[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S.C., MO., OKLA., NEB., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 27


SOUTH CAROLINA:

Response to 'S.C. and the Death Penalty'

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Robert Scott's last narrative on the death penalty was timely. This nation is 
undergoing a radical change in its national culture. In spite of Biblical 
teachings and laws that we say are based on its teachings, human emotions lead 
us to execute/kill in the name of vengeance. Professions that laws are grounded 
in the Bible is simply to give the appearance of following God's Word because 
appearance is everything! Quite frankly, as I see how Christianity is played 
out in our nation, I see very little following of the intent of God's Word.

Mr. Scott is right. The death penalty has played no role in deterring those who 
themselves kill. If it worked, then killing would be all but absent. That 
individuals kill in spite of the death penalty proves that state-sanctioned 
killing is nothing more than a retaliatory measure because the person being 
executed certainly doesn't learn a lesson. He/she's dead! The only word that 
comes to mind is hypocrisy. God never delineated between government and 
individuals when he declared, "Thou shall not kill." The declaration did not 
say, "Thou shall not kill with the following exceptions." In other words, God 
declared no exceptions to this law. Once humans interpreted this teaching, who 
could kill and circumstances varied from state to state. Why do we? Because 
people have placed themselves above God's law. People choose to interpret the 
statement to suit their political, emotional or personal world view. Mr. Scott 
infers that we are no better than those who kill if we turnaround and kill 
them. How sad but true!

Sameera Thurmond

(source: Letter to the Editor, Edgefield Advertiser)








MISSOURI:

Death penalty sought again for St. Louis County killer



Prosecutors will try again this week to send Gregory Bowman to Missouri's death 
row for the murder of a teenager 38 years ago.

A retrial of the penalty phase of Bowman's trial was to begin in St. Louis 
County Circuit Court Monday morning. It is the latest turn in a twisting legal 
path for Bowman, who theoretically also faces retrial in Metro East for 2 more 
killings from that era.

Bowman was convicted in 2009 in the kidnapping, rape and murder of Velda Joy 
Rumfelt, 16, who disappeared from the Brentwood area in 1977. The girl, 
strangled and with her throat slit, was found in a remote area.

Acting on a jury recommendation, a judge ordered a death sentence for Bowman. 
The Missouri Supreme Court overturned that sentence in 2011, saying the 
proceeding was tainted by the prosecution's mention of murder convictions in 
Illinois.

Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch decided to try again for a capital 
sentence, which puts the matter back into Judge David Vincent III's court. 
McCulloch has said he found no mention of convictions in the transcript, only 
of evidence linking Bowman to the Illinois crimes.

Bowman was never a suspect in the Rumfelt killing when it happened, even though 
he was a headline suspect in similar slayings in the Belleville area in the 
same period.

He was arrested in 1978 after trying to kidnap a woman in Belleville, who 
escaped. He had a record for similar behavior and soon was charged with the 
kidnap-murders of Elizabeth West, 14, and Ruth Jany, 21, who separately 
disappeared earlier that year from the streets of Belleville.

In those cases, Bowman made a deal not to present a defense at trial if St. 
Clair County prosecutors agreed not to seek a death penalty. He was convicted 
and sentenced to life terms without parole. He had served about 20 years before 
a Post-Dispatch investigation showed that his lawyer was not informed that 
Bowman had been tricked into providing an undercover officer with the 
confession that was the main evidence against him.

In 2001, an Illinois appeals court ordered new trials. But with the confession 
now inadmissible, and without witnesses or forensic evidence to link him to 
West or Jany, prosecutors had little to work with. Bowman was released on bail 
in 2007, and investigators went into high gear looking for new evidence against 
him.

That's when a DNA comparison linked him to semen on Rumfelt's clothes. That 
helped lead to his conviction in her murder.

After Bowman was convicted of killing Rumfelt, Illinois prosecutors said they 
did not intend to try Bowman again in the West and Jany murders, although they 
could.

Prosecutors said last year that Bowman, now 63, is terminally ill.

