Tears, talk: Death penalty opponents in Rome rally for life

Published: 2004-11-30

ROME (CNS) -- A Pennsylvania man freed from death row and a mother from Uzbekistan whose son was executed in 2000 sat with their arms around each other, talking and quietly crying. Later, as the mother, Tamara Chikunova, told her story at a Nov. 30 conference in Rome, Nick Yarris -- the former death-row inmate -- pulled a baseball cap low over his head so the cameras would not capture his tears. The Nov. 30 conference was part of Rome's celebration of "Cities for Life: Cities Against the Death Penalty," an initiative begun by the Rome-based Community of Sant'Egidio and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Conferences and seminars about the death penalty were planned in more than 300 participating cities around the world.

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