Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing Blog

Journey of Hope Board Member -- Rais Bhuiyan -- Now Speaking to Students

2012-01-25T19:14:00.001-08:00

By KATHLEEN MEGAN, kmegan@courant.com

The Hartford Courant10:33 p.m. EST, January 6, 2012 GLASTONBURY

Annie Renaud had a very important question for Rais Bhuiyan during a fourth-period class Friday at Glastonbury High School."Do you think there is any crime that is unforgivable?" Annie, a freshman, asked."Well —" Bhuiyan responded, pausing. "On a regular basis, we ask God, 'Please forgive me.' Why you cannot pass it to others? …There is nothing you can't forgive, if I can forgive my attacker who tried to end my life. It's just a matter of practice."

See Full Story here

Forgiveness key in group’s fight against death penalty

2012-01-25T18:51:00.001-08:00

by Brian Anderson
banderson@annistonstar.com Anniston Star
Jan 20, 2012 JACKSONVILLE — There are some images that Bill Pelke can’t erase from his memory.

For years the picture in his head that haunted him was of his beloved “Nana,” Ruth Elizabeth Pelke, a woman who taught Bible classes to local children in her hometown of Gary, Ind. In 1985 she was stabbed 33 times by a group of local teenagers who stole 10 dollars from the 78-year-old woman and let her bleed to death on her living room floor.

It was the image in his head when he sat through the trial of Paula Cooper, the 15-year-old female who ended his grandmother’s life.

“I remember when they asked me how I felt,” Pelke said Thursday at Jacksonville State University, recalling learning that Cooper was to receive the death penalty. “I said, ‘the judge did what he felt he had to do, but it won’t bring my Nana back.’”

Pelke, 64, was the first of three speakers during an anti-death penalty forum called “A Journey of Hope,” sponsored by the campus Ethics Club. More than 30 people at Houston Cole Library listened to Pelke, Callie Greer, and a representative of the Birmingham-based Justice and Mercy group, Brandon Fountain, all present their stance against the death penalty. The event doubled as the first meeting of the semester for the club.

“We’re all about dialogue,” said Scott Beckett, the faculty adviser for the Ethics Club. “Because we’re human, everybody here already has made up their mind, but we’re about dialogue.”

But Pelke hoped his dialogue could possibly persuade death penalty proponents to change their mind — much as he changed his own stance on capital punishment after his grandmother was murdered. Pelke said his Christian upbringing taught him the death penalty was an acceptable form of justice, but began to question that notion in the years that followed Cooper’s sentencing.

Over time, the image of his grandmother, the one he carried with him through the trial of Cooper, was replaced by another image he couldn’t shake — that of Cooper’s grandfather, shouting out “they’re going to kill my baby!” after her sentencing.

Like Pelke, Callie Greer lost a loved one through violence. Her son, Mercury, was murdered in Birmingham, and just like Pelke, sought for forgiveness.

“They kill this boy, give him life sentence or whatever, does that mean Mercury is going to come back?” Greer said. “Are you telling me I should put his family through this to get closure? Now I get closure? Uh-uh, I get nightmares.”

Not all the details of the two stories were the same, though.

“Black on black crime is just treated as another case,” said Greer, explaining her story didn’t “make it to Oprah” like Pelke’s more famous story.

Fountain said Greer’s claims of racial bias in the death penalty process are supported by facts. Fountain, the final speaker, presented a case against death penalty using state statistics.

“There’s not a racial issue in Alabama’s death penalty?” Fountain asked the audience, pointing out that 35 percent of murder victims in Alabama are white, while 80 percent of death row inmates were found guilty of killing a white victim.

“Now how does that work?” he said.

The audience responded with applause, however, to Pelke’s tale about his grandmother, and finding a way to forgive the teenage girl who murdered her more than 20 years ago.

Since his turnaround on the issue of justice and the death penalty, Pelke started his own foundation and talks at forums and events all over the world in opposition to the death penalty. He said he made a promise to God to connect with Cooper and her family, to tell her about his grandmother’s life and do everything he could to save Cooper’s.

And on July 1, 2013, Cooper, whose sentence was reduced thanks to Pelke’s efforts, will be able to walk out of Indiana state prison — where Pelke will be there to greet her.

Now the image he can’t forget is the drive home after meeting Cooper in prison for the first time in 1994.

“The word that coming back to my mind was “wonderful,’” Pelke said. “Because after this terrible thing that happened to Nana, this terrible thing that happened to my family, I had no hate. Only forgiveness.”

Star staff writer Brian Anderson: 256-235-3546

For original publication, Read Forgiveness key in group’s fight against death penalty here

Why does Jim Petro stop short?

2012-01-22T15:55:00.001-08:00

Jim Petro questions about death penalty stop short of calling for repeal

It's been a year since former Ohio Attorney General and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Jim Petro laid out his views of the criminal justice system in his book, "False Justice: 8 Myths that Convict the Innocent."

Co-authored by his wife, Nancy, the book, as the title implies, questions the fairness of our justice system and identifies flaws in how police and prosecutors handle evidence, especially in capital cases.

I was recently drawn to the book because capital cases and the procedures we use to put people to death continue to make news here and around the country. While reading the book, I kept wondering what feedback Petro, a moderate Republican who campaigned on strong law-and-order platforms, has received, especially from politicians and law enforcement officials.

Petro, who is now Ohio's higher education chancellor, told me in an interview that he's received little push back and plenty of support and praise for the book, which also examines how DNA evidence has played a critical role in exonerating convicted people and highlights the unreliability of eyewitness testimony.

"I would bet certainly well over half the prosecutors in the country looking at this book would ultimately agree with most of the issues," he says. "There is another half who wouldn't. They will say this is the work of some liberal-leaning lefty. That's not the case. I am as much in favor of punishing the guilty as anybody, but I'm advocating for a greater degree of care on the part of every prosecutor."

Reading the book, I was most intrigued by the question of whether Petro thought society should repeal the death penalty in light of wrongful convictions. Though the book is written in memoir form, he doesn't explicitly offer his opinion.

"Establishing the reliability of the justice system is equally important for advocates of the death penalty," he writes early in the book to neutralize the debate around the death penalty issue.

He touches on the issue again in Chapter 19, describing his support for the death penalty as simple and pragmatic.

"It is all about public safety," he writes.

But I wanted to know what the man, not the politician, thinks about the controversial issue.

Petro, a former Cuyahoga County commissioner from Rocky River, is a politician closer to the issue than many. He had a hand in writing the 1981 law that restored Ohio's death penalty. As a young legislator in the Ohio House in 1981, he was on the Judiciary Committee that reviewed and reworked the legislation started in the Ohio Senate.

In December, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, who also helped write the law that year and supported it, urged lawmakers to repeal it. Pfeifer, a Republican, told an Ohio House of Representatives committee, "The death sentence makes no sense to me at this point when you can have life without possibility of parole. I don't see what society gains from that."

Pfeifer, who was chairman of the Ohio Senate's Judiciary Committee in 1981, was testifying in support of House Bill 160, which would abolish the death penalty in Ohio and resentence death-row inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Democratic-sponsored bill has no chance of passing.

When Petro campaigned for the state legislature, he said he believed in the death penalty. And when he supported the 1981 bill, he argued that the government should not bear the expense of incarcerating the most heinous criminals when they deserve to die. In short, he said that he believed the state would save money by adopting the death penalty and that the law would become a deterrent.

"Neither of those things have occurred, so I ask myself, 'Why would I vote for it again?' " Petro tells me. "I don't think I would. I don't think the law has done anything to benefit society and us. It's cheaper and, in my view, sometimes a mistake can be made, so perhaps we are better off with life without parole."

But does he personally believe we should do away with the death penalty?

Unlike Pfeifer, Petro doesn't directly say so.

"We are probably safer, better and smarter to not have a death penalty," he says.

Petro adds that he still believes society has the right to decide.

He remains unequivocal, though, on a different and important point, one sometimes obscured by tough-on-crime politicians: The real responsibility of prosecution is to seek the truth, not just win a trial.

(source: Mark Naymik, The Plain Dealer) Found on Death Penalty News & Updates -- posted by Dr. Rick Halperin

MLK: Encouragement for our visions & dreams

2012-01-16T06:54:00.000-08:00

Middle East Peace Quilt**

(quotes below are from a sermon entitled: "Dreams and Possibilities" given Sunday am 15 January 2012)

"Martin Luther King saved my life"

"A life of fear is no life at all."

"A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right...for justice..."

"Without a vision there's no future...only repitition of the past."

"We can evolve only if we know what we're evolving to..."

"It takes no effort to despair."

MLK...had a great imagination.

These are just some of the challenging quotes Mills offered (which included Goethe, Kant, and an expert on Aphasia (used as a metaphor for that which drastically limits imagination).

I highly recommend the link below to this sermon/reflection as one of the most powerful and uplifting on Martin Luther King (or anyone else) ever spoken in my home town. Not only does this personal talk include Martin Luther King's vision for a world minus racism, hate and hopelessness - other poignant quotes from other visionaries are offered as well.

Each of the points made by Mills can be so easily applied TODAY to our nation and world and related to racism of ALL kinds whether to a person's skin, citizenship, religion, nation of origin, gender, struggle, age and so much more. (For example, Mills brings up-to-date a text King used to condemn the careless bombing in Vietnam -- by simply adding the name of our various current wars).

After a needed yet sobering couple of weeks many of us spent exposing our nation's treatment of people detained in Guantanamo -- this visionary speech offers possibilities of change and the needed energy to carry out a better future.

Ernie Mills heard a famous MLK speech in 1973 -- five years after it was first delivered...

To hear how MLK's speech "I Have a Dream" helped transform the life of one young American -- formerly a self-admitted racist -- GO here

Ernie is a longtime friend of mine and as I told him - he's spent years doing the homework which led to this superlative talk.

The opposite of a doomsday talk, at the end Ernie said with conviction, "The possibilities" for change "are infinite."

Civil Rights Memorial Museum Montgomery, Alabama

**quilt above chosen because it's a serene symbol for finding peace among groups of all kinds. I found the photo here

Let us bend our work toward peace...

Memorial Service for Herbert D. Blake

2012-01-11T15:43:00.001-08:00

from Kathy Ozzard Chism
Memorial Service for Herbert D. Blake
10:00 AM Saturday, January 14, 2012
Repast following
St Bartholomew Church
5100 E Broadway, Long Beach CA 90803
562/438-3826 or stbarts@sblb.org ♥♥♥

From Bill Pelke
‎Herb Blake's intervied me last summer. RIP Herb Blake
GO here

Kathy Ozzard Chism
From Herb Blake's wife, Diana: "Your outpouring of love and prayers have been so overwhelming. I know he feels the love from each of you. He is passing through the veil we all tremble before and is comforted in the arms of God. I am comforted by his lasting strength and deep love that all will be as it should if we'd just let God light our path. His lust for life and desire to see social justice done continue on in his legacy." ~Diana

Rest in peace, brother-in love Herb. ♥♥♥

See more on Journey FB Wall...

10 Years Too Many: National Day of Action Against Guantanamo:

2012-01-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

(This notice is from Amnesty I - USA -- I got the phone call this morning from the leaders and want to be sure to get this out. I'm with several groups at once at heart and in spirit.)

Join us in Washington, DC on January 11, 2012 to close Guantanamo! To mark the 10th anniversary of unlawful counter-terrorism detentions* at Guantanamo and to call for an end to indefinite detention and unfair trials, we will be creating a human chain between the White House and the Capitol. We need 2,700 people – the number of detainees still unlawfully held by the US government at Guantanamo and Bagram. Meet us January 11, 2012 at Lafayette Square (across from the White House) at Noon. Sign up below to pledge to join us!

here

Here's a basic schedule for ALL groups involved in this action:

After meet-ups with various groups --
1PM: Public Witness and Human Chain connection the White House to the Capital.

3PM: Interfaith Service and Reception, sponsored by NRCAT, at the New York Ave Presbyterian Church. Here's more info and a place to lay your cot --

GO here

IF YOU QUESTION the reasons for such a Day of Action, you may want to read the post just below this one on oneheartforpeace (for Sunday, January 8th) or CLICK here.

Besides unlawful detentions, be aware of the despair-induced suicides, illnesses untreated, force-feedings, deaths listed as unknown causes. Some of these deaths under US detention have been considered "extra-judicial executions". Deaths and extreme physical and mental injury due to rights abuses can't be ruled out at Guantanamo and the same goes for US prisons or US "oversight" at various cells hidden and open world-wide.

HOWEVER, this Amnesty Action is one of many others by dozens of national and international human rights groups along with well-known speakers, and writers. What a positive unified action this is for peace, justice and the rights by which we as Americans once were said to have lived. Actions such as this one will help to restore us to the sanity of a true humanity.

Thanx for tuning in.

Connie

Consider Action during MLK Weekend

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

While the following is addressed to California residents, using theme of MLK weekend could be a good one for human rights and abolition actions across the nation.

"The time is always ripe to do what's right."-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Join thousands of SAFE volunteers on MLK weekend.

Next Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a time set aside to honor Dr. King’s passionate commitment to justice. This year, SAFE California is teaming up with civil rights leaders and grassroots activists to commemorate Dr. King by ending death sentences in California. Please join the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the California NAACP and other civil rights leaders in supporting the SAFE California “Weekend of Action” on January 14-16.

Will you honor Dr. King by helping to end death sentences in California at an event near you?This weekend, communities all across the state will gather in various events to celebrate Dr. King's life and honor his legacy of justice. SAFE California will be there working to end death sentences in California as a tribute to the tireless work Dr. King accomplished himself and inspired in others.Click here for a map of events near you, and volunteer to join us!As a dedicated supporter of the SAFE California Campaign to replace the death penalty, I hope you will join the thousands of volunteers statewide who are ready to commemorate Dr. King's leadership by joining this historic movement over MLK weekend at an event near you.

Despite losing her husband to assassination, Coretta Scott King declared: "I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty." Now is the time to join forces, put the death penalty before the voters and help SAFE California prevail at the November 2012 election.Please join me in making history and ending death sentencing in California this year.

Sincerely,
Natasha MinskerCampaign Manager
SAFE California Campaign

GO here for the origin and website of this action - SEE MLK item under "Get Involved" link.

Again, consider your own action...

Death Penalty on the Wane: Dallas Morning News

2012-01-03T01:43:00.000-08:00

*

JANUARY 2, 2012 -- found posted on Dr. Rick Halperin's News & Updates

TEXAS:

Use of the death penalty is losing favor with more and more Americans, and for good reasons, those undeniably being (a) shaken confidence in the system and (b) the alternative of life-without-parole sentencing.

Lethal punishment is also being sought less often by Texas prosecutors and handed out less often by Texas juries, probably for the same reasons.

The year-end snapshot of Death Row, USA, offers more upsides, from the perspective of this newspaper’s opposition to the death penalty.

The number of executions continued to slide nationwide, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. And one more state, Illinois, joined the list of 16 non-death-penalty states and became the fourth to repeal the punishment since 2004.

The number of executions continued to wane in Texas, but this state held on to its position of ignominious prominence: Texas executed, by far, the most people of the 13 states that used the death penalty this year. Thirteen prisoners were put to death in Texas, 30 % of the 43 who died in the nation’s death chambers in 2011.

Texas’ distinction as the No. 1 death-penalty state remains in unseemly juxtaposition to the embarrassing developments throughout our criminal justice system.

For a 2nd straight year, a Texas murder case unraveled in spectacular fashion, this one freeing Michael Morton of Williamson County, who spent almost 25 years in prison of a life sentence for his wife’s bludgeoning murder. The case against Morton ignored evidence that pointed elsewhere and, it appears from DNA tests, allowed the real killer to roam and kill again. Morton’s exoneration produced serious charges of prosecutorial misconduct this month.

The year before — when Texas executed 17 of the 46 nationwide — the Anthony Graves murder case unraveled, freeing a man who was sent to death row in another instance of alleged prosecutorial mischief.

Add to that the continuing parade of DNA exonerations across the state, and it’s evident why people have become squeamish about the death penalty. Supporters attest to the certainty of the court system, with its many steps of review, but it so often has taken volunteer lawyers and university workshops to pry free the truth.

Are there cases where innocent people have slipped through that sieve and gone to their deaths in Texas? None have been proven, but there’s no justification for taking the chance. The justice system will never be foolproof, and, therefore, use of the death penalty is never justified.

That sentiment seems to be taking hold nationally, with a Gallup Poll showing the lowest level of support in almost 40 years, with 61 % in favor. That compares with 80 percent in 1994. A CNN poll found more support for life without parole than death for murderers.

Qualms about how the death penalty is applied caused the governor of Oregon to call a moratorium and the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court to convene a study commission.

In Texas, there are ample arguments for both of the above.

A welcome decline

New death sentences and executions in Texas:

2003: 28, 24

2004: 24, 23

2005: 14, 19

2006: 11, 24

2007: 14, 26

2008: 12, 18

2009: 9, 24

2010: 8, 17

2011: 8, 13

NOTE: In 2011, Dallas County sentenced no one to death for the first time in five years. The execution record since resumption in 1982 was 40, in 2000.

[sources: Texas Departments of Criminal Justice, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty]

(source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News)

======
Images found at http://vonnie622.tripod.com/id5.html or click here

New Year Concerns and Reminders

2012-01-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here is an item which pertains to all of us in the movement to abolish the Death Penalty and Human Rights Movements at large -- who see the growing and grave need for forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace and justice "for ALL humanity" here

You may also want to see the open letter to Rev. Billy Graham which I have just "reissued" for 1st January 2012 and which includes this quote from Dick Barnett:
'The biblical injunction to love one another does not rest on the idea that people are lovable......love is difficult -- people are hard enough to love one by one and harder still to love by the millions. Yet the injunction is inescapable because creation cannot be sustained without it.'The choice is between love and hate, and hate is death. Hate demands an enemy. The identity hardly matters. Enemies change, but the spirit of enmity and fear remains.'The big lie behind all murder from random street killings, to the efficient ovens of Auschwitz, to the even more efficient hydrogen bomb, is that the victims deserve to die." for the rest, GO here

Last but not least, you may appreciate my post "Heart Food" which may offer a wee bit of nourishment for the days ahead. GO to this topic at the top of the entries for 1 January at oneheartforpeace blog or click here

Dream One World shines a light on our path

2011-12-22T22:31:00.000-08:00

"The best things Americans are doing around the world these days is not in dropping bombs from unmanned drones, but in helping school children in places like Uganda, Kenya, and the southern Sudan. Dream One World's current Uganda School Project is one of those. It deserves wide support."
- Pete McCloskey, Jr., 2011: Co-Founder of Earth Day, Former U.S. Congressman, Global Advisor for Dream One World

Readers, you need to see the absolutely gorgeous and cheery DREAM ONE WORLD newsletter just out for November thru December:

I'm only posting a few excerpts and photos here:

The Journey of Hope October 2011 trip to our school in Uganda and beyond was a HUGE success! (The Fantastic Four) Bill Pelke, Bill Babbitt, Charity Lee, and Randy Gardner traveled to visit our school as part of "Journey of Hope... From Violence to Healing," a nonprofit organization founded in 1993 of murder victim family members, death row family members, death row survivors, and other activists for peace and healing.

Each of the four has at least one family member that was murdered, yet they are committed to love, forgiveness, restorative justice, and ending the death penalty in America and throughout the world.

See an adorable video of that day, Facebook connection to 44 photos and JOURNEY OF HOPE VIDEO AT OUR SCHOOL! (Wait till you see the smiles of "our" kids!)

Most of the 150 children had never seen themselves on camera before - ADORABLE! We thank Bill Pelke, Bill Babbitt, Randy Gardner, Charity Lee, and our Assistant Manager of the project, Katongole Ronald, for sending us films and photographs so we could compile this short video.

(end of excerpt)

So, GO READ much more on this UPBEAT newsletter - what a labor of love! HERE

I (Connie on the blog) want to put in a little plug for Edward and his family as well...what commitment, what diligence! My husband and I have two adopted sons from Uganda - so since I met Edward on a Journey in Texas - got to see his resilience and faith close up over lots of miles - I still care deeply about his radiant life and vision, of course...and pray to find a way to do something to reach out during the coming year...

Many prayers for ongoing healing of the effects of the stroke and may you, your family and supporters all feel and receive lots of support in other ways during the coming year...if not sooner.

And as always, support THE JOURNEY -- all the folk mentioned in this post and others behind the scene. May each one know a sense of fulfillment like never before. What a beautiful committed family of love.

May each reader here also experience joy-filled, whole and holy days ahead.

Rais Bhuiyan - who tried to stop attacker's execution - is honored

2011-12-19T15:58:00.000-08:00

Texas was the state where Bhuiyan was attacked.

He led hundreds of supporters throughout Texas.

His movement World Without Hate took off September 21, 2011 --
on World Peace Day -- the anniversary of the day when Buiyan
was shot after the effort to stop the execution of Mark Stroman
had been taken to England, Germany and Denmark. While the effort
failed, the World Without Hate movement is alive indeed.

After a number of other speaking engagements and events--
including a number in Texas, Washington, D.C., California,
North Carolina and Italy--California again honored him on December 11...

...The theme of the most recent event was “Awakening the American Spirit: Turning the Tide of Hate into Love.” It was the American Muslim Voices 2011 Peace Convention.

The convention was divided into two sessions. The first session comprised of two parallel events: Conversation with Muslim Scholars and Civil Rights Panel Discussion.

Khalid Saeed, the AMV National President, presented an overview about the AMV achievements since its establishment eight years.2011 AMV Convention KS-9C

He said: “We take pride and comfort in being recognized regionally and nationally as a Muslim peace building and community building organization. We have been active in support of human and immigrant rights; we are unique as a grassroots facilitator of interfaith/intercultural dialogue. The secret of our success is practicing Islam with our actions- not just words- in the main stream among our fellow Americans- responding first to each community’s needs, serving the whole community and nation from the part of us that is rooted in the universal values of love, peace, and justice given to us through Islam.”

He went on to say: AMV campaigns like, “Share the joy of Ramadan and Eid with your fellow Americans,” “Light the night for peace and friendship,”

Rais Bhuiyan, a featured speaker perhaps symbolized the theme of the convention. A victim of post-9/11 shooting spree, Bhuiyan forgave and tried to spare the life of the man who shot him and left him for dead. Rais Bhuiyan shared his courageous story of compassion, love and forgiveness. A white supremacist shot Rais and two other South Asians. The other two innocent victims of hate died while Rais survived. He was blinded in one eye and still carries 35 shotgun pellets embedded in his face.

Just 10 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan was working at a gas station in Dallas when he was shot in the face by a man named Mark Stroman, an avowed white supremacist, who was on a shooting spree, targeting people who appeared to be Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent.

Stroman also shot and killed Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani immigrant in Dallas. Vasudev Patel, an Indian immigrant and gas station owner in Mesquite, TX, was Stroman’s third and final victim. Stroman admitted to the shootings.

The press labeled the murders Texas's first post 9/11 hate crime. Stroman himself claimed that “blinded by rage,” he killed to avenge the United States. The prosecution convinced the jury that robbery was his true motive, (even though he hadn’t taken money from his victims) and he was sentenced to death.

Bhuiyan had mounted an aggressive campaign to convince Texas authorities to commute Stroman's sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He has asked the state board of pardons and paroles to make a positive recommendation for clemency to Gov. Rick Perry, and has asked Texas prison administrators for permission to meet face-to-face with Stroman for a victim-offender reconciliation process. After those efforts were met with no response from Texas officials, Bhuiyan filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that his rights as a crime victim to meet with his attacker had been unjustly denied.

Bhuiyan’s efforts on behalf of Stroman were motivated by his Muslim faith. He says: The Koran teaches that those who forsake retribution and forgive those who have wronged them become closer to God...

READ more on American Muslim Voices home page by clicking on See AMV Peace Convention 2011 draws large crowd here and on the website World Without Hate here

Plz Keep These Links HANDY - Bookmark perhaps?

2011-12-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

GO here

Also for December and perhaps into January?
NC Moratorium Against the Death Penalty (On the Racial Justice Act)
GO here The News on the NC RJA from the NC News & Observer

GO here

For Democracy In Action GO here

And for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty HOME SITE GO to ncadp.org -- Where you will ALSO see End of Year Report from The Death Penalty Information Center and POLITICO's (sorta) hint at a prediction: Will 2012 be the end of the Death Penalty in USA?

NC Racial Justice Act Saved for Now (Be aware of January 8th)

2011-12-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

Also GO here Keep those letters to the editor and other items OUT there in NC~

By Sam Favate (Law Blog on WSJ December 14-16 2011)

We’ve been following the story of whether North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act would stay alive – see here and here for recent Law Blog posts – and the story may have just come to an end.

Governor Bev Perdue vetoed a bill that would have essentially repealed 2009’s Racial Justice Act, which allows death row inmates to argue that racial bias played a role in their cases. The law was passed under a Democratic majority in the state legislature, but when Republicans took control after the 2010 elections, they set about to change the law.

The N.C. House voted to nullify it back in June, and the Senate followed at the end of last month. Perdue’s veto means the law will likely stay intact, as Republicans don’t have a veto-proof majority to override it, and the bill that would have changed the law only passed the House in June along party lines.

In a statement emailed to Law Blog, the ACLU said the veto “ensures that North Carolina will not tolerate discrimination in its capital punishment system,” according to Cassandra Stubbs, staff attorney with the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. The ACLU points out that North Carolina is one of 34 states with the death penalty and has the nation’s sixth largest death row. More than half of the state’s death row prisoners are black.

In a statement yesterday, Gov. Perdue said, “It is simply unacceptable for racial prejudice to play a role in the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina.” Republicans complained the governor put “politics ahead of policy,” the News & Observer noted.

The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys said the veto “creates yet another de factor moratorium on the death penalty,” AP reports. As Law Blog pointed out, North Carolina hasn’t executed anyone since 2006, when execution methods were challenged as cruel and unusual. The 2009 Racial Justice Act has also been employed by many death row inmates. Anti-death penalty critics point out that state statistics show a per capita decrease of 25% in the murder rate from 2005 to 2010.

Lawmakers will have to return to Raleigh to consider an override by Jan. 8.

NC Gov. Bev Perdue Vetoes Bill to Repeal Racial Justice Act

2011-12-14T11:13:00.000-08:00

8 minutes ago at time of posting:

North Carolina Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bev Purdue, center, gives a thumbs up sign as she arrives for a campaign stop at the cafeteria at the United House of Prayer in Charlotte, N.C. on Monday, Nov. 3, 2008. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

By GARY D. ROBERTSON 12/14/11 12:59 PM ET Associated Pres

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's governor on Wednesday halted a Republican effort to dismantle a law that gives death row inmates a new way to use racial bias as an argument for appealing their sentences.

Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed a bill that would have essentially repealed 2009's Racial Justice Act (RJA of NC), which was designed to address concerns that race has played a role in sentencing prisoners to death.

The law says a judge must reduce a death sentence to life in prison without parole if he determines race was a significant factor to impose the penalty. It creates a new kind of court hearing where prisoners can use statistics to make their case to a judge. North Carolina and Kentucky are the only states with laws like it.

The Democratic governor had signed the 2009 bill into law. In a statement Wednesday, she said that "it is simply unacceptable for racial prejudice to play a role in the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina."