(source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)








OKLAHOMA:

Restoring Justice holds 2nd annual Public Confession for involvement in the 
"Culture of Death"



Restoring Justice Oklahoma will hold its 2nd annual Pubic Confession for 
Involvement in the Culture of Death on Tuesday, April 28 at 8 p.m. It will be 
held at the Jesus Wept statue between St. Joseph's Old Cathedral and the OKC 
Bombing Memorial at NW 5th and Harvey in Oklahoma City.

RJO co-organizer, Zachary Gleason, pastor at Joy Mennonite Church will speak. 
The event is open to people of all faiths or of no religious faith.

The event, sponsored by the Joy Mennonite Church of OKC and supported by the 
Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, is a public confession 
apologizing for the culture of violence that reveals itself through capitol 
punishment.

"A ceremony of confession and repentance will be held for our actions and 
inaction, individually and as a society. It has contributed to the creation of 
a mindset that quickly turns to violence and death as a solution to our 
problems," said Gleason.

Confession is borrowed from Christianity, but the event itself is not 
religious.

"Much of our thinking and behavior is built around violence and death," said 
Gleason. "Public policies like mass incarceration and capital punishment are 
taken for granted as a fact of life.

"Change begins by realizing that alternatives to these self-destructive 
institutions are possible," Gleason added. "As we confess our contributions to 
a death-oriented culture, we allow ourselves to imagine healthier, more 
effective, and ethical practices so that we can begin to make them into 
reality."

RJO co-organizer, Dr. Britney Hopkins said, "It is worth noting that the 
Confession will include a signing of the 'Declaration of Life,' a document that 
states that should you be killed as a result of a violent act, you do not want 
the death penalty sought. There will be a notary there as a witness."

This is not mandatory of participants Hopkins noted.

Founded on April 29, 2014, RJO is a grassroots Oklahoma effort to address 
criminal justice reform through citizen awareness and action.

"Vigils, petitions, and protests are important responses to injustice, but 
there is more," said Gleason. "We seek to empower informed decisions and 
positive action. The Public Confession project gives death penalty opponents a 
way to confess our common guilt of participation in the system of killing to 
punish killing, and to remove the possibility that our death will become a 
motive for revenge by the state."

RJO held its inaugural Public Confession event in May 2014.

Oklahoma lawmakers voted recently to reinstate the gas chamber as a backup 
execution method to lethal injection.

The Oklahoma Senate voted 41-0 in favor of HB 1879, which legalizes execution 
by nitrogen hypoxia. Supporters contend that it is more humane than gases 
previously used in executions. Nitrogen hypoxia causes death when nitrogen gas 
pumped into the chamber depletes the oxygen supply in the blood.

The house bill was approved 85 to 10 in March and was signed into law by Gov. 
Mary Fallin (R) on Thursday, April 17.

The nitrogen gas chamber would be employed as a secondary method should lethal 
injection drugs become unavailable, or if the state's protocol is deemed 
unconstitutional when the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on its legality 
later this month.

"We as a culture have to take responsibility for living in a society that 
cultivates violent behavior that time and time again leads to horrendous 
atrocities," Hopkins said. "It's time to get to the heart of the problem and 
stop attempting to prevent violence with violence and the 1st step is 
acknowledging our participation in a justice system that is simply not 
working."

Gleason added. "We choose to publicly voice our desperate need for more 
thoughtful, responsible, and creative ways of finding healing."

For more information, call 405-823-4155 or email restoringjusticeok at gmail.com.

(source: The City Sentinel)








NEBRASKA:

Family of Victims from a Deadly Norfolk Bank Robbery Upset Over Push to Abolish 
Death Penalty



New legislation working its way through Nebraska's Senate could repeal the 
state's current allowance for the death penalty. For the eleven inmates 
awaiting execution, this may be good news, but the people who fought to put 
some of those killers behind bars say the state is making a big mistake.

"Put them to death. That's what the jury said to do so let's do it," said 
Vivian Tuttle, Evonne Tuttle's mother.

