Oct. 20 OKLAHOMA: Franke: Domestic violence nearing epidemic levels Oklahoma ranks 7th in the nation for women murdered by men, and in the past 7 weeks or so, the state has experienced 8 domestic violence-related homicides. Deana Franke is angry. Frustrated, tired and angry. Franke, executive director of Help-In-Crisis, hasnt received an increase in funding from the state in 15 years, 2 key members of her staff have had to quit in the past few months to find jobs that pay more, and the shelter is at capacity, with 28 residents. Lately, she's spent several days out of town, working with the state and any other entity that might help her provide for victims of abuse. "We are woefully underfunded, and services throughout the state are being cut," said Franke. "We have closed our office in Stilwell, not because we lack clients, but because we had no funding to operate." Franke is just one of many directors of domestic violence agencies experiencing a slump in funding and an increase of cases. According Marcia Smith, executive director for the Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Oklahoma has witnessed at least eight domestic violence-related homicides in the past 7 weeks. "From the metropolitan areas of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, to Stigler, Oologah, Broken Arrow, Durant, Woodward and Tahlequah, 8 women have been murdered by current or former spouses or intimate partners who then turned the weapon on themselves," said Smith. In a recently released report on 2004 data, the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., found that Oklahoma ranks 7th in the U.S. in the rate of women murdered by men in single-victim, single-offender incidents. In addition, 28 shelters across the state receive a total of less than $5 million to provide services to more than 16,000 women and children who are fleeing domestic violence each year. Rogers State University student Sherri Loghry, who recently prepared an analysis, discovered that of the 91 inmates on Oklahoma's death row, 28 are incarcerated for a domestic violence-related murder. Of those who committed such murders, 8 had prior protective orders and/or domestic abuse charges against them. Domestic or intimate partner violence is all too common and takes many forms, said Smith. "Research suggests nearly 25 percent of women will experience some sort of abuse in an intimate relationship, and 10 % will suffer from severe abuse," said Smith. "The most severe form of abuse is homicide by a current or formerly intimate partner." If Smith's statement bears out, it would mean that in a room of 4 of your closest female friends or family, one or more will suffer some form of domestic abuse. It could be your mother, your sister, your best friend or your daughter who is the victim of a verbal assault, a beating, or worse death. Franke indicated stalking is one of the most difficult forms of abuse to prosecute. "Stalking is one of the most complex ways that domestic violence plays out," said Franke. "A stalker may do nothing more than leave a rose to let the victim know she is being watched. That leaving of a rose does not meet any standard for criminal behavior, but in the ongoing series of events that constitutes stalking it requires investigation, commitment and tenacity to prove in a court of law." That commitment is often lacking from the local justice system, according to Franke. As far as how these [domestic violence or abuse] cases are handled locally, it's sketchy, and seldom focuses on the safety of the victim or the children, said Franke. "It is not anyone's favorite crime to investigate, prosecute or sit in judgment on. It is not a one-time incident with witnesses. Most often, only the victim and the defendant are witnesses. Our justice system works well with a one-time incident that results in theft of property, or cases where there is actual physical evidence. It does not work as well when it is an ongoing reign of threats, violence and fear." Worse still, Help-In-Crisis provides treatment that is seldom used by the court. "Another point of interest is that we are not getting batterers referred to Positive Choices, our treatment group for offenders, she said. This is a sad statement, when we are offering a way for offenders to learn new behaviors, and it isnt being utilized by the system." To change behavior, Franke strongly believes in education. "The state should initiate mandatory education throughout high school around parenting and relationships, she said. We must back up and look strategically at how to stop this epidemic. It will take commitment over a long period of time to educate people that there is another way to live. We have ignored this problem for so long that we have generations who believe [abuse, battering] is OK." In addition to women trying to help women, Franke suggests men take a stance, and an active role. "We must also ask men to stand up and say it is wrong to rape and batter women and children," she said. "While this is not always comfortable, the norm has to be that it is confronted, whether is it over language, jokes or actual incidents. Most men believe it is wrong, and they need to find their voice and say it is wrong. Leaders across the state in our communities and for that matter, across the nation need to take a stand." Smith agrees with Franke, saying