Prosecutors who pushed the repeal said the act is clogging the courts with new appeals and, in effect, halting capital punishment. Nearly all of the 158 prisoners currently on death row – both black and white inmates – have filed papers seeking relief under the Racial Justice Act.

Perdue's veto means she must call lawmakers back to Raleigh to consider an override by Jan. 8. Lawmakers it difficult to override the veto, especially in the House, where it passed in June along party lines. Republicans are a few votes shy of a veto-proof majority in the chamber.

"I am disappointed in yet another decision by Gov. Perdue to put politics ahead of principle," House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, said in a prepared statement. He said she's let down families of victims and prosecutors "who need every available resource to crack down on violent criminals."

Perdue rejected arguments from prosecutors that the 2009 law would allow some death-row inmates to be paroled after 20 years in prison if their crimes were committed before October 1994. She also said she supports capital punishment and is committed to keeping it "a viable punishment option in North Carolina in appropriate cases."

The governor's veto came two days after she met with relatives of murder victims. Some of those relatives asked her to keep the 2009 act on the books.

"We applaud her for understanding that racially-biased justice is not justice at all and for reaffirming that she values the lives and the safety of all citizens regardless of race," said a statement from Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, a Washington-based group that opposes the death penalty.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's governor on Wednesday halted a Republican effort to dismantle a law that gives death row inmates a new way to use racial bias as an argument for appealing their sentence...

Find more on this issue/original links/and related news On Huffington Post:
[N.C. Racial Justice Act ] GO here

N.C. Racial Justice Act Revised After State Senate Vote
North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue is a signature away from permanently changing the state's Racial Justice Act. On Nov. 28, the state Senate voted to...

N.C. Racial Justice Act Revised After State Senate Vote
[N.C. Racial Justice Act ]

N.C. Racial Justice Act Revised After State Senate Vote
North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue is a signature away from permanently changing the state's Racial Justice Act. On Nov. 28, the state Senate voted to...
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Around the Web:

Round Two for the Racial Justice Act? :: WRAL.com

The case for the Racial Justice Act - Other Views - NewsObserver.com

North Carolina Senate Rewrites Racial Justice Act; Gov Urged To ...

Perdue vetoes Racial Justice Act Repeal

NC Racial Justice Act Revised After State Senate Vote
Filed by Luke Johnson |

======

Who knows, one of the most important influences may have been the unity and effort of the Families of Murder Victims who spoke to Gov. Perdue. See Below:

Families of murder victims urge NC governor to veto repeal of Racial Justice Act

2011-12-12T19:56:00.000-08:00

Groups push Gov. Perdue on death sentence bill

Families of murder victims urge governor to veto repeal of Racial Justice Act
RALEIGH — An Asheville woman whose father was murdered will be in a group meeting with Gov. Bev Perdue today to urge her to veto a bill that guts a law allowing evidence of racism to be used in overturning death sentences.

The 2009 Racial Justice Act permits death row inmates and defendants facing the death penalty to use statistics and other evidence to show that racial bias played a significant role in either their sentence or in a prosecutor’s decision to pursue the death penalty.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly voted this year to repeal the law. Perdue, who has fewer than three weeks to decide whether to veto the measure, has invited critics and proponents to present their cases as she weighs her decision.
A group of family members of murder victims says it is meeting with the governor in response to lobbying by the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys in favor of repeal.
The group also plans to hold a news conference in Raleigh following its meeting with Perdue.

Asheville resident Megan Smith’s father and stepmother were killed in Pennsylvania in 2001 by her adopted stepbrother and one of his friends, who is now on death row. She planned to attend the meeting.

“The death penalty doesn’t feel like it’s really there for all victims’ families when the system is so economically and racially skewed,” she said. “As a white person, I can’t imagine what it might feel like to be handed a death sentence by an all or mostly black jury.

“Yet, North Carolina has allowed that to happen in reverse, and repealing the Racial Justice Act is sending the message that we don’t care about racial inconsistencies.”
The law says an inmate’s sentence is reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole if the claim is successful, but prosecutors say some death row inmates could be released because they were sentenced before 1994 when the state allowed life sentences with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

“We’re fearful that, based on case law, 119 death row inmates would be eligible for parole,” Susan Doyle, president of the Conference of District Attorneys, told lawmakers before the Senate voted to send the measure to Perdue.

A study by two law professors at Michigan State University found a defendant in North Carolina is 2.6 times more likely to be sentenced to death if at least one of the victims was white. The study also showed that of the 159 people on death row in the state at the time of the study, 31 had all-white juries and 38 had only one person of color on the jury.

Of the 163 inmates on the North Carolina’s death row, more than half are black. Only 20 percent of the state’s population is African-American.

Find original at Asheville Citizen Times here

Rais Bhuiyan: new story just out (with older items)

2011-12-11T15:01:00.001-08:00

Rais Bhuiyan, American

Suddenly the tow truck reappears. The driver guns the engine. He trains a bright halogen light down into Bhuiyan's face and unleashes a fusillade of curses.

GO here

I wanted to add for this site a couple of moving pieces:

June 23, 2011 By Steve Thomgate (Excerpted from personal piece in The Christian Century, online):
The most Christlike behavior I've seen in the news in some time comes from a Muslim victim of a hate crime: Just 10 days afte the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan was working at a gas station in Dallas when he was shot in the face by a man named Mark Stroman. Stroman was on a shooting spree, targeting people who appeared to be Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent...Bhuiyan, the only survivor of the attacks, is fighting to save (Stroman's) life...

Written June 26, 2011 By Mark Stroman (In a typewritten letter evidently composed and styled authentically like this by Stroman. This was sent to the journalist Timothy Williams who published the same in a larger article on July 18, 2011 -- found in The NYTimes -- shortly before the...execution):
Not only do I have all my friends and supporters trying to Save my Life, but now I have The Islamic Community Joining in...Spearheaded by one Very Remarkable man
Named Rais Bhuiyan, Who is a Survivor of My Hate. His deep Islamic Beliefs Have gave him the strength to Forgive the Unforgiveable...that is truly Inspiring to me, and should be an Example for us all. The Hate, has to stop, we are all in this world together. My jesus Faith & Texas Roots have Deepened My Understanding as well. Its
almost been 10 years since the world stopped Turning, and we as a nation will never be able to forget what we felt that day. I surely wont, but I can tell you what im
feeling Today, and that's very grateful for Rais Bhuiyan's Efforts to save my life
after I tried to end His...

July 19, 2011 (Again excerpted from personal piece by Steve Thomgate in The Christian Century, online):
It's worth noting...Bhuiyan didn't set out to teach Stroman that his beliefs about Muslims were ignorant and hateful. He set out to save Stroman from death at the hands of a justice system that argues...people like him are beyond redemption. It looks like he'll fail at that goal but the fact that he tried helped to effect a remarkable change of heart in Stroman -- who, of course, exists within the reach of grace just like everyone else...

Mark Stroman was killed by the State of Texas Wednesday, July 20, 2011.

Rais Bhuiyan's work of compassion goes on. You can find out more on his website:
World Without Hate here

Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man (The Project)

2011-12-11T14:54:00.001-08:00

Sister Helen Prejean, possibly back from a whirlwind of speaking engagements all over the country wants to get out the word about this man and the film project.
To read more and to find out about this amazing piece of portrait art -- GO here

Update Added: Desmond Tutu Urges Abu-Jamal's Freedom

2011-12-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

Also see this BBC article found at Rick Halperin's News and Updates Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011 here

See the video at Democacy Now!
Go here

In a video statement released to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s incarceration, the former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu urges Abu-Jamal’s immediate freedom. Mumia "has faced years of prosecutorial and police misconduct and judicial bias," Tutu says. "Now that it is clear that Mumia should never have been on death row, justice will not be served by relegating him to prison for the rest of his life—yet another form of death sentence. Based on even a minimal following of international human rights standards, Mumia should be released." [includes rush transcript]

Former WARDEN is Executive Director of Death Pen Focus!

2011-12-04T10:11:00.001-08:00

Here's an interesting email newsletter from Mike Farrell with information you may not know (as I did not.) How amazing that a former warden of San Quentin State Prison who went through the pain of overseeing four executions is the executive director of Death Penalty Focus! Maybe this move will lead the way to more such experienced leaders within our movement?

From Mike (to his Friends in the Abolition Movement):

"Our Secret Weapon"

2011 has been a year of tremendous achievements, heartbreaking losses and, at last, real hope for change in California.

In March, Illinois followed New York, New Jersey and New Mexico and abolished the death penalty. Two months later, we at Death Penalty Focus were thrilled to honor Illinois Governor Pat Quinn at our Annual Awards Dinner. Governor Quinn, who had long supported the death penalty, spent two months deliberating on his decision. At our event he spoke eloquently about his change of heart. "If the system can't be guaranteed 100% error-free, then we shouldn't have the system," Quinn said. "It cannot stand."

April brought the incredible Jeanne Woodford to Death Penalty Focus as our new Executive Director. For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Jeanne, please hear me when I say that she is our secret weapon for ending the death penalty in California - and beyond. As the warden of San Quentin State Prison, Jeanne experienced the pain of overseeing four executions. After leaving San Quentin, she was appointed to head the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Today, the more people Jeanne has the opportunity to meet and talk with, the more support we gain for ending the death penalty. It’s almost that simple. Put Jeanne in front of a group of death penalty supporters and before long their support begins to evaporate. We are thrilled to have her on board.

I am also thrilled that, last week, Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon halted executions in his state. In a simple but uncompromising statement, he echoed the growing distaste for capital punishment being heard in many of our courts, our legislatures, churches, and homes. "I am convinced,” he wrote, “we can find a better solution that keeps society safe, supports the victims of crime and their families and reflects Oregon values. I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer; and I will not allow further executions while I am Governor." Bravo Governor Kitzhaber!

September brought the heartbreaking execution of Troy Davis. Yet, even on that most awful day, Mr. Davis himself understood that his death would galvanize support for ending this barbaric practice. On his last day he said, "There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country…Never stop fighting for justice and we will win!"

I wholeheartedly agree with Troy Davis. We will win. In fact, next November California voters have the chance to replace the death penalty with life without parole.
End

For more plz click OFTEN on Death Penalty Focus - see RIGHT column

The Video about Mpagi Edward Edmary and Dream One World

2011-12-04T09:55:00.001-08:00

GO here

Here is the comment under this YouTube video about Edward who is beloved by Journey folk:

Mpagi Edward Edmary was held on Death Row under Idi Amin for nearly two decades - for a crime he did not commit. When released, he forgave his captors and concentrated on helping the children in his area orphaned by death row, AIDS, etc.

He connected with Kathy Ozzard Chism at the all-volunteer nonprofit Dream One World, and together they are building a school compound for 150 of these orphans in Uganda, with the help of volunteer workers and donors from around the world. In this video, nonprofit "Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing" members Bill Pelke, (President and Co-Founder), Bill Babbitt, Randy Gardner, and Charity Lee visit Edward, our orphan children, and our school during their trip through Africa to help end the death penalty worldwide. Turn your volume UP, and enjoy - then... JOIN US! :) "The answer is love and compassion for all of humanity." - Bill Pelke

Here's the nice comment sent to me/thejourney blog:
@newlease7 Thank YOU for watching it! Yes, Edward is SO special... you may find more info about him and this project on our website and Facebook page, too. With Love and Gratitude, ALL of US

MARTINA DAVIS-CORREIA, sister of Troy Davis, dies

2011-12-02T04:16:00.000-08:00

You will find the photo above and more of Martina at Scott Langley's site and with his own In Memoriam here

In this Dec. 2008 file photo - Martina Davis-Correia and her son Antone Davis-Correia sit in front of a CT scan machine at St. Joseph's Chandler Hospital. Martina has battled breast cancer since 2002 and gets CT scans every 3 months. She supports and is supported by her son, Antone Davis-Correia who was motivated to study engineering robotics and medical research because of his mother's diagnosis. Hunter McRae/Savannah Morning News - All rights reserved.

December 1, 2011 - 09:05pm

Martina Davis-Correia, sister of executed death row inmate Troy Davis, died Thursday evening at Candler Hospital after battling cancer for more than a decade. She was 44.

“I’ve thought for a long time that Martina’s fight for Troy is what kept her alive, and she must have been very tired,” Ledra Sullivan-Russell, a close family friend, said Thursday night. “She was the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever known.”

For 22 years, Davis-Correia led a crusade to stop her brother’s execution that gained thousands of supporters across the globe, including Pope Benedict XVI, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President Jimmy Carter and former FBI Director William Sessions. Despite failing health, she continued to fight against the death penalty after her brother’s Sept. 21 execution.

Troy Davis, 42, died by lethal injection for the 1989 murder of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. MacPhail, 27, was rushing to the aid of a homeless man who was being beaten when he was shot to death in the parking lot of a Greyhound Bus station/Burger King at the corner of Oglethorpe Avenue and Fahm Street.

Davis’ execution was stayed three times as his lawyers filed appeals. Several witnesses changed their testimony and his supporters insisted that there was too much doubt in the case for Davis to be executed. Davis' death has fueled the debate over the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

Davis-Correia served as chairwoman of the steering committee for Amnesty International USA’s work to abolish the death penalty and received the Georgia Civil Liberties Award from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Frederick Douglas Award from the Southern Center for Human Rights.

“Our hearts are breaking over the loss of this extraordinary woman,” Curt Goering, chief operating officer of Amnesty International USA, said in an emailed statement. “She fought to save her brother’s life with courage, strength and determination, every step of the way... She was a tenacious fighter, a graceful inspiration to activists everywhere, and a true hero of the movement for human rights.”

Davis-Correia died at 6:30 p.m. She leaves behind a 17-year-old son, Antone De’Juan Davis-Correia, brother Lester Davis, and sisters Kimberly and Ebony Davis. Virginia Davis, Troy Davis’ mother who also fought against his execution, died in April at the age of 65.

Davis-Correia spent more than 10 years rearing her son as a single mother while fighting to stop her brother’s execution and fighting cancer.

A former Army flight nurse who served in the Gulf War, Davis-Correia was diagnosed with liver and metastatic breast cancer in March 2001.

For more on the Troy Davis case, visit savannahnow.com/troydavis

Above article found http://savannahnow.com/latest-news/2011-12-01/martina-correia-dies (leaving as is for easy sending)

By the way, Antone De’Juan recently spoke (along with Rais Bhuiyan) at the Southern Regional Amnesty conference in Charlotte, NC. What an awesome speaker with so much to share and with dignified humility. Respect he has for all he's learned from his mother, Martina! I was so glad to hear both he and Rais speak - they were the highlights for both me and my husband, Dale.

Martina will be missed by so so many - including a number of us activists, family and friends of death row prisoners (and former prisoners) who knew her from trips to conferences from the south and other occastions. She will inspire us forever.

(Thanx to Debbie Kearns for the heads-up on this sad/brave news.)

Find more related items

NCADP.org (older, wonderfully descriptive blogpost) here

Amnesty International issued a statement Thursday night hailing Martina-Correia as a "Hero of the Human Rights Movement.":

"Our hearts are breaking over the loss of this extraordinary woman," Amnesty International CEO Curt Goering wrote. "She fought to save her brother's life with courage, strength and determination, every step of the way. She was a powerful example of how one person can make a difference as she led the fight for justice for Troy Davis, even as she endured her own decade-long battle with cancer. And despite the terrible blow of his execution, she remained brave and defiant to the core of her being, stating her conviction that one day his death would be the catalyst for ending the death penalty."

NC: Simple Action: Help Save the Racial Justice Act

2011-12-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

UPDATE Friday Dec 2, 2011: Sister Helen says: "The people know the thing doesn't work" GO here and this one: "Gov. Perdue thinking hard about capital punishment and the racial justice act" - the more or less editorial comments here, along with the stats, would seem to indicate in a round-about-way that the RJA is still needed due to Racial Bias...GO here

Sr. Helen Prejean, chair of PFADP’s Kairos Campaign, confers with Rabbi David Saperstein, director and counsel of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, at PFADP’s Kairos Conference 2010 in Atlanta. (Photo by Scott Langley © PFADP)

Resident of North Carolina? If so, plz GO here

If in North Carolina, you may also want to go to the last post see November archives (Nov 30) to become aware of the NEW campaign led by People of Faith Against the Death Penalty and helped by Sister Helen Prejean who plans to speak in Raleigh this Friday, Dec. 2nd.

NORTH CAROLINA: New Campaign - Sister Helen Prejean to Speak

2011-11-30T16:21:00.000-08:00

"Dead Man Walking" Author Helen Prejean, NC Clergy to Speak at Launch of
New Grassroots Campaign for Repeal of NC's Death Penalty (sent Nov 30 from Steve Dear, PFADP)

RALEIGH – On Friday People of Faith Against the Death Penalty will formally launch a new grassroots campaign calling on North Carolina to repeal the death penalty. We invite all of our members to attend this press conference. Look for more information on how you can help build this campaign soon.

The press conference will take place at 10 a.m., Friday, Dec. 2 at Martin Street Baptist Church, 1001 E. Martin St., Raleigh. Coffee, Krispy Kreme donuts, and other refreshments will be served.

Speakers expected at the press conference include:

Fr. Minlib Dallh, Dominican Friars of Raleigh
Rev. Frank Dew, New Creation Community Presbyterian Church, Greensboro
Pastor Alan Felton, Salem United Methodist Church, Oxford
Rev. Lisa Fischbeck, The Episcopal Church of the Advocate, Chapel Hill
Rev. Dr. William Haley, Harris Chapel Baptist Church, Youngsville
Rev. Dr. Earl C. Johnson, Martin Street Baptist Church
Rev. Lacy Joyner, First Baptist Church, Oxford
Rev. Nathan Parrish, Peace Haven Baptist Church, Winston-Salem
Rev. Nancy Petty, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh
Sr. Helen Prejean, PFADP Kairos Campaign Chair and author, Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents

Already more than 300 congregations and local businesses in 36 North Carolina counties have passed PFADP's resolutions calling on North Carolina to replace the death penalty with life without parole and to use the funds that would be saved to help murder victims' family members.

Examples of faith communities and businesses that have passed resolutions include:

The Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina (Kinston)
Hot Rod Installations (Warrenton)
JJ Ashley Bakery (Goldsboro)
Kuttin' Up Barber Shop (Selma)
Main Street Café (Tarboro)
Yavneh: A Jewish Renewal Community (Raleigh)
Zen Center of Chapel Hill

PFADP is calling this new campaign the Kairos Campaign to Mobilize Religious Action to Repeal North Carolina's Death Penalty. Kairos is a Greek word meaning a special time. The initial goals of the campaign include more than 1,000 resolutions from faith communities, businesses, community groups and even local governments in every county in North Carolina. The campaign will also include a petition, a statewide letter for repeal from faith leaders, and the formation of denominational task forces to promote the campaign within religious traditions.

In 1999 PFADP launched the NC Moratorium Now campaign calling for a two-year moratorium on executions, a study or the state's death penalty system, and needed reforms. The campaign yielded more than 1,000 resolutions for a moratorium from faith communities, businesses, community groups, and 39 local governments in North Carolina, and 50,000 petition signatures. There has not been an execution in North Carolina since 2006 largely because of court battles involving execution protocols. The NC Racial Justice Act is one of the reforms supported by PFADP's moratorium campaign. The RJA was passed into law in 2009 but on Monday the NC Senate passed Senate Bill 9, which repeals it. Gov. Bev Perdue has not announced whether she will veto the repeal of the RJA.

"The NC Racial Justice Act is not about repealing the death penalty," said PFADP Executive Director Stephen Dear. "The Racial Justice Act is a reform aimed at addressing the historic and insidious influence of racial bias in capital cases. As long as North Carolina has a death penalty it needs checks on the system like the Racial Justice Act to make the death penalty less unfair and less error-prone.

But Racial Justice Act or not, the only way we can ever ensure people are not sentenced to death unfairly is to not have a death penalty. Even if the death penalty could somehow be administered fairly and accurately we would oppose it on moral and religious grounds."

PFADP will not stop this campaign until enough people, faith communities and institutions have taken action until the death penalty is repealed no matter how long that takes, Dear said.

"We are in this for the long haul."

Photos and Reports from "Dream One World" Uganda

2011-11-29T21:13:00.001-08:00

Plz keep these reports and photos coming both to FB and to us (write Connie Nash at newlease7@yahoo.com) and tell our readers EXACTLY how to support your greatest needs. Dream One World: we also need an updated report on Edward. GO here

Racial Justice Act: NORTH CAROLINA: Urgent Action Needed!

2011-11-28T20:47:00.000-08:00

To all of you who live in NC or have people living there. Please call the
office of Governor Bev Perdue(800-662-7952, 919-733-2391) and urge her to
veto today's attempt to overturn the Racial Justice Act - which is in grave danger if indeed it will survive.

If you can, please call your local legislators also. The RJA may seem
cumbersome or unnecessary to some,but it is essential that we do everything
to ensure that justice is handed out with no racial bias.

Rais Bhuiyan: among Esquire's 2011 People of the Year

2011-11-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

Rais Bhuiyan, American

Suddenly the tow truck reappears. The driver guns the engine. He trains a bright halogen light down into Bhuiyan's face and unleashes a fusillade of curses.

GO here

Great Suggestion from Sister Helen

2011-11-28T16:20:00.000-08:00

Although we missed this piece earlier, this is still CURRENT and URGENT:

President Obama met with the press before his visit with Pope Benedict on July 10. He talked about how he admired Cardinal Bernardine's "seamless garment" approach to pro-life, that the cardinal included in its scope a wide range of issues- "he was concerned about poverty, he was concerned with how children were treated, HE WAS CONCERNED ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY..." Now there's interesting fodder for a conversation with Pres. Obama. For starters: Aren't you too very, very concerned about the fact that already 135 innocent people have released from death row? How many will it take before we recognize the failed system? Not to mention the shocking, appalling racist application of the death penalty presently carried out in the Deep South states? Any ideas out there about how we might get a conversation going with Pres. Obama and his wife, Michelle about this issue? Anybody out there want to help us mount a YOUNG PEOPLE'S LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN to the White House to end the death penalty in the U.S.? Think boldly. Organize strategically. Act quickly.

"Keep the Windown Open"

Regarding Proposed Amendments to California's proposed amendments to the lethal injection protocol, Sister Helen writes to Mr. Timothy Lockwood, Chief of CDCR Regulation and Policy Management on June 26, 2009. Sr. Prejean urges:

All of my remarks about the proposed amendments to the lethal injection protocol center around this theme: KEEP THE WINDOW OPEN
MAKE THE TORTURE AND KILLING TRANSPARENT.

Sadly, it is the personal experience I have had of accompanying six human beings to their deaths at the hand of the state that urges me to give this testimony.

By Sister Helen Prejean

OREGON and the Death Penalty

2011-11-24T12:17:00.001-08:00

Bill Pelke:
Please go to this link and vote, we are losing. Thanks, Peace, Bill
here

Here's a real short AND positive piece I found on Rick Halperin's DP News and Updates:

NOVEMBER 24, 2011:

USA:

There is much to be thankful for in today's America. Despite its numerous economic, social, cultural, and political problems (and they are numerous), this is still a great country to live in and to work for social justice through peaceful means.

I give thanks for many things, including the fact that occasionally we see an elected official stand on principle and the moral high ground to do what is right. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber recently announced that he would no longer acquiesce in that state's ongoing system of capital punishment. He ordered a halt to the Dec. 6 execution there as well as announcing that no further executions would occur under his watch--[see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtK6m2H-ds0]

Kitzhaber allowed 2 executions there to proceed earlier in his tenure, but no more. His moral beliefs and his political courage are in stark contrast to Texas Gov. Perry and his pride at having presided over 238 executions in his decade long tenure in office.

Gov. Kitzhaber and those who specifically work for a death penalty-free America are a major reason I give thanks today; it's an honor and a privilege to work peacefully for a better society that will one day recognize that truly there is no such thing as a lesser person.

(source: Rick Halperin, Amnesty International; Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News)

One with plenty of STATS and history here

On Death Penalty Info. Center here

A sardonic approach on CounterPunch here

Oregon Live here I LIKE this title -- Gov. John Kitzhaber: Oregon death penalty fails 'basic standards of justice'

RECENT JOURNEY LINKS & More (Plz keep handy)

2011-11-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

FB Wall: where Debbie Kearns keeps current connections going & stays on top of many concerns. Also folk sometimes stop by for a comment or extra note - go here (OK to read as a non-member without fearing pressure to sign-on.)

Where Bill Pelke has been offering an occasional heartfelt diary entry and plans to add more soon here

A good page for more links with great photo of "the other Bill" and the kids. GO
here

RANDY's page with video and his mission site here

CHARITY's The Ella Foundation see this amazing story of healing and mission in progress. Go here

Find ANGELA's links in post just below Aba Gayle's & in Comments.

Be sure to also peruse the links offered to the lower right of our blog posts - especially Dr. Rich Halperin's "Death Penalty News and Updates" which (if he's not traveling) are often daily - much more available and noted most of the time than on most the other links.

Again remember the JOURNEY's FaceBook page (don't have to be a member of FB nor even to sign in to READ) Simply GO here

Find an older page of links and GREAT photo of "the other Bill" here

====================
Also FIND items on a new friend's campaign "
World Without Hate" who worked extensively with Dr. Rick Halperin, another Journey friend, and with Reprieve. Rais "calling" is all about our Journey theme of FORGIVENESS...

Along with a few other posts, I'm UPDATING right now on this October post - older to new-ish items I've missed on RAIS BHUIYAN...GO here

From Hate to Healing (Aba Gayle, Ron Steiner, Sister Helen & Oregonians for Alternatives...)

2011-11-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

Aba Gayle holds a photo of her daughter, Catherine Blount, at her Silverton home on Wednesday. Gayle has been able to forgive and befriend the California death row inmate responsible for killing her daughter. (More info on photo below)

Article posted Mon Oct 31, 2011

By Alan Gustafson
Statesman Journal
October 30, 2011

For years, Aba Gayle "lusted for revenge" against the California deathrow inmate who murdered her 19-year-old daughter. But everything changed when she mailed the killer a letter, saying she forgave him. Paying visits to San Quentin prison, Gayle befriended the man she once despised and wanted put to death. As hate gave way to healing, she turned against the death penalty.

Now, the 77-year-old Silverton woman is a leader of a nonprofit Oregon advocacy organization that is seeking to abolish the death penalty here. Even though condemned killers rarely are executed in Oregon, Gayle says it's time for Oregonians to repeal the law that allows state-sanctioned killing. As she tells it, the ultimate punishment should be scrapped because it sucks taxpayer dollars, undermines human values and takes revenge in arbitrary fashion.

"It truly is the ultimate violation of human rights," she said. "It is horrendous to think that when they kill somebody at the penitentiary, they do it in the name of the citizens. I don't want anybody killed in my name." As this state's first execution in 14 years draws near, Gayle and other members of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty are waging a two-pronged campaign.

First, they are hoping to persuade Gov. John Kitzhaber to stop the planned execution of two-time killer Gary Haugen. Haugen, 49, voluntarily dropped his appeals, and he is tentatively scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.

Anti-death penalty activists are asking Kitzhaber to commute Haugen's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Kitzhaber has remained mum about the execution. On a second front, OADP is planning a campaign to ask Oregon voters to repeal the death penalty.

