For Victims, Against the Death Penalty

In Georgia

2012-01-27T10:06:00.002-05:00

Kate Lowenstein will be representing MVFHR this weekend at a statewide death penalty abolition summit organized by Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Amnesty International, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church. You can see more about the summit, titled A Call to Action, here.

Kate will be speaking on a panel titled "Building Relationships with Those Directly Impacted by the Death Penalty."

In Alabama

2012-01-26T07:42:00.001-05:00

MVFHR Board President Bud Welch will be addressing students at Samford University's School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama today and will then be the keynote speaker at the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association's "Loosening the Death Belt" conference this weekend. Bud's 23-year-old daughter Julie was killed in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. Here's an excerpt from his story that the Association has posted on its site:

Three days after the bombing, as I watched Tim McVeigh being led out of the courthouse, I hoped someone in a high building with a rifle would shoot him dead. I wanted him to fry. In fact, I’d have killed him myself if I’d had the chance.

It wasn't long before I concluded that it was revenge and hate that had killed Julie and the 167 others. Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols had been against the US government for what happened to the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, in 1993. Seeing what they’d done with their vengeance, I knew I had to send mine in a different direction.

Shortly afterwards I started speaking out against the death penalty.

After the bombing I’d seen a news report on Tim McVeigh’s father, Bill. He was shown stooping over a flowerbed, and when he stood up I could see that he’d been physically bent over in pain. I recognized it because I was feeling that pain, too.

About a year before the execution I found it in my heart to forgive Tim McVeigh. It was a release for me rather than for him.

Six months after the bombing a poll taken in Oklahoma City of victims’ families and survivors showed that 85% wanted the death penalty for Tim McVeigh. Six years later that figure had dropped to nearly half, and now most of those who supported his execution have come to believe it was a mistake. In other words, they didn’t feel any better after Tim McVeigh was taken from his cell and killed.

And here is coverage in the Birmingham News.

A change of heart

2012-01-23T07:38:00.000-05:00

Last fall, when MVFHR board member Walt Everett gave a talk to a group at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, a writer from Drew University magazine attended and followed up with a long feature story about Walt in the Winter 2012 issue of the magazine. Here are a couple of excerpts:

The first-year seminar is titled “Timeless Questions, Difficult Times: Making Meaning of Uncertainty,” and you might have to search the darkest corners of the planet to find a guest speaker more qualified to hold forth on that topic than the Rev. Walter Everett C’56, T’60.

A retired Methodist minister, Everett is something of an authority on timeless questions and difficult times, and he’s spent years trying to make meaning of uncertainty. He’s come to Bucknell, where he sits at the head of a small classroom crammed with 15 students and two instructors, to weave his extraordinary tale one more time, a retelling that will leave some of those in his young audience questioning their very core. For he’s also come with some questions of his own.

“How many of you are in favor of the death penalty?” Everett begins.

Silence.

“How many of you are opposed?”

A few.

“How many are not sure?”

All the rest.

The article then goes on to tell the story of the 1987 murder of Walt's son, Scott Everett.

Any death of a young person creates unspeakable trauma for the family, Everett tells the Bucknell students. A violent death, he says, “increases the trauma exponentially.”

And so it was that for the next 11 months Everett saw his life spiral downward, seemingly out of his control. He felt despair, rage, depression. His marriage, already on shaky ground, cracked under the strain. Everett prayed to God, beseeching him to show him a way out of the darkness. But Everett discerned no response. He attended a support group meeting with other family members of murder victims—the only people, he figured, who could possibly understand the anguish that consumed him. One night he heard a woman in the group say that anyone who committed murder “should be taken out and shot immediately.” Then he learned that the woman’s son had been killed 14 years earlier. He wondered if that’s what his life would be like for the next 14 years.

“I was ignoring mail. I was not paying attention to people,” Everett tells the students. “My thoughts were elsewhere.”

Eleven months and two weeks after the murder of his son, Everett sat in a courtroom in Bridgeport for Carlucci’s sentencing. Everett had never before set eyes on his son’s killer, who arrived at the courthouse three hours late, having indulged in one last cocaine binge before prison. The judge asked Everett if he wished to make a statement. Everett rose and spoke for 10 minutes, though he doesn’t remember a word of what he said. Then the judge asked Carlucci if he would like to speak. Carlucci stood. Everett tells the Bucknell students that he remembers every word Carlucci uttered.

“I’m sorry I killed Scott Everett. I wish I could bring him back. Obviously, I can’t. These must sound like empty words to the Everetts. I don’t know what else to say. I’m sorry.”

And from the end of the article:

The bell rings. A half-dozen students approach Everett, thank him for coming, shake his hand. Some, on their way out, reach for the anti-death penalty brochures that Everett brought with him. Everett leaves the building with instructor Deirdre O’Connor, who says the students will discuss the issues that he raised at a later class. Not until then could Everett know whether the timeless questions he’s posed really struck a chord with the students, whether he’d helped them to make meaning of uncertainty.

A few days later a neuroscience major from Bexley, Ohio, named Bridget O’Donnell wrote about Everett’s appearance in her course journal. O’Donnell grew up in a politically conservative home. Both her parents supported capital punishment. As a member of her high school political club, she took part in debates about the death penalty, arguing strongly in favor. Just two years earlier, as a high school junior, she’d written a research paper defending her position. “Today, however,” she wrote in the journal, “I questioned myself.”

O’Donnell says she left the class wondering whether her support for the death penalty was something she really believed in—“or something I learned to believe in.” And although she has a hard time articulating her change of heart, she is certain that a change has taken place. “I am not pro-death penalty anymore,” she says.

In Walt Everett’s long journey, another small step.

Read the whole article.

Speaking in Alabama

2012-01-20T12:08:00.002-05:00

From today's Anniston (Alabama) Star, an article that features MVFHR board member Bill Pelke:

There are some images that Bill Pelke can’t erase from his memory.

For years the picture in his head that haunted him was of his beloved “Nana,” Ruth Elizabeth Pelke, a woman who taught Bible classes to local children in her hometown of Gary, Ind. In 1985 she was stabbed 33 times by a group of local teenagers who stole 10 dollars from the 78-year-old woman and let her bleed to death on her living room floor.

It was the image in his head when he sat through the trial of Paula Cooper, the 15-year-old female who ended his grandmother’s life.

“I remember when they asked me how I felt,” Pelke said Thursday at Jacksonville State University, recalling learning that Cooper was to receive the death penalty. “I said, ‘the judge did what he felt he had to do, but it won’t bring my Nana back.’”

Pelke, 64, was the first of three speakers during an anti-death penalty forum called “A Journey of Hope,” sponsored by the campus Ethics Club. More than 30 people at Houston Cole Library listened to Pelke, Callie Grier, and a representative of the Birmingham-based Justice and Mercy group, Brandon Fountain, all present their stance against the death penalty. The event doubled as the first meeting of the semester for the club.

“We’re all about dialogue,” said Scott Beckett, the faculty adviser for the Ethics Club. “Because we’re human, everybody here already has made up their mind, but we’re about dialogue.”

But Pelke hoped his dialogue could possibly persuade death penalty proponents to change their mind — much as he changed his own stance on capital punishment after his grandmother was murdered. Pelke said his Christian upbringing taught him the death penalty was an acceptable form of justice, but began to question that notion in the years that followed Cooper’s sentencing.

Over time, the image of his grandmother, the one he carried with him through the trial of Cooper, was replaced by another image he couldn’t shake — that of Cooper’s grandfather, shouting out “they’re going to kill my baby!” after her sentencing.

Like Pelke, Callie Grier lost a loved one through violence. Her son, Mercury, was murdered in Birmingham, and just like Pelke, sought for forgiveness.

“They kill this boy, give him life sentence or whatever, does that mean Mercury is going to come back?” Grier said. “Are you telling me I should put his family through this to get closure? Now I get closure? Uh-uh, I get nightmares.”

Not all the details of the two stories were the same, though.

“Black on black crime is just treated as another case,” said Grier, explaining her story didn’t “make it to Oprah” like Pelke’s more famous story. ...

Read the full article.

"I will not rejoice in the death"

2012-01-16T09:10:00.002-05:00

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, David Love, director of Witness to Innocence, has a great column at the Huffington Post about Dr. King's stance on the death penalty. Here's an excerpt that is particularly relevant to MVFHR:

... And the late Coretta Scott King--whose husband and mother-in-law both were assassinated--spoke out against the practice. "An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation," Dr. King's widow proclaimed. "Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder".

Further, the death penalty is an international human rights issue as well. The European Union, which forbids the practice among its member nations, has imposed new restrictions on the importation of anesthetics used to execute people in the U.S.
Sadly, some would dilute Dr. King's human rights message, including his "radical revolution of values," in which he urged America to begin the necessary shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. Meanwhile, the "drum major for justice, peace and righteousness" as the inscription reads on his memorial--stands on the National Mall as a reminder of his dedication to human rights, including opposition to the death penalty.
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy," King said. "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

If America truly wants to follow the teachings of Martin Luther King, we should end all executions now.

Speaking in Connecticut

2012-01-12T09:37:00.002-05:00

A nice mention of MVFHR's Walt Everett in yesterday's Post-Chronicle (a Connecticut paper):

The Rev. Walter Everett experienced every parent’s nightmare: the murder of a child. In 1987, his son Scott was shot and murdered in Bridgeport. Everett will speak at the Hamden Plains United Methodist Church, sharing his story of loss, rage, and forgiveness, and calling for repeal of Connecticut’s death penalty, Sunday, Jan. 15. during the 10:15 a.m. service.

For almost a year after the murder, Everett’s emotional state had transitioned from rage to depression. He found it difficult to even go through the motions of his work as pastor of a United Methodist Church. Eventually, he came to recognize his need to move beyond his anger and he found healing through forgiveness.

Rev. Everett currently serves on the board of directors of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, an organization of family members of murder victims and family members of the executed who challenge the notion that executions are the way to achieve justice or closure for the family that murder leaves behind.

Everett has testified before legislative committees on numerous occasions, including the Connecticut General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee in 2005 and 2009.

Good news from Mongolia

2012-01-11T10:17:00.000-05:00

We are so pleased that the Mongolian Parliament last week approved a bill to ratify the 2nd Optional Protocol to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

When a Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights delegation visited Mongolia last October to hold a press conference, deliver public presentations, and meet with attorneys and victims' groups, we had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Ulziisaikhian Enkhtuzshin, Chair of the Standing Committee -- the Majority Party -- of the Mongolian Parliament. We commend Mr. Enkhtuzshin for taking the lead in advancing this recent legislation.

This photo shows the MVFHR group with Mr. Enkhtuzshin (third from left) and our colleagues from Amnesty International Mongolia.

Here is Amnesty International's news release.

We've lived it

2012-01-10T12:43:00.001-05:00

Belatedly posting this letter to the editor that was published in the Kentucky State Journal on December 18th. The editorial to which we were responding is here.

To the Editor:

The State Journal’s Dec. 9 editorial, “No room for error,” suggests that “Staunch opponents of capital punishment should imagine members of their own families victimized by barbarous criminals ...”

Many opponents of capital punishment don’t have to imagine the horror of a family member’s murder. We’ve lived it – and we don’t feel that another killing is what will help us. Rather than a “proportionally irreversible response,” we want a response that truly addresses the many different needs victims’ families have and avoids the lasting trauma that executions inflict on the criminal’s innocent family members.

After two shotgun blasts took my father’s life in the doorway of our family home, many people assumed that my family and I would become proponents of the death penalty. A friend said to us, “I hope they fry those people so your family can get some peace.” But in the aftermath of the worst thing that had ever happened to us, my family and I did not feel that an execution would give us peace, and we didn’t want the killer, having taken our father’s life, to take our values too.

I founded the organization Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights so that victims’ families who oppose the death penalty would be recognized and supported in that belief, and so that we could join with families of people who have been executed to publicize the devastating effects of both murder and the death penalty.

Renny Cushing
Executive Director

Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights

Boston, Mass.

"I need people to listen to me"

2011-12-15T14:55:00.003-05:00

From today's Daily Record (an Ohio newspaper), "Testimony asks state to abolish death penalty; it creates 'more victims'":

COLUMBUS -- Twenty-seven years ago, Mary Jane Stout and her husband, Norman, allowed John David Stumpf and another man into their Guernsey County home to use the telephone.

In response, Stumpf shot and killed Mary Jane and attempted to kill her husband with repeated gunshots to the head.
That was in May 1984. Stumpf has been on Death Row since that year while his case works its way through the requisite state and federal appeals before an execution date is set.
On Wednesday, the couple's son asked state lawmakers to abolish Ohio's death penalty, saying the lengthy legal process has brought nothing but pain and constant reminders of the crime rather than closure.
"We need certainty, we need healing," Chris Stout told the House's criminal justice committee. "We need to not be hauled into court again and again for 27 years and ... traumatized over and over."
He added, "I need this system to stop, period. I need the death penalty to be over and I need people to listen to me when I say, do not do this to me or my family. Don't kill John David Stumpf because of me. We've been through enough, and we want it to end. All this system does is create more victims. ..."
Stout was one of more than a dozen people providing testimony in favor of legislation that would end capital punishment in the state.

Speakers included former Death Row inmates who were innocent of the charges against them, attorneys who talked about the costs and inequity in administering the death penalty and family members of murder victims who said the system is not working.

Read the full article.

A Human Rights Day thank you

2011-12-10T07:36:00.000-05:00

Seven years ago, at the UN Church Plaza in New York City, a group gathered to celebrate the official launch of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights. Here's a photo of the Founders" Pledge, which says, "In honor and memory of our family members taken from us by homicide, the undersigned join together to form Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights. In the name of victims we pledge to work to end the death penalty in all countries of the world."

It was, of course, a deliberate choice to launch MVFHR on December 10th, International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In our first mailing shortly after the founding ceremony, we wrote:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that sets forth the most basic principles regarding the value of human life and the way human beings ought to treat one another, was inspired by victims, demanded by victims. It grew out of the suffering of millions of civilians murdered under the brutal regimes of the Second World War, and its adoption on December 10, 1948 was a way to honor the loss of these lives, and an attempt to give meaning to the loss, by asserting that such violations are neither moral nor permissible under any nation or regime.

Now is the time to raise our voices again and insist that violations of human life in the form of the death penalty or other state killings are not permissible under any nation or regime. It is time to call for the abolition of the death penalty because the only way to uphold human rights is to uphold them in all cases, universally.

We believe that survivors of homicide victims have a recognized stake in the debate over how societies respond to murder and have the moral authority to call for a consistent human rights ethic as part of that response. Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights is the answer to that call.

Now as we observe International Human Rights Day today, in 2011, we extend our deepest thanks to all MVFHR's members and supporters who have helped answer that call and who have accomplished so much in these seven years.

Remembering Martina Davis Correia

2011-12-04T07:24:00.000-05:00

MVFHR joins the many other organizations that have expressed sadness at the passing of Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis. Troy Davis was executed in Georgia on September 21st, amid much protest because of his significant claims of innocence. So many joined in the campaign to stop Davis's execution -- not only in the U.S. but around the world as well -- and the campaign was marked by the t-shirts many of the protesters wore, saying "I am Troy Davis." Martina had led that tremendous campaign for many years while battling cancer.

MVFHR's Executive Director Renny Cushing offers these thoughts:

On numerous occasions over the past dozen years, I was fortunte to share a public platform with Martina Correia as we both tried to put a public face on the issue of violence and the death penalty. Martina was more than just an advocate for her brother; she was emblematic of the pain and struggle that all families of death row prisoners experience. Her dignity and quiet strength in both her public work and her private life were inspiring. When I heard of her passing, I thought not just of her but of all the family members of death row prisoners and executed persons and of how many people in the world today could be wearing a t-shirt that reads “I am Martina Correia."

Many others have offered memories and tributes. In a post on the Amnesty International blog, Laura Moye wrote:

Martina fought her deteriorating body every step of the way to hold onto life and to be in this world for her family and for the human family. Her body finally gave out, living eleven years longer than doctors predicted she would. It is unimaginable what stress and hardship she and her family faced having a loved one on death row who was almost executed three times, then finally killed by the state she called home and in the country she served as a military and civilian nurse. Martina’s mother, though in perfect health, died shortly after Troy Davis’ final appeal was denied and a few months before his execution. The families of murder victims and the families of death row prisoners endure enormous pain. The death penalty is horrifically destructive, creating a downward spiral of violence that drags so many people down in its wake. We must end it so that an authentic justice that brings us accountability, healing and a better future can take root and blossom.

And here is a link to Scott Langley's moving tribute and photo series.

