Dec. 4
NORTH CAROLINA:
Execution of half brother leads woman into a protest
Tina Walker hopped in a car Thursday to make her 1st visit to Central
Prison since her half-brother, Steve McHone, was executed Nov. 11.
She almost turned around. The drive down Western Boulevard - 2 hours from
her home in Winston-Salem - toward the gates of the prison caused her to
relive her anguish.
"It was very, very emotional," she said. "When we hit Western, I wasn't
sure I could do it."
Yet she did.
She climbed out of the car wearing comfortable running shoes and waded
into a circus-like atmosphere of protest and civil disobedience.
The big top came to Raleigh in buses and vans, drawn more by the number,
1,000th execution, than the name of the condemned, Kenneth Lee Boyd.
It was a chance to spread the word, you see, an artificial spectacle set
up by an arbitrary number. The world's media was coming. Polish national
TV. Agence France Presse. Reuters. Radio feeds to the BBC World News
Service. To Walker, the number wasn't really the thing. Number 999 or
Number 1,001, it didn't matter. The memory of McHone - Number 994 - made
her get in the car.
Heinous acts
By any measure, Kenneth Lee Boyd's crime was monstrous, a barbaric act
fueled by hatred and booze.
He killed his estranged wife, 36-year-old Julie Curry Boyd, and her
father, Thomas Dillard Curry, 17 years ago in Rockingham County. During
the shooting, her son was trapped under her body and managed to escape by
wiggling under a bed.
Boyd called 911, told authorities what he had done, and then he reloaded
to shoot some more.
If you believe in the death penalty and its applications - 61 % of us in
North Carolina do, according to a recent Elon University poll - then Boyd
certainly qualified for his place on death row.
"Tonight, justice has been served for Mr. Kenneth Boyd," said Sheriff Sam
Page of Rockingham County.
Walker doesn't see it that way.
In the previous few weeks, she had helped tend to McHone's final wishes.
"Steve said he wanted to be cremated because he didn't want to be in a box
any more," she said.
Walker has long since forgiven McHone for killing her father and her
stepmother. She decided to return to Raleigh because she wants other
victims to have the same chance to grant forgiveness and heal emotionally.
"I just couldn't go for (Elias) Syriani," she said, referring to the Nov.
18 execution of a Charlotte man convicted of killing his wife with a
screwdriver. "It was just too soon."
Syriani was No. 997.
No more
When McHone was put to death by lethal injection, the crowd outside
Central Prison was much smaller.
No temporary metal barricades were set up. Nobody took the trouble to
build a wooden gallows and hangman's noose to protest. No national leaders
from Amnesty International came down from Washington, nor did a gang of 16
lie down in the prison driveway to protest.
There were no arrests, nor were there foreign journalists smoking
cigarettes and pacing out front.
Just a handful of homegrown dissenters holding candles in peaceful
protest.
"That's what got me down here," Walker said. "The candles. I was sitting
behind the plate-glass windows (in the prison visitors' center), and I saw
those lights. It was inspiring to know that we weren't alone."
Walker also went to make sure that her voice was heard, even if it was
muffled by the louder voices of hundreds of other protesters. She also
said that she feels shortchanged because Gov. Mike Easley would not allow
her to attend McHone's clemency hearing.
"I don't know what I would have said," she said. "I would have talked of
love and forgiveness. I might have questioned his faith.
"He took my platform that day. He won't any more."
(source: Winston-Salem Journal)
OHIO:
'I'm being cheated of my life'----The execution toll has hit 1,000 - but
support for the ultimate penalty is waning. Kenny Richey, whose appeal was
overturned last week, tells of life in death's shadow
'This is my day,' said Kenny Richey. 'My day is nothing. My cell is 10 ft
by 7ft, and I'm in it 23 hours a day. It does have a TV, but right now
it's bust, and they don't seem in much of a hurry to get it fixed. The
window is 3 inches wide, but I keep it covered. I can't bear to see the
outside and not be part of it. I can't walk on grass or breathe fresh air,
so I block the view with wet toilet paper. I can't tell you when I last
looked at a tree: it was so long ago.
