Billy was with me (Bill Pelke) in Italy for Cities for Life hosted by Sant Egidio in November and early December.
here
See the other item on Billy a few posts ago! Hope we can place more photos and some of the texts here soon, should time allow...
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
EDWARD CHAPMAN, NC: After 14 years on death row, innocent man savors freedom
"I can't look back; I have to look ahead," said Edward Chapman, who will celebrate a year out of prison after 14 years on death row for crimes he did not commit. "I mean, why give someone control over your life? My life is mine now." - Leslie Boyd/lboyd@citizen-times.com
Excerpt: “I'm in love with life,” Chapman said. “People have been kind to me this last year. … You have to find the positive. It's too draining to keep being negative. Anger and resentment are a heavy load.”
Asheville citizen-times.com
April 1, 2009
After 14 years on death row, innocent man savors freedom
Leslie Boyd
A year ago Thursday, Edward Chapman took his first steps out of prison — a free man after 14 years on death row following his conviction for two murders he did not commit.
He was told nothing about his impending release until officers came to his cell and told him to gather all his things, then walked out the back door of the prison with no money and no apology for the years lost.
A year later, no one from the state has issued an apology to Chapman, and when he filed his income taxes this year, the state withheld his $98 refund because, according to a letter explaining the withholding, he owes court costs for the trial that wrongfully sent him to prison.
Chapman lives and works in Asheville now and will speak at 12:15 p.m. Thursday at UNC Asheville. He has an easy smile and a serene demeanor despite all he has been through.
“I can't look back; I have to look ahead,” said Chapman, 41. “I mean, why give someone control over your life? My life is mine now.”
Chapman's champion through his release and since has been Pam Laughon, a UNC Asheville psychology professor, who has helped him find housing and work and serves as his advocate in his dealings with the state.
The two have traveled widely in the Southeast to speak about Chapman's case. Laughon will join Chapman to speak Thursday at UNCA and to celebrate his first anniversary of freedom with friends and members of the community at a fundraising party beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday on the campus.
Chapman and Laughon now are in the process of applying for a formal pardon from the state. But he has not let the process get in the way of living his life.
Chapman has gotten a promotion and a raise from his employer, the Asheville Renaissance Hotel. He is learning to cook and reveling in luxuries as simple as a six-minute shower and the ability to choose what and when he eats.
“You can adapt to life in prison — you have to adapt,” he said. “There's a little bit of something in you that holds out hope. But you know why you're there; you're there to die, and they don't let you forget it.”
Chapman endured the grief of losing men who had become his friends as the guards celebrated the executions with fried chicken and soft drinks.
“People say, ‘Well, at least the system worked for you,'” he said.
Laughon isn't nearly as forgiving as Chapman.
“It took four months from the order for a new trial before Edward was released,” she said. “Four months might not seem like a long time to you and me, but it was four months Edward sat on death row. He can't get that time back.”
Once he did get out, Chapman was baffled by ATM cards and the prices on nearly every item in the store.
“Nobody paid cash for anything,” he said. “And everything cost so much. It just shocked me.”
He laughs about his first shopping expedition with Laughon, when he refused to buy so much as a single pair of underwear because he didn't think he should have to pay even half the cost.
He has become a good steward of his salary, Laughon said.
“I'm in love with life,” Chapman said. “People have been kind to me this last year. … You have to find the positive. It's too draining to keep being negative. Anger and resentment are a heavy load.”
(While this has already happened, enjoy this unique celebration for Edward - some ideas for other such events, perhaps? This event was in my state & neighborhood!!! Connie)
Two events mark the first anniversary of the release of Edward Chapman from death row: • ”Life After Death: Wrongful Convictions,” a talk by Edward Chapman and UNC Asheville Professor Pam Laughon, 12:15 p.m. Thursday in the UNCA Humanities Lecture Hall. • The First Annual Freedom from Death Row Ball: A Benefit for Edward Chapman, 5:30-10 p.m. Friday on the mini-quad and the first floor of Carmichael Hall on the UNC Asheville campus. The party will include music, dancing, volleyball and food.
SEE the original printing and READ the MANY comments to Asheville Citizen-Times GO:
here For just a sample from these COMMENTS to the article:
"...Nurse wrote: Dr. Laughon is a remarkable woman...Not to take anything away from Dr. Laughon, but the way I understand it, Frank Goldsmith, an attorney from Marion, spent hundreds of hours of pro bono legal work helping Chapman accomplish his exoneration. I don't understand why the reporter never mentioned his name.
(Another) There was also another Attorney involved...I do believe, however, that it was Dr. Laughon who brought this matter to the attention of the judicial system. She stood by Mr. Chapman through his nightmare, and continues in her supportive role today.
(Another)...glad to be reading this. yes, there were attorneys who worked really hard on Ed's case. but, dr. laughon deserves recognition because she has been his advocate throughout...lawyers aren't here for you once you've been freed...not to mention, since 2006 , there have been many students at UNC Asheville who helped work on Mr. Chapman's case, finding errors in evidence and providing support to the defense team...there have been a large amount of people who have worked years in order to see that this man's sentence was overturned, but if it weren't for Dr. Laughon we might not be reading about this on citizen times.
(One More)...I think this man is remarkable. He was wrongly convicted for something he didn't do and served 14 years for it. The man has character and realizes life's worth. He had plenty to be angered and bitter about, but you don't see him holding a grudge. Instead you see someone who is greatful for his freedom and moves forward with such a positive attitude. Too bad there aren't more people like him in this world.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Stays and Scheduled (Pending Executions)
Take additional action on pending execution dates in the current month
here
Finally, we are still developing this list service. If you have
feedback or suggestions, please send to
or tollbells@abolition.org
Since the last update the following prisoners received a stay:
Jose Briseno - Texas
Michael Rimmer - Tennessee
Brett Hartman - Ohio
And no prisoners were killed.
Total killed in 2009: 20
Total killed since resumption of executions in 1977: 1156
For Complete list, GO here
Remainder of APRIL
15 - Texas
7:00 PM EDT
Michael Rosales is scheduled to be killed by the people of Texas in
revenge for the murder of Mary Felder.
16 - Alabama
6:00 PM EDT
Jimmy Lee Dill is scheduled to be killed by the people of Alabama in
revenge for the murder of Leon Shaw.
30 - Texas
7:00 PM EDT
Derrick Johnson is scheduled to be killed by the people of Texas in
revenge for the murder of LaTausha Curry.
here
Finally, we are still developing this list service. If you have
feedback or suggestions, please send to
or tollbells@abolition.org
Since the last update the following prisoners received a stay:
Jose Briseno - Texas
Michael Rimmer - Tennessee
Brett Hartman - Ohio
And no prisoners were killed.
Total killed in 2009: 20
Total killed since resumption of executions in 1977: 1156
For Complete list, GO here
Remainder of APRIL
15 - Texas
7:00 PM EDT
Michael Rosales is scheduled to be killed by the people of Texas in
revenge for the murder of Mary Felder.
16 - Alabama
6:00 PM EDT
Jimmy Lee Dill is scheduled to be killed by the people of Alabama in
revenge for the murder of Leon Shaw.
30 - Texas
7:00 PM EDT
Derrick Johnson is scheduled to be killed by the people of Texas in
revenge for the murder of LaTausha Curry.
The CLEMENCY of BILLY NEAL MOORE
Something a little different today - Please ignore this if this in any way offends your religion, politics or other concerns... OR place your comment with name below.
Both Susanne & I have been more tied up than usual. While often we can take over for the other, this just hasn't been possible during the last end of week through weekend. Be patient with us while we catch up....
We think you will find the wait worth it - as we have a uniquely International Flavor and often include items of a deep spiritual nature. We also generally have something new for you every single day bar none. We will soon recover and be able to send you news HOT from Germany where several of our Journey folk are speaking to many venues, especially schools!
by the way, regarding author below, I understand he's the brother of Steve Dear, a longtime activist against the death penalty in North Carolina!
=======================
Published on National Catholic Reporter here
John Dear SJ's blog > The clemency of Billy Neal Moore
The clemency of Billy Neal Moore
By John Dear SJ
Created Mar 24, 2009
Last week, New Mexicans celebrated a great victory for justice and mercy: Governor Bill Richardson signed into law a bill abolishing the death penalty. This historic event came after years of campaigning and lobbying by many people -- politicians, church workers, activists around the state, even family members of murder victims. In the end, moral pressure from all sides backed by the sober analysis of the death penalty made the difference. This great turning point took me back nineteen years to another miraculous time, the campaign to stop the execution of Billy Neal Moore, which led to one of the great spiritual lessons of my life.
I had read about Billy in a 1984 article in The Catholic Worker, and I set about to write him to offer my support. “Your letter was appreciated and I do thank you,” he wrote back, “but know that the Lord Jesus Christ is in full control of my life.” I had imagined myself at his service. But then with a stroke of the pen, he turned the tables. In what way, he asked, could he be of help to me? I sat down astonished and reached for my own pen. Here was the beginning of a long correspondence. And it dawned on me quickly that, though my new friend, in a series of drunken blunders, had indeed committed the crime, he was a man now deeply committed to Gospel nonviolence.
In 1989 I traveled to Jackson, Ga., to meet him at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center, a fancy name for death row. It was like meeting the converted Paul, pursuer and killer once, now bearer of the grace and wisdom of Gospel nonviolence. He radiated a grace and peace out of kilter with his plight.
Billy told me his story, and I was impressed by his calm demeanor. His troubles began in 1974. He and a friend had drunk themselves into boozy recklessness then tried to rob an old man. The first attempt failed, the friend ran away. But Billy went back. The man fired his shotgun and missed. Billy fired back. “The minute the man died, part of me did too,” Billy said. He didn’t run, and when the man’s family showed up, Billy broke down sobbing and begged for forgiveness. The government has spent over a million dollars in pursuit of my death, he told me in 1989. If only they had offered grants when he was younger, he said -- so he could find a job, get an education -- he would never have stumbled into such dire straits. Everyone would have been spared pain.
Not long after arriving in a prison, he was baptized bathtub. For the first time, he said, he felt God’s love. There followed a momentous conversion. He became a devout Christian, and spent his days in prayer, writing to hundreds of people around the country and consoling other inmates.