Cities for Life

2011-11-30T07:30:00.001-05:00

Today is the Community of Sant'Egidio's annual day of Cities for Life - Cities Against the Death Penalty, when well over a thousand cities around the world hold events and gatherings calling for an end to the death penalty. Many, such as the event at the Roman Colosseum, involve the lighting of a public monument. Illinois MVFHR member Cathy Crino will be joining with many others to participate in that special occasion, and MVFHR board member Bill Pelke is in Germany participating in Sant'Egidio's speaking tour there.

Also today, Massachusetts MVFHR member Bob Curley will be the speaker at an event, "A Journey from Death to Life," held at Boston College and organized by The Community of Sant'Egidio in Boston. Bob, who was initially a supporter of the death penalty following his son Jeffrey's murder in 1997, has spoken widely, in many venues around the world, but Boston College has a special resonance because it was where he first announced publicly, ten years ago, that he had changed his mind and was now an opponent of the death penalty. You can read more about Bob's journey in Brian Macquarrie's book The Ride.

"I simply cannot participate"

2011-11-23T09:15:00.001-05:00

"[[The death penalty] has been carried out just twice in last 49 years in Oregon. Both were during my first administration as Governor, one in 1996 and the other in 1997. I allowed those sentences to be carried out despite my personal opposition to the death penalty. I was torn between my personal convictions about the morality of capital punishment and my oath to uphold the Oregon constitution.

"They were the most agonizing and difficult decisions I have made as Governor and I have revisited and questioned them over and over again during the past 14 years. I do not believe that those executions made us safer; and certainly they did not make us nobler as a society. And I simply cannot participate once again in something I believe to be morally wrong."

MVFHR joins many other organizations in thanking Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber for his decision yesterday to halt executions in the state. Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (OADP) has news and information about this momentous decision, the work that led up to it, and the further examination of the death penalty that lies ahead in Oregon.

MVFHR board member Aba Gayle, who also serves on the board of OADP, has been part of the effort to stop executions in Oregon. For more voices of Oregon victims' family members, vist MVFHR's Gallery of Victims' Stories.

Take care of all victims

2011-11-18T11:45:00.003-05:00

From today's Baltimore Sun, this opinion piece by Vivian Penda, "For the sake of victims' families, repeal the death penalty":

I always thought murder was something that happened to other families. You read about it in the paper. You see the legal process unfold on TV. There's so much attention paid to certain murders that you assume the families going through their tragedy are getting support and help.

Then my son, Dennis, was murdered in 2002, and I learned how little support there actually is. Losing Dennis rests heavily with me every day. His murder received no notice, and our family was left to grieve on our own.
It turns out that my experience is not unusual. Only a small fraction of Maryland's 400-plus murders each year generate headlines. For those with the knowledge and means to access help, there is a patchwork of government and nonprofit services to help victims' families cope with their loss.
For too many of us, there is none of that.
We fail the families of too many murder victims at the moment when they need our support most. Murder traumatizes families, isolating survivors in their pain. Many survivors face trouble just getting out of bed, much less figuring out where to find and fight for grief counseling and other needed services.
Instead of providing comprehensive support to all surviving families of murder victims, Maryland has opted to maintain a costly death penalty that throws millions of dollars at just a few cases. A 2008 study commissioned by the Abell Foundation found that the average death penalty case adds almost $2 million extra to the state's costs, and that having the punishment has cumulatively cost the state $186 million.
I find this use of state resources offensive. Many murder victims come from low-income families. And although three-quarters of murder victims in Maryland are African-American, the five men currently on death row are all there for murdering white Marylanders.
Some say the death penalty offers justice to victims, but with the majority of people on death row still there after decades, even the cases that do result in execution impose a cruel wait on the victims' families. Changes to our state's death penalty law enacted in 2009 have only prolonged this.
Why do we choose to pursue a small handful of death sentences at a cost of millions and millions of dollars, all while tormenting the victims in the process? Those millions could instead help all victims' families with their trauma, and prevent crime so there aren't as many victims in the future. Why don't we invest to break the cycle of grief and violence, making for healthier and safer communities for all of us?
The ugly truth is that capital punishment elevates a few murders, leaving the rest of us to suffer without recognition. The effort to identify the "worst of the worst" rests on a false assumption that some murders are simply ordinary. What mother is going to agree that her little girl or boy's murder was ordinary? All murders are horrible and leave behind a family in grief, a family overwhelmed by a heartache we all hope to never face.
In 2008, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, having heard testimony from many survivors of murder victims, concluded that capital cases are more detrimental to surviving families than life-without-parole cases. The commission recommended repealing the death penalty and using the resulting savings to increase resources and services for surviving families.
This is why the 2012 death penalty repeal bill will include funds to aid murder victims' families. I will be working with other family members who have lost loved ones to violence to pass this bill next year.

In a time of shrinking resources, we need to make choices. Instead of pursuing a handful of executions that may not take place for decades, let's take care of the thousands of families across Maryland who have been hurt by violent crime. Let's take care of all of us.

Welcome to our new board members

2011-11-16T15:19:00.000-05:00

We would like to welcome three new members to MVFHR's Board of Directors:

Long-time abolitionist Aba Gayle also serves on the boards of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, The World Forgiveness Initiative, and The Catherine Blount Foundation, named for Aba Gayle's 19-year-old daughter who was murdered in California in 1980. In this issue of the MVFHR newsletter, Aba Gayle talks about how she initially felt pressured to support the death penalty for her daughter's killer, and how she came to change her mind.

James Staub is active with Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. James was 12 years old when his mother, Patricia Staub, was murdered in 1985, and to this day the murder rrmains unsolved. In this issue of MVFHR"s newsletter, James speaks about how an unsolved murder affects a survivor.

Yolanda Littlejohn's sister Jacquetta Thomas was murdered in North Carolina in 1991. Two men were arrested for her murder. One was never convicted; the other was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. In 2009, he was exonerated and released from prison when DNA evidence proved that he could not have been the killer. The murder of Jacquetta Thomas is now a cold case – an unsolved homicide. Yolanda has been active in the effort to repeal North Carolina’s death penalty and speaks frequently to groups, telling her story and discussing the effects of exoneration on victims’ families.

We are honored to have these three new members join our Board, and we know that MVFHR will be even stronger and more effective because of their contributions.

Not the direction I want

2011-11-16T08:02:00.002-05:00

From Monday's KSFY (ABC) news in South Dakota, "Victim's family reacts to state seeking death penalty for inmate":

Family members of 75-year-old Maybelle Schein are reacting to the state's decision to seek the death penalty for accused murderer James McVay.

The Minnehaha County States Attorney's office filed the paperwork on that decision Monday.
Police say 41-year-old McVay stabbed Schein to death in her Sioux Falls home and then stole her car.
We talked to Schein's cousin, Robin Prunty on the phone. She didn't want to go on camera.
Here's what she had to say when we ask her about the state seeking the death penalty.

"That's not the direction I want it to go. Being in prison for the rest of his life is OK and enough. Do we need to put him to death? I don't think so. It won't make me feel any better," Robin Prunty said.

Read the rest.

Speaking in Pennsylvania

2011-11-14T07:37:00.000-05:00

In recent weeks, MVFHR board member Walt Everett has told his story to a variety of audiences in his home state of Pennsylvania. Walt spoke at two Bucknell University events, and he was one of several speakers at a "Day of Responsibility" event held at a local prison; about 60 inmates attended. Then in late October, Walt was the luncheon speaker at NAMI-Pennsylvania's Criminal Justice Symposium.

MVFHR has been collaborating with NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) on the national level since 2008, when we launched the "Prevention, Not Execution" project. We are pleased to see that collaboration continue and look forward to more opportunities to address NAMI's state and local groups.

The ultimate violation

2011-11-04T10:07:00.003-04:00

MVFHR member Aba Gayle is featured in this article in the 10/30/11 Oregon Statesman Journal, "From hate to healing":

For years, Aba Gayle "lusted for revenge" against the California death- row inmate who murdered her 19-year-old daughter.

But everything changed when she mailed the killer a letter, saying she forgave him.
Paying visits to San Quentin prison, Gayle befriended the man she once despised and wanted put to death.
As hate gave way to healing, she turned against the death penalty.
Now, the 77-year-old Silverton woman is a leader of a nonprofit Oregon advocacy organization that is seeking to abolish the death penalty here.
Even though condemned killers rarely are executed in Oregon, Gayle says it's time for Oregonians to repeal the law that allows state-sanctioned killing.

As she tells it, the ultimate punishment should be scrapped because it sucks taxpayer dollars, undermines human values and takes revenge in arbitrary fashion. "It truly is the ultimate violation of human rights," she said. "It is horrendous to think that when they kill somebody at the penitentiary, they do it in the name of the citizens. I don't want anybody killed in my name."

Read the rest.

Working with the Catholic Mobilizing Network

2011-11-02T09:31:00.002-04:00

MVFHR Board Chair Vicki Schieber has been working extensively with the Catholic Mobilizing Network Against the Death Penalty, and is in the midst of a series of speaking events in connection with that effort. This past Saturday she was the keynote speaker at a Respect Life conference in Cincinnati, and over the next couple of weeks she will be speaking as part of the National Conference of Catholic Women conference and an event called "Unimpeachable Voices Against the Death Penalty."

You can see the upcoming schedule, and other news from the Catholic Mobilizing Network, here.

A broken promise

2011-11-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

From today's California Progress Report, "Murder Victim Mom Against the Death Penalty," by Lorrain Taylor:

My twin sons, Albade and Obadiah, were just 22 years old when they were gunned down on the streets of East Oakland. Both students, Albade attending Merritt College and Obadiah studying to open his own barber shop, they had stopped on the side of the road to fix Obadiah’s stalled car when somebody shot and killed them at close range. The pain I feel for the loss of my sons will never go away. It is made even worse when I hear, almost daily, that another mother in California has lost her child to violence that has taken so many lives.

The person who killed my twin sons likely still walks the street today. Like the death of my sons, a shocking 46% of murders in California each year go unsolved, along with 56% of reported rapes. In this time of economic crisis, budgets for local law enforcement have been slashed repeatedly. Instead of hiring more officers to investigate open homicide cases, we are forced to lay off the very people who could catch these killers. Instead of testing each rape kit, they languish on shelves while the perpetrator remains free to attack another person.
While these criminals are still walking our streets, California continues to waste precious money on a broken death penalty system. Every year, California throws away $184 million dollars on 714 people that are already locked up behind bars instead of investing money in public safety programs that work. Since 1978 when the death penalty was reinstated, we have spent over 4 billion taxpayer dollars for 13 executions. For the cost of one execution, we could be employing nearly 6,000 police officers to patrol our streets, solve more serious crimes, and bring justice to more families.
The death penalty is a broken promise. It does not make our streets safer and it takes away resources from things that prevent violence, like keeping our kids in school and putting cops on the street. It also denies justice for thousands of grieving mothers who, like me, will never see their children’s murderer be held accountable for their crimes.
This is why I support the SAFE California Act (Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement for California Act). SAFE California is a ballot initiative that will replace the death penalty with life without possibility of parole. By replacing the death penalty with life without possibility of parole, California will save an estimated $1 billion over the next five years. In addition, it will allocate $100 million to local law enforcement to investigate unsolved murders and rapes.

A sentence of life without the possibility of parole offers swift and certain justice. It also means that inmates will work in prison and pay money into the victim compensation fund as restitution. This money can help families of murder victims receive badly needed counseling services and pay for burial expenses. ...

Read the whole article.

Neither justice nor peace

2011-11-01T09:08:00.003-04:00

Some coverage from MVFHR's recent series of speaking events in Taiwan. This piece is from the October 24-30th edition of Taiwan Church News:

US representative shares personal story on why victims’ families lose out in death penalty

Reported by Sam Lee
Written by Lydia Ma
“The death penalty cannot comfort victims’ families,” said Renny Cushing at a conference in Taiwan, adding that it’s a lose-lose situation that will advance neither justice nor peace in society. He believes Christian principles would affirm that no one – not any person or government – is authorized to take the life of another human being. Because of his conviction that human rights and justice can advance significantly when the death penalty is abolished, Cushing hopes that Taiwan will someday abolish the death penalty.
Cushing is the founder and Executive Director of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights (MVFHR). His father’s murder in 1988 has shaped his work as an advocate for crime victims and as an opponent of capital punishment. A lifelong social justice activist, he has been a Justice of the Peace for the past 25 years and he has also served two terms in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
MVFHR and Ocean, another similar organization in Japan, were recently invited by Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty to deliver a series of speaking engagements across Taiwan, including Yushan Theological College and Seminary, National Cheng-Kung University (NCKU), National Taiwan Normal University, and more.
During the presentation at NCKU, Cushing recounted his ordeal soon after his father’s murder and said many people are misguided when they think the death penalty would comfort the families of murder victims. He also said that the wishes of the victims are often muted and executions cannot right the wrongs done against them because it cannot bring their loved ones back from the dead.
Cushing underscored that though he still doesn’t have closure over his father’s death, he and many people like him wouldn’t want to see another family lose a loved one because of the death penalty. His opposition to the death penalty is rooted in his Christian convictions that humans are not allowed to take away the life of another. He said that when he saw the son of his father’s murderer in court and saw the boy’s whole family hurting, he realized the death penalty would only result in more murderers – by making the victim’s family murderers this time around.
Though some people have questioned the economics behind the death penalty, contrasting these costs with the costs of keeping inmates for life in prison, and are opposed to using taxpayer money toward housing and feeding criminals for life, US statistics actually show that the cost of carrying out an execution far exceed that of keeping a person in prison for life. Cushing pointed out this information to indicate how governments have not budgeted taxpayers’ money efficiently and how mistaken it is to think that it’s more economically efficient to carry out an execution.

According to Amnesty International’s 2011 Report on human rights, Taiwan stopped carrying out executions since 2005, but resumed again this year, a sure sign that human rights is regressing in Taiwan. MVFHR hopes Taiwan will consider current international trends and put a moratorium on the death penalty once more and eventually abolish it.

Unlikely opponents?

2011-10-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

MVFHR members Charisse Coleman and Gus Lamm are among those interviewed for the CNN story, "Death penalty's unlikely opponents," that ran yesterday. Here are some excerpts:

Charisse Coleman has no real compassion for the man who walked into the Thrifty Liquor Store in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1995 and put three bullets in her brother, Russell.

But she doesn't want Bobby Lee Hampton -- one of more than seven dozen killers on Louisiana's death row -- executed, either.

"My opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do with Bobby Lee Hampton," Coleman said. "He's a bad dude. He's never going to be a good dude. If I got a call that said Bobby Lee Hampton dropped dead in his cell last night, I don't think it would create a ripple in my pond."

She added, though, "I will be goddamned if I will let Bobby Lee Hampton make me a victim, too, by taking me down that road of bitterness and revenge."

Coleman, 50, is among the most unlikely opponents of the death penalty, people who lost loved ones to unspeakable violence yet believe executing the killer will do nothing for family members or society.

Their stance is backed by groups like Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, and their reasons aren't as religious or political as one might think. Some feel so strongly they've spoken against the death penalty even when it wasn't an option in their loved one's case.

And:

Jan Brown of Houston said she can't pinpoint why she loathes the death penalty, but she always has, even when her 9-year-old daughter's killer was executed.

A Southern Baptist until 1984, Brown said capital punishment is tantamount to "legalized murder." She said she doesn't know when she developed her disdain. The first time she considered it may have been when she told a prosecutor she didn't want James Earhart to die, she said.

"Maybe I'm just selfish," she said. "Maybe he'd tell me what her last words were. Maybe he'd tell me why she had to die. Maybe because I think it's barbaric. Maybe if one of my children ended up in the same situation, I wouldn't want them to die."

Brown, 65, said the entire process leading up to Earhart's lethal injection was more about the perpetrator than the victim. Brown was a suspect until police found Kandy Janell Kirtland's deteriorating body, her hands bound, in a rubbish pile in Bryan, Texas. Brown said she was further devastated when protesters staged a vigil at Earhart's 1999 execution -- not for the innocent girl who never got to see fifth grade, but for her killer.

Brown said she went through 12 years of hell because a prosecutor seemed to care more about Texas' reputation for being tough on crime than about helping Kandy's family heal.

Gus Lamm said he felt the same way when his wife, Victoria Zessin, was taken at age 28. He and his daughter unsuccessfully sued the parole board -- and in the process alienated themselves from Zessin's family -- to make sure the state knew they felt capital punishment was repugnant.

Read the whole article.

No Solace

2011-10-23T11:37:00.003-04:00

The 10/23/11 Hartford Courant has this op-ed by MVFHR member Antoinette Bosco, "Capital Punishment No Solace To Survivors":

... I faced unspeakable torment when a Montana sheriff called in August 1993 to tell me that my son John and his beautiful wife, Nancy, had been murdered in their newly purchased home in Big Fork. We didn't know for five months who the killer was, but then we found out — it was the 18-year-old son of the people from whom John had bought the house. The killer entered through a basement window, sneaked up into their bedroom where they were sleeping and shot them to death.

