August 4, 2009
by Robert L. Baldwin, M.D., M.A.
As a physician, now retired after several life threatening medical disorders, turned author when faced with the facts about capital punishment, I have the deepest empathy for those families losing a loved one to violence and their attempts to work through the process of justice and "closure." I do not believe that "closure" is possible as the effects are long-term and life-long. Having lost my mother at 14 years old I know first hand the experience. But I also believe that killing the killer is not the "best" way to bring matters of justice to an end, but only a prolonged period of suffering for both the victim's and the perpetrator’s families to endure. All too often, once the execution occurs, the feelings of "At last" are supplanted within a few days with "Well, what has really changed." Coupling that with a 70% divorce rate further aggravates the matter.
On the other hand, there is an opportunity to do something "good," not something that the killer did by killing, but through forgiveness. The Christian perspective here allows one to really "follow Jesus" by loving and forgiving your enemies, praying for their salvation, and striving for restoration and reconciliation with not only the criminal but with life itself. Arguments that the DP is a better option than LWOP is a non sequitur as it is not a better deterrent, costs society millions of dollars to enact, and winds up with only 0.79% of murderers executed. How do we get by with the other 99.21% not executed and 12 states get by without the DP. We must look inward to see what we are after and make sure it is not vengeance, but justice.
As well, if we are going to execute, the paradigm by which we do must be done justly, something that it is not today. Only if you are poor, black, or Latino do you get to death row. My prayers will continue for all those who suffer from violence and my heartfelt wishes for them toward resolution and peace.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Does the death penalty process aggravate victim suffering?
August 2, 2009
This new AP article, headlined "Death-penalty cases harder on survivors than life sentences," prompts the question in this title of this post. Here are snippets from the piece:
As lawmakers weigh the future of the death penalty in some states, officials are giving greater weight to the effect of prolonged death-penalty cases on victims’ families. Commissions in New Jersey and Maryland in recent years found that death-penalty cases are more harmful to the families of victims than cases that end with life sentences.
“The commission finds that regardless of whether or not a survivor supports an execution, years of court dates, reversals, appeals and exposure to the killer is harmful to the family members of murder victims,” the Maryland commission wrote in its report last year. New Jersey repealed its death penalty in 2007, while Maryland has had a moratorium since 2006.
Across the country, relatives of murder victims say the plodding pace of a death-penalty case in court is difficult.
Phyllis Bricker of Baltimore has sat through 26 years of court hearings since her parents were murdered in 1983. Their killer, John Booth-El, remains on death row. “It’s hard on the family, very hard,” Bricker said. “Your life is on hold because you never know when another trial is coming up, another appeal is coming up.” One time, Bricker said, the defendant turned to her family and said “See you next year.”
Despite the protracted battle, Bricker said she does not favor a sentence of life without parole. She said that option did not exist at the time of the crime and she’s skeptical prisoners would be kept behind bars for life.
The Rev. Cathy Harrington’s daughter, Leslie Ann Mazzara, was killed in 2004 in California. A 2007 plea agreement was reached in which her convicted killer, Eric Copple, got life in prison. “I could see us exhaling,” Harrington said of her family at the sentencing. “I hadn’t realized how tense we were. I didn’t have any room to really grieve properly. I was so busy trying to get through this, never knowing when the phone rang who it was going to be.”
August 2, 2009 at 09:17 AM | Permalink
This new AP article, headlined "Death-penalty cases harder on survivors than life sentences," prompts the question in this title of this post. Here are snippets from the piece:
As lawmakers weigh the future of the death penalty in some states, officials are giving greater weight to the effect of prolonged death-penalty cases on victims’ families. Commissions in New Jersey and Maryland in recent years found that death-penalty cases are more harmful to the families of victims than cases that end with life sentences.
“The commission finds that regardless of whether or not a survivor supports an execution, years of court dates, reversals, appeals and exposure to the killer is harmful to the family members of murder victims,” the Maryland commission wrote in its report last year. New Jersey repealed its death penalty in 2007, while Maryland has had a moratorium since 2006.
Across the country, relatives of murder victims say the plodding pace of a death-penalty case in court is difficult.
