Dec. 10 TEXAS: Last words----The anti-executioner's song On November 30, a handful of University of the Incarnate Word students and community activists gathered under the arched doorway of San Fernando Cathedral. In the early evening light, they sang songs and chanted the names of those executed in Texas - and their victims - in protest of the death penalty. The vigil was timed to coincide with the execution of Kenneth Lee Boyd of North Carolina, who became the 1000th person to be executed in the U.S. since 1977, and to raise awareness of what many see as an inhumane and flawed process. Two weeks ago, Juan Moreno, the only witness in the prosecution of Ruben Cantu, who was executed in Texas in 1993, came forward to say that he had testified falsely under intense pressure from the police; as far as he knew, Cantu was innocent. Rick Doucette, Office of Social Concerns of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio, addressed the gathering, calling the death penalty a "right-to-life issue," and stating the Catholic Church's commitment to abolishing the death penalty, "a practice which diminishes us all. How can we teach respect for life by taking a life?" he asked. District 5 Councilwoman Patti Radle read a letter of support from her son in Rome, who wrote that Christians must remember that the Bible says "Thou shalt not kill," and must work to make the death penalty a policy of the past. "The world doesnt need further death and murder in this world." Radle expressed disappointment in the size of the rally. "I suffer from the delusion that these issues will pick up momentum," she said, "so I was hoping to see hundreds of people here." Yet, looking around at the crowd of approximately 40 people, it was heartening to see that the majority were students. Joan Braune, a UIW student from South Dakota, and president of the campus Amnesty International group, said she was pleased with the turnout. "It keeps growing. Mainly, it was important to meet in a church," she said. "Most people don't know that every major religious denomination is in opposition to the death penalty. So we have to get that message out to the churches and mosques." A few students circulated through the crowd, passing a basket of stones, which participants were encouraged to take. When the sun set, the cross breezes were suddenly chilly, and the protesters moved a little closer together to hear what Sister Martha Ann Kirk, instructor of the "Arts for Worship" course at UIW and organizer of the event, had to say. As Kirk raised her arm, stone in hand, toward the sky, the tiny white lights outlining the architectural lines of the Cathedral illuminated, casting a cheery light on the solemn crowd, and expressing solidarity with vigils around the world, where other city monuments were lighted at the same moment. With the help of two students, Kirk then taught the crowd the verse of a song she had written for the event, "Take away our hearts of stone, give us hearts of flesh." Lead by the students, people sang the refrain as Kirk chanted, asking "God's mercy on the victims of murders and their families, and on those who have been executed by us," and listing their names. In the church, poet Tom Keene read a humorous poem, "No Mark for Cain," underlying Gods forgiving nature. "We thank you, god For being a god in our own image, A god who is Number One, A kick butt kind of god Of power and might. We thank you for being not Some pitiful god of pity, absolution and peace." And the students, in bare feet, mimed The Passion of the Christ on the altar. One of the players, Miguel Ochoa, peer music minister at UIW, said this was his first political event. "It opened my eyes," he said. "I probably wouldn't have learned the facts about the death penalty if I hadn't been responsible for putting this together." Ochoa said that, previous to the event, he had no opinion about the death penalty. "Now I'd say I'm definitely in the category of against it," he explained. "No one has the right to play God. Jesus was executed, I never thought about it from that perspective." Father James Empereur of San Fernando Cathedral led a closing blessing in which he asked for God's mercy "for Jesus your only son, a victim of the death penalty who lives and dies with you." (source: San Antonio Current) NORTH CAROLINA----female faces death sentence Probe delays decision on death penalty----Prosecutors say slain officer's wife stood to gain from his death A Mooresville woman accused of killing her police officer husband while 2 of their children slept in a nearby bedroom must wait until next year to learn whether prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against her. Iredell County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Taylor on Friday granted a motion by prosecutors to take up the issue again at the end of January because the police investigation is not complete. Prosecutors plan to argue that Misty Keller Witherspoon, 32, stood to gain financially from killing Quinn Witherspoon, said Iredell Assistant District Attorney Alan Martin. That contention in the case could make her