The timing for a potential ballot measure remains "up in the air," said Ron Steiner of Salem, the board chairman of the nonprofit organization. For now, Steiner said, the group is working to "build coalitions" and circulate information about the death penalty through public forums, lectures and newsletters in the news media and on the organization's website.

"When all the facts are known, all the issues are examined, it's very difficult for reasonable people to support a failed public policy like the death penalty," he said.

Activism roots in New Mexico Steiner, 72, worked in television for more than 40 years, starting in sales. He rose to executive positions and ran a couple stations before he became a consultant. His opposition to the death penalty developed in the late 1990s in New Mexico. At the time, he has doing volunteer work at a transitional home for ex-felons.

After listening to a talk by Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking" and a nationally known critic of the death penalty, Steiner delved deeper.

"I started to study it and it looked ridiculous the way it was set up, so I got involved with the New Mexico coalition to repeal the death penalty in early 2001," he said.

The campaign led to success in 2009, when New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill repealing the state's death penalty. Steiner now lives in Salem but divides his volunteer time between causes he supports here and in New Mexico. Since 2003, he has been married to Caren Jackson, a professional photographer and former director of Salem's Riverfront Carousel.

Steiner describes Prejean as a personal hero and role model. "She's indefatigable," he said. "She just goes and goes and goes. When she was here, she was putting in 14-hour days."

Prejean recently spent about a week in Oregon, giving talks in Eugene, Salem and Portland. Steiner introduced her when she spoke to about 200 people at the Salem Library on Oct. 20. Like Prejean, Steiner said he's committed to long-haul advocacy.

Group cites growth With Haugen's potential execution in the news, Oregonians are paying attention to the death penalty, Steiner said. OADP evolved from a previous organization known as the Oregon Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, founded in 1983. The current group has no paid employees, Steiner said.

Money for operations and expenses comes from donations and grants. Steiner described OADP's annual budget as "a low five-figure amount." "If we get on the ballot, obviously, it's going to be a lot more expensive to advertise and get our position known."

Despite limited funding, the organization's list of supporters is swelling, Steiner said. He said the number of religious and secular organizations backing the group has increased from a handful to more than 50. "We're adding them all the time," he said...

READ MORE

Today's report is part of a continuing series of stories about Oregon's death penalty, death row and the planned execution of Gary Haugen, whose execution is tentatively scheduled for Dec.6.

GO here and also save this URL for more... http://StatesmanJournal.com/deathrow

Also see an article in same journal about Sister Helen Prejean's visit to a library audience of 200! (as well as a visit to an inmate writing group.)

GO here

And be sure to visit the compelling site with lots of info on what's happening in arena of the Death Penalty in Oregan: OADP.org

Photo Info: Photographer is Timothy J. Gonzalez / Statesman Journal photographer Evidently, enlarged prints of photos for purchase are available GO here or call The Stateman Journal.

Journey Writer-Activists and Links to Their Recent Journey Stories

2011-11-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Angela Grobben

During the Uganda Journey, I've been quite enthralled to learn of both Angela's and Charity's writing and postings. Although I referred to both in fairly recent blogs, I want to touch upon these two here. I'm quite sure we will hear more from both in the near future.

Go see some of Angela's items for yourself First, the link to her various human rights posts here and also her link to the story which led to the most recent Uganda Journey here

Angela has expressed interest in joining this blog, I'm told by Bill. My hope is that soon Angela will be on board!

Angela also posted Charity's story. Here she is with her daughter who was later killed. Charity was with the two Bills and Randy on the recent Journey...

Find Charity's heart-breaking story along with her inspiring personal healing and mission here

FROM BILL P.: I feel like I am in the middle of the history of the abolition movement....

2011-10-31T17:17:00.002-07:00

Bill, Marietta and Rick Photo a bit old yet representative of work abolitionists do together in front of buildings representing our US and State Law and Justice Systems.

Posted originally - Sunday, 30 October 2011 on Journey/Bill's Journal.

I feel like I am in the middle of the history of the abolition movement in the United States and around the World.

Yesterday I stood in front of the State Capitol of Texas at the Twelfth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. I saw TWENTY-FIVE human beings who were sentenced to death for a crime they did not commit. Fortunately they were able to prove their innocence before the states that could kill them.

I have heard many of them say, they were not saved because of the sytem, but they were saved in spite of the system.

Folks, the death penalty system is broke and it can`t be fixed. 24 men and one woman testified how they would be dead today, if the states would have had their way.

The "Witness to Innocence" is a non-profit organization for exonerated death row inmates. Their recent events in Texas, a tour throughout major areas in Texas from Houston to Dallas and from the Valley to Austin, sharing their personal stories of what it was like for them and their families to be on death row for a crime they didn`t commit.

These folks say: Stop the death penalty!

Many of the death row exonerees that were present are friends of mine. Shujaa Graham and Juan Melendez are past Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing board members and participants on many a Journey of Hope tours.

Ray Krone, Delbert Tibbs, Greg Wilhoit, Ron Keine have all been on Journeys.

I have long admired Kurt Bloodsworth and it was good to see him there. Kurt was the FIRST person to be exonerated by DNA evidence.

I also saw my friend Derrick Jamison and it was good to see him and once again hear his powerful voice for abolition.

I met David Keaton, the first exoneree in the growing list of ONE HUNDRED and THIRTY-EIGHT, along with Albert Burrell, Gary Stydl again.

All these men have amazing stories. This year I thought a lot about Randall Dale Adams who was exonerated off Texas’s death row who story became well known through the film “Thin Blue Line”. Randall sadly passed away last year. He is missed by me and the Journey of Hope.

Yes, at least 138 death row exonerees in this country who were sentenced to die, no longer worthy to live in our highly developed society.

When it comes to the deathe penalty there is no room for mistakes. As long as human beings are making the decisions on who lives and who dies there will be mistakes.

I applaud Scott Cobb and his efforts on the Annual March again this year. I have been on quite a few of these but this one held special historical significance.
Never have I seen so many powerful messengers on one stage at the same time.

(TO) the ABOLITION MOVEMENT: help these guys get out the message of why they want the death penalty to be abolished. It is powerful and affective and a vital key for abolition of the death penalty. Witness to Innocence will prove to be a major factor in not only the United States of America but also for worldwide abolition of the death penalty.

So thank you, Scott Cobb for having the vision and the determaination to carry this Twelfth Annual March to an historic conclusion. Thank you for drawing the attention of the world to this great moment for abolition. And I am sure "Witness to Innocence" will use this as a springboard for future tours around the country. Members have also toured through Spain with their witness.

As the president of the "Journey of Hope... from Violence to Healing" I declare that we were happy and honored to be part of this historic event, and that our prayers for continued succes in your efforts to rid the world of the scourge called the death penalty.

Thank you Scott and thanks to "Witness to Innocence".

Thanks to Gloria Rubac, Hooman Hedayati, Allison Dieter and others who continually and tirelessly work for abolition in the state of Texas. Your contribution for this march is greatly appreciated. I always feel welcome in Texas when I am with you guys.

"Journey of Hope" board members Randy Gardner and Charity Lee, two of my companions this month in our Uganda Journey of Hope, which turned into the Seattle, Dallas, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio Journey, were also on the march and rally.

Randy covered his "Journey of Hope" shirt when he put on the orange death row prison jump suit that his, brother Ronnie Lee Gardner wore while on death row in the state of Utah; before he was executed last year, on June 18, 2010.

Randy saw the four bullet holes in his brother`s chest, after he was executed.
Randy, has put a dream to action, in starting a non-profit organization called "Back to Basics Organic Farm and Ranch" in his brothers memory.

Randy took his passion for abolition to Africa and was part of the team in Uganda and Rwanda. You will learn a lot more about Randy when I talk about Africa.

Charity Lee was on the Uganda and Rwanda segments. Charity Lee is founding a non-profit organisation, called the ELLA Foundation. Charity`s beautiful daughter Ella was brutally murdered at the age of four. Not only did Charity lose her daughter, but had the double tragedy of her only son Paris, age 13, committing the murder.

Charity will be publishing her journals, a story that took her to the depths of hell and back. Love helped Charity to survive her cunconceivable journey. I will tell you more about Charity when I talk about Africa or you can go to http://www.theellafoundation.com or CLICK here

Ron Carlson drove with his wife Debbie to Austin to be with the "Journey of Hope" as we honored "Witness to Innocence" and Scott Cobb`s dedication to the movement.
Ron Carlson`s sister Deborah Thornton was murdered by Karla Faye Tucker. After a long journey Ron`s faith called him to forgiveness and he and Karla became friends. Ron held the "Journey of Hope...from Violence to Healing" banner, and walked the entire length despite having sever arthritis and back pain.

Ron had to make the drive to Austin from Houston and get a hotel for the night. He said he did the trip with his wife Debbie because he wanted to suupport me and the "Journey of Hope" as we honored the exonerees.

At one point of the program, after each of the exonerees had spoken, Ron went up and shook the hands of each death row exoneree. To Ron that was a real honor.

Can you imagine what these guys on death row have been going through, for a crime they didn`t commit? It is sad, America, that we said they should be excecuted.
Have there been any innocent people executed?

It was so interesting that as we traveled into the country side of Uganda, that teachers in the primitive schools knew about the Troy Davis case. They know around the world that the state of Georgia, more than likely killed an innocent person.

America, our death penalty system is known as a farce of Justice around world.

But of course; what do we care about what foreigners think?

Genifer Kaye wore Amnesty International`s "I am Troy Davis" T-shirt on the march and helped carry the "Journey of Hope" banner. Genifer is a human rights activist from Dallas, TX and good friends with Rick Halperin, who is a "Journey of Hope" board member.

We met Genifer and Rais Bhuyan during a lay-over in Dallas on our way to Entebbe, Uganda. Rais has been a real instrument for those who wish to rid this world of violence. We met for breakfast at our hotel. It was the second day of this life changing Journey, that began on October 2nd.

We were so happy when she was able to drive down from Dallas to be part of the march. Genifer plays the activist role that is such a big part of the "Journey of Hope".

We are three categories of people at the Journey; murder victim family members, people with death row connections and activists.

It was our great pleasure to support Scott Cobb and the Twelfth Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty.

It was our great pleasure to support “Witness to Innocence” and encourage their great work.

It was our great pleasure to support the abolition movement in Texas.

I know that we are right in the middle of history for abolition, not only in America but around the World.

Bill Pelke

10/25

NOTE from The Journey Blog:

READERS: for more on the folk Bill mentions, scroll below where we've tried to post everything Bill's sent our way on the recent journey or google The Journey of Hope and the name which interests you. I took the liberty to emphasize some of the numbers Bill mentions by upper-case.

BILL: We are so GLAD you are in the US and are so inspired/energized. We look forward to hearing AS MUCH of your UGANDA JOURNEY (Including Seattle, Dallas, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio) you are (EACH) willing to share ASAP. (with articles from any and each of these places ASAP and photos too.)

(Not only from Bill but from you, "the other Bill", Charity, Randy, Edward and anyone else who knows about this amazing trip.

What a WONDERFULLY passionate, full and inspiring letter/journal piece from a guy with a HUGE heart. All the best to EACH of you who went on the UGANDA JOURNEY in the days ahead!

Another Story of Great Forgiveness: Richard Wayne Jones & His Advocates

2011-10-31T17:17:00.001-07:00

Both Richard Jones and his tireless advocate, Arianna Ballotta, forgave the unspeakable...even the State of Texas! I'm so glad I found this ultimately uplifting article which fits right into The Journey experience...

Posted on October 9, 2011 as "The fight for evidence of innocence"
Written by Michela Mancini (for fittedin.com*)
A story of how unexpected important a penfriendship can get...

Arianna Ballotta, one of the founders and the president of the ICADP (Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty) since it was founded in 1997, started to write to Richard Wayne Jones in 1992. Richard had been on Texas death row since 1987 for a murder of which he was most probably innocent and was executed despite compelling evidence of his always proclaimed innocence.

Evidence which unfortunately was never sufficiently considered by any court in the United States. He was convicted largely on the basis of a confession obtained under coercion and duress.

Both the state and federal courts failed to protect his rights for a fair trial by sanctioning the trial court’s use of the coerced confession to convict him. State and federal appeals courts denied the legal challenge to his conviction and the evidence of innocence uncovered after his conviction.

Despite being subjected to police coercion, in violation of his constitutional and international human rights, and irrespective of evidence of his innocence, he was executed by the State of Texas on August 22, 2000

(detailed info can be found here: http://www.lairdcarlson.com/grip/Jones%20Case%20Summary.htm) or GO here

When she started the correspondence with Richard Jones, Arianna did not know anything at all about the case. As a coherent thinker and activist, Arianna was not interested in knowing if he had or had not committed the crime for which he was sitting on death row.

Opposing the death penalty unconditionally, she chose many years ago to take the side in defense of life, no matter what, which includes having guilty pen-pals among her correspondents.

Yet, some time after having started her correspondence with Richard, a talland quite reserved man with a very gentle behavior and a distinct sense of humor, whom she regularly visited on death row twice or three times a year, she became curious and decided to know more. She simply could not believe that he was the real killer. Too well mannered, too gentle, too sweet, Richard was so different from all the stereotypes surrounding killers. She intensified her efforts and trips to Texas, she did her own investigations, spoke to many people, including Richard’s family and lawyers, hired a private investigator (supported by her own family and the crucial financial aid of dearest friends), appointed a new lawyer, and they came to the conclusion that he was not the man who had committed that horrible murder.

Unfortunately all of their efforts were in vain. The State of Texas never admitted having made a mistake and Richard’s life was taken in the name of justice. She and some of Richard’s dearest friends (including Michela Mancini, the vice-president of the ICADP) were in Texas with him when he was executed.

He stated his innocence again and again even before the lethal drugs were pumped into his veins. In October 2000 his name was officially included in the report released by Equal Justice USA stating that “the American system of capital punishment has taken the lives of 16 men despite compelling evidence of their innocence” (http://truthinjustice.org/prob-innocent.htm).

Unfortunately, this very same American system of capital punishment continues imperturbably to take the lives of human beings in spite of serious doubt about their guilt. The last victim of this “an eye for an eye” attitude was Troy Davis, recently executed by the State of Georgia and in the name of its people. Besides the ethical and moral reasons for which capital punishment cannot be ever accepted, this is not justice.

Arianna has written a book (in Italian) on Richard’s story and, as promised to Richard before his execution, she donates 100% of the book’s earnings to the cause in defense of life, in the hope of having soon a world free from capital punishment. Information on the book can be found here: http://www.coalit.it/pagina.asp?sezione=22&cat=10

A victim herself of wrong behaviors (her dad was killed at the age of 33 when she was only 13), Arianna knows a lot about hatred and forgiveness. After realizing that she had forgiven the man who had killed her father, sadly he had passed way and she was unable to tell him. She has equally forgiven the State of Texas for killing Richard.

Richard had forgiven them, too.

But he was so very much troubled by the fact that the people of Texas thought he was the real killer, especially the family of the victim. Arianna has tried in vain to get in touch with them to let them know that Richard was praying for Tammy and that in spite of the many mistakes he had committed during his short life, he was not a killer. Maybe one day God will make their paths cross and Arianna will be finally able to tell them more about Richard, a Richard that probably nobody had never really seen.

Last Updated on Sunday, 09 October 2011 22:19
Find here

Tears and Flowers: Rais Bhuiyan awarded Freedom Riders award

2011-10-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

Right-top is an Amnesty Photo See Rais Bhuiyan's website World Without Hate ** from mysanantonio.com

photo by Jonathan White of Rais Bhuiyan with the evening's MC, Susan Collin Marks (Vice President, SFCG) accepting the Freedom Rider award October 27, 2011

Condensed article:

(Bhuiyan) found forgiveness and hope in his faith. Taking the stage to a standing ovation, Rais Bhuiyan, who campaigned to have his attacker’s death sentence commuted, said, “We, in our lives, can make a difference when we move away from hate and revenge and turn to love and forgiveness.” He added, “This is not tribal, it’s not about skin color. This is a human issue.”

Emmanuel Jal brought the entire room to its feet, with a rousing rendition of his hit song, We Want Peace. Introduced by his “friend and brother,” John Prendergast, Jal was magnetic , passionate and humbly suggested he did not know how to accept an award that had previously been given to heroes of his, like Desmond Tutu. “I believe in putting light in a dark place,” Jal said. And so he accepted the award on behalf of those whose voices continue to go unheard, to hopefully be able to bring light to them...

The 2011 Common Ground Awards - October 28, 2011:

Also Awarded: Diane Nash, Emmanuel Jal, Freedom Riders, John Lewis, Ysaye Barnwellby sfcg.

Holding up his Common Ground Award, Cardinal McCarrick likened its design to both a flower and a tear. He accepted his award for his role in securing the Freedom of the American Hikers from Iran saying the design was fitting, “For along this journey there have been many tears, but there have been flowers too.” This might very well have been the official theme of the 2011 Common Ground Awards.

Each of the honorees had faced remarkable struggles, in many cases near-death experiences. They had seen the ugliest of human nature. But they remained unbowed and showed that however easy it may be to meet hatred with more hatred, there are ordinary people doing the opposite each day.“This action of showing compassion and mercy taken by the families [of the hikers] is something our governments can learn from,” Ambassador (Ret.) Bill Miller said...

*First compelling blog photo is from Amnesty I-USA blog GO here

**World Without Hate Website here Calendar of events coming:
November:- Amnesty Regional West Conference, CA- Amnesty Regional South Conference, NC- Rome, Italy -- December:- Rome, Italy- Dallas Peace Center

Commentary on Rais stand for forgiveness "We need more people like Rais Bhuiyan in America here

Article on Rais' lead in the battle to save his attacker from execution here

More on the award night here

Reflections on the death penalty in America

2011-10-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

originally posted in The Archway

The issue of the death penalty is among the most talked-about conundrums in American society, for it attempts to determine a point at which it is acceptable to end a human life. The recent execution of Troy Davis, a man who many believed was wrongly convicted of a murder in 1989, has brought the issue once again to the forefront of public discussion.

Such an issue is inherently precarious, though practicing states seem to ignore the inherent hypocrisy of sentencing people to death. Practitioners of execution seem to want to have their cake and eat it too, in that they use a form of killing to atone for that same act.

A state-sanctioned execution is naught more than the intentional killing of a person as allowed by existing laws. A murder, by contrast, is the intentional killing of a person in violation of the law. The only non-circumstantial difference between murder and execution is that the latter is permitted by law.

This key difference, which makes one form of killing acceptable and the other intolerable, produces an interesting hypocrisy, for laws are nothing more than societal constructs set in place by humans.

To fully understand the contradiction, one must first accept the old adage that “might does not make right”, insofar as the majority does not necessarily make “right” decisions, merely popular decisions. For example, democratic elections put numerous members of the Nazi party into the German Reichstag in the 1920s.

Though the majority typically attempts to seek the greatest good for the greatest number, their attempts are not universally successful. Hence, it can be accepted that mere numbers do not make something correct in an objective sense.

This casts the concept of laws in a somewhat dimmer light. While laws can be considered honest attempts at shaping society for the better, they certainly cannot be considered to be universally infallible.

In a world where laws are not objective, laws have no more moral validity than the capricious whims of a man who commits murder, and herein lays the problem. When the motivations of the murderer are no less valid than the whims of the society which demonizes him, the majority’s use of might against him constitutes hypocrisy.

Society likes to pretend that acting under the law absolves them of the same sin they demonize by executing murderers. Unfortunately, the inherent subjectivity of these matters means that, though this may be true in the minds of believers, such a statement is syllogistically false.

There are those who may accept their hypocrisy, and instead argue the point that, regardless of the cognitive dissonance associated with execution’s logical inconsistencies, the practice is beneficial.

Such arguments stress the point that the end of a safer society justifies whatever means is necessary to achieve it, even the commission of hypocritical acts. However, the use value of execution over imprisonment is questionable.

When a person is sentenced to prison time, it is incumbent on the prison to ensure the safety of society. Some argue that, because prisons can be escaped, the death penalty is preferable to ensure that violent criminals can never reappear.

While the death penalty ensures that escape is impossible, society can be adequately protected by reinforcing the existing practices and structures of prisons. Such improvements greatly diminish the use value gap between the two methods.

The financial aspect is also a concern in this respect, and while there is no denying that keeping people alive on the taxpayer dime is far costlier than executing them, this problem lies not with the principle of imprisonment, but with the implementation.

This establishes the role of the death penalty not only as a source of hypocrisy, but as a cop-out for those who do not wish to devote time and resources to developing a better solution that does not necessitate hypocrisy.

While people are quick to draw criticisms of the financial burden placed on society by long-term imprisonment, fewer people raise an eyebrow at the societal impact of the practice of execution.

A typical point made to this end is the lack of focus on rehabilitation. Should society’s good be considered the chief goal, as is done throughout the criminal justice system, civilization benefits more from rehabilitating a man than killing him.

If felons, even murderers, were to spend years in an environment of positivity, some stand a chance of being conditioned to refocus their emotions into more positive channels, which allow them to cope with and cathartically express their negativity.

People are largely products of socialization, and this fact can be used to produce immense change, even in criminals. Though not possible in all cases, the general ignorance of rehabilitation is a gross oversimplification and insult both to the practice of psychology and to felons themselves.

The safety aspect of criminal justice is handled as well by a good prison as by a syringe of potassium solution. The cross into punishment and the disregard of rehabilitation is evidence of something more than emphasis on society’s wellbeing.

The sociological and psychological roots of capital punishment’s popularity are rather frightening. They date back to the very roots of civilization, and help to establish vengeance as a universal principle under the guise of justice.

The concept of an eye for an eye dates back to Hammurabi’s Code, and was reinforced by many later religions wherein a god figure would smite disobedient humans. In modern times, god is replaced by the state, but, hypocritically, the principle of objectively-justified vengeance lives on.

The practice of capital punishment falsely gives a majority of humans the sense of superiority over the minority and the individual. Vengeance becomes a universal principle, but bloodlust becomes synonymous with law.

A society which practices the death penalty cannot be emulated, for it is a society that accepts killing as a social norm. Death is the status quo, and disingenuous killing becomes preferable to killing which, if nothing else, has the courage to stand up for that which it truly is.

Comments to articles about Rais Bhuiyan's forgiveness of would-be killer

2011-10-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

Comments to almost all the media stories on Rais' heroic and thorough effort to save his attacker's life show positive amazement at such a stance. So I've included here just a sample...

I am absolutely in awe of this gentleman. According to Colorlines, Stroman is a white supremacist with a long history of crimes. Apparently, he broke down when he heard that Bhuiyan is trying to save him and said, “This is the first act of kindness that I’ve ever known." This is true faith in action. God bless Mr. Bhuiyan, his family and Waqar Hasan’s family, who also support saving Stroman and who publicly support Rais Bhuiman's efforts.
==
Mr.Bhuiyan is showing the world the peaceful side of Islam. Something which many people refuse to admit exists.
==
I'm a Humanist, but was reared as a Christian, and my parents taught me over and over again that forgiveness was imperative, that revenge was not the way. I wasn't sure in the beginning how I felt about what Rais wanted for Mark Stroman, but I'm certain now. Rais is absolutely correct.
==
I wish Mr Bhuiyan all the best in his health and I do agree that executing his assailant will solve nothing. Better still, do away with the death penalty completely.
==
The ability to forgive is a necessary part of society, if we never forgave anyone for their actions society would surly never have existed.
==
As-salamualikum Brother Rias. I just heard this news very first time tonight’s National (News). I am very impressed to know that you wanted to save the life of someone who want to kill you. My thoughts and prayers will be with you. I wish I could be there in Dallas and participate with you and be a part of saving someone ‘life’, what is precious gift from God.
==
As-salamualikum Brother Rias. I just heard this news very first time tonight’s National (News). I am very impressed to know that you wanted to save the life of someone who want to kill you. My thoughts and prayers will be with you. I wish I could be there in Dallas and participate with you and be a part of saving someone ‘life’, what is precious gift from God.
==

RAIS BHUIYAN (Old and New Items - continually updated here)

2011-10-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

Hello: I plan to post older to new-ish items here because I missed many great pieces (plz keep coming back!)

Meantime, plz take a look at the Reprieve.org.UK site for many such pieces. (link end of this post) You are likely to be most amazed!

TX: Press conference: Victim of man facing execution
Mon Jul 4, 2011 14:14
78.35.100.163

04 July 2011

Press conference: Victim of man facing execution with European drugs campaigns to save his life

Tomorrow (Tuesday 5 July), shooting victim Rais Bhuiyan will speak at a press conference at the European Parliament on his campaign to save the life of the man who shot him and now faces execution in the US, using drugs produced by a European company. Rais was shot by Mark Ströman along with two other men he believed to be of Middle Eastern descent in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

Press conference: 14:00-15:00, Tuesday 5 July, European Parliament, Strasbourg, room LOW S3.5
Speakers: Rais Bhuiyan, victim of Mark Ströman and advocate; Sarah Ludford MEP, Lib Dem human rights spokesperson; Maya Foa, Investigator, Reprieve

Rais Bhuiyan survived being shot in 2001 by Mark Ströman, an American with strong links to Germany who is due to be executed in Texas using the drug pentobarbital, which was produced by a European firm. Rais has travelled to Europe as part of his tireless efforts to stop Mark’s execution, scheduled for 20 July.

Mark Ströman was sentenced to death in 2002 for a crime committed immediately after the attack on the twin towers on 11 September, 2001. In the days following the tragedy, Mark shot and killed two men he believed to be of Middle Eastern descent and injured Rais Bhuiyan.

Rais believes that executing Mark will only perpetuate the cycle of hate and violence seen on 9/11. He has said that Mark's execution will only end another human life without eliminating the root cause of violence, and insists that bridges can only be built between victims and perpetrators through forgiveness. Rais is asking Texas to reduce Mark's sentence from death to life in prison.

Rais is in Strasbourg to raise awareness about the impending execution and the European trade in lethal injection drugs. He will speak as part of a seminar and press conference hosted by Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokesperson Sarah Ludford MEP about how to stop European drugs from being used in executions.

Rais is also speaking in the German Parliament on Thursday 7 July, asking for the German government’s support in seeking clemency for Mark Ströman; and meeting with the Executive Vice President of Lundbeck, the Danish company which produced the drugs which will be used in the execution.

Mark is the father of three daughters and a son, and was raised in Texas. He is of German descent and has close family ties to Germany.

For further information, please contact Katherine O’Shea at Reprieve’s Press Office:katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk 020 7427 1099.

Notes for Editors:

European death drugs

Following domestic shortages in the US, European drugs have come to dominate the execution process. Key drugs used in carrying out lethal injections produced by firms from Britain and Denmark have so far been used to execute over 20 people in the US. Several of the executions using the new European drugs have apparently been botched, with the prisoners in a number of cases either jerking or thrashing, or keeping their eyes open during the process – indications that they would have suffered severe pain. While unilateral action by the UK government and (most recently) pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck is starting to constrain this trade, EU-wide measures are necessary to ensure this is not allowed to happen again.

Who is Mark Ströman?

Mark Ströman, a man with strong links to Germany, is currently on death row in Polunsky Unit, Livingston, Texas. He is due to be executed by the state of Texas on 20 July 2011.

Mark has strong ties to Germany. His father, Eddie Ströman, was from Germany. Mark’s father’s family are originally from Lower Saxony. Accordingly, we have approached the German consulate in Texas to ask them urgently to consider whether Mark Strömancan be recognised as a German national.