Phyllis Bricker of Baltimore has sat through 26 years of court hearings since her parents were murdered in 1983. Their killer, John Booth-El, remains on death row. “It’s hard on the family, very hard,” Bricker said. “Your life is on hold because you never know when another trial is coming up, another appeal is coming up.” One time, Bricker said, the defendant turned to her family and said “See you next year.”
Despite the protracted battle, Bricker said she does not favor a sentence of life without parole. She said that option did not exist at the time of the crime and she’s skeptical prisoners would be kept behind bars for life.
The Rev. Cathy Harrington’s daughter, Leslie Ann Mazzara, was killed in 2004 in California. A 2007 plea agreement was reached in which her convicted killer, Eric Copple, got life in prison. “I could see us exhaling,” Harrington said of her family at the sentencing. “I hadn’t realized how tense we were. I didn’t have any room to really grieve properly. I was so busy trying to get through this, never knowing when the phone rang who it was going to be.”
August 2, 2009 at 09:17 AM | Permalink
Friday, July 31, 2009
Love and Forgiveness on Death Row
Tue, Jul 28, 2009
Love Lived on Death Row (A guest blog post)
Michael Landauer / Editor
The following is a guest blog post by Linda Booker, a North Carolina filmmaker:
Linda Booker is the founder of By the Brook Productions based in central North Carolina. Her feature length documentary LOVE LIVED ON DEATH ROW has screened at film festivals across the U.S. including The Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival and Cucalorus in Wilmington, NC as well as numerous community screening events with non-profits, universities and faith groups.
More information about the documentary, a trailer and DVDs are available at www.lovelivedondeathrow.com
One family's story of forgiveness
If you had told me four years ago on the day I received my Certificate in Documentary Studies from Duke University that my first major project would feature the death penalty issue, I probably would have smiled politely and said, "I doubt that." It wasn't an issue I had extreme feelings about one way or the other. But several weeks later as I was checking the weather on our local TV station's website, a headline caught my eye: "Family Forgives Father For A Mother's Death." I immediately felt inexplicably compelled to make a documentary about this family's amazing story of forgiveness. What I didn't know then is that checking the weather that day would change my life and some of my beliefs as I went on to produce a feature length film about the Syriani sibling's story and their experience with North Carolina's system of justice and the media as they faced their father's impending execution.
Elias Syriani was sentenced to death in 1991 for stabbing his wife Teresa with a screwdriver 28 times in her car a week before their child custody hearing. John, their ten year-old son was seated next to his mother while this horror unfolded. His three sisters, ages 8-13 were at home down the street in their middle-class Charlotte neighborhood. Teresa died 26 days later from the wounds inflicted, unrecognizable as the attractive 40 year-old woman who was trying to protect her children from the controlling, abusive man her husband had become since moving from their close-knit Arab-American community in Chicago two years earlier. There is footage in the documentary of happier times as the Syriani girls spin and twirl in their white church dresses as Teresa lovingly wipes Elias's brow and kisses him. It is a beautiful scene but also haunting, knowing that what lies ahead in their future is unimaginable.
The first time I met Rose, Sarah, John and Janet Syriani I was filled with admiration, awe and respect for their wide beautiful smiles, their dignity and politeness, and their eyes shining with sincerity, emotion and hope. They told a group in a Chapel Hill, North Carolina church that day how their hate had miraculously turned to love when they saw their father for the first time in 14 years after his sentencing to death row. They had forgiven their father and all they were asking of the Governor was to let him live out his life in prison, so they could keep getting their memories of their mother back, and continue getting support from their father to reach their goals and live out their dreams. They knew he was not the same man whose eyes caused fear in them as children. Now they are happy eyes filled with love for them.
There was another amazing story that emerged that day. In attendance was Meg Eggleston, a woman that had become their father's pen-pal and friend as a result of being motivated to write a death row inmate after hearing Sister Helen Prejean of Dead Man Walking fame speak. Meg is in the documentary as well as comment from Sister Helen. Both have great senses of humor and a deep commitment and energy for their beliefs.
As a former volunteer for my local domestic violence agency, I have to admit there was some amount of conflict in me as I was making this documentary. I will never understand how people can inflict so much pain, terror and harm on the people they "love." But that is a vast subject that is complicated, although it does mostly boil down to one answer - control, and using violence is a method of controlling someone.