Montana had only recently re-established capital punishment, and the boy, "Shadow" Clark, was facing death. I had always opposed the death penalty and my children were raised to believe as I had. I remember kneeling in that room of death with my surviving sons and we all grasped a truth so clearly — that unnatural death at the hands of another is wrong, except in a clear case of self-defense. The state is no more justified in taking a life than is an individual. Killing cannot be sanitized by calling it "official" and "legal."

And so, my then five living children and I wrote to the Montana judge asking him not to seek the death penalty for Shadow Clark. We knew it is only a delusion to believe that one's pain is ended by making someone else feel pain. We were relieved when the young murderer took a plea bargain and received a life sentence, avoiding the death penalty.

My daughter Mary expressed our belief well.

"The truth is, no one in my family ever wanted to see Shadow Clark put to death. We felt instinctively that vengeance wouldn't alleviate our grief. We wanted Clark in prison, removed from society forever, so he could never hurt another person. But watching Clark suffer and die would have done nothing to help us heal. Worse, wishing Clark would suffer and die would only have diminished us and shriveled our own souls. We had had enough pain already, dealing with the indescribable horror of our loved ones' brains and blood splattered all over their bedroom walls. We didn't need to increase our own torment by demanding more blood."

And Mary emphasized where we all stood: "Hatred doesn't heal. Mercy, compassion, moving on with life, turning toward good people, walking into the light of love as much as possible, that's what victims need. And our lawmakers have the capacity to help us do that by abolishing the death penalty and along with it, the fantasy that it will make the pain go away."

Read the whole piece.

Connecticut victims' families

2011-10-21T11:45:00.002-04:00

Connecticut member Elizabeth Brancato, whose mother was murdered in 1979, has been active in efforts to repeal Connecticut's death penalty, and she has recently started a blog, Connecticut Murder Victims' Families Speaking Out Against the Death Penalty. In her first post, Elizabeth wrote:

A few months ago, I stood with a group of individuals who had something very sad in common – we’d all lost loved ones to murder. That experience, and our subsequent experience with the criminal justice system, has convinced us that the death penalty is harmful to victims. Currently, over 80 of us have joined to together to say that if we really care about victims, we will end the death penalty.

This blog is for all victims’ family members who believe the death penalty is a policy that has failed victims. I will submit entries, but I will also ask other victims’ family members from around Connecticut to share their stories. We have different backgrounds and perspective, but are united by the belief that the death penalty system has hurt us and other survivors.

We welcome Elizabeth and other Connecticut victims' family members to the blogosphere, and look forward to linking regularly to their powerful testimony.

Speaking about how an execution affects a family

2011-10-17T15:53:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday, Texas MVFHR member Rena Beazley and I (Susannah Sheffer) gave a presentation -- via telephone and Skype -- to law students attending a weekend training organized by the British group Amicus, which provides various kinds of assistance to capital defense attorneys in the United States. Rena, whose son was executed in 2002, spoke about her family's experience and about the effects of an execution on surviving family members. I spoke about MVFHR's No Silence, No Shame project, including some of the recommendations that we have made regarding legal recognition for families of the executed and regarding various kinds of help that should be made available. Thanks to Piers Bannister at Amicus for inviting us to make this presentation.

Glimpse of MVFHR in Mongolia

2011-10-14T08:20:00.000-04:00

This item from Mongolia's English-language news service gives a glimpse of MVFHR's work there this week past week. More to come!

The London Declaration

2011-10-12T16:01:00.002-04:00

One outcome of Penal Reform International's “Progressing toward abolition of the death penalty and alternative sanctions that respect international human rights standards" conference last month, at which Renny Cushing represented MVFHR, is a document called the London Declaration. The Declaration summarizes the recommendations that the participants agreed upon - participants which included government officials and representatives of civil society and inter-governmental organisations from 31 countries.

MVFHR contributed in particular to the inclusion of recommendations regarding victims' families and families of the executed. See the fourth point in this list of assertions that introduce the Declaration:

- Convinced that the death penalty undermines human dignity and can amount to cruel,inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment;

- Noting that there is no convincing evidence that the death penalty deters criminal behaviour any more effectively than other punishments;

- Recalling that where the death penalty is retained at all, it should only be imposed for the “most serious crimes”, and after a fair trial has been granted to the accused;

- Mindful that the death penalty creates additional victims – the family members of those who have been executed – who are often forgotten, marginalised or stigmatised by society;

- Mindful that the essential aim of the penitentiary system should be the “reformation and social rehabilitation” of prisoners;

And the ninth recommendation of the Declaration says:

In recognition of the suffering of victims of violent crime and their loved ones, call upon states to:

a. ensure that all victims be treated with dignity, respect and equality throughout the criminal process, regardless of their beliefs about or position on the issue of the death penalty;

b. establish a victims’ compensation fund where there is none;

c. address the rights of victims to reconciliation or mitigation with the offender where appropriate, and provide any other psycho-social support.

We were interested to see that an Inter-Press Service article earlier this week focused specifically on the Declaration's urging of the Arab League and the African Commission on Human and People's Rights to consider developing regional protocols on the abolition of the death penalty. The Inter-Press Service article also quotes the portion of the Declaration that refers to families of the executed.

Video from South Korea interview

2011-10-12T07:26:00.000-04:00

No photos yet from Mongolia, but we've just gotten a link to the short video that Amnesty International made during MVFHR's visit to South Korea last month, in connection with the country's 5,000th day without an execution. In this video, Renny Cushing talks about his father's murder, his opposition to the death penalty, the work of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, and why this is a crucial historical moment for South Korea.

... and in Uganda

2011-10-11T08:51:00.003-04:00

MVFHR members Bill Pelke and Bill Babbitt are traveling in Uganda with The Journey of Hope this week, speaking out against the death penalty at various events. They are there at the invitation of Journey of Hope member Mpagi Edward Edmary, who spent 18 years on Uganda's death row for a crime he did not commit.

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty reports that there were many events in African countries honoring World Day Against the Death Penalty yesterday:

One of the bigger events is the ‘Regional Conference on the Abolition and/or Moratorium on the Execution of the Death Penalty’ organised by the Government of Rwanda with Hands Off Cain and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, to be held in Kigali. The conference will have participants from at least 24 different African countries and representatives from the European Union and African Union. According to the organisers, “The conference aims to launch a major debate on the need to abolish the death penalty on the African continent or at least impose a moratorium on its execution across the entire Continent.”

Read the rest of the Coalition's article, which also mentions the Journey of Hope's visit.

Working for abolition in Mongolia

2011-10-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

A delegation of MVFHR members is in Mongolia this week, working with allies to support efforts to abolish the death penalty in that country. We'll post photos and reports from the various events as soon as they're available. One of today's activities is a press conference in connection with World Day Against the Death Penalty. Here is the group's public statement:

Today is World Day Against the Death Penalty, a day when nations around the globe stand in solidarity against the use of capital punishment. Members of Murder VIctims' Families for Human Rights, a United States-based international organization, are in Mongolia on this day to lend support to those who are calling for an end to the death penalty in this country. We are meeting with other family members of murder victims to share our common pain, and we are meeting with public officials and others to explain why we oppose the death penalty. As survivors with a direct stake in the death penalty debate, we join today in the call for a worldwide moratorium on executions. Let us not respond to violence with more violence. Let us recognize that justice for victims is not achieved by taking another life.

Read MVFHR's general statement on World Day Against the Death Penalty.

Read about MVFHR's previous work in Mongolia.

World Day Against the Death Penalty

2011-10-10T07:37:00.001-04:00

Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights
Statement on World Day Against the Death Penalty

Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights is a U.S.-based international organization of family members of homicide victims and family members of people who have been executed. As survivors with a direct stake in the death penalty debate, and as people who believe in the value of basic human rights principles, we join today in the call for a worldwide moratorium on executions.

The most basic of human rights, the right to life, is violated both by homicide and by execution. We call today for a consistent human rights ethic in response to violence: let us not respond to one human rights violation with another human rights violation. Let us recognize that justice for victims is not achieved by taking another life.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was inspired by victims, demanded by victims. It grew out of the suffering of millions of civilians murdered under the brutal regimes of the Second World War, and its adoption on December 10, 1948 was a way to honor the loss of those lives by asserting that such violations are neither moral nor permissible under any nation or regime.

Now, over sixty years later, let us recognize that violations of human life in the form of the death penalty should not be permissible under any nation or regime. Working across state and national borders, united by our losses and our opposition to further killing, members of MVFHR call for abolition of the death penalty because the only way to uphold human rights is to uphold them in all cases, universally.

In Colorado

2011-10-07T14:04:00.005-04:00

MVFHR's Renny Cushing will be the keynote speaker at the Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons conference this weekend, and will also meet with members of Coloradoans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Read MVFHR's newsletter article describing the work of Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons.

Read MVFHR's newsletter issue with a feature on how unsolved murders affect victims' families.

Read more about Renny Cushing's legislation regarding victims' compensation and cold cases.

25 quotes

2011-10-04T09:59:00.003-04:00

MVFHR is mentioned in this column by Tom Hennessy in Saturday's Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram:

When Troy Davis was executed in Georgia last month for the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail, opponents of capital punishment nevertheless took solace in hoping that the death penalty was on its way to being abolished.

After all, Davis had more going for him than almost any of the 1,270 U.S. prisoners put to death since 1976. About 650,000 Americans had signed petitions opposing his execution. Those pleading for his life included Pope Benedict XVI, former President Jimmy Carter and former FBI director William Sessions.
Seven of the original nine eyewitnesses had recanted their testimony. Thus, the possibility remained that Davis was innocent. But likely, we will never know. Once a suspect has been executed, the justice system does not encourage further investigation.
Some of those who favored the execution say they did so on the premise that the death of Davis will bring closure to the family of Officer MacPhail.
But Jeanne Woodford doubts that assessment. As former warden of San Quentin State Prison, she became so distressed by a lifetime of helping administer the death penalty that on May 12 she took on a radically different post: executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a San Francisco-based group opposed to capital punishment. She was one of six ex-wardens opposed to the killing of Davis.
"The death penalty serves no one." Woodford has said. "It doesn't serve the victims. It doesn't serve prevention. It's truly all about retribution."
She is not alone. In the following paragraphs, 25 other notable people, widely quoted on a variety of websites, express their views on capital punishment, a subject that may well be on the California ballot next year.
A justice's view
1. "... the death penalty is imposed not only in a freakish and discriminatory manner, but also in some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent."
Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr.
2. "I was eight years old when my father was murdered. It is almost impossible to describe the pain of losing a parent to a senseless murder ... But even as a child, one thing was clear to me: I didn't want the killer, in turn, to be killed. I remember lying in bed and praying, `Please, God. Please don't take his life, too.' I saw nothing that could be accomplished in the loss of one life being answered with the loss of another."
Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Sen. Bobby Kennedy.
3. "If not remedied, the scandalous state of our present system of capital punishment will cast a pall of shame over our society for years to come. We cannot let it continue."
Justice Thurgood Marshall, 1990.
4. "You believe an eye for an eye until you are put in that situation. If they kill those guys, it really doesn't mean much to me. My father is gone."
Basketball player Michael Jordan on the murderers of his father, James.
5. "Government ... can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill."
Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking."
6. "Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul."
Mark Twain.
Primitive nation?
7. "It's just really tragic after all the horrors of the last 1,000 years we can't leave behind something as primitive as government-sponsored execution."
Sen. Russ Feingold.
8. "To top it off, for those of you who are interested in the economics, it costs more to pursue a capital case toward execution than it does to have full life imprisonment without parole."
Ralph Nader.
9. "Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order."
George Will.
10. "A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle."
U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
11. "When you execute a man who has been on death row seven, eight, 10 or 12 years, you are not executing the same man that came in."
Don Cabana, former warden of Mississippi's Parchman Penitentiary.
12. "Here I want to say that one must be careful in searching his soul ... one may just find that God is there and that he does not support the barbaric idea that man should execute man."
Ron McAndrew, former warden of Florida State Prison.
13. "To me the death penalty is vengeance, and vengeance doesn't really help anyone in the healing process."
Bud Welch, board president, Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights. His daughter, Julie, was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing.
14. "No man has the right to take God's place and say another man should die. It destroyed my life."
Perry Cobb, who spent eight years on Illinois' death row for a crime he did not commit. He was exonerated in 1987.
District attorney's view
15. "California's death penalty is ... an incredibly costly penalty, and the money would be better spent keeping kids in school, keeping teachers and counselors in their schools and giving the juvenile justice system the resources it needs."
Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti.
16. "Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders."
French philosopher Albert Camus.
17. "My overriding belief is that it is always possible for criminals to improve and that by its very finality the death penalty contradicts this."
The Dalai Lama.
18. "People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty."
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
19. "To say that the death of any other person would be just retribution is to insult the immeasurable worth of our loved ones who are victims."
Marietta Jaeger. Her daughter, Susie, age 7, was kidnapped and murdered in 1973.
20. "I do not think that God approved the death penalty for any crime, rape and murdered included. Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God."
Martin Luther King Jr.
21. "I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don't think it's human to become an Angel of Death."
Nobel laureate, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
22. "The reality is that capital punishment in America is a lottery. It is a punishment that is shaped by the constraints of poverty, race, geography and local politics."
Bryan Stevenson, death row lawyer.
23. "Most people approve of capital punishment, but most people wouldn't do the hangman's job."
George Orwell.
24. "I believe that no one should be executed, guilty or innocent. There are appropriate sanctions that protect society and punish wrongdoers without forcing us to stoop to the level of the least among us at his or her worst moment."
Actor and activist Mike Farrell.
25. "I have come to think that capital punishment should be abolished."

Jack Kemp, Republican vice presidential candidate, 1996.

Statement from theologians

2011-09-28T08:55:00.004-04:00

MVFHR is mentioned in a statement from Catholic theologians calling for an end to the death penalty. Here's the piece from Monday's National Catholic Reporter, "Over 150 theologians call for abolition of the death penalty":

More than 150 Catholic theologians have signed a statement calling on the United States to abolish capital punishment, and asking the church to work "unwaveringly" toward that goal.

The statement, issued this morning on the Catholic Moral Theology blog, comes five days after the controversial Sept. 21 execution in Georgia of Troy Davis. Amnesty International, along with a number of faith and justice groups, had said that “serious doubts” remained over Davis’ guilt in the 1989 murder of a police officer.
Signing their names along with the institution where they teach, overwhelmingly at Catholic colleges and universities, the theologians reference church teachings on capital punishment and say they “deplore and lament the killing of Troy Davis” and “decry the death sentences of the more than 3,200 inmates on death row.”
Tobias Winright, an associate professor in theology at St. Louis University who helped draft the statement, said in a phone interview that the number of theologians interested in adding their name to the list is growing by the minute. The high number, he said, indicates that the movement to abolish the death penalty is backed by professors across the country, of every age and political stripe.
“We’ve had signers from North to South, West to East,” said Winright. “We have first year teachers, and people who have taught for many, many years. That reflects that this is an important issue to a lot of Catholic theologians right now.”
The statement, which Winright said started as an exchange between professors on a listserv over the morality of the killing of Davis, notes that, since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1973, 138 people have been exonerated from death row.
The number of people exonerated, the theologians write, reflects the fact that “execution is … irrevocable and innocent people have likely been victims of it.”
That probability of innocent victims of the death penalty speaks to the case of Davis, who maintained he was not guilty. His case garnered international attention when many of the witnesses who had implicated him in the murder recanted their testimony, and nine others signed affidavits implicating another man, whom Davis said was the actual killer.
Disproportionate among those who have been cleared of crimes worthy of the death penalty, the theologians’ statement says, are people of color, who “are from 3 to 5 times more likely to be executed if their victim was white.”
Citing the U.S. bishops’ 2005 statement “A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death,” the theologians’ statement says that while church teaching does not outlaw capital punishment, it recognizes that there are now other ways to “protect citizens from threats to the common good.”
The application of the death penalty is “deeply flawed and can be irreversibly wrong, is prone to errors, and is biased by factors such as race, the quality of legal representation, and where the crime was committed,” the statement quotes the bishops’ 2005 document.
Another sign of the importance of the death penalty question to Catholic theologians, Winright said, is that today’s statement has drawn signatures of those who have in the past disagreed on issues of doctrine or liturgy.
“While we may have disagreements on some things, on this issue there seems to be consensus,” said Winright.
While Winright said the theologians hadn’t specifically reached out to bishops to sign today’s statement, he noted they had received one bishop’s signature, Bishop John Michael Botean of the Eparchy of St. George in Canton, Ohio, and would welcome others.
Beyond practical questions of innocence or guilt of those on death row, the theologians say in their statement that the example of Christ, who himself was put to death, points to a “theological stance” that the death penalty is always wrong.
Acknowledging that the “Gospel message of forgiveness and love of enemies presents a difficult challenge” to those who have experienced murder in their families, the theologians write: “The Gospel teaches us how to become fully human: love, not hatred and revenge, liberates us. We need to forgive and love both in fidelity to the Gospel and for our own well-being.”