Mark Ströman was born on October 3, 1969. Before he was born, Mark chose the wrong parents. Mark’s mother Sandra was a severe alcoholic. She was found in a gutter during one of her pregnancies and hospitalised. Sandra married Doyle Baker, Mark’s stepfather. They were both heavy drinkers living in their own world. Mark’s mother told him “you were just $50 short of being aborted, I wish I’d borrowed the money.” Doyle physically abused Mark throughout his childhood. Unsurprisingly, Mark had problems in school and was bullied. Doyle would beat Mark up to show him what he should do to his bullies. Mark, desperate to get away from his parents, ran away from home frequently; he would ride his bike 30 miles at the age of 8 to come to his grandparents’ house. Mark was first diagnosed as suffering from mental health problems before the age of 10 and again at age 13, but he never received proper treatment. Mark began using drugs to escape his brutal reality at around age 11. The fruit does not fall far from the tree. Mark absorbed many lessons from his mother and step-father – on violence, on racism, on paranoia, on substance abuse – none of which was positive.

Mark was sentenced to death for a series of shootings in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, which left two men dead and one man injured.

Why should Mark not be killed on 20 July?

Mark’s victims and their families have suffered a great deal from his actions; nevertheless, they all oppose Mark’s execution. Mark’s surviving victim, Rais Bhuyian, is actively campaigning for Mark’s sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In whose name is Texas killing Mark Ströman if none of the victims want this kind of vengeance?

While Mark Ströman would not begin to pretend that, even today, he is the person he wants to be, he has struggled to overcome some of the “lessons” that his mother and stepfather taught him. He is, today, proud of his German roots, and maintains an active correspondence with pen pals in Germany and around the world. One of his German pen pals has written to Reprieve to tell us how Mark’s faithful letters, humanity and friendship helped her overcome her depression.

Mark is deeply remorseful for his actions in September 2001, and does not know why he did what he did. It is clear that he suffered from diminished capacity at the time, because of his mental health problems, which he attempted to self-medicate by taking drugs; that alone should disqualify him from execution.

Sadly, however, this and other issues were never properly raised in court, because Mark never had the legal assistance he needed until it was too late. His publicly appointed lawyers lacked the resources properly to investigate Mark’s background and the circumstances surrounding his alleged crimes.

Mark Ströman is due to be executed by lethal injection. Texas has recently changed its execution protocol from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital, which is manufactured by Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck. This shift, hastily effected with no clinical or scientific testing, puts prisoners at risk of extreme suffering. Extensive research shows that pentobarbital was developed as a sedative and has no clinical history as an agent to induce anaesthesia. Should the agent not work, as is highly likely according to anaesthesiologists’ analyses, Mark will suffer excruciating pain as the next two drugs are administered.

Who are Reprieve?

Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives.

Clive Stafford Smithis the founder of Reprieve and has spent 25 years working on behalf of people facing the death penalty in the USA.

Reprieve’s current casework involves representing 33 prisoners in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, working on behalf of prisoners facing the death penalty, and conducting ongoing investigations into the rendition and the secret detention of ‘ghost prisoners’ in the so-called ‘war on terror.’

Reprieve.org.uk here

UN Expert Calls for End to Solitary Confinement

2011-10-25T02:35:00.000-07:00

GO here UN torture expert - Juan Mendez - calls for an end to solitary confinement...

Executions wrong no matter what (even in case of Brewer)

2011-10-24T23:14:00.001-07:00

"Byrd says the execution of Brewer is simply another expression of the hate shown toward his father on that dark night in 1998. Everybody, he said, including the government, should choose not to continue that cycle." A quote from Ross Byrd from the shortened article below.

Just in case readers missed (as I did) the consistent calls to forego the death penalty - even in the worst of cases. Here is a condensation of an article with another excerpt:

"You can't fight murder with murder," Ross Byrd, 32, told Reuters late Tuesday (late September, 2011) the night before Wednesday's scheduled execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer for one of the most notorious hate crimes in modern times.

"Life in prison would have been fine..."

...An avowed white supremacist, Brewer, 44, was one of three white men convicted of capital murder in the kidnapping and killing of Byrd Jr., in June 1998.

John King, another white supremacist, is on death row awaiting an execution date. Shawn Berry is serving a life sentence.

...Dick Gregory has joined Ross Byrd and Martin Luther King III in the past to publicly protest Brewer's execution.

Ross Byrd, a recording artist studying for his MBA at nearby Stephen F. Austin University, said Tuesday that he wouldn't attend the execution but will "be there in spirit."

He says he doesn't want to "waste my time" watching anybody die, even a man who killed his dad.

"Life goes on," said Byrd, who has a son. "I've got responsibilities that I have every day..."

(The) crime ...touched off a nationwide effort to tighten punishments for hate crimes...The jury sentenced the three men as the nation was still reeling from a second hate crime that same year -- the October 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, beaten and left to die on a fence in Wyoming because he was gay.

'WATERSHED MOMENT'

In 2001, Texas passed its hate crimes bill named after Byrd Jr., and its symbolic signing by Perry was a "watershed moment" in Texas and one of Perry's "finest moments in office," said Texas state Senator Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat, who helped move the bill through the Texas Senate in spite of staunch Republican opposition.

Eight years later, President Obama signed into law a similar federal bill named after Byrd Jr. and Shepard.

"James Byrd's murder certainly changed Texas and, in many ways, the nation," Ellis told Reuters.

"It was a wake-up call that evil and hate, while no longer considered mainstream views, are more prevalent and virulent than we pretend."

Ellis said the death sentence in Brewer's case "will close a chapter in this tragic story."

"I cannot say for certain that it is a requirement in order for justice to be served but, as Mr. Brewer was a ringleader in the most brutal hate crime in the post-Civil Rights era, it is certainly a very appropriate sentence," he said.

Unlike Byrd's children and wife, all of whom oppose the use of the death penalty against his killers, other family members have been supportive of it.

"I'm not down on them at all for the fact that they support the death penalty," said David Atwood, a good friend of Ross Byrd's and founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.* "They've gone through a traumatic experience, and there's a history in our country of horrible things happening to African Americans, so it's understandable that a number of them would say finally we're getting some justice."

He called Ross Byrd's stand "powerful."

Byrd says the execution of Brewer is simply another expression of the hate shown toward his father on that dark night in 1998. Everybody, he said, including the government, should choose not to continue that cycle.

"Everybody's in that position," he said. "And I hope they will stand back and look at it before they go down that road of hate. Like Ghandi said, an eye for an eye, and the whole world will go blind."

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

See Reuters article here

* Note: David Atwood has been a longtime friend of The Journey of Hope and a great encourager/supporter in Journey's efforts in Texas.

Another comment about Brewer execution and in response to criticism of assumed silence by death penalty opponents:

Gloria Rubac said: ALL the anti-death penalty organizations in Texas opposed the execution of Russell Brewer...ALL of us oppose ALL executions, even those of despicable racists. There was an unusually large crowd protesting in Huntsville... ...which groups did not protest brewer’s execution (?). The organization that I work with, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement has opposed the execution for James Byrd’s killers since 1998. We went to Jasper for Byrd’s funeral in 1998 with flyers explaining why the death penalty should not be a punishment for this unspeakable hate crime.

Byrd’s son, Ross Byrd, spoke at our annual march to abolish the death penalty back in 2002. We held a press conference and then caravaned with Martin Luther King III and Ross Byrd when they drove to Brazoria County to the prison where Shawn Berry is doing life and met with him for two hours.

Randy Gardner's page updated! Brief Note...

2011-10-24T22:33:00.001-07:00

GO here
Randy Gardner and family sending love and freedom to Ronnie as he faces/faced execution by firing squad - promising to bring love and healing to youth in his name.

Randy's daughter comforted at his execution.
She felt deeply his love for her and was very close to him.

Also be sure to see the amazing and NEEDED article posted just below about yet one more honest person who refuses to see revenge - ie - state murder or the Death Penalty as offering any peace or closure at all. Note as well the quiet mention at end of this article Death Penalty's Unlikely Opponents - GO here (At the end of that article see the rare and moving comment by a son protesting the execution of his father's murderer.

Death penalty's unlikely opponents

2011-10-24T01:48:00.000-07:00

By Eliott C. McLaughlin

Charisse Coleman has no real compassion for the man who walked into the Thrifty Liquor Store in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1995 and put three bullets in her brother, Russell.

But she doesn't want Bobby Lee Hampton -- one of more than seven dozen killers on Louisiana's death row -- executed, either.

"My opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do with Bobby Lee Hampton," Coleman said. "He's a bad dude. He's never going to be a good dude. If I got a call that said Bobby Lee Hampton dropped dead in his cell last night, I don't think it would create a ripple in my pond."

She added, though, "I will be goddamned if I will let Bobby Lee Hampton make me a victim, too, by taking me down that road of bitterness and revenge."

Coleman, 50, is among the most unlikely opponents of the death penalty, people who lost loved ones to unspeakable violence yet believe executing the killer will do nothing for family members or society.

Their stance is backed by groups like Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, and their reasons aren't as religious or political as one might think. Some feel so strongly they've spoken against the death penalty even when it wasn't an option in their loved one's case.

There's no denying most Americans are pro-death penalty. They have been since 1967, according to Gallup, which regularly conducts polls asking whether Americans are for or against capital punishment in murder cases. Support reached as high as 80% in 1994 and declined to 61% in a poll this month -- the lowest since 1972, the year the Supreme Court temporarily halted executions.

Add a little nuance, though, and sentiments shift. When asked to choose between the death penalty and life in prison, 50% of respondents in a recent CNN/ORC International Poll said they favored a life sentence, compared to 48% who preferred the death penalty.

Two executions, two views

Perhaps the split in opinion was most evident on September 21, when two executions were met with vastly different reactions.

Thousands of people -- including entertainers, dignitaries, Amnesty International and the pope -- denounced the execution of Troy Davis. Some said they believed Davis was innocent in the slaying of a Georgia police officer. Others said there was too much doubt to execute him. (The officer's family, like the relatives of many victims, had no qualms about seeing the person convicted of their loved one's murder put to death.)

Meanwhile in Texas, the lethal injection of Lawrence Brewer, who took part in the racially charged dragging death of James Byrd Jr., barely elicited a whisper.

Byrd's son, Ross, voiced the loudest protest, saying, "You can't fight murder with murder," but to no avail.

Please keep reading here.

2011-10-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Robi Damelin

“The first words that came out of my mouth were 'do not take revenge in the name of my son"

Abstract/Excerpt:

"...There is no revenge for a lost loved one. I too would have released the whole world in order to get David back.

I belong to a group of Palestinians and Israelis called the Parents Circle - Families Forum. We are more than 600 families who have lost an immediate family member to the conflict. Our long-term vision is to create a framework for reconciliation process that would be an integral part of future political agreements.

When it was first disclosed that David’s killer may be walking free I received phone calls from my Palestinian friends, also members of the Parents Circle - Families Forum. They had listened carefully to the names of the prisoners released and when they had heard that David’s killer might be amongst them, they were in great turmoil. They wanted to come to my house, some from the West Bank, to be with me. They said they were proud of my reaction and that they also understood how painful it is.

I think of the pain of the Palestinian mothers in our group. Their pain is the same as mine and the tears are the same colour. Some of the men in our group had served jail sentences and today they are tireless campaigners for reconciliation..."

Read more from and about Robi's story and that of The Parents Circle at the top of One Heart For Peace GO here to see the two posts for Saturday, October 22st, 2011.

Be SURE to WATCH this moving short VIDEO Plz take just a few minutes to WATCH this most moving video of the new effort for peace which has just been launced by The Parents Circle

GO here

You may also want to go to www.bloodrelations.org for more information on the newest peace project to meet real human need now or CLICK here where ALL are now invited to donate your blood (or to do so by support) and send our message across asking everyone: Could you hurt someone who had your blood running through their veins?

VIDEO - Meditation: Rais Bhuiyan - Hate Crime Victim Forgives

2011-10-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Rais Bhuiyan
for credit see end of post *

Find a reposting of a short NPR article and Video (link below) by very inter-faith oriented Christian blog-site Oct 21, 2011

Title: Hate Crime Victim Forgives

Date: October 21, 2011
NPR ran this story:

In 2011, Rais Bhuiyan strove to save the life of the man who had tried to kill him with a double-barrel shotgun blast to the face. Now blind in one eye, Bhuiyan survived, but Mark Stroman, his attacker, who was on a 2001, post 9/11, rage-powered killing spree, also murdered two Muslim men, simply because they looked Muslim. A white supremacist, Stroman, was aiming to kill Muslims just to vent his rage. A decade later, Stroman, having failed in his final court appeal, sat on Texas’ death row while Bhuiyan, his hate crime victim, worked to stay the execution.

"According to my faith in Islam, there is no hate, no killing. It doesn't allow anything like that. Yes, Mark Stroman did a horrible thing, and he brought a lot of pain and disaster, sufferings in my life. But in return I never hated him. By hating him it will not bring any good to society. But by forgiving him, who knows?" said Bhuiyan. Bhuiyan added that his motivation was that in Islam, saving one human life is the same as saving the entirety of humankind.

When Stroman heard that Bhuiyan was working to save his life, Stroman cried, saying it was this first act of kindness he had ever known and that he was truly and deeply sorry.

Stroman targeted Bhuiyan because of his faith and yet it was Bhuiyan’s faith that propelled him to save Stroman.

Let’s Pray: Dear God, we thank you that people of faith can be heroic examples to us all. Amen.

Here’s a Thought: Forgiveness is love.

Sources:
NPR audio, here

9/11 Hate-Crime Victim Seeks to Save His Attacker by NPR Staff, here

Mark Stroman Blog here

CBS Dallas Man Condemned For Post-9/11 Slaying Loses Appeal
December 28, 2010 3:04 PM, http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2010/12/28/dallas-man-condemned-for-post-911-slaying-loses-appeal/

“Whoever slays a soul, unless it be for a manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men.” (Quran 5:32)

============

* Photo credit goes to Common Grounds. Rais Bhuiyan is soon to be honored by this group which seeks justice thru peace leaders of all kinds, world-wide. CG has honored the likes of Desmond Tutu. for more GO here

Henry James Walks Out of La. State Pen. (Angola)

2011-10-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

photo of Henry James, Angola, thanx to the Innocent Project.

Man cleared after THIRTY years imprisoned for false charges wants to eat some Jumbo Shrimp! (He was behind bars more time than he was free even while he's not that young at 50...good thing he looks so young and fit.)

See these two stories Just In followed by the release from The Innocence Project:
The Grio.com here See more links below just in...

We have wonderful news to share: This afternoon, our client Henry James walked out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola a free man for the first time in three decades. DNA tests prove his innocence of a 1981 rape, and last night a judge overturned his conviction.

Right now, he is on his way to New Orleans to greet supporters and talk with the media about the injustice he suffered and his plan to build a life at age 50, after losing 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

James was arrested and charged with rape in 1981 after the victim misidentified him as the perpetrator. His conviction was based on faulty evidence, and it took the miraculous discovery of missing evidence to clear him. Blood type tests pointed to his innocence, but his defense attorney failed to share those results with the jury.

The Innocence Project accepted James’ case in 2005, but several searches for evidence proved fruitless. Then, in May 2010, James had an incredible stroke of luck. That day, a lab worker named Milton Dureau was looking for evidence in a different case when he stumbled upon a slide from James’ case. Fortunately, he remembered James’ case number from his earlier search. The evidence was sent to a lab, where DNA testing proved James’ innocence.

James will now begin the long process of building a new life after so many years lost to wrongful incarceration. Send him a note of support today to welcome him home.

James’ legal team includes the Innocence Project, our partners at the Innocence Project New Orleans and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.

Best,

The Innocence Project Team

========
More current links here and
see copy of the legal release form by pdf here

From UGANDA: Wednesday, 19 October 2011 GREETINGS & APPRECIATION

2011-10-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

I greet you in the name of Love for our offenders.

Greetings from the 241 Inmates on the Death row in Upper Prison-Luzira, Kampala Uganda.

For sure your words were a great insipiration to them and even to us who are doing all it takes to reform them as they extend words of request for forgiveness unto those they offended.

Right from the day you visited them in their Condemn Cells, I wish to notify you that in this period, 02 Inmates, namely Muramuzi Herbert and Lubowa Robert, had their death sentence overturned and awarded a sentence of 30 years including those they had spent on the death row. They now have only 09 years to serve and then walk to their freedom.

However, they were able to have this second chance in life courtesy of their attainment of FORMAL EDUCATION while on the death row. The recommendation that our office submitted to the Judges as one of their mitigation factor, played a tremendous role in having their death sentence overturned.

It is to this end that I wish to extend our sincere appreciation for the wonderful package you left for the Inmates' Schools at Upper Prison-Luzira, Kampala Uganda. this School received 39 Dozens of Writing/Notes Books and 50 Pens. I tell you, that "Blessed is the Hand that giveth...".

It was a great boost for us in a situation of scarcity that thee Inmates Schools operate in. We received them from the Franciscan Prison Ministry Team.
Thanks and may the Almighty GOD fill your purse a hundredfold.

Our Schools have started a season for national examinations which commenced on 14.10.2011 and shall end on 1.12.2011, encompassing Secondary School Level Entry Examinations, High School Entry Examinations, and University Entry examinations. It is a hectic and financially expensive period but we hope that by GOD's Grace, we shall sail through safely.

In all there are 128 Candidates, out of which 53 are Inmates on the Death row. This gives us encouragement when we see you coming up and promising to support our efforts in providing them with formal education which is a starting point for their reintegration into society as productive and law abiding upon their release.
We shall continue endeavoring to provide this vital ingredient towards their reformation and rehabilitation, and as you promised, we call for your support in all forms, for it is said..:"The good you do will all (be) coming back a hundredfold to you...in working good for GOD on earth".

Early January 2012, we shall be undertaking new admissions into School for formal education and at the same time as the Inmates on the Death row told you in their request for alms, Registraton for Candidates for Entry Examinations to various levels shall be conducted at Elementary, Lower and Upper Secondary.

Please do not be tired to support us when we turn to you for some modest financial support which in any case does range between US $ 5000-8000 for all levels combined and for all eligible inmates which must be paid to the Ministry of Education-Uganda National Examinations Board if they are to sit for these examinations.

I would love to identify with and be part of your efforts in overturning this vengeful punishment in the name of Death Penalty since "Two bad things cannot turn into anything good".

Should the State kill...or it should rehabilitate?

This is why I stand out with my head high to call upon you to support us - so that the seeds you are planting in the whole world of this noble fight can yield great fruits internationally. (So that)using a multidimensional approach such as Rehabilitative Formal Education (which) we are championing in Uganda can be replicated in other parts of the world as a panacea to recidivism and state revenge sometimes on innocent victims cum offenders.

I shall continue updating you on the trends we are taking to realise your mission on earth and we are ready to combine efforts with you in this aspect.

I wish you well and good health and all your loved ones as we continue in the struggle.

Once again thanks for your inspirational visit to Upper Prison, for it left an indelible mark in the lives of those who listened to your testimonies, I inclusive.

We love you all.

GOD bless.

BIRYOMUMAISHO ANATOLI OWAKUBARUHO
SENIOR SOCIAL WORKER/HEAD TEACHER UPPER PRISON SCHOOLS

The Journey and Bill Pelke (Esp. for New Readers)

2011-10-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing

The story we share here with you is a remarkable story - written by a man who had to experience the murder of a beloved family member.

Dealing with the pain of loss and the revenge feelings towards the murderers, this is a story of forgiveness and healing, of compassion and love. The story tells how his organization “ Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing”, started and how the members want to share there extreme painful experiences, from either side of the fence….I want to introduce you to a great man and a dear friend of mine, Bill Pelke...

Plz read this remarkable, well-written story anew or for the first time...

GO here

Thanx for this posting to Angela whom I hope will soon be able to join us here at The Journey blog and have more NEW reports from Charity, Edward, Randy and the two Bills as they continue the Journey in Africa...

UPDATED: RANDY GARDNER with the Kids on Africa Journey

2011-10-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

Randy in Africa with Journey...

Update: I did a little research on October 25th and found these moving articles of a most caring family who are bringing good out of their executed loved one's troubled yet loving and transformed life. Here are the articles. There is so much depth here and possibilities for change for us all:

Go here
and here and finally here Readers are likely to find more articles on Ronnie (Randy's brother shot by firing sqad) and life behind bars of seeking to make amends and make good to all he possibly could. His deep remorse and loving concern extended also to Jason who was three when his father was murdered. Jason forgave Ronnie for the crime.

Note that if you look up more info on Randy Gardner, Ronnie's brother, he's NOT the famous world skater champion nor the champion who held is breath an inordinate length of time. However, we at Journey already know Randy's a champion with kids and turning tragedy into sunlight!

Randy founded Back to Basics Organic Farm and Ranch in honor of his brother, Ronnie Lee Gardner, who was executed by the state of Utah by firing squad on June 18, 2010.

To see a video and more about Randy's vision for youth with the need for special, healing direction, plz CLICK here

After just a few minutes seeing Randy's photo and a little of his vision, I sure do want to meet him someday and hope to post more on him when I learn more. His Back To Basics Organic Garden vision looks like a kind of country version of what the new (headed for an award) film "The Interruptors" is all about in a troubled city context - it's all about LOVE.

Edward (Mpagi Edward Edmary) and Uganda's Death Row

2011-10-11T03:27:00.000-07:00

Edward (Mpagi Edward Edmary)

Edward's family

ALERT: Be sure to visit Journey of Hope...Events Diary Blog OFTEN (and READ the moving, fascinating archived diary entries & memoirs here to see the progression of the trip, photos, etc.
Find other links on the END of post just below.

NOTE: Surely, Edward and The Journey will help Uganda achieve the goals named below for better, more humane and accurate justice in Uganda. May the same goals be sought and improved in a more effective way in the US as well.

Edward at the UN - You Tube video here

Here are some more references to Edward's life and work at Angela's blog here

ABSTRACT from new release on Uganda below : "...three rulings significantly improve how the death penalty is used in Uganda. Unfortunately however, they have not been fully implemented. For example, there are individuals in Uganda who have been on death row for 18 years. People facing the death penalty often do not routinely have good access to lawyers or even legal advice."

Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:46
78.35.118.31

Uganda: Abolish the Death Penalty; It Undermines Human Dignity

Martin Shearman

10 October 2011

opinion

Right now in Uganda, there are more than 470 prisoners on death row. In 2010 in Uganda, five death sentences were handed out.

Today is World Day against the Death Penalty. People, governments and countries unite to oppose the death penalty. It undermines human dignity and there is no firm evidence that it has any value as a deterrent.

The UK nationally, and as a member state of the European Union, opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle and believes that it should be abolished. And we are not alone. 138 countries, including 16 African Union members, have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. In December 2010 more UN Member states than ever before supported the UN General Assembly resolution on stopping the use of the death penalty.

Now you may disagree. In Uganda, there are currently 16 offences that carry the death penalty and these include crimes such as rape, murder and espionage. You may believe that people found guilty of these crimes deserve such a punishment.

However, regardless of your views on the death penalty, there are still important reasons to ensure that its use meets minimum standards. No one would argue that it should be used for anything but the most serious crimes. It is important that those charged are given a fair trial: if an innocent person is convicted and wrongly executed, you cannot make it up to them. It is important that people on death row are treated humanely. These minimum standards should be met to protect human dignity.

The Constitutional Court of Uganda agrees. In 2009, it made three landmark rulings on how the death penalty is used. Firstly, it declared that it is cruel, inhuman and degrading for a convict to be on death row for longer than three years. It ruled that these convicts should have their cases reviewed and, if appropriate, their death penalties commuted to life imprisonment.

Secondly, the court declared it is unconstitutional for crimes to automatically result in a death penalty. Mandatory death penalties do not allow for the individual facts of the case to be considered. Finally, the court ruled that it is unlawful for civilians to be given a death penalty in a military court. The Ugandan People's Defence Force has since said that it will pass civilian cases to the High Court.

These three rulings significantly improve how the death penalty is used in Uganda. Unfortunately however, they have not been fully implemented. For example, there are individuals in Uganda who have been on death row for 18 years. People facing the death penalty often do not routinely have good access to lawyers or even legal advice.

East Africa
Uganda
Legal Affairs

This is why the UK is supporting Ugandan civil societies' efforts led by the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative to promote the implementation of the Constitutional Court rulings and ensure minimum standards are met. Firstly, the initiative will help prevent innocent people being wrongly convicted by providing legal support for a fair trial.

Secondly, it is working to have death penalty sentences changed to life imprisonment when prisoners have spent more than three years on death row. Thirdly, it is helping to ensure that judges and magistrates are fully informed about the sentencing guidelines.

Lastly, it is supporting the amendment of laws that carry a mandatory death penalty. The UK hopes that Uganda will abolish the death penalty. But in the meantime, it is important that minimum standards on its use are met. We applaud the rulings of Uganda's Constitutional Court on the death penalty and look forward to their full implementation.

Mr Shearman it the British high commissioner to Uganda.

ALSO read more in All Africa here

Be sure not to miss the inspiring Photo, excerpts and find LINKS just below!

SAVE LINKS & Updates & Great Photo of Bill Babbitt with Ugandan CHILDREN

2011-10-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

Bill Babbitt (Bill has been speaking around the world about his brother Manny who was executed in 1999. Bill has helped raise over $2000 so that this Journey can take place....) He also has a beautiful - especially articulate daughter. What an effective, heart-felt man and family. Who doesn't LOVE Bill Babbitt?

GREAT SCREEN-SAVER or Wall Poster idea: Try clicking on photo once to double the size - Bill B has a marvelously emotive face - and what a beautiful banner, eh?
(Just posted late yesterday! Some terrific photographer - Charity?)

At the very beginning of the Archive don't miss the compelling/inspirational "Follow the Signs..." by Charity here (some of us who've chosen not to do FB have missed some of the most poignant items of all - but will do better, promise!)

More on Charity's Ella Foundation soon...

We need to revisit Angela's posting of Bill Pelke's and Journey's story again soon.

LINKS TO KEEP HANDY to be able to check out as new items keep coming in OFTEN and to review older gems:

DAILY Uganda Journey blog/photo album for yourself: here

FaceBook Wall- GO here to READ EXTRA comments like this one from Lisa Rea: Great to see this. Mpagi Edward Edmary was an innocent man on death row in Uganda. He is alive today to tell his story. I support the work of the Journey of Hope as it works for true justice for victims of crime. (Lisa is a friend and a FAMILY member of Journey. She has also done a lot to support Edward personally and his work with kids. Someday soon we need to let you know about or review here own special calling.) Also, go see Debbie Kearns pertinent timely YouTube videos and her passionate comments.

Or this one by Bill Pelke: It has been great to see Edward, his wife, mother and family. He is recovering from a stroke, but will be traveling with us to Rwanda for for a meeting of African nations trying to Abolish the Death Penalty in Africa. The president of Rwanda will address the conference. God's Peace to all.

(or if on FB, add your own comments! either way, there is no problem with clicking to read the latest.)

