Mission Statement:

We, as the Marianist Family, because of our belief in the sanctity of all human life and in the dignity of all persons, pledge ourselves to prayer, education, reflection, and action to abolish the death penalty. This practice is unjust, inhumane and inconsistent with the Gospel message. By our witness we seek to change hearts and minds concerning this injustice.

Issue Statement:

We, as the Marianist Family, endorse legislation for a moratorium on executions in order to study the inequities in the use of the death penalty.

Issue Team Chair: Sr. Grace Walle FMI (walleg@stmarytx.edu)

Important Death Penalty Issue Team News (below):

Impending Executions (visit www.ncadp.org for more info)
Troy Davis -- Stay Granted!!
Documentary: “Lethal Solution”
Former Warden Opposes Death Penalty
Murder Rate Declines in Every Region Except the South,

Where Executions Are Most Prevalent
D.A. in Texas to Re-Examine Convictions and Possibly Halt Executions
Maryland Commission on Death Penalty Conducts Hearings
Live Radio Show Covers Issues in Texas Executions
News from Ohio – One of the Team’s Targeted States
New Findings Regarding Racial Disparities
Another Prosecutor Speaks Out Against the Death Penalty
Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Protocol
Number of Exonerations Reaches 128
Maryland Considers the Cost of the Death Penalty
Maryland Senate Committee Hears From Murder Victims’ Families
Religion and the Death Penalty
Will Nebraska Abolish the Death Penalty?
The Year of No Executions
Are death penalty juries fairly representative?
Supreme Court Case Attracts Much Interest
Something to Think About

Impending Executions (from www.ncadp.org)

Oct 21: Joseph Ries, TX - EXECUTED

Oct 23: Bobby Woods, TX - ACT NOW!

Oct 27: Troy Davis, GA - STAY GRANTED!

Oct 28: Eric Nenno, TX - ACT NOW!

Oct 30: Gregory Wright, TX - ACT NOW!

Nov 6: Elkie Taylor, TX - ACT NOW!

Nov 12: George Whittaker III, TX - ACT NOW!

Nov 13: Denard Manns , TX - ACT NOW!

Nov 18: Eric Cathey, TX - ACT NOW!

Nov 18: Wayne Tompkins, FL - ACT NOW!

Nov 19: Gregory Bryant-Bey, OH - ACT NOW!

Nov 19: Rogelio Cannaday, TX - ACT NOW!

Nov 20: Robert Hudson, TX - ACT NOW!

Dec 8: Antoinette Frank, LA - ACT NOW!

Troy Davis -- Stay Granted!!

On Oct. 24 Troy Davis received a stay of execution - this means that his execution scheduled for Oct. 27 is OFF! The stay is based on a new appeal that was filed on Oct. 22 seeking permission to file a new lawsuit based on innocence claims.

Troy was originally scheduled to be executed on September 23 for the murder of Police Officer Mark MacPhail in Georgia but the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution with less than two hours to go. Serious doubts of his guilt remain and compelling evidence of his innocence had not been heard in court. Nevertheless, on October 14 the Court denied his petition for a hearing. The state of Georgia then issued a new execution warrant for Oct. 27. It was this scheduled execution that was the subject of the Oct. 24 stay.

For more information and the latest news, visit Troy’s site.

Documentary: “Lethal Solution”

From the Death Penalty Information Center’s Web site comes a recommendation of a new resource from the BBC: The documentary "Lethal Solution" chronicles reporter Vivian White’s exploration of the death penalty in the US through the prism of the lethal injection issue. White traveled across the US to execution chambers where lethal injection executions are carried out and interviewed participants from a wide variety of perspectives.

The documentary features judges, doctors, and men on death row. White interviewed the family of a man whose execution lasted 34 minutes and a lawyer who witnessed that event, vividly recalling the details. He spoke with the doctor who first proposed the lethal injection system, and to the judge in California who recommended that medically-qualified people should be present at executions to ensure a humane death. In the California case, two doctors walked out of the execution chamber when they realized they might have to assist in the killing. The execution was called off.

The full 48-minute documentary may be viewed on the BBC Web site here.

Former Warden Opposes Death Penalty

Jeanne Woodford, the former warden of San Quentin prison in California, has written an Op-Ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, "Death Row Realism, Do Executions Make Us Safer?" Her answer is “No.”

She writes that she “worked in corrections for 30 years, starting as a correctional officer and working my way up to warden at San Quentin and then on to the top job in the state -- director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. During those years, I came to believe that the death penalty should be replaced with life without the possibility of parole.”