with the help of everyone, the tragedies do not have to continue. "Friends and family are often the first resource to whom victims of abuse turn," said Smith. "Everyone can lend a listening ear and become informed about the facts of domestic violence and local domestic violence programs. Remind the victim about your concern for her or his safety, and that no one deserves to be abused. Help the person find a safe place to go." (source: Tahlequah Daily Press) VIRGINIA: Justus testifies in trial----Thought he was 'apostle' Berman Justus said he doesnt remember shooting to death his estranged wife and her boyfriend, but remembers thinking that he had to bring the 2 to justice. Taking the stand in his capital murder trial Thursday, Justus testified about the feelings of religious grandeur he experienced in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 1, 2003, slayings, feelings aided by sleeplessness and intense Bible readings. While reading the Book of Revelations, Justus said, he came across his own name and soon believed that he was an "archangel or an apostle." "I always thought that when I was young, there was something special about me that set me apart from everyone else," Justus said. "It grabbed a hold of me. It was like a really good feeling." Defense lawyers have said Justus was frantic to gain custody of his 4-year-old son after his wife, Amanda Justus, made it difficult for him to see the child, and that he was insane when he shot her and boyfriend Joseph White. If convicted, Justus could face the death penalty. If acquitted by reason of insanity, he will go to a mental hospital. Protective orders, 911 calls and visits to the Department of Social Services marred Justus turbulent marriage. The main reason he married his wife, Justus testified, was because she was pregnant with their son. "He was everything to me," Justus said of the child. Sometime in the spring of 2003, White came to live with the couple rent-free while he tried to save money for his upcoming wedding, Justus testified. Eventually, Justus said, he realized his wife and White were having an affair, but that it didnt bother him, because he "already knew my wife was unfaithful anyway." Justus said he was just concerned that his son was being neglected, and eventually he began to see a pattern in which Amanda Justus would demand money from him and make it hard for him to see his son. He used a spiral notebook to document run-ins with his wife, in preparation for a custody battle. The notebook was introduced as one of the defense exhibits Thursday. The situation came to a boiling point in August 2003, Justus said, when he refused to return the boy to his mother after a weekend visit because the child had bug bites all over his body. "I decided to keep him because when I picked him up, he was eat up with bugs, bug bites. He was in no good shape at all. I decided then and there to keep him until he was healed up," Justus said. Amanda Justus took the boy and buckled him into her car, Justus said, so he took her car keys. After a neighbor called the police, Justus said, authorities told him to let her leave with the boy or hed be arrested. "It was the last time I seen him," Justus said, sobbing. In the next few months, Justus said, he filed for divorce, lost nearly 30 pounds, lost his job as a mechanic and became an insomniac, reading the Bible into the night. "The more I read, the more I found, the more it grabbed me inside," he said. The night of the killing, he said, the last thing he remembers was driving on Spottswood Trail and pulling over at a carwash. "I just got in the car, [thinking], ''I've got to find somebody to go to court on my behalf to say Amandas not a good mother," Justus said. "What happened next?" Justus' lawyer, Helen Phillips, asked. "I have no idea," Justus answered. "Whats the next thing you remember?" Phillips followed up. "I remember being in the Sheriffs Office," Justus said. What happened in the meantime, according to prosecutors, was that Justus shot White as he slept inside his trailer in the 11000 block of Spottswood Trail. Next, Justus shot his wife in her SUV as she returned to the trailer from having dinner with White's mother. Justus' son was in the backseat. The trial continues today. (source: Daily Progress) OHIO: Governor grants condemned inmate 5th reprieve Gov. Bob Taft on Friday granted condemned killer John Spirko a 5th reprieve from execution, guaranteeing that a new governor will decide Spirko's fate. Taft agreed to the request by Attorney General Jim Petro to delay the execution to allow more time for DNA testing in the 24-year-old murder of an Ohio postmistress. The 4-month reprieve delays the execution until April of next year. Petro asked for the delay at the request of Spirko's attorneys, who say they can't finish the testing before the scheduled execution date. Additional testing is being done on a tarp that held the body of slain postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger and 2 rags found in a field nearby. Spirko, 60, who says he is innocent, was convicted based on witness statements and his own comments to investigators. No physical evidence ties him to the killing and charges against a co-defendant who linked him to the murder have been dropped. Courts at all levels have previously upheld his conviction and death