Here is the ministry page for Edward's Kids here

To read more about Edward, plz GO here

Finally yet NOT LEAST, PLZ help support this one of a kind UGANDAN Journey

Bill Pelke
President, Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing
WWW.JourneyofHope.org
877-9 24GIVE (4483)
“The answer is love and compassion for all of humanity”

or GO here

CHILDREN in Uganda - Bill sent on World Day against the DP

2011-10-10T14:17:00.001-07:00

Ugandan photo posted on World Day Against the Death Penalty

2011-10-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

Bill posted this on his diary: October 9, 2011

Charity, Bill and Randy...together with the radioman :-)

Plz see the Comments which include some good links to the World Day...and add your own. Also, be sure to go to the posts below for links to FB, to Bill's dairy, to Charity's work with Edward to help Ugandan Children and to Angela's NEW history of Bill and Journey.

Help us out if you have any questions and photos as we are having to juggle lots of busy schedules and I may be missing for a few days...

Hurrah! , we are in Africa! Friday, 7 Oct 2011

2011-10-07T22:58:00.000-07:00

From Bill Pelke:

All right,
we made it to Nairobi in fine shape although the plane ride was not as nice as our previous flight from Dallas to Amsterdam.

It was a crowded flight; I don’t think there was one empty seat on the Jumbo Jet.

Since our bags had been checked to Entebbe we headed to the gate where we were told we could get our gate pass for our final leg on Kenya Airline to Entebbe, Uganda.
At the gate we were told the door to the plane had been shut and we would be rebooked for the first flight out in the morning. That wasn`t what what we wanted to hear after our two long flights to arrive in Africa. We elected to spend the night at the airport rather than leave and try to find a hotel so late at night when we would just have to return early in the morning.

I had checked prices earlier in the week and prices were very steep so we decided to stay at the airport.

We called Edward’s friend Ronald who was supposed to pick us up in Entebbe. He had already made the hour drive to meet us and I had to tell him we missed our flight. He thanked us for calling him and said he would come back in the morning at nine o’clock. He told us that Edward was sick. We had known that Edward had been ill but he had been confident he would be better by the time we got there. We hope he is recovering and will be fine. He has Ronald helping him organize our tour.
I am glad I had Ronald’s phone number.

We have been killing time catching a few little cat naps and just ate a meal at the only restaurant open in the middle of the night. We did get into a few good conversations on the last flight and have been passing out information all along the way.

But hurrah!, we are in Africa.

We are tired but we are in good spirits.

For more photos and diary entries, plz go to the top of Journey of Hope Diary here and also to a descriptive overview of the anticipated trip/events here and of course the FB wall...Send this out to others: http://www.facebook.com/JourneyOfHope?v=wall and/or CLICK here (Again, if you like me are not "on" fb you don't need to be a member or sign up to look and see what's up.)

UGANDA Journey of Hope Begins - Bon Voyage!

2011-10-05T11:21:00.001-07:00

L to R:
Bill Pelke, Rais Bhuiyan, Genifer Kaye, Charity Lee and Bill Babbitt

(I just found this photo on fb wall and the journeyofhope diary. Journey may have Genifer Kaye to thank for this photo) For more photos and diary entries, plz go to the top of Journey of Hope Diary here and also to a descriptive overview of the anticipated trip/events here

Another Journey begins (written by Bill Pelke a few days ago)...

This may be the most important Journey of my life and for the "Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing".

I boarded a plane in Anchorage, Alaska and am on my way to Seattle, Washington, to meet up with Bill Babbitt. During our 4 plus hour lay-over we will meet for lunch with James Basden. James and Bill have a common bond. Both of them had brothers that were executed. James has been very supportive of our African Journey of Hope.

From Seattle, Bill (2TT’s Babbitt) and I will fly to Dallas, Texas where we will stay overnight, and then head for Uganda tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow morning we will meet up with Charity Lee who will accompany us on this Journey.

The three of us will have breakfast with Rick Halperin, Journey of Hope board member, dear friend, and Human Rights professor at the Southern Methodist University (SMU), and Rais Bhuiyan, the man who forgave his attacker in the 9/11 aftermath killings that took place in the Dallas area.

Several others will be joining us, hopefully Stan Allridge, whose brother James was executed by the state of Texas in 2004. I stood behind Stan, Sister Helen Prejean, Dave Atwood and others and watched as the state of Texas put poison into James blood and killed him. Stan also watched another brother be executed in 1995.

I have never met Rais before so I am looking forward to that.

And then Charity, 2TT’s and I head for Uganda. We have to fly to Amsterdam, then to Nairobi, Kenya and from there on to Entebbe, Uganda, where we will meet up with death row exoneree Edward Edmary Mpagi. I haven’t seen Edward since 2007 on the Texas Journey of Hope.

Randy Gardner will join us Uganda several days later.

This is a dream come true for all of us. Not only for Bill, Randy, Charity, Edward and I but also for Kathy Chrism who has been helping Edward from afar for many years now to build his orphanage/ school in Uganda.

Kathy runs the organization "Dream One World" and her dream is being fulfilled with our Uganda trip. There are few things I have done in my life that I would consider as God inspired, as this trip. It came together on short notice and the support fell into place. The organizing has gone like clockwork as if all the stars were in line for this great event.

We will be taking our message of love and compassion for all of humanity and helping Edward not only to abolish the death penalty in Uganda, but also helping "Hands off Cain" and the "World Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty" while being in Rwanda where we will meet with the African delegation trying to bring about abolition there.

Then we go to Nairobi, Kenya on a mission of justice and reconciliation where we will be speaking in a large church before coming home.

More later.

Love and Peace, Bill

======
NOTE: Here's a quick look at the "Dream One World" Project - and what an effort for peace this looks to be! GO here Go with God, Edward, Kathy, Bill and the rest of the "crew".

Look below for other ways to connect with The Journey...

Taking a Break...

2011-10-04T15:24:00.001-07:00

Readers, Finally, I'm going to take a break to update my technique here...I have been wanting to do this for some time. I want to work with other bloggers here - possibly a new co-blogger - and to confer with the folk doing the Journey of Hope facebook wall/web to see how we might continue to polish our good flow.

Meantime, GO to the facebook wall if you wish (you can read what's on the wall there even if you are not signed up to fb without signing up). See our latest comments on the fb wall and great work with the links to videos and more (Looks like Bill Pelke will be blogging his Journey in Uganda from the new Journey Diary which should link to the fb wall as well - See the post JUST ABOVE.)

Meantime, take a little scroll through our archives here for a wide perspective of issues and featured stories. Remember also to check out other sites listed in the lower right column.

I'll try to check periodically to post any comments submitted if appropriate, clear and not anonymous.

May we BE PEACE.

All the Best,

Connie

Updated: Imagine A World Without Hate

2011-10-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Photo found on Reprieve UK site

On October 4, 2011 I also found this article on the death of one of Mark Stroman's pen pals: Goodbye Marge check out the Reprieve site often at reprieve.org.uk - GO here

September 21, 2011, on World Peace Day, Rais Bhuiyan said "This is the anniversary of my shooting...The lessons I’ve learned during the last decade, and the journey I’ve taken moved me from a place of pain on the deepest level to a place of hope for a kinder world."

Read Rais Bhuiyan's words for yourself.

"...Yes! We can build a better world by paying attention and noticing where we blame and build walls with our family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Then we can choose to change and diminish anger...It’s not easy, but the future of humanity depends on us. Our actions CAN heal. I know this because 10 years ago I was the survivor of a hate crime."

Here is a man who, along with the widows of Mark Stroman's two murdered victims, would choose to try to stop their perpetrator's execution. This rare witness of genuine forgiveness led to a dramatic change in the life of their perpetrator. A few weeks ago, countless people from all backgrounds joined in the plea for Stroman's life.

Read entire post and more here

Let's choose life and healing today by accepting this transformative invitation from this new movement:

"We invite you to join us in taking this image beyond imagination to reality. Learn about hate crimes through our website and work to prevent them. See our Get Involved section here

We’ve got to stop the hate and give peace a chance! Let’s work together to end the cycle of hate and violence, and make this world a better place for us and our next generations!"

Read an article about this story as well from Huffington Post here

See an earlier press conference on Reprieve's UK site - Rais Buiyan press conference in Germany from 05 July 2011 - here

Some of the places/events where "World Without Hate" plans to go...
We are taking the message into the world by speaking at:

- Churches
- Schools
- Prisons
- Universities
- Governments, and anywhere we can.

Events & Activities

October:

- Search for Common Ground, Washington, D.C.
- American University, D.C.
- Meeting with the co-founder of “Journey of Hope”
- CAIR (Council on American –Islamic Relations), Washington, DC.

November:

- Amnesty Regional West Conference, CA
- Amnesty Regional South Conference, NC
- Rome, Italy

December:

- Rome, Italy

Asheville North Carolina: A Unique Position

2011-10-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

Asheville stands in a unique position to positively affect this national movement and debate. The very next day after Troy Davis was executed as innocent, the North Carolina Innocence Commission, the only one in the country, found three Buncombe County men (translate as Asheville) completely innocent for murder and released them immediately from the Buncombe County Jail after serving a long ten years.

These so-called “Guiding Light 3” pled guilty upon threat of the death penalty, but ten years later, their attorneys found a suppressed video tape of the convenience store shooting. Unbelievably, the shooters' faces had been taped over with an episode of the soap opera, “Guiding Light,” within two hours after the tape arrived in the possession of the Buncombe County Sheriff's Department. No, this is not fiction. Three Buncombe County men were convicted for a murder they did not commit while the Buncombe County Sheriff's office framed them with a soap opera, evidence that was withheld by our DA's office.

In addition, the Asheville Police Department has been rocked with criminal scandal when it was discovered that large amounts of drugs, guns and money turned up “missing” from the evidence room and many large-scale drug trafficking cases had to be dismissed. Our Police Chief, Hogan, immediately “retired.” The SBI and independent auditors were called in and are expected to issue preliminary findings in coming weeks.

Other instances of local police and prosecutorial misconduct include racially targeting a Mexican man with trafficking 90 lbs of “tortilla dough,” (also, true story), and the random, unwarranted brutality of local musician Juan Holliday, as well as increasing excessive force and illegal searches, seizures and arrests. Anyone familiar with our local criminal justice system, as myself, can testify to the corruption in both law enforcement and prosecution. We have several bad apples that need to be removed, and to support our exemplary police officers, of which there are many.

Asheville must come together to educate itself about our local corruption and demand it's end, as we stand ready to employ a new Asheville Police Chief.

The execution of Troy Davis was a clear human rights violation, as leaders from all over the world strenuously called for it's halt. Seven of the nine witnesses recanting ever implicating Troy, one of the remaining two was the real killer. Pages of affidavits revealed police intimidation and threats to implicate Troy. Anyone with any sense could read those affidavits and their corroborating details and immediately see police misconduct against a black man led to Troy's conviction and ultimately execution by the State of Georgia.

As the spectacular timing suggests, North Carolina, and, in particular, Buncombe County, hold a key towards preventing wrongful convictions and ending execution of the innocent in the future, and perhaps ending the death penalty all together. The North Carolina Innocence Commission worked. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles did not.

Journey of Hope and Bill Headed for Uganda

2011-10-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

Bill Pelke

I am really getting excited about the Uganda Journey of Hope.

So is Bill Babbitt. Bill has been speaking around the world about his brother Manny who was executed in 1999. Bill has helped raise over $2000 so that this Journey can take place.
...
Randy Gardner is excited about going too. Randy founded Back to Basics Randy called the Journey of Hope office last year right after Christmas and told how his brother had been executed by firing squad five months earlier. Randy said he was busting at the gut to speak out against the death penalty with his firsthand experience. Randy will be having that chance when the Journey goes to Africa.

These two brothers will be sharing the torture that their families went through because of state sanctioned executions.

Charity Lee called the Journey of Hope office a few months ago and told me about the ELLA Foundation, a non-profit named after her four year old daughter. Ella was killed by her 13 year-old brother. Charity has seen crime from both sides of the fence. She has determined that Love conquers all. She told me she was looking for opportunities to share that love through speaking opportunities.

About three months ago, Edward Edmary Mpagi asked me if the Journey of Hope could come to Uganda and help him in his lonely efforts for abolition. My friend Dirk Sisson opened a door, other doors followed suit and in 5 short days the Journey of Hope is headed to Uganda.

The timing was set to coincide with the ninth annual World Day Against the Death Penalty on Oct 10. We leave for Uganda on October 2 and will speak in middle school, high school and college classes. We will be speaking at rallies, visiting the men’s death row, the women’s prison and family members of death row inmates.

Since Edward was exonerated from Uganda’s death row, he has spent his time working to build a school and orphanage for the children of death row and other inmates who were forced to leave school when their family member was incarcerated. For more information on Edward go to Dream One World When Maria Donatelli, Coordinator for the World Coalition to Abolish the death Penalty was made aware that the Journey of Hope was going to be in Uganda during World Day, she invited the Journey of Hope to
attend a two day conference sponsored by the WCADP and Hands Off Cain in Kigali, Rwanda October 12-14.

From Rwanda we head to Nairobi Kenya for several meetings returning to the US on October 19th.

I will try to make frequent posts on the Journey of Hope events Diary blog

Thank you for your support.

Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts.

In Love and Peace,
Bill

Bill Pelke
President, Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing
WWW.JourneyofHope.org
877-9 24GIVE (4483)
“The answer is love and compassion for all of humanity”

Plz follow The Journey on FB Wall

NOTE on REGGIE - TROY Davis' Legacy

2011-10-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Be sure to go to Amnesty to the Take Action section to see how to help stop a similar execution from happening in Missouri where there is ALSO TOO MUCH DOUBT. See Comments below for ongoing reports.
The top photo found at - ncadp.org - of a rooftop sign visible to vehicles on the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx came to us via twitter and demonstrates the permanance and deep resonance of the case of Troy Davis. On The Huffington Post, NCADP's Executive Director reflects on how the execution of Troy Davis impacts efforts to abolish the death penalty. Find the photo with CURRENT alerts to sign on NCADP's current home page GO here

Martina Correia CBSNews.com
In this 2nd Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008 file photo, Troy Davis supporter Jessica Peifer, left, is comforted by Davis' older sister Martina Correia, right, during an Amnesty International rally at the State Capitol in Atlanta. Correia, the older sister of Troy Davis says she's not angry following his execution of her brother Troy Davis in Georgia, but she's determined to keep fighting the death penalty in her brother's memory. (AP Photo/Jenni Girtman)

Troy Davis' Legacy: A New, Deeply Personal Movement
By Jen Marlowe and Kung Li,
Colorlines

01 October 11

On September 21, at 11:08 p.m., Martina Correia leaned forward in her wheelchair on the grounds of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia. Though weak from battling illness, she called out to Laura Moye, Amnesty USA's death penalty abolition campaign director.

"Laura, come here. I want you to meet this young woman. She drove all the way from San Francisco to be here." Correia asked Moye to be sure to plug the young woman into the abolition work taking place in California.

Neither Correia nor Moye had any way to know that at the exact moment Correia was recruiting the young activist into the movement, her brother, Troy Davis, had just succumbed to death by lethal injection.

The young woman was one of hundreds of thousands of people recruited, directly or indirectly, by Correia to the fight against her brother's death sentence. Nearly a million wrote letters and signed petitions on behalf of Davis. In the weeks after Georgia set his execution date, thousands took to the streets and marched in Atlanta and thousands more marched around the world. On Sept. 21, over 600 made the journey to Jackson to protest the execution and stand in solidarity with Troy Davis's family. It was an uproar, utterly unprecedented.

Almost exactly 20 years earlier, on the same prison grounds in Jackson, fewer than a dozen people were on hand for the execution of Warren McCleskey, a black man sentenced to death for killing a white police officer. There was no physical evidence that McCleskey was the shooter, leaving the state's main evidence a man who testified McCleskey had confessed to him. For years, the state hid the fact that the witness was a police informant, and that the police had illegally created the testimony by placing the informant in McCleskey's jail cell.

McCleskey the man is little remembered, but one of his appeals that reached the Supreme Court changed legal history. In McCleskey v. Kemp, the US Supreme Court considered statistical evidence that Georgia's death penalty is carried out in a racially discriminatory manner. The evidence was undisputed, but the Court understood that if a death sentence could be overturned by statistics showing racial disparities, then no part of the criminal justice system would be safe from legal challenge. Racial disparities far more yawning than those surrounding the death penalty exist in arrests, detention and sentencing.

So the Supreme Court created an impossible test: McCleskey must show the racial discrimination was intentional. That is, McCleskey could only prove racial discrimination if the district attorney or trial judge stepped forward and proclaimed that they had acted on the basis of race.

With McCleskey, the Supreme Court decided it would rather tolerate a racist criminal justice system than open the floodgates to legal challenges about the system's racial disparities.

Troy Davis's case, fought as hard in the courts as McCleskey's, exposed another morally questionable judicial preference - for finality over truth. No matter how flawed the process that produces a conviction, the burden shifts to the convicted to prove claims of innocence. It is a standard designed to help the system bury its mistakes - in Troy's case, quite literally so. The judiciary would rather get it done than get it right.

For the last 30 years, the battle over the death penalty has been contained inside courtrooms and on the pages of legal briefs. The judicial system, asked to judge the foundations of its own house, papered over the problems of racial bias and doubt.

But then something extraordinary happened, as support for Troy Davis grew. These fundamental problems of doubt and racial bias moved outside the confines of the judiciary and shifted - quite abruptly - from being legal questions to personal ones.

Correia is most responsible for making things personal. People were drawn to Troy Davis's case because she insisted that people connect with her brother not as a convict or a death row inmate, but as a person. The connection between Troy and his supporters was at times literally made through his sister. In 2009, Correia patched Troy through from prison to a conference call with activists from Amnesty International.

"Everything is coming to a head and people are starting to wake up more and more," Davis said on the call. "This is just the beginning of something … we're going to win this fight, we're going to continue to open these eyes, we're going to continue to open these prison doors, we're going to continue to hold accountable all those that are in charge of these unjust systems."

As activists sought out who to hold accountable, it became clear that what Justice John Paul Stevens famously called the "machinery of death" is in fact made up of individual human beings, each with their own moral compass, and so each one morally accountable.

There is Larry Chisolm, the Chatham County district attorney, who put in the request for a death warrant. There is the Superior Court judge named Penny Freesmann who signed it. The man who set the actual date and time of execution is Brian Owens, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections. Five human beings comprise the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole, three of whom voted to deny Davis clemency. A group of correctional officers walked Troy to the execution chamber. Prison nurses prepared the IV lines. Carlo Musso, a doctor, collected $18,000 for overseeing the execution. Warden Carl Humphrey ordered over 125 CERT officers to dress out in full riot gear and stand guard so that those inside the prison could carry out the killing.

But the most significant shift into the personal can be understood through the blue Amnesty USA t-shirts that Troy supporters have been wearing for years, with white letters spelling, "I Am Troy Davis."

Initially, the t-shirts were a sign of solidarity with the plight of a possibly innocent man on death row. But many are now wearing them with a sense of anger and identification that is far wider and deeper than the issue of Davis's innocence. Davis's execution, the events leading up to it and the feelings growing out of it have mobilized those who have been targeted and under attack by our criminal justice apparatus, especially (but not only) young black men, particularly in the South, and their mothers, sisters, parents and grandparents. What was once primarily a badge of solidarity is now, for many, a declaration of identity.

These young black and brown men and women are taking to heart James Baldwin's plea in "An Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis" when she was awaiting trial: "we must fight for your life as though it were our own - which it is - and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night."

Angela Davis was acquitted, and years later in an essay advocating the abolition of not only the death penalty but the entire prison industrial complex, wrote that "we are fighting the same battles over and over again, but in doing so in community, we are ever enlarging, ever expanding our notion of freedom."

It is a sentiment echoed by Troy Davis, who repeatedly stressed that "we need to continue to stand together and educate each other and don't give up the fight."

The fight is not metaphorical. There are people determined to end capital punishment, and there are people determined to use it. The latest battle took place September 21, 2011, in Jackson, Georgia. Inside, hundreds of people carried out their parts in the script for killing Troy Davis, while outside, hundreds more - including four busloads of students from Armstrong, Savannah State, Morehouse, Spelman and Atlanta University - stood, prayed, and raged in opposition.

One of the people in the crowd at Jackson that night was Cara McCleskey, Warren McCleskey's now adult daughter. Twenty legal appeals and a small army of lawyers did not save her father's life. The million people who rallied behind Troy did not save his. The battles against the death penalty and against the racism of our criminal justice system will, as Angela Davis predicted, continue to be fought over and over again.

But something profound has shifted. Millions have had their eyes opened due to Troy Davis. For others, he made visible what they already knew, through personal experience, about the racism embedded in the criminal justice system. Thousands of young, African American men and women in the South are declaring "I am Troy Davis" as if their lives depend on it. We are standing together in a moment of expansion, which, if seized with the love and fury that surrounded the Davis family in Jackson last week, could bring us all closer to free.
END

Michael Henry and other protesters gather on the steps of the Georgia Capitol building in Atlanta on September 20, 2011, the day before the state killed Troy Davis. (photo: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

Jen Marlowe is a human rights activist, author and filmmaker. Her most recent book is "The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker" (Nation Books, 2011). Kung Li is the former executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta.

A Note from Bill Pelke: Take the Pledge!

2011-09-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

*

Hello friends:

As President of the Journey of Hope...from Violence to Healing I ask everyone one our supporters to take the Troy Davis pledge. I thank God for the leadership Ben Jealous has shown us in moving forward to keep his promises to Troy. Listen to what Ben is saying to us.

"Last week, the country watched as a man was executed in a case where there was too much doubt.

Troy Davis was... convicted of murdering a white police officer over 20 years ago. No murder weapon was ever found, no DNA evidence linked Troy to the crime, and seven of the nine witnesses who testified recanted their statements.

Join me in pledging to end the death penalty in the United States:

To Sign on GO here

cut/paste here:
http://action.naacp.org/page/s/troy-davis-pledge

If one innocent person can be killed under the death penalty, I cannot support it. Last week, Troy Davis’ death was a horrific tragedy and I wanted to do whatever I could to stop the injustice. Right now the NAACP is giving people a way to unite under a pledge that works to end the death penalty.
Join me in fighting today.'

Ben Jealous wants us to unite under this pledge and I fully support him. Thank you NAACP for taking such a gallant stand.

The Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing applauds you. We offer our assistance in the fight with our weapons of Love and compassion.
We are Troy Davis,

Love and Peace,

Bill

See More: On Saturday, October 1st, Troy Anthony Davis will be laid to rest in Savannah, Georgia. Please join the NAACP in sending a message of condolence and support to the Davis family. We will personally deliver your messages to family members this week...NAACP (Look for a message or Comment here or on the Journey of Hope FB wall as to who to send this message of condolence.)

Connie adds: Support The Journey of Hope here

* Photo of visionary Bill on an earlier page of Journey of Hope here

Blood Relations: Palestinian and Israeli Bereaved Families for Peace

2011-09-27T03:59:00.000-07:00

Ali Abu Awwad and Niv Sarig "Blood Relations" effort

It is, as far as we know, a world precedent that bereaved families, victims from both sides, embark on a joint reconciliation mission while the conflict is still active.

News From The American Friends of the Parents Circle (Parents Circle is a Families Forum: Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace)

September 26, 2011

Dear Friends:

Israeli-Palestinian relations have been in the headlines lately and the members of The Parents Circle Families Forum have been working hard to promote a shared story--one of hope and reconciliation. We at the American Friends of the Parents Circle—Families Forum remain hopeful that an end to the bloodshed is possible, and we remain committed to our mission to raise visibility and support for the efforts of the Parents Circle to promote reconciliation. In many ways, today, the work of the organization is more important than ever!

On Sunday, September18th, the Parents Circle organized “Blood Relations” a large, public blood donation where Israelis and Palestinians donated blood together, side by side, as a testament to their belief in the power of reconciliation. The blood donations will be shared by Israeli hospitals through the Israeli Blood Bank, Magen David Adom and by the Al-Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital for Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

The concept of blood relations was borne out of an initiative called the 'Impossible Brief', a global challenge launched by Saatchi & Saatchi Israel in 2010. Creative minds from all over the world presented ideas that would bring Israelis and Palestinians closer together. The winning idea inspired 'Blood Relations'. The members of the Parents Circle--Families Forum came together to bring this idea to reality. We invite you to be a part of the effort. You can make a virtual blood donation at Blood Relations dot org or GO here and you can support our work at Network for Good. Donations can be made online through Network for Good. American Friends of the Parents Circle-Families Forum is a duly registered 501(c)(3) organization.

American Friends of PCFF
301 East 57th Street
4th Floor
New York, New York 10022
US

From The Parents Circle – Families Forum : Introduction

"Peace is possible when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable (…) the members of the Parents Circle have experienced this truth In the depths of their Suffering and loss. They have found that there Is more that unites us than Divides us, that we are All members of one family, the human family (…)" Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus ( Letter to The Parents Circle – Families Forum, April 2004 )

Consisting of several hundreds of bereaved families, half Palestinian and half Israeli, The Families Forum has played a crucial role since its inception in 1995, in spearheading a reconciliation process between Israelis and Palestinians. The Forum members have all lost immediate family members due to the violence in the region.

parentscircle.org

NEW Summary of Bill Pelke's Story

2011-09-26T11:16:00.001-07:00

Find a thorough new summary of Bill Pelke's STILL amazing story of love and forgiveness on Angela Grobbens site here with this Article Index:
Bill Pelke & The Journey of Hope
The Attack on Nana
The Death Penalty Transformation
Help Paula Cooper
Don't Kill in Italy
Pilgrimage March
The Journey of Hope - The People
All Pages

NC DA: Death penalty cases held up by Racial Justice Law

2011-09-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

WSOCTV.com

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011 posted by WNCDPR (Western North Carolina Death Penalty Repeal)

Here is another article where our mighty district attornies are complaining about laws they are chartered to follow being ”quite the burden on my office and a drain on the resources.”

Sir or m’am, seeking the death penalty in the first place, places quite the burden on your office; as well as our state budget.

Seeking the death sentence as a punishment invovles embarking on a unique trial where the defendant is tried and if convicted, sentenced in an entirely separate costly trial. Surely one more motion to consider, one of such importance as continuously demonstrated racial bias in our courts, will hardly be any more of a burden on an already cumbersome path to justice? Besides, if you are to use the death penalty as a tool that is “solid and something prosecutors should have in their tool belt,” it must be sharp and in accordance with North Carolina law.

----------

Also see May & June 2011 on The Journey blog archive (see column to right on this site under the archive month) for other items on the NC Racial Justice Act

NC/ GEORGIA: Death Penalty Debate Heats Up

2011-09-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

Updated

Asheville and Georgia cases ignite death penalty debate:
One execution, two exonerations raise questions of justice

From Sunday 25, 2011 Asheville Citizen Times FRONT PAGE article and posted by Acury here

ALSO:

Death penalty debate heats up: Today's Top Headline in the Asheville Citizen-Times
GO here

Asheville and Georgia cases ignite death penalty debate
One execution, two exonerations raise questions of justice

ASHEVILLE — Fifteen hours stood between the execution of Troy Davis amid questions over his true guilt and the sunny afternoon two Asheville men exonerated in another murder case walked free.

But the cases stand out for reasons other than just timing. Though each held significant differences from the other, they both have reignited debate over the death penalty and imperfections within our justice system.

Davis, convicted of killing an off-duty police officer in Georgia in 1989, was given a trial.

Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a 2000 slaying under threats from investigators and prosecutors and even their own attorneys and family, who wanted to spare them life in prison or the possibility of a death sentence.

