Osan City , Korea

Lubbock
Leon , Mexico

Nassau Bay
Zvyozdny Gorodok , Russia

New Braunfels
Braunfels, Hessen Germany

Pasadena
Hadano , Japan Puchon , Korea

Plano
Brampton, Ontario , Canada
Ivanovo , Russia
San Pedro Garza Garcia , Mexico

Rockport
Beachport, Australia

San Antonio
Guadalajara , Mexico
Kaohsiung Municipality , China
Kumamoto , Japan
Kwangju , Korea
Las Palmas De Gran Canaria, Spain
Monterrey , Mexico
Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain

Shiner
Winterlingen, Baden Württemberg Germany

Seguin
Vechta, Lower Saxony Germany

Temple
Aguascalientes , Mexico

Tomball
Telgte, Germany

Tyler
Jelinia Gora , Poland
Yachiyo City , Japan

Weimar
Weimar, Thüringen Germany

Whitesboro
Brampton, Ontario , Canada

Wichita Falls
Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany

Arlington and Bad Konigshofen, Bavaria Germany

Austin and Koblenz, Germany

Bryan/College Station and Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Germany
June 24 July 9 2004 Americans to Visit Greifswald

Farmers Branch and Garbsen, Germany

Fort Worth and Trier, Germany

Fredericksburg and Montabaur, Germany

Houston and Leipzig, Germany

New Braunfels and Braunfels, Hessen Germany

Tomball and Telgte, Germany

Seguin and Vechta, Lower Saxony Germany

Shiner and Winterlingen, Baden Württemberg Germany

Weimar and Weimar, Thüringen Germany

Wichita Falls and Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany

Wuerzburg, Germany is considering forming a sister city relationship with Dallas, because one of the city council members in Wuerzburg is the father of Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.

List from U.S. Embassy in Germany

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
August 4, 2002

A local delegation that includes five City Council members is going to Reggio Emilia, Italy, at month's end for what would normally be a routine cultural visit.

The trip has been planned for almost a year, but this year's well- publicized fracas between Fort Worth and its longest-standing Sister City over the Texas death penalty has turned it into something greater: a goodwill mission.

"We are hoping that we can keep our relationship strong with Reggio Emilia," Councilwoman Wendy Davis said Thursday. "We've been keeping the lines of communication open. The whole point of the Sister Cities program is for us to be able to learn from each other."

Tensions between the 2 cities peaked in April, when Reggio Emilia's government threatened to sever its cultural ties with local officials. The Italian city was protesting the state's execution of David Lee Goff, a 32-year-old Fort Worth man convicted of the 1990 kidnapping, robbery and slaying of drug counselor Michael McGuire.

In the weeks before the execution, Reggio Emilia Mayor Antonella Spaggiari sent letters condemning the death penalty to Gov. Rick Perry and Mayor Kenneth Barr.

"According to us, being friends means - among other things - that we are in a position to tell you that we do not agree with capital punishment, that we consider it wrong ... ," Spaggiari wrote. "Reggio Emilia ... cannot accept a violent practice such as the death penalty as a method of punishment."

The letter was sent with a petition signed by 2,500 residents of the agriculture-rich city in northern Italy.

Fort Worth officials have said the death penalty debate is not a city issue.

"I was really surprised by all of this," City Councilman Jim Lane said. "At the City Council level, we have no control, no say-so, on death penalty issues. But I'll be happy to visit with them on the whole subject while we are there."

Davis and Lane will be accompanied on the trip by council members Frank Moss, Becky Haskin and Jeff Wentworth. They leave Aug. 31 and return Sept. 7.

The weeklong visit to Italy has been in the works for almost a year and is not the result of the death penalty debate, said Mae Johnson, executive director of Fort Worth Sister Cities.

But Johnson said the trip should go a long way toward repairing the cities' relationship.

"I am hopeful that maybe we can resolve this," Johnson said. "They just didn't quite understand that the City Council can't effect change in this area. But I think that's starting to change now."

The council's visit will come at the end of Reggio Emilia's Olimpiade del Tricolore, an international sports event at which more than 150 Tarrant County youths will compete in such events as swimmming, soccer, roller hockey, gymnastics and baseball.

Reggio Emilia has participated in the local sister city program since 1985. Fort Worth has cultural exchange programs with 5 other cities - Trier, Germany; Nagaoka, Japan; Bandung, Indonesia; Budapest, Hungary; and Toluca, Mexico.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
April 24, 2002

With the help of a translator, the vice mayor of Fort Worth's Italian Sister City listened Tuesday night as 5 Texans laid out arguments for and against capital punishment.

The forum was one result of the public rift between Reggio Emilia and Fort Worth that began last spring when the Italian city threatened to sever cultural ties with Fort Worth if the City Council didn't take a stand against capital punishment.

Fort Worth's council refused, saying the issue is one for state and federal lawmakers, not city councils.

"Mayor [Kenneth] Barr told Mayor [Antonella] Spaggiari that the community would be happy to discuss the topic and that he would be happy to have them come here and participate in that," city spokesman Pat Svacina said.

About 60 people attended the Community Conversation on Capital Punishment at the Will Rogers Auditorium. In the audience were Reggio Emilia Vice Mayor Claudio Tancredi and Italian Sister Cities representative Barbara Donnici. They listened using headphones and a city-hired translator.

On the panel were Donald Jackson, chairman of the political science department at Texas Christian University and a longtime lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union; community advocate Mari Donaldson; Earl F. Martin, associate professor of law at Texas Wesleyan University; Ray Stewart, co-founder and president of Families of Murder Victims; and Alan Levy, chief of the criminal division of the Tarrant County district attorney's office.

Levy said people who commit the most heinous crimes must be punished strongly.

"What is the price for killing an innocent person? Is it 10, 20 or 30 years? Are we bartering?" Levy said. "What is the price of your life if someone comes in and takes it?

"In this country, if you take a person's innocent life, we expect the maximum punishment."

On the other side, Jackson said capital punishment does not deter crime and puts the United States out of step with other Western countries that have abolished executions.

"The reason we have the death penalty in America is principally for vengeance," Jackson said. "The rest of the world is marching rapidly in a different direction from the United States, and we are either standing still or retreating in the opposite direction."

Afterward, Tancredi told council members that some Reggio Emilia officials still want to cut ties with Fort Worth, but he said he does not think that is a good solution.

"I think it is best to keep talking," he said through the translator. "That is the best way to find a solution."