Vivian Tuttle has been waiting for more than 10 years for the 3 men who killed 
her daughter to be put to death, but now, Nebraska legislators are talking 
about taking away the death penalty which, for Tuttle, means the men who took 
her daughter's life and 6 others that day may not be put to death.

"I thought of all the others that wanted justice that wouldn't get justice. And 
I thought, do I start campaigning? It's not like Ferguson where I can march out 
in the streets but do I write letters?" Vivian said.

Vivian's daughter, Evonne Tuttle, was 1 of 5 killed in less than a minute at a 
Norfolk bank in 2002, by Eric Vela, Jose Sandoval and Jorge Galindo. The trio 
had already killed w others before they hit the bank. They and 8 others have 
been waiting on death row for years now, some as long as 35 years.

"There's I believe 11 people on death row now. All of them did absolutely 
terrible things. Where we're at here, very few of these people, none of them 
died easy. Mr. Pearson didn't die easy, Mr. Lundell certainly didn't die easy. 
But that's typical of the people on death row," said Joe Smith, Madison County 
Attorney.

"They truly are the worst of the worst, you know, they're held to a high 
standard. They're convicted by a jury, three judges have to agree that they're 
going to be sentenced to the death penalty. And then they go through the 
appeals process, and when the appeals are affirmed, they're guilty. They've 
done it. Let justice be served," said Rick Eberhardt, Pierce County Sheriff.

Eberhardt says taxpayers will pay to punish offenders either through the death 
penalty or by funding their long term incarceration, including health care, 
legal fees and more. it's something the Tuttle family agrees with.

"I know one of the big arguments is cost, But these men that committed this 
crime were so young, I find it hard to believe that it costs more to execute 
them than to house them," said Christine Tuttle, Evonne Tuttle's daughter.

For Christine and Vivian, they say this is about fulfilling the jury's verdict 
more than a decade later and without that, they say it doesn't feel as though 
justice has been served.

"They don't believe they're going to be punished for what they've done," Vivian 
said. "Which is really, you know, it could happen," Christine said.

"The death penalty is used sparingly but it's out there. Police know it's out 
there, citizens know it's out there and people who want to kill should know 
it's out there. If you take that away, you cheapen up the price of killing 
people," Smith said.

Everyone I spoke with today say they'll be fighting hard to let legislators 
know this isn't something they want to see taken away in Nebraska. They're 
hoping to force legislators to put the fate of the death penalty on the ballot 
and let Nebraskans decide what's right for the state once and for all.

Those Norfolk bank murders were committed one hundred years after the murders 
in Pierce County that spurred the state's very 1st death penalty verdict.

Senator Ernie Chambers introduced LB 268 - a bill that would move to abolish 
the state's death penalty. The bill made it through its 1st round of approval 
in a 30 to 13 vote...gaining support from both sides of the aisle. The bill 
will move along for further debate in the unicameral legislature. Governor 
Ricketts has promised to veto the measure should it reach his desk.

(source: siouxlandmatters.com)

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

Nebraska Could Become the First Republican Controlled State to Abolish the 
Death Penalty in Decades



State lawmakers passed Nebraska Legislative Bill 268 last week in an effort to 
abolish the state's use of death penalty. The bill passed by a vote of 30-13. 
Surprisingly, 17 of the 30 votes in-favor of the bill were cast by Republicans, 
reports The Omaha World-Herald.

Despite a wealth of support by state legislators, Republican Governor Pete 
Ricketts has vowed to veto the legislation:

The threat from the Governor hasn't stopped the majority of Nebraskans from 
having negative feelings towards capital punishment. According to Fox News:

"Some Nebraska conservatives called the death penalty unfair to victims' 
families, which often have to wait for years to see a punishment carried out. 
Others called it antithetical to their antiabortion beliefs, while others 
mentioned the risk of wrongly executing the innocent.

Many said that the system has essentially ground to a halt. Nebraska doesn't 
have the drugs it needs to execute any of its 11 death-row inmates, and its 
last execution came in 1997."

