Mar. 6
MARYLAND:
Clinton man to speak about capital punishment----‘It won’t do any good,’ Wiggs
says of death penalty decades after wife’s brutal killing
Ricardo Wiggs of Clinton still vividly remembers the night in February 1992
when his life was irrevocably changed.
Wiggs, 52, said the brother of a stalker, a former boyfriend of his wife,
Sharon, entered the couple’s Clinton home, shot him in the arm with a shotgun
and chased Sharon to a neighbor’s front door, where he shot and killed her.
“I had to be treated for post-traumatic stress disorder,” Wiggs said. “I kept
seeing the blast before it hit me, hearing Sharon screaming and seeing her
face. I kept seeing it over and over again, and just reliving it in my mind.”
Determined to use his tragedy to make a difference, Wiggs, whose two daughters
were 4 years old and 5 months old when his wife was killed, became a stringent
advocate of legislation to better protect stalking victims on the local, state
and eventually federal level in the 1990s.
He also became active with the Upper Marlboro-based Maryland Crime Victims’
Resource Center Inc., where he is now a member of the board of directors.
Although Wiggs’ anger led him to wish death upon the man he says killed his
wife — the man was acquitted of all charges in 1993 — Wiggs said he eventually
decided to oppose capital punishment.
He is slated to speak at a meeting by the Maryland Citizens Against State
Executions at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Grace Gospel Worship Center, 5819 Kirby
Road in Clinton.
“I had to sit back and reevaluate my own faith, and whether I really supported
taking another life,” he said. “We can sit in support groups and talk about
revenge until we’re blue in the face, but we have to analyze what we’ve already
lost and what good it would do to actually take another life. And it won’t do
any good.”
Death penalty opponents are rallying behind bills in the state General Assembly
repealing capital punishment, which have 66 sponsors in the House of Delegates
and 19 sponsors in the Senate. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976,
there have been 5 executions in Maryland, and 5 more people currently sit on
death row.
Porita Cox, 65, of Crofton, facilitated the support group Wiggs joined after
his wife’s death that was run by the crime victims’ center, then known as the
Stephanie Roper Foundation, similar to support groups the center still runs
today.
Cox said that often the homicide of a loved one actually reaffirms whatever
position a survivor previously had on the issue.
“What I found working with people for seven years was that what they thought
about [the death penalty] pretty much stayed the same,” Cox said. “... But as a
group, as a rule, I think everyone became aware that life without parole — a
true life sentence — was a little bit like death by incarceration. It was
easier for the victims because they knew it was one appeal and then it was done
[as opposed to capital punishment’s years worth of appeals].”
Roberta Roper, chairwoman of the board of directors at the Maryland Crime
Victims’ Resource Center, who founded the group after the death of her
daughter, Stephanie Roper, said it’s not uncommon for survivors who seek
services from her group to eventually give back and remain involved.
“With a lot of families we serve, we jokingly tell them that our goal is for
you to not need us anymore,” Roper said. “We want you to be empowered to do
what you need to do, but almost without exception people come back to help
others. That’s part of their gift to the organization and the tribute to their
loved ones.”
Wiggs said his work over the years was a tool to cope with his wife’s death and
his attack.
“If someone robs you, that’s something temporary, something that can be
replaced,” Wiggs said. “But if someone tries to take a life from you, you have
no alternative but to fight.”
(source: Gazette.net)
NEW YORK:
Prejean presents position on death penalty----'Dead Man Walking' author
addresses Brockport crowd
Sister Helen Prejean filled up Hartwell's dance ballroom with her stories about
her experiences with prisoners facing the death penalty. Many attendees
resorted to sitting on the stairs and floor to hear her speak Wednesday, Feb.
29.
Prejean, a nun from Baton Rouge, La., has worked closely with the death penalty
over the past 2 decades, counseling and walking murderers on death row in their
final moments. She became involved in thiswhen she moved to the St. Thomas
projects and was asked to be a pen pal to an inmate on death row. Prejean
explained she agreed because she thought simply writing would be easy enough.
Yet she never expected to get so involved.
Early in the presentation, an advocate for the death penalty interrupted
Prejean, shouting that Prejean was a liar. The woman shouted that the audience
should educate themselves about the justice system and they didn't have to
listen to her disregard the separation of church and state, and the
solicitation of Roman Catholicism.
At first, it seemed as though the whole thing was staged, until Prejean began
trying to reason with the woman. Eventually University Police (UP) came in to
escort the woman out.
Prejean continued her presentation by simply saying, "I thought that she was
someone from the drama department." She then said, "you have to have respect
for someone to feel strongly and express themselves."
During the lecture, Prejean discussed her book Dead Man Walking, which is the
story of her first experience with an inmate on death row. She tells of how it
started — by becoming Patrick's pen pal. She started with the beginning of the
journey — actually meeting Patrick for the first time — by saying she was
nervous about coming face-to-face with a murderer. She said she wasn't sure
what to expect. However, once she met him she was surprised, explaining, "Oh my
god, he's human. He was smiling."