As an example of such forgiveness, the statement points to the work of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, an international group of families who have experienced a murder, yet publicly oppose the death penalty.

Victim's son objects

2011-09-23T09:22:00.003-04:00

This Reuters story, "Victim's son objects as Texas sets execution date in hate crime death," was published on September 21st:

As Texas prepares to execute one of his father's killers, Ross Byrd hopes the state shows the man the mercy his father, James Byrd Jr., never got when he was dragged behind a truck to his death.

"You can't fight murder with murder," Ross Byrd, 32, told Reuters late Tuesday, the night before Wednesday's scheduled execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer for one of the most notorious hate crimes in modern times.

"Life in prison would have been fine. I know he can't hurt my daddy anymore. I wish the state would take in mind that this isn't what we want."

Brewer is scheduled to die by lethal injection after 6 p.m. local time in Huntsville, Texas.

His pending execution comes 10 years after Governor Rick Perry signed into law the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, strengthening punishments for hate crimes.

An avowed white supremacist, Brewer, 44, was one of three white men convicted of capital murder in the kidnapping and killing of Byrd Jr., in June 1998.

John King, another white supremacist, is on death row awaiting an execution date. Shawn Berry is serving a life sentence.

Brewer would be the 11th man executed in Texas this year. In Georgia, the execution of Troy Davis, convicted of killing a police officer, is scheduled for the same night.

If both executions go forward, Brewer and Davis would be the 34th and 35th executions in the United States in 2011.

In Texas, a vigil in Huntsville began at midnight with civil rights activist Dick Gregory.

PROTESTS

Gregory has joined Ross Byrd and Martin Luther King III in the past to publicly protest Brewer's execution.

Ross Byrd, a recording artist studying for his MBA at nearby Stephen F. Austin University, said Tuesday that he wouldn't attend the execution but will "be there in spirit."

He says he doesn't want to "waste my time" watching anybody die, even a man who killed his dad.

"Life goes on," said Byrd, who has a son. "I've got responsibilities that I have every day. It's not on the front page of my mind. I'm looking for happy times."

In a crime that touched off a nationwide effort to tighten punishments for hate crimes, Brewer, King and Berry were convicted of offering Byrd Jr. a ride on his way home from a party, and then attacking him while they were standing outside the truck smoking on a country road near Jasper, Texas, according to a report by the Texas Attorney General's Office.

They beat him, and then chained his legs to the back of their pick-up and dragged him for several miles, the report said. By the time they stopped, his head and arm had been ripped off. They left his body on the country road.

Brewer maintained his innocence, saying Berry had killed Byrd Jr. by cutting his throat. But prosecutors said Brewer and King were prison buddies bent on starting a racist organization in Jasper and "intended the killing to be a signal that his (King's) racist organization was up and running."

The crime touched off a firestorm of support in Texas and the United States for laws that would enhance punishments for crimes motivated by race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry.

The jury sentenced the three men as the nation was still reeling from a second hate crime that same year -- the October 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, beaten and left to die on a fence in Wyoming because he was gay.

'WATERSHED MOMENT'

In 2001, Texas passed its hate crimes bill named after Byrd Jr., and its symbolic signing by Perry was a "watershed moment" in Texas and one of Perry's "finest moments in office," said Texas state Senator Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat, who helped move the bill through the Texas Senate in spite of staunch Republican opposition.

Eight years later, President Obama signed into law a similar federal bill named after Byrd Jr. and Shepard.

"James Byrd's murder certainly changed Texas and, in many ways, the nation," Ellis told Reuters.

"It was a wake-up call that evil and hate, while no longer considered mainstream views, are more prevalent and virulent than we pretend."

Ellis said the death sentence in Brewer's case "will close a chapter in this tragic story."

"I cannot say for certain that it is a requirement in order for justice to be served but, as Mr. Brewer was a ringleader in the most brutal hate crime in the post-Civil Rights era, it is certainly a very appropriate sentence," he said.

Unlike Byrd's children and wife, all of whom oppose the use of the death penalty against his killers, other family members have been supportive of it.

"I'm not down on them at all for the fact that they support the death penalty," said David Atwood, a good friend of Ross Byrd's and founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "They've gone through a traumatic experience, and there's a history in our country of horrible things happening to African Americans, so it's understandable that a number of them would say finally we're getting some justice."

He called Ross Byrd's stand "powerful."

Byrd says the execution of Brewer is simply another expression of the hate shown toward his father on that dark night in 1998. Everybody, he said, including the government, should choose not to continue that cycle.

"Everybody's in that position," he said. "And I hope they will stand back and look at it before they go down that road of hate. Like Gandhi said, an eye for an eye, and the whole world will go blind."

Progressing toward abolition

2011-09-20T08:29:00.003-04:00

The MVFHR seminar in New Orleans over this past weekend was a powerful experience. The participants came from 21 states, and many were quite new to the abolition movement and to gathering with other victims' family members who oppose the death penalty. Participants had a chance to hear presentations about the history of the death penalty and of victims' voices within the abolition movement, victims' rights with respect to the death penalty, working with other victims' groups, ways that victims' voices can be amplified within the death penalty debate, and telling one's story publicly. In addition to the large-group presentations, there were opportunities for the family members of the executed, and family members of victims in unsolved murder cases, to meet and share experiences.

Today Renny Cushing is representing MVFHR in London at Penal Reform International's conference on “Progressing toward abolition of the death penalty and alternative sanctions that respect international human rights standards." Other speakers include a representative from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and from human rights groups in Africa and Russia.

In New Orleans

2011-09-16T08:27:00.004-04:00

We are in New Orleans this weekend, where MVFHR is holding a seminar and training about speaking out against the death penalty. This gathering brings together, from around the U.S., about 40 family members of murder victims and of people who have been executed, many of whom are new to anti-death penalty activism. We're looking forward to a powerful experience of learning and fellowship.

It will not help

2011-09-15T11:09:00.000-04:00

From yesterday's Mississippi Clarion Ledger, "Victim's sister: no death penalty"

The beating and killing of James C. Anderson has drawn national outrage, but his sister said his killer or killers shouldn't be executed.

"Those responsible for James' death not only ended the life of a talented and wonderful man," Barbara Anderson Young wrote in her letter Wednesday to Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith. "They also have caused our family unspeakable pain and grief. But our loss will not be lessened by the state taking the life of another."

The June 26 slaying of Anderson in Jackson has sparked attention across the country as an alleged hate crime.

Smith said the letter resolves the question of the family's wishes, which he said would "weigh heavily" in deciding whether to pursue the death penalty against 19-year-old Deryl Dedmon Jr. of Brandon, who is charged with capital murder. Another defendant, John Aaron Rice, 18, of Brandon, is charged with simple assault.

A capital murder conviction carries the death penalty or life without parole. Those convicted of murder can petition for parole starting at age 65.

In her letter, Young quoted Coretta Scott King in explaining her opposition to capital punishment: "An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of human life."

Young wrote that the family's opposition to the death penalty is "deeply rooted in our religious faith, a faith that was central in James' life as well. Our Savior Jesus Christ rejected the old way of an eye for an eye and taught us instead to turn the other cheek. He died that we might have everlasting life and, in doing so, asked that the lives of the two common criminals nailed to the crosses beside him be spared. We can do no less."

She said the family also opposes any execution "because it historically has been used in Mississippi and the South primarily against people of color for killing whites. Executing James' killers will not help to balance the scales. But sparing them may help to spark a dialogue that one day will lead to the elimination of capital punishment."

The killing is being investigated by Jackson police, the U.S. Department of Justice and Smith's office.

Young thanked them Wednesday for their investigations.
"We hope that the criminal prosecutions will send a strong and clear message to those with hate in their hearts. We simply ask that that message be tempered with the love of our Savior," she wrote.

The family has started the James C. Anderson Foundation for Racial Tolerance "to help build bridges between the races," she said. "We appeal to men and women of goodwill to join hands with our family in launching a renewed movement of reconciliation, acceptance and hope."

Read the rest.

Radio Islam

2011-09-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Renny Cushing was a guest on Radio Islam last night with host Abdul Malik Mujahid, speaking on the topic "Justice, the Death Penalty, and Rick Perry." You can listen to the show here

Inter-Press Service interview

2011-09-13T10:30:00.002-04:00

This interview with Renny Cushing was published today by the Inter-Press Service (IPS):

"Filling Another Coffin Will Not Bring Our Loved Ones Back"
Kanya D'Almeida interviews RENNY CUSHING, founder of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR)

WASHINGTON, Sep 13, 2011 (IPS) - With the death penalty still a fixture in the criminal justice apparatus of many U.S. states, the voices of murder victims' families who oppose capital punishment are bringing a deeply personal perspective to the debate.

IPS spoke with Renny Cushing, founder and executive director of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights (MVFHR), whose father's murder in 1988 set him on a tireless course of human rights advocacy.

A declared victim-abolitionist, Cushing has been a pioneer in the movement to link death penalty abolition groups with the victims' rights movement. He lives by the dictum that "filling another coffin will not bring our loved ones back – it will only give birth to yet another broken, grieving family."

Co-author of "Dignity Denied: The Experience of Murder Victims' Family Members Who Oppose the Death Penalty", and "I Don't Want Another Kid to Die", a collection of homicide victims' family members' testimonies against the juvenile death penalty, Cushing tours the U.S. and the world, demanding universal dignity and human rights for all.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: What was the vision behind MVFHR?

A: MVFHR was founded on Dec. 10, 2004 – International Human Rights Day – by a group of families and survivors of homicide victims who had seen their loved ones murdered by serial killers, attacked by terrorists, disappeared or fallen victim to state-sponsored executions.

We oppose the death penalty on human rights grounds and believe that it's a fundamental violation of the right to life, of Articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Though we are U.S.-based, we're committed to the concept of "abolition without borders", so we've always strived to have a presence outside the country, to make public that we are working in solidarity with other countries and peoples who are struggling to end the death penalty.

Q: What has some of this international solidarity looked like?

A: For example, representatives of MVFHR gathered in South Korea last week to commemorate the country's 5,000th day without an execution. Korea is also a 5,000-year-old country, nation and culture and it was a wonderful occasion on which to celebrate the fact that, though the death penalty has remained in place since South Korea's independence in 1948, a zero execution policy since 1997 has created a de facto abolitionist nation.

Since we first traveled to South Korea in 2004 to meet with lawmakers who had then drafted a death penalty abolition bill, we have been mindful of the importance of international solidarity in this matter, of adding our voices to the growing international movement for abolition. Already MVFHR is a member of the Asia Death Penalty Abolition Network and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

Once you become the survivor of a murder victim, you immediately assume an identity within society that can be leveraged to advocate for human rights. We have an important stake in decision-making and policy on capital punishment, about what society does in the aftermaths of murder. And though there are significant cultural differences when working transnationally, there is also a universal element to grief and pain that should be mobilised in our struggle.

Q: What are some of these universalities?

A: Well, we have worked with victims, in South Korea particularly, who have expressed similar sentiments to those of us who fight the death penalty in the U.S., that society places a burden on survivors to go out and seek revenge. One survivor of her own daughter's death told me that she was often made to feel like a sinner, fighting against the death penalty even after her own child had been murdered.

Another man I met, whose mother, wife and son were all murdered by a serial killer, has had to change his address and phone number in order to avoid the social repercussions of attempting to work for abolition. There's a terrible stigma attached to this kind of activism in our society, and our work often leads to us being isolated or ostracised.

Often I find myself, or people in my position, being depicted as either psychos or saints. The reality is that we are people who have lived through unspeakable horror, whose lives have unfurled rapidly, and we've come to the conclusion that filling another coffin doesn't bring our loved ones back, it just gives birth to another broken, grieving family.

Q: What are your thoughts about a society that supports the death penalty?

A: One of the things that people have to realise is that if you give your government the power to kill its people, it will use it. And as long as the government kills its own people, it sets the example that people and institutions have the right to take life.

In fact, governments should be setting the example that vengefulness will never be a symbol of democracy. I think South Africa is a great example in this regard. Its great leader Nelson Mandela once faced the death penalty and spent 27 years in prison. When he finally got out, he didn't keep looking over his shoulder seeking revenge. He understood that it was much more important for him to once and for all lift the burden of apartheid from his nation. When he finally became the president, it was of a new South Africa, one that had abolished the death penalty.

It is only by ending the death penalty that we will be able to safeguard, respect and uphold the rights of every individual.

Fall newsletter

2011-09-13T07:00:00.005-04:00

“Seeing my brother executed just tore me apart. I knew that my life had changed at that point. I felt as if I was separated from other individuals, and that I was forced into a state of manhood. Compared to most kids at 18, I had seen something they couldn’t imagine.”

That's a quote from Stan Allridge in MVFHR's fall newsletter, which is now available. Stan is one of the MVFHR members quoted in the article, "My Brother's Execution: From Silence to Speaking Out." Other special features in this newsletter include a section on September 11th families, an interview with Tom Mowen and Ryan Schroeder discussing their research which shows that victims' families are increasingly rejecting the "death penalty as closure" argument but news coverage doesn't accurately reflect this, and an essay about murder as a human rights violation. We've also got our usual MVFHR news briefs, a roundup of victim opposition to the death penalty in the news, and a message from the executive director.

Ten years

2011-09-11T18:43:00.001-04:00

On September 11, 2001, Terry Greene's brother Donald was a passenger aboard United Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers aborted attempts to reach Washington, DC. In MVFHR's fall 2011 newsletter, Terry says,

It has been 10 years since the attacks of 9/11. I recall those dark days. It was as if I, myself, were collapsing into an abyss. How would our family ever be the same without my brother? How could this senseless violence have ripped Don from his wife and children? Don’s conversations, with me or with anyone for that matter, would be filled with the latest anecdotes about his family, which he adored to no end. Don’s children, close in age to my son, were so young at the time of the attacks; Charlie had just turned ten only days before and Jody was only seven.

Ten years later and that deep love Don gave to his family has not ended. We have all continued with Don in our hearts to strengthen us. His presence there is so gentle and caring.

Some people are surprised that I don’t want revenge against those who perpetrated the attacks. For one thing, I don’t want to displace Don from my heart to harbor hatred. The perpetrators have not earned a place in my heart; it is reserved as a place to nourish my memories of Don that dwell there.

Read the rest of Terry's comments and words from other MVFHR members in the fall 2011 issue of our newsletter Article 3, which contains a feature "September 11th Families: 10 Years Later."

Her words changed me

2011-09-09T14:21:00.000-04:00

From the speech that Jennifer Bishop Jenkins gave at MVFHR's public event at the Franciscan Education Center in Seoul:

I am deeply grateful to be here in Seoul on this observance of the important 5,000^th day without executions for your nation. This is an important achievement in your nation’s leadership for human rights and against murder.

I am a murder victims’ family member. My sister, her husband, and their unborn baby were murdered near Chicago, in the United States, in 1990. I came face to face with horrors no person should ever see. Since that time I have been dedicated to making sure that no family ever has to endure what our family had – to have three family members murdered. Killing is the deepest violation of our humanity possible.

My sister was 25 years old, a beautiful young wife, and she was pregnant with their first child. But Nancy, Richard, and the baby were murdered because a teenager just wanted to “see what it would feel like to shoot someone” for the “thrill” of it.

My sister watched the killer shoot Richard point blank in the back of the head. Her husband's head blown off in front of her, the killer then turned the gun on her as she begged for the life of her unborn child. And as she crossed her arms over her pregnant belly, sobbing “please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt my baby," the killer shot her directly in the abdomen, aiming for the baby.

The last thing she did before she died was to pull herself over by her husband, and with her finger in her blood she drew a Heart and a “U” – Love You – and then she died. With the last ounce of life she had in her body she told us she loved us. Nancy’s last act was to say, in the only way she could, that love was the most important thing in the world.

My sister’s dying words now define my life. Her words of love changed me. She taught me how wrong killing is – killing of all kinds.

Korea is filled with love. You are honorable people. You have already stopped executions. You know killing is wrong. Your people can now stand up to do what is right, what is loving, and abolish the death penalty.

Tragically, if I were living in Korea when this happened, my whole family would have to live in a shameful way after my sister’s murder. We would live without community support and the rights that all innocent crime victims should have. Murder victims’ family members are often pushed away here. They are not cared for as they should be. We should support them all. Victims’ Rights are Human Rights.