Nebraska is a unique state, considering their state legislature has a 
unicameral design, versus a bicameral one, and the legislative body is 
"officially nonpartisan."

State Sen. Al Davis echoed the unique nature of Nebraska's legislature as a 
reason the bill has seen success, Al Jazeera America reported:

"The people that serve here are not reliant on a party to tell them how to 
vote. This bill has come up and is making that kind of progress because people 
are free from their party obligations. We're able to talk these things through 
from our own experiences and perspectives."

In a statement last week, Gov. Ricketts said:

"Sen. Chambers' plan to repeal the death penalty is out of step with Nebraskans 
who tell me that they believe the death penalty remains an important tool for 
public safety.

If this legislation comes to my desk, I will veto it. I urge senators to 
reconsider their decision and to stand with law enforcement who need all the 
tools we can give them to protect public safety."

If Gov. Ricketts does indeed veto the legislation, Nebraska legislators could 
override that veto with another roll call of 30 votes.

(source: LJ Review)

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

Death Penalty Debate Continues



An opponent of the death penalty in Nebraska asserts it undermines justice, 
even when it isn't applied.

One of the Beatrice 6 is also lending her voice to those calling for repeal of 
the death penalty in Nebraska.

Ada Joann Taylor was among the 6 people wrongfully convicted in the murder of 
Helen Wilson of Beatrice. Taylor says daily threats that she could be put to 
death led her to confess to a crime she didn't commit.

DNA evidence eventually exonerated the 6 and led investigators to conclude 
drifter Bruce Allen Smith killed Wilson.

State lawmakers have given 1st-round approval to a bill to repeal the death 
penalty. The bill must clear 2 more rounds to win approval.

(source: WNAX news)








USA:

Aurora shooting survivors prepare for trial: 'This tragedy does not define us' 
----Almost 3 years after James Holmes killed 12 and wounded 70 during a 
midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises, his trial begins on Monday



It has been 1,011 days since a man wearing a gas mask and body armor walked 
into an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater during a midnight screening of the 
Batman film The Dark Knight Rises and opened fire on the audience. 12 people 
died and 70 were wounded.

>From Monday, a jury of 12 must decide the fate of the gunman, James Holmes. 
What the jury must decide is whether the shooting was a calculated mass killing 
or an act of insanity.

For those who were in the theater on 20 July 2012, the trial is both a source 
of trepidation and relief - relief in that it may bring closure to this 
terrible ordeal that shook a Denver suburb to its core.

"It's hard to say how I'm going to feel when I get on the stand," said Marcus 
Weaver, a survivor of the movie theater shooting. "I've been playing that and 
replaying that in my head for about 2 1/2 years and now that we're getting 
close, the anxiety is building up."

That night, Weaver was with a friend. Earlier that morning, the 2 had met for 
breakfast. Rebecca Wingo, a single mother of 2, reminded him he was supposed to 
take her to the midnight premiere.

Weaver admitted that he had completely forgotten, and promised to get tickets. 
That evening, he arrived before Wingo. He retrieved his tickets for the movie, 
which was showing in theater 9 at Aurora's Century 16 multiplex. He found seats 
in the 5th row, saved them with a red hoodie, and went to buy some snacks.

Just before the movie started, Wingo joined him. The lights dimmed and the 
movie began. About half an hour into the film, Weaver said, he saw what he 
believes was a smoke bomb go off.

"One of the last thing's I said to Rebecca was, 'I can't believe someone is 
doing a smoke bomb. They're ruining the movie,'" he said. "I thought it was a 
prank."

Then the gunfire began.

"The sound of that AR-15 rifle is the thing I can't forget and the thing that 
keeps me up at night," Weaver said.

He remembers diving to the floor under a rain of bullets, choking on smoke and 
still not fully grasping what was happening. He said he pushed Wingo to the 
floor too, but felt that she was lifeless.

It wasn't until he had left the theater and Holmes had been arrested, Weaver 
said, that he realized he had been shot, twice in the right shoulder. The hours 
that followed were a daze. At some point after he left hospital, Weaver said, 
he learned that Wingo hadn't made it out of the theater alive.