Making LOVE LIVED ON DEATH ROW forced me to research the death penalty and question what my position was on capital punishment. But in the documentary I tried not to let any of my personal views come across, and audiences and viewers have found that the film is a great catalyst for dialogue on the issues of forgiveness, healing from violence, restorative justice and the death penalty. I do think though, that the Syriani's story illustrates that capital punishment can cause an immense amount of stress, grief, and further trauma for families on both sides.
Other murder victim's surviving family members have attended screenings of LOVE LIVED ON DEATH ROW as guest speakers and shared their painful stories and opposition to the death penalty. They are some of the most remarkable people I have ever met. I feel very fortunate that in the last two years I have met so many wonderful people across the country at film festivals and community screenings and the conversations afterwards are just as diverse as the audiences. Whatever they may think about the death penalty afterward, I hope they at least come away thinking about the love between the people in the documentary, and the healing that forgiveness can bring.
http://deathpenaltyblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/07/love-lived-on-death-row-a-gues.html
Love Lived on Death Row (A guest blog post)
Michael Landauer / Editor
The following is a guest blog post by Linda Booker, a North Carolina filmmaker:
Linda Booker is the founder of By the Brook Productions based in central North Carolina. Her feature length documentary LOVE LIVED ON DEATH ROW has screened at film festivals across the U.S. including The Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival and Cucalorus in Wilmington, NC as well as numerous community screening events with non-profits, universities and faith groups.
More information about the documentary, a trailer and DVDs are available at www.lovelivedondeathrow.com
One family's story of forgiveness
If you had told me four years ago on the day I received my Certificate in Documentary Studies from Duke University that my first major project would feature the death penalty issue, I probably would have smiled politely and said, "I doubt that." It wasn't an issue I had extreme feelings about one way or the other. But several weeks later as I was checking the weather on our local TV station's website, a headline caught my eye: "Family Forgives Father For A Mother's Death." I immediately felt inexplicably compelled to make a documentary about this family's amazing story of forgiveness. What I didn't know then is that checking the weather that day would change my life and some of my beliefs as I went on to produce a feature length film about the Syriani sibling's story and their experience with North Carolina's system of justice and the media as they faced their father's impending execution.
Elias Syriani was sentenced to death in 1991 for stabbing his wife Teresa with a screwdriver 28 times in her car a week before their child custody hearing. John, their ten year-old son was seated next to his mother while this horror unfolded. His three sisters, ages 8-13 were at home down the street in their middle-class Charlotte neighborhood. Teresa died 26 days later from the wounds inflicted, unrecognizable as the attractive 40 year-old woman who was trying to protect her children from the controlling, abusive man her husband had become since moving from their close-knit Arab-American community in Chicago two years earlier. There is footage in the documentary of happier times as the Syriani girls spin and twirl in their white church dresses as Teresa lovingly wipes Elias's brow and kisses him. It is a beautiful scene but also haunting, knowing that what lies ahead in their future is unimaginable.
The first time I met Rose, Sarah, John and Janet Syriani I was filled with admiration, awe and respect for their wide beautiful smiles, their dignity and politeness, and their eyes shining with sincerity, emotion and hope. They told a group in a Chapel Hill, North Carolina church that day how their hate had miraculously turned to love when they saw their father for the first time in 14 years after his sentencing to death row. They had forgiven their father and all they were asking of the Governor was to let him live out his life in prison, so they could keep getting their memories of their mother back, and continue getting support from their father to reach their goals and live out their dreams. They knew he was not the same man whose eyes caused fear in them as children. Now they are happy eyes filled with love for them.
There was another amazing story that emerged that day. In attendance was Meg Eggleston, a woman that had become their father's pen-pal and friend as a result of being motivated to write a death row inmate after hearing Sister Helen Prejean of Dead Man Walking fame speak. Meg is in the documentary as well as comment from Sister Helen. Both have great senses of humor and a deep commitment and energy for their beliefs.
As a former volunteer for my local domestic violence agency, I have to admit there was some amount of conflict in me as I was making this documentary. I will never understand how people can inflict so much pain, terror and harm on the people they "love." But that is a vast subject that is complicated, although it does mostly boil down to one answer - control, and using violence is a method of controlling someone.