sentence. (source: Associated Press) INDIANA: Death penalty: Use it, or lose it Since the death penalty was reinstated in Indiana in 1977, Lake County has spent literally millions of dollars to send people to death row. What is our return on investment? Absolutely nothing. In Lake County, the debate over whether we should have a death penalty does not even really exist. Only one person from Lake County has been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in Indiana. He asked for it. No one from Lake County has been executed against his will during that time. Not serial killers. Not cop killers. Not child murderers. A death penalty case costs about $500,000 through the first, mandatory appeal. No one in Lake County has been sentenced to death since 1993, a case which now is invalid. The only death penalty case still active from Lake County is from 1992, a retrial on appeal. Eugene Britt was the last outstanding active case that had not been to trial when, last week, prosecutors and defense lawyers reached an agreement giving him 245 years in prison. This is after we've spent an estimated $314,000 thus far prosecuting the admitted serial killer, who was found in September to be mentally retarded and ineligible for either the death penalty or life without parole. This is after years of posturing by prosecutors that they would not step away from the death penalty because Britt already is serving life without parole for the 1995 murder of an 8-year-old Portage girl and was charged with the murders of six women in Lake County. Even cop killers no longer get the death penalty. In May, Darryl Jeter was given life without parole for the murder of Indiana State Police Trooper Scott Patrick in December 2003. Polls continue to say in theory we want the death penalty available, but if we are not going to use it, why bother with the sham? All it does is become a drain on the wallet. As soon as a death penalty case is filed, a special meter begins to run. If the accused has a public defender, as in most capital cases, a 2nd lawyer is automatically appointed. The hourly rate paid to the lawyers also goes up. Who pays for it? You do. The Lake County Council reaches into your pocket to pay the lawyers. What are you getting for the estimated $1.5 million spent since 2000 on capital cases alone? Nothing. Except a nice retirement fund for defense lawyers. I still believe, like many people, there are crimes that cry out for the death penalty. But looking at this logically, there is only one conclusion to reach. We have invested literally millions prosecuting death penalty cases and have nothing to show for it. Even by Lake County standards, that's a waste of money. (source: Northwest Indiana News) USA: Jesus was executed by the state, activist reminds Christians Christians, of all people, should understand the wrongness of the death penalty, says Scott Langley, a leader of the effort to abolish the death penalty in North Carolina. After all, he says, Jesus was executed by the state. Langley's passion for seeking the abolition of the death penalty was shaped by his upbringing in a United Methodist home in Texas. His mother, Mary, is an ordained United Methodist clergywoman. Texas, 1st in executions "Growing up in the church I was exposed to Scripture and the stories of Jesus," he says. "It was clear to me that Jesus taught us and showed us to love our enemies and to do unto others. I saw a great contrast in those teachings and what was happening as the state executed prisoners." Texas ranks 1st among states in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 and 2nd, behind California, in the number of people now on death row. "If you believe in Jesus and follow him then you must know that he was executed," Langley continues. "How can you avoid or ignore the death penalty issue?" Not long after his 1999 graduation from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Langley, a photographer, was changed forever when he went to the Texas state prison in Huntsville. There he witnessed Lois Robison walking the sidewalk, screaming, as her son was being executed inside. 18 months earlier Larry, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had killed and mutilated his roommate and four neighbors in Fort Worth, where Langley was born and grew up. Langley had his camera in the car but couldn't bring himself to retrieve it to capture her pain and anguish. Since then he has become one of the most visible faces of the anti-death-penalty movement. Protests in North Carolina Langley now lives with his wife, Sheila Stumpf, in Siler City, a small community near Chapel Hill, N.C. They are expecting their first child this month. They and several others live in a house that provides shelter for those in immediate need, particularly the homeless. Langley primarily focuses his energies on the death penalty in a state that ranks sixth in the number of people put to death since 1976 and the number of people on death row. For months, Langley and other protestors have been trespassing in the driveway of North Carolina's Central Prison in Raleigh. At least 8 people have been arrested in the group's failed attempts to disrupt the last 4 executions. Langley has been arrested 18 times in the past 2 years. Going to jail is not just the price one pays for acting on their convictions, Langley