
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 5, 1994                   TAG: 9401050154
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Short

BUS CANCELS DEATH-PENALTY OPPONENT ADS

An Amnesty International ad opposing the death penalty that was scheduled to appear on 10 city buses starting Tuesday was canceled at the last minute by the bus company, which deemed it too political.

The move came as Amnesty leaders were holding a press conference in Arlington to unveil a statewide campaign of similar bus ads in Roanoke, Richmond, Lynchburg and Arlington.

"I feel like the rug's kind of been pulled out on this campaign," said Shawn Gaylord, death penalty coordinator for the mid-Atlantic region for Amnesty International. "There's only five cities running, and that's one of them."

But Michael Townes, executive director of Pentran, the public bus company, said the ad clearly violated its policy banning "political ads." The timing was unfortunate, he said, but the ad copy was not received at Pentran until Monday night.

"We didn't pull the copy," Townes said. "What happened is, when we received the copy, we rejected it, which is our right."

The ad, which was to run on the sides and backs of 10 buses for two months, has the word "Oops" in large letters and the following copy written over it: "In the United States, 139 innocent people have been sentenced to death. Abolish capital punishment."

Amnesty International adds that 22 people actually were executed and later proved innocent.

by CNB