'I get an hour of exercise in a concrete yard, 12ft by 12ft. The walls and
floor are concrete and it's covered with a steel wire mesh. That's my only
contact with the outside atmosphere.'
Richey, 41, was speaking from death row at the Mansfield Correctional
Institution in Ohio, where he has spent nearly 20 years. Until last week,
it had looked as if he would shortly be on his way home to Edinburgh,
after he won a critical appeal last April against his conviction for
killing a toddler in an arson attack.
But the prosecution appealed in turn against that ruling, and last week
the US Supreme Court decided in its favour. Yesterday, in Richey's first
media interview since it issued its decision, he was able to phone The
Observer
'Of course I'm shocked and bitterly disappointed,' Richey said. 'But
beyond that, I'm angry. There's compelling evidence that I'm innocent, as
I've always said, and what this ruling means is that the courts won't even
look at it. I'm being cheated of my life. I'm being robbed. It's unfair,
completely unjust. But there's absolutely nothing I can do. I'm at their
mercy.'
At one stage, it had even seemed that he might be home for Christmas. That
is now a distant dream. 'Christmas will be the same as every other day,'
Richey said. 'I'll get a slice of turkey. Yes, they do give you that.
Maybe some pumpkin pie. But that's it.'
Richey, a former marine, was 18 when he left his mother's home in Scotland
to live with his father in Ohio, and he still speaks in a broad, east
coast accent, tinged just occasionally with the US Midwest. In July 1986,
he had been only days from returning home when he was arrested for the
murder of 2-year-old Cynthia Williams, who died from smoke inhalation in
her mother's apartment.
The prosecution claimed that Richey started the fire by pouring paint
thinner and petrol on to the apartment carpet; his estranged former
girlfriend, Candy Barchet, lived in the flat beneath, and was, the
prosecution claimed, the intended target.
There were no witnesses, and no trace of flammable liquid on Richey's
clothing; he would have had to climb on to a high, sloping roof in order
to enter the apartment, but his hand was in plaster. The prosecution
offered him a deal: an 11-year jail sentence if he pleaded guilty. Intent
on proving his innocence, he declined - and was sentenced to death.
Richey's lawyers have been trying to get a court to hear evidence of his
innocence since 1997. It includes affidavits by forensic scientists, who
say the fire was accidental - and evidence that the toddler started three
accidental fires in the weeks before her death.
Eighteen months ago, the Sixth Circuit Federal Appeals Court in Ohio found
in his favour, adding that the prosecution should never have charged him
with capital murder, because he had no intent to kill Cynthia. Either he
should be freed, or the prosecution would have to give him a new trial,
the judges said. Instead, the prosecution appealed and won.
'They have no confidence in their own case: that's why they can't let the
new evidence be heard,' Richey said. 'They know I'm innocent, that's why
they're fighting so hard, because for me to win would undermine the
judicial system, and make them look bad. They keep fighting because they
think that if they go on long enough, people will believe them.'
For a moment, the line went silent, and when Richey spoke again, his voice
was cracked. 'They're just ... such crooked bastards.'
Richey's lawyers, led by Ken Persigian in Boston, are also still fighting.
They plan to apply to the Supreme Court for the case to be re-heard, on
the grounds that its decision on the question of intent was wrong in law.
'They messed up their decision,' said Richey, 'and not a single one of the
judges even signed their opinion, so nobody knows which idiot came up with
it.'
They also have another chance to argue for the fresh evidence to be heard
back in the Sixth Circuit, the Supreme Court having said that this issue
is not yet fully explored.
Even if Richey wins, it will not be for many months. If he loses, he will
be dead in little more than a year. 'I'd like to thank all the people in
Britain who've supported me,' he said. 'At times like this, I wouldn't get
through without them. And I'd like to ask them to show their feelings in
another way: stop buying American goods, in protest at this injustice.'
