[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., OKLA., NEB., WYO.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 6



MISSOURI----impending (Human Rights Day) execution

Missouri Poised to Execute Individual with Significant Intellectual 
Disabilities


Despite Missouri law and a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the 
execution of persons with mental retardation (now known as intellectual 
disability), Missouri is poised to kill an individual with obvious limited 
intellectual capabilities.

Paul Goodwin, scheduled to be executed on December 10, meets the criteria for 
intellectual disability under Missouri law-including low IQ scores, significant 
deficits in adaptive skills (i.e. life skills and communication). Evidence of 
his disability existed well before the age of 18.

Throughout his school years, Goodwin received services from the Special School 
District in St. Louis. He failed 3 grades and had low IQ scores. As an adult he 
needed help with basic living skills, such as managing money and performing 
ordinary tasks. Even now at age 48, those who know Goodwin see him as a 
"simple-minded kid" who often exhibits childish, immature behavior. 
Unfortunately, no court has fully examined his claims of intellectual 
disability.

Paul Goodwin needs to be held accountable for the murder of Joan Crotts, but it 
is inappropriate for someone with his level of disability to be given the 
ultimate punishment. Modern society recognizes that the death penalty is not 
meant to be used upon people, like Paul Goodwin, who have diminished capacity 
and diminished culpability. He can be adequately punished by spending the rest 
of his life in prison.

Please contact Governor Jay Nixon at 573-751-3222 or by clicking here and ask 
that he halt the execution of Paul Goodwin. The execution of a person with 
significant intellectual disability would serve no purpose and would diminish 
us all.

(source: Missouri Catholic Conference)






OKLAHOMA:

Local Amnesty group plans letter writing event for human rights


The world's largest annual human rights event will take place from Dec. 1 - 17 
in schools, coffee shops, community centers, and street corners around the 
globe.

Members of Amnesty International (AI) worldwide will participate in the annual 
Write for Rights: Amnesty's Global Write-A-Thon.

The Oklahoma City group will hold an event on Saturday, Dec. 6 at Full Circle 
Book Store, 1900 N.W. Expressway, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. The public is invited 
to participate.

John Walters, Legislative Coordinator, Amnesty USA-OK-Group #238 said, "During 
the Write for Rights event we will write letters on behalf of prisoners of 
conscience all over the world.

"By taking part in the Write for Rights Write-A-Thon you can help bring about 
the release of a prisoner of conscience or an end to the harassment of someone 
standing up for Human Rights."

Every year, close to Human Rights Day on Wednesday, Dec. 10, hundreds of 
thousands of people around the world will send a message to someone they've 
never met to demonstrate their support.

For 53 years, AI's human rights campaigns have been instrumental in obtaining 
freedom for prisoners worldwide through pressure from letters, faxes, and 
e-mails written by Amnesty International activists. "You are joining your voice 
with others around the world to demand that the rights of individuals be 
respected and protected," Walters added. "You have the power to change 
someone's life by simply writing a letter.

"At this event we will also write Christmas cards to all prisoners on death row 
in Oklahoma."

Currently the state has 49 inmates on death row. In 2015 there are 4 state 
executions scheduled: Charles Warner on Jan. 15, Richard Glossip on Jan. 29, 
John Marion on Feb. 19 and Benjamin Cole, Jr. on Mar. 5.

Adam Leathers, OK-CADP) co-chair said, "The Oklahoma Coalition against the 
Death Penalty (OK-CADP) is proud to participate in this annual Amnesty 
International Group #238 project.

"It is one more way we can let those prisoners on Oklahoma's death row know 
that they are not forgotten. I hope with all my heart that it also signals to 
them that we are working tirelessly to end this travesty of 'killing people who 
kill' to show that killing people is wrong."

Amnesty International has 3 million supporters who take action each year in 
this event.

Tens of thousands of individuals have been released from jail, rescued from 
torture, or aided in other ways following action by Amnesty International.

Mideksa Birtukan is from Ethiopia and one of those who benefited from the 2009 
Write for Rights event.

"Through your work on behalf of thousands of prisoners of conscience around the 
world, Amnesty International continues to be the conscience of humanity," said 
Birtukan.

"You have a hallowed mission to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth 
and dignity are denied. Your letters, phone calls, and petitions were my 
protection during the months I spent in solitary confinement. You were my voice 
when I had none."

Thousands of people are in prison around the world because of their beliefs, 
gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Many are held without charge or 
trial and are at risk of torture or execution.

The Write for Rights campaign empowers individuals to take action against these 
violations.

Walters said, "We will have all you need including the letters and postage. You 
just need to sign, and write custom letters on cases you select. But if you 
can, please bring a book of stamps to contribute to the effort."