One Thursday morning in August 1990, I received an urgent call. The following Wednesday Billy was scheduled to die. He had spent more time on death row than anyone else. But a last chance remained. State law provided that the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles, within 24 hours of the execution, must hear pleas and consider clemency.
Everyone knew the chances were slim. The board hadn’t commuted a sentence in more than a hundred years. Perhaps it was a safeguard once, but the institution had devolved -- it was now nothing more than an auxiliary arm of the executioner. The last rubber stamp before the electric chair. Chances seemed especially remote for Billy who had pleaded guilty. But circumstances presented nothing else to work with.
The hearing was five days off when I arrived, so a group of us set about organizing press conferences, prayer vigils, and a lobbying campaign. Friday night we held a prayer vigil in Atlanta, begging God for a miracle of clemency. We made clemency our watchword. Then off to Macon, where we led a service Saturday night at St. Peter Claver Church.
That Saturday evening, just before the prayer vigil, someone brought me a letter from Billy that had just arrived from death row. He thanked us for our efforts, but took us to task. He had learned a thing or two about clemency, having received it from his victim’s family, having extended it to his fellow inmates -- several of whom grew desperate as their time approached. Clemency from death row was for him a secondary issue. “Thank you for all you are doing for me,” he began. But how can God take your prayer of clemency for me seriously, he asked, when none of you grant clemency to those who have hurt you?
He was speaking about us, the organizers -- the ones who had come to his aid, who were trying to fight the system. In my case, at least, he knew through our correspondence of my long list of grievances. If you want to do something for me, he said, forgive those who have offended you. Your prayers will have no authenticity until you yourselves offer clemency to everyone who ever hurt you. So do not bother God on my behalf until you yourselves are serious about practicing clemency in your own lives. As for him? He planned on death row a prayer service of his own -- for a peaceful solution to the impending crisis with Iraq.
His letter utterly confounded me. It was one of the most profound witnesses I have ever experienced. Who among us, just days before our execution, would call your main supporters to a deeper spiritual conversion?
On the moment, we devised an entirely new kind of prayer service. I read the letter to the congregation, and a passage from the Gospels. I then invited everyone to recall those who had hurt them, to forgive them and grant them clemency. We sat in silence for a long time. Then we raised chastened hands to the altar and said, “Dear God, we grant clemency to everyone who ever hurt us. Now please grant clemency to us and give us the miracle of clemency for our brother Billy. Abolish the death penalty and grant clemency everywhere.”
That Tuesday, at the Board of Pardon and Parole hearing, Billy’s family testified, and then local clergy and finally the victim’s family. The Board -- five stodgy white men -- sat impassively, careful not to betray their leanings. Several Board members had spoken on the phone with Mother Teresa. Jesse Jackson issued a statement. And hundreds of others wrote or called. Then came the testimony from Sarah Farmer, niece of Billy’s victim, speaking on behalf of the family. She spoke of Billy’s tears 16 years earlier when he realized what he had done and of the relationship that had since formed. She concluded, water brimming in her eyes: “This is our brother Billy and you can’t kill him. We’ve lost one family member and we’re not going to lose another. We don’t want you to execute him.”
Thirty minutes later, the Board returned with an historic, unanimous verdict of clemency -- the first time in a 140-odd years. Billy’s sentence had been commuted. A few years later he was quietly released. Today, he serves as a prison chaplain and remains my good friend. Last fall, he spoke in Rome at the World Anti-Death Penalty Day vigil, and also gave talks all over South Africa.
And now this great day in New Mexico. Said Governor Richardson, “I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime. [And] the reality is, the system is not perfect -- far from it. The system is inherently defective. DNA testing has proven that. Innocent people have been put on death row all across the country...More than 130 death row inmates have been exonerated in the past 10 years in this country, including four New Mexicans -- a fact I cannot ignore.”
The governor and the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles both learned the wisdom of rejecting death -- the governor because there is room for error, the Board because Billy offered proof of a life redeemed. It’s wisdom we all need to learn. We must be open to the facts, meet those languishing in jail, and embark on a spiritual journey toward truth, justice, and compassion.
“Many of the countries that…use the death penalty,” the governor added, “are also the most repressive nations in the world. That’s not something to be proud of. In a society which values individual life and liberty above all else…the potential for wrongful conviction and, God forbid, execution of an innocent person stands as anathema to our very sensibilities as human beings. That is why I’m signing this bill into law.”
Amen to that, I say. But we can’t leave matters there. As Billy taught me in Macon, if we want a culture of forgiveness and reconciliation, if we want clemency from God, we ourselves must grant clemency to everyone who ever hurt us.
Billy Neal Moore has proven to be my most immediate teacher of the art of nonviolence. And my ears still ring with his magnanimous words -- make clemency a way of life -- and in the spirit of Lent, I pass them on to you. May we all forgive one another and receive forgiveness. May we abolish the death penalty once and for all -- and with it the obscenity of war and nuclear weapons. May we finally begin to live as sisters and brothers in the clement peace of Christ.
* * * *
St. Anthony Messenger Press has just published, John Dear On Peace: An Introduction to His Life and Work by Patricia Normile. John also has two new books, A Persistent Peace (his autobiography, from Loyola Press), and Put Down Your Sword, (Eerdmans) a collection of essays on nonviolence, all available from www.amazon.com [1] This week, John is speaking in Michigan; Philadelphia; Loreto, PA; and Buffalo. On April 24-26, John will lead a weekend retreat on the lives and lessons of Gandhi, King, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton at the Kirkridge retreat center, see: here. For info on his books and speaking schedule, see: here .
* On the Road to Peace
Copyright © The National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company
115 E. Armour Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111
(TEL 1-816-531-0538 FAX 1-816-968-2268)
Send comments about this Web site to: webkeeper@ncronline.org
Source URL: here
Links:
[1] here
[2] here
[3] here
Both Susanne & I have been more tied up than usual. While often we can take over for the other, this just hasn't been possible during the last end of week through weekend. Be patient with us while we catch up....
We think you will find the wait worth it - as we have a uniquely International Flavor and often include items of a deep spiritual nature. We also generally have something new for you every single day bar none. We will soon recover and be able to send you news HOT from Germany where several of our Journey folk are speaking to many venues, especially schools!
by the way, regarding author below, I understand he's the brother of Steve Dear, a longtime activist against the death penalty in North Carolina!
=======================
Published on National Catholic Reporter here
John Dear SJ's blog > The clemency of Billy Neal Moore
The clemency of Billy Neal Moore
By John Dear SJ
Created Mar 24, 2009
Last week, New Mexicans celebrated a great victory for justice and mercy: Governor Bill Richardson signed into law a bill abolishing the death penalty. This historic event came after years of campaigning and lobbying by many people -- politicians, church workers, activists around the state, even family members of murder victims. In the end, moral pressure from all sides backed by the sober analysis of the death penalty made the difference. This great turning point took me back nineteen years to another miraculous time, the campaign to stop the execution of Billy Neal Moore, which led to one of the great spiritual lessons of my life.
I had read about Billy in a 1984 article in The Catholic Worker, and I set about to write him to offer my support. “Your letter was appreciated and I do thank you,” he wrote back, “but know that the Lord Jesus Christ is in full control of my life.” I had imagined myself at his service. But then with a stroke of the pen, he turned the tables. In what way, he asked, could he be of help to me? I sat down astonished and reached for my own pen. Here was the beginning of a long correspondence. And it dawned on me quickly that, though my new friend, in a series of drunken blunders, had indeed committed the crime, he was a man now deeply committed to Gospel nonviolence.
In 1989 I traveled to Jackson, Ga., to meet him at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center, a fancy name for death row. It was like meeting the converted Paul, pursuer and killer once, now bearer of the grace and wisdom of Gospel nonviolence. He radiated a grace and peace out of kilter with his plight.
Billy told me his story, and I was impressed by his calm demeanor. His troubles began in 1974. He and a friend had drunk themselves into boozy recklessness then tried to rob an old man. The first attempt failed, the friend ran away. But Billy went back. The man fired his shotgun and missed. Billy fired back. “The minute the man died, part of me did too,” Billy said. He didn’t run, and when the man’s family showed up, Billy broke down sobbing and begged for forgiveness. The government has spent over a million dollars in pursuit of my death, he told me in 1989. If only they had offered grants when he was younger, he said -- so he could find a job, get an education -- he would never have stumbled into such dire straits. Everyone would have been spared pain.
Not long after arriving in a prison, he was baptized bathtub. For the first time, he said, he felt God’s love. There followed a momentous conversion. He became a devout Christian, and spent his days in prayer, writing to hundreds of people around the country and consoling other inmates.
One Thursday morning in August 1990, I received an urgent call. The following Wednesday Billy was scheduled to die. He had spent more time on death row than anyone else. But a last chance remained. State law provided that the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles, within 24 hours of the execution, must hear pleas and consider clemency.
Everyone knew the chances were slim. The board hadn’t commuted a sentence in more than a hundred years. Perhaps it was a safeguard once, but the institution had devolved -- it was now nothing more than an auxiliary arm of the executioner. The last rubber stamp before the electric chair. Chances seemed especially remote for Billy who had pleaded guilty. But circumstances presented nothing else to work with.
The hearing was five days off when I arrived, so a group of us set about organizing press conferences, prayer vigils, and a lobbying campaign. Friday night we held a prayer vigil in Atlanta, begging God for a miracle of clemency. We made clemency our watchword. Then off to Macon, where we led a service Saturday night at St. Peter Claver Church.
That Saturday evening, just before the prayer vigil, someone brought me a letter from Billy that had just arrived from death row. He thanked us for our efforts, but took us to task. He had learned a thing or two about clemency, having received it from his victim’s family, having extended it to his fellow inmates -- several of whom grew desperate as their time approached. Clemency from death row was for him a secondary issue. “Thank you for all you are doing for me,” he began. But how can God take your prayer of clemency for me seriously, he asked, when none of you grant clemency to those who have hurt you?
He was speaking about us, the organizers -- the ones who had come to his aid, who were trying to fight the system. In my case, at least, he knew through our correspondence of my long list of grievances. If you want to do something for me, he said, forgive those who have offended you. Your prayers will have no authenticity until you yourselves offer clemency to everyone who ever hurt you. So do not bother God on my behalf until you yourselves are serious about practicing clemency in your own lives. As for him? He planned on death row a prayer service of his own -- for a peaceful solution to the impending crisis with Iraq.