says. "It's a means of identifying with families who suffer at the hands of the legal system." "I can't just stand on the corner, knowing the exact time and location when a human life is going to be taken, without doing everything I can to try to prevent it from happening," he says. "That's our responsibility as Christians and as people of dignity. It is not enough to complain that this happens. We must take responsibility." God's creatures Langley acknowledges that most death row inmates are guilty, but that doesn't matter to him. "They are still creatures of God and human beings. Everyone can change his life. Anyone can be redeemed." Langley expresses optimism when he points to statistics showing the decline in executions and the number of death sentences in recent years. He also believes that public opinion is changing, though slowly, to oppose the death penalty. He's also pleased with a U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting the execution of individuals under the age of 17. While not admitting to pessimism, he does express frustration at dealing with individuals who are enthusiastic about the death penalty. "Their attitudes seem fueled by revenge, hatred and anger. To encounter that is disappointing." Like others in the abolitionist movement, he acknowledges that it takes time to get somebody "from a place of frustration and hate to a place of forgiveness and love." Speaking recently at United Methodist-related Duke University in Durham, N.C., Langley spoke out against the hypocrisy in today's culture. "There is a disconnect between the way we celebrate and glorify violence on television, movies, and music, and in Iraq, and then condemn someone to death for committing a violent act in our own neighborhood," he says. "We can't say it's okay to eat popcorn while watching a violent movie and then go home and say violence is bad and we are going to punish criminals. We need a consistent, ethical way of being." ******************* Death penalty continues despite church's 50-year opposition 50 years ago, delegates to the Methodist General Conference granted full clergy rights to women. Action by that top legislative body of the denomination prompted anniversary celebrations across the United Methodist Church this year. Delegates to the 1956 conference in Minneapolis took another historic action that has received little attention. For the 1st time, delegates put the church officially on record as opposed to the death penalty. Each Methodist and United Methodist General Conference since that time has reaffirmed its opposition to capital punishment. Meeting every 4 years, these assemblies are the only bodies that can speak officially for the denomination. In plenary debate at the 1956 conference, lay and clergy delegates debated several issues related to a proposed update of the church's Social Creed. They discussed the role of the United Nations and argued at length about war and conscientious objection to military service. They talked about capitalism and communism and whether the church should bless any particular economic system. And, as might be expected, they talked about abstinence from drugs and alcoholic beverages. One thing they didn't debate--at least in the body as a whole--was the addition of a new statement condemning the death penalty. Perhaps all the wrinkles were ironed out in a legislative committee before being sent to the entire body for consideration. Or perhaps a majority of delegates were opposed to the practice and no debate was needed. Between the 1952 and 1956 Methodist general conferences, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg died in the electric chair, the first civilians to be executed for espionage in the United States. They had been found guilty of conspiring to share atomic secrets with the Soviet Union and were executed June 19, 1953. What influence, if any, their widely publicized trial and executions had on the 1956 delegates is not known. Debate over the Rosenberg trial and their guilt or innocence continues to this day. Delegates 'deplore' capital punishment The 1956 Methodist statement opposing the death penalty included two short paragraphs in a section of the Social Creed titled "Treatment of Crime." "We stand for the application of the redemptive principle to the treatment of offenders against the law, to reform of penal and correctional methods, and to criminal court procedures. For this reason we deplore the use of capital punishment. "We recognize that crime, and in particular juvenile delinquency leading to crime, is often a result of bad social conditions. Christian citizens and churches have a special opportunity and responsibility for creating those conditions of family life, wholesome recreation, vocational training, personal counseling, and social adjustment by which crime may be reduced." While women clergy have generally prospered within the denomination since 1956, the new statement deploring the death penalty has apparently had modest influence on governmental policies in the United States. In an interview with United Methodist News Service, Bill Mefford, director of civil and human rights for the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said change on the issue has come slowly. "Seeking to abolish the death penalty is a slow and unpredictable process. One can't just look