Making LOVE LIVED ON DEATH ROW forced me to research the death penalty and question what my position was on capital punishment. But in the documentary I tried not to let any of my personal views come across, and audiences and viewers have found that the film is a great catalyst for dialogue on the issues of forgiveness, healing from violence, restorative justice and the death penalty. I do think though, that the Syriani's story illustrates that capital punishment can cause an immense amount of stress, grief, and further trauma for families on both sides.
Other murder victim's surviving family members have attended screenings of LOVE LIVED ON DEATH ROW as guest speakers and shared their painful stories and opposition to the death penalty. They are some of the most remarkable people I have ever met. I feel very fortunate that in the last two years I have met so many wonderful people across the country at film festivals and community screenings and the conversations afterwards are just as diverse as the audiences. Whatever they may think about the death penalty afterward, I hope they at least come away thinking about the love between the people in the documentary, and the healing that forgiveness can bring.
http://deathpenaltyblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/07/love-lived-on-death-row-a-gues.html
Friday, July 24, 2009
ALABAMA VOICES: Don't stand for injustice
The Montgomery Advertiser
July 24, 2009
ALABAMA VOICES: Don't stand for injustice
By Robert Baldwin
In the July 17 Advertiser, Clay Crenshaw of the Alabama attorney general's office responded to an Alabama Voices column from American Bar Association president Tom Wells of Birmingham. His response was headlined "Attack on death penalty system unjustified," but as we have come to expect from that office, he doesn't face the truth of the matter but makes a simplistic and illogical attempt to deceive us.
It is well recognized by most that electing judges puts politics into justice -- not a healthy mix. Likewise, allowing a judge to override a jury of one's peers takes justice out of the hands of the many and puts it into the hand of one, an elected one at that, who sooner or later will be facing re-election. Legalese aside, common sense tells us this is wrong.
Crenshaw refutes those two arguments not with facts but with half-truths and an all so obvious debate tactic: he creates a "straw man" by harking back to the 1980s to bring up the case of a brainwashed member of the Klan who brutally murdered a black man. Wen the jury recommended life without parole, the judge imposed death and the inmate was executed.
So, if the judge will sentence a white man to death for the killing of a black man over the wishes of the jury, that makes it right, and therefore judicial overrides are just? No, this argument is a non sequitur.
Most racism like this nowadays is latent (hidden), as being a racist has become somewhat boorish. But Crenshaw apparently expects us to fall for this charade and to believe there is no racism in Alabama justice. Are all black folks cheering him now? What he fails to tell you is that 84 percent of Alabama executions have been of black men for murdering whites, and only 6 percent of white murder victims are killed by blacks. No racism? You decide if this is justice or not.
In addition, Alabama is one of only three states that allow a judge to impose a death sentence over a jury recommendation of life without parole, and it is the only state in which there are no guidelines or restrictions, or even a requirement for an explanation, which is something we usually don't get.
Here again, Alabama is out of step with the vast majority of states, unless you believe, as the attorney general's office apparently does, that everyone else is out of step but us. As well, rarely do we find a judge overruling a death sentence in favor of life without parole.
These are just two of the many serious problems that the American Bar Association and other groups studying our system have identified and called for action. The Bar Association released its report on Oct. 29, 2007, concluding that the Alabama death penalty system is "seriously flawed," and in a 265-page report gives the details.
Nearly two years later, the attorney general says he has not studied the report. Does he really want to study it? If he did, he would have to address it. Having said in the past that folks in Alabama just aren't concerned about the death penalty, that office sees no need to review this evidence, and it is incriminating.
Our state suffers from actions and inactions such as these. When the chief law official of the state and his aides fail to pursue truth and seek only political gain, all of us in this state are victims of this, not to mention the millions of dollars of our tax money spent just so these officials will not appear soft on crime in the next election.
One wiser than I once said, "Good government is not just the end result of an election process, it is demanding integrity from leadership at all levels, public and private."
To top it all off, Crenshaw calls for a debate based on "objective data," but his office and the Department of Corrections will not track or release data pertinent to such a debate and have refused calls for a debate on the ABA report.