His letter utterly confounded me. It was one of the most profound witnesses I have ever experienced. Who among us, just days before our execution, would call your main supporters to a deeper spiritual conversion?
On the moment, we devised an entirely new kind of prayer service. I read the letter to the congregation, and a passage from the Gospels. I then invited everyone to recall those who had hurt them, to forgive them and grant them clemency. We sat in silence for a long time. Then we raised chastened hands to the altar and said, “Dear God, we grant clemency to everyone who ever hurt us. Now please grant clemency to us and give us the miracle of clemency for our brother Billy. Abolish the death penalty and grant clemency everywhere.”
That Tuesday, at the Board of Pardon and Parole hearing, Billy’s family testified, and then local clergy and finally the victim’s family. The Board -- five stodgy white men -- sat impassively, careful not to betray their leanings. Several Board members had spoken on the phone with Mother Teresa. Jesse Jackson issued a statement. And hundreds of others wrote or called. Then came the testimony from Sarah Farmer, niece of Billy’s victim, speaking on behalf of the family. She spoke of Billy’s tears 16 years earlier when he realized what he had done and of the relationship that had since formed. She concluded, water brimming in her eyes: “This is our brother Billy and you can’t kill him. We’ve lost one family member and we’re not going to lose another. We don’t want you to execute him.”
Thirty minutes later, the Board returned with an historic, unanimous verdict of clemency -- the first time in a 140-odd years. Billy’s sentence had been commuted. A few years later he was quietly released. Today, he serves as a prison chaplain and remains my good friend. Last fall, he spoke in Rome at the World Anti-Death Penalty Day vigil, and also gave talks all over South Africa.
And now this great day in New Mexico. Said Governor Richardson, “I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime. [And] the reality is, the system is not perfect -- far from it. The system is inherently defective. DNA testing has proven that. Innocent people have been put on death row all across the country...More than 130 death row inmates have been exonerated in the past 10 years in this country, including four New Mexicans -- a fact I cannot ignore.”
The governor and the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles both learned the wisdom of rejecting death -- the governor because there is room for error, the Board because Billy offered proof of a life redeemed. It’s wisdom we all need to learn. We must be open to the facts, meet those languishing in jail, and embark on a spiritual journey toward truth, justice, and compassion.
“Many of the countries that…use the death penalty,” the governor added, “are also the most repressive nations in the world. That’s not something to be proud of. In a society which values individual life and liberty above all else…the potential for wrongful conviction and, God forbid, execution of an innocent person stands as anathema to our very sensibilities as human beings. That is why I’m signing this bill into law.”
Amen to that, I say. But we can’t leave matters there. As Billy taught me in Macon, if we want a culture of forgiveness and reconciliation, if we want clemency from God, we ourselves must grant clemency to everyone who ever hurt us.
Billy Neal Moore has proven to be my most immediate teacher of the art of nonviolence. And my ears still ring with his magnanimous words -- make clemency a way of life -- and in the spirit of Lent, I pass them on to you. May we all forgive one another and receive forgiveness. May we abolish the death penalty once and for all -- and with it the obscenity of war and nuclear weapons. May we finally begin to live as sisters and brothers in the clement peace of Christ.
* * * *
St. Anthony Messenger Press has just published, John Dear On Peace: An Introduction to His Life and Work by Patricia Normile. John also has two new books, A Persistent Peace (his autobiography, from Loyola Press), and Put Down Your Sword, (Eerdmans) a collection of essays on nonviolence, all available from www.amazon.com [1] This week, John is speaking in Michigan; Philadelphia; Loreto, PA; and Buffalo. On April 24-26, John will lead a weekend retreat on the lives and lessons of Gandhi, King, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton at the Kirkridge retreat center, see: here. For info on his books and speaking schedule, see: here .
* On the Road to Peace
Copyright © The National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company
115 E. Armour Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111
(TEL 1-816-531-0538 FAX 1-816-968-2268)
Send comments about this Web site to: webkeeper@ncronline.org
Source URL: here
Links:
[1] here
[2] here
[3] here
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Quick Note!
Please NOTE Previous Posts on this Journey blogsite!
The PA Poll: Chance to Vote! (OUR votes are sorely needed!)* Death Penalty and the Issue of Cost: NPR* Ode to Mike Kennedy (Letter from "Pajama Lady")* Death penalty foe tells story of forgiveness, the inspiring reports from the Indiana Journey tour - where Bill Pelke has been for some time and More...also check in with Rick Halperin's Death Pen News & Updates often for world and national news/updates. You will also find another review of Cahill's book, Saint on Death Row on Rick's site. Find his & other sites by going to Right Column on Home Page. Please tell your contacts about the Journey blog!
The PA Poll: Chance to Vote! (OUR votes are sorely needed!)* Death Penalty and the Issue of Cost: NPR* Ode to Mike Kennedy (Letter from "Pajama Lady")* Death penalty foe tells story of forgiveness, the inspiring reports from the Indiana Journey tour - where Bill Pelke has been for some time and More...also check in with Rick Halperin's Death Pen News & Updates often for world and national news/updates. You will also find another review of Cahill's book, Saint on Death Row on Rick's site. Find his & other sites by going to Right Column on Home Page. Please tell your contacts about the Journey blog!
TEXAS: VIDEO, REPORT & Thursday Hearing on Bill
Lobby Days a Success!!! Some of this info in blog below on the KIDS
VIDEO from Texas Lobby Days! You Tube: Testimony to end law of parties:
here
Powerful stuff!!!
There is another video at this site - so GO: here Shakespeare wrote, "if you have tears, prepare to shed them now." The father of Kenneth Foster starts speaking at around minute 23. The girlfriend of Randy Halprin gives her moving testimony at around the one hour point. The sister of Jeff Wood, Terri Been, starts her powerful testimony at around minute 32. Terri does a wonderful job explaining to the committee the injustice of the Law of Parties.
================
The following is a summary with excerpts from Texas Moratorium Network's report for other groups as well:
We had a tremendously successful Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty last week. Read more below. This Thursday there is a hearing on a bill to enact a moratorium on executions.
FIRST: Committee Hearing on a Bill for a Moratorium on Executions
Thursday April 2, 2009
Texas State Capitol, Room E2.016 at 8 AM
11th and Congress
Austin, Texas
This Thursday, April 2, the Capital Punishment subcommittee in the Texas House of Representatives in Austin will hold a hearing on Rep Dutton's moratorium bill (HB 913) at 8 AM in room E2.016. If passed, this bill would stop executions in Texas this year and the moratorium would last until 2011.
...On Lobby Day, we asked the chair to hold a hearing on the moratorium bill, so this hearing is a successful outcome of Lobby Day
If at all possible, please try to drop by the hearing and sign a form in favor of this bill, which would stop executions for two years and create a death penalty study commission. It only takes a few minutes to fill out the form in favor and then leave, but you have to turn in the form in person. You can also give a short 2-3 minute personal testimony, if you want.
The Texas Democratic Party Platform has endorsed a moratorium on executions since 2004. TMN was the organization that got the TDP to endorse a moratorium on executions.
If you have questions, call Scott Cobb at 512-552- 4743
Also contact the capital punishment subcommittee members and tell them you support HB 913.
Members of the Subcommittee on Capital Punishment
Robert Miklos, Chair of Subcommittee on Capital Punishment
District 101 (Dallas County-part)
Phone: 512-463-0464; FAX: 512-463-9295
Wayne Christian (Vice Chair),
District 09 (Shelby, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Jasper Counties)
Phone: 512-463-0556; FAX: 512-463-5896
Joseph Moody, District 78 (El Paso County-part)
Phone: 512-463-0728; FAX: 512-463-0397
Pete Gallego
Phone: 512-463-0566; FAX: 512-263-9408
Terri Hodge CALL OR FAX!!!!
Phone: (512) 463-0586 Fax: (512) 463-8147
(you can find email links on the Texas Moratorium Network site yet they are often not as powerful as using Telephone or FAX.)
Lobby Day Report:
People from across Texas came to Austin on Tuesday, March 24, for a Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty to speak with legislators about the injustice of the Texas death penalty system. Issues we discussed included the risk of executing an innocent person (HB788), the need for a moratorium on executions (HB 913, HJR 24), abolition of the death penalty (HB 297, HB 682), the Law of Parties (HB 304, HB 2267), and impeaching Sharon Keller (HR 480).
The Texas Legislature meets once every two years, so we conduct a lobby day during the time when they are in session. This year was the largest lobby day ever against the Texas Death Penalty. We held a training session in the morning from 10 AM to noon to discuss the bills and issues and to train people in how best to communicate with legislators. Two weeks ago we held a special training session in Houston, so the group of people who attended that session were able to start lobbying at 10 AM after leaving Houston at 7 in the morning to drive to Austin. The familes of Kenneth Foster and Terri Been also started lobbying at 10 AM.
There was also a group of people who drove all the way from the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas to come to Lobby Day, included in that group was the family of Humberto Garza and Robert Garza, both of whom are on death row in Texas. Members of the Garza family are in the picture below. Family members of many other people on death row were also present, including family members of Howard Guidry, Rob Will, Louis Castro Perez, Robert Acuna, Juan Ramirez, Joseph Nichols, Randy Halprin and Raphael Holiday. They all spent all day visiting legislative offices. Thank you to everyone for attending.
The main focus of the lobby day was to advocate for the bill that would end the death penalty for people convicted under the LAW OF PARTIES, which is the law that allows people to be sentenced to death even though they did not kill anyone. The families of Kenneth Foster and Jeff Wood were at Lobby Day and went to many legislative offices all day telling and retelling the stories of Kenneth and Jeff, two people who were sentenced to death even though they did not kill anyone. Kenneth's death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2007, after a long campaign on his behalf by many of the groups and people who also organized lobby day. Jeff Wood remains on death row, but many people are still fighting and organizing to save his life. Jeff never killed anyone. He was sentenced to death under the law of parties because someone else killed someone.
The sponsor of the Law of Parties bill, State Representative Terri Hodge, met with us at 1 PM in the House Speaker's Committee Room. She gave us an inspiring speech and pledged to do everything in her power to work for this bill. She broke down in tears briefly telling us how emotionally affected she was by the testimony she heard from the family members of people convicted under the law of parties at last week's committee hearing.