(source: The City Sentinel)






NEBRASKA:

Death penalty opponents to speak in Lex Sunday----Schiebers oppose it despite 
the 1998 murder of their daughter


Vicki and Sylvester Schieber lived through their worst nightmare in 1998.

Their daughter, Shannon, was raped and killed in her apartment by a man who was 
eventually revealed to be a serial rapist. Shannon was in her 1st year of a 
full scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania when she was killed.

So what did the Schiebers do in the wake of unimaginable tragedy? They 
dedicated themselves to the cause of ending the death penalty.

The Schiebers were leaders in a successful 2013 campaign to end the use of the 
death penalty in their home state of Maryland. On Sunday, Dec. 7, they will be 
speaking at First Presbyterian Church of Lexington.

Sylvester Schieber said that for many people, the death penalty issue is an 
abstract. It's something they see or hear about, but have no direct experience 
with.

"When our daughter was murdered, we had to confront the issue head on. It 
wasn't abstract for us anymore," he said.

It took 4 years for authorities to catch up with Shannon's murderer, but well 
before he was captured, the Schiebers already decided they did not want to see 
him put to death.

"When he was captured in Colorado in 2002, the Philadelphia district attorney 
held a press conference that she was going to seek the death penalty in the 
case, even though we had already said publicly that we were against it," 
Schieber said. Eventually, the DA relented and Shannon's murderer pleaded 
guilty to 6 rapes in Colorado, 6 more in Philadelphia (including Shannon's), 
and murder. He was sentenced to life without parole for the murder and hundreds 
of years of additional time for the sexual assaults.

"He's in a maximum security prison in Colorado, and he'll be there for the rest 
of his life," Schieber said.

What would motivate a couple that conventional logic would dictate might be in 
favor of the death penalty? "Some of it is based on religious grounds," 
Schieber explained. "My wife and I were both raised Catholic."

There's more to it, though. "After Shannon's death, we really began to research 
the topic, and the more we learned, the more we were against using the death 
penalty," he continued.

"The application of the use of the death penalty is extremely uneven. Since the 
death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s, 85 % of counties have not had a 
single death penalty case. The 15 % that have only represent about 30 % of the 
total population of the country," Schieber said.

"Most of the cases are in densely populated urban areas, but it varies even 
from city to city. In Missouri, where I'm from originally, if you commit a 
murder you are far more likely to be sentenced to death in St. Louis than if 
you committed the crime in Kansas City," he said. "In Texas, you are far more 
likely to be sentenced to death for murder in Houston than in Dallas."

Lower income and minority defendants are sentenced to death in disproportionate 
numbers, as well, he noted.

"On the victim side of things, the death penalty process becomes extremely hard 
on the surviving family members. The typical execution doesn't take place until 
17 years after the commission of the crime, and in the meantime there is the 
trial, re-trial, and hearing after hearing," Schieber said.

The Schiebers will be sharing their story and their views on the death penalty 
at the church during Bible School at 9 a.m. and a public event at 11:30 a.m. 
Sunday. The event is free. Vicki is a member of the national Catholic 
Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty, an organization that works in 
close collaboration with the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. Sylvester 
holds a PhD in economics from Notre Dame and will explain why the death penalty 
is a fiscal failure.

(source: Lexington Clipper-Herald)






WYOMING:

Firing Squad Bill To Be Introduced In The Wyoming Legislature


The Senate Judiciary Committee will introduce a new bill to the Wyoming 
Legislature this January that would offer death by firing squad as an execution 
alternative.

5 legal execution methods exist in the United States: lethal injection, 
electric chair, hanging, gas chamber, and firing squad. Currently, no one is on 
Wyoming's death row. But if an inmate were to be executed, the state would use 
lethal injection with the gas chamber as a backup.

Senator Bruce Burns of Sheridan was the bill's initial sponsor. He says lethal 
injection drugs are difficult to get ahold of nationwide, and that Wyoming's 
gas chamber is broken and could take millions of dollars to fix. This bill 
would give the option of using firing squads in place of the gas chamber.

In addition to implementing the firing squad as the secondary form of 
execution, Burns says the bill would allow executives to be carried out more 
efficiently.

"It also allows the secondary form of execution to be used if the 1st form 
cannot be carried out in a timely fashion."

Despite the outcome of his bill, Burns says it's already initiated some 
conversation. "It has also provoked a debate on the death penalty, and Wyoming 
using the death penalty, in the first place," Burns says. "And I welcome the 
debate."

Senator Burns says the firing squad is cheaper and more reliable than most of 
the other methods.

(source: wyomingpublicmedia.org)