URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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27 May 2004
UA 184/04 Death penalty
USA (Ohio) William G. Zuern, aged 45
William Zuern (m), white is scheduled to be executed in Ohio
on 8 June 2004. He was sentenced to death in October 1984
for the murder of a jail guard, Phillip Pence, in the
Community Correctional Institute in Hamilton County four
months earlier. William Zuern has been on death row for
almost two decades.
According to the evidence at trial, William Zuern, who was in
pre-trial detention on a murder charge, stabbed Officer Pence
with a sharpened bucket hook during a cell search on 9 June
1984. Phillip Pence died in hospital as a result of the stab
wound.
At the subsequent trial, the jury convicted William Zuern of
aggravated murder. The defendant waived his right to present
mitigating evidence, and the jury recommended a death
sentence, finding that the murder had been committed with
prior calculation and design.
The Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed the death sentence in
1987. Two of the judges dissented on the grounds of a
prejudicial statement made by a prosecution witness in front
of the jury. The witness, a fellow inmate, had repeated a
conversation he said he had had with a jail guard shortly
before the stabbing. He recalled under questioning by the
prosecutor that he had said of William Zuern: "He is crazy,
man, he is in here for murder, and he won't hesitate to do it
again". The defence had called for a mistrial, which the judge
denied. The dissenting judges in the Ohio Supreme Court
wrote that they could not "imagine anything more harmful or
inflammatory in character than testimony of this nature...
[Zuern] was denied fundamental due process of law and a fair
trial by his peers and a second trial should be granted".
In 2000, a federal district judge granted William Zuern a new
trial on the grounds that the prosecution had withheld
evidence favourable to the defendant and which had
undermined confidence in the jury's decision that Zuern had
planned the murder. In 2003 the US Court of Appeals for the
Sixth Circuit overturned the district judge's decision, deciding
that even if the prosecution had turned over the evidence, the
outcome of the trial would likely have been the same.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases,
unconditionally. The death penalty not only runs the risk of
irrevocable error, it is costly - to the public purse, as well as in
social and psychological terms; it has no special deterrent
effect; it tends to be applied discriminatorily on grounds of
race and class; it prolongs the suffering of murder victims'
families, and extends that suffering to the loved ones of the
condemned prisoner. It is a symptom of a culture of violence,
not a solution to it. It is an affront to human dignity. It
should be abolished.
Today, 117 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. The
United Nations Commission on Human Rights has
repeatedly expressed its conviction that "abolition of the
death penalty contributes to the enhancement of human
dignity and to the progressive development of human rights".
In recent years, the Commission has repeatedly called on all
governments to impose a moratorium on executions with a
view to abolition.
The USA has put 911 prisoners to death since resuming
executions in 1977. Ohio accounts for 11 of these killings.
There have been 26 executions in the USA this year,
including three in Ohio.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to
arrive as quickly as possible:
- expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Phillip
Pence, explaining that you are not seeking to minimize the
seriousness of the crime or the suffering caused;
- explaining your opposition to the death penalty;
- urging the governor to grant clemency to William Zuern
and to promote and support efforts for a moratorium on
executions in Ohio.
APPEALS TO:
Governor Bob Taft
30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117
Fax: 614 466 9354
Email: (via website)
http://governor.ohio.gov/contactinfopage.asp
[email protected]
Salutation: Dear Governor
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots
movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept
intact, including contact information and stop
action date (if applicable). Thank you for your
help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
PO Box 1270
Nederland CO 80466-1270
Email: [email protected]
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 303 258 1170
Fax: 303 258 7881
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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