You can watch the video of that hearing (SEE URL CLICK AT THE TOP)
In all we contacted 90 legislative offices on lobby day, the majority were in-person visits by the people who came to lobby day, others were contacts by phone and email. We had many teams going to visit offices all day. We heard reports back from the teams that the receptions they got were overwhelmingly favorable. Based on the feedback we received, we believe that the bill to end the death penalty under the law of parties will receive a favorable vote in committee soon.
Lobby Day was Sponsored by: Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Austin Chapter, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Texas CURE, the Student Prison Caucus, the Eye & Tooth Project: Forum Theatre on the Death Penalty, Kids Against the Death Penalty, People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources (PODER) and the Friends Meeting of Austin.
=========================
Urge State Rep Hunter to Hold a Hearing on Sharon Keller
See article: here
In 2007 Texas Moratorium Network was one of several groups that filed a judicial complaint against Sharon Keller. Our complaint was co-signed by almost 1900 people.
Last December, we convinced State Rep Lon Burnam to file an impeachment resolution in the Legislature.
Please call the Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence, Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, and urge him to hold a hearing on Lon Burnam's resolution (HR 480) to create a committee to determine if Sharon Keller should be impeached. 512-463-0672. Email Hunter on his website form.
Rep Todd Hunter
(512) 463-0672
The AP is reporting that there are new complaints filed against Sharon Keller.
Texans for Public Justice filed the complaints in Austin against Keller, a Republican, with the Texas Ethics Commission and Travis County attorney's office.
=====================
Board member Members of KADP holding their awards for 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year.
Kids Against the Death Penalty has won the 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year award given by Students Against the Death Penalty. The award was announced and presented to KADP at the Texas Capitol on March 24 by Hooman Hedayati, president of Students Against the Death Penalty and Jason Kyriakides, board member of Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.
The award recognizes the hundreds of hours of activism performed by Kids Against the Death Penalty in the last year educating the public about the injustice of the death penalty. The hard work and passionate commitment of members of Kids Against the Death Penalty has greatly benefited the national movement to abolish the death penalty. Several members of KADP are relatives of Jeff Wood, who is on Texas death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone.
Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network, one of the many people who nominated Kids Against the Death Penalty for the award said, "Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in a letter from a Birmingham Jail that 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere'. That sense of injustice was what compelled Dr King to carry the gospel of freedom beyond his own home town. I have personally witnessed how Kids Against the Death Penalty have brought their message of justice beyond their own home town to cities throughout Texas. They have marched for miles along Texas streets holding anti- death penalty signs, through neighborhoods in Houston and down Congress Avenue in Austin to the State Capitol. They have stood vigil many times at the Texas Capitol when Texas has executed someone. They have visited the home of Texas Governor Rick Perry and pressed for justice. They lobbied members of the Texas Legislature on Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty March 24, 2009. Carissa Bywater of KADP testified to the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence Subcommittee on Capital Punishment on March 19. (The video of Carissa's testimony is viewable here from the Texas House website, click forward to minute 57 and 50 seconds.) It is also now on YouTube. KADP has courageously spoken out on an issue in which relatively few other people in Texas, whether adults or children, have found the time or the courage to speak out about. By doing so, they are following in the footsteps of other children in America's past who have stood up for human rights".
"Children and teenagers played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement. Barbara Johns was 16 in 1951 when she started a campaign for equal treatment at her school in Virginia. Her case became part of the landmark Brown v Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that school segregation violated the Constitution of the United States. In 1963, more than a thousand children skipped their classes and marched in downtown Birmingham for equal schools. Many of them were arrested. Because of those kids' actions during the civil rights movement, we live in a country today where candidates for president are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their platforms", said Cobb.
"KADP has already inspired kids in other states to join the anti-death penalty movement. Because of KADP's hard work against the death penalty, both Texas and the U.S. have moved closer to the day when we live in a society where the state does not kill in order to teach the lesson that killing is wrong", said Hooman Hedayati. KADP members received commemorative medals and $100 to be used in their anti-death penalty work.
Also Gislaine Williams of Rice for Peace (Rice University) and Ashley Kincaid (University of Indiana) each received a Certificate of Achievement by Students Against the Death Penalty.
2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year Gavin Been - Founder and President of KADP Nick Been - 1st Vice President Nathan Been -2nd Vice President Carissa Bywater - Secretary and Committee Chair Paige Wood - Board Member Cory Bywater - Board Member Deanna Nickell - Board Member Tanner Tucker -
The Kids Against the Death Penalty have won the 2009 Abolitionists of the Year Award.
Front row, Left to right: Carissa Bywater 14, Gavin Been 12 Back Row, Left to right: Deanna Nickell 13, Nathan Been 14, Nick Been 13, Cory Bywater 11, and Tanner Tucker 12 - Not Pictured: Paige Wood 15 Below, members of KADP after receiving their award at the Texas capitol. From Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty - March 24, 2009
PA Poll: Chance to Vote!
It’s now been moved. Click this link- here - and it’s in the middle column, about 2/3 of the way down the page.
Death Penalty and the Issue of Cost: NPR
NOTE: Of course, most who know us at Journey know this is not our motivating reason for being abolitionists. Nevertheless, some may eventually come to the moral/personal reasons by starting in other places - such as cost - perhaps?
=========
For Original Article found at National Public Radio (Including Audio & Related Articles), GO here
=========
Morning Edition, April 1, 2009 · Efforts to repeal the death penalty are getting a boost from the economic crisis. New Mexico repealed its death penalty in mid-March, and the Maryland Legislature has passed strict new limits on when the death penalty may be used. Death penalty repeal bills have advanced in several other legislatures, including those of Montana, Kansas and New Hampshire.
In all those states, there's been renewed interest in the argument that the death penalty costs considerably more than sentencing murderers to life in prison. Viki Elkey, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty, says lawmakers seemed especially interested in the financial argument this year."The cost issue has always been there, but of course it's been exacerbated this year because of the fact that the state is down $453 million," Elkey says. Elkey believes the cost issue gave some lawmakers a "practical reason" to reconsider the death penalty.
Richard Dieter, who runs the Death Penalty Information Center — an anti-capital punishment group in Washington — agrees that cost can sway the debate. "If it's just on gut and my morality versus your morality, the debate still gets stuck and is a stalemate. But as a pragmatic issue, this is a new way of looking at it," Dieter says. It's hard to put an exact number on the cost of the death penalty versus life imprisonment, because states have very different methods for shouldering the cost of the legal defense, appeals and other factors. But in general, capital murder trials cost more, because they have two phases — the trial itself, and then sentencing, which requires a separate verdict.
Selecting a jury that's willing to impose the death penalty can take weeks or months longer, and the death sentence itself can also lead to more legal appeals. For example, the recent challenge to the constitutionality of lethal injection as a method of execution went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. If you divide the overall cost by the number of actual executions, Dieter says, the death penalty is very expensive."The cost per execution is at least $3 million — it's probably more in a lot of these states — and we have 3,000 people on death row. The costs are in the billions," Dieter says.
But supporters of the death penalty say expense is no reason to abolish it. William "Rusty" Hubbarth, of the victims-rights organization Justice for All, calls the expense argument "crass.""I think that's ludicrous, especially since the financial cost is created by the defense," Hubbarth says.
Death penalty opponents are sensitive to this argument. Montana state Sen. Dave Wanzenried got a repeal bill through the state Senate in part by being careful not to play up the money angle. "If you listen to people talk about the reasons — including my own reasons — to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole, it would be about fourth," he says.
When Wanzenried does talk about savings, he's quick to say the money should go back into public safety. But the fact is, in most states, the death penalty looks solid. In Montana, Wanzenried's repeal bill passed the Senate only to get bogged down in a House committee Monday. That's been the pattern in a number of death penalty states: The cost issue has pushed repeal a little further through the process, but death penalty supporters still have the political high ground.
One of those supporters, Montana state Sen. Dan McGee, says abolishing the death penalty would be a "mistake.""The death penalty is a needed instrument of justice," McGee says. "It ought not be used often. I think it should be used only in specific cases where it's absolutely clear you have the right person and that an absolutely heinous crime has been done."McGee's tempered support for the death penalty seems to reflect a national trend. While 35 states still have the death penalty on the books, they're actually executing fewer prisoners — only 37 last year, about two-thirds off the peak in 1999. Death sentences are also down by half.
Now that many states and counties are desperately strapped for cash, local prosecutors have even less incentive to opt for the expense of a death penalty trial.
See Related NPR Stories: *March 18, 2009N.M. Governor Signs Bill Banning Death Penalty *March 9, 2009High Court Rejects Death Penalty Case *June 28, 2008Public Attitude Shifts on Death Penalty *June 25, 2008 Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape *April 16, 2008 Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection
For all the above GO: here
=========
For Original Article found at National Public Radio (Including Audio & Related Articles), GO here
=========
Morning Edition, April 1, 2009 · Efforts to repeal the death penalty are getting a boost from the economic crisis. New Mexico repealed its death penalty in mid-March, and the Maryland Legislature has passed strict new limits on when the death penalty may be used. Death penalty repeal bills have advanced in several other legislatures, including those of Montana, Kansas and New Hampshire.
In all those states, there's been renewed interest in the argument that the death penalty costs considerably more than sentencing murderers to life in prison. Viki Elkey, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty, says lawmakers seemed especially interested in the financial argument this year."The cost issue has always been there, but of course it's been exacerbated this year because of the fact that the state is down $453 million," Elkey says. Elkey believes the cost issue gave some lawmakers a "practical reason" to reconsider the death penalty.
Richard Dieter, who runs the Death Penalty Information Center — an anti-capital punishment group in Washington — agrees that cost can sway the debate. "If it's just on gut and my morality versus your morality, the debate still gets stuck and is a stalemate. But as a pragmatic issue, this is a new way of looking at it," Dieter says. It's hard to put an exact number on the cost of the death penalty versus life imprisonment, because states have very different methods for shouldering the cost of the legal defense, appeals and other factors. But in general, capital murder trials cost more, because they have two phases — the trial itself, and then sentencing, which requires a separate verdict.
