Angela Davis, political activist and scholar, proposed that racism is inherent in capital punishment and called for a need to take a California man off death row.

Davis said 121 countries around the world, but not the United States, have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.

"Do you wonder why it is so popular here in the U.S.?" Davis asked the audience. "Why does it feel so safe and secure in the U.S.?"

Davis, a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, spoke to about 700 people in Schwab Auditorium last night as part of Penn State's Africana Research Center and department of African and African American Studies' Barbara Jordan Lecture Series.

Davis also told the audience that Pennsylvania has the fourth largest number of people on death row of any state in the country.

"But you knew that, right," she said, and the audience murmured "no."

Today, in the post-Civil Rights era, Davis said the establishments of capital punishment and prison are supposed to be race neutral. However, she said this is not the case because under the surface, racism and slavery are inherent in capital punishment.

In the past, she said there were two forms of capital punishment -- death and slavery -- with the slave law seen as the appropriate alternative to death.

Davis shared the history of countless court cases involving the death penalty that led to today's law, which states the racial equality of the death penalty.

"This is the law we are facing," she said.

Capital punishment exists, she said, because of the institution of slavery, which not only affects the descendents of slaves but also those put to death.

Davis made an appeal to the audience to campaign for the exoneration of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a California man who was sentenced to death after being found guilty of four robbery-homicides in 1979.

Davis said Williams, who co-founded the notorious Los Angeles gang Crips, has been in prison for 25 years.

She added that Williams has written nine children's books and messages expressing the need to end gang violence.

Davis said unless California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger grants Williams clemency, he will be sentenced to death on Dec. 13.

Davis urged the audience to write letters, send e-mail messages and make calls to Schwarzenegger to release Williams.

Lindsay Miracle (senior-media studies) said she thought Davis made a lot of great points about democracy in the United States and what it meant to be democratic in today's world.

"I'm not sure if I agree with all her points, [but] she definitely gave the entire audience something to think on and reflect on," said Miracle, adding that Davis' speech was a call of action to Penn State to release Williams.

Charonda Hill (senior-international communications) said she plans on talking to the office of the vice provost for educational equity to see if she can start some kind of campaign on campus to gain support for the release of Williams.

"I think it's something the Penn State community should look at," Hill said.

Davis also discussed the meaning of innocence where the common assumption that innocence is the only ground for release from capital punishment. She said there is so much emphasis placed on innocence that many forget that there are other reasons for the abolition of capital punishment.

"Innocent people certainly don't belong on death row, but I don't think anyone belongs on death row," Davis said.