eligible for the death penalty, Martin said. Mooresville police have not finished investigating her finances, he said. Search warrants filed by police indicate the couple faced "severe financial difficulties" at the time of Quinn Witherspoon's death. Creditors and collection agencies were demanding payment on a daily basis, and Misty Witherspoon refused to answer their phone calls, according to the warrants. The couple's water service had been cut off twice this year, they were three months behind on mortgage payments for their South Magnolia Street home and Misty Witherspoon had pawned her wedding ring, warrants said. Quinn Witherspoon, a 34- year-old Concord K-9 officer, died Sept. 13 of a gunshot wound to the head, police have said. Police were called to the couple's home by Misty Witherspoon, who reported an accidental shooting. She told detectives she accidentally pulled her husband's gun belt and gun off a bathroom closet shelf while looking for lotion, according to the search warrants. She picked the gun off the bathroom floor and was bringing it to her husband, when she tripped and fell, causing the gun to discharge and hit him in the head, warrants said. A month later, she changed her story and was charged with 1st-degree murder. Misty Witherspoon is being held at the Iredell County jail without bond. A bond motion by her attorney Friday was also continued until January. Witherspoon, who wore a "Got Jake?" Panthers football shirt, did not speak at her hearing Friday. Afterward, Quinn Witherspoon's sister, Sabrina Barnes, said the family, their church and their friends continue to stand behind Misty Witherspoon "100 %." (source: Charlotte Observer) PENNSYLVANIA: Pa. takes its own approach to capital punishment Some of Pennsylvania's prisons and jails are bursting at the seams, but the population boom isn't being felt on the state's death row. The number of state prisoners serving death sentences has increased only marginally in the past decade - from 197 in 1995 to 223 today - even though some 7,000 murders occurred during that same period. About once every two months a new death-sentenced inmate arrives in the state prison system, a rate that has fallen to just 1/3 of what it was in 1995. Only 3 Pennsylvania inmates have been executed in the past decade, but over that same period courts ordered new trials or downgraded the sentences to life-without-parole for 72 death row inmates. The state's falling numbers follow a national trend, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. It said there were 282 death sentences issued in 1999, but by last year the total was down to 125, and the number may not reach 100 in 2005. A string of exonerations, driven mainly by DNA evidence, and the wider availability of life-without-parole as a sentencing option, are behind the falloff in death sentences, according to the center. "I think people are starting to doubt the death penalty. They see innocent people walking off death row," said Andy Hoover of Central Pennsylvanians to Abolish the Death Penalty. Hoover participated in a small protest rally in downtown Harrisburg last week to mark the country's 1,000th execution since the death penalty was restored in 1976. Kenneth Lee Boyd, who killed his estranged wife and father-in-law in 1988, had been executed in North Carolina five days earlier. Pennsylvania has not executed anyone since 1999, but Hoover worries executions may soon become more common as long-serving death row inmates exhaust appeals. Some were sentenced more than 20 years ago. "Pennsylvania could become the Texas of the north," Hoover said. Through November, 22 states had executed more people than Pennsylvania over the prior 29 years, with about 2/3 of the nation's executions taking place in Texas, Florida, Virginia, Oklahoma or Missouri. Pennsylvania has the country's 4th-largest death row, behind California, Texas and Florida. Nationally, the appetite for death sentences appeared to wane starting in 2000, about the time a number of erroneous convictions prompted the then-governor of Illinois to impose a moratorium on executions. The number of people put to death hit a high of 98 in 1999, but had dropped down to 66 just 2 years later. Last year it was 59. Juries seem to be giving greater scrutiny to evidence these days, said Gary Neil Asteak, an Easton defense attorney who is president of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "And," he said, "we're finding we're getting many more life sentences as a result of the prosecutors' recognition that it's becoming more difficult to secure death sentences." Some prosecutors disagree that their approach has changed, but Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico Jr. acknowledged that it's possible they are getting more selective about seeking the death penalty. He said better representation for defendants also may be a factor in driving the numbers downward. "Defense attorneys are getting better training, and courts are assigning more seasoned defense attorneys in these cases," Marsico said. York County District Attorney Stan Rebert said the state's lack