Davis gained national attention, with even the pope questioning his guilt.
The case of Kagonyera and Wilcoxson generated passing interest before they were freed Thursday.

But where Davis had to work within the court system, Kagonyera and Wilcoxson had the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission.

Its success with their case will give new momentum to calls for similar justice system checks in other states.

“Courts are traditionally jaded and don’t want to believe people can be wrongfully convicted,” said Winston-Salem attorney Mark Rabil, who heads the Wake Forest University School of Law Innocence and Justice Clinic.

“Somebody needs to be looking over the court system,” he said.

N.C. commission unique:

North Carolina has the nation’s only investigative innocence commission.
It examines and evaluates post-conviction claims of factual innocence and can refer cases to a three-judge panel for a ruling.

The commission’s budget is $403,714 a year for a staff of five.

The federal government kicked in another $566,890 for 18 months starting in January 2010. The money funds two additional attorneys to investigate homicide and sex offense cases in which DNA testing can be used.

The Kagonyera and Wilcoxson case, stemming from a robbery and killing in Fairview, was handled under the federal grant.

--

Submitted By:

Alexandra Cury
cury.alexandra@gmail.com

North Carolina: a one-of-a-kind system for examining innocence

2011-09-26T04:46:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY Sep 23, 2011 15:42 ET

Also see repost at Salon.com and cover story on Innocence Asheville Citizen Times with more photos also friday Sep 23, 2011

NC's unique process spotlights innocence efforts
By MARTHA WAGGONER and TOM BREEN, Associated Press

AP
Robert Wilcoxson, right, is embraced by his father Robert Wilcoxson-Bey after being proclaimed innocent and released from prison on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 in Asheville, N.C. Wilcoxson walked out of jail Thursday afternoon, hours after being found innocent along with Kenneth Kagonyera for a 2000 murder. Robert Wilcoxson and Kagonyera had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Walter Bowman. They said they agreed to the pleas to avoid the possibility of the death penalty or life behind bars. (AP Photo/The Asheville Citizen-Times, Erin Brethauer)Fifteen hours after Troy Davis was executed, two men walked out of a North Carolina prison after being exonerated of a murder they had pleaded guilty to committing more than 10 years ago.

The difference, legal experts and observers say, is largely explained by a one-of-a-kind system for examining innocence claims that the state launched in 2005. That process is what freed Robert Wilcoxson and Kenneth Kagonyera from a lockup in Asheville.

"If Georgia had the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, I believe Troy Davis today would be free instead of dead," said Mark Rabil, a defense lawyer and co-director of the Innocence and Justice Clinic at the Wake Forest University School of Law.

Prosecutors, though, say that wrongful convictions are rare and that they work carefully to make sure innocent people never are charged in the first place.

Davis was executed Wednesday for the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. Defense attorneys said several key witnesses disputed their testimony and other people claimed that another man confessed to the crime, but state and federal courts repeatedly upheld the conviction. His case garnered worldwide attention, with celebrities, the pope and former President Jimmy Carter among his supporters.

In North Carolina, the state commission examines claims like those made by Davis -- who maintained his innocence even when he was strapped to a gurney in Georgia's death chamber. If cases meet rigorous criteria, they are reviewed by a three-judge panel that can reverse a conviction only if the decision is unanimous.

Wilcoxson and Kagonyera said they had pleaded guilty to the 2000 murder of Walter Bowman during a home invasion robbery to avoid possible death sentences. The judges determined DNA and other evidence exonerated the men. Testimony showed a different man confessed to a federal agent.

The exonerations are especially significant because the two men struck those plea deals. Prosecutors have proposed a bill -- to be considered next year -- that would prevent those who plead guilty from coming before the innocence commission. The only other man freed by the commission, Greg Taylor, maintained his innocence throughout the 17 years he spent in prison. A jury convicted Taylor, who had pleaded not guilty.

"This is a testament to the need for an innocence commission project, and to the fact that people can be not guilty even if they plead guilty in court," said Christine Mumma, director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, which advocates for convicts seeking exoneration.

Prosecutors also wield a big stick when they threaten a defendant with the death penalty. Of the 273 people exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing in the U.S. since 1989, the death penalty was threatened or imposed in 46 cases, said Stephen Saloom, policy director of the New York-based Innocence Project. Of 14 threatened with the death penalty, 13 confessed or pleaded guilty.

Another 15 faced possible death sentences but either were convicted of a lesser charge or received a different sentence. In the other 17 cases, people were sentenced to die before post-conviction DNA evidence proved their innocence.

And some states don't allow courts to consider exonerating DNA evidence when defendants have pleaded guilty, Saloom said.

In the case of Kagonyera and Wilcoxson, prosecutors had DNA evidence excluding them even before they pleaded guilty. But defense attorney Sean Devereux said he wasn't aware of it. Buncombe County District Attorney Ron Moore has said he doesn't know why the defense didn't get the information.

Rabil said the case will show how much the threat of capital punishment can distort the criminal justice system.

"When the odds are stacked against you because of the death penalty, the lawyers, the people in the cases, out of fear of the unfairness of the death penalty trial, will do everything they can do within their powers, ethically, to convince someone to plead guilty," Rabil said. "I've done it myself."

But prosecutors say that they regularly exonerate suspects and that appeals courts already serve the same function as the innocence commission.

Scott Burns, a former Utah prosecutor who now is executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, noted that Davis had two decades' worth of appeals. He also pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court granted Davis a rare hearing to prove his innocence.

"As a prosecutor it is so frustrating to have people say you executed an innocent man if you were there at the crime scene, you were involved in marshaling evidence with law enforcement, you were questioning witnesses throughout the investigation and making a determination about whether to proceed before you finally put the case before a jury," he said.

Prosecutors aren't always right, Burns said, but thousands of convictions are never challenged.

"With millions of cases across the country, every once in a while you get something wrong," he said. "But that's the one everyone hears about."

------

Martha Waggoner can be reached here

I Ordered Death in Georgia

2011-09-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

Found at Readers Supported News

I Ordered Death in Georgia
By Allen Ault, The Daily Beast
25 September 11

The state's former DOC commissioner on 'rehearsed murder.'

I can't always remember their names, but in my nightmares I can see their faces. As the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections from 1992 until 1995, I oversaw five executions. The first two were Thomas Dean Stevens and Christopher Burger, accomplices in a monstrous crime: as teenagers in 1977, they robbed and raped a cabdriver, put him in the trunk of a car, and pushed the vehicle into a pond. I had no doubt that they were guilty: they admitted it to me. But now it was 1993 and they were in their 30s. All these years later, after a little frontal-lobe development, they were entirely different people.

On execution days, I always drove from Atlanta to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. I knew death row well: 20 years earlier, I had built it. The state had hired me as the warden of Georgia Diagnostic in 1971, where I renovated a special cell block for especially violent offenders. After I left Georgia in 1977, the state reinstated the death penalty and turned the cell block I had developed into death row.

The state executed Stevens first, in June 1993, and then Burger in December. In both instances, I visited them in a cell next to the electric-chair chamber, where they counted down the hours until they died. They were calm, mature, and remorseful. When the time came, I went to a small room directly behind the death chamber where the attorney general worked the phones, checking with the courts to make sure that the executions were not stayed. Then we asked the prisoners for their final words. Stevens said nothing, and Burger apologized, saying, "Please forgive me." I looked to the prison electrician and ordered him to pull the switch. Last Wednesday, as the state of Georgia prepared to execute Troy Davis despite concerns about his guilt, I wrote a letter with five former death-row wardens and directors urging Georgia prison officials to commute his sentence. I feared not only the risk of Georgia killing an innocent man, but also the psychological toll it would exact on the prison workers who performed his execution. "No one has the right to ask a public servant to take on a lifelong sentence of nagging doubt, and for some of us, shame and guilt," we wrote in our letter.

The men and women who assist in executions are not psychopaths or sadists. They do their best to perform the impossible and inhumane job with which the state has charged them. Those of us who have participated in executions often suffer something very much like posttraumatic stress. Many turn to alcohol and drugs. For me, those nights that weren't sleepless were plagued by nightmares. My mother and wife worried about me. I tried not to share with them that I was struggling, but they knew I was.

I didn't grow up saying, "I want to work in prisons." I had never even been in a prison or a jail before I became warden of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison. The commissioner at the time hired me to revamp the system, to implement case management, and work with inmates to make them safer. I had always worked in helping professions, and my main goal in corrections was always to reduce recidivism, so that inmates would leave prison better than they arrived. Over this course of time, the death penalty figured larger and larger into my work. I never supported it, but I also did not want to let it distract me from improving overall prison conditions. Death-row inmates are, after all, only a tiny fraction of the prison population.

When I was required to supervise an execution, I tried to rationalize my work by thinking, if I just save one future victim, maybe it is worth it. But I was very aware of the research showing that the death penalty wasn't a deterrent. I left my job as corrections commissioner in Georgia in 1995 partially because I had had enough: I didn't want to supervise the executions anymore. My focus changed to national crime policy and then to academia, where I could work to improve the criminal-justice system without participating in its worst parts. Today, I am the dean of the College of Justice & Safety at Eastern Kentucky University.

Having witnessed executions firsthand, I have no doubts: capital punishment is a very scripted and rehearsed murder. It's the most premeditated murder possible. As Troy Davis's execution approached - and then passed its set hour, as the Supreme Court considered a stay - I thought of the terrible tension we all experienced as executions dragged into the late hours of the night. No one wanted to go ahead with the execution, but then a court stay offered little relief: you knew you were going to repeat the whole process and execute him sometime in the future.

I will always live with these images - with "nagging doubt," even though I do not believe that any of the executions carried out under my watch were mistaken. I hope that, in the future, men and women will not die for their crimes, and other men and women will not have to kill them. The United States should be like every other civilized country in the Western world and abolish the death penalty.
========

Last night I saw "The Green Mile" once again - a film based on a series of stories by Stephen King. Like this essay, the vignettes of the death row staff provide thoughtful consideration as we look at the people who order and execute such death.
The Journey blogger, Connie

NC: Frontpage Asheville Citizen Times : Judges free men in Asheville innocence hearing

2011-09-24T04:15:00.000-07:00

GO here

RIP Troy Davis: Your Killers Should Be Ashamed

2011-09-24T03:11:00.000-07:00

By Andy Worthington
22.9.11

Despite an eleventh hour appeal to the US Supreme Court, Troy Davis, on death row in Georgia for 20 years, was executed last night, by lethal injection, at 11pm, local time. The Supreme Court took four hours to turn down his appeal for clemency, even though rumors had spread that his execution would be stayed, for up to a week, and that Justice Clarence Thomas — not a man generally known for his humanitarianism — was particularly interested in his case.

Troy Davis’s execution was not an isolated incident in the US. 34 death row prisoners had already been executed in America this year, and although the number of executions in the US is declining (from a 30-year high of 98 in 1999), there were still 46 executions last year. In addition, at the start of this year, there were 3,251 prisoners on death row in the US, and when it comes to executions, only three countries have more institutional vengeance than the US — China, Iran and Iraq.

Even so, Troy Davis’s case was particularly noteworthy for two reasons: firstly, because of the breadth of support he received from around the world, with nearly a million people calling for him not to be executed, in petitions that were delivered to Chatham County District Attorney Larry Chisolm (with many more also signing online petitions), and also because of the widespread protests around the world as the date for his execution approached; and secondly, because there were such profound doubts about his guilt. This, again, is no obstacle to execution in the US, but it was made a particular issue by the state of Georgia, as Amnesty International explained eloquently in a blog post on Tuesday.

Speaking of the rejection of Davis’s clemency petition by Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Paroles, Amnesty wrote, “This appalling decision renders meaningless the Board’s 2007 vow to not permit an execution unless there is “no doubt” about guilt. The Troy Davis case is riddled with doubt.”

These doubts stem from the chilling truth that seven of the nine witnesses on whose testimony Troy Davis was convicted of killing off-duty police officer Mark McPhail in August 1989, have publicly recanted their statements. Despite this, however, the state apparatus of Georgia didn’t care.

Whether it was the particular details of Troy Davis’s case, or the fact that he somehow became the focus of a wider movement, both at home and abroad, against the death penalty, campaigners hope that his death will not be in vain, and that it will mark a turning point in the campaifgn to eradicate the death penalty, both in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Amnesty International has launched a “Not In My Name Pledge,” asking supporters to “pledge to fight to abolish the death penalty,” which readers can sign here.

Troy Davis’s final words last night, as his killers prepared to execute him, were directed first of all at the family of Mark McPhail. Maintaining his innocence to the last, he said:

I’d like to address the MacPhail family. Let you know, despite the situation you are in, I’m not the one who personally killed your son, your father, your brother. I am innocent. The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun. All I can ask … is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth.

After this, he said:

I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight. For those about to take my life, God have mercy on your souls. And may God bless your souls.

In remembering Troy Davis, it would be appropriate if all those who supported him “continue to fight this fight” against the death penalty, which has no place in any country that dares to call itself civilized.

And for encouragement, let us recall Troy’s own words, which he spoke in 2008, after his planned execution was stayed for the third time (he was scheduled for execution in July 2007, September 2008 and October 2008). That year, at the National Convention of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, his sister, Martina Correia, who never stopped fighting for her brother despite suffering from cancer, read out a statement from Troy that included the following inspiring words:

There are so many more Troy Davises. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me, but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. […]

We must dismantle this unjust system, city by city, state by state and country by country. I can’t wait to stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form. I will one day be announcing, “I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”

Never stop fighting for justice, and we will win!

Note: To find out more about upcoming executions in the US, and to take action to try to prevent any further executions, please visit this Amnesty International page.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in June 2011, “The Complete Guantánamo Files,” a 70-part, 700,000-word series drawing on files released by WikiLeaks in April 2011, and details about the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, and available on DVD here — or here for the US). Also see my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.

To see original posting GO to Andy Worthington dot co dot uk for Sep 22, 2011

Troy Davis: GA State Killing - Top Headline Huff Post (over 3800 comments)

2011-09-22T01:47:00.000-07:00

September 21-22, 2011
here

TROY DAVIS: 10.09.1968 to 09.21.2011

Death Sentence Based On 'The Skimpiest Of Evidence'..Former FBI Chief: 'Pervasive, Persistent Doubts' About Guilt

READ: Troy Davis Executed: Controversially Convicted Inmate Maintains Innocence Until The End BY John Rudolf - National Reporter for the Huffington Post who is based in New York City. (Now with 3,831 comments and 133 pending comments)

JACKSON, Ga. -- Troy Davis, convicted of murdering an off-duty Savannah police officer more than 20 years ago, held fast to his claims of innocence even as he was finally executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night.Strapped to a gurney and minutes from death, Davis stated that he had not carried a gun the night of the murder and did not shoot the officer, Mark MacPhail, in a fast food restaurant parking lot on an August night in 1989.Speaking directly to MacPhail's brother and son, who witnessed the execution, Davis beseeched them to continue to examine the events that night. "All I can ask is that you look deep into this case so you can really find the truth," he said.Davis then addressed prison officials preparing to inject him with a lethal mix of chemicals. "May God have mercy on your souls," he said.

READ ON here or GO here

Skim the many comments to follow as we who have followed this case ask: what about this solitary life and death is leading to so much conversation? What can we do to change the dynamics for others? Wherre is justice? Where is mercy? Where is healing? Where is peace?

What about a better future for our world and our children?

Plz join the Journey of Hope conversation by commenting below...

Also see Wash Post's article and video with moving vignette of Troy Davis' sister (who's fighting breast cancer) standing for her brother here

photos found at Huffington Post and at BET.com

Amnesty International USA shares a few words from Troy Davis

2011-09-22T01:28:00.001-07:00

The day before his scheduled execution, this is what Troy Davis asked us to share with you:"The struggle for justice doesn't end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I'm in good spirits and I'm prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I've taken my last breath."

=======

Readers may also want to see similar and ongoing reports at Reader Supported News with over 35 Comments here

Troy Davis Execution: NCADP Statement

2011-09-22T01:05:00.000-07:00

Breaking(9/20/11): Troy Davis Executed.

Official NCADP Statement:

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty expresses it's deep condolences to the family of Troy Anthony Davis.

They have suffered immeasurably throughout this terrible process.

We can scarcely imagine what the family must be going through: to have the government to which they pay taxes so unjustly and unfairly take the life of someone they so dearly loved. We commend the family on the struggle they waged to bring the injustice in this case to light and to keep Troy Davis alive.

Today the state of Georgia denied the humanity of Troy Anthony Davis. The state of Georgia also denied the humanity of his family, whose grief and loss is real and worthy of recognition. Georgia also denied the humanity of millions of people in Georgia, across the country and the word. This execution being done in the name of the people of Georgia, indeed, in the name of all of us bound by the laws of the U.S. Constitution was done without our agreement and over our vigorous and sustained objection.

The effort to save the life of Troy Davis ends today but the campaign to end the death penalty begins anew, in earnest. If the people cannot control their government, if what is done in our name is done despite our objection, it is our solemn duty to work with the people of Georgia to make it right. Government must be responsible and accountable to the people - all the people equally.

We pledge to follow the example set by the Davis Family and Troy, to continue the fight, upholding the dignity and humanity of every person - if this is not the last execution in Georgia, it will be among the last.

Today, the state of Georgia has demonstrated the extreme degree to which its system of justice is broken. It can not be sustained. We call on all who have worked so tirelessly in Georgia to prevent this travesty of justice to work equally hard with us to end the death penalty Georgia, and everywhere so that no family will again have to suffer what Troy Davis's family has suffered today.

NCADP: Devoted to Abolishing Capital Punishment
Facts & Figures · Resources · En Español · Publications · Media · Exonerees · En Francais · NCADP Affiliates · Rachel's Fund · Innocent and Executed · Shouting from the Rooftops · Abolition Times

For More from NCADP GO here

Also watch to see if the Troy Davis family may suggest a fund in their loved one's name.

GEORGIA----execution

2011-09-22T00:52:00.000-07:00

Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer, a crime he denied committing right to the end as supporters around the world mourned and declared that an innocent man was put to death.

Defiant to the end, he told relatives of Mark MacPhail that his 1989 slaying was not his fault. "I did not have a gun," he insisted.

"For those about to take my life," he told prison officials, "may God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls."

Davis was declared dead at 11:08 ET. The lethal injection began about 15 minutes earlier, after the Supreme Court rejected an 11th-hour request for a stay.

The court did not comment on its order, which came about four hours after it received the request and more than three hours after the planned execution time.

Though Davis' attorneys said 7 of 9 key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against granting him a new trial. As the court losses piled up Wednesday, his offer to take a polygraph test was rejected and the pardons board refused to give him one more hearing.

Davis' supporters staged vigils in the U.S. and Europe, declaring "I am Troy Davis" on signs, T-shirts and the Internet. Some tried increasingly frenzied measures, urging prison workers to stay home and even posting a judge's phone number online, hoping people will press him to put a stop to the lethal injection. President Barack Obama deflected calls for him to get involved.

"They say death row; we say hell no!" protesters shouted outside the Jackson prison where Davis was to be executed. In Washington, a crowd outside the Supreme Court yelled the same chant.

As many as 700 demonstrators gathered outside the prison as a few dozen riot police stood watch, but the crowd thinned as the night wore on and the outcome became clear. The scene turned eerily quiet as word of the high court's decision spread, with demonstrators hugging, crying, praying, holding candles and gathering around Davis' family.

Laura Moye of Amnesty International said the execution would be "the best argument for abolishing the death penalty."

"The state of Georgia is about to demonstrate why government can't be trusted with the power over life and death," she said.

About 10 counterdemonstrators also were outside the prison, showing support for the death penalty and the family of Mark MacPhail, the man Davis was convicted of killing in 1989. MacPhail's son and brother attended the execution.

"He had all the chances in the world," his mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said of Davis in a telephone interview. "It has got to come to an end."

At a Paris rally, many of the roughly 150 demonstrators carried signs emblazoned with Davis' face. "Everyone who looks a little bit at the case knows that there is too much doubt to execute him," Nicolas Krameyer of Amnesty International said at the protest.

Davis' execution has been stopped 3 times since 2007, but on Wednesday the 42-year-old ran out of legal options.

As his last hours ticked away, an upbeat and prayerful Davis turned down an offer for a special last meal as he met with friends, family and supporters.

"Troy Davis has impacted the world," his sister Martina Correia said at a news conference. "They say, `I am Troy Davis,' in languages he can't speak."

His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously.

"He doesn't want to spend 3 hours away from his family on what could be the last day of his life if it won't make any difference," Marsh said.

Amnesty International says nearly 1 million people had signed a petition on Davis' behalf. His supporters included former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the NAACP, several conservative figures and many celebrities, including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

"I'm trying to bring the word to the young people: There is too much doubt," rapper Big Boi, of the Atlanta-based group Outkast, said at a church near the prison.

The U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year, though the high court itself did not hear the merits of the case.

He was convicted in 1991 of killing MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at the time. MacPhail rushed to the aid of a homeless man who prosecutors said Davis was bashing with a handgun after asking him for a beer. Prosecutors said Davis had a smirk on his face as he shot the officer to death in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah.

No gun was ever found, but prosecutors say shell casings were linked to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted.

Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter, but several of them have recanted their accounts and some jurors have said they've changed their minds about his guilt. Others have claimed a man who was with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer.

"Such incredibly flawed eyewitness testimony should never be the basis for an execution," Marsh said. "To execute someone under these circumstances would be unconscionable."

State and federal courts, however, have repeatedly upheld Davis' conviction. One federal judge dismissed the evidence advanced by Davis' lawyers as "largely smoke and mirrors."

"He has had ample time to prove his innocence," said MacPhail's widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris. "And he is not innocent."

The last motion filed by Davis' attorneys in Butts County Court challenged testimony from two witnesses and disputed testimony from the expert who linked the shell casings to the earlier shooting involving Davis. Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson and the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the appeal, and prosecutors said the filing was just a delay tactic.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which helped lead the charge to stop the execution, said it considered asking Obama to intervene, even though he cannot grant Davis clemency for a state conviction.

Press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying that although Obama "has worked to ensure accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system," it was not appropriate for him "to weigh in on specific cases like this one, which is a state prosecution."

Dozens of protesters outside the White House called on the president to step in, and about 12 were arrested for disobeying police orders.

Davis was not the only U.S. inmate put to death Wednesday evening. In Texas, white supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was put to death for the 1998 dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Jr., one of the most notorious hate crime murders in recent U.S. history.

Davis' best chance may have come last year, in a hearing ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the 1st time in 50 years that justices had considered a request to grant a new trial for a death row inmate.

The high court set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence -- a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, the justices didn't take up the case.

The execution drew widespread criticism in Europe, where politicians and activists made last-minute pleas for a stay.

Spencer Lawton, the district attorney who secured Davis' conviction in 1991, said he was embarrassed for the judicial system -- not because of the execution, but because it took so long to carry out.

"What we have had is a manufactured appearance of doubt which has taken on the quality of legitimate doubt itself. And all of it is exquisitely unfair," said Lawton, who retired as Chatham County's head prosecutor in 2008. "The good news is we live in a civilized society where questions like this are decided based on fact in open and transparent courts of law, and not on street corners."

Davis becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 52nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Davis becomes the 35th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1269th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: CBS News & Rick Halperin)

Follow Updates on Troy Davis and more on FB wall

2011-09-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Send this out to others:
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See ways to ACT via Twitter and petitions in the post just below and earlier items...

GEORGIA----Letter to Gov & Corrections Official

2011-09-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

GEORGIA----

CORRECTIONS OFFICIALS SIGN-ON FOR TROY DAVIS

This morning, 6 retired corrections officials, including Dr. Allen Ault, retired Director of the Georgia Department of Corrections and former Warden of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison where he oversaw executions for the state, have sent the following letter to Georgia Corrections Officials and Governor Nathan Deal asking them to urge the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider the decision they made on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 to deny Troy Davis Clemency despite concerns about his guilt. Davis is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, September 21 at 7:00pm at Georgia Diagnostics & Classifications Prison in Jackson, Georgia.

Statement:

We write to you as former wardens and corrections officials who have had direct involvement in executions. Like few others in this country, we understand that you have a job to do in carrying out the lawful orders of the judiciary. We also understand, from our own personal experiences, the awful lifelong repercussions that come from participating in the execution of prisoners. While most of the prisoners whose executions we participated in accepted responsibility for the crimes for which they were punished, some of us have also executed prisoners who maintained their innocence until the end. It is those cases that are most haunting to an executioner.

We write to you today with the overwhelming concern that an innocent person could be executed in Georgia tonight. We know the legal process has exhausted itself in the case of Troy Anthony Davis, and yet, doubt about his guilt remains. This very fact will have an irreversible and damaging impact on your staff. Many people of significant standing share these concerns, including, notably, William Sessions, Director of the FBI under President Ronald Reagan.

Living with the nightmares is something that we know from experience. No one has the right to ask a public servant to take on a lifelong sentence of nagging doubt, and for some of us, shame and guilt. Should our justice system be causing so much harm to so many people when there is an alternative?

We urge you to ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider their decision. Should that fail, we urge you to unburden yourselves and your staff from the pain of participating in such a questionable execution to the extent possible by allowing any personnel so inclined to opt-out of activities related to the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. Further, we urge you to provide appropriate counseling to personnel who do choose to perform their job functions related to the execution. If we may be of assistance to you moving forward, please do not hesitate to call upon any of us.

Respectfully and collegially,

Allen Ault – Retired Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classifications Prison

Terry Collins – Retired Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Ron McAndrew – Retired Warden, Florida State Prison

Dennis O’Neill - Retired Warden, Florida State Prison

Reginald Wilkinson – Retired Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Jeanne Woodford – Retired Warden, San Quentin State Prison

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

6 Prison Wardens say to Georgia “Do not kill Troy Davis”

For the past 2 weeks, I have been posting about the Troy Davis case as his execution date (September 21, 2011 at 7:00PM) was fast approaching. Please join me and the other now one million people from around the world that have asked for clemency for Troy Davis.

Below is the most recent email alert related to the Troy Davis case from Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The email implores us to continue to take action today to ensure that Georgia does not execute an innocent man.

“Friends,

We have only hours left to stop the execution of Troy Davis. We ask allof you to stay engaged, to stay active. Keep calling on the Parole Board to reconsider its decision, and on the Chatham County(Savannah) District Attorney Larry Chisolm to do the right thing by contactingthe Chatham County’s District Attorney’s office by phone/fax: Telephone: 912-652-7308. Fax: 912-652-7328.

Continue to send a send a letter to Dr. Carlo Musso at Rainbow Medical Associates and urge him torefuse to participate in the execution of Troy Davis. Rainbow Medical Associates is the medical team that assists with Georgia’s executions.

Dr. Carlo Musso, President, and Employees

CorrectHealth

9020 Peridot Parkway

Stockbridge, GA 30281

Fax: 770-692-4754

Here is a statement issued from corrections officials cautioningagainst the execution of Troy Davis because “living with the nightmares issomething that we know from experience.” Please forward this statement far and wide.