at this issue and say that A plus B equals C." The long-term challenge is not so much the changing the minds of individual politicians as it is changing the "winds" of public opinion, he said. "We want to further the idea that all of life is worth defending. Church people can do that." Number of death sentences dropping While progress may seem slow to some, opponents celebrate the fact that the annual number of death sentences has dropped dramatically from a total of 300 in 1998 to 125 in 2004. Mefford, a United Methodist layman, is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary where he is currently working on a doctor of theology degree. He joined the Washington-based Board of Church and Society staff in February. A native of Tennessee, much of his adult life was spent in Texas, a state which ranks first in the number of executions since 1976 (375) and second, behind California, in the number of inmates now on death row (404). Mefford is working to reinvigorate "United Methodists against the Death Penalty," a network of death penalty opponents started by one of his staff predecessors. "Capital punishment is an issue being dealt with state by state, but we want United Methodists to know that as they work for change, we at the national level are interested in them and want to offer encouragement and resources." Today, 38 of the 50 states allow the death penalty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, 1,045 individuals have been executed since 1976. The largest number in a single year was in 1999 with 98 executions. As of September, 41 individuals have been executed this year. The church's Social Principles, found in both the 2004 United Methodist Book of Discipline and 2004 Book of Resolutions, include a succinct paragraph calling for elimination of the death penalty from all criminal codes. All human life sacred "We believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore, and transform all human beings," the Social Principles statement says. While expressing concern about crime and the value of life taken by murder or homicide, delegates to the most recent General Conference in 2004 reaffirmed the church's position that "all human life is sacred and created by God." United Methodists are urged to see all human life as "significant and valuable." When governments implement the death penalty the life of the convicted person is "devalued and all possibility of change in that person's life ends," the statement declares. "We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that the possibility of reconciliation with Christ comes through repentance. This gift of reconciliation is offered to all individuals without exception and gives all life new dignity and sacredness." That Social Principles statement is not alone among official United Methodist pronouncements on the subject. No less than five resolutions addressing capital punishment were adopted or reaffirmed by the 2004 General Conference delegates and are included in the 970-page 2004 Book of Resolutions. 2 resolutions adopted first in 2000 were reaffirmed: one urging bishops to be aggressive in opposing capital punishment and another calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, president of the Council of Bishops, told United Methodist News Service that she is proud of the church's long and consistent stance against the death penalty. "Even though we are aware that all United Methodists don't agree, there has been no significant opposition to the church's position in 50 years. Deep in their hearts they know it speaks to the moral rightness of our policy," said the bishop of the Houston Area. More lengthy statements giving reasons for opposing capital punishment--one adopted in 1980 and another adopted in 2000--were reaffirmed in 2004, with some revisions. Each includes specific recommendations for individual members, congregations, and church-wide agencies. Delegates to the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh adopted a new resolution specifically opposed to the practice of executing juveniles. Since the first recognized execution of a juvenile offender in 1642, the United States has executed at least 366 people for crimes committed as juveniles and has, since 1990, executed more juvenile offenders than all other countries combined, according to the resolution. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons struck down the death penalty for juveniles With reasoned arguments for why Christians should oppose the death penalty, why hasn't the church's opposition during these 50 years made a greater difference in U.S. governmental policy? Does death penalty deter crime? Well-meaning people of faith weigh in on both sides of the debates. Some argue that the death penalty deters crime, but death penalty opponents point to the 2004 FBI Uniform Crime Report which shows that the South, where 80 % of the executions occurred, has the highest murder rate. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that a survey of former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies indicates that 84 % of them rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. When asked in a May 2006 Gallup Poll whether the death penalty deters murder, 64 percent of those polled said it does not; only 34 percent believe it does. This is a dramatic shift from the 1980s and early 1990s, when the majority of Americans believed that the death penalty prevented murder. Various polls indicate that a majority of Americans support the death penalty. However that percentage is declining, according to a recent Gallup Poll. When given a choice between the sentencing options of life without parole and the death penalty, Gallup found that only 47 % of respondents chose capital punishment, the lowest percentage in 2 decades. 48 % favored life without parole for those convicted of murder. The poll also revealed that overall support for the death penalty is 65 percent, down significantly from 80 percent in 1994. Some argue the death penalty is biased against the poor and African Americans, and isn't something that Jesus would do. Thirty-four percent of those executed in the United States since 1976 have been African Americans. Another issue given prominence in recent years is the number of mentally ill individuals executed despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Death row inmates found innocent It could be that the growing percentage of people opposing the death penalty has been influenced by the significant number of death row inmates found innocent in recent years, thanks to new evidence or revelations. Since 1973, more than 120 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence, according to 1993 staff reports from the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights and updated by the Death Penalty Information Center. In the year 2000, eight inmates were freed from death row and exonerated. Another 9 were exonerated from 2001 to2002; 12 in 2003 and six in 2004. One of the most recent cases involved Jeffrey Deskovic who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for the rape and murder of a high school classmate in New York. He was freed from prison on Sept. 20, 2006, after DNA evidence from the crime was matched with another man who also confessed to the murder. The other man was already in prison for a murder in the same county. The Innocence Project reports that 184 people have been exonerated through DNA evidence since 1989. Of the 123 who have been exonerated from death row since 1973, 14 were freed as a result of DNA testing. The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York was created by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992. The recent Gallup survey of American public opinion on the death penalty found that 63 percent of those polled believed that an innocent person has been executed in the past five years, an increase over previous results. Some individuals support the death penalty as justified punishment for crimes committed. A 1980 General Conference resolution, reaffirmed every quadrennium since, says, "The United Methodist Church cannot accept retribution or social vengeance as a reason for taking human life. It violates our deepest belief in God as the Creator and the Redeemer of humankind. In this respect, there can be no assertion that human life can be taken humanely by the state." The statement contends that in the long run the use of the death penalty by the state "will increase the acceptance of revenge in our society and will give official sanction to a climate of violence." Prison ministry transformational Writing in the Oct. 3, 2006, issue of The Christian Century, United Methodist Bishop Kenneth L. Carder says the criminal justice system is dominated by notions of retribution, vengeance, punishment and isolation. "The core values of the Christian gospel--forgiveness, compassion, redemption, reconciliation, restorative justice--run counter to prevailing sentiments in the justice system," says Carder, who teaches pastoral formation at United Methodist-related Duke University Divinity School. Involvement with prison and jail ministries keeps pastors focused on critically important matters, writes Carder. "No place confronts us with life-and-death challenges like death row. Relationships with the condemned and those whose job it is to guard them and execute them are among the most intense and transformative pastoral relationships. Capital punishment ceases to be an abstract political, ethical and theological issue. "Being present with persons who are awaiting execution, along with their families and the families of the victims of violence, pushes the pastor to the edges of faith and stability," says Carder. "Unless it is involved with the people in jails and prisons, the church will surely lack integrity, consistency and dependability." The Christian Century section titled "I was in prison . . ." includes a reading list on Christians and prisons. Recommended books are also included in an article by Elizabeth Morgan titled, "Wrestling with the death penalty: Crime and Punishment." A comprehensive web site with up-to-date information about the death penalty, including state-by-state statistics, is at the Death Penalty Information Center . Other sites are: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty . (source for both: Worldwide Faith News -- Tom McAnally, retired director of United Methodist News Service, lives in Nashville, Tenn)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., VA., OHIO., IND., USA
Rick Halperin Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:33:32 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