How long will we continue to live under what appears to be a self-seeded cloud of secrecy, deceit and injustice? How can those who perpetuate it live with themselves? I am reminded of King David, who brought Uriah back from the battlefront and attempted to deceive him so the king could avoid the blame of adultery and the shame of an illegitimate child by Bathsheba. Uriah, being an honorable man, responded to the hypocrisy of the powerful king by saying "I will not do that."
From another King and his court in our days, we have another "illegitimate child" called our justice system, and we must say "We will not allow you to do that anymore." And that is something we the people can and ought to live with. In fact, it is our moral obligation to see that legitimate and unbiased administration of justice prevails. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the pitfall of doing otherwise when he said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Robert Baldwin, a Birmingham physician, is an advocate for death penalty reform in Alabama and author of the book "Life and Death Matters: Seeking the Truth about Capital Punishment."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 24, 2009
ALABAMA VOICES: Don't stand for injustice
By Robert Baldwin
In the July 17 Advertiser, Clay Crenshaw of the Alabama attorney general's office responded to an Alabama Voices column from American Bar Association president Tom Wells of Birmingham. His response was headlined "Attack on death penalty system unjustified," but as we have come to expect from that office, he doesn't face the truth of the matter but makes a simplistic and illogical attempt to deceive us.
It is well recognized by most that electing judges puts politics into justice -- not a healthy mix. Likewise, allowing a judge to override a jury of one's peers takes justice out of the hands of the many and puts it into the hand of one, an elected one at that, who sooner or later will be facing re-election. Legalese aside, common sense tells us this is wrong.
Crenshaw refutes those two arguments not with facts but with half-truths and an all so obvious debate tactic: he creates a "straw man" by harking back to the 1980s to bring up the case of a brainwashed member of the Klan who brutally murdered a black man. Wen the jury recommended life without parole, the judge imposed death and the inmate was executed.
So, if the judge will sentence a white man to death for the killing of a black man over the wishes of the jury, that makes it right, and therefore judicial overrides are just? No, this argument is a non sequitur.
Most racism like this nowadays is latent (hidden), as being a racist has become somewhat boorish. But Crenshaw apparently expects us to fall for this charade and to believe there is no racism in Alabama justice. Are all black folks cheering him now? What he fails to tell you is that 84 percent of Alabama executions have been of black men for murdering whites, and only 6 percent of white murder victims are killed by blacks. No racism? You decide if this is justice or not.
In addition, Alabama is one of only three states that allow a judge to impose a death sentence over a jury recommendation of life without parole, and it is the only state in which there are no guidelines or restrictions, or even a requirement for an explanation, which is something we usually don't get.
Here again, Alabama is out of step with the vast majority of states, unless you believe, as the attorney general's office apparently does, that everyone else is out of step but us. As well, rarely do we find a judge overruling a death sentence in favor of life without parole.
These are just two of the many serious problems that the American Bar Association and other groups studying our system have identified and called for action. The Bar Association released its report on Oct. 29, 2007, concluding that the Alabama death penalty system is "seriously flawed," and in a 265-page report gives the details.
Nearly two years later, the attorney general says he has not studied the report. Does he really want to study it? If he did, he would have to address it. Having said in the past that folks in Alabama just aren't concerned about the death penalty, that office sees no need to review this evidence, and it is incriminating.
Our state suffers from actions and inactions such as these. When the chief law official of the state and his aides fail to pursue truth and seek only political gain, all of us in this state are victims of this, not to mention the millions of dollars of our tax money spent just so these officials will not appear soft on crime in the next election.
One wiser than I once said, "Good government is not just the end result of an election process, it is demanding integrity from leadership at all levels, public and private."
To top it all off, Crenshaw calls for a debate based on "objective data," but his office and the Department of Corrections will not track or release data pertinent to such a debate and have refused calls for a debate on the ABA report.
How long will we continue to live under what appears to be a self-seeded cloud of secrecy, deceit and injustice? How can those who perpetuate it live with themselves? I am reminded of King David, who brought Uriah back from the battlefront and attempted to deceive him so the king could avoid the blame of adultery and the shame of an illegitimate child by Bathsheba. Uriah, being an honorable man, responded to the hypocrisy of the powerful king by saying "I will not do that."