The USA has begun to realize, as I have, that it is not good for murder victims’ family members to have the offender executed. It does not bring justice or healing. It prolongs their agony and adds more bloodshed. It focuses attention on the offender and requires them to participate in more murder in order to finalize their justice. Life sentences for dangerous killers are the right thing to do.

Korea can be so proud of having a man who led your country now lead the world as Secretary General of the United Nations. His leadership against the death penalty is also very admirable.

It will honor the importance of love to abolish the death penalty. It will honor the fact that killing is wrong if you all abolish the death penalty. It will honor South Korea to become an international leader in Human Rights by finally and officially abolishing the death penalty.

Thank you for embracing murder victims’ families and for standing up against the evils of executions.

The eyes of the world are on Korea

2011-09-09T08:02:00.003-04:00

Following up on yesterday's post: In his speech to the Korean National Assembly yesterday, marking the country's 5,000th day without an execution, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Woo Yoon Keun included mention of MVFHR and the importance of working with our organization to help bring the voices of Korean victims' family members to the effort for abolition of the death penalty. Later that evening, Renny Cushing, Jennifer Bishop Jenkins, and Toshi Kazama met privately with a group of Korean victims' family members for a very emotionally powerful sharing of stories.

Here is an excerpt from Renny Cushing's speech to the National Assembly yesterday:

... Members of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, in the U.S., here in Korea, and around the world all know the pain and the emptiness that comes from a homicide. There are not words in any language that can fully explain the experience. How we respond in the aftermath of murder is not an intellectual exercise for us. It is part of the reality of our daily lives. It is what we do when we wake up each morning wishing that we could change our personal history and bring back our loved one. As survivors of crime we are reconciled to the fact that much as we wish that we could, we can't change the past. What we can do, what we strive to do, is try to control and shape our future, and do so in a way that honors and celebrates the lives of our loved ones lost to violence.

My personal journey to my appearance before you today was shaped by the murder of my father, Robert Cushing Sr. On June 1, 1988, two shotgun blasts ripped my father’s chest open before my mother’s eyes. They were alone together as he died on the floor inside of their own home where they had raised their seven children. From that instant members of my family entered that world of pain that words can’t quite capture. It’s a world of autopsies and funeral ceremonies, of fears and questions and investigations and police and prosecutors and sometimes arrests and trials and juries and verdicts and sentences and appeals. But it is mostly about emptiness—empty spaces where someone once sat, empty sounds in the wind, empty hearts.

I thought that my family had known our share of pain. And yet 5 months ago, in a crime very similar to my father’s killing, my brother-in-law was murdered. Once again my family is in grief, and as I stand here today I am still grieving both the murder of my father and of my brother-in-law.

The act of murder may be over in an instant, but that does not mean the hurting ends. For myself, for all survivors, we grieve and try to heal forever.

I am glad that in Korea Article 30 of your constitution provides that victims of crime may receive aid from the state. But I also have been told by people here in Korea who have had family members murdered that there remains a great stigma attached to being victims of crime in this country. Many feel abandoned and ostracized. Korean victims who oppose the death penalty tell me they are fearful of speaking out in public against capital punishment

Those of us who are concerned about human rights need to be concerned about victims, about preventing further harm, about victims’ rights. We need to not just abolish the death penalty; we need to help victims.

In addition to being an advocate for victims and human rights, I am a former three-term member of the House of Representatives in my home state, and I have a special appreciation for the challenges and demands that must be addressed by those who serve as parliamentarians in a democracy. During my time as a lawmaker I was an advocate for laws for benefits for victims of crime at the same time that I was a proponent of ending the death penalty. I believe for an individual, for a society, to have a consistent human rights ethic, it is a necessity to be both pro-victim and anti-death penalty.

It must said that dealing in the public arena, in the political arena, with the subject matter of death, of homicide and executions, is crucial human rights work, but it is not easy. For a lawmaker to take on the abolition of the death penalty as a cause means that inevitably he or she will touch upon real pain and devastation, and I know that to rise to the call of history to shape human rights policy in this area is a trust that, on some occasions, can weigh heavy upon a lawmaker.

I will share something with you about being a survivor of a murder victim who opposes the death penalty. In my culture, some people think that if you don’t want the death penalty for a person who killed your family member you must be either a crazy person or a saint. While there are times when I am playing with my three daughters that they tell me I act a little crazy, I can assure you that there is never a time anyone has accused me of being a saint. I, and others like me who have had a family member murdered, are ordinary flawed human beings who have experienced a horrific loss and who, after going through layers and layers of pain, have come to conclude that another killing will not bring back our loved one, it will only add to the pain in the world. And as victims, we don’t want more pain.

The most widely translated document in the world is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is a document that was inspired by victims, demanded by victims. It grew out of the experience of the suffering, the denial of the life to millions of civilians under brutal regimes of the Second World War. I know here in Korea the denial of human rights under the period of Japanese occupation is not a distant memory. You feel it today. The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948 was a way to honor the loss of millions of lives, a way to give meaning to the loss, to help heal if you will, by asserting that such violations as were not humanly moral, were not permissible under any nation or regime. That Declaration establishes that human rights are not granted by governments, they can not be denied or abrogated by governments, they are an entitlement of one's humanity.

The most fundamental of all human rights, is the right to life itself.

As a guest in your country, I do not presume prescribe to you or tell the people of Korea what to do. I do want to praise the people of Korea, and the government for 5,000 days without an execution. This is an international moment., and the eyes of the world are on Korea. Murder Victims Families for Human Rights belongs to the World Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Yesterday, on behalf of the 121 NGOs from across the world, I delivered a letter to Chairman Woo supporting Korea’s effort to end the death penalty. With your countryman, Ban Ki Moon, heading up the United Nations, which is committed to ending the death penalty, with a vibrant human rights community and leaders and lawmakers who embrace human rights, and with legislation pending before the National Assembly to abolish capital punishment, the world waits and watches, hopeful that Korea will take legal steps to permanently end executions. ...

Meeting in South Korea

2011-09-08T07:00:00.000-04:00

As part of their visit to South Korea this week, Renny Cushing, Jennifer Bishop Jenkins, and Toshi Kazama met with Woo Yoon Keun, Chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the South Korean National Assembly (pictured above, second from left).

Renny writes:

We had a very productive meeting and discussed a number of issues relating to the death penalty in Korea. Chairman Woo shared some of the history and current political context for the effort to pass legislation through the National Assembly to abolish capital punishment. Chairman Woo recalled his meeting last year with MVFHR members Bud Welch and Bob Curley, and emphasized the need to have MVFHR working with Korean victims and the importance of having the voices of Korean family members of murder victims supporting the abolition effort. I handed Chairman Woo the letter from the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty which, on behalf of the 121 member organizations around the globe, praised Korea for marking 5000 days without an execution and supported his work and the work of others to abolish the death penalty in Korea. He was very grateful for the international support for abolition.

Today is South Korea's 5,000th day without an execution, and Chairman Woo, along with other parliamentarians supporting the abolition of the death penalty, will speak at an event at the National Assembly that will highlight that milestone. The EU Ambassador to South Korea, Tomasz Kozlowski, and Renny Cushing will also speak to provide international support for Korea's efforts to advance human rights and abolish the death penalty.

Initially we wanted the death penalty

2011-09-07T08:05:00.003-04:00

From the 9/4/11 Seattle Times , this op-ed by Karil S. Klingbeil , "Death penalty costly -- for families of victims too":

A RECENT Seattle Times story educated us about the soaring financial costs of the death penalty ("Death penalty dilemma: Is soaring cost worth it?" page one, Aug, 15). I would like to address the other soaring cost, the emotional and psychological impact on family, friends and the community, which may be even greater than the financial costs.

Sept. 17 marks the 30th anniversary of my sister Candy Hemmig's murder. She had just celebrated her 33rd birthday at our family home in Olympia the previous Sunday. Candy and her co-worker, Twila Capron were gunned down in an Olympia bank by Mitchell Rupe, a man later dubbed "too fat to be hanged."
Candy left a husband and three children, ages 7, 13 and 16. Twila, too, had a husband and two young children. In an instant, there were two widowers and five children left motherless, not to mention the loss to mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends. Murder, like death, wracks the entire family including the community.
I have had 30 years to grieve and think through this horrible crime and major insult to our family. My sister Gail and I were enraged yet felt helpless, dependent on the criminal-justice system to deliver justice. Initially we desperately wanted the death penalty, which seemed to be the "worst punishment" that a murderer could receive. My emotion arose out of the terrible pain this man caused my entire family.
After Candy's service, it was all about Mitchell Rupe. It remained so through three trials. I attended all them and listened to the heinous accounts over and over. At the end of each trial, I was left with the same empty feeling. Time passes and begins to heal the wounds and emptiness, but there is no such thing as closure.
Rupe received the death penalty after the first two trials. The third jury had one holdout for life, so Rupe received life in prison without the possibility of parole. Over 20 years, he had been found guilty by 36 members of three juries and given the death penalty by 35 jurors. We were disappointed but not surprised. Rupe died in prison in 2006.
After years of reflection, my opinion about the death penalty has fully evolved. I now oppose the death penalty in favor of life in prison without parole — still a substantial penalty — for murderers like Rupe.
I have spent my professional career working to prevent interpersonal violence and protect its victims. I oppose all forms of abuse. I am opposed to wars. I realize that opposing the death penalty is in line with my philosophy about other issues of nonviolence I have supported my entire life.
I have come to believe that no one has the right to take another person's life for whatever reason. To kill someone for killing someone makes little sense. It speaks of anger, frustration, revenge, retaliation and a fallible law. It answers violence with violence.
All studies I have read make it clear that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. Murderers don't pause at the critical moment they are killing and think, "Gee, I wonder if I'll get the death penalty?"
But I have explored many other issues beyond deterrence including questions of morality, constitutionality, retribution and revenge, irrevocable mistakes, costs, race, income levels, attorney quality and finally issues of physicians at executions.

Victims' families, like our family, relive the horror of their loved one's murder with every court proceeding. Our system cannot seek this ultimate punishment without a great deal of procedure to avoid and correct errors, and still errors are made. The more hearings and trials there are, the more emotional trauma there is for the surviving family members.
The death penalty should be abolished. We should join the many countries that have long ago banned the death penalty. Capital punishment remains a barbaric remnant of uncivilized society. It does constitute a cruel and unusual punishment at odds with our culture and way of life in the United States. We should be putting the money we spend on the death penalty on the front end of crime and apply it toward prevention.
I don't believe calling for someone's death makes any of us a better person. I strongly believe working to end violence makes each of us a better person. Opposing the death penalty makes my philosophy of nonviolence a more powerful belief.
The emotional and financial costs are too great for this country to bear.

Karil S. Klingbeil is the former director of social work at Harborview Medical Center and a retired associate professor in the University of Washington's School of Social Work.

Press release: MVFHR in South Korea

2011-09-06T07:01:00.001-04:00

MURDER VICTIMS’ FAMILY MEMBERS URGE SOUTH KOREA TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Seoul, South Korea – Members of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) are in South Korea this week to help mark the country’s 5,000th day without an execution and to bring the voices of murder victims’ family members to the effort to abolish the death penalty in this country.

Renny Cushing, founder and director of MVFHR, whose father was murdered in 1988, Jennifer Bishop, whose sister and brother-in-law were murdered in 1990, and Toshi Kazama, the group’s Asia liaison, will address the Korean National Assembly, meet with members of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee, present their stories to church audiences, and hold a gathering with local family members of murder victims.

Although South Korea has retained the death penalty since its independence in 1948, no executions have been carried out since 1997. Death sentences continue to be imposed, however, and executions could resume at any time. Joining a growing movement now pressing for legislative abolition, MVFHR offers the critically important testimony of murder victims’ family members who oppose the death penalty.

“Around the world there is a growing group of family members of murder victims who are saying that we don't want executions carried out in our names," Cushing, a former three-term member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, explained. “We are at moment of global history when the Republic of Korea can take the lead in the Asia-Pacific region on human rights, and I urge members of the National Assembly to vote to end the death penalty and to focus on meeting the needs of crime victims.”

MVFHR has been active in South Korea since 2004, when Renny Cushing first addressed the National Assembly and spoke at a series of public events. In 2010, Bud Welch, whose daughter was killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and Bob Curley, whose young son was kidnapped and murdered in Massachusetts, traveled with Toshi Kazama to deliver public presentations, meet with public officials, and meet with family members of murder victims. MVFHR is a member of the Asia Death Penalty Abolition Network and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

Families talk about witnessing executions

2011-09-01T13:50:00.002-04:00

MVFHR members TIna Duroy and Jamaal Beazley are among those whose voices are included in this podcast, produced by the Texas After Violence Project, titled "Witnessing an Execution in Texas."

The podcast offers some powerful spoken testimony about how the death penalty affects the families of those being executed.

Remembering an Activist

2011-08-30T10:48:00.004-04:00

We are saddened to learn of the death of Yukinori Shibata, a leader in Japan's death penalty abolition movement. In 2009, Mr. Shibata translated several pages from MVFHR's Gallery of Victims' Stories into Japanese and published a booklet of these pages, which we were able to distribute at many of the Japanese venues that our group of MVFHR speakers visited in June 2010.

The photo above shows MVFHR's Asia Liaison, Toshi Kazama, posing with Mr. Shibata (left) and the booklet of victims' stories. As we sent our condolences to his family, we celebrate Mr. Shibata's valuable work with Japan's Religious Network Against the Death Penalty and express our appreciation for his support of MVFHR and our Japanese affiliate, Ocean.

Our voices grow stronger

2011-08-05T09:56:00.002-04:00

From yesterday's San Gabriel Valley Tribune, this opinion piece by Judy Kerr:

I will never pretend to speak for any victims' families beyond my own, but I can say that there is a growing movement across the nation of murder-victim family members who speak against the long-held notion that we must have executions to meet the needs of the surviving victims. Our voices grow stronger each day and must be heard.

After the devastating loss of a loved one to violent crime, surviving families have many needs. When my own brother, Bob Kerr, was killed in 2003, I had several needs. I needed grief counseling for my family and myself, and I needed to know who killed my brother. I received grief counseling, but not without navigating a complex, bureaucratic system while I was in no shape to do so. I am still waiting, however, to know who killed Bob.
In California, in the last ten years, 46 percent of murders went unsolved. This means over 25,000 murders remain unsolved, and 25,000 other families are waiting, like mine, to know who killed their loved ones. And it means as many as 25,000 killers roam freely on our streets. In the midst of this crisis of unsolved murders, we are also facing the biggest budget crisis in our state's history. While people literally get away with murder, the public safety network in California has unraveled. Police officers in every county in the state are being laid off. And, in every county, we are cutting back on homicide investigations and eliminating victims' services.
As thousands of family members wait for justice only to be told there is not enough money to fund an investigation, we watch as hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on the death penalty each year. Death penalty appeals, special housing for death row inmates, additional corrections officers to monitor them, a double-trial system which separates guilt and penalty phases - the costs associated with the death penalty are endless.
Many hear this and ask: Can't we just speed up the execution process? Reports from respected judges and criminal justice experts, both for and against the death penalty, have shown that the only way to make the system move faster while still preventing the execution of an innocent person is to spend even more money.
While I can't speak for any other murder victim family members, I can say that the death penalty does not meet any of my needs, but actually takes resources away from being able to meet my needs. I feel threatened knowing that my brother's killer and thousands of other killers walk the streets. I feel safe when killers are behind bars. Death row inmates are already behind bars - and would remain there if they were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole instead.
I say all of this with the utmost compassion for the family members whose loved ones were the victims of the 714 killers on death row. I know the horror of losing a family member to senseless, cruel and inhumane violence. The effect of my brother's murder in my life has been as significant, as meaningful, and as painful, as anything that has or will ever happen to me. From the center of my soul, I am deeply sorry for their loss.
These families have waited years, and in some cases decades, for an execution. They lived through traumatizing trials and endless appeals, being promised that an execution will bring closure. Yet most families will never see their loved one's killer executed. In reality, a death sentence is equivalent to life without parole with a much higher price tag since most death row inmates die of natural causes. By replacing the death penalty with life without parole, those families will no longer be subjected to years of appeals and we would put an end to the empty promise of an execution that will never come.
No one homicide victim is worth more than another when it comes to justice, but our death penalty system makes it seem so. In the end, the death penalty does more harm than good for all victims. Senate Bill 490 is now moving to the Appropriations Committee on Aug. 17. This bill will put the question of whether the death penalty meets the needs of California taxpayers on the ballot in 2012. It has been 30 years since voters have weighed in on this issue. It is past time to measure public support again.