(source: The Observer)
ILLINOIS:
Case that reshaped state's death penalty debate is back in court
A 10-year-old girl by the name of Jeanine Nicarico helped to transform the
debate over the death penalty in America.
In 1983, Jeanine was kidnapped from her home outside Chicago, raped and
murdered. During the next two decades, 2 men were tried over and over amid
allegations that sheriff's deputies and prosecutors concealed and
fabricated evidence and put lying jailhouse snitches on the stand.
Ultimately, Rolando Cruz was acquitted at his 3rd trial in 1995, and the
charges against Alejandro Hernandez were dropped the same year after his
conviction was overturned for the 2nd time.
The furor over the case set in motion a chain of events: It led to other
investigations in Illinois that freed prisoners wrongfully convicted of
murder. It played a key role in then-Gov. George Ryan's decision to
suspend all executions and clear out the state's death row in 2003 of all
167 inmates.
And it helped change the terms of the death penalty debate in the United
States.
A myth is broken
Instead of arguing over the morality of capital punishment or whether it
deters crime, politicians and activists found themselves questioning the
reliability of the criminal justice system and contemplating the risk that
an innocent person might be put to death."This case helped break the myth
that the system is infallible," said Diann Rust-Tierney, executive
director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Rob Warden, director of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful
Convictions, said: "I do not believe any of this would have happened
without the Cruz case."
Both sides of the death penalty debate were reminded of that this week
when 49-year-old Brian Dugan, who implicated himself in the crime a full
decade ago, finally was charged in Jeanine's slaying. Dugan already is
serving two life sentences for the murder of a little girl and a woman.
"The thing that is so important here is that if (prosecutors) had had
their way, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez would be dead today,"
Warden said.
The case against the two men had more twists than a Scott Turow novel.
They originally were found guilty and sentenced to death, but one
conviction after another was thrown out by the Illinois Supreme Court.
The case came roaring back in 1996 when former prosecutors and DuPage
County sheriff's officers were charged with lying and concealing evidence.
They later were acquitted.
'Demon of error'
The furor played a major role in Ryan's decision to assemble a Commission
on Capital Punishment in 2000 to determine what was wrong with the state's
death penalty system, which had wrongfully convicted 13 men since Illinois
reinstated capital punishment in the 1970s.Ultimately, Ryan concluded that
the system was "haunted by the demon of error" and that the risk was too
high that an innocent person might be executed.
Also, the Jeanine Nicarico murder was "sort of the really big case that
drove the media to look at others" around the country, said Illinois
defense attorney Theodore Gottfried, a commission member.
Locke Bowman, legal director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the
University of Chicago, said the case was instrumental in changing the
discussion of the death penalty.
"The unraveling of the case was so dramatic and so fraught with problems
that I think that in Illinois the case began to focus attention away from
the topics that had dominated the death penalty debate and toward the
question of innocence and systemic error and wrongful convictions," he
said.
The commission made 2 major recommendations that were prompted in part by
the Jeanine Nicarico case, urging that interrogations of murder suspects
be recorded and that a judge determine the reliability of jailhouse
informants before they testify. Both of those were adopted by the General
Assembly.
In the past few years, the state also has given the Illinois Supreme Court
greater power to throw out unjust verdicts, offered defendants more access
to evidence and barred the death penalty in cases that depend on a single
witness.
Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich has kept the moratorium on executions in
place while he sees how the changes work.
(source: Suburban Chicago News)
USA:
Death Penalty: Convicts' Unlikely Allies
In the end, Kenneth Boyd, the 1,000th convict to be executed in the United
States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, had some unusual
advocates: two jurors who sentenced him to death in North Carolina nearly
two decades ago. Sue Griffin and Sylvia Coeburn, long troubled by the
verdict, petitioned the governor for clemency. "I felt like I was pushed
into making the decision of the 10 other jurors," Coeburn says. "I didn't
feel comfortable with it, but I didn't know my rights as a juror."