Holmes' lawyers admit that the former University of Colorado neuroscience 
graduate student killed Wingo and 11 other people, and wounded 70. He has 
pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 166 counts of murder, attempted 
murder and other offenses. Under Colorado law, people who are acquitted under 
this defense are committed to a state hospital.

District attorney George Brauchler is seeking the death penalty.

"Justice is death," Brauchler said in April 2013 when he announced that 
prosecutors would seek the ultimate penalty.

To prevent their client from landing on death row, the defense team will seek 
to prove that Holmes was legally insane at the time of the attack.

In a 2013, Holmes's lawyers wrote in a court filing that he suffered "from a 
severe mental illness and was in the throes of a psychotic episode when he 
committed the acts that resulted in the tragic loss of life and injuries 
sustained by moviegoers on 20 July 2012".

The jury is expected to hear conflicting assessments on Holmes's mental state, 
from experts recruited by either side. In total, Holmes underwent 3 psychiatric 
tests, the results of which have not been publicly disclosed.

Most important and controversial, however, may be a second independent 
evaluation of the accused that was carried out for the court after judge Carlos 
Samour ruled a 1st to be "incomplete and inadequate".

Prosecutors had accused Dr Jeffrey Metzner, a psychologist appointed by the 
Colorado Mental Health Institute to examine Holmes, of bias.

"There is so much humanity in actually finding him insane," said Iris Eytan, an 
attorney in Denver who specializes in representing mentally ill defendants. 
"And that's going to be part of the defense lawyers' job, to really make that a 
prominent part of the case. To show that his illness isn't who he is, that it's 
a part of who is. And that he is a human being."

About 9,000 prospective jurors, thought to be the biggest pool in US judicial 
history, were summoned to Arapahoe County district court. The pool was 
eventually whittled to 12 jurors and 12 alternates, among them a lawyer, a 
special needs teacher and a survivor of the 1999 Columbine high school 
shooting, which occurred just 30 miles from Aurora.

"That we were going to find a fair jury after these tragedies in Colorado was 
always going to statistically be a huge challenge," Eytan said.

The jurors who were selected were asked at several turns if they would be able 
to set aside their biases and preconceptions about the case to serve 
impartially. They will be asked to decide whether Holmes was indeed insane when 
he plotted the attack.

If he is convicted, the jury will be asked to decide in a 2nd phase of the 
trial whether he should be executed or sentenced to life in prison. If he is 
found not guilty, he will be sentenced indefinitely to a state facility.

Even though Colorado's constitution allows the death penalty, only 1 person has 
been executed there since 1976, when the US supreme court ended a brief 
moratorium on the death penalty in the state. Colorado currently has 3 men on 
death row. 1 was set to be executed in 2013, before the governor, John 
Hickenlooper, granted "an indefinite reprieve".

In an open letter published by the Denver Post, Holmes's parents, who have 
mostly avoided speaking to the media and declined to speak to the Guardian, 
pleaded for their son's life.

"He is a human being gripped by a severe mental illness," they wrote. "We have 
always loved him, and we do not want him to be executed."

'This tragedy will always be with us'

Holmes's case has been beset by delays, pre-trial disputes, an avalanche of 
legal paperwork and the appointment of a replacement judge. That judge, Carlos 
Samour Jr, has said he would like the trial to finish by Labor Day, Monday 7 
September.

Residents admit that the next few months will be difficult ones, as a crush of 
media returns to the city, ensuring that photos of Holmes, who has in the past 
appeared in court with wild eyes and dyed orange hair, will be splashed across 
every newspaper and television station. But for those affected, the trial 
brings with it the hope for closure.

In a statement to the Guardian, Aurora mayor Steve Hogan said: "Our thoughts 
and prayers are with the victims, families and responders as they move into 
this very difficult time.

"Our community continues to heal and care for each other. And, while this 
tragedy will always be with us, it does not define us."