She reasons that “If we condemn the worst offenders … to permanent imprisonment, resources now spent on the death penalty could be used to investigate unsolved homicides, modernize crime labs and expand effective violence prevention programs, especially in at-risk communities. The money also could be used to intervene in the lives of children at risk and to invest in their education -- to stop future victimization.”

“To say that I have regrets about my involvement in the death penalty is to let myself off the hook too easily,” she concludes. “To take a life in order to prove how much we value another life does not strengthen our society. It is a public policy that devalues our very being and detracts crucial resources from programs that could truly make our communities safe.”

Murder Rate Declines in Every Region Except the South,

Where Executions Are Most Prevalent

Murder Rate Declines in Every Region Except the South,

Where Executions Are Most Prevalent

In 2007 the South was the only The South is the onmly region of the US that had a rise in its murder rate according to Crime in the U.S., 2007, released by the FBI on Sept. 15. Over the years the South has consistently had the highest murder rate when compared to the other three regions, the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. In response to the FBI report the Death Penalty Information Center observed that “The South also leads the country in executions: 100% of the executions carried out in 2008 have been in the South and 86% of those carried out in 2007 were in this region. By contrast, the Northeast has the lowest murder rate in the country and the fewest number of executions. The Northeast also experienced the sharpest decline in its murder rate among the four regions, while carrying out no executions in 2006-08.”

D.A. in Texas to Re-Examine Convictions and Possibly Halt Executions

When the current Dallas County, Texas, District Attorney took office he inherited nearly 40 death penalty convictions – cases awaiting execution – from his predecessor. Recent exonerations and problems with the prosecution in those cases has led Craig Watkins to announce that he will be reviewing all of those cases and that no execution will occur until he does. “I don’t want someone to be executed on my watch for something they didn’t do,” said Watkins to the Dallas Morning News. The newspaper added that Southern Methodist University Law Professor Fred Moss said he has never heard of another prosecutor in the country conducting such a review. “It’s really quite extraordinary,” said Moss.

Maryland Commission on Death Penalty Conducts Hearings

"If people knew how the death penalty was applied, I think people would be surprised by the lack of justice. It becomes like rolling the dice - except that some people have loaded dice." This testimony from David Kaczynski, brother of the Unabomber and executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, was one of the highlights of the first hearing of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment held in late July. The second and third hearings were held in August; a fourth and tentative fifth hearing are scheduled in September.

Since Maryland’s highest court ruled in December, 2006 that the state’s lethal injection protocol was invalid, a de facto moratorium has been in place. Bills to replace the death penalty with life without parole have stalled two years in a row, but lawmakers did agree earlier this year to establish the 23-member Commission. They are examining racial, geographic and socioeconomic disparities, the cost of the death penalty, and the risks of error. By mid-December they will make recommendations to the General Assembly to ensure that Maryland’s use of the death penalty is “free from bias and error” and achieves “fairness and accuracy.”

Live Radio Show Covers Issues in Texas Executions

A unique public awareness and education tool has been launched in Texas. Starting at 6:00 pm Central Time on the days that an execution is scheduled in Texas, live coverage and commentary can be heard on the radio and streamed on the internet. Texas’ execution schedule and an archive of past shows are also available.

News from Ohio – One of the Team’s Targeted States

Execution Procedure in Doubt

A county judge in northeastern Ohio has ordered the state to change its execution procedure. Judge James M. Burge of the Lorain County (Elyria) Court of Common Pleas has ruled that the three drug “cocktail” currently in use carries the risk of “excruciating pain” and therefore is not allowable under an Ohio law which says executions must happen “painlessly.” Instead he has ordered the state to use a single large dose of barbiturate – what veterinarians use to euthanize animals.

The immediate practical effect of the ruling is unclear. There are currently no executions set in Ohio; besides, the state has until July 10, 2008 to file an appeal. As Jeff Gamso, head of the ACLU in Ohio and one of the lawyers representing the inmates (Ruben Rivera and Ronald McCloud) who brought the case, says: “At this point, pretty much everything is up in the air.”

Study Bill Planned

This uncertainty may add momentum to a Study Bill currently gathering co-sponsors in the Ohio Legislature. The bill, expected to be introduced in the fall, would specifically NOT impose a moratorium on executions but would ask a panel to study all the issues surrounding Ohio’s use of the death penalty. Presumably this would include questions raised by the ABA in its recent critique.