Although they didn't succeed - Boyd was executed last Friday - the women
represent a small but growing number of jurors in capital murder cases
who've had second thoughts and are coming forward. Emboldened by a recent
spate of exonerations and reports of mishandled evidence, jurors have
started talking to the media, testifying before state legislators and
signing affidavits. "Jurors are like everyone else - they're very much
aware that mistakes are made in some cases," says Richard Dieter, head of
the Death Penalty Information Center.
They're starting to get results. Last year 6 jurors pleaded for clemency
on behalf of Darnell Williams, an Indiana death-row inmate, after a key
witness in the case recanted and new DNA tests cast doubt on his guilt.
(The governor commuted his sentence to life in prison.) In Louisiana,
Kathleen Hawk Norman, a jury forewoman who voted in 1996 to execute Dan
Bright, later filed an amicus brief on his behalf. When his conviction was
overturned last year, Norman founded Jurors for Justice to advocate for
those haunted by death verdicts and aid condemned inmates. She started the
group in honor of Bright, whom she faced in the courtroom just before his
release. Still in shackles, he took her hand and said: "You were used like
I was used. Do me a favor - don't forget about the others."
(source: Newsweek)
*********************************
The debate that polarises America
In the early hours of Friday morning, prisoner number 0040519 ate a last
meal of steak and baked potato in his cell, said prayers with a priest and
made the short walk to the execution chamber at North Carolina's Central
Prison.
The name of Kenneth Lee Boyd, a convicted murderer who gunned down his
wife and father-in-law, is now in the history books as the 1,000th
prisoner put to death since the United States reinstated capital
punishment in 1976.
But his milestone execution by lethal injection, and other controversies
playing out on death rows across the country, are likely to have
far-reaching significance for those on both sides of America's fiery and
long-running death penalty debate.
Opponents say that Boyd's case, alongside the scheduled execution of the
founder of Los Angeles' most violent street gang next week and the death
sentence re-imposed on Kenny Richey in Ohio 6 days ago, will harden public
opinion against a punishment they see as macabre and inhumane and will
lead eventually to its abolition.
Supporters, meanwhile, say that the publicity surrounding the cases
involving Boyd, Richey and reformed Crips gang godfather Stanley 'Tookie'
Williams brings greater focus to the rights of the victims and their
families and could even be a catalyst for an upturn in the number of US
executions after several years of decline.
'It's certainly put the death penalty issue back into play, and it's not
all one-sided,' said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death
Penalty Information Centre, a Washington DC-based group that has monitored
every execution since Gary Gilmore faced a firing squad in Utah in January
1977, ending a 10-year moratorium.
Few, if any, issues have been more polarising to the American public over
the last 29 years. Yet despite the President being a firm supporter -
George Bush approved 152 executions during his 5 years as Texas governor,
more than any other state governor in history - abolitionists say that the
death penalty's days are numbered.
'It's a question of when, not if,' said David Elliott, communications
director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. 'I don't
know if it will be 5 years, 10 years or 15 years, but certainly within the
next half-generation.
'Any time the death penalty is in the news, the more people learn about
the flawed system and the more they oppose it. They think the death
penalty is great until they hear about the racial discrimination, death
sentences handed down to minors and the mentally retarded, and the 122
people convicted and sentenced but later proved to be innocent.'
A Gallup poll released last month revealed that 64 % of Americans were in
favour of the death penalty, the lowest figure in 27 years and down from a
peak of 80 % in 1994.
Statistics from the DPIC also reveal significant falls in the number of
executions, death sentences and death row populations in recent years.
There were 59 executions in the US last year, down from 98 in 1999, a 40 %
drop, and a steady decline in the number of death sentences handed out
from 320 in 1996 to 125 in 2004 as juries became more wary of making a
mistake.
The number of prisoners on death row fluctuates, but stood at 3,415 on 1
July, the 5th straight annual fall, according to DPIC. Meanwhile, there is
evidence the death penalty is falling out of favour with politicians. The
legislatures of New York and Kansas declared it unconstitutional last year
and a moratorium on executions remains in New Jersey and Illinois.
