[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 25


USA:

The Death Penalty is Revenge, Not Healing: Father of OKC Victim on Dzhokhar 
Tsarnaev's Sentencing



Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been formally sentenced to death 
for his role in the attack that killed 3 and injured hundreds in 2013. 
Addressing survivors inside the courtroom, Tsarnaev apologized for the first 
time, saying in part: "I am sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the 
suffering that I've caused you, for the damage that I've done." Some of the 
bombing's survivors have echoed a recent Boston Globe poll that found fewer 
than 20 % of Massachusetts residents support sentencing Tsarnaev to death. We 
are joined by Bud Welch, who has become a leading anti-death penalty advocate 
after losing his daughter Julie in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Welch is the 
founding president of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: 21-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apologized for the first time 
Wednesday before he was formally sentenced to death for his role in the Boston 
Marathon bombing that killed 3 and injured hundreds. He said, quote, "I am 
sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the suffering that I've caused you, 
for the damage that I've done. Irreparable damage." He added, quote, "I pray 
for your relief, for your healing." This was the 1st time Tsarnaev had spoken 
in the courtroom since his arraignment 2 years ago.

During the sentencing, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. quoted 
Shakespeare, saying, "The evil that men do lives after them. The good is often 
interred with their bones. So it will be for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev." Outside the 
courtroom, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz addressed the media.

CARMEN ORTIZ: He didn't renounce terrorism. He didn't renounce violent 
extremism. And he couched his comments in line with Allah and Allah's views, 
which give it a religious tone. And there was nothing - as you heard Judge 
O'Toole say in the courtroom, there was nothing about this crime that was 
Islam-associated. And so, that's what I was struck by more.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Meanwhile, some of the bombing's survivors echoed a recent 
Boston Globe poll that found fewer than 20 % of Massachusetts residents support 
sentencing Tsarnaev to death. Henry Borgard said he opposed the death penalty, 
and responded to Tsarnaev's statement.

HENRY BORGARD: I was actually really happy that he made the statement. I - as I 
said in my personal impact statement, I have forgiven him. I have come to a 
place of peace, and I genuinely hope that he does, as well. And for me to hear 
him say that he's sorry, that is enough for me. And I hope, because I still do 
have faith in humanity, including in him, I hope that his words were genuine. I 
hope that they were heartfelt. I hope that they were as honest as the 
statements that you heard today in court from the victims and the survivors. I 
obviously have no way of knowing that, but I'm going to take it on faith that 
what he said was genuine. There was a little bit of rhetoric in there; I agree 
with what you said, absolutely. Some of it was hard to hear, you know? But I 
really - I was really profoundly affected, really deeply moved that he did do 
that, because, whether we like to acknowledge it or not, his statement, like 
ours, takes courage, because the entire world is watching us right now. And the 
fact that he made a statement, which he didn't have to do, gives him a little 
bit of credit in my book.

AMY GOODMAN: That's Henry Borgard. He was, at the time of the bombing, a 
21-year-old Suffolk University student in Boston. He was hit by the 2nd blast.

The judge rejected a request to move Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's execution to New 
Hampshire, the only New England state with the death penalty, so survivors 
could more easily be on hand. Prosecutors say Tsarnaev will eventually be taken 
to federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Since 1963, the federal government has executed 3 people, including Timothy 
McVeigh, who was put to death in June 2001 for the Oklahoma City Federal 
Building bombing that killed 168 people. This year marks the 20th anniversary 
of the attack on April 19th, 1995.

Our next guest joins us from Oklahoma City. Bill Welch lost his 23-year-old 
daughter Julie in the attack there. After initially supporting capital 
punishment for his daughter's killing, he has become a vocal opponent of the 
death penalty. He opposed the execution of McVeigh and is the founding 
president of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights.

Bud Welch, welcome back to Democracy Now! Your thoughts today? In Boston, we 
see the death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. I think the poll said something 
like 80 to 85 % of the people of Boston and all of Massachusetts were opposed 
to the death penalty, even in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's case. Can you reflect, as you 
dealt with this issue 20 years ago?

BUD WELCH: Hi, Amy. I can. You know, I'm reminded, every time something like 
this happens, that the punishment of the death penalty is nothing more than 
revenge. And I went through almost a year of revenge after Julie's death, and - 
revenge and hate. And one cannot go through the healing process at all when 
you're living with revenge. And that's all the death penalty is, is revenge. It 
is not a deterrent. It doesn't, as the media says, bring closure to family 
members.