Ohioans to Stop Executions Will Be Adding Staff

In light of the developments discussed above the timing seems auspicious for Ohioans to Stop Executions to add staff. The non-profit advocacy and education group learned in June that it is being awarded two grants from philanthropic foundations sufficient to hire Area Organizers in Central and Northern Ohio. Congratulations to OTSE!!

New Findings Regarding Racial Disparities

Over the years it has been well documented that defendants who kill whites are more likely to get the death penalty than defendants who kill blacks. So when Scott Phillips, a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver, examined several years of court records in Harris County (Houston) in Texas and reached the same conclusion, Adam Liptak, writing in the New York Times (April 29, 2008) called that result “commonplace.” But Phillips, whose research will be published in The Houston Law Review later in 2008, also found what Liptak called a “surprising” result. In Phillips’ words, his findings “challenge conventional wisdom by suggesting that the race of the defendant and victim are both (emphasis added) pivotal…: death is more likely to be imposed against black defendants than white defendants, and death is more likely to be imposed on behalf of white victims than black victims.”

Another Prosecutor Speaks Out Against the Death Penalty

From the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Web site: The ACLU of Northern California has unveiled a new YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-o_HWgatFM) taken from California's ongoing death penalty study commission hearings. The video tells the story of Aundre Herron, a former prosecutor who lost her older brother to murder in 1994. At first Herron wanted revenge; now she speaks out against the death penalty.

Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Protocol

On April 16 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 7-2 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the lethal injection protocol used by the federal government and nearly all of the 36 states which still have the death penalty. Reacting to the announcement the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) said the Baze v. Rees decision sidesteps the critical issues surrounding the death penalty debate in the U.S. “The death penalty system was a flawed public policy before the Supreme Court agreed to review Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol,” said NCADP Executive Director Diann Rust-Tierney. “It was a flawed public policy while the Court debated the protocol. And now that the Court has ruled, it remains as deeply a flawed public policy as ever.”

The last execution in the US was in September 2007, marking the beginning of a de facto moratorium while the Court considered the case. As a result of the decision analysts expect execution dates to be set quickly, at least in some states such as Texas. However, many observers are also expecting a wave of new litigation, partly because of the nature of the decision: the 7 votes in favor of the judgment were assembled from 6 different opinions, some of which raised additional questions.

For example, quoting from the syllabus released in connection with the ruling: “Justice Stevens concluded that instead of ending the controversy, this case will generate debate not only about the constitutionality of the … protocol … but also about the justification for the death penalty itself.” To read more please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/us/16cnd-lethal.html?hp or http://www.ncadp.org/news.cfm?articleID=212.

Number of Exonerations Reaches 128

The Death Penalty Information Center maintains a list of all those exonerated from Death Row since 1973. For inclusion, defendants must have been convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently either they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence – OR – their conviction was overturned AND they were acquitted at re-trial or all charges were dropped. The average length of time between being sentenced to death and exoneration? 9.6 years!! To see the list please visit http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=6&did=110.

Maryland Considers the Cost of the Death Penalty

On March 6 the Urban Institute released a study revealing that the average cost to Maryland taxpayers for reaching a death sentence was $3 million, $1.9 million more than a non-death penalty case. The research, covering 162 murder cases between 1978 (when executions resumed in Maryland) and 1999, concluded that seeking the death penalty had cost $186 million more over those years than would have been spent seeking a lesser sentence. While the methods and conclusions were criticized by the top prosecutor in Baltimore County, the state’s busiest jurisdiction for capital cases, the study was praised by a researcher with the New York State Defenders’ Association for being the first of its kind to control statistically for confounding factors. In other words, "(t)he argument goes that ... death penalty cases might be worse or more heinous cases, so that even if they weren't death penalty cases, they still would be more expensive," said Andrew Davies. "But in this study, they've isolated the pure effect of the death penalty on inflating the cost of cases." (emphasis added) To read more visit http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.death06mar06,0,5961444.story or http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2641&scid=64 .

Maryland Senate Committee Hears From Murder Victims’ Families

The Judiciary Committee of the Maryland Senate is once again considering a bill that would repeal the death penalty. A similar measure failed – by one vote – to pass the Committee last year. This year, on the day that the Urban Institute study was released, the Committee heard testimony from some family members of murder victims. "My real life experience has taught me as long as the death penalty is still on the books, it would continue to harm families…There is no such thing as closure," said Kathy Garcia, whose nephew was murdered 20 years ago. To read more visit http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801413.htm or http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2649&scid=64 .