California and North Carolina are reviewing their capital punishment laws.
Yet supporters of the death penalty are not impressed. 'What I see is 2/3
of the population in favour,' said Michael Rushford, president of the
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a victims' rights group based in
Sacramento.
'We need to remember that over 28 years there have been 1,000 executions,
but half a million people have been killed by criminals in the same
period. Those opposed to the death penalty try to focus all the attention
on murderers as victims, encouraging the idea that that we shouldn't think
about those who have been killed.'
The rights of the victims' families will weigh heavily on California
governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's mind on Thursday when he meets lawyers
representing Williams, the notorious founder of the murderous Crips gang,
due to be executed by lethal injection on 13 December.
Celebrities including rap star Snoop Dogg, Bianca Jagger, Russell Crowe
and Jamie Foxx, and thousands of children, teachers and parents from
deprived inner-city areas, are calling for Williams to be spared because
he has long renounced gang violence and has two nominations for the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Williams, 51, claims he is innocent of gunning down 4 people during
robberies in 1979 and says that racist and corrupt prosecutors framed him.
Since his volte-face in condemning gang culture he has written children's
books and talks regularly to youth groups by phone from death row.
(source: The Observer)
*********************
1,000th execution sharpens doubts about the ultimate penalty
The execution of a North Carolina man on Friday drew national attention.
Kenneth Boyd, who murdered his wife and her father, became the latest
symbol for death penalty opponents because he was the 1,000th person put
to death since American reinstituted capital punishment in 1976.
The number is meaningless. If you oppose the death penalty, the first
execution was just as wrong as the 1,000th. If you support the death
penalty, No. 1,000 is no different from No. 2 or No. 2,000. The political
symbolism is all that counts.
Yet the attention given to Kenneth Boyd's execution gives opponents the
opportunity to make their case, and forces supporters to defend their
position.
In California, celebrities are lining up to stop the scheduled execution
of Stanley Tookie Williams on Dec. 13. Mr. Williams, an author of
children's books, is in prison for murdering 4 people. He has repented,
not of those murders but of the wretched life that he once led. This,
according to the celebrities, is reason to spare him.
Death penalty supporters are fuming as they watch Hollywood personalities
bestow secular sainthood on the man who co-founded the Crips, one of the
nation's most notorious street gangs. What about his victims, they ask.
A Texas case is more disturbing. Evidence appears to be mounting that a
17-year-old put to death in 1993 may have been innocent. A witness has
recanted and the case is being examined anew. Unfortunately, Ruben Cantu
is already dead.
Meanwhile, support for the death penalty is slipping nationwide. A
majority of Americans still favor it, but polls indicate the number has
gone down. More people are questioning the fairness and accuracy of the
death penalty. More states are studying how capital punishment is applied.
Unlike the Hollywood types, the questioners also recognize that most of
the inmates on death row are anything but saints. What these people did
was wrong and punishment is called for. Too often death penalty opponents
turn death row residents into celebrities, at the expense of the people
who were murdered.
The growing doubts seem to indicate more people are wisely fearful that
mistakes, such as the possible one in Texas, can happen.
These concerns and doubts, not symbolic numbers or celebrity, will
determine future of the death penalty in America.
(source: Opinion, Delaware News-Journal)
*******************
The death penalty deters 'monsters'
Rev. Jeremy Tobin advocates against the death penalty, his chief argument
being that society can be protected from vicious killers via a lifetime of
incarceration until natural death ("Death penalty looms, stirring debate
again," Nov. 28 guest column). This simply is not true.
Rev. Tobin need only look at many annual escapes by convicted murderers
from maximum security prisons across the country.
I also find deeply offensive Tobin's assertion that living victims (loved
ones of murder victims) are "cooking" in an "addictive witches brew" of
toxic emotions. This characterization of victims' families who suffer
immeasurable pain and grief is inexcusable. They, above all, do not want
an innocent person executed.