There are a lot of victims' family members here in Oklahoma City that I know, 
because I spent 13 years on the board of directors and the Oklahoma City 
National Memorial, and they were looking for the word "closure" at the time 
McVeigh was executed, on June the 11th of 2001. And I had been telling many of 
those people that the day that we would take Tim McVeigh from his cage and we 
would kill him would not be part of their healing process. And they learned 
that after his death. And many of those people have come forward now and said, 
"It was a mistake for us to kill Tim McVeigh," because what it did was 
revictimize them all over again. One of the ladies, that had 2 little 
grandchildren that were killed in the day care center - and I will not mention 
her name, because the whole country knows her name - she has evolved so much 
that she is now on the board of directors of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish 
the Death Penalty. And that's how it has changed her completely.

And I fully understand the people of Boston, how we have those that have 
already been able to come forward, they've had enough time to rationalize that 
the revenge of killing this young man is not part of their healing process. And 
we all go through that. And I always say the most important thing to people 
that have gone through such an event as that, the most important thing that 
they have is time. And we're all on a different time schedule. And with enough 
time, we can finally go through the process.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Bud Welch, you even went so far as to meet the father of 
the man responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, and therefore responsible 
for your daughter's death. Could you talk about meeting Timothy McVeigh's 
father?

BUD WELCH: Yes, I met Bill McVeigh on, actually, September the 5th of 1998. I 
had been contacted by a nun from Attica prison that does ministry work there - 
in fact, she's still doing that today. And she had requested that I come to the 
Buffalo-Niagara Falls area to speak against the death penalty, and I committed 
to going there for a week. And I had told her the story about seeing Bill 
McVeigh on television about 2 weeks after Julie's death and how that I was - I 
really didn't want to see the news program that had him on. But I sat and 
watched it, and I saw this man with a deep pain in his eye that I recognized 
immediately because I was living with that same pain at that same time. And I 
knew that someday I wanted to go tell that man that I did not blame him or his 
family for what his son had done.

And I had the chance to do that 3 1/2 years after the bombing. And I went and 
met Bill, met him at his house on a Saturday morning. And what I found was a 
very nice, gentle man. And he was sickened by the fact that his son had come 
back from the war in Iraq, and he had PTSD, had it badly, became very much 
antigovernment, joined militia groups. And he knew - he didn't know anything 
that he could do about that. And I'm still in contact with Bill. I talk to him 
probably every 6 months.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Bud Welch, what would you say now to the survivors and 
victims of the Boston Marathon bombing in light of the verdict, the death 
penalty verdict? What would you say to them now?

BUD WELCH: Well, one thing I would not say to them is that I know how they 
feel, because I don't. I know how I felt. But I think the big mistake for 
people like myself that have gone through an event like this is to tell someone 
else that's gone through something else that they know how they feel, because 
you don't know how they feel. And when you tell someone you know how they feel, 
you're not helping them one bit. You're actually making matters worse for them.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And you actually suggest that the death penalty verdict - not 
only does it not help survivors heal, it actually prolongs their suffering. Is 
that right?

BUD WELCH: Well, sure, absolutely, because in McVeigh's case, actually, he was 
not on death row that long, just a little over 6 years. But the reason that he 
was only on death row a little over 6 years is because he was a volunteer. He 
asked all of his - for all of his appeals to be stopped, and he asked for an 
execution date. And I don't think that - if Tim McVeigh had not done that, I 
don't think that we would have ever executed him. I think he'd still be alive 
today, because the federal government really did not want to kill Tim McVeigh.

AMY GOODMAN: We're going to ask you to stay with us. We're going to be talking 
about the fact, in our next segment, that far more white supremacists have 
killed more people since 9/11 than Muslim extremists in the United States. And 
we'd like you to weigh in on this, as well, Bud, having direct experience with 
being a victim, your daughter killed in the Oklahoma City bombing April 19, 
1995, along with 167 others. Bud Welch, speaking to us from Oklahoma City.

(source: Democracy Now!)

**********************

Vt. man facing death penalty retrial accused of inmate stabbing



A man facing a federal death penalty retrial in the killing of a Vermont 
supermarket worker 15 years ago has been accused in a lawsuit of stabbing 
another inmate when he was on death row.

Donald Fell was convicted and sentenced to death a decade ago for the killing 
of Terry King. Last year, a judge ordered a new trial after it was revealed a 
juror had investigated the case on his own.

The Burlington Free Press reports James Roane Jr., on death row since the 
mid-1990s, says he was attacked by Fell in 2012 at the U.S. Penitentiary in 
Terre Haute, Indiana. He said Fell was a "student" of a white supremacist group 
member who targeted him.

Lawyers for the 35-year-old Fell couldn't be reached to comment Wednesday.

(source: Associated Press)