Selecting a jury that's willing to impose the death penalty can take weeks or months longer, and the death sentence itself can also lead to more legal appeals. For example, the recent challenge to the constitutionality of lethal injection as a method of execution went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. If you divide the overall cost by the number of actual executions, Dieter says, the death penalty is very expensive."The cost per execution is at least $3 million — it's probably more in a lot of these states — and we have 3,000 people on death row. The costs are in the billions," Dieter says.
But supporters of the death penalty say expense is no reason to abolish it. William "Rusty" Hubbarth, of the victims-rights organization Justice for All, calls the expense argument "crass.""I think that's ludicrous, especially since the financial cost is created by the defense," Hubbarth says.
Death penalty opponents are sensitive to this argument. Montana state Sen. Dave Wanzenried got a repeal bill through the state Senate in part by being careful not to play up the money angle. "If you listen to people talk about the reasons — including my own reasons — to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole, it would be about fourth," he says.
When Wanzenried does talk about savings, he's quick to say the money should go back into public safety. But the fact is, in most states, the death penalty looks solid. In Montana, Wanzenried's repeal bill passed the Senate only to get bogged down in a House committee Monday. That's been the pattern in a number of death penalty states: The cost issue has pushed repeal a little further through the process, but death penalty supporters still have the political high ground.
One of those supporters, Montana state Sen. Dan McGee, says abolishing the death penalty would be a "mistake.""The death penalty is a needed instrument of justice," McGee says. "It ought not be used often. I think it should be used only in specific cases where it's absolutely clear you have the right person and that an absolutely heinous crime has been done."McGee's tempered support for the death penalty seems to reflect a national trend. While 35 states still have the death penalty on the books, they're actually executing fewer prisoners — only 37 last year, about two-thirds off the peak in 1999. Death sentences are also down by half.
Now that many states and counties are desperately strapped for cash, local prosecutors have even less incentive to opt for the expense of a death penalty trial.
See Related NPR Stories: *March 18, 2009N.M. Governor Signs Bill Banning Death Penalty *March 9, 2009High Court Rejects Death Penalty Case *June 28, 2008Public Attitude Shifts on Death Penalty *June 25, 2008 Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Child Rape *April 16, 2008 Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection
For all the above GO: here
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Ode to Mike Kennedy (Letter from "Pajama Lady")
NOTE: There was no title on this piece about Mike. This came as a letter which came in the mail before it got extremely busy with Journey tours, etc. Also, I need to get a regular photo turned into one I might be able to post. Bear with me. Thanx so much, "Pajama Lady" and the "Death Row Support Project in Liberty Mills, Indiana - for sending the letter to us, here at The Journey blog"!!! Thanx for your patience, Pajama Lady and Rachel for sending this poignant piece & photo (which I hope to post soon!)
For those who haven't seen it, we did a post on Mike quite awhile back here on The Journey Blogsite. How Mike's story is deepened as more who knew him write about him! Connie
============================
Mike Kennedy was born on May 17, 1954, under a radical star. That was the day the US Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional, which ushered (in) the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's.
Through July of 1995, Mike was seizure-free. His medication (depakote); however, was raised to 500 mgs, 3x a day. (Double what he had been taking.) The doctor though Mike may have had seizures of which he was unaware. Mike had lesions on the brain.
Mike spent four years in college to earn a BA in Social Work. He had a Masters in Theological Studies. He took courses on Pastoral Care, Counseling, Ethics and Latin American Studies. It took him four years to complete a two-year course. He was a certified Social Worker in Texas.
He worked with alcoholics and drug addicts eight years even though he was not a certified alcohol/drug counselor. He also worked in a soup kitchen for a year. He still was unemployed...
He revealed the medication affected his speech and balance. (The balance more so at night.) But his legs were exhausted from carrying his body around all day.
With little money in his pocket for travel and holes in his shoes, he still would grab his cane and join a Journey of abolition fast - or protest peacefully against man's indignity to man.
Sometimes I would remind him not to forget his cane. And of course he did, in Atlanta, GA. And he implied that I jinxed him. He said, "So don't you jinx my teeth!"
Unfortunately, we never had that reunion we hoped for. But I know where he is. He's in the place of pleasant dreams and blue skies, where the lion and the lamb co-exist in peace and there is no death penalty.
Pajama Lady
PS I heard Mike died in the doctor's office of a heart attack, during a visit.
======
Here are a few notes that were in the letter "packet" from Pajama Lady: "Mike took in people who might have been on the streets - but for his good heart. He took in a pregnant lady, offered his apartment to a woman in jail - people with ALS, MS, those who stagger, etc. He was my friend since '92. He mentioned Franz Jagerstatter and Deitrich Bonhoeffer."
For those who haven't seen it, we did a post on Mike quite awhile back here on The Journey Blogsite. How Mike's story is deepened as more who knew him write about him! Connie
============================
Mike Kennedy was born on May 17, 1954, under a radical star. That was the day the US Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional, which ushered (in) the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's.
Through July of 1995, Mike was seizure-free. His medication (depakote); however, was raised to 500 mgs, 3x a day. (Double what he had been taking.) The doctor though Mike may have had seizures of which he was unaware. Mike had lesions on the brain.
Mike spent four years in college to earn a BA in Social Work. He had a Masters in Theological Studies. He took courses on Pastoral Care, Counseling, Ethics and Latin American Studies. It took him four years to complete a two-year course. He was a certified Social Worker in Texas.
He worked with alcoholics and drug addicts eight years even though he was not a certified alcohol/drug counselor. He also worked in a soup kitchen for a year. He still was unemployed...
He revealed the medication affected his speech and balance. (The balance more so at night.) But his legs were exhausted from carrying his body around all day.
With little money in his pocket for travel and holes in his shoes, he still would grab his cane and join a Journey of abolition fast - or protest peacefully against man's indignity to man.
Sometimes I would remind him not to forget his cane. And of course he did, in Atlanta, GA. And he implied that I jinxed him. He said, "So don't you jinx my teeth!"
Unfortunately, we never had that reunion we hoped for. But I know where he is. He's in the place of pleasant dreams and blue skies, where the lion and the lamb co-exist in peace and there is no death penalty.
Pajama Lady
PS I heard Mike died in the doctor's office of a heart attack, during a visit.
======
Here are a few notes that were in the letter "packet" from Pajama Lady: "Mike took in people who might have been on the streets - but for his good heart. He took in a pregnant lady, offered his apartment to a woman in jail - people with ALS, MS, those who stagger, etc. He was my friend since '92. He mentioned Franz Jagerstatter and Deitrich Bonhoeffer."
Monday, March 30, 2009
Death penalty foe tells story of forgiveness
VALPARAISO -- A man who forgave the girl who was sentenced to death for the murder of his grandmother told a church audience Saturday night that capital punishment has nothing to do with justice or closure for families of victims.
Former Portage steelworker Bill Pelke, now living in Anchorage, Alaska, spoke on "From Violence to Healing."
He added St. Teresa of Avila in Valparaiso to a two-week tour that began March 10 in Dayton, Ohio, for Journey of Hope, the organization of families of murder victims and former death-row inmates who were exonerated before they could be executed.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Gary said the parish "jumped at the chance" to hear Pelke while he was visiting family and friends after the tour.
"We had a similar program two years ago," said the Rev. Kevin McCarthy of St. Teresa. "The timing was short, but we are a very socially conscious church community. We want to support life."
Following a supper after Mass, Pelke told 70 listeners the details of the 1985 murder of his grandmother Ruth Pelke during a robbery by four teenage girls, including 15-year-old Paula Cooper, who be-came the youngest person ever sentenced to death in Indiana.
"That was OK with me," Pelke said.
But three and a half months after she was sentenced to be executed, as the case was gaining international attention, he experienced a "transformation" one night while sitting in his crane cab at Bethlehem Steel.
"I became convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that my grandmother would have had love and compassion for Paula Cooper and her family. I realized I didn't have to see somebody else die," he said.
Cooper was resentenced in 1989 to 60 years in prison by unanimous order of the Indiana Supreme Court.
Pelke said his opposition to capital punishment broadened after meeting Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking," which became the 1995 movie that won Susan Sarandon the Oscar for portraying the activist nun.
Cooper is scheduled for release before completing the standard 30 years in prison on her new sentence, on March 14, 2014, according to Pelke.
Learn more about Journey of Hope by going to www.journeyofhope.org or call (877) 924-4483.
(Article taken from the Post-Tribune)
Former Portage steelworker Bill Pelke, now living in Anchorage, Alaska, spoke on "From Violence to Healing."
He added St. Teresa of Avila in Valparaiso to a two-week tour that began March 10 in Dayton, Ohio, for Journey of Hope, the organization of families of murder victims and former death-row inmates who were exonerated before they could be executed.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Gary said the parish "jumped at the chance" to hear Pelke while he was visiting family and friends after the tour.
"We had a similar program two years ago," said the Rev. Kevin McCarthy of St. Teresa. "The timing was short, but we are a very socially conscious church community. We want to support life."
Following a supper after Mass, Pelke told 70 listeners the details of the 1985 murder of his grandmother Ruth Pelke during a robbery by four teenage girls, including 15-year-old Paula Cooper, who be-came the youngest person ever sentenced to death in Indiana.
"That was OK with me," Pelke said.
But three and a half months after she was sentenced to be executed, as the case was gaining international attention, he experienced a "transformation" one night while sitting in his crane cab at Bethlehem Steel.
"I became convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that my grandmother would have had love and compassion for Paula Cooper and her family. I realized I didn't have to see somebody else die," he said.
Cooper was resentenced in 1989 to 60 years in prison by unanimous order of the Indiana Supreme Court.
Pelke said his opposition to capital punishment broadened after meeting Sister Helen Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking," which became the 1995 movie that won Susan Sarandon the Oscar for portraying the activist nun.
Cooper is scheduled for release before completing the standard 30 years in prison on her new sentence, on March 14, 2014, according to Pelke.
Learn more about Journey of Hope by going to www.journeyofhope.org or call (877) 924-4483.
(Article taken from the Post-Tribune)
Kids Against the Death Penalty Named 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year
Kids Against the Death Penalty has won the 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year award given by Students Against the Death Penalty and Texas Students Against the Death Penalty. The award was announced and presented to KADP at the Texas Capitol on March 24 by Hooman Hedayati, president of Students Against the Death Penalty and Jason Kyriakides, board member of Texas Students Against the Death Penalty.