Religion and the Death Penalty

“Most Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church oppose capital punishment, though many of their members support it,” says a posting on the Death Penalty Information Center’s Web site, www.deathpenaltyinfo.org. In fact, according to a Pew Forum poll from 2007, the strongest supporters of the death penalty are white evangelicals, with 74% approval. This might help explain why overall support for the death penalty in the United States is at 62% according to that same poll. This also means that faith-based opponents of the death penalty have work to do in their own pews. A successful argument may be found in the results of “a January poll done by NationalChristianPoll.com (which found that) about two-thirds of active Christians who oppose capital punishment are troubled by mistakes in the legal system that could lead to the execution of innocent people.” (Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra in Christianity Today, February 19, 2008) Read her article and get insight from church leaders at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/march/6.20.html.

Will Nebraska Abolish the Death Penalty?

On Feb. 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair was unconstitutional. Because Nebraska is the only state in which electrocution is the sole means of execution this means that – temporarily at least – Nebraska is without a death penalty. Two days later the Lincoln Journal Star editorialized that the Nebraska Legislature “should take this opportunity to finally get rid of the death penalty." "With the advent of more DNA testing, errors in sending people to death row were shown to be far more frequent than most people believed." Hence, the paper concluded, "the time is ripe to abolish capital punishment in the state.” The last execution to take place in Nebraska occurred in 1997.

(“Abolish the death penalty in Nebraska,” Lincoln Journal Star, February 10, 2008).

The Year of No Executions

2008 marks the 40th anniversary of 1968 – the 1st year in the history of the United States that not a single prisoner was executed. That got Vince Beiser, a California-based writer who often writes on criminal justice issues, thinking about what has happened since then. He observes that “just a few years later, the nation began an astonishing about-face. The Supreme Court reopened the door to capital punishment in 1976, launching an era in which the U.S. didn't just bring back the death penalty, it feverishly embraced it.” Find his essay, “Falling Out of Love with Death,” under Death Penalty Files.

Are death penalty juries fairly representative?

From the Web site of Catholics Against Capital Punishment http://www.cacp.org/whatsnew.html
In a nationwide public opinion poll of 1,000 U.S. adults, 47% of Catholic respondents said “yes” when asked if they believed they would be disqualified from serving on a jury in a death penalty case because of their moral beliefs. The percentages were even higher for two other subgroups of the population who were asked the same question - women (48%) and African Americans (68%).

“This points to a problem of skewed juries that do not represent the country’s diversity,” said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which commissioned the survey. "Jurors in capital cases," he explained, "must be interrogated about their positions on the death penalty. If they are opposed to it in all cases, they will not be permitted to serve. The resultant juries look different than society at large because they will have fewer minority members, fewer women, and none of those who represent one side on this divisive issue."
For more information, visit the Death Penalty Information Center's website at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org.

Supreme Court Case Attracts Much Interest

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that “several amicus curiae briefs have been filed in support of the inmates from Kentucky who are challenging the constitutionality of lethal injections as practiced in their state before the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The amicus (“friend of the court”) briefs have been submitted by law schools, policy institutes opposed tot the death penalty, professionals such as doctors, nurses and veterinarians – the latter argue that “Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol would not meet the minimum standards for the humane euthanization of animals” – and organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch.

The briefs filed by various amici, as well as the Petitioner's brief, are available here. (Source: Death Penalty Clinic, U.C. Berkeley School of Law, Nov. 13, 2007). Oral arguments in the case, Baze v. Rees, are scheduled for Jan. 7, 2008 with a ruling expected by June.

Something to Think About

The November 10, 2007 issue of Newsweek included an article by Evan Thomas and Martha Brant discussing the atmosphere surrounding the death penalty as the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling in Baze v. Rees. They write that “The new reluctance to punish by killing is part of a historical trend” and they ask a cautionary question: will the Supreme Court end up improving the lethal injection procedures and, in effect, raising the standards for killing humans up to those for killing animals?

You can read the article by clicking here: “Injection of Reflection,” Newsweek, November 10, 2007).

Death Penalty Issue Team Members

At the Death Penalty Issue Team meeting in Dayton , Ohio March 2007, seated: Gary Beeman, Sr. Alice Gerdeman and Carol Ann Parcel (guest speakers); standing: Bro. Frank O’Donnell, Andria Brannon, Bro. Brian Halderman, Bob Stoughton, Jeff Campbell, Sr. Grace Walle, Ed Block, and Bros. Dick Olsen and Phil Aaron.