"People are going to be happy when it's done, whether it's because they might 
be found a sense of closure in it, or because it's going to just stop being 
promoted everywhere," said AJ Focht, a member of Aurora Rise, a charity founded 
to help those affected by the tragedy.

Focht, who works at a comic-book store in Aurora, was in the theater the night 
of the attack, but had seats near the back. He said joining the nonprofit, 
founded by the owner of the comic store, was his way of processing the events 
that night.

"I wanted to see how I could help everyone else because I walked out of the 
theater just fine," Focht said. The charity hosts events and benefits to raise 
money for the victims and their families.

"Hopefully," he said, "when the trial ends and everything is set and done, it 
will help the shadow pass over Aurora."

Marcus Weaver said that in the more than 2 1/2 years since the shooting he has 
completely changed, both mentally and physically.

He underwent surgery to help stop the numbness he felt in his arm many times a 
day. He married a woman he met through his church. They are expecting a 
daughter.

There's not a day, an hour or a second that I don't think about what happened 
that night on the floor of that theater.

"As time went on, the theater got this small and my life got this big," he 
said, gesturing with his hands.

He added: "I don't have nightmares as much anymore ... but I still think about 
the theater. There's not a day, an hour or a second that I don't think about 
what happened that night on the floor of that theater."

Weaver said he expected to testify during the trial and said he planned to be 
in court for the opening statements on Monday. He said he has gone back and 
forth on what punishment he believes Holmes should receive. In the end, Weaver 
said, he would rather wait and see what the jury decides.

"It's not up to me," he said. "I'm just a piece of a bigger puzzle ... I'm 
going to play my part and once I play my part I'm going to do the best I can to 
move away from it a little bit and enjoy life for a while and not just have 
this constant feeling and all these emotions about this person."

Ultimately, Weaver said he hoped the case would bring closure for the survivors 
and families who needed it. As for him, he's doing his best to untangle his 
life from Holmes.

"I am OK with whatever happens," he said. "My happiness will not come from 
that, It comes from seeing my wife every day. It comes from hanging out with my 
son ... That's where my happiness really comes from."

(source: The Guardian)

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

US top court to weigh key lethal injection case



The US Supreme Court is on Wednesday set to consider the constitutionality of a 
controversial lethal injection technique, in a key case that could have broader 
implications for capital punishment in America.

The court is considering the issue just 7 years after "Baze vs. Rees," in which 
it ruled that lethal injection did not violate the Eighth Amendment's 
protection against "cruel and unusual" punishment.

But a lot has changed in the meantime. The companies that produce the drugs 
most commonly used in lethal injections, many of them European, now refuse to 
supply them if they are to be used in executions.

Shortages have prompted officials in 32 states where the death penalty is in 
force to come up with new lethal "cocktails" suspected of causing pain and 
suffering during some recent executions.

"Given the lack of transparency, it's not surprising we saw three badly botched 
executions just in 2014," lethal injection expert Megan McCracken said.

The case now before the Supreme Court is being brought by three death-row 
inmates in Oklahoma, who are challenging an untested triple combination of 
drugs -- known as a "three-drug protocol" -- used in earlier botched 
executions.

Last April, Oklahoma death row inmate Clayton Lockett took an agonizing 43 
minutes to die and could be seen writhing in pain during the prologed 
execution.

On January 16, 2014, Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire took 26 minutes to die, and 
Arizona death row convict Joseph Wood took 117 minutes to die on July 23.

Lethal injection executions are expected to take 10 minutes, and in all three 
cases, the men could be seen gasping for air.

Executioners had used midazolam, a sedating drug that is sometimes used before 
surgery.

The court must now decide whether the drug fully sedates inmates to ensure they 
do not feel pain from the other drugs used to paralyze and kill them.

Some experts, including anesthetist David Waisel, have warned that midazolam 
might not put a person into a "deep coma state."

Dale Baich, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said botched executions were to be 
expected "in this climate of unchartered territory."

"They arose in an environment of experimentation and inadequate care by state 
officials with no scientific oversight," Baich said.