From another King and his court in our days, we have another "illegitimate child" called our justice system, and we must say "We will not allow you to do that anymore." And that is something we the people can and ought to live with. In fact, it is our moral obligation to see that legitimate and unbiased administration of justice prevails. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the pitfall of doing otherwise when he said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Robert Baldwin, a Birmingham physician, is an advocate for death penalty reform in Alabama and author of the book "Life and Death Matters: Seeking the Truth about Capital Punishment."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Attorney General refuses debate on death penalty
The Birmingham News July 12, 2009
On May 18, I publicly challenged Attorney General Troy King to a public debate regarding Alabama’s death penalty system followed by a formal letter to his office requesting same. A number of organizations have studied capital punishment in Alabama and raised serious, valid questions regarding the manner and process by which it is administered. As many said, “Don’t expect an answer,” but I got one from his Chief of Staff, Chris Bence, refusing my offer. He further stated that the “death penalty is not applied by the attorney general,” and that “it is irrelevant…what the attorney general ‘feels’ about it.” Talk about a major “cop out,” this one is extreme.
While there are significant data and moral questions that say we do not need a death penalty and that it is morally objectionable, Attorney General King continues to ignore these accounts and fails to give a full accounting to the questions raised. In fact, he fails to even consider their validity. The American Bar Association Study on the death penalty in the states was released on Oct. 29, 2007, saying there "serious" concerns in the practice and administration of the death penalty in Alabama and it is “deeply flawed,” but King said he had not studied the report. When obvious racial and income bias has been documented, the AG brushes off such a suggestion. When 25 percent of death-row inmates were put there by a judge overriding the jury's recommendation of life without the possibility of parole, he stands idly by.
Alabama is the only one of three states that allows judicial “override,” and the only one that allows it without limitations. He also refuses to push for creating a public defender system for the indigent; Alabama is the only state that does not have a state-funded system. And by our state's refusal to release information on the costs of the death penalty versus life without parole, we know what the data must show.
In fact, we are told that "we don't keep track of that" by our Department of Corrections. Yet, we know that administering the death penalty is many millions of dollars more expensive, and our justice department continues to spend these funds in order to execute an average of 1.2 inmates a year. Nationwide, that is less than 1 of every 100 murders, while the other 99 percent are either not apprehended or not prosecuted or convicted under death penalty statutes.
We deserve to know why in the face of the ever-mounting evidence against his claim that Alabama needs the death penalty, our AG continues to aggressively push for more and more executions and insists that the punishment is administered justly. In fact, he does “apply” the penalty and is the man in charge of who gets it. In fact, Alabama now leads the nation in the number of death sentences doled out. And in fact, if you are not poor, Black, or Latino, you don’t get sent to death row.
The bottom line is that there are certain inconvenient truths that lay hidden in the bowels of the Alabama justice system. The door to these truths is kept locked by our attorney general and others in a position of power. The pursuit of justice must equate to the pursuit of truth, not just a voracious quest for another conviction and another killing. Despite the fact that he is spending millions of dollars in state money over what it cost to keep an inmate in prison for life without the possibility of parole, I guess that until he has emptied the state “wallet” nobody in our government hierchy will take heed. But in fairness, these folks have to consider the next election and whether or not they will appear “soft on crime.” In this case however, the softness is in their “spines” as they continue to falsely assuage the fears of the public with cries of putting the “scum” to death.
With the support of over 450 organizations seeking truth in our justice system in Alabama by a moratorium on executions until the issues can be addressed, I reiterate my call for the attorney general to come forth with the answers. We citizens of the state deserve to know. Let us say it is our “just deserts.” Furthermore, we have a prima facie case that trumps his own, and it is our moral obligation to see that it stands.
Robert L. Baldwin, MD, MA, a Birmingham advocate for death-penalty reform, is author of Life and Death Matters: Seeking the Truth about Capital Punishment. He can be reached at lifeanddeathmatters@yahoo.com
On May 18, I publicly challenged Attorney General Troy King to a public debate regarding Alabama’s death penalty system followed by a formal letter to his office requesting same. A number of organizations have studied capital punishment in Alabama and raised serious, valid questions regarding the manner and process by which it is administered. As many said, “Don’t expect an answer,” but I got one from his Chief of Staff, Chris Bence, refusing my offer. He further stated that the “death penalty is not applied by the attorney general,” and that “it is irrelevant…what the attorney general ‘feels’ about it.” Talk about a major “cop out,” this one is extreme.