of executions has diluted the deterrent value of the death penalty, but even the threat of capital punishment has made the court system run more smoothly. "These defendants who are facing the death penalty are a lot more likely to agree to life imprisonment as a plea agreement, because they're scared of the death penalty," he said. "So in that sense, I see it as a deterrent." (source: Associated Press) DELAWARE: Execution reflects badly on society The United States just had its 1,000th execution of convicted killers since the Supreme Court validated state laws permitting capital punishment. Some of those executed were minors and most were minorities. Last month, the State of Delaware executed Brian Steckel. According to a News Journal editorial, 36 % of Americans do not support the death penalty. Yet there is virtually no outcry against it. Only a handful of individuals picket the prison at the time of a Delaware execution. There has been no meaningful movement in the General Assembly to revoke the death penalty. Our criminal code of justice is borrowed from England. Society has a long history of executing innocent men and women for political expediency, notables among them Thomas More, the chancellor of England during the reign of King Henry VIII and groups such as 6 million Jews across Europe. The laws of England, Germany and the United States were made by righteous men who were often regular churchgoers. Despite the fact that the mentality of "an eye for an eye, death for a death" is clearly contrary to the message of Jesus Christ, churchgoers are often proponents of the death penalty. One has to wonder how society can continue to advocate the right to take lives. It is certainly not based upon the New Testament teaching of Jesus, the most famous innocent victim of capital punishment. For whatever reason, it is time to rethink why American society continues to execute citizens at the rate of 1 every 10 days. It is unlikely to have any deterrent effect on those who perpetrate crimes. Most are crimes of passion or crimes committed by individuals who do not think or care about the consequences. It has often been said that the way we treat the poor and disadvantaged is a reflection on our morality. It tells you what kind of people we are. I would add that the way we treat murderers, the least deserving of sympathy, is also a reflection of our own morality. I have spent my professional life advocating or defending the civil rights of the citizens of Delaware. Nevertheless, I and others have not been heard when it comes to capital punishment. I believe it is time for those who are offended by a government that executes its citizens. I oppose the death penalty. Our society has a right to protect itself from individuals who commit crimes or take the lives of other persons. However, taking of the lives of the perpetrators does not do anything to protect society. We need more of that 36 % of individuals who oppose the death penalty to speak out against it. Assuming that the General Assembly reflects our general population, we need those in the General Assembly to speak for a society that is judged by its mercy rather than its vindictiveness. A great society is judged by its mercy, not its execution record. (source: The News Journal - John S. Grady is a lawyer in Dover) ALABAMA----new death sentence Woods sentenced to death in slayings of three Birmingham officers A Jefferson County judge sentenced a man to death by lethal injection for his role in the slayings of three Birmingham police officers by a drug-dealing friend. Nathaniel Woods, 28, joins his co-defendant, Kerry Spencer, on Alabama's list of condemned prisoners. "He knew what to expect," Woods' co-counsel, Cynthia Umstead, said. "He is stoic and understanding of what would happen today." Woods' lawyers expressed concern their client hurt his chances of avoiding a death sentence after he wrote a taunting letter to one of the officers' widows and threatened to kill a jail guard. "A lot of lawyers say we had a good chance of beating this but for his attitude and writings," Rita Briles, one of Wood's attorneys, said. "Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? It might well be. If there's anything that indcates that's true, it's that letter. That's one of the stupidest things he has done." Woods also re-wrote rap lyrics bragging he's just as much of a cop killer as Spencer and has shown no remorse. "If they want to take my blood, fine," he said when asked at his October trial what sentence jurors should recommend. "Whatever they feel is fine with me." Carlos "Curly" Owen, 58, Harley Chisholm III, 40, and Charles Robert Bennett, 33, were shot on June 17, 2004, while trying to serve a misdemeanor warrant on Woods at an Ensley crack den he operated with Spencer. A fourth officer, Michael Collins, was wounded but survived. Prosecutors contended Woods acted as bait to lure the officers into the apartment, where Spencer shot them with a rifle he had bought the night before. "The outcome is what it should have been," Collins said of Friday's sentencing. (source: Associated Press)