If you are use Twitter, please post one or all of these sample messages to help get the word out on the letter from the corrections officials:

Corrections officials urge #TroyDavis #executioners against proceeding, warn of”nightmares” http://bit.ly/r0VFQ5#TooMuchDoubt

6 Prison Wardens say to Georgia”Do not kill #TroyDavis” http://bit.ly/r0VFQ5#TooMuchDoubt

Prison wardens tell GA:”Living with the nightmares is something that we know fromexperience” – don’t #execute #TroyDavisbit.ly/r0VFQ5

We really appreciate the interest in comingout to support tonight. We strongly encourage you to stay in Atlanta and attend the vigil at the Capitol that the Open Door Community is leading. It is always moving and steeped intenets of our social justice movement. The prison is going to be packed. Please stay in Atlanta(or attend a site near you) to show your support.

Here is more information about vigils beingheld around Georgia: http://www.gfadp.org/vigils

Thank you for taking action!”

It is my hope that you will join me and countless others around the world seeking to make sure that justice is served in the Davis Case. It is important to act now to let the state of Georgia – and the world – know that you stand by Troy Davis in his fight for justice by joining the efforts undertaken by Amnesty, NAACP, and countless other organizations to halt this injustice. This is a matter of life and death, and time is running out. (sources: Nichelle Mitchem, gather.com; Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty)

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

Request for Lie Detector Test for Davis Is Denied

2011-09-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

PHOTO from Savannah Morning News,
via Associated Press Troy Anthony Davis entering Chatham County Superior Court in Georgia on Aug. 22, 1991, during his trial in the shooting death of an off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail.

By KIM SEVERSON

From The New York Times

September 21, 2011

ATLANTA — An official of the N.A.A.C.P. said on Wednesday that the vote by the Georgia parole board to deny clemency to Troy Davis was so close that he hoped there might still be a chance to save him from execution at 7 p.m.

Edward O. DuBose, president of the Georgia chapter, said the organization had “very reliable information from the board members directly that the board was split 3 to 2 on whether to grant clemency.”

“The fact that that kind of division was in the room is even more of a sign that there is a strong possibility to save Troy’s life,” he said.

The N.A.A.C.P said it had been in contact with the Department of Justice on Wednesday, in the hope that the federal government would intervene on the basis of civil rights violations, meaning irregularities in the original investigation and at the trial.

At the same time, hundreds of people were starting to gather at the prison in Jackson, about an hour’s drive south of Atlanta, where Mr. Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection.

Earlier in the day, his lawyers asked the state for one more chance to spare him: a lie detector test.

But the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole, which on Tuesday denied Mr. Davis’s clemency after a daylong hearing Monday, quickly responded that there would be no reconsideration of the case, and the polygraph test was abandoned.

Mr. Davis’s supporters were also reaching out to the prosecutor in the original case, asking that he persuade the original judge to rescind the death order. Benjamin T. Jealous, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who planned to visit Mr. Davis on Wednesday, was trying to ask President Obama for a reprieve.

The Innocence Project, which has had a hand in the exoneration of 17 death-row inmates through the use of DNA testing, sent a letter to the Chatham County district attorney, Larry Chisolm, urging him to withdraw the execution warrant against Mr. Davis, although there is no DNA evidence at issue in the case.

Mr. Davis was convicted of the 1989 shooting of Mark MacPhail, a Savannah police officer who was working a second job as a security guard. A homeless man called for help after a group that included Mr. Davis began to assault him, according to court testimony. When Mr. MacPhail went to assist him, he was shot in the face and the heart.

Since then, Mr. Davis has walked to the brink of execution three other times.

With this most recent execution date, he became an international symbol of the battle over the death penalty and racial imbalance in the justice system.

“It harkens back to some ugly days in the history of this state,” said the Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church, who visited Mr. Davis on Monday.

But for the family of the slain officer, and countless others who believe that two decades’ worth of legal appeals and Supreme Court intervention is more than enough to ensure justice, it is not an issue of race but of law.

Calling Mr. Davis a victim is ludicrous, said Mr. MacPhail’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris.

“We have lived this for 22 years,” she said Monday. “We are victims.”

She added: “We have laws in this land so that there is not chaos. We are not killing Troy because we want to.”

Her daughter, Madison, 24, along with her brother, Mark, 22, will be at the execution Wednesday. The officer’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, will not. But she welcomes it, saying: “I’m not for blood — I’m for justice. We have been through hell, my family.”

Mr. Davis’s family, who had gathered in an Atlanta hotel to await the decision, learned that he would be put to death from members of his legal team and Amnesty International. They immediately went to the prison to be with him.

Mr. Davis, who has refused a last meal, was in good spirits and prayerful, said Wende Gozan Brown, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International, who visited Mr. Davis on Tuesday.

He told her that his death was for all the Troy Davises who came before and after him.

“I will not stop fighting until I’ve taken my last breath,” he said in a conversation relayed by Ms. Brown. “Georgia is prepared to snuff out the life of an innocent man.”

The case has been a slow and convoluted exercise in legal maneuvering and death penalty politics.

This is the fourth time Mr. Davis has faced the death penalty. The state parole board granted him a stay in 2007 as he was preparing for his final hours, saying the execution should not proceed unless its members “are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused.” The board has since added three new members.

In 2008, his execution was about 90 minutes away when the Supreme Court stepped in. Although the court kept Mr. Davis from execution, it later declined to hear the case.

In the week before his third execution date, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued a stay to consider his lawyer’s arguments that new testimony that could prove his innocence had not been considered.

The appeals court denied the claim but allowed time for Mr. Davis to take his argument directly to the Supreme Court, which ordered a federal court to once again examine new testimony.

But in June, a federal district court judge in Savannah said Mr. Davis’s legal team had failed to demonstrate his innocence, setting the stage for the new date.

This time around, the case catapulted into the national consciousness with record numbers of petitions — more than 630,000 — delivered to the board to stay the execution, and a list of people asking for clemency included former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 51 members of Congress, entertainment figures like Cee Lo Green and even some death penalty supporters, including William S. Sessions, a former F.B.I. director.

GA's planned execution draws protests worldwide

2011-09-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

This is a thorough, long, interesting article from a WNC source

Ga inmate's execution nears; protests worldwide | BlueRidgeNow.com
GO here

Published: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 3:18 p.m

Various Bloggers Follow Troy Davis Events

2011-09-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

I was in process of posting when the disjointed post turned up on the Journey FB blog. :) Here's what I meant to post:

Karoli's Blog "Georgia Set to Murder Troy Davis" This blogger is passionate and well-versed - clear identity with the family - strongly stating no matter what there IS no closure... Go to Crooksandliars.com here Also see Rachel Maddow Video at this site.

============

Sounds like just this WNC guy is a youth with some curiousity as well as plenty of empathy. So come back to see what Jason Bugg writes up. You can be sure he will get in some unique folk and angles as he pland to cover the execution (or by some miracle another stay) of Troy Davis.

After making an appeal for financial help— he says: “[W]ith this money I’ll buy gas for my car and a rather unhealthy fast food dinner for myself. Nothing frivolous at all will be happening here, I promise.”—Bugg received enough donations to justify the trip.

He’ll be covering the event through his Twitter account, as well as a later, more comprehensive post on his blog.

Here's the intro:

Tonight at around 7 PM in a city just outside of Atlanta, a man who very well might be innocent is going to be murdered by the state of Georgia. That man, Troy Davis, sits on death row and is running out of options fast.

The next eleven hours are probably going to be hell for the guy, and there’s going to be a lot of people clamoring for attention and a chance to give their opinions on the death penalty and its place in America’s Judicial System.

I don’t know if I want to be one of those people or not, but the fact of the matter is that I’m very interested in taking a trip down to Georgia and taking some photos, a few videos and talking to the people who will undoubtedly be gathered outside of the prison...

Read more now or later here

==========
Connie's Note:

Also, you can be SURE Dr. Rick Halperin will also be covering these sobering events much later tonight in Texas as well as some other sad execution news seemingly ongoing from there. Just find his site by going to the right column of webs and blogs here on The Journey of Hope blogsite. Also be sure to check out the Journey FB blog...and COMMENT here or there.

Most of all = PRAY for everyone involved...

Help Save Troy Davis' Life: More Suggestions/Petition

2011-09-19T04:32:00.000-07:00

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON TO SAVE TROY DAVIS' LIFE! AN APPEAL FOR MORE EMERGENCY DEMOS, SEPT. 19 AND SEPT. 20!

Whether you use FB or not, you should easily be able to SIGN petition on Death Penalty Focus California site here

Other Options below:

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles is scheduled to meet on Monday, Sept. 19 to determine if Troy Davis is executed on Sept. 21 or is granted clemency. Hundreds of cities held Sept. 16 protests. Let's continue to keep the pressure on the Board to stop this racist execution by holding emergency protests on Monday, Sept. 19 and Tuesday, Sept. 20. Let the International Action Center know about your action so that it can be listed for others in your cities. Use the September 16 Actions form here to let us know about your action.

Please continue to sign and urge others to sign the petitions which have generated more than 3 million emails. Remember that this petition goes to every member of the Board along with the Georgia legislature, the governor, the White House, U.S. Congress and major media. The petition url is here

For more information on the campaign, go to the Amnesty International USA site here

For those who are new to this information, here's a brief summary:

Troy Davis is an African American on death row in Georgia. Davis was convicted in the 1989 killing of a police officer despite what Amnesty International calls "overwhelming doubts about his guilt." No physical forensic evidence was presented at Davis' trial, and 7 of the 9 non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, with at least two saying they were pressured by police to finger Davis as the killer.

TAKE ACTION NOW to let the Georgia Parole Board, Governor, Legislature, and congressional delegation as well as President Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban, Congressional leaders and members of the media know you demand No Execution of Troy Davis!

Your messages will go to hundreds of public officials, including the Governor of Georgia, the entire Georgia legislature, each member of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, the full Georgia Congressional delegation, as well as President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Congressional leaders, U.N. Secretary-General Ban, and national and local media representatives.

SIGN ONLINE PETITION AT iacenter.org/troydavis or CLICK here

The text of the message reads as follows (you will have the opportunity to edit it if you wish):

To: Governor Deal, Georgia Pardons and Parole Board, Georgia Legislature, Georgia Congressional Delegation, President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Congressional Leaders, U.N. Secretary General Ban

cc: members of the media

STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS, NOW SET FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21!

On March 28, 2011, the US Supreme Court failed to take up the appeal of Troy Anthony Davis, the Savannah, Ga. man whose scheduled execution has been halted three times in the past because of the growing evidence and public belief in his innocence. He was convicted solely on eye witness testimony, and 7 of the 9 non-police witnesses have since recanted, several alleging that police coerced them into making false statements.

I join with millions in the US and around the world in demanding that you stop the execution of Troy Davis. Serious doubt remains. I call on all those with authority and influence in this decision to grant clemency to Troy Anthony Davis and overturn the death sentence.

Innocence matters to me. Justice matters to everyone.

(We) urge you to act now.

SIGN ONLINE PETITION here

International Action Center
c/o Solidarity Center
55 W 17th St Suite 5C
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646
iacenter@iacenter.org
www.iacenter.org

Duane Buck, Perry, Ethnicity and the US Supreme Court

2011-09-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from article below:
"That Buck committed a terrible crime is not disputed. What is problematic is the notion that a person convicted of a serious crime can thereby be denied his constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process, and face execution on the basis of his ethnicity."

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011:

TEXAS:

Duane Buck and Texas's fatally flawed death penalty
by James Abbot-Jackson The Guardian

----Governor Rick Perry claims Texas's capital punishment regime is thoughtful and clear. I've seen at first hand it's anything but

On Thursday evening, a few hours before Duane Buck was due to be executed for capital murder, the US supreme court intervened to grant him a stay of execution. Buck was sentenced to death in part because of his ethnicity: a psychologist in the original sentencing hearing testified that Buck was likely to be a future danger to society because he was black. The supreme court was acting in response to an 11th-hour motion filed by Buck's lawyers to prevent his execution on constitutional grounds – his state clemency petition having been rejected earlier this week.

Distressingly, but unsurprisingly, Buck's case is entirely consistent with the operation of the death penalty in Texas (pdf). A study by the Capital Jury Project in 2001 found that "white jurors thought black defendants were more dangerous than white defendants and believed that black defendants could be paroled sooner from prison than whites even when no evidence had been presented as to these points."

When asked about the death penalty recently, Texas Governor Rick Perry said that he "never struggled" with the idea of innocent people being executed on his watch, arguing that "the state of Texas has a very thoughtful, very clear process in place." Texas has executed 235 prisoners during Perry's terms as governor.

The case of Anthony Graves, a man who spent 12 years on death row (as a result of "egregious prosecutorial misconduct") before being declared innocent last year, contradicts this analysis. I have been fortunate enough to meet Graves, who now works as an investigator at the Texas Defender Service, and, despite his warmth and optimism, he is adamant that the state of Texas tried "to murder" him. Graves was the 12th person on Texas death row to be exonerated since 1973.

It is not merely a possibility that innocent people have been sentenced to death in Texas; it is a fact.

Perry's view is reflective of the prevailing societal attitude in Texas, which I have observed as an intern at the Texas Defender Service, the organisation which is acting on behalf of Duane Buck. According to the majority public opinion in Texas, anyone accused of crimes such as Buck's deserves to die and the question of whether that person receives a fair trial is a peripheral issue. As a result, many of the fundamental flaws that affect the death penalty regime in Texas have been ignored.

One of the most significant problems is the "future dangerousness" standard adopted by the Texas death penalty statute. At the sentencing hearing, the jury has to find that the defendant poses a "future danger to society". The Texas appellate court has held that the facts of the original crime – which have to be proven at the preceding "guilt-innocence" stage of a trial – may be sufficient to demonstrate that the defendant could be a future danger, an approach that empties the sentencing hearing of any significance.

It has also been held that psychiatric testimony as to the future dangerousness question, often given by expert witnesses who have never examined the defendant, is admissible, despite the inherent uncertainty of predicting recidivism. This practice has come under severe criticism from the American Psychiatric Association, which has said that "[t]he large body of evidence in this area indicates that, even in the best of conditions, psychiatric predictions of long-term future dangerousness are wrong in at least 2 out of every 3 cases."

That Buck committed a terrible crime is not disputed. What is problematic is the notion that a person convicted of a serious crime can thereby be denied his constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process, and face execution on the basis of his ethnicity. The fact that the Texas criminal justice system was prepared even to contemplate proceeding with an execution given this state of affairs is symptomatic of the flaws that plague the death penalty regime in Texas – a process that is anything but clear and thoughtful.

Also see Huff Post here and here where the comments are past the 1,000 numbers with this one standing on it's own today: “We really need a Constitutional amendment that spells out the process by which a state is allowed to secede. The second part of the amendment should spell out how we expel a state which the rest of us don't want to be associated with anymore. As soon as the amendment is ratified we should expel Texas.The same day.”

Troy Davis Updates

2011-09-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

Nation of Change Troy Davis and the Politics of Dath here

Two from Truthdig.com REPORT here

The Case for Troy Davis and Against Gov. Rick Perry here

Video GO here

Keep watching Rick Halperin's Death Penalty News and Updates and follow Mike Farrell and Death Penalty Focus of California (find BOTH sites on right column)

Amnesty's Letter for Spiritual Leaders/ Stephen Dear's Implementation: Letter on Behalf of Troy Davis

2011-09-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

Special Event on Troy Davis' behalf - GO here

You can also email Stephen Dear at info@pfadp.org with your full contact information and we will manually add you to the list of endorsers. (Mention whether or not you are a spiritual/religious leader)

Yesterday in Atlanta I (Stephen Dear) had the privilege of helping to present the unprecedented collection of signatures of 3,500 faith leaders on the letter for clemency for Troy Davis to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles. PFADP's staff and I were literally up all night preparing the documents for the parole board and media. We have had never had to prepare so many signatures on such a letter. No one has ever had to spend so much time doing that, as far as we can tell.

If you signed the letter, thank you. If you or your organization asked faith leaders to sign the letter, thank you. The parole board holds its clemency hearing on Troy Davis on Monday. We will continue to collect endorsements and send them in to the parole board as long as we need to.

Hundreds of events are taking place today and this weekend around Troy Davis. If you would like to incorporate prayers into your faith community's liturgies this weekend click here for a liturgy you could use.

I want to tell you about the press conference and delivery to the parole board yesterday.

It was so heartening to be joined by faith leaders such as Rev. R. L. White, pastor of Mt. Ephraim Baptist Church, one of Atlanta's largest and oldest churches, and Rev. Debra Metzgar Shew, Canon for Community Ministries for the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, and others as we stood with representatives of Amnesty International, the NAACP, and other groups who have led this unprecedented call for clemency. In addition to the clemency letter, we helped carry into the parole board's offices the petition signatures of more than 665,000 people from around the world gathered by Amnesty International, NAACP, and many other groups. Here is a video of that moment.

Below is part of my statement at yesterday's press conference.

"Today we are delivering a letter calling for clemency for Troy Davis from the leaders of faith communities across Georgia and from every single state in the nation and beyond, leaders from every major faith tradition, religious leaders who support the death penalty and those who oppose it all speaking with one voice: allowing the execution of Troy Davis would be both unnecessary and unconscionable.

"Nearly 3,500 faith leaders have signed the letter. That is several times more faith leaders than have signed any other such letter for clemency in modern American history – if not in all of history. More than 1,000 religious leaders from the South have endorsed clemency for Davis, including about 250 pastors in Georgia, some of them Southern Baptist pastors.

"The Troy Davis case is so fraught with doubt that it fails to meet any standard of acceptability held by any religious organization we are aware of, including the standard of clear and convincing guilt established by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000. These faith leaders from across the religious and political spectrum are saying there is no morally acceptable position supporting the execution of Troy Davis.

"Thanks to the egregious problems with Troy Davis's case this letter represents a new level of engagement from America's faith community on what is happening in our courts and death chambers.

"We hold the family of Officer Mark MacPhail in our prayers and we hold each of the parole board's parole board's members in our prayers as they fulfill their duty to review this case. We respectfully urge the parole board to grant clemency to Mr. Davis."

Indeed, let us continue to act and pray for healing, for justice, and for life.

In gratitude and solidarity,

Stephen Dear
Executive Director

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty
www.pfadp.org
110 W. Main St., Suite 2-G, Carrboro NC 27510
(919) 933-7567

Thousands of Religious Leaders - & Others - Speak for Clemency

2011-09-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

Find the above photo and recent news items on Ga's Troy Davis scheduled execution posted on Creative Loafing Atlanta Newspaper here

See Huff Post article here

==============

Leaders in Support of Clemency
By Herbert Pinnock | Christian Post Contributor

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (PFADP), a nonpartisan, nonprofit, interfaith organization, has registered the support, through a signed petition, of over 3,000 faith leaders from all 50 U.S. states who are urging the Georgia Board to consider clemency for death row’s Troy Davis.

Davis, 42, convicted of the murder of Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail in 1991 has remained on death row for over two decades, even while his supporters assert that the case against him has fallen apart.

According to PFADP, the petition “contains by far the largest single set of endorsements from faith leaders for clemency than any letter of its kind in our country’s modern history.”

A number of other important faith leaders, such as Roman Catholic head Pope Benedict, have come out in support of clemency for Davis

Monsignor Martin Krebs, U.S. envoy for the Pope, sent a letter urging state officials to consider the special circumstances in the case: “The Pope continually exhorts all people, and especially those men and women who serve in government, to recognize the sacredness of all human life.”

Of late, much attention has been given to reports that many of the state’s witnesses have recanted previous statements and have sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying against Davis.

According to Stephen Dear, executive director of PFADP, request for signatures from religious leaders on clemency petitions usually result in comparatively fewer signatures. This is not surprising, considering the opinions of many Christians and conservatives in respect to the question of law and order.

In a recent debate of Republican presidential candidates, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has attracted a great deal of evangelical support, received the loudest cheer when NBC’s Brian Williams stated that he had executed more individuals than any other governor in modern times.

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed on September 21, 2011. His supporters are hopeful that the Georgia Board of Pardons & Paroles, which has scheduled a hearing in his case for September 19, will grant him clemency.

GO here

FOLLOW this and other stories on the People of Faith Against the Death Penalty FB page here

If you're a religious or spiritual leader plz add your name and speak out against Troy's execution here

SEE Journey's FB page/blog for catch-up...

2011-09-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

While I've been away on small family trips & adjusting to older children back home --there's been a lot of important material on the Journey's facebook page and blogging so Plz go the a good look and get involved if you are able/willing here Debbie Kearns has been on top of the news there (looks like) 24/7...

Note that another current Texas execution story involved another story of forgiveness...this time from the sister-in-law.

While we all gather for the final unified effort to halt Troy's state killing, Texas is ignoring the racial bias in Duane Buck case...

READ much more on that FB link above...THANX Debbie for your consistent and heart-felt work! You are a heroine of love for death row inmates and for the JOH!

GEORGIA: CALL - FAX Gov's Office

2011-09-15T05:47:00.000-07:00

GO to Amnesty USA here and to Real Clear Politics here

Too Much Doubt - Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a Georgia police officer in 1991. Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row — even though the case against him has fallen apart. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial.

Since then, all but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles — the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.Breaking News: An execution date for Troy Davis is scheduled for September 21! In the days before Davis' execution, the Georgia Board of Pardons & Paroles will hold a final clemency hearing – a final chance to prevent Troy Davis from being executed.

You may also wish to sign this endorsement from People of Faith Against the Death Penalty - North Carolina (Same time ALSO plz CALL/FAX as over the years many of us have found these efforts to be VERY powerful just before an execution - Also find religious leaders - including high-ranking Catholic Bishop's offices - to do the same.)

Today is the last day that we will be accepting endorsements from religious leaders on the letter calling for clemency for Troy Davis. Thank you for all of your efforts thus far.

Please help us in this final push. The letter will be hand delivered at 10:30 a.m. EDT tomorrow at a press conference outside the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles' offices in Atlanta.

We have only a few hours left - we will stop accepting endorsements at 5 p.m. EDT today. Think about any additional religious leaders you can approach and encourage them to immediately take action to save the life of Troy Davis.

The letter is at www.troyletter.org.

In peace,

Amanda, Beto and Steve

Read More Below...

GEORGIA----impending execution

2011-09-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

From Dr. Rick Halperin's Death Penalty News & Updates:

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011:

Troy Davis faces execution on 21 September, despite 7 of 9 non-police witnesses recanting. Where is the justice in that?

Death brings cheers these days in America. In the most recent Republican presidential debate in Tampa, Florida, when CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked, hypothetically, if a man who chose to carry no medical insurance, then was stricken with a grave illness, should be left to die, cheers of "Yeah!" filled the hall. When, in the prior debate, Governor Rick Perry was asked about his enthusiastic use of the death penalty in Texas, the crowd erupted into sustained applause and cheers. The reaction from the audience prompted debate moderator Brian Williams of NBC News to follow up with the question, "What do you make of that dynamic that just happened here, the mention of the execution of 234 people drew applause?"

That "dynamic" is why challenging the death sentence to be carried out against Troy Davis by the state of Georgia on 21 September is so important. Davis has been on Georgia's death row for close to 20 years, after being convicted of killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah. Since his conviction, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, alleging police coercion and intimidation in obtaining the testimony. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the murder.

Last March, the US supreme court ruled that Davis should receive an evidentiary hearing, to make his case for innocence. Several witnesses have identified one of the remaining witnesses who has not recanted, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, as the shooter. US District Judge William T Moore Jr refused, on a technicality, to allow the testimony of witnesses who claimed that, after Davis had been convicted, Coles admitted to shooting MacPhail. In his August court order, Moore summarised, "Mr Davis is not innocent."

One of the jurors, Brenda Forrest, disagrees. She told CNN in 2009, recalling the trial of Davis, "All of the witnesses – they were able to ID him as the person who actually did it." Since the 7 witnesses recanted, she says: "If I knew then what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row. The verdict would be not guilty."

Troy Davis has 3 major strikes against him. First, he is an African American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And 3rd, he is in Georgia.

More than a century ago, the legendary muckraking journalist Ida B Wells risked her life when she began reporting on the epidemic of lynchings in the Deep South. She published Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases in 1892 and followed up with The Red Record in 1895, detailing hundreds of lynchings. She wrote:

"In Brooks County, Georgia, 23 December, while this Christian country was preparing for Christmas celebration, 7 Negroes were lynched in 24 hours because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a colored man named Pike, who killed a white man … Georgia heads the list of lynching states."

The planned execution of Davis will not be at the hands of an unruly mob, but in the sterile, fluorescently lit confines of Georgia diagnostic and classification prison in Butts County, near the town of Jackson. The state doesn't intend to hang Troy Davis from a tree with a rope or a chain – to hang, as Billie Holiday sang, like a strange fruit:

"Southern trees bear a strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

Black body swinging in the Southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."

The state of Georgia, unless its board of pardons and paroles intervenes, will administer a lethal dose of pentobarbital. Georgia is using this new execution drug because the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized its supply of sodium thiopental last March, accusing the state of illegally importing the poison.

"This is our justice system at its very worst," said Ben Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Amnesty International has called on the state board of pardons and paroles to commute Davis' sentence. "The board stayed Davis' execution in 2007, stating that capital punishment was not an option when doubts about guilt remained," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "Since then, two more execution dates have come and gone, and there is still little clarity, much less proof, that Davis committed any crime. Amnesty International respectfully asks the board to commute Davis' sentence to life and prevent Georgia from making a catastrophic mistake."

It's not just the human rights groups the parole board should listen to. Pope Benedict XVI and Nobel peace prize laureates President Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others, also have called for clemency. Or the board can listen to mobs who cheer for death.

(source: The Guardian)

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

GEORGIA: Troy Davis To Have Additional Clemency Hearing

2011-09-15T05:31:00.000-07:00

Don't take a chance on a change in favor of Troy's life, SIGN petitions, CALL and FAX Governor's office NOW.

Posted: September 12, 2011 at Death Penalty Info dot org or GO here where you will also see some other very recent developments in other states and nationally. Videos on key issues are now available here as well.

Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis will have a third clemency hearing before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on September 19, two days before his scheduled execution. The hearing will allow Davis to present witnesses the Board did not hear from in prior hearings as well as "renewed claims of innocence" regarding his conviction for killing Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989. Doubts about Davis' guilt were raised when some prosecution witnesses changed their stories after giving testimony against Davis, including accusations pointing to another suspect as the triggerman. The U.S. Supreme Court granted Davis an evidentiary hearing on his new evidence before a federal court judge. After the hearing, District Court Judge William Moore said "the State's case may not be ironclad," but nevertheless concluded that Davis had not convincingly proved his innocence. In 2007, the Pardons Board halted Davis's execution because of unresolved doubts about his guilt. Ultimately, they denied clemency. There are now 3 new members on the Pardons Board.

MEDILL Innocence Project (Is Judge Shannon Being Fair?)

2011-09-12T14:38:00.001-07:00

Evan Benn,
shown in 2009, is a former student of Northwestern University. He says he's disappointed with Judge Diane Cannon's ruling, that the students were acting under the direction of defense attorneys.
Jeff Roberson/AP

A judge in Chicago is ordering Northwestern University to turn over to prosecutors more than 500 emails between a high-profile professor and his investigative journalism students.

The students were part of the school's Medill Innocence Project, which has helped exonerate and free a dozen men convicted of murders they did not commit.

In this particular case, though, the judge ruled that the students weren't acting as journalists, protected by the Illinois reporter's privilege law, but as investigators for the defense.

