Subject: Further Action Needed on Urgent Action UA 330/04 on
USA/Connecticut -- second update
URGENT ACTION APPEAL UPDATE
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7 January 2005
Further information on UA 330/04 (6 December 2004)
and follow-up (7 December 2004) - Death penalty
USA (Connecticut) Michael Bruce Ross (m), white, aged 45
It is anticipated that a bill to abolish the death penalty will be
introduced into the Connecticut legislature in the coming
days. Governor Rell, in her announcement that she would not
issue a reprieve to stop the execution of Michael Ross, has
said that she will veto any such legislation that is passed by
the legislature (see previous update). A two-thirds majority in
each chamber of the General Assembly (Senate and House of
Representatives) is needed to be able to override a
gubernatorial veto.
Michael Ross is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection
in the early hours of 26 January. He has dropped his appeals
against his death sentence. The State of Connecticut has not
carried out an execution since 17 May 1960.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases,
regardless of the gravity of the crime, the guilt or innocence
of the condemned, or the method used to kill the prisoner.
The death penalty has not been shown to have a special
deterrent effect, it denies the possibility of remorse,
rehabilitation or reconciliation, and it consumes resources
that could otherwise be used towards constructive strategies
to combat violent crime and to offer assistance to those
affected by it. Executions cannot guarantee emotional peace
for the relatives of murder victims, risk brutalizing society,
and undermine respect for fundamental human rights.
History shows that countries have not waited for public
opinion to turn against the death penalty before abolishing it.
Principled human rights leadership is required for such a step.
The USA is still waiting for such leadership at the federal
level and in the 38 US states which retain the death penalty.
Today, 118 countries are abolitionist in law or practice, and
progress continues towards global abolition. Most recently,
on 10 December 2004, the Senegalese Parliament adopted a
bill abolishing the death penalty. Under the lead of President
Abdoulaye Wade, the bill had been adopted unanimously by
the government three months earlier. In October 2004, the
Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
published its report. It recommended abolition of the death
penalty as "imperative". In Nigeria in October 2004, the
National Study Group on the Death Penalty called on the
Federal Government to impose a moratorium on executions.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is personally opposed to
the death penalty, had launched a national debate on the issue
in November 2003.
At least 111 of the 945 people executed in the USA since
1977, including 10 of the 59 put to death in 2004 and the first
person put to death this year, were so-called "volunteers,"
prisoners who had dropped their appeals and "consented" to
execution. Such executions could perhaps be characterized as
"prisoner-assisted homicide" rather than "state-assisted
suicide". Any number of factors may lead a prisoner not to
pursue appeals against a death sentence, including mental
disorder, physical illness, remorse, bravado, religious belief,
the severity of conditions of confinement, including
prolonged isolation, lack of group activities, and of physical
contact visits (as is the case in Connecticut), the bleak
alternative of life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole, pessimism about appeal prospects, a quest for
notoriety, or simply a desire to gain a semblance of control
over a situation in which the prisoner is otherwise powerless.
Rational or irrational, a decision taken by someone who is
under threat of death at the hands of others cannot be
consensual. What is more, it cannot disguise the fact that the
state is involved in a premeditated killing, a policy that is a
symptom of a culture of violence rather than a solution to it.
Whether or not a prisoner who "asks" to be executed is
deluding himself or herself about the level of control they
have gained over their fate -- after all, they are merely
assisting their government in what it has set out to do anyway
-- the state is guilty of a far greater deception. It is peddling its
own illusion of control: that, by killing a selection of those it
convicts of murder, it can offer a constructive contribution to
efforts to defeat violent crime. In reality, the state is taking to
refined, calculated heights what it seeks to condemn B the
deliberate taking of human life.
FURTHER RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send
appeals, to arrive as quickly as possible:
- welcoming the fact that the State of Connecticut has not
carried out an execution for nearly 45 years, and expressing
deep concern that this situation is currently due to end on 26
January 2005;
- acknowledging the seriousness of the crimes for which
Michael Ross was sentenced to death, and explaining that you
are not seeking to excuse those crimes or to minimize the
suffering caused;
- explaining why you think that the death penalty is bad
government policy, and that to resume executions could only
damage Connecticut's international image in an increasingly
abolitionist world;
- welcoming indications that an abolitionist bill will be
introduced into the General Assembly;
- asking the addressees to make your concern known to the
General Assembly, and to do all in their power to support
such legislation and to prevent the State of Connecticut from
taking the backward step of resuming executions.
Senate:
Senator Donald Williams, President Pro Tempore
Legislative Office Building, Room 3300
Hartford, CT 06106-1591
Email: [email protected]
Fax: 1 860 240 0208
Salutation: Dear Senator Williams
House of Representatives:
Representative James Amann, Speaker of the House
Legislative Office Building, Room 4106
Hartford, CT 06106-1591
Email: [email protected]
Fax: 1 860 240 0206
Salutation: Dear Representative Amann
Please also continue to send appeals to Governor Rell as
recommended previously:
- expressing sympathy for the families of the murder victims
in this case, and explaining that you are not seeking in any
way to excuse the manner of their deaths or to minimize the
suffering caused;
- welcoming the fact that the State of Connecticut has not
carried out an execution since 1960, during which time more
than a hundred countries have abolished the death penalty in
law or practice;
- regretting the Governor's announcement that she will not
issue a reprieve in the case of Michael Ross;
- urging her to reconsider her decision, not out of sympathy
for Michael Ross, or out of a lack of empathy for the murder
victims and their families, but in order to reject her own and
her state's involvement in the killing of a human being,
however terrible the crimes of which he was convicted;
- urging her to do all in her power to prevent the State of
Connecticut from taking this backward step, and not to veto
any abolitionist bill that is passed by the legislature.
Governor:
Governor M. Jodi Rell, Executive Office of the Governor
State Capitol, 210 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
Email: [email protected]
Fax: 1 860 524 7396
Salutation: Dear Governor
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
All appeals must arrive by 26 January 2005.
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 UPDATE
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