Judy Kerr works with California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Listening to Victims

2011-07-28T08:46:00.003-04:00

MVFHR members Bill Pelke and Bess Klassen-Landis were among those who spoke on "Listening to Crime Victims" panel at the 3rd National Conference on Restorative Justice in Raleigh, North Carolina last month. Now Lisa Rea, the moderator, has blogged about the event and their testimony:

As I considered each victim/survivor I thought of how different each story was from the other. Bill Pelke's grandmother, Ruth, was brutally murdered by a group of ninth grade girls in 1985. Stephen Watt, a Wyoming state trooper at the time, was shot multiple times by a fleeing bank robber in 1982 leaving Watt in his police vehicle bleeding to death. Bess Klassen-Landis 's mother, Helen, was brutally raped and murdered by a man in 1969 in the family's Indiana home Bess was 13 years old. Kim Book's only daughter, Nicole, was murdered in 1995 at 17 years of age in her father's home in Delaware by a boy known by her daughter. Again, there is no way to hear such horrible stories and not be affected.

Read the rest of Lisa's post.

Don't respond with more violence

2011-07-12T10:22:00.002-04:00

An article in the July 7th edition of The Union.com quotes MVFHR members Amanda and Nick Wilcox:

A bill that seeks to abolish California's death penalty advanced Thursday after its first legislative hearing with support from the author of the state's death penalty and a former warden who presided over executions.

Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, said she introduced the bill because California can no longer afford a capital punishment system that is both expensive and ineffective as it battles persistent multibillion-dollar budget deficits.

It has the backing of two Nevada County residents — Nick and Amanda Wilcox, whose 19-year-old daughter Laura was gunned down in 2001 by a mentally ill man, Scott Thorpe, in Grass Valley. The Wilcoxes traveled to the hearing Thursday in Sacramento to lend their support to the measure.

“We've been advocates for ending the death penalty for a long time,” said Nick Wilcox.

“We add our voice because the death penalty is often justified in the name of victims, and not all victims support it,” Amanda Wilcox said. “We were opposed to the death penalty before Laura was killed, and after she was killed it did not change our view. We don't believe in responding to violence with more violence.”

Former Nevada County District Attorney Mike Ferguson did not seek the death penalty in Thorpe's case, which was in line with the family's wishes, Nick Wilcox said.

“We believe healing comes from within, not with what happens to the offender,” Amanda Wilcox said.

If eventually signed into law, the bill would put the question before voters in November 2012.

Read the full article.

Turned his pain into action

2011-07-11T08:18:00.002-04:00

From Saturday's online edition of The [Texas] Valley Morning Star:

Chris Castillo remembers how he felt when he first learned his mother had been murdered.

He felt rage, he felt anger, and he wanted to go after her killers himself and hurt them. When he learned they had fled to Honduras and that the United States had no extradition treaty with that country, he felt even more anger. His mother, Pilar, a former Brownsville resident who was living in Houston when she died, had taught Castillo and his siblings so many things about life, and in a moment, she was gone. There was an empty space in his heart that could never be filled.
That was 20 years ago, and Castillo, a former Harlingen resident who now lives in Beaumont, has turned his pain into action. He’s the national outreach coordinator for Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation (MVFR), an organization that works to abolish the death penalty. He’s also contributes to Bridges to Life, whose members go into prisons and work to make inmates understand the impact of crime on victims’ families.
“It’s about a 13-week program and it’s about three hours once a week,” Castillo said. “They meet in small groups, so we get pretty intimate. The victims share their stories, and the inmates share their stories as well of how they got there … If they lost someone to DWI, had someone (been) taken through homicide, they share their stories as well.”
MVFR also partners with The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. He went to Brownsville in May to speak to a Catholic church and a United Methodist church that are members of that organization.
Castillo, who is Catholic, said he opposes the death penalty for a number of reasons.
“I guess one reason why I’m against the death penalty is because I feel that the amount of money spent on the death penalty is just astronomical,” he said. “It actually costs three to four times more for the death penalty than it does for life without parole and I really would love to see that money spent on cold cases and on victims’ services. I just don’t believe that taking another life will make any difference.”
Pilar Castillo’s case recently was re-opened to check for DNA evidence, but investigators found nothing. But police believe the people who were renovating his mother’s house entered the residence in the middle of the night, forced her to sign some checks, and then strangled her to death. The perpetrators then fled the country and cashed the checks internationally.
When Chris Castillo tells his story to inmates, they seem sympathetic.
“I think that it really has a deep impact on them because they all have a mother, and they all have brothers and sisters, and I think there’s a close bond between someone and their mother,” he said.
The people who killed his mother still haven’t been brought to justice. Castillo said he’d like see those involved held accountable.

“A lot of people are confused,” he said. “They feel like people who are against the death penalty want everyone let go, and that’s not really the case. But I feel like they should be held accountable. Right now we have life in prison without parole. I think that’s a suitable sentence.”

Read the full article.

After the Execution

2011-07-07T08:43:00.003-04:00

Randy Gardner, brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who was executed in Utah last June, sent us a link to a television news story in which he talks about how the execution has affected Gardner's surviving family members:

Randy Gardner was never one to rally openly for any cause, but after his brother, Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad last year, that changed.

"I just got on the internet to see if there were other people in the same situation I was in," said Gardner. He found there were many other Americans who mourned the loss of their loved ones who also died after being executed in other states.

Gardner does not defend the fact that his brother shot and killed two people and seriously injured another, but he has a hard time with the state's execution of his brother. "I feel like they did the same thing that Ronnie did," he said.

On the Fourth of July weekend, Gardner spent time with other activist like him fasting and holding vigils and informing citizens about the Death Penalty and why they believe it should be abolished.

"We're not the ultimate judge in someone's life. Even if someone does kill, it is not our choice to take another life," said Gardner.

View the clip here.

And read last year's post with a news story about the execution and comments from the victim's family expressing opposition to it here.

Genuine Justice

2011-07-01T08:17:00.002-04:00

On her blog Genuine Justice, Virginia attorney Sylvia Chute posted yesterday about the presentation that Walter Long and I gave in Halifax a couple of weeks ago. Here's an excerpt from the post:

Sheffer’s and Long’s workshop at the recent 14^th IIRP International Restorative Justice Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia focused on victims of the death penalty who go mostly unrecognized: the families of the executed and the defense attorneys who handle their death penalty appeals.

For the families of the executed, the period of bereavement begins before the death. The trauma includes shopping for a casket for a loved one who is going to be murdered - before it happens. The exact date and time of their death is known. If a stay of execution is granted at the last minute, there is joy over the victory that is often followed by the execution that was merely delayed. Then there is the death certificate that describes the cause of death as homicide. We ambiguously identify the perpetrator of this murder as “the state.” Who killed their son, daughter, brother or father for “the state”?

We rarely consider the impact on the children of the executed. How do you explain to the children that the “state of Texas” killed their dad? How does this impact their future relationship with the state? How to they reconcile being told that killing is wrong, but it was okay for “the state” to kill their dad?

Misty was 14 when her dad was charged with a capitol offense and 28 when he was executed. There were no victims’ advocates ready to help her. Misty tried to commit suicide after her father’s execution.

Among the Texas After Violence Project's reports of stories located at theUniversity of Texas’ Human Rights Documentation Initiative is a video of Jamaal, Napoleon Beazley’s younger brother. After Napoleon was put on death row for a crime he committed at age 17, Jamaal lost his parent’s attention during the years they were consumed with Napoleon’s appeals. Every weekend for 7 or 8 years Jamaal and his parents visited his brother on death row. Napoleon was executed three days before Jamaal graduated from high school. After that, Jamaal’s father seemed to pull away, which Jamaal speculates is because of the pain of losing one son, and not wanting to be hurt that deeply again. The family’s grief was in essence “disenfranchised” because the loss could not be openly mourned or socially acknowledged. There was no space for the mitigation of his loss.

There is little space for the family members of the executed to discuss their grief. They face the question, do you hold a funeral, and if so, who should attend? They are innocent people who often feel ostracized.

What can be done about this? If we recognize the family members of the executed as victims, how will we define the framework for meeting their needs; is it state violence, a human rights violation, a murder? Who should provide counseling: school counselors, therapists, victim rights advocates, human rights activists?

Read the full post.

Radio Interview

2011-06-30T12:09:00.000-04:00

MVFHR board member member and Journey of Hope co-founder Bill Pelke was interviewed on the radio show The Path to Justice earlier this week. In the interview, which lasts for about 40 minutes, Bill talks about his grandmother's murder, his initial support for the death penalty, his experience of changing his mind, and his eventual work against the death penalty, including, specifically, his involvement in the campaign to save the life of Paula Cooper, who had been one of the four teenagers responsible for the murder of Bill's grandmother and who became the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the U.S. (Her sentence was subsequently reduced to 60 years in prison.)

Listen to the full interview here.

They might need help too

2011-06-28T07:05:00.000-04:00

MVFHR member Bill Babbitt is featured in this article published in the 6/25/11 Albuquerque Journal, "Families of Murderers Also Are Victims for Life," by Diane Dimond:

How wonderful to see the recent photos of a smiling Rep. Gabrielle Giffords as she left the hospital five months after being viciously shot in the head by 21-year-old Jared Loughner. Our hearts went out to Giffords and to the families of the 19 other victims, six of whom died.

But what about the family of Jared Loughner? Did you stop to think about them? The pain and suffering of Jared’s parents makes them victims, too. And, in the end, if Jared is declared fit to stand trial, Arizona’s death penalty might be used to take away their only son.
It is easy to forget about the plight of the families of those who commit these murders – Tucson, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Oklahoma City to name just a few of the most infamous.
When families are remembered, it is often with pointed fingers of blame and condemnation.
Whether the offense makes national headlines or not these ghastly crimes have two things in common: Nearly all involve shooters who have been clinically diagnosed with mental illness, including Loughner.
And, second – their families will never shake the shock, guilt and embarrassment of having a relative who kills.
In addition, these families have usually struggled for years trying to manage their loved ones psychological deterioration only to be told by medical experts to take them home, give them their medication and hope for the best. When the worst arrives these folks are often left on their own to cope. Victim assistance programs don’t consider the killer’s family might need help, too.
You likely never heard of Bill Babbitt, but as he told me his story the other day we both cried.
“It is the epitome of suffering,” he said as he told me about his little brother, Manny. “I’ve lost the love and support of much of my family over it.”
You see, Bill, now a 68-year-old war veteran living in California, was the first to realize his brother had caused someone to die – and he turned him over to police.
The story of Bill and Manny is too rich in detail to adequately fit in this small space, but the summary is this: Manny’s mental problems began in 1962 when his bike collided with a car and the boy was thrown into the air. He escaped death but was never “right” after that.
At 17, Manny joined the Marines. He wasn’t bright enough to pass the written test, but during the Vietnam War the military needed every good man.
Handsome Manny did two tours of duty and was so badly wounded during the bloody 77-day siege at Khe Sanh that his seemingly lifeless body was rescued from an active battlefield and medevaced out among a pile of corpses. Manny had sustained another major head wound.
Once home, post-traumatic demons set in and Manny was sent by the VA to two different mental institutions.
Finally, big brother Bill brought him to live at his house. Bill could tell from the frequent nightmares that his brother still was not “right.”
One rainy night in December 1980, Manny was out drinking with friends, some PCP-laced marijuana was passed around and on the walk home Manny’s demons returned.
The wet weather reminded him of Vietnam, a wide street morphed into the airstrip back in Khe Sanh and a loud TV set blaring a war movie sent him over the edge. He opened the homeowner’s unlocked screen door, as if to get closer to the war action, and encountered 78 year old Leah Schendel.
There was a violent scuffle and the elderly grandmother died of a heart attack.
He wouldn’t remember, but Manny grabbed a piggy bank and some rolls of coins as he fled. Bill and his wife found the unexplained money, along with a cigarette lighter bearing Schendel’s initials.
After reading about their neighbor’s death, the Babbitts knew what they had to do to get Manny the help he desperately needed. Bill turned in his own brother and, he told me, as the squad car pulled away, “I ran alongside and said, ‘Manny, Manny. Please forgive me!’ And he said, ‘Billy, I already have forgiven you.’”
Manny didn’t get the mental health treatment he needed. He got a bad lawyer who never mentioned post traumatic stress or head injuries during the trial. On May 14, 1982, Manny was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Upon hearing of his situation the U.S. Marines sent officers to San Quentin prison where they pinned a Purple Heart on Manny as he stood shackled before them. He was executed one day after his 50th birthday.
His brother Bill was on hand to watch. “It seems like it was just yesterday,” he told me through tears, “or just an hour ago.” Being a victim often lasts a lifetime.

This is the other side to the too-frequent stories we hear about “mad gunmen” who seemingly kill for “no reason.” There is almost always a reason. And most often it's family members who plead the loudest for help. Let’s remember them, too.

Against Violent Extremism

2011-06-27T08:57:00.003-04:00

MVFHR members Bud Welch and Jo Berry have been invited to participate in the Summit Against Violent Extremism, held this week in Dublin and convened by Google Ideas. Here's Google's description of the event:

Why does a 13-year old boy in a tough neighborhood in South Central LA join a gang? Why does a high school student in a quiet, Midwestern American town sign on neo-Nazis who preach white supremacy? Why does a young woman in the Middle East abandon her family and future and become a suicide bomber?

In order to advance our understanding, Google Ideas is today convening the Summit Against Violent Extremism, bringing together former gang members, right-wing extremists, jihadists and militants in Dublin for three days of debates and workshops. All these "formers" have rejected violence and are working for groups recognized by governments and law enforcement that fight extremism. Extremists have taken advantage of new Internet technologies to spread their message. We believe technology also can become part of the solution, helping to engineer a turn away from violence.

We're also inviting survivors of violent extremism who are engaged in some of the most important activism around this issue. They will remind us of the horrors and loss associated with the challenge of violent extremism. Representatives from civil society, along with a stellar group of academics, will participate and provide additional texture.

Our partners in this venture are the Council on Foreign Relations, which will look at the policy implications, and the Tribeca Film Festival, which emerged out of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the the World Trade Center and which will explore the role of film and music on and in fighting extremism.

Together, we aim to initiate a global conversation on how best to prevent young people from becoming radicalised and how to de-radicalise others. The ideas generated at the Dublin summit will be included in a study to be published later in the year. We are undertaking this project without preconceptions. We aren't expecting quick answers or "silver bullets." Instead, we're looking to increase understanding of a critical problem and find some new approaches to combat it. Stay tuned as we attempt to marry ideas and action.

New MVFHR board member

2011-06-21T09:50:00.002-04:00

We are delighted to welcome Stanley Allridge to the MVFHR Board of Directors. Stan, who lives in Texas, has been an active participant in MVHFR's "No Silence, No Shame" project, was part of our panel at the U.S. Human Rights Network conference a couple of years ago, spoke at a press conference in Jamaica, and has made several other presentations throughout the years, helping audiences to understand the effects of the death penalty.

Stan is a family member of murder victims (both his mother's parents were murdered, in separate incidents, and his maternal aunt was murdered as well) and also a family member of the executed (two of his brothers were executed in Texas). Stanley was just 18 when his brother Ronald was executed in 1995. His brother James was executed nine years later. Stan witnessed both executions, and he says, “After the first execution, I knew my life had totally changed. I had witnessed something most 18 year olds can’t imagine. I didn’t plan on being an activist, but I feel like I’m obligated to talk about the death penalty and what happened in our family. I don’t think we need to be ashamed. We are marching and protesting and trying to put an end to the death penalty, and we shouldn’t be embarrassed to be part of that.”

After working with Stan as an MVFHR member for several years, we are honored to have him join our board of directors.

In Halifax

2011-06-16T06:52:00.001-04:00

I (Susannah Sheffer) am in Halifax, Nova Scotia today, at the International Institute for Restorative Practices conference. With Walter Long of the Texas After Violence Project, I'm presenting a session on "How Should Communities Respond to Those Harmed by the Death Penalty?" Here's the description:

The death penalty has a traumatic impact on many people involved in capital cases in addition to the individual sentenced to die. Drawing on the presenters’ extensive experience, this session will focus on how two groups in particular are emotionally harmed by death sentences: families of the offender and capital defense attorneys. We will consider what obligations society has toward members of these groups and what possibilities exist for addressing the harms they experience. Our session is rooted in restorative justice’s basic questions: who has been harmed, what are their needs, and who is obligated to address those needs? Families of the executed and capital defense attorneys are harmed by executions in ways that have not yet received significant attention, and the time is ripe for an exploration of their experience within the context of restorative justice practices.

Walter C. Long founded the non-profit Texas After Violence Project, an independent oral history project designed to listen empathetically to people directly affected by criminal violence and state executions in Texas and to engage all voices in the creation of a less violent, more just community. As a criminal defense attorney, he has represented Texas death row inmates in their final appeals for many years.