The award recognizes the hundreds of hours of activism performed by Kids Against the Death Penalty in the last year educating the public about the injustice of the death penalty. The hard work and passionate commitment of members of Kids Against the Death Penalty has greatly benefited the national movement to abolish the death penalty. Several members of KADP are relatives of Jeff Wood, who is on Texas death row convicted under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone.
Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network, one of the many people who nominated Kids Against the Death Penalty for the award said, "Martin Luther King, Jr wrote in a letter from a Birmingham Jail that 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere'. That sense of injustice was what compelled Dr King to carry the gospel of freedom beyond his own home town. I have personally witnessed how Kids Against the Death Penalty have brought their message of justice beyond their own home town to cities throughout Texas. They have marched for miles along Texas streets holding anti-death penalty signs, through neighborhoods in Houston and down Congress Avenue in Austin to the State Capitol. They have stood vigil many times at the Texas Capitol when Texas has executed someone. They have visited the home of Texas Governor Rick Perry and pressed for justice. They lobbied members of the Texas Legislature on Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty March 24, 2009. Carissa Bywater of KADP testified to the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence Subcommittee on Capital Punishment on March 19. (The video of Carissa's testimony is viewable here from the Texas House website, click forward to minute 57 and 50 seconds.) It is also now on YouTube. KADP has courageously spoken out on an issue in which relatively few other people in Texas, whether adults or children, have found the time or the courage to speak out about. By doing so, they are following in the footsteps of other children in America’s past who have stood up for human rights".
"Children and teenagers played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement. Barbara Johns was 16 in 1951 when she started a campaign for equal treatment at her school in Virginia. Her case became part of the landmark Brown v Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that school segregation violated the Constitution of the United States. In 1963, more than a thousand children skipped their classes and marched in downtown Birmingham for equal schools. Many of them were arrested. Because of those kids’ actions during the civil rights movement, we live in a country today where candidates for president are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their platforms", said Cobb.
"KADP has already inspired kids in other states to join the anti-death penalty movement. Because of KADP's hard work against the death penalty, both Texas and the U.S. have moved closer to the day when we live in a society where the state does not kill in order to teach the lesson that killing is wrong", said Hooman Hedayati. KADP members received commemorative medals and $100 to be used in their anti-death penalty work.
Also Gislaine Williams of Rice for Peace (Rice University) and Ashley Kincaid (University of Indiana) each received a Certificate of Achievement by Students Against the Death Penalty.
2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year
Gavin Been – Founder and President of KADP
Nick Been – 1st Vice President
Nathan Been -2nd Vice President
Carissa Bywater – Secretary and Committee Chair
Paige Wood – Board Member
Cory Bywater - Board Member
Deanna Nickell - Board Member
Tanner Tucker – Board member
Members of KADP holding their awards for 2009 Youth Abolitionists of the Year.
Front row, Left to right: Carissa Bywater 14, Gavin Been 12
Back Row, Left to right: Deanna Nickell 13, Nathan Been 14, Nick Been 13, Cory Bywater 11, and Tanner Tucker 12
Not Pictured: Paige Wood 15
(Taken from the blog of Texas Moratorium Network)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
INDIANA: VIDEO JUST IN!
A Journey of Hope event in Indianapolis is now available by VIDEO here
Recorded in Indianapolis, St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church on March 19, 2009.
Please watch and COMMENT.
Recorded in Indianapolis, St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church on March 19, 2009.
Please watch and COMMENT.
PENNSYLVANIA: NEXT known State Killing - April 1st?!
Please, Abolitionists, CALL ASAP:
Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell
225 Main Capitol Bldg.
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Fax:(717)783-4429
Tel:(717)787-2500
email: governor@state.pa.us
This pending state killing is NO April Fools Joke, not from any facet of this multi-layered American tragedy. I decided to post the most recent news from the Pennsylvania Gov's office as well as posting a much earlier article. This also brings up the value in connections and discussions between Abolitionists and those who would seek to prevent drug crime.
HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Edward G. Rendell today signed an execution warrant for Richard Boxley, 40, who was sentenced to die for killing a rival drug dealer in Reading in 1997.
In 2000, Boxley was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for fatally shooting Jason Bolton. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the murder conviction, but vacated the death sentence and called for a new penalty hearing. After the second penalty hearing in 2004, Boxley was again sentenced to death. In 2008, the state Supreme Court affirmed that sentence and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
Boxley's execution by lethal injection is set for April 1. He is held at the
State Correctional Institution at Graterford.
Governor Rendell has now signed 85 death warrants.
The Rendell administration is committed to creating a first-rate public education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing economic investment to support our communities and businesses.To find out more about Governor Rendell's initiatives and to sign up for his weekly newsletter, visit here
SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor, Chuck Ardo +1-717-783-1116
==========
The following article is from MUCH earlier - 2004 - yet with some interesting twists and comments...
New York man gets death for second time in murder
Jurors decide that Richard Boxley deserves to be executed for a drug-related killing. The same sentence was ordered after a 2000 trial but later overturned by the state Supreme Court.
By Mary E. Young Reading Eagle
A New York City man has been sentenced to death a second time for the murder of a Reading man in a drug dispute.
After six days of testimony, a jury of five women and seven men deliberated for more than two hours before deciding Wednesday night that Richard Boxley, 36, should be executed for murdering Jarvay "Jason" Bolton, 24, of 1001 Chestnut St. in the 100 block of South Sixth Street on June 11, 1997.
The jury reached the same conclusion as the first jury did in 2000, when Boxley was convicted of the murder.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the conviction but overturned the death sentenced because Judge Stephen B. Lieberman did not allow lawyers to question, in detail, each juror about the death penalty.
Bolton’s aunt, Deborah Moss, did not get to hear the jury’s decision because she and other family members had to be on the last bus leaving for New York City.
Before she left around 7 p.m. Wednesday, Moss said she would be saddened by the outcome, no matter what the jury decided.
"It bothered me that Jarvay was here," she said. "He caused Reading pain, too. He was a good child and a good teenager. However, he got involved with some bad guys here.
"Whatever he did, he would have went to jail for it. But it wasn’t up to Richard Boxley to take his life."
In closing arguments before Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl, defense attorney John J. Grenko told the jury that Boxley has a nugget of good in him, and that he would be unable to share that good with anyone if the jury sentenced him to death.
"He has done bad things," Grenko said. "There’s no denying that.
"But those things do not rise to the level that is warranted to take his life. Putting him in jail for the rest of his life, without the chance of parole, is an adequate and appropriate punishment for what he did."
Bolton put himself in danger by dealing in drugs and firing back when co-defendant Jose Busanet had a shootout with Bolton about a month before the murder, Grenko said.
"I beg you: Spare Richard Boxley his life," he told the jury.
But District Attorney Mark C. Baldwin said the evidence proved that the two factors needed by law to support the death penalty existed in Boxley’s case.
Other lives were endangered because children were playing on the sidewalk, and adults were sitting on their porches where the murder took place, he said.
And Boxley has a history of violent crime, including two robberies and a firearm violation while he was on parole, Baldwin said.
Boxley and Busanet killed Bolton because Bolton was Busanet’s drug-dealing rival, he said.
"Richard Boxley had no ax to grind," Baldwin said. "Richard Boxley had no motive to kill Jason Bolton. He was brought here for one purpose and one purpose only — to take part in the killing of Jason Bolton."
According to testimony:
Boxley plotted with Busanet, also known as Tito Black, to kill Bolton.
They went with Wilson Melendez, a friend of Busanet’s, to the 100 block of South Sixth Street in the middle of the afternoon.
When Bolton approached, Boxley and Busanet began firing.
Bolton died of gunshot wounds to his chest.
Busanet, 31, was convicted and sentenced to death. He is on death row in the State Correctional Institution at Greensburg, Greene County.
Melendez, 26, is serving three to six years in state prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit the murder.
Contact reporter Mary Young at 610-478-6292 or myoung@readingeagle.com. (NOTE: this article is FIVE years old and this reporter may not be available.)
Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell
225 Main Capitol Bldg.
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Fax:(717)783-4429
Tel:(717)787-2500
email: governor@state.pa.us
This pending state killing is NO April Fools Joke, not from any facet of this multi-layered American tragedy. I decided to post the most recent news from the Pennsylvania Gov's office as well as posting a much earlier article. This also brings up the value in connections and discussions between Abolitionists and those who would seek to prevent drug crime.
HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Edward G. Rendell today signed an execution warrant for Richard Boxley, 40, who was sentenced to die for killing a rival drug dealer in Reading in 1997.
In 2000, Boxley was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for fatally shooting Jason Bolton. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the murder conviction, but vacated the death sentence and called for a new penalty hearing. After the second penalty hearing in 2004, Boxley was again sentenced to death. In 2008, the state Supreme Court affirmed that sentence and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
Boxley's execution by lethal injection is set for April 1. He is held at the
State Correctional Institution at Graterford.
Governor Rendell has now signed 85 death warrants.
The Rendell administration is committed to creating a first-rate public education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing economic investment to support our communities and businesses.To find out more about Governor Rendell's initiatives and to sign up for his weekly newsletter, visit here
SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor, Chuck Ardo +1-717-783-1116
==========
The following article is from MUCH earlier - 2004 - yet with some interesting twists and comments...
New York man gets death for second time in murder
Jurors decide that Richard Boxley deserves to be executed for a drug-related killing. The same sentence was ordered after a 2000 trial but later overturned by the state Supreme Court.
By Mary E. Young Reading Eagle
A New York City man has been sentenced to death a second time for the murder of a Reading man in a drug dispute.
After six days of testimony, a jury of five women and seven men deliberated for more than two hours before deciding Wednesday night that Richard Boxley, 36, should be executed for murdering Jarvay "Jason" Bolton, 24, of 1001 Chestnut St. in the 100 block of South Sixth Street on June 11, 1997.
The jury reached the same conclusion as the first jury did in 2000, when Boxley was convicted of the murder.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the conviction but overturned the death sentenced because Judge Stephen B. Lieberman did not allow lawyers to question, in detail, each juror about the death penalty.
Bolton’s aunt, Deborah Moss, did not get to hear the jury’s decision because she and other family members had to be on the last bus leaving for New York City.
