READERS: Here's one which promises a very WIDE LENS: First of all the major question -- The Death Penalty: What's in Texas and the world is it good for? How will it ever serve justice? Among the issues are: Mistaken Identity & Motive among many parties, Hate Crimes, US & Texas Justice issues and a big one is our current lethal environment of extreme prejudices toward so many groups who have more victims among them then most. This begs of PREVENTION including Rights Education among all sectors and ages of our American Society as well as a clear call for ABOLITION.
Take a close look at this video (recommended by Dr. Rick Halperin) and this new website from Maryknoll Media.
Here is something rare, courageous and so needed in the abolition movement and for our time: a look at several vantage points of execution for one extreme case of guilt for the crime of murder. A bonus is a most unheard of blog from Death Row by a very courageous man who killed in rage with an inside view of the House of Death...in a killing state, Texas.
On April 5, 2002, Mark Stroman, a 32-year-old stonecutter from Dallas, entered Texas’s death row for the murder of Vasudev Patel, an Indian immigrant and gas station owner in Mesquite, TX. Patel was Stroman’s third and final victim. In the three weeks after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Stroman also shot and killed Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani immigrant in Dallas, and partially blinded a gas station attendant from Bangladesh in the erroneous belief all three men were Arabs. The press labeled the murders Texas's first post 9/11 hate crime. Stroman himself claimed that “blinded by rage,” he killed to avenge the United States. The prosecution convinced the jury that robbery was his true motive, (even though he hadn’t taken money from his victims) and he was sentenced to death.
What drove Stroman to commit these horrendous acts? This question, along with Stroman’s day-to-day existence on death row, his battle against the state of Texas' determination to execute him, and the plight of his victims' families, are examined in the documentary Execution Chronicles.
Currently in the making, the film explores the anatomy of a crime from its beginnings to its consequences. Director Ilan Ziv has interviewed and followed nearly everyone connected to this capital case, from Stroman and his family to his victims and their families. He plans to document Stroman's case until his execution or appeal.
This companion website, here
offers unprecedented access to death row. Each week, through video interviews with Stroman, and excerpts from his death row diary, viewers can follow his story as it unfolds. The aim is not to rationalize or justify, but to expand upon one man’s experience to explore the range of complex issues surrounding the death penalty itself. www.executionchronicles.org regularly reports on death row cases, on the efforts of organizations and individuals to abolish capital punishment, and encourages debate and the free exchange of ideas on our forum, Speak Out!
Execution Chronicles: here is devoted to the victims of hate, and to the thousands of activists battling racial, religious, or gender violence and intolerance, whether in Dallas, TX, Sarajevo, or the state of Gujarat in India. Weekly, the site highlights stories of survivors and their advocates and invites them to submit news articles, trial updates and videos, meet fellow survivors and share their experiences online.
The site attempts to provide an open forum as long as contributors do not engage in hateful speech, racial slurs or profanities. Post your thoughts, stories and your videos – become involved in this emerging community!
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As Bill has suggested, we plan to put this link on both our website and this weblog soon. Meantime, you may want to know about both this website and the documentary film, now in production. This project certainly does tie together some crucial current events and human rights outrages with our abolition issues! Connie
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing from here. We are a companion website to a documentary film, now in production. The film follows the attacks on three South Asians, mistaken for Arabs, following September 11. Two of them died. Mark Stroman, the man who committed the acts, is now on Death Row in Texas for those crimes. The film will follow Stroman through his execution. The website hosts his blog from Death Row. It also features a blog by the filmmaker, Ilan Ziv, and a religious perspective by the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.
In addition, the website posts articles on hate crimes from around the world as well as interviews with people working to fight those crimes or support victims of it. The basis for Stroman’s attacks, we believe it is important to show the conditions in which hate crimes occur--both aspects of crime and punishment.
Finally, the site includes film clips from the upcoming Execution Chronicles, as well as clips from other films on the subject.
We ask that you include our website among your links. We will be happy to include your website in our links page as well. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at renu@tamouzmedia.com.
Thank you for your time.
With warm regards,
Renu Nahata
here
renu@tamouzmedia.com
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PS Be sure to see the Comments to the blog on this site as well! Here's just one which is quite illuminating about what families go through!
November 25, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I can understand the very mixed feelings that people have for Mark Stroman. I myself spent five years with him and we have a child together who is now 15 and has not seen him since she was three years old. She is also a victim in this tragedy. I myself have cried for the family’s left behind of the people he killed, but mostly have spent years trying to explain to our child this tragedy. She cant begin to understand any of it. She thinks that because he chose to do what he did and because he didn’t (think) of her that he doesn’t love her. Not to mention that a girl growing up without a father is just an aweful situation. She is 15 and now looks for that closeness that should have been with him from boys/men and she is too young to have to deal with those emotions and grown up relationships. I know that when this happened he was very heavy into drugs. Between that and the fact that in Texas many people grow up taught to hate, which I why I chose to take my daughter and leave. The part that does not come out in everything that I have read is that the Mark I used to know had one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know. I know that he loves our daughter with all his heart. When he grew up his mother left him and his sisters off and on his whole childhood. When she did have him the boyfriend she had beat him all the time. He was always looking for the love he did not have as a child and thought what he did would make him a hero - that it would finally bring him the love he was looking for his whole life. My regret now is that I have not been there for him like I should have through this whole time. My daughter will have to deal with he fact that he will probably be executed before she is even 18 years old. She wants to see him, but we live in Washington and I can’t afford to take her, not to mention the memories she will have of him will be behind a glass screen talking on a phone. I have struggled on my own to just make sure she has a home, food, and clothes on her back. The thing she want more than anything is to hug and hold him. Whether he deserves that or not - she certainly does and I have called the warden and asked if that could possible happen even if they have to leave him in handcuffs and shackles but to no avail. I have never written or responed to anything like this before as sorting out my own feelings of anger about this has been horrible and all consuming trying to help my daughter deal with it and leave out my feelings. I’ve pushed mine aside for her. In the end if anyone reads this who has any idea of any group who has funding for someone like us to visit him I would appreciate the information. You can contact me at sschroder2002@yahoo.com. Thank you!
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