Susannah Sheffer is staff writer and project director for the Massachusetts-based international non-profit Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights. She works closely with survivors of homicide victims and families of the executed, and is co-author of the report Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind. She is at work on the book Fighting for Their Lives, about the emotional experience of capital defense attorneys.

In Brussels

2011-06-13T07:09:00.003-04:00

Renny Cushing will be representing MVFHR over the next couple of days at a gathering in Brussels sponsored by the European Instrument on Democracy and Human Rights. Others from around the world, including our colleagues at the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, will be discussing the global fight against the death penalty.

Not necessary or even desirable

2011-06-10T07:58:00.002-04:00

From yesterday's Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Families of eight of the 11 women whose remains were found in and around Anthony Sowell's Cleveland home in 2009 are asking Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason to spare them the agony of a lengthy trial by ending his pursuit of the death penalty for Sowell and accepting a guilty plea for a lifetime behind bars.

Jim Allen, the father of victim Leshanda Long, hand-delivered to Mason's office Thursday afternoon a petition signed by 18 members of the eight families. In the petition the families assert that they do not believe a long and expensive trial, followed by decades of appeals, would bring them any degree of closure or comfort.

"We do not want to be witnesses to a media spectacle where our loved ones' lives and the details of the horrendous criminal acts inflicted upon them are spotlighted," the petition reads. "The death penalty for Anthony Sowell is not necessary, or even desirable, in comparison to the grief we families will continue to suffer under the realities and uncertainties of the criminal justice system."

Read the full article and the families' petition.

Murder is a human rights violation

2011-06-08T14:58:00.002-04:00

Several MVFHR members and friends are speaking this week at the 3rd National Conference on Restorative Justice in Raleigh, North Carolina this week. For example, Bill Pelke and Bess Klassen-Landis will join other victims' family members in a round table discussion, "Listening to Crime Victims: Their Journeys Toward Healing." And our colleague at the Texas After Violence Project, Walter Long, sent us a copy of the talk he is giving at the conference, which includes a passage that is extremely relevant to MVFHR's concerns:

Murder – intentional homicide – is a human rights violation. ... It is one of the worst human rights violations, and a component of or companion to all the worst violations (genocide, apartheid, torture). Okay, I’ve made that assertion. After this talk, go out and google “murder — human — rights — violation.” You’ll find a bunch of entries about execution and the death penalty. You’ll find a good many articles on murder by government agents, or “sanctioned murder.” You’ll find very little about murder committed by non-state actors. You’ll even find an odd “Answers.com” entry that asks “Is murder a human rights violation?”

What? Why did someone feel the need to ask that? After all, Article 3 of the foundational document of modern human rights, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, says “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” The International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights requires, in Article 6, “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law.” The United States has ratified the Covenant and is bound by it. How absolutely insulting it must feel to survivors of murder victims and to prosecutors to be bombarded by anti-death penalty human rights rhetoric, while nothing is said about the human rights violation that set them on the course of being victims or the advocate for victims in the first place. Why isn’t that acknowledged?

This passage from Walter's talk brings to mind a piece that Renny Cushing and I (Susannah Sheffer) wrote for Peacework magazine a few years ago, titled "Human Rights and Victim Justice." Here's an excerpt:

It's interesting to remember that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that sets forth the most basic principles regarding the value of human life and the way human beings ought to treat one another, was inspired by victims, demanded by victims. It grew out of the suffering of millions of civilians murdered under the brutal regimes of the Second World War, and its adoption on December 10, 1948 was a way to honor the loss of these lives by asserting that such violations are neither moral nor permissible under any nation or regime.

In more recent times, however, it has sometimes seemed as though the victims' rights movement and the human rights -- or death penalty abolition -- movements are speaking different languages. Historically, the victims' movement has asserted that every human life has value and that the taking of any one life by murder represents a theft whose impact will be felt forever. Victims' rights are, therefore, a way of trying to counterbalance that original violation with a reassertion of human dignity. Historically, the death penalty abolition movement has recognized that every human life has value and that the taking of any one life by the state replicates the very violation it is supposedly designed to redress. These are in fact both human rights claims, yet abolitionists and victims' rights advocates often fail to recognize these commonalities or to internalize each other's perspectives.

For MVFHR, both the death penalty and individual murder are violations of fundamental human rights. We believe that those who are outraged when the state kills should be equally outraged when an individual kills, and should therefore make a real effort to understand the effects of murder and to consider and incorporate the victim's perspective into their work. We believe that those who are outraged by an individual murder should likewise be outraged when the state takes another human life, and should therefore make a real effort to understand and consider the effects of a state system of execution.

Justice for victims -- whose human rights have been so completely violated -- does not come from violating the human rights of others. Justice, instead, must come in another way, and that way must include a recognition of the worth and dignity of all and a willingness to work toward a world that upholds, rather than denies, the value of human life.

It demeans our dignity

2011-06-07T09:36:00.003-04:00

MVFHR member Marietta Jaeger Lane is featured in the Summer 2011 issue of Yes! Magazine, in a story told to writer Lynsi Burton. Here's an excerpt:

Eventually [the man who kidnapped and murdered my 7-year-old daughter] was arrested, and irrefutable evidence was found to charge him with kidnap/murder, a capital crime with a sentence of the death penalty.

But I realized that to kill him in Susie’s name would not restore her life; it would only make another victim and another grieving family.
So, I asked the prosecutor for the alternative sentence of mandatory life without parole. Only when he was offered that was he willing to confess to the murders of a 19-year-old and three children, including Susie.

Using the same mindset as killers to solve our problems demeans our own worth and dignity. Victims’ families have every right initially to feelings of revenge. But the laws of our land should not be based on bloodthirsty, gut-level state-sanctioned killings: They should call us to higher moral principles more befitting our beloved victims.

Against expansion of NH death penalty

2011-05-27T10:10:00.002-04:00

MVFHR member Margaret Hawthorn is quoted in this article in the 5/19/11 Nashua (NH) Telegraph:

Opposition to this bill [which would expand the state's death penalty] dominated testimony during Wednesday’s two-hour Senate hearing.

Margaret Hawthorn said that if the bill was current law, it could have been applied in the murder of her 31-year-old daughter, Molly Hawthorn-MacDougal, at her Henniker home in April 2010.
She spoke forcefully against it along with capital punishment in general.

“Another death would only increase our family’s trauma and would not bring Molly back,” Hawthorn said.

The bigger picture

2011-05-25T13:49:00.001-04:00

Thanks to the Death Penalty Information Center for alerting us to this op-ed from Connecticut victim's family member Victoria Coward:

In 2007, there were more than 100 people murdered in Connecticut. The murders of the Petit family women rocked our state to its core. However, the murder of my 18-year-old son, Tyler, went virtually unnoticed.

Dr. Petit’s loss was horrible, but so was mine, and so were those of every single one of those other 100 murders — each a tragedy in their own right. Each leaving behind loved ones whose lives can never be the same.
For the last few months I have been speaking against the death penalty. I’ve been joined by 82 others who have lost children, siblings, parents, and spouses and have said that the death penalty hurts victims’ family members – all of us – because of how it treats those entrenched in the death penalty system, as well as those who are left on the outside without the attention and care that capital cases receive.
If we are serious about helping surviving victims — all of us — we need to see the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that the death penalty is given in fewer than 1 percent of cases, yet it sucks up millions and millions of dollars that could be put toward crime prevention or victims’ services. What I wouldn’t give for a tiny slice of those millions to give my grieving daughters some professional help to process the death of their brother.
If we are serious about helping surviving victims — all of us — we need to acknowledge that the death penalty in our state is a cruel hoax. In 50 years we have executed one person. Despite good intentions and earnest efforts to reform the system, we have remained unable to find a way to have a fair trial without torturing the victims’ families. With any other sentence, the surviving victims walk away confident that the offender is serving his punishment. With the death penalty, the promised punishment never comes, but surviving families vigilantly wait and fight. How absurd that in a quest to help them we would sentence them to this purgatory.
If we are serious about helping surviving victims — all of us — we need to face the ugly truth that the death penalty sets some crimes and some victims apart as more important than others. How do we make these decisions? Is it quantity of lives lost? The location of the murder? The death penalty attempts to identify “the worst” crimes. There is just no way for us to reasonably do this, and it is hurtful that we try.
I feel for Dr. Petit, and I understand his pain better than most. The last thing I want is to appear to be “against” Dr. Petit – and I assure you, I most certainly am not. But that is the illusion that the death penalty system creates. It has said to us that some cases are different, some cases are worthier of our attention, some hurt is deeper. And this just adds to my pain.

If our legislators are serious about helping us — all of us — they will repeal the death penalty and do so as soon as they possibly can.

Cannot be predicted

2011-05-17T07:12:00.002-04:00

As victims' family members who oppose the death penalty increasingly make their voices heard and their views known, journalists increasingly recognize that it's impossible to predict or assume how a victim's family member will feel on the issue. In his Texas Death Penalty blog for the Dallas Morning News, Michael Landauer wrote yesterday, "Families reactions cannot be predicted":

Some people who support the death penalty say they just want the nightmare to end for the victims' families. Some who oppose the death penalty say the same thing. How can both sides claim to have families' best interests at heart?

Easy. They are both wrong. And both right. Sometimes.
In Houston, the family of a slain police officer is upset about the killer getting life.
Amy Hamilton, Jesse Hamilton's widow and the mother of the couple's two young daughters, had something more emphatic to say to Robles: "I hope your life is so miserable that you look forward to death."
Amen, I say to that. God Bless Amy Hamilton and her family. If I were in her shoes, I would also hope for this killer to find nothing but misery in his cell day after day.

Meanwhile, in Oregon, there is the opposite situation. A death row inmate there is ready to call it a day, and the state will assist in his suicide. He is waiving all appeals and asking for an execution date. It will be the first time the state has taken a life since the last time an inmate formally expressed a similar death wish. The widow of the victim in that case takes a different tack:

Clarinda Perez married David Polin in 2007, just four months before he was stabbed dozens of times in a prison recreation area by two other inmates."I think that's just an easy way out. He's sitting in a cell since 2004, 23 hours out of the day without a window. That would be miserable for anybody," said Perez. "I'm not going to get any relief from him being put to death."

The reality is that, not only are co-victims unpredictable in whether they seek a death sentence, but that their views shift, evolve and sometimes even reverse over time. Can such human emotions be the compass we use to decide just punishment? I don't see how.

A cruel hoax

2011-05-16T07:11:00.000-04:00

From yesterday's Hartford Courant, "Execution won't ease pain, I know," by Gail Canzano:

This past week, the repeal of the death penalty was jettisoned by the misguided but sincere hope of a few lawmakers that they could ease the pain of Dr. William Petit, whose wife and daughters were slain in a home invasion.

But what is an appropriate response to the anguished pleas of someone in the throes of homicide grief? Someone reeling from unimaginable trauma? As a clinical psychologist I ask this question every day in my work with victims of trauma. I also ask it as someone who has been there.

Some years ago I sat in a courtroom and stared down the man who savagely murdered my brother-in-law. It brought me not one moment of solace and it's not something I ever wish to repeat. My family was quite fortunate because ours was not a death-penalty case. We appeared in court only a few times. The sentence, when handed down, was final and it began immediately. Two years after the murder, we were finished with the criminal justice system and we were free to focus on healing our broken hearts

That is the way the legal system is supposed to work. The death penalty does not work this way.

Despite our best intentions, the death penalty throws fuel on the already raging fires of a family's trauma and pain through a decades-long battle for justice in which every single court appearance re-traumatizes the family. Because death is irreversible, every issue is litigated and re-litigated – and with good reason because mistakes can't be undone once the sentence is carried out. The perpetrator becomes famous while the families left behind must suffer years of uncertainty.

And all of this for a false promise, because in the end we execute almost no one in this state.

Our lawmakers know this. That is why they were ready to repeal the death penalty and end the charade once and for all.

So what did this one-year delay do for us? My heart goes out to Dr. Petit. He believed that waiting another year would make the pending trial in his family's gruesome murder case a little easier. And I hope, for his sake, that it does. But I know that it won't.

This delay only puts off the inevitable. Believe me, when a death sentence is handed down in the Cheshire case, the cruelties of our legal system will have only just begun. Connecticut has executed only one man in nearly 50 years, and he had to fight with the state to carry out his wish to be executed. We have people on death row who have been there for more than 20 years with no execution in sight. This case will be no exception.

Our legislators need to be honest about this with the people of Connecticut. From a professional standpoint, I can assure you that the death penalty is nothing but harmful to the families of murder victims. It is a cruel hoax that accomplishes nothing. It wastes millions of dollars and it further victimizes families who are already broken with grief.

If we have any real empathy for the families of murder victims, we'll stop putting them through this. We'll see to it that we replace capital punishment with life in prison and no possibility of release. We need to give families of murder victims' real justice — not an empty promise — and the tools they need to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of tragedy. That is what Connecticut should be about.

Walk for Peace

2011-05-09T13:45:00.002-04:00

MVFHR is glad to support the Mother's Day Walk for Peace, which is organized by member Tina Chery. Here's an article about the event from yesterday's Boston Globe:

Yet again, families torn by violence walk for peace

By Stewart Bishop

It was just under a year ago that Marilyn Thomas-YisraEl’s son was shot to death as he sat in his wheelchair on their front porch. A bullet had hit Jihad Watters, 24, two years before, leaving him paralyzed. Last spring, he was enjoying a sunny afternoon and planning to barbecue before he was gunned down.

Yesterday, on a day meant to honor mothers and bring families together, Thomas-YisraEl could only think of the day her family was ripped apart.
“This is my first year without my son,’’ she said. “It’s really hard.’’
Early yesterday, she joined thousands of mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, and other supporters in the 15th annual Mother’s Day Walk for Peace, a 3.6-mile fund-raising walk through the heart of Dorchester.
Thomas-YisraEl and her daughter, Angelena, 21, carried signs bearing Watters’s face and the words “Gone but not forgotten.’’ Many marchers wore T-shirts bearing photos of lost loved ones, while others carried signs with messages of peace and unity.
“This march really means a lot to me, especially on Mother’s Day,’’ Thomas-YisraEl said. “We’re losing too many of our children out here.’’
The walk was started by Dorchester mother Tina Chery, whose son, Louis, 15, was caught in crossfire and killed on his way to an antiviolence-themed Christmas party in 1993.
Her son’s death inspired her to found the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, which supports violence prevention efforts and services for survivors. Organizers said yesterday’s event raised more than $45,000 to benefit the peace institute.
In remarks before and after the event, Chery said that the walk was a way for mothers and other survivors of violence to come together for support and also to make a stand against the killings that continue to plague the community.
“We’re not going to stop. The more violence that continues, the more we’re going to be walking. Yesterday a 19-year-old was shot. I’m sure we all heard,’’ Chery said, referring to the man who was killed at the Savin Hill MBTA stop Saturday afternoon. “Families in our community are now suffering again, so we must continue, we must continue.’’
While the event was focused on mothers, this year’s march featured a special call to men, asking male family members to become a more active and vocal part of the healing process.
The Rev. Gerald E. Bell, pastor of the Strong Tower Church in Roxbury, spoke to the crowd before the march about being a survivor of violence and asked men to stand together for peace.
“I’m a victim of violence,’’ Bell said. “My father was shot in a pool room when I was 7 years old. I’ve been blessed to do a lot in my life, but it didn’t start out that way.’’ Bell said. “I think often we forget the impact of what families have to go through to overcome senseless violence.’’
Before the walk, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said: “We want peace in our streets. This is about people working together. We want to send a strong message out there we’re not going to tolerate the violence in the streets of America.’’
The Rev. Kim Odom of the True Vine Church in Dorchester, whose son, Steven, 13, was shot to death on Evans Street in 2007 walking home with friends after a basketball game, said the march was a way for families to celebrate the lives of lost loved ones and acknowledge the shared pain of those left behind.
“It’s become important for us to be a part of all the circles and places that are addressing peace and a solution to violence in our community,’’ Odom said. “We are here today to honor Steven’s memory. We want to carry on his voice.’’
Odom said that though it is a bittersweet occasion for her, she believes the march is a source of comfort from the heartache and loss.

“The scripture says ‘beauty for ashes,’ ’’ Odom said. “Ashes represent the devastation. Even in death and devastation, there can be hope, and that hope is the beauty.’’

To be a survivor

2011-05-03T09:04:00.004-04:00

From Texas's news site, ValleyCentral.com, "Son of murdered woman opposes death penalty," by Marcy Martinez, posted yesterday:

In 1991, Chris Castillo had to bury his 52 year old mother Pilar.