Before she left around 7 p.m. Wednesday, Moss said she would be saddened by the outcome, no matter what the jury decided.
"It bothered me that Jarvay was here," she said. "He caused Reading pain, too. He was a good child and a good teenager. However, he got involved with some bad guys here.
"Whatever he did, he would have went to jail for it. But it wasn’t up to Richard Boxley to take his life."
In closing arguments before Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl, defense attorney John J. Grenko told the jury that Boxley has a nugget of good in him, and that he would be unable to share that good with anyone if the jury sentenced him to death.
"He has done bad things," Grenko said. "There’s no denying that.
"But those things do not rise to the level that is warranted to take his life. Putting him in jail for the rest of his life, without the chance of parole, is an adequate and appropriate punishment for what he did."
Bolton put himself in danger by dealing in drugs and firing back when co-defendant Jose Busanet had a shootout with Bolton about a month before the murder, Grenko said.
"I beg you: Spare Richard Boxley his life," he told the jury.
But District Attorney Mark C. Baldwin said the evidence proved that the two factors needed by law to support the death penalty existed in Boxley’s case.
Other lives were endangered because children were playing on the sidewalk, and adults were sitting on their porches where the murder took place, he said.
And Boxley has a history of violent crime, including two robberies and a firearm violation while he was on parole, Baldwin said.
Boxley and Busanet killed Bolton because Bolton was Busanet’s drug-dealing rival, he said.
"Richard Boxley had no ax to grind," Baldwin said. "Richard Boxley had no motive to kill Jason Bolton. He was brought here for one purpose and one purpose only — to take part in the killing of Jason Bolton."
According to testimony:
Boxley plotted with Busanet, also known as Tito Black, to kill Bolton.
They went with Wilson Melendez, a friend of Busanet’s, to the 100 block of South Sixth Street in the middle of the afternoon.
When Bolton approached, Boxley and Busanet began firing.
Bolton died of gunshot wounds to his chest.
Busanet, 31, was convicted and sentenced to death. He is on death row in the State Correctional Institution at Greensburg, Greene County.
Melendez, 26, is serving three to six years in state prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit the murder.
Contact reporter Mary Young at 610-478-6292 or myoung@readingeagle.com. (NOTE: this article is FIVE years old and this reporter may not be available.)
Pending and State by State Info
Every now & then, perhaps putting out this overview could be a bit helpful? Note even to seasoned abolitionists - how about filing this info for easy access - adding to it and sending us more items useful for all of us to find in one place with one click?
PENDING PLANNED STATE KILLINGS:
here
GOVERNOR CONTACT INFO:
here
STATE by STATE info
here
PENDING PLANNED STATE KILLINGS:
here
GOVERNOR CONTACT INFO:
here
STATE by STATE info
here
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Speaking out from death row
"Life from Death Row" national speaking tour
Lee Wengraf reports on the "Live from Death Row" national speaking tour
"IF THIS had been the 1950s, I would be hanging from a tree. I would be speaking to you as a ghost."
With those words, Yusef Salaam, exonerated and freed from prison in the infamous Central Park jogger case, addressed a crowd of more than 110 people who attended the Harlem stop of a "Live from Death Row" national speaking tour to build opposition to the death penalty.
Sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP), the tour has made more than a dozen stops across the country, with many more slated for the spring.
Headlined by death row prisoners speaking over speakerphone, the "Live from Death Row" tour brings their voices from behind prison walls to live audiences, allowing them to relate their stories of injustice, loss and struggle, and add to the growing national chorus for abolition of capital punishment.
Featured speakers include Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, John Booth-El of Maryland, Timothy McKinney of Tennessee, Kevin Cooper of California and Stanley Howard of Illinois.
It's not too late to catch the "Live from Death Row" tour, or host a stop yourself. For details about dates and locations of upcoming tour stops, visit the Campaign to End the Death Penalty Web site, or contact the national tour organizer at nyc@nodeathpenalty.org.
Upcoming stops include:
March 25:
Peace Center, Albuquerque, N.M.
March 31:
Harold Washington College, Chicago,
with police torture victim Darrel Cannon
April 1:
Rutgers University Law School, Newark, N.J.
April 9:
University of Maryland Law School, Baltimore, Md.
April 14:
Georgia State University,
with Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis
April 14:
San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.,
with Kevin Cooper and Veronica Luna, whose uncle is on California's death row.
April 15:
University of Texas-Austin
April 17:
Binghamton University, Binghamton, N.Y.
April 18:
Left Forum Conference, New York City,
with Lawrence Hayes
April 28:
Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The events to date have brought out large crowds--a sign that the brutality of the death penalty and criminal injustice system is sparking activism. The tour kicked off in September 2008 at the Critical Resistance 10 conference in Oakland, Calif., with Barbara Becnel, longtime collaborator with the late Stanley Tookie Williams, as a featured speaker.
Later stops included Howard University in Washington, D.C., where Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke to an audience of 200; the CEDP's national convention in Chicago; and the Social Justice Conference in Binghamton, N.Y.
Highlights from the spring included a stop at the University of California-Berkeley, with Jack Bryson, whose son was brutalized in the police attack that killed Oscar Grant; and one at the Seattle Human Rights Film Festival, where CEDP board member Derrel Myers spoke along with Angola 3 member Robert "King" Wilkerson at a screening of In Prison My Whole Life, a new film about Mumia Abu-Jamal.
At the Harlem meeting, Salaam was joined by Lawrence Hayes, a former Black Panther and exonerated death row prisoner. Both men described the myriad injustices they experienced at the hands of the police, the courts and the media.
In February, 70 people turned out at Pace University in New York to hear Hayes and Salaam. "There is no reason to kill," said Lawrence. "No reason for me to kill, no reason for you to kill, and no reason for the state to kill." John Booth-El from Maryland's death row and Stanley Howard, speaking live, gave powerful testimony about the dehumanization of everyday life on death row.
The following day, Hayes and former Illinois death row prisoner Darby Tillis spoke to a crowd of 200 at Rowan College in Glassboro, N.J. "Death row is a place of horror," Darby told the audience. "It feels like hell, it looks like hell, it is hell." They were joined by Barbara Lewis, whose son Robert is on Delaware's death row.
On March 10, 60 people turned out at Towson University near Baltimore to hear Barbara Becnel and a call-in from Kenny Collins, a former Maryland death row prisoner now serving life without parole.
The recent abolition victory in New Mexico shows that momentum is with us to turn the tide against the death penalty for good. It needs to be ended now, and the "Live from Death Row" tour is part of bringing together the forces that can make that a reality.
(source: Socialiar Worker)
"IF THIS had been the 1950s, I would be hanging from a tree. I would be speaking to you as a ghost."
With those words, Yusef Salaam, exonerated and freed from prison in the infamous Central Park jogger case, addressed a crowd of more than 110 people who attended the Harlem stop of a "Live from Death Row" national speaking tour to build opposition to the death penalty.
Sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP), the tour has made more than a dozen stops across the country, with many more slated for the spring.
Headlined by death row prisoners speaking over speakerphone, the "Live from Death Row" tour brings their voices from behind prison walls to live audiences, allowing them to relate their stories of injustice, loss and struggle, and add to the growing national chorus for abolition of capital punishment.
Featured speakers include Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, John Booth-El of Maryland, Timothy McKinney of Tennessee, Kevin Cooper of California and Stanley Howard of Illinois.
It's not too late to catch the "Live from Death Row" tour, or host a stop yourself. For details about dates and locations of upcoming tour stops, visit the Campaign to End the Death Penalty Web site, or contact the national tour organizer at nyc@nodeathpenalty.org.
Upcoming stops include:
March 25:
Peace Center, Albuquerque, N.M.
March 31:
Harold Washington College, Chicago,
with police torture victim Darrel Cannon
April 1:
Rutgers University Law School, Newark, N.J.
April 9:
University of Maryland Law School, Baltimore, Md.
April 14:
Georgia State University,
with Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis
April 14:
San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.,
with Kevin Cooper and Veronica Luna, whose uncle is on California's death row.
April 15:
University of Texas-Austin
April 17:
Binghamton University, Binghamton, N.Y.
April 18:
Left Forum Conference, New York City,
with Lawrence Hayes
April 28:
Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The events to date have brought out large crowds--a sign that the brutality of the death penalty and criminal injustice system is sparking activism. The tour kicked off in September 2008 at the Critical Resistance 10 conference in Oakland, Calif., with Barbara Becnel, longtime collaborator with the late Stanley Tookie Williams, as a featured speaker.
Later stops included Howard University in Washington, D.C., where Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke to an audience of 200; the CEDP's national convention in Chicago; and the Social Justice Conference in Binghamton, N.Y.
Highlights from the spring included a stop at the University of California-Berkeley, with Jack Bryson, whose son was brutalized in the police attack that killed Oscar Grant; and one at the Seattle Human Rights Film Festival, where CEDP board member Derrel Myers spoke along with Angola 3 member Robert "King" Wilkerson at a screening of In Prison My Whole Life, a new film about Mumia Abu-Jamal.
At the Harlem meeting, Salaam was joined by Lawrence Hayes, a former Black Panther and exonerated death row prisoner. Both men described the myriad injustices they experienced at the hands of the police, the courts and the media.
In February, 70 people turned out at Pace University in New York to hear Hayes and Salaam. "There is no reason to kill," said Lawrence. "No reason for me to kill, no reason for you to kill, and no reason for the state to kill." John Booth-El from Maryland's death row and Stanley Howard, speaking live, gave powerful testimony about the dehumanization of everyday life on death row.
The following day, Hayes and former Illinois death row prisoner Darby Tillis spoke to a crowd of 200 at Rowan College in Glassboro, N.J. "Death row is a place of horror," Darby told the audience. "It feels like hell, it looks like hell, it is hell." They were joined by Barbara Lewis, whose son Robert is on Delaware's death row.
On March 10, 60 people turned out at Towson University near Baltimore to hear Barbara Becnel and a call-in from Kenny Collins, a former Maryland death row prisoner now serving life without parole.
The recent abolition victory in New Mexico shows that momentum is with us to turn the tide against the death penalty for good. It needs to be ended now, and the "Live from Death Row" tour is part of bringing together the forces that can make that a reality.