There are concerns that if the ruling stands, it could have a chilling effect on the work of journalism students across the country. READ REST of STORY and watch VIDEO here

M. Spencer Green/AP
David Protess, shown in 2009, is no longer with Northwestern University. But he led the Medill Innocence Project when students discovered evidence questioning the guilt of Anthony McKinney, jailed since 1978. The judge in the case has ruled that the students weren't acting as journalists, protected by the Illinois reporter's privilege law, but as investigators for the defense.

NPR.org 09/12/2011 at 5:30 PM ET

NEW RESOURCES: 2011 DEATH ROW USA Report Now Available

2011-09-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

Posted: September 07, 2011
The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's "Death Row USA" showed a slight increase of 9 inmates in the death row population in the United States between October 1, 2010 and January 1, 2011. However, death row is still significantly smaller now (3,251 inmates) than in 2000 (3,682 inmates). The size of death row also declined overall in 2010. The size of death row is affected by the number of death sentences and the number of executions. Nationally, the racial composition of those on death row is 44% white, 42% black, and 12% Latino/Latina. Texas, Louisiana, and Connecticut had death rows consisting of 70% minority defendants. California continues to have the largest death row population (721), followed by Florida (398), Texas (321), Pennsylvania (219), and Alabama (206). California and Pennsylvania have not carried out an executiion in over five years. The report contains the latest death row population figures, execution statistics, and an overview of recent legal developments related to capital punishment.

Also See:
NEW RESOURCES: States Ranked by Executions Per Death Sentence
Posted: September 06, 2011
DPIC has updated its Executions Per Death Death Sentence page to reflect data through 2010. This page lists states in order of the percentage of death sentences resulting in an execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. If every death sentence resulted in an execution, the state would be at 100%, or a rate of 1.00. Using this ratio of executions per death sentence, the first five states are Virginia (.725), Texas (.498), Utah (.368), Missouri (.347), and Delaware (.311). Of those states that have carried out at least one execution, the five states with the lowest rate of execution are Pennsylvania (.008), California (.015), Idaho (.025), Oregon (.028), and Tennessee (.035). Four states with the death penalty during this time period had no executions: Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York. The latter two have abandoned the death penalty. Nationally, about 15% of death sentences have resulted in an execution (a rate of .150). Another measure of state execution rates is executions per capita (population). Under this standard, Oklahoma and Texas are the leading states.

Find both items here

Rais Campaign for a World Without Hate

2011-08-17T09:19:00.001-07:00

Also read Rais Bhuiyan's Website and get involved with his campaign for a World Without Hate

Rais Bhuiyan is in the middle

Also see World Without Hate website GO worldwithouthate.org or CLICK here

And see the article here

Save One Life to Save the Human Race: More on Rais Bhuiyan

2011-08-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

I missed this article earlier and reading it today found tears rolling down - it's one of the most moving stories of my life:

Rais Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi immigrant, was shot by Mark Stroman, a white supremacist, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. First Posted at Huff Post: 7/18/11 07:54 PM ET Updated: 7/18/11 09:11 PM ET

Just weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, a masked man stormed into the Dallas convenience store where Rais Bhuiyan, a Muslim immigrant from Bangladesh, worked as a cashier. He asked where Bhuiyan was from -- then shot him in the face at point-blank range before he could reply.

His attacker was Mark Stroman, an avowed white supremacist and methamphetamine addict, who was caught and confessed to the shooting as well as two other attacks on South Asian convenience store workers. Those men died, while Bhuiyan survived, although he was blinded in one eye and still carries 35 shotgun pellets embedded in his face.

In less than 48 hours, Stroman is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the Texas death chamber at Huntsville for the crimes. A last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court for a stay of execution was rejected without comment in June.

But even as the clock runs down on Stroman's time on death row, an unlikely advocate is trying to spare his life: Bhuiyan, the man he casually shot and left for dead nearly a decade ago.

Over the past several months, Bhuiyan, a devout Muslim, has mounted an aggressive campaign to convince Texas authorities to commute Stroman's sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He has asked the state board of pardons and paroles to make a positive recommendation for clemency to Gov. Rick Perry, and has asked Texas prison administrators for permission to meet face-to-face with Stroman for a victim-offender reconciliation process.

After those efforts were met with no response from Texas officials, Bhuiyan filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that his rights as a crime victim to meet with his attacker had been unjustly denied. That lawsuit was moved from state to federal court on Monday and remains unresolved.

In an interview with HuffPost, Bhuiyan said his efforts on behalf of Stroman were motivated by his Muslim faith. The Koran teaches that those who forsake retribution and forgive those who have wronged them become closer to God, he said.

"My faith teaches me that saving a life is like saving the entire human race," he said.

Bhuiyan is not alone in his efforts to save Stroman's life. He has support from family members of the other victims, including the widows of the two murdered men, Waqar Husan and Vasudev Patel, he said.

"We decided to forgive him and want to give him a chance to be a better person," Nadeem Akhtar, Husan's brother-in-law, said in an interview.

Akhtar said that his sister, Husan's widow, had written a letter requesting that the Dallas district attorney's office support the effort to obtain clemency for Stroman. The district attorney's office declined to support the petition, however.

According to those close to Stroman, the efforts by Bhuiyan on his behalf have contributed to a change of heart in a man who called his crimes "patriotic" before his trial and who prosecutors once described as a cold-blooded killer.

In an interview last week, Stroman told Ilan Ziv, a documentary filmmaker, that he was remorseful for the crimes and was deeply moved by Bhuiyan's attempts to save his life.

"I received a message that Rais loved me and that is powerful," said Stroman, who suffered extreme abuse and neglect as a child at the hands of his alcoholic parents, according to court records.

"I want to thank him in person for his inspiring act of compassion. He has forgiven the unforgiveable and I want to tell him that I have a lot of love and respect him," he added.

Ziv, who met with Stroman for several hours on Monday, said the condemned man had little hope that Bhuiyan's efforts would succeed in sparing his life.

"He's very realistic," Ziv said. "He knows he's got no chance."

Stroman's last bid for a reprieve will come in less than 48 hours, as the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles weighs his petition for clemency or a stay of execution. The board has voted for clemency just once in the last 10 years, a period when the state carried out a record 231 executions. A spokeswoman for Perry's office said the governor has not expressed an opinion on the petition to the board.

Bhuiyan's request to meet face-to-face with Stroman before the execution -- a meeting that Stroman has enthusiastically agreed to -- is also unlikely to occur. Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said that both victims and offenders must go through months of counseling and complete other preparatory work before such a meeting can take place.

"There just is not enough time to prepare the victim and the inmate for a meeting," Lyons said.

Bhuiyan said he would have begun the mediation process long ago, but was not informed of his rights to such a meeting by the Dallas district attorney. That complaint was the basis for his lawsuit attempting to force the state to postpone Stroman's execution until the mediation meeting could take place; a state judge in Austin ruled Monday that the suit belonged in federal court.

If the suit is dismissed and Stroman's bid for clemency is denied, the execution will almost certainly go ahead as scheduled at 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.

For Bhuiyan, such an outcome would be a tragedy. "If he's given a chance, it's very likely that he can contribute to society," he said. "If he can educate one person who is full of hate, that is an achievement."

Yet at least one mind has been changed by Bhuiyan's outreach -- his attacker's.

"It is due to Rais' message of forgiveness that I am more content now than I have ever been," Stroman said in the interview with the documentary filmmaker. "If I don't make it I want Rais to carry on his work teaching people not to be prejudiced."

"We need to make sure there is not another Mark Stroman," he concluded.

A "Catch-up" Page From JOH FB

2011-08-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hello:

I'm so grateful that there is such an active FaceBook page and discussion blog going on here for JOH and my plans are to find better ways to interconnect with the folk participating there in a few weeks as well as to upgrade my own technical abilities as blogger and would-be more of a helper to the JOH website/movement.

Meantime here are a few excerpts BUT best to go directly to that LINK I just gave you above to read the rest and get the other links directly. Plz add your comments to BOTH those discussions as well as here at the JOH blogsite.

See info on The Ella Bella Butterfly Foundation
A 501(c)3 (pending) dedicated to the prevention of violence through criminal justice reform and victim advocacy efforts. (Page: ‎194 people indicated they liked this) which was just posted 23 hours ago TOP of the JOH FB page for Friday

Also see Bill Pelke's post on NC restorative Justice Conference before that entry see Lisa Rea's posting via Bill and find link there to "listen in" to crime victims along with Bill, Lisa, Debbie and others - the post is entitled:
Listening to crime victims: North Carolina restorative justice conference — RJ Online - This concerns what happens "When crime victims speak about the effect violent crime has had on their lives"

I was glad to see Hooman Hedayati and others liked this one:
"Iranian Woman Forgives" posted both on this blogsite below in our July Archives and on the JOH FB page...While not usual post, this one certainly speaks to one of our major themes: forgiveness. Iranian blinded by acid pardons her attacker.

I was also grateful to the current "host" on the FB page discussion - Debbie Kearns -who carefully followed the story about the victims and victim families who forgave the man recently executed in Texas and tried to stop his execution:

GO see that interesting set of excerpts, video and comments:

Debbie Kearns comment here condenses the jist to this saga:

"So far, Rais Bhuiyan and the families of Patel and Hasan are crying because nobody in Texas listened to their pleas for clemency for Mark Stroman, whose evidence of child abuse and of his sister who got killed by 9/11 went TOTALLY ignored by the Texas courts...

'Somewhere, these death penalty-supporting yahoos (including Brian the death penalty-supporter) are saluting Texas' and Georgia's cruel governors for "a job well done in sending these monsters to hell and ensuring that justice is served for victims' families", which is, in fact ...justice is NEVER SERVED FOR VICTIMS' FAMILIES AT ALL ... At least both Mark and Andrew made their peace with God and are now with their deceased family members in heaven. May they and their victims rest in the peace and justice that were totally denied for them on earth." (Gilles Denizot left a note that "The Georgia execution of Andrew Grant DeYoung has been rescheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m.")

Stroman's last words reflect Bhuiyan's campaign message: "Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain." (Director of the SMU Embrey Human Rights Program and former Amnesty International, Chair, Rick Halperin, Ph.D., became involved in Bhuiyan's campaign...)

Crime victims’ rights “essentially” symbolic, says Governor By Patricia BohEmail: pboh@smu.edu Published: Friday, July 22, 2011

"Arab slayer" turned peace seeker, Mark Stroman...See More here on this blogsite in the July Archives for 2011-07-23 21:07:00 GMT

Debbie Kearns added: "...Gov. Perry claims that he supports crime victims' rights, yet he TOTALLY ignored the rights of Bhuiyan and of the families of Patel and Hasan! He's just so arrogant that he only supports the rights of victims who support the death penalty!"

(Note: Rais Bhuiyan, Victim of Post-9/11 Shooting, was said to try to sue the State of Texas, evidently, to Try to Spare Attacker's Life By Anna Merlan posted Thu., Jul. 14 2011 @ 9:31AM - At 10 this morning on the steps of the Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse, Rais Bhuiyan, who was shot in the face by white supremacist Mark Stroman as part of a post-September 11, 2001 shooting spree, was to announce that he's filing suit today against Gov")

Also see blogs.dallasobserver.com or GO here

Then there's this story I missed here which got attention from both Debbie and Bill Pelke since the case relates to one we at JOH know well: Va. judge throws out drug dealer’s death sentence in slaying which was at The Washingtonpost (Hope Bill or Terri S will write up something more fully on this case soon for our JOH blog!) The jist was that Veteran Prince William County prosecutors withheld or ignored crucial evidence and potential testimony in the capital murder case, a federal judge rules...
Samir Bouzid liked this and Bill Pelke said: "Debbie, thank you for your post. This is a very special case to all of the Journey of Hope family. Terri Steinberg is one of us."

Thanx, JOH Family, for remaining true to our principles of forgiveness, compassion and seeking a better way.

Continue to support Journey of Hope with your Comments, Suggestions and in other ways.

Gang 'Interrupters' - Stopping the next killing

2011-08-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

We in the Abolition Movement must work toward prevention. Here's an inspiring movement...

Gang 'Interrupters' Fight Chicago's Cycle Of Violence
August 1, 2011

Listen to the Story - Fresh Air from WHYY - [44 min 1 sec] GO here

Ameena Matthews, a violence interrupter with the Chicago organization CeaseFire, mediates disputes to prevent gang violence from escalating.

Aaron Wickenden, a violence interrupter with the Chicago organization CeaseFire, mediates disputes to prevent gang violence from escalating.

For 11 years, former gang members in Chicago have entered dangerous neighborhoods in the city and staged group interventions for at-risk youth, in an effort to try to stop the cycle of retaliatory gang violence that plagues the city's western and southern neighborhoods.

The men and women, known as "violence interrupters," work with an organization called CeaseFire, which operates under the assumption that violence moves through a city in the same way that an infectious disease moves through the body. To fix crime, says the organization, violence needs to be stopped at the source.

But there's a problem: "Not just anybody can come in and tell a guy to put his gun down," says CeaseFire's director Tio Hardiman, in a scene from The Interrupters, a new documentary about the group. "Most of the violence interrupters come from the hierarchy in some of these gangs. [And they] have one goal in mind: to stop killings. They're not trying to dismantle gangs. What they're trying to do is save a life."

Chicago's Schools, Police Work To Stem Violence:

The film is a collaboration between Hoop Dreams director Steve James and journalist Alex Kotlowitz, who profiled their organization in 2008 for The New York Times Magazine. The topic of violence in Chicago hit particularly close to home for both men, James tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

"Alex saw three people in the course of writing [his book There Are No Children Here] perish on the streets," he says. "And for me, two people [related to the cast] from Hoop Dreams ... were murdered. ... What we wanted to do, in some ways, was to refocus some attention on this issue because it feels like we've gotten to a point where murders are down, but they're still way too high. And I think there's this feeling that we've kind of done what we can do — and it's just the way those neighborhoods are at this point."

Members of CeaseFire establish relationships with people affected by violence and then work to get them to channel their anger in non-violent ways. The film profiles three of the interrupters, including a man whose father was murdered and another who committed a murder when he was 17.

The third subject of the film is Ameena Matthews, one of only two female members of Chicago's interrupters team. Matthews is the daughter of a famous gang member and had been in a gang herself — which, she says, gives her credibility when navigating potentially volatile situations among teens on the streets.

"The first thing they'll say [to you] if you come on the block and you haven't lived or walked the walk, [is] 'How can you tell me anything? You don't know how I live. You don't know how I breathe. You don't know nothing,'" Matthew says. "And nine times out of ten, these little young guys and girls that I encounter, they know my father."

I'm looking at 13, 14, 15, 18, 19-year-old men and women dying on the streets of Chicago. That's what's so profound to me about the violence.

- Ameena Matthews
Gang members who aren't familiar with Matthews or her father will often do research on her before she comes back to talk to them again, she says.

"And when I come back around, the way they look is 'Oh my goodness, what did I do to have this person come and speak to me?'" she says. "It's a door opener."

When Matthews was heavily involved in gang activities, it was her Muslim faith, her children and grandmother who served as her own violence interrupters, she says.

"[My grandmother] would step in the middle of raids, asking, 'Where's Ameena?'" she says. "Guns were drawn and she's not even looking at the guns or the gas that was thrown in the building to smoke us out, she's yelling my name and telling me to get my behind out. ... She was there."

Iranian Woman Forgives

2011-07-31T14:09:00.000-07:00

While not usual post, this one certainly speaks to one of our major themes: forgiveness. Iranian blinded by acid pardons her attacker - GO here

NEW: Larry Swearingen execution stalled (Texas)

2011-07-31T13:38:00.005-07:00

Photo found at Justice Denied dot org

Larry Swearingen’s Execution Is Stayed So His Actual Innocence Claim Can Be Considered

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has issued a stay of Larry Swearingen’s execution scheduled for August 18, 2011. The Court’s Order issued on July 28 was based on Swearingen’s writ of habeas corpus filed on June 22, 2011 that raises a single claim: he is actually innocent of murdering Melissa Aline Trotter because at the time of her death he was in the Montgomery County Jail.

Larry Swearingen during prison interview on July 27, 2011 (Justin Dehn)

Texas is one of eight states that allows a free-standing claim of actual innocence, and the Court ordered the stay so that the new due process violation alleged in his petition — that he is actually innocent — can be reviewed and resolved by the trial court.Swearingen was convicted in 2000 of murdering Ms. Trotter, a 19-year-old freshman at Montgomery College in Conroe, Texas.

Ms. Trotter was last seen by family and friends on December 8, 1998, and her clothed body was found on January 2, 1999 by hunters in the Sam Houston National Forest north of Conroe. Swearingen was a friend of Ms. Trotter’s and he was seen with her on the college campus the day she disappeared, but he wasn’t seen leaving with her. Three days after she was last seen the 27-year-old Swearingen was arrested on December 11 for outstanding traffic tickets. He was in custody from then until Ms. Trotter’s body was found three weeks later. He was subsequently charged with kidnapping, raping, and murdering her.

The prosecution’s case during Swearingen’s trial was circumstantial because there was no direct evidence he was Ms. Trotter’s assailant and DNA tests excluded him as the source of blood under her fingernails and of a pubic hair recovered from a vaginal swab. READ rest of article here

Photo/article also found at Death Penalty Information Center)

CA Death Pen. Law author has deep regrets

2011-07-31T13:38:00.001-07:00

Donald Heller: My view is that as a civilized society, we've reached the point where capital punishment should be completely abolished. And we are a civilized country, with some idiosyncrasies, capital punishment being one.

Author of CA Death Penalty Law Has Change of Heart

Los Angeles Times columnist and radio personality, Patt Morrison, interviewed Donald Heller, author of California's current death penalty statute, on July 16th about why he no longer supports capital punishment.

In the interview Heller cites "the enormous toll it [takes] on people involved" including defense lawyers, judges and other players in the system, the high cost and the risk of executing the innocent.

Heller, a former prosecutor, only became vocal about his opposition to the death penalty after the execution of Thomas Thompson in 1998, a man Heller believes was innocent. He admits, "The way I look at it, what I created can and may already have resulted in the death of an innocent person. And that's pretty heavy."

"The thing I regret most that I cannot change -- except by what I do now -- was drafting the death penalty initiative," Heller laments.

Read the full interview with Donald Heller posed at death penalty dot org here

Find another link here

Crime victims’ rights “...symbolic, says Texas

2011-07-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

Stroman's last words reflect Bhuiyan's campaign message: "Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain." (Director of the SMU Embrey Human Rights Program and former Amnesty International, Chair Rick Halperin, Ph.D., became involved in Bhuiyan's campaign...)

Crime victims’ rights “essentially” symbolic, says Governor

By Patricia Boh

Email: pboh@smu.edu

Published: Friday, July 22, 2011

"Arab slayer" turned peace seeker, Mark Stroman, was executed by the state of Texas on July 20th for shootings that killed two men and seriously injured a third in 2001.

His death sentence has garnered intense media coverage due to the aggressive campaign for life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death sentence.

Stroman's main defender is none other than his only living victim, Rais Bhuiyan.

Stroman's last words reflect Bhuiyan's campaign message: "Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain."

Following the 9/11 attacks, Mark Stroman went on a Dallas-area shooting spree with the intention of gunning down people of Middle Eastern descent "as a patriotic response to terrorism."

The shootings took place in the Dallas area during September and October 2001.

Stroman, an alleged member of the Aryan Brotherhood, was free on bond for a gun possession arrest at the time of the shootings.

All three of Stroman's hate crime victims were South Asian convenient store workers. Both Waqar Husan, a Pakistani immigrant, and Vasudev Patel, a naturalized U.S. citizen from India died. Bhuiyan was critically injured. He survived the shooting, although he is now blind in one eye and still has 35 shotgun pellets embedded in his face.

During his recovery, Bhuiyan, a devout Muslim, pledged to "dedicate his life to the poor and needy."

Embodying this new resolve, Bhuiyan, as well as the families of Husan and Patel, took legal action to dispute the death penalty sentence.

Under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedures, article 56.02, crime victims have the right to seek mediate with their attacker. Bhuiyan claims that this right was violated. The plaintiffs claim that the prosecutor never consulted regarding the death penalty charge. Members of the jury also claim that they would have honored the families of the victims and not agreed on the death penalty charge.

Bhuiyan appealed to have the death penalty charge changed to life in prison on grounds of clemency. Gov. Rick Perry and other Texas officials ignored Bhuiyan's campaign.

In response, Bhuiyan filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming his rights were violated. Unfortunately, all efforts failed to prevent the state's decision to execute Stroman.

Director of the SMU Embrey Human Rights Program and former Amnesty International, Chair Rick Halperin, Ph.D., became involved in Bhuiyan's campaign a year ago. A well-known human rights activist and advocate for abolishing the death penalty, Halperin is "not surprised but […] extremely disappointed in the callousness that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Perry have taken toward these specific pleas for mercy and compassion and life from both the survivor and the victims' family members."

"The governor of the state is an enemy of human rights, apparently no friend of crime victims, and [presents] a fraudulent picture of himself as a champion [of crime victims' rights]," said Halperin.

Perry has been a strong advocate of crime victims' rights in the past. In response to Bhuiyan's claims of his violated rights, Perry's legal team stated, "the ‘right' [guaranteed to crime victims] is essentially symbolic . . ."

This is the eighth execution in the state of Texas this year. During his tenure as Governor of Texas, Perry has overseen 233 executions.

Bhuiyan, a native of Bangladesh, became a naturalized US citizen last year. This fall, he will attend SMU to study journalism and human rights.

GO here

Also see the ACLU blog for July 23 or Go to the preceding posts on The Journey of Hope blog

Victim Forgives yet Texas Kills

2011-07-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

Victim Forgives, Texas Executes
Fri Jul 22, 2011 14:18
78.35.100.163

Jul 21st, 2011
Posted by Anna Arceneaux, Capital Punishment Projectat 2:45pm
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Victim Forgives, Texas Executes

Last night, Texas executed Mark Stroman for a string of hate crimes against men he thought were Arab-Americans, including two murders, in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Texas went through with the execution despite a powerful plea for clemency from a surviving victim of Stroman’s attack, Rais Bhuiyan. Joined by family members of the deceased victims, Bhuiyan called on Texas Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to halt Stroman’s execution and commute his sentence to life imprisonment without parole. Bhuyian, drawing from his Muslim faith, wanted to do more than forgive Stroman, he wanted to save his life.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of the Texas officials who rejected clemency for Stroman, Bhuiyan became, as we warned against last week, another irrelevant victim. Had Bhuiyan supported the death penalty, it’s much more likely he would have had a seat at their table.

The Texas Department of Corrections also denied Bhuiyan the opportunity to meet with Stroman before his death, though the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure guarantees him that right as a crime victim. Bhuiyan challenged the denial in court, but his“poignant testimony was cut short” last night by order from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

One of the jurors in Stroman’s trial also came forward to speak out against his execution and expressed her deep regrets in participating in the decision to sentence Stroman to death. She had no idea that Bhuyian and relatives of the other victims wanted to forgive Stroman, and, in fact, had the opposite impression based on the prosecution’s presentation of the case. Gov. Perry ignored her calls too.

The State of Texas may have taken the life of Mark Stroman yesterday, but it can not take away Rais Bhuiyan’s courageous message of extraordinary compassion and forgiveness. The story of this relationship born of the hatred of one but ending in reconciliation is a lesson for us all, and Bhuiyan’s quest to end the cycle of hatred and violence in this country will live on.

Find a posting on aclu.org blog here

Find earlier story on this blogsite or Go here

Victim of Post-9/11 Shooting Seeks to Prevent Execution

2011-07-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

Rais Bhuiyan, Victim of Post-9/11 Shooting, to Sue the State to Try to Spare Attacker's Life By Anna Merlan
published: Thu., Jul. 14 2011 @ 9:31AM

At 10 this morning on the steps of the Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse, Rais Bhuiyan, who was shot in the face by white supremacist Mark Stroman as part of a post-September 11, 2001 shooting spree, will announce that he's filing suit today against Gov. Rick Perry and other state officials. The suit is a last-ditch effort to prevent Stroman's execution, which is scheduled for July 20 in Huntsville.

Bhuiyan, who was working behind the counter of a Pleasant Grove convenience store when he was attacked, says in the pleading that Perry has violated his rights as a victim of a violent crime by ignoring his requests to meet with Stroman for mediation, something he's entitled to by law. "Victim restoration," improving the quality of care for victims of violent crime, is something Perry has long said is part of his platform as governor. An excerpt from the suit:

Plaintiff wishes to see reconciliation with Mark Stroman, and to pursue fill mediation with him. Plaintiff feels this way because his parents raised him with the religious principle that he is best who can forgive easily. He believes, as a Muslim, that human life is precious and that no one has the right to take another's life.

Plaintiff also seeks solace for the widows and children of murder victgims Vasudev Patel and Waqar Hasan, who are also victims in this tragedy, and who support Plaintiff in his efforts to seek reconciliation.

Plaintiffs is strongly motivated by his religious beliefs. Forgiveness is strongly motivated by his religious beliefs. Forgiveness is a long standing mechanism within many faiths, Islam being one of them, toward the healing of the soul. As a Muslim, Plaintiff is of the belief that when he forgives or promotes mercy for his attacker, the government should no longer have a duty or a right to exact the ultimate punishment upon Mr. Stroman.

We couldn't reach Bhuiyan this morning, but he and his attorney have sent a statement explaining the motivations behind the suit -- and offering a defense of Stroman's actions that resulted in two men dead and another blinded in one eye.

Bhuiyan's lawyer, Khurrum Wahid, said in a statement, "It is ironic that Rais Bhuiyan was shot by someone thinking it was a blow against Muslims, yet Islamic law would respect Rais' desire for forgiveness. The state of Texas has failed him as a victim. After suffering such a traumatic experience, surely we should respect Mr. Bhuiyan, rather than traumatize him again. We often hear, 'What about the rights of the victim!' The victim has rights even when his voice is not one of vengeance but one of forgiveness."

A press release sent last night lays out in more detail what Bhuiyan's camp says were the circumstances surrounding Stroman's state of mind before his shooting spree, which left two other men dead and Bhuiyan blinded in one eye and disfigured. Says the release:

"Fueled by his addiction to methamphetamine, which he used to medicate his post-traumatic stress disorder, Mark Stroman was close to the edge when he caught his girlfriend having an affair. Then came 9/11, and Mark Stroman responded to the fact that his half sister was killed in the World Trade Center by setting out take revenge on 'Arabs." He killed two innocent men and tried to kill Mr. Bhuiyan."

It remains unclear if Stroman's claim to have lost his half-sister on September 11 was ever verified.

Bhuiyan and his lawyer contend that the the Dallas County District Attorney's Office "pushed forward with the death penalty" without consulting him or the families of the other victims, who he says support his campaign. They also charge that Stroman's lawyer put up a "desultory" defense.

In recent weeks, Bhuiyan has taken his campaign to save Stroman's life internationally, with profiles appearing in both The Guardian and The Independent. The last time he spoke to Unfair Park, Bhuiyan said he was moved by the support he's received in his quest. "This cause is truly a human cause," he said. In the statement he released yesterday, Bhuiyan added that "along with the families of the other victims in the case, I have been ignored and sidelined, year after year. My parents taught me to believe passionately in compassion and respect. If Governor Perry really means it when he says victims' rights are a priority, we need action rather than hollow words.
END article

See Bhuiyan Vs. Perry here

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