The question before the court is whether the 3-drug protocol "could cause 
severe pain and suffering ... where the 1st drug has no pain-relieving 
properties and cannot reliably produce a deep, coma-like unconsciousness."

The plaintiffs in the case, Richard Glossip, Benjamin Cole and John Grant, say 
the execution method carries an "intolerable risk of harm."

But Oklahoma will argue that a large dose of midazolam produces a deep 
unconsciousness that renders one unable to feel "even extremely painful 
stimuli."

New York Law School professor and death penalty advocate Robert Blecker said he 
is not too concerned about the possibility of pain.

"Should Benjamin Cole feel some pain, I must admit it wouldn't concern me 
greatly. It's human nature to say someone who murdered his 9-month-old daughter 
by snapping her spine in half... the remote possibility that they might feel 
pain is not something we really care about," he told AFP.

Strictly speaking, the Supreme Court is only supposed to rule on Oklahoma and 
possibly the other states using midazolam or are planning to do so.

But "the court always has the opportunity to get broader if they want to," said 
Deborah Denno, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law.

"If they want to make a broader statement about lethal injection, they can use 
this case as a vehicle for doing that," Denno said.

Should the Supreme Court rule against it, Oklahoma already has a backup for 
executions, as it has approved death by nitrogen gas.

Denno noted that it was unusual for the court to consider a 2nd lethal 
injection case in 7 years.

"It doesn't help the death penalty that the court is looking at this case," she 
said. "The court thinks there's some problems there."

John Marshall Law School professor Steven Schwinn said that while the case 
"does not test the death penalty itself, the court's ruling will, as a 
practical matter, put a heavy thumb on the scale either for or against the 
death penalty."

(source: Yahoo News)

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

Sr. Helen Prejean: The 30-year fight against the death penalty



2 years after the photos flooded media worldwide, a jury in a non-death penalty 
state must decide whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 21-year-old responsible for 
the Boston Marathon bombings, should be given the death penalty.

As debates about capital punishment resurface in the media, Sr. Helen Prejean, 
a famed activist against the death penalty, continues to speak on campus this 
week about issues of incarceration and death row as part of her mission to 
"wake up" Americans and end the practice.

Prejean is known for her famed book "Dead Man Walking" that was adapted to film 
in 1995. What began as written correspondences between death row inmates in the 
1980s became a 30-year project fighting for the abolition of the death penalty.

Her papers, including letters from inmates, photographs and drafts of her book, 
are stored in the DePaul Library's Special Collections and Archives.

"My annual visits to DePaul have become a very special part of my year," 
Prejean said in a DePaul press release.

"Because I have dedicated my life to working with poor people and with people 
who are outcast, I feel right at home coming to this center of the Vincentian 
values of service to the disadvantaged and appreciation for the dignity of each 
and every person," Prejean said.

Prejean said the current case in Boston is similar to other cases she's worked 
with.

"It boils down to this: That no human being can ever be identified completely 
with the worst act of their life," Prejean said. "Life is fluid. There's a 
transcendence in us. We can change."

More than 260 people were injured and three killed in the April 2013 bombings 
at the Boston Marathon. Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, planted the 
bombs and fled, which led to a police chase that ended in the deaths of a 
police officer and the older Tsarnaev.

Jurors convicted the younger Tsarnaev of all 30 charges, 17 of which can be 
used for the death penalty. Massachusetts outlawed the death penalty in 1984, 
but the case has been moved to the federal level to be tried as a death penalty 
case. Emotional testimonies from 17 witnesses have been heard in the last three 
days after already 6 weeks of hearings, and the trial will continue through 
this week.

"To punish people for crimes is one thing, to take away their life, and to feel 
you have the authority to know when you can make (that) decision is arrogant, 
really," Prejean said.

She said imprisonment for life wouldn't excuse Tsarnaev from his actions.

"Dzhokhar was guilty of killing innocent people," Prejean said. "So to bring to 
him the effects of his actions is just part of what justice is."