(source: Socialiar Worker)
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
INDIANA: After murders, families find a healing path
Bess Klassen-Landis, Ruth Klassen Andrews, Bill Pelke and Suzy Klassen are active in Journey to Hope, an organization for murder victims’ family members seeking alternatives to the death penalty. — Photo by Emily Dougherty/for MWR
By Emily Dougherty For Mennonite Weekly Review
March 23 issue
GOSHEN, Ind. — Four sisters — Ruth, Frieda, Bess and Suzy — have lived 40 years without their mother. Helen Klassen, a Sunday school teacher, was murdered March 14, 1969.
Bill Pelke’s grandmother, Ruth Pelke, was killed by four teenage girls in Gary who robbed her house May 14, 1985.
These acts of violence devastated two families and, for the Klassen sisters, infected the years of their youth. Their path to adulthood was fraught with struggles of how to heal and when to forgive.
On March 15 at College Mennonite Church, Pelke and three of the Klassen sisters spoke about their evolution from fear and anger to healing and forgiveness. Their stories have been told around the world through Journey of Hope, an organization co-founded by Pelke and led by murder victims’ family members, such as the Klassens, who oppose the death penalty.
The Scream
Suzy Klassen was 11 in 1969 when she walked into their Elkhart home after school one Friday to find her mother raped and strangled. Klassen was the youngest in the family, and at that second she was set apart.
“From then on,” Klassen said, “I would live in a world where I had met evil face to face.”
The first time Klassen saw the painting “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, she was flabbergasted. It was like seeing a reflection of herself and the physical horror she confronted that day.
On Friday their mother had died. On Sunday the family returned home, seeing bullet holes in the floor and fingerprint powder on the walls. Monday was the funeral. Tuesday the girls returned to school.
After Helen Klassen’s death, family members lived on their own islands of grief, isolated from each other by pain and fear.
Because the murderer was never caught, the girls spent years in fear for their own lives. Suzy Klassen and Bess Klassen-Landis had escape routes choreographed in their minds.
“I felt like my mother’s murderer always knew where I was,” Klassen-Landis said.
Otto Klassen, their father and a child psychiatrist, tried to hold the family together but had no place to direct his pain.
Ending isolation
Their distance became physical as the sisters married and moved to different locations around the United States and world.
Yet, eventually, each woman began to let out the darkness that had enveloped their lives. In the journey from violence to healing, one of those steps is telling your story and not having secrets.
“We are only as sick as our darkest secret,” Klassen-Landis said, “and we had despair and fear and grief tucked away in every nook and cranny.”
Klassen-Landis and Klassen only began to share their story when their sister Ruth Andrews, who became involved with Journey of Hope in 1993, encouraged them to join.
Their ability to reconcile anger and pain became stronger the more they had to tell their story. They discovered ties between their experience and those of other murder victim family members whose relationships became restorative.
“The beauty of love is the healing that happens through it,” Klassen-Landis said. “Forgiveness is a way of life that sets us all free.”
Klassen-Landis said she had fantasized that their favorite authors would write her family’s story and make sense of it. She wanted a beginning, a middle and an end.
“When I forgave my mother’s murderer, I was able to find that closure,” she said.
Klassen attributed a part of her healing and capacity to forgive her mother’s murderer to the birth of her children.
Ruth Andrews found some light at the first seminar at which she spoke. A convicted murderer was present in the audience. On a whim, she asked him to pray for her. Immediately, he dropped to his knees and started praying for her out loud. This act helped transform her point of view and begin her passage to forgiveness.
The sisters face the 40th anniversary of their mother’s death without the presence of their father, who died Jan. 31 at age 81. Yet they remember their family by sharing their story.
As Mennonites, the Klassens practiced nonviolence, and even before their mother’s death, the family opposed the death penalty.
“I knew that mom wouldn’t want any violence committed in her name,” Klassen-Landis said.
Journey of Hope gives them a forum to speak out against capital punishment.
Journey of Hope
Bill Pelke’s testament of witnessing violence and experiencing healing begins, like the Klassens’, with a death.
His grandmother, Ruth Pelke, was 78 when she invited four teenage girls into her home, under the impression they wanted her to teach them a Bible lesson.
Pelke’s father found Ruth’s body the next day.
Paula Cooper was 15 when she stabbed Ruth Pelke 33 times, and a year later became the youngest female on death row in America.
At first Pelke supported Cooper’s sentence. But he struggled with whether Cooper should die.
Pelke began questioning God. Three things he meditated on changed his perspective. The first was Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Second, Pelke remembered Matthew 18 when Peter asked Jesus how often to forgive a sin, seven times? Jesus replied by saying 70 times seven. Last, he envisioned Jesus’ words at the crucifixion: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
At that point, he remembered Cooper’s grandfather yelling at the sentencing, “You’re going to kill my baby!” He saw the tears on her prison uniform and knew that if he didn’t try to forgive, he would feel guilty whenever he thought about his grandmother.
After forgiving Cooper, Pelke went on a mission to have her life spared. Through his work, she was taken off of death row and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
“Revenge is not the answer. It’s never the answer,” Pelke said. “The answer is love and compassion for all of humanity.”
© 1999-2008, Mennonite Weekly Review Inc. | All rights reserved.
129 W 6th St Newton KS 67114 | 800-424-0178 | For reprints, write editor (at) mennoweekly.org
.
INDIANA JOURNEY: UPdate from BILL!
Bess Klassen-Landis and I have been on the Indiana Journey of Hope these last two weeks.
Bess's sister Ruth Andrews joined us for several talks and their sister Suzy joined us in Goshen for a memorial service for her father, which coincided with the 40th anniversary of their mothers death.
The first link is from the Mennonite weekly and the other two are pre and post article of my trip to Terre Haute.
This has been a very powerful Journey as we all returned to the state of Indiana where our loved ones were murdered. These are stories of healing and hope.
Peace,
Bill Pelke
After Murders Families Find Healing Path: here
Local Story: here
Another Local Story: here
THANX so much, Bill, from us ALL!!!!!!!!!! We look forward to MUCH more later with some photos as easy to send. All of you, PLEASE rest & take care of selves.
Bess's sister Ruth Andrews joined us for several talks and their sister Suzy joined us in Goshen for a memorial service for her father, which coincided with the 40th anniversary of their mothers death.
The first link is from the Mennonite weekly and the other two are pre and post article of my trip to Terre Haute.
This has been a very powerful Journey as we all returned to the state of Indiana where our loved ones were murdered. These are stories of healing and hope.
Peace,
Bill Pelke
After Murders Families Find Healing Path: here
Local Story: here
Another Local Story: here
THANX so much, Bill, from us ALL!!!!!!!!!! We look forward to MUCH more later with some photos as easy to send. All of you, PLEASE rest & take care of selves.
MONTANA Abolition Coalition
Evidently, there was a hearing live with the Montana House Judiciary Committee this am, Wednesday, concerning Montana's Death Penalty Abolition bill (SB 236) starting at 8am Mountain time. The committee was to take testimony today and is expected to vote on Monday.
I will try to find the archived hearing link soon. For now, perhaps you may be able to find this before I do? Go here Or Go: here
Choose the House Judiciary Committee.
MVFR
I will try to find the archived hearing link soon. For now, perhaps you may be able to find this before I do? Go here Or Go: here
Choose the House Judiciary Committee.
MVFR
INDIANA & JOURNEY: LAST DAY (or two?)
Quick Note: Although the bloggers here are slammed with many home, job & other responsibilities right now, as well as Susanne helping to set-up the German Journey, what Bill & others are doing in Indiana is DEAR to our heart and in our prayers!!!
We will try to get more out to you soon. PLEASE let others who may be interested know about this event and the coming articles. Search out some great ones yourself.
Back with you soon!
Find the final leg of the Indiana Journey and contact info -- here
Thanx so much for tuning in!
We will try to get more out to you soon. PLEASE let others who may be interested know about this event and the coming articles. Search out some great ones yourself.
Back with you soon!
Find the final leg of the Indiana Journey and contact info -- here
Thanx so much for tuning in!
Monday, March 23, 2009
NOTICE: TUESDAY Texas, DC & Indiana Events & Amnesty Stats & More!
Please take at least a quick survey of the blogs to be found her the last few days and be sure to notice that Tuesday Bill Pelke will be speaking TWICE in Indiana.
A small gathering of Friends and Supporters will gather with The Justice Project in DC on Tuesday - for more info Go here (Incidently, there's an important piece of concern about New Mexico from TJP here
Also notice the Texas Lobby activism - Tuesday as well.
Note that the Amnesty ANNUAL Report was discussed on BBC News World (for 2008) and the short version is on this Journey blogsite...Go: here
Don't miss the STATS from the Amnesty report to be found on Rick Halperin's Death Pen. News & Updates right here You will also be rewarded at Rick's site today by an interesting article about Texas and personal story.
Of course, we've been following the New Mexico breakthrough quite thoroughly!
Then keep going for much more, including the schedule for the German Journey of Hope!
Once you've done this, be sure to search for articles about and by Senator Russ Feingold -- 'cause he's at it again -- one of our most faithful abolitionists ever. Please let us know what you hear about his current activism to Connie newlease7@yahoo.com with Subject Heading: Russ Feingold. Here are just a few reports on his current efforts: FEINGOLD'S Website: here And also find a report at Alternet dot Org - Click here
Thanx for tuning in!
A small gathering of Friends and Supporters will gather with The Justice Project in DC on Tuesday - for more info Go here (Incidently, there's an important piece of concern about New Mexico from TJP here
Also notice the Texas Lobby activism - Tuesday as well.
Note that the Amnesty ANNUAL Report was discussed on BBC News World (for 2008) and the short version is on this Journey blogsite...Go: here
Don't miss the STATS from the Amnesty report to be found on Rick Halperin's Death Pen. News & Updates right here You will also be rewarded at Rick's site today by an interesting article about Texas and personal story.
Of course, we've been following the New Mexico breakthrough quite thoroughly!
Then keep going for much more, including the schedule for the German Journey of Hope!
Once you've done this, be sure to search for articles about and by Senator Russ Feingold -- 'cause he's at it again -- one of our most faithful abolitionists ever. Please let us know what you hear about his current activism to Connie newlease7@yahoo.com with Subject Heading: Russ Feingold. Here are just a few reports on his current efforts: FEINGOLD'S Website: here And also find a report at Alternet dot Org - Click here
Thanx for tuning in!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)