Throughout her time with Patrick, Prejean grew close to him, learning what he
was like as an actual person and trying to overcome the outrage she felt toward
him for the gruesome crime he committed.
"The first thing I felt, after outrage, was guilt," she said.
She explained her inner struggle throughout the time she talked with Patrick.
She said she wondered if she was doing the right thing and questioned whether
or not she should contact the parents of the children Patrick allegedly
murdered. Not contacting those parents would come to be her biggest regret, she
said.
After accompanying Patrick down death row, Prejean said she realized what
actually goes on in the execution room
"People are never going to see this, never going to get close to this," Prejean
said.
Prejean accompanied Patrick into the death room and held his arm during the
execution so that he would have one loving face to look at as he passed. She
explained that she was not trying to make him out to be a hero, but she said we
can't control legalized hatred and we should look into the process to better
understand it and decide if what we're doing is really the best option.
Prejean said she doesn't believe the families of victims would want the death
penalty if they knew all of the uncertainty and publicity that it entails. By
sentencing the murderer to the death penalty, the whole murder is prolonged and
continues to enter into the family's lives.
"How can life come from this?" she asked. "Can it heal a human heart?"
Prejean said the father of the boy who was murdered is the hero of this story.
He approached Prejean during the pardon board hearing and explained to her his
own inner struggle with the tragedy. He said he was influenced by his peers
about the death penalty.
"They killed my son," he told her, "but I'm not going to let them kill me."
This very thought was addressed at the end of Prejean's lecture, as she
discussed who's most likely to receive the death penalty and who's affected by
an execution. She said those who murder white people are the ones who are
primarily sent to death row. The more you know about how the justice system
works, the more you know about what it does," she said
"We've got to look at who the agents are to carry [the sentencing] out in order
to decide what exactly the worst crimes are and whether [the death penalty is]
really beneficial to those affected by the crimes," Prejean said.
For more information on Prejean's experiences, see her 2 books Dead Man Walking
and The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions.
Her 1st book, Dead Man Walking, was turned into a 1995 film of the same name.
Actress Susan Sarandon convinced Prejean to offer film rights, saying the book
covers both sides of the issue.
Prejean never expected the book would become a movie, but was glad that it did
because she said the story is a "journey of redemption for everyone."
(source: The Stylus)
MONTANA:
Clemency hearing set for man on Montana's death row
He's been on Montana's death row since the early 1980s and in May he gets a
chance to explain why he shouldn't be executed.
Ronald Smith faces the death penalty for killing 2 men near Marias Pass in 1982
after confessing to shooting the 2 Browning men to death.
The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole will hold a clemency hearing on May 2nd
in the courtroom of the Powell County Courthouse in Deer Lodge.
The Montana Supreme Court upheld a judge's stay of execution for Smith in
December of 2010, intervening after two district court judges issued
conflicting orders.
Helena Judge Jeffrey Sherlock had granted Smith a stay of execution so his
civil lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection could be
decided, but Missoula Judge John Larson had set an execution date.
But the Montana Supreme Court ruled Sherlock has the authority to issue a stay
of execution and upheld that order. Smith has been on Montana's death row for
more than 26 years and is the only Canadian currently on death row in the
United States.
3 prisoners have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in
Montana in the 1970s. Duncan McKenzie, Terry Langford and, most recently, David
Dawson have been put to death under state law.
The May hearing is virtually Smith's last chance to avoid death by lethal
injection.
(source: KZBK News)
CALIFORNIA:
4 Tattoo Party Suspects Face Death Penalty Or Life Without Parole ---- 3 fired
guns, a 4th provided a weapon, police say
Police say there were 7 people inside this SUV, including a sophomore from San
Leandro High, when three gunmen opened fire and a 4th accomplice provided a
weapon.
4 men were charged with 3 counts of murder and 4 counts of premeditated
attempted murder Monday for their alleged roles in a shooting after a tattoo
party last October that left 3 people dead and 3 others wounded.
3 of the suspects were arrested by San Leandro Police last week while the other
had been in custody since shortly after the shootings. The crime occurred about
1:20 am on Sunday, October 2 as an underground party in a warehouse on Alvarado
Street was breaking up.
All 4 suspects have been charged with special circumstances in the killings,
which makes them eligible for the death penalty or life without parole if they
are convicted.
Authorities allege that 3 of the suspects -- Aaron Stewart, 19, of Fairfield,
Anthony Perry, 21, of Oakland and Paul Arthur Stevenson III, 20, of Oakland --
fired into an SUV with 7 persons inside.
Stanley Turner, 18, of Oakland allegedly provided a 9mm handgun to one of the
suspects, authorities say.
Police have offered no motive for the shootings that claimed the lives of
Leneasha Worthington, a 16-year-old sophomore at San Leandro High School,
Joshua Alford, 23, of Oakland and Shanice Kiel, 19, of San Francisco.
3 occupants of the car were wounded and a 4th escaped without being shot. A San
Francisco Chronicle story said court records identified the 4 as Ryan Gibbs,
Ikaneasha Johnson, Erika Brown and Anthony Ewing.
(source: San Leandro Patch)
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