The worst of the worst, for which the death penalty was intended, are
serial killers. These typically are sadistic, sexual killers who cannot be
"cured," and are a waste of oxygen. They are supremely dangerous, and if
one escapes, he will surely kill again .
They don't just kill - they terrorize, rape, sodomize, bite, slash, beat,
torture and overkill. Any depraved, violent cruelty one can imagine is
their idea of fun. The more, the better.
The possibility of escape is a practical argument of great importance. The
death penalty protects us from the monsters who will kill again. Putting
them to sleep is a deterrence: The serial killer, when executed, is
deterred absolutely.
Ann Williams----Ridgeland
*************************
Unfortunately, death penalty essential to our protection
In response to Jeremy Tobin's guest column ("Death penalty looms, stirring
debate again," Nov. 28), I would state without hesitation that I favor
life and a culture that values and protects life as much as he. Our
opinions diverge where reality meets idealism.
In an ideal world, the death penalty would be unnecessary because we would
not be besieged by lethal predators. In the very real world in which we
live, we must confront these predators who not only utterly fail to value
life but wantonly and viciously destroy it.
I contend it is our difficult responsibility to protect life, particularly
innocent life, by removing such threats, sometimes permanently. That is
the only certain protection we have.
I think the 5 escapes of murderers in Mississippi just this fall answer
the question of the adequacy of life without parole.
The upcoming execution of John Nixon, 77-year-old hit man, is deplorable -
not because it is happening, but because he and the victim's families have
had to wait so long. Where is justice swift and sure - for anyone?
The post-conviction process so heavily favors the convicted that it
enables such situations to occur. Because John Nixon has had so much time
to live that he has grown old in the passage of it does not mitigate his
responsibility, nor should it absolve him of his adjudicated punishment.
I resist and despise being classified by Tobin, Helen Prejean or anyone
else as being part of a culture of death and as one whose opinion is
rendered without value by revenge, rage, grief and a "witches' brew" of
toxic emotion.
I have surely felt all those things, but I believe my experiences, hard
and horrible as they have been, have informed my thinking rather than
incapacitated it. A gift of the black horror of my daughter's death is
that I have an excellent sense of who and what we face in our effort to
live our lives and what we need to do to protect ourselves and others.
The death penalty is an essential part of that protection.
Ann Pace----Jackson
(source for both: Letter to the Editor, Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger)
*****************************
It's Wrongheaded To Oppose Death Penalty
Your editorial concerning the death penalty cannot be left unchallenged.
("A gruesome milestone," Nov. 29.) We can chalk this one up as another
wrongheaded naive, opinion of life from the official newsletter of the
political left wing.
You claim the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, but I believe
otherwise. Even if it weren't, there are evil and violent people who do
not deserve to walk the Earth with decent citizens. The crimes they commit
are sometimes so heinous they deserve nothing less than to be eliminated
like the vermin they are. The likes of Michael Ross and his kindred
brethren deserve no sympathy or leniency.
I wonder how you would feel if an escaped career criminal who had
previously avoided the death penalty because of self-appointed do-gooders
like yourself, then beat, raped, mutilated and killed your mother, wife,
daughter or granddaughter? Or, maybe all 4 on the the same day. I'm
reminded of the quote that the definition of a right-wing conservative is
a liberal who just got mugged.
Richard Palazzo----Griswold (Conn.)
(source: Letter to the Editor, The Day)
*******************
Navajo Nation officials split on use of death penalty President Shirley
says he supports death sentence for 'heinous' crimes
According to United States Code, the federal government can't seek the
death penalty in a case where jurisdiction lies on the Navajo Nation
unless the Navajo Nation Council were to allow prosecutors to make that
decision.
John Nowacki, spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, said federal
provisions such as the death penalty, the 3 strikes law and enhanced
juvenile transfers due to not apply to crimes occurring on Indian land.
He cited 18 United States Code 3598, which states, "The death penalty is
not an option in regards to persons convicted of Indian Country capital
offenses where jurisdiction is based solely on Indian Country unless the
tribe has elected to use the death penalty."