While there are significant data and moral questions that say we do not need a death penalty and that it is morally objectionable, Attorney General King continues to ignore these accounts and fails to give a full accounting to the questions raised. In fact, he fails to even consider their validity. The American Bar Association Study on the death penalty in the states was released on Oct. 29, 2007, saying there "serious" concerns in the practice and administration of the death penalty in Alabama and it is “deeply flawed,” but King said he had not studied the report. When obvious racial and income bias has been documented, the AG brushes off such a suggestion. When 25 percent of death-row inmates were put there by a judge overriding the jury's recommendation of life without the possibility of parole, he stands idly by.
Alabama is the only one of three states that allows judicial “override,” and the only one that allows it without limitations. He also refuses to push for creating a public defender system for the indigent; Alabama is the only state that does not have a state-funded system. And by our state's refusal to release information on the costs of the death penalty versus life without parole, we know what the data must show.
In fact, we are told that "we don't keep track of that" by our Department of Corrections. Yet, we know that administering the death penalty is many millions of dollars more expensive, and our justice department continues to spend these funds in order to execute an average of 1.2 inmates a year. Nationwide, that is less than 1 of every 100 murders, while the other 99 percent are either not apprehended or not prosecuted or convicted under death penalty statutes.
We deserve to know why in the face of the ever-mounting evidence against his claim that Alabama needs the death penalty, our AG continues to aggressively push for more and more executions and insists that the punishment is administered justly. In fact, he does “apply” the penalty and is the man in charge of who gets it. In fact, Alabama now leads the nation in the number of death sentences doled out. And in fact, if you are not poor, Black, or Latino, you don’t get sent to death row.
The bottom line is that there are certain inconvenient truths that lay hidden in the bowels of the Alabama justice system. The door to these truths is kept locked by our attorney general and others in a position of power. The pursuit of justice must equate to the pursuit of truth, not just a voracious quest for another conviction and another killing. Despite the fact that he is spending millions of dollars in state money over what it cost to keep an inmate in prison for life without the possibility of parole, I guess that until he has emptied the state “wallet” nobody in our government hierchy will take heed. But in fairness, these folks have to consider the next election and whether or not they will appear “soft on crime.” In this case however, the softness is in their “spines” as they continue to falsely assuage the fears of the public with cries of putting the “scum” to death.
With the support of over 450 organizations seeking truth in our justice system in Alabama by a moratorium on executions until the issues can be addressed, I reiterate my call for the attorney general to come forth with the answers. We citizens of the state deserve to know. Let us say it is our “just deserts.” Furthermore, we have a prima facie case that trumps his own, and it is our moral obligation to see that it stands.
Robert L. Baldwin, MD, MA, a Birmingham advocate for death-penalty reform, is author of Life and Death Matters: Seeking the Truth about Capital Punishment. He can be reached at lifeanddeathmatters@yahoo.com
Friday, July 10, 2009
Florida High court sets free death row inmate
St. Petersberg Times July 10, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TALLAHASSEE — In an exceptionally rare ruling Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered that a death row inmate be set free because there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of murdering a Fort Lauderdale pawnshop worker.
Three justices went a step further, issuing an additional opinion that said the Broward County court erred by allowing a prosecutor to inflame jurors as they decided whether to recommend the death sentence for Herman Lindsey.
Lindsey, a 36-year-old career criminal, was convicted in 2006 of shooting Joanne Mazzola with a .45-caliber handgun at the Big Dollar pawn shop.
Mazzola's murder happened 12 years before, but the case went cold. Then, an alleged accomplice of Lindsey's named Ronnie LoRay was arrested in a separate incident. LoRay's fingerprints matched those left at the crime scene in 1994.
LoRay later pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder in the killing and is serving a 16-year sentence. He never testified against Lindsey, but numerous people did. One man told jurors that, while swapping crime stories in a Broward jail, Lindsey admitted that he murdered a witness in a robbery. Prosecutors also played for a jurors a number of phone calls in which Lindsey and his mother talked about keeping LoRay silent.
