Op-Ed: Time to Kill the Death Penalty!

OP-ED: "Time to Kill the Death Penalty?"John J. Donohue (pictured), a research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research and a professor at Stanford Law School, recently highlighted continuing problems with the death penalty system, forty years after it was struck down for being applied in an arbitrary manner. Professor Donohue wrote that despite “new and improved” statutes accepted by the Court when it reinstated the death penalty in 1976, “four decades later, there is plenty of evidence that the death penalty continues to be applied in an unfair manner and not a shred of evidence that the death penalty deters.” Professor Donohue cited a recent finding by the National Research Council, which examined all deterrence studies over the past 35 years and concluded that the studies are “not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases, or has no effect on homicide rates” and “should not influence policy judgments about capital punishment.” Professor Donohue also encouraged voters in California to replace the death penalty in November’s ballot. He said, “[D]espite the supposed improvements endorsed in 1976, the death penalty remains hopelessly broken… We have the chance to prevent innocent people from being executed, end the unfairness that pervades the current system, and save millions in tax revenues, all while improving public safety.”(J. Donohue, "Time to Kill the Death Penalty?," California Progress Report, June 28, 2012). See Arbitrariness and Deterrence. Listen to our podcast on Deterrence.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/op-ed-time-kill-death-penalty

North Carolina Racial Justice Act Update

Friends!

As we hoped, Gov. Perdue vetoed SB416 this evening, saying (again!), "It is simply unacceptable for racial prejudice to play a role in the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina." Please thank her: governor.office@nc.gov

In order to sustain her veto, several representatives will have to change their positions. Please contact these representatives and implore them to uphold the Governor’s veto of SB416.  Tell them the new law sweeps racial bias under the rug and denies the historic and ongoing presence of race discrimination present in our death penalty system. It’s wrong and needs to be vetoed.

Bill Brisson William.Brisson@ncleg.net - 919-733-5772

Dewey Hill Dewey.Hill@ncleg.net - 919-733-5830

Bill Owens Bill.Owens@ncleg.net - 919-733-0010

Glen Bradley Glen.Bradley@ncleg.net - 919-733-5860

You will notice a new name! Bradley is a Republican but he has voted for RJA before and agrees with it in principal - stick to talking about how much racial bias exists in the system and that RJA is all we have to address that problem effectively. Do not talk about statistics when you contact Bradley.

And of course, you might contact your own senator and representative to encourage him/her to vote to sustain the veto. (Find your reps at ncleg.net)

Allies in Raleigh do not believe the override votes will happen before Monday, but just in case, write or call now!

Thank you (again!)

Jean

828-329-8306

NC: Racial Justice Act STILL needs NC

Governor Perdue has not announced whether she will veto SB416 which guts the Racial Justice Act. If you haven't contacted the Governor to ask her to veto SB416, please do so:

Email governor.office@nc.gov and/or call her at 919 733-5811

And in hopes of sustaining her veto, our focus has narrowed to three Democrats. If you haven't already contacted them, please do so, asking them to reverse their position and support racial fairness in death penalty trials:

• Rep. William D. Brisson (D-Bladen, Cumberland) 919-733-5772 orWilliam.Brisson@ncleg.net
• Rep. Dewey L. Hill (D-Brunswick, Columbus) 919-733-5830 orDewey.Hill@ncleg.net
• Rep. Bill Ownens (D-Camden, Currituck, Pasquotank, Tyrrell) 919-733-0010 or Bill.Owens@ncleg.net

We are still collecting signatures on the petition asking state officials to save the RJA:

http://bit.ly/maintainRJA

Thank you for taking action. There is a lot at stake for North Carolina!

Jean Parks

828 329-8306

READERS & Contributors:

This gorgeous photo is of Marietta -- the MOTHER of The Journey of Hope

(Her beauty of spirit and faith exemplifies the transcendent quality of FORGIVENESS. 

Marietta forgave the murderer and torturer of her beloved young daughter.)

Would you HELP US keep this blog alive?

Besides Facebook (FB) and Websites, BLOGS are currently flourishing and gaining in importance -- worldwide.  


HELP US make THE JOURNEY OF HOPE blogsite one of the best and most helpful  Our theme is also gaining in RELEVANCE to today's growing troubles:  


FORGIVENESS...


and all the siblings of forgiveness:  


JUSTICE
RECONCILIATION,
HEALING,
REAL MERCY,
UNDERSTANDING,
TOLERANCE and
FAITH.

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Co-Bloggers Former and Future:

Evidently several people who've been listed for years as co-blogger and writer are no longer easy to reach, able or wishing to contribute. 


Of course,  I regret this as I would otherwise be grateful for their able contributions.  


If this changes, former contributors, plz let me know:  Connie at newlease7@yahoo.com (WITH NO OTHER EMAIL ADDRESS ADDED)

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Regarding Anon. Comments:

In some rare cases we (JOURNEY family advisors and me --  Connie -- the sole blogger here)
will allow comments from anonymous sources -- depending on appropriateness of language --however we may agree or disagree with the comment.  On the other hand, it's easier for us to publish when the commenter is courageous enough to identify source. Also, we try to stay away
from anger out of control, overly dognatic statements without corroborated information and vitriolic statements which appear to be stoking unhelpful fires.

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Regarding Specifically Journey Related Items:

I am in currently in touch with Bill Pelke , the founder of Journey, who is currently writing a book (which I'm sure would