In light of the Nov. 7 triple homicide in Hogback and a recent slaying on
the Navajo Nation where an individual allegedly killed 2 female family
members and dismembered the bodies, some Nation officials have come out in
support of the death penalty.
"If it's a horrible crime like the one in Hogback, there should be a death
penalty," said Navajo Nation Council Delegate Wallace Charley, of
Shiprock.
He noted that, under cultural beliefs, Navajos should not take the life of
another person. Thus, he said, he believes someone who violates that credo
should have their life taken.
"I think in certain cases, I support it," agreed Navajo Nation President
Joe Shirley Jr., adding he feels the death penalty should be available in
only "heinous" crimes.
He noted that this support for a death sentence would be in an official
capacity. He said he would have to consult with elders and medicine men
before supporting it personally.
"I never heard of the (Navajo) Nation or the culture coming out for use of
the death penalty," he said.
Other officials interviewed by The Daily Times said the decision to
approve the death penalty would have to be made with the citizens'
approval first.
"It goes against everything Navajos stand for," said Navajo Nation Vice
President Frank Dayish. "I would like to leave it (in) the hands of the
people. I strongly believe this is a decision that needs to be made by the
people."
Navajo Nation Council Delegate LoRenzo Bates agreed that the decision
would not lie solely with the legislative body.
"It would be a tough debate. I would want to see what my people, (and
what) my constituents (would) have to say," Bates said, "The Navajo people
take real issue with Navajos taking Navajo lives. It would go somewhat
against what we as Navajo people believe. (But) there are some crimes you
cannot look beyond."
Bates noted that it would be difficult for him to vote to authorize the
federal government to seek the death penalty where it deems it is
appropriate, because by doing so, he would authorize the taking of a
Navajo life.
"If I were to vote yes, I would be a part of that process of taking a
life. Is that something I want to be a part of?" he said. "It would be a
vote I would take very much in(to) consideration. I would think very hard
about it."
Charley said he thinks the law would be taking the life of the convicted
criminal, not the council, adding that anyone taking someone's life would
know they could face a death sentence and would accept that in committing
the crime.
"It's not going to bother me at all if I vote in favor of the death
penalty," said Charley, noting that the fact that he would be more
troubled if those involved in the Hogback killings did not face the death
penalty.
"When you start thinking of the fatherless children that were left behind,
or a grandmother that was left behind, then yes, it will upset you," he
said.
All of those interviewed noted if they were to favor the death penalty for
crimes committed on the Navajo Nation, it would only be for "heinous" or
brutal murders. Shirley, Bates and Dayish noted that definition would have
to be debated and agreed upon prior to approving the measure.
"I'm not exactly sure," Shirley said when asked for a definition of
heinous crimes. "I'd have to seek counsel from my elders, medicine people
and the legislature."
He added if the death penalty was to be authorized, he would prefer it to
be on a case by case basis, requiring council approval.
Charley agreed that those who commit heinous crimes, which he defined as
multiple murders or particularly gruesome killings, should face the death
penalty as a possible sentence, but he stopped short of asking for a case
by case review.
When asked if the death sentence should be available in such instances,
Charley replied, "Definitely, yes."
Currently, there is no pending legislation to authorize the use of the
death penalty for crimes committed on the Navajo Nation that has been
proposed to the council's standing committees.
(source: Farmington Daily Times)
***********************
In wake of 1,000th execution, an opportunity for reflection
The United States commemorated an interesting milestone Friday, the
execution of its 1,000th death row prisoner under our modern death penalty
statutes. This milestone offers us the opportunity to reflect on our
criminal justice system; to examine the process and evaluate its success
and its failures.
In California, this reflection could not be timelier. California's death
row is the largest in the country with more than 640 prisoners waiting to
be executed. We now have three execution dates set over the next 3 months.
As the line grows longer, Californians should ask ourselves whether we are
prepared to execute people at a rate unparalleled in our history.