DePaul senior Estelle de Vendegies heard Prejean speak last week and felt 
affirmed in her stance against the death penalty.

"My opinion yet is not fully formed," de Vendegies said. "Initially I want to 
say no, (the death penalty) doesn't provide peace that some people say it 
does." In the end de Vendegies said, "we're debating whether or not to take 
someone's life. I think it's sick and twisted."

Prejean said public opinion of the death penalty is changing largely because 
pharmaceutical companies are withdrawing their products that are used for 
executions.

Earlier this year, Akorn, a company that manufactures a drug used in lethal 
injections, midazolam, said in a statement that it would no longer sell its 
product to prisons to be used for capital punishment.

Drug companies may have an effect on public opinion, but the debate still does 
not split 50-50. According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans 
(56 %) support the death penalty.

According to the March 2015 survey, 38 % of Americans overall are opposed to 
the death penalty. 6 % more of Americans (62 %) supported the death penalty in 
2011, and in 1996, as much as 78 % were in favor of it.

The numbers differed when the death penalty was applied to cases of murder, in 
which 63 % found the death penalty morally justified. Only 35 % of Americans 
thought the death penalty deterred serious crime.

"People (who are for the death penalty) use more economic reasoning, like that 
it costs more to imprison someone for their whole life," de Vendegies said. 
"For (Prejean,) (the death penalty) is a loss of potential. These are things 
you can't explain to everyone. People want those cold hard facts."

Prejean said the death penalty is not only inhumane to inmates, but that it 
also has a negative effect on the families who have to relive the trauma 
through the additional trial and appeals.

The Richard family, who lost their 8-year-old son Martin in the Boston Marathon 
bombings, wanted to end the ordeal once and for all.

"We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but 
the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and 
prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives," the family said in a 
letter to the Boston Globe.

Yet some families, like Liz Norden whose 2 adult sons each lost a leg in the 
bombings, said her family deserves justice.

"(Tsarnaev) destroyed so many families that day," Norden told the Associated 
Press. "I want the ultimate justice."

A factor that will play into Tsarnaev's sentence is his age, Prejean said.

"You expect young people to do stupid things," Prejean said. "When you kill 
someone, you are bascially saying 'you are so corrupt and evil, you can never 
change, we are going to end your life now.'"

DePaul history education major Samantha Gonzales worked with Prejean's papers 
last year for a history project. After reading letters from the families of 
victims of death row inmates, Gonzales said she thought most of the opinions 
were based on emotional rhetoric instead of empirical evidence.

"I'm always going to be against (the death penalty), even though (Tsarnaev) 
took that many lives," Gonzales said. "Killing him (with the death penalty) 
might be an easy way out for him instead of seeing all the stuff he's done. It 
would be better to keep him in jail for life."

Prejean said the death penalty is symbolic in the U.S. system of justice, where 
pain and punishment are emphasized as means for justice.

"What we always say is we're going to do this for victims' families," Prejean 
said. "I think (the government) does it out of that feeling of necessity, that 
we must do this or we will look callous or that we don't care about the 
victims' families. Once it's off the table you just don't have it as an option 
and you'll spare everybody,"

Moving forward in the case, Prejean said the defense will have to appeal to 
each of the jurors as individuals.

"(The defense) is going to say to each and every one of (the jurors), 'you have 
the power in your hands to save this man's life.'" Prejean said. "'If you don't 
vote for death he is going to live. Each one of you. It only takes 1.'"

(source: The (DePaul University) DePaulia)

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

Capital punishment further degrades us



Susan Estrich, in her column, "Punishment for Tsarnaev," said that "perhaps the 
most powerful argument against the death penalty ... is that our system is not 
perfect enough to justify executing convicted criminals."

Actually, the most powerful argument against the death penalty is that all life 
has inviolable value, even that of the most heinous criminal. Hard as it is to 
repress the instinct toward vengeful punishment, our common humanity calls for 
just this to preserve our human values from further degradation.

The Rev. Benjamin Fiore, S.J.

Buffalo

(source: Letter to the Editor, Buffalo News)