The Brownsville registered nurse had moved to Houston where she was the President of the Mexican American Chamber of Commerce and served on a review board for the Houston Police Department.
Chris drove from Beaumont to Houston to find out that his mom had been brutally murdered inside her home..
"She was strangled to death in her bed and one of the things they did was they robbed the home and they had her sign some checks so she knew what was going on," said Castillo.
His mom's murder case has gone cold with the alleged killers fleeing the country possibly back to Honduras, but if they are ever found, Chris does not want them to be executed.
He's in his mom's hometown of Brownsville speaking out against the death penalty.
"It costs 2 to 3 times more to execute somebody on death row, versus, life in prison and I'd like to see that money spent on cold cases and victims rights and services."
Chris went through years of depression after his mom's murder and then found an escape, mentoring inmates in prison.
"It really changed the hatred inside of me to peace, and that's all I can do so that I can live day by day."
Now he spends his days telling his mother's story as part of the Texas Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty in hopes of getting more people to see as he does, that taking another life is not going to bring Pilar back, and will only make more people suffer as he did.
It's something he believes his mom would have encouraged, that's to be a survivor and not a victim.

"I think she was for righteousness."

With the support of victims' families

2011-05-01T18:02:00.006-04:00

From the New York Times Editorial page, 4/29/11, "Co-victims against the death penalty":

As the country has increasingly turned against capital punishment as barbaric and horrifyingly prone to legal abuses, defenders are pointing to the emotional needs of the families of murder victims — “co-victims” to those who study crime — as justification. Many family members, however, have said they want no part of that.

When New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007 and New Mexico did in 2009, each did so with the support of co-victims. In Connecticut, the Legislature’s joint Judiciary Committee has now approved a bill that would repeal that state’s death penalty, again with the support of victims’ families.

The family members say that rather than providing emotional closure, the long appeals process in death penalty cases is actually prolonging their suffering. They also say it wastes money and unjustifiably elevates some murders above others in importance. In an open letter to the Connecticut Legislature, relatives of murder victims — 76 parents, children and others — wrote that “the death penalty, rather than preventing violence, only perpetuates it and inflicts further pain on survivors.”
Their arguments were a moving and effective part of the effort that led to the committee’s repeal vote. Now Connecticut’s leaders need to bring these arguments to a wider state audience. A March opinion poll in Connecticut showed that 48 percent of residents favored the death penalty over life without parole, up from 37 percent in 2005.
The increase is not surprising, since news in the state has been dominated by the trials of the murderers in the 2007 home invasion killings in Cheshire. Dr. William Petit Jr., who lost his wife and two children, is an outspoken advocate for the death penalty, arguing that vicious killers should pay with their lives.

We do not minimize the suffering of family members, wherever they stand on the issue. But the facts are undeniable. The death penalty does not deter crime and the long history of legal abuses is well documented. Connecticut’s full Legislature should pass the repeal bill and Gov. Dannel Malloy should sign it into law.

I'm still against it

2011-04-29T08:49:00.004-04:00

From the April 25th Tennessean, "Executing brother's killer would be the second wrong," by William W. McDermet:

I vividly remember that November 1994 phone call from our Vermont brother. Following a brief greeting, Stewart said: “We think Jim is dead.” My response was, “What you mean, you think?”

He related he had just received a call from the Topeka, Kan., police that a body had been found in Jim’s apartment, and they believed it was Jim, but had yet to do fingerprinting. I recall putting my head down on the desk and crying. Stewart could only say, “I know, I know.” Indeed it was Jim’s body. On Nov. 12, 1994, the day after what would have been Jim’s 45th birthday, we remembered him with a memorial service. The following Monday, we buried his broken body next to our grandmother in a small cemetery in Kiowa County, Kan. That weekend was painful beyond what any words could describe.

Another brother, Staley, and I attended the trial of Jim’s murderer. The trial began on March 28, 1995. The facts were that on Nov. 9, 1994, Jim was murdered in his Topeka apartment. The district attorney termed it “one of the most brutal murders ever in this county.” In the trial, the coroner testified that Jim received 63 blows with a knife and iron tools, and that he was “still alive” when he received those blows. Listening to that god-awful account, something within me died that day.

To put a face on this tragedy, I’ll tell you about Jim. James Turner McDermet was born in Lincoln, Neb., the youngest of four sons. Jim grew up in a kind and loving family. He was happy, yet reserved. He participated in activities, but was not a leader. He lost sight in one eye early in his life, yet he read everything, especially history.

Jim was the person you wanted on your side when you played Trivial Pursuit. “What was King George III eating for lunch on March 10, 1819?” Jim knew. Jim would never, ever harm anyone. When I phoned two of our daughters to tell them their Uncle Jim had been murdered, they softly wept and said, “Why would anyone kill Jim? He was so kind.” The New Testament would call him “meek,” one of God’s special people.

No chance for rehabilitation

Since the 1960s, I have maintained an attitude against capital punishment — a concept that says: “We kill people who kill people to prove that killing people is wrong!” As a clergy person, I believe the Christian gospel is a redemptive gospel. The “old” concept of “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” is one that makes for a blind and toothless society. Even while Jesus of Nazareth was being killed, he said, “Father, forgive them.”

There is much evidence that the death penalty is unequally applied, falling mainly on the poor, the friendless, the mentally unstable and minority groups. There is always the possibility (as has been the case, especially with DNA testing), that the innocent are on death row or are killed. The possibility of rehabilitation is gone.

Following Jim’s death, and the sad experience of the trial, and knowing my beliefs, a relative asked me, “Now, what do you think about capital punishment?” I responded, “I’m still against it.” And I am. How do I feel toward the person who murdered Jim? Anger. Anger, with a capital “A.” Yet, would I feel better, or satisfied, if Jim’s murderer was killed? No.

So, the state of Tennessee does not have enough “death” drugs to kill anyone on death row. I, too, feel the pain of having a loved one murdered. However, this is a good time for Tennesseans to consider getting rid of capital punishment.

William W. McDermet III is a retired Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) pastor who lives in Pleasant Hill in Cumberland County.

Remembering Marie Deans - Part 3

2011-04-26T08:47:00.008-04:00

We conclude our series of remembrances with reflections from victim-abolitionists Pat Bane and Renny Cushing. In this photo, Pat shares a moment with Marie at the Healing the Wounds of Murder conference at Boston College in 2001.

Pat writes:

In 1980, I was living in Syracuse, N. Y. and corresponding with Paul Ruiz, a man on Arkansas’s death row. One day he sent me a copy of an article printed in the Fellowship of Reconciliation newsletter with a note attached that simply said, “This woman is as crazy as you are.” The article was about Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation and the woman was Marie Deans. I read it and immediately dropped a note to Marie telling her that my uncle, my father’s brother, died as a result of a mugging and that I was a member of a local group called People Against the Death Penalty. Within a short time, Marie phoned me and that call began a friendship which spanned over three decades.

Marie was a woman who lived her convictions every day of her life. She worked tirelessly on behalf of people on death row. I collected signatures for her in her efforts to save the life of Joe Giarratano, and later met Joe when MVFR sponsored the Peace Studies program he began at Augusta Correctional Facility in Virginia. Joe’s life was spared when Gov. Doug Wilder commuted his sentence to life, but Marie never gave up hope that one day he would be free. During a Journey of Hope, Marie left the MVFR group to fly home and be with Dennis Stockton at his execution in Virginia. She arrived at the prison but was not allowed to see Dennis and was deeply upset that he died without knowing she had kept her promise to be with him at the end. She suffered with a migraine headache for days after.
These and so many more efforts were more than the work of an abolitionist; rather, they were the work of a friend. Marie’s friendship with Joe continued until her death. She knew so many MVFR members personally and remembered their stories. For her, there was no difference between families of people executed by the state and families of murder victims. Despite objections by some, she was always a friend to both.

That is the way I remember Marie, as a dear friend. We traveled together, I slept on her couch many weekends and smile as I remember her referring to my white nightshirt as my “mental patient gown.” During my years as executive director of MVFR, we often talked late into the night planning events, strategizing, venting our frustrations, laughing and just sharing our feelings. When my friend Paul Ruiz was put to death in a triple execution, it was Marie I called because I knew she truly understood the horror of such a travesty in the guise of justice .

In recent years though we saw less of one another, we kept in touch with phone calls and emails sharing important events in our lives. I visited her in Charlottesville when she bought her home there. Her wry sense of humor came through when she always sent just the right birthday card, and I cherish the thoughtful gifts she sent. These last few years, Marie gave me a magazine subscription for Christmas so I thought of her each month when it arrived and sometimes dropped her an email about a great article or recipe in it. On the day her son Robert called to tell me about her illness, a copy arrived.

We never got to say goodbye, but we didn’t have to. She knew how I would feel.

The people we love may leave us physically, but they are always close at hand. Every member of a murder victims’ family understands that and never stops feeling the connection with those who have gone on before us.

And Renny writes:

I first met Marie Deans at the 1998 “National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty” at Northwestern University. It was my first time at a death penalty abolition event. Marie gave me an overview of the movement and of victims’ role within it. She told me a lot about what it had been like for her to be a pioneer as a victim interacting with both the abolition movement and with victims’ organizations.

As I got to know Marie, I always appreciated that she had a broad sense of social justice, not limited to the death penalty. I appreciated that she saw her death penalty work in the context of other social justice concerns.

I remember Marie’s keynote speech at the “Healing the Wounds of Murder” conference at Boston College in 2001, the first and so far only national gathering of family members of murder victims who oppose the death penalty. In that speech, Marie described the continuity and growth of the role of victims within the abolition movement. She talked about how you build a movement and about her awareness that the abolition movement historically had a difficult time really understanding victims and their role within the movement.

Marie said to me once, “If you’re going to be a victim who speaks out against the death penalty, you have to be prepared sometimes to be the only one.” I thought of that often when I found myself sitting among a group of victims and being the only one to speak against the death penalty. Along with Pat Bane, Marie was my mentor in this work, the pioneer who taught me and shared experiences with me and provided the foundation upon which I’ve tried to work.

In recent years, Marie was always a helpful resource for Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights. We consulted with her when preparing our Double Tragedies report about mental illness and the death penalty, and on other matters related to victims and the abolition movement. She was always there to offer advice and wisdom.

Marie’s death is a tremendous loss to the abolition movement and especially to those of us who have a victim identity. Part of her legacy, though, is that today there is increased awareness of the importance of victims within the larger discussion of the death penalty and of what public policy should be in the aftermath of murder. I doubt this greater awareness would exist had Marie Deans not initiated the conversation.

Remembering Marie Deans - Part 2

2011-04-25T08:04:00.000-04:00

Here are remembrances from two long-time capital defense attorneys who worked with Marie. First, from Dick Burr:

I had some contact with Marie for several years before 1987 through the Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons, but my most intense experience with her was in connection with Joe Giarratano’s case, from 1987 – 1991. I took on Joe’s representation in 1987 when much of the litigation had already occurred. I did not think much more could be done – even though I was faced with a client who insisted he was innocent. Marie had worked on Joe’s case as an investigator and a mitigation specialist and a strategist long before I became involved, and along the way she became Joe’s friend and came to believe in Joe. Over time, she opened my eyes to the very real possibility that Joe was innocent and doggedly helped pursue and develop the evidence of Joe’s innocence. At every turn, Marie helped me and the rest of the team see clearly that which had before been murky. Marie was persistent, usually (but not always) patient, and seemingly indefatigable.

Though we ultimately failed in the courts, we succeeded in part in clemency proceedings, persuading then-Gov. Doug Wilder to grant clemency to Joe in 1991. Thus, Joe joined the cast of other innocents who were saved from execution but were not provided the remedy they really deserved. Along the way, Marie had the vision and the pull to get Mike Farrell involved in Joe’s case. Mike’s stirring advocacy for Joe provided a new voice that got attention in Virginia like no other had before, and Mike’s support became a critical factor in Gov. Wilder’s decision to commute Joe’s death sentence.

The role that Marie played in Joe Giarratano’s case was what she did so often and so well. She got to the truth of the matter and helped others get there, too, facilitating and bringing out the best in others along the way. She was a catalyst that brought out the best in the people with whom she worked.

We will miss Marie dearly. She made us all better for having known her and worked with her. Marie was a rare and truly extraordinary human being.

And from Marshall Dayan:

Marie Deans was one of my mentors in the work to abolish capital punishment in the United States. I will miss her greatly. I met Marie shortly after she moved from South Carolina to Virginia, after her mother-in-law was killed in a homicide. Marie was working for the Virginia Coalition on Jails and Prisons to ensure that Virginia death row inmates had post-conviction counsel, because the Commonwealth of Virginia did not, and still does not, as far as I know, provide counsel to indigents who wished to file state habeas corpus petitions challenging their convictions and/or death sentences. She worked to ensure that the habeas lawyers for Virginia’s death row inmates raised issues of federal constitutional dimension so that they could litigate those issues in federal habeas corpus proceedings.

Before there were Capital Habeas Units, or even federal death penalty resource centers, Marie in Virginia, Patsy Morris in Georgia, Scharlette Holdman in Florida, and Lao Rubert in North Carolina, made sure that death row inmates had able counsel for post-conviction proceedings. But for Marie’s work, and Patsy’s, Scharlette’s and Lao’s, far more executions would have taken place, and more quickly. Their work, and especially Marie’s in Virginia, saved lives, and made the prosecuting agencies work harder at getting the executions they sought by helping poor people get quality counsel. Additionally, Marie publicized the errors that beset Virginia's capital sentencing system, raising public consciousness of the flaws in that system.

I was a law student at that time, and I transferred to Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C. I occasionally drove to Richmond, Virginia to attend vigils that Marie had organized on the nights that executions took place in the now-closed state penitentiary in Richmond. At the vigil preceding James Briley’s execution in the spring of 1985, Marie asked me to take a Virginia capital post-conviction case when I graduated from law school. Marie was absolutely and completely committed to the men on Virginia’s death row, and often was with them in the days and hours before their executions. I promised her I would; I never learned how to say “no” to Marie. Scharlette, Patsy, and Lao were all good at pleading with attorneys for help in representing death row inmates, but none was better than Marie, who was able to make Virginia's situation seem so much worse than anywhere else in the country. Sure enough, my first case as an attorney was the pro bono representation of David Pruett, whom I represented from October, 1986 through December, 1993, when he was executed.

I remember when Marie called me on July 4, 1990. She asked me to handle a second round of post-conviction litigation on behalf of Ricky Boggs, who was scheduled to be executed on July 19, 1990. There was new evidence, she said, that Ricky had fetal alcohol syndrome. I never worked harder in my life. For the next two weeks, I worked at least 20 hours a day. Marie and I were on the phone daily, talking about the evidence of FAS, what trial counsel had failed to do, and how to integrate the FAS claim into Boggs' clemency package for the governor.

We did not prevail, and Ricky Boggs was executed as scheduled. If I am not mistaken, Marie was at the prison with Ricky when the word came from the U.S. Supreme Court that it was not going to issue a stay of execution in the case. Marie and I talked on the phone just after she got that news. We spoke at about 8:30 that night. We cried together on the phone, after which I went to sleep, not waiting for the inevitable. Boggs’ cert. petition to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied on July 19, 1990, just before his execution. The next day, Justice William Brennan, Jr., announced his retirement from the Court. Boggs's case was the last capital case in which Justice Brennan joined Justice Thurgood Marshall in their regular and famous dissent, “[a]dhering to our views that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, I would grant certiorari, reverse the death sentence and remand for sentencing consistent with this opinion.”

Many have written about Marie within the last week since she passed away, and all of those remembrances describe the passion, commitment, humor, faith, and perseverance that marked her character. I will always remember her gravelly laugh and ribald sense of humor, her sparkling eyes, and her humility. She rarely took or accepted credit. John Kennedy said that victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. While many can claim significant roles, Marie was hugely responsible for saving the lives of Joe Giarratano and Earl Washington, two former Virginia death row inmates.

I spent a good deal of time around Marie in the midst of the struggle to develop the evidence to convince Governor Wilder to grant clemency to Joe Giarratano. I learned a lot from her during that campaign. She was adamant that the campaign be local; she made it clear that beyond national and international figures of respect, such as the Pope, the campaign had to be led and driven by Virginians who became convinced that the case against Joe was flimsy. She did not want, and dissuaded people from garnering, a lot of correspondence from outside of Virginia. She understood that Governor Wilder would have to be persuaded that Virginians wanted him to grant clemency to Joe. I remember how excited she would get as she would reiterate over and over the facts that led to the conclusion that Joe was probably innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. As happy as she was that Governor Wilder commuted Joe's death sentence, she was always frustrated that Joe had to remain behind bars, a frustration she avoided with Earl Washington's case. Beyond saving those lives, he enriched the lives of many, many others, including one abolitionist and capital litigator who can only hope to leave a shadow as large as the one left by Marie Deans.