There is no doubt that there is justification for reflection. There are
several troublesome facts we already know about the operation of our death
penalty. We know that since 1976, more than 122 men, women, and children
have been exonerated and released from death rows around this country
because they did not commit the crimes for which they were sentenced to
death. Some spent months in jails, other spent years, a few spent all of
their adult lives. During that same period, we have executed 1,000 people.
We have no way of knowing how many of them also were not guilty.
We know that even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes,
race continues to play a major role in determining who shall live and who
shall die. A study released last month (Santa Clara University Law
Review), concluded that in California, the race of the victim continues to
be a statistically significant factor in the selection of who is sentenced
to death.
We also know that the costs required to continue to impose the death
penalty are staggering. These monies are diverted from other community
services that are facing budget cuts every day. We should reflect on our
priorities for limited resources.
Reflection of any kind is best done in a climate of calm and away from
politics. At this milestone, we should ask our Legislature to put a
temporary halt to executions while we evaluate our system. The California
Legislature has recently established a commission to study wrongful
convictions. Its work has just begun. Over the next few years this
commission will hold hearings, listen to witnesses, and prepare a report
that evaluates our criminal justice system and the fairness and accuracy
with which it operates. We should wait until the commission concludes its
work, prepares its report and evaluates whether the system is broken.
Popular support for a temporary halt to executions in California is
growing. In the past few years, several counties including Santa Clara,
San Mateo and Alameda have passed resolutions that called for a moratorium
on executions while the commission conducts its study. The California Bar
Association called for a 2-year moratorium on executions while a study is
made of whether the capital punishment laws are enforced fairly. We know
that public support for the death penalty is declining with fewer death
sentences imposed each year over the past few years.
As we evaluate our justice system, we must remember always the victims of
these crimes and the profound pain their families continue to feel every
day. We must ask ourselves whether the taking of another human life offers
satisfaction for those grieving, or whether it distracts from the memory
of a loved one who has been lost.
There is a time for everything. A time to kill, a time to heal, a time to
be silent and a time to speak. Now is the time to stop executions and
reflect.
(source: ELLEN KREITZBERG is a professor of law at the Santa Clara
University Law School and is director of the Death Penalty College, a
training program for defense attorneys who represent people charged in
capital cases. She wrote this article for the Mercury News.
*****************
Capital punishment falls short of Christ's teachings
Thank you for your recent editorial in opposition to the death penalty
("The death penalty is always final," Nov. 28 Our View).
As you pointed out, 122 people on death row have been exonerated in the
past 32 years because their innocence was finally proven. In the past 29
years, 1,000 men and women have been executed, the majority (65 %) in 5
states: Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Missouri and Florida. Approximately
3,450 people await execution.
We Catholic bishops in the United States oppose the continuation of the
death penalty because it can kill innocent people through a justice system
sometimes biased by race, quality of legal representation and place where
a crime is committed. We do not believe the death penalty is needed now,
because society can be protected from violent criminals by alternative
punishments, such as lifelong imprisonment without parole. We are troubled
by states teaching their citizens that criminal killing should be resolved
by state-sanctioned killing.
Positive trends are on the rise. Between 1999 and 2004, executions
declined 40 %, Until the late 1990s, an average of 300 defendants were
sentenced to death each year; in 2003, 144 were sent to death row. Life
without parole is now offered as an alternative to the death penalty in 37
of the 38 states authorizing the death penalty.
Spiritual and emotional caring needs to be compassionately extended to the
families and friends of murder victims, in such a way that they experience
justice for the wrong done to them, without a need for retaliation.
Christians are called upon to take to heart the Lord's words: "You have
heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth.' But I
say to you, Do not resist an evildoer." (Mt 5:38-39) Jesus teaches by
those words that justice can be accomplished without a need for
retaliation. A hard saying, definitely, but one that can be lived with the
help of God's grace.
Witnessing to respect for life is clearest when we show respect for each
and every human life, including the lives of those who fail to show that
respect for others. The antidote to violence is patient love, not more
violence.
(source: John Leibrecht is bishop of the Catholic Diocese of
Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo.---- News-Leader)