"While we agree that the evidence here does seem suspicious, even a deep suspicion … is not sufficient to sustain conviction," the court ruled.
In cases that lack hard evidence or eyewitnesses, the court ruled that Broward prosecutors needed to show there's "a reasonable and moral certainty that the accused and no one else committed the offense charged. It is not sufficient that the facts create a strong probability of, and be consistent with, guilt. They must be inconsistent with innocence."
[Last modified: Jul 10, 2009 12:08 AM]
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TALLAHASSEE — In an exceptionally rare ruling Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered that a death row inmate be set free because there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of murdering a Fort Lauderdale pawnshop worker.
Three justices went a step further, issuing an additional opinion that said the Broward County court erred by allowing a prosecutor to inflame jurors as they decided whether to recommend the death sentence for Herman Lindsey.
Lindsey, a 36-year-old career criminal, was convicted in 2006 of shooting Joanne Mazzola with a .45-caliber handgun at the Big Dollar pawn shop.
Mazzola's murder happened 12 years before, but the case went cold. Then, an alleged accomplice of Lindsey's named Ronnie LoRay was arrested in a separate incident. LoRay's fingerprints matched those left at the crime scene in 1994.
LoRay later pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder in the killing and is serving a 16-year sentence. He never testified against Lindsey, but numerous people did. One man told jurors that, while swapping crime stories in a Broward jail, Lindsey admitted that he murdered a witness in a robbery. Prosecutors also played for a jurors a number of phone calls in which Lindsey and his mother talked about keeping LoRay silent.
"While we agree that the evidence here does seem suspicious, even a deep suspicion … is not sufficient to sustain conviction," the court ruled.
In cases that lack hard evidence or eyewitnesses, the court ruled that Broward prosecutors needed to show there's "a reasonable and moral certainty that the accused and no one else committed the offense charged. It is not sufficient that the facts create a strong probability of, and be consistent with, guilt. They must be inconsistent with innocence."
[Last modified: Jul 10, 2009 12:08 AM]
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Death for not keeping the Sabbath Holy
By Robert L. Baldwin, MD, MA
Yes, the penalty was death. A good time to remember also that there are 22 capital offenses in the Old Testament, including but not limited to murder, adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, children disrespecting their parents, etc. To emphasize one of these, e.g., murder, while ignoring the others leaves one in disobedience to the written word. If as fundamentalists believe, the Bible is inerrant, aren't we sinning by not carrying out the law as written? The point being, there are things in the Old Testament that have been 'modified' through history as we became for civilized and no longer had the need for or the desire to kill for these offenses. As well, Jesus came with the 'truth.' The death penalty is an oxymoron kept breathing by the false prophecies of self-serving politicians in our state wanting to look tough on crime and preying on an uninformed/misinformed electorate, all the while spending millions more of our state dollars to execute only 42 inmates since death penalty reinstated in 1976. Life without the possibility of parole trumps the death penalty by all measures-it is 'something better’ and that is why we no longer need it. And we will not mention the bias, discrimination, arbitrariness, and socio-racial disparities that are present in its application.
May 19, 2009, 7:04 PM
The Cullman Times On-Line
Yes, the penalty was death. A good time to remember also that there are 22 capital offenses in the Old Testament, including but not limited to murder, adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, children disrespecting their parents, etc. To emphasize one of these, e.g., murder, while ignoring the others leaves one in disobedience to the written word. If as fundamentalists believe, the Bible is inerrant, aren't we sinning by not carrying out the law as written? The point being, there are things in the Old Testament that have been 'modified' through history as we became for civilized and no longer had the need for or the desire to kill for these offenses. As well, Jesus came with the 'truth.' The death penalty is an oxymoron kept breathing by the false prophecies of self-serving politicians in our state wanting to look tough on crime and preying on an uninformed/misinformed electorate, all the while spending millions more of our state dollars to execute only 42 inmates since death penalty reinstated in 1976. Life without the possibility of parole trumps the death penalty by all measures-it is 'something better’ and that is why we no longer need it. And we will not mention the bias, discrimination, arbitrariness, and socio-racial disparities that are present in its application.
May 19, 2009, 7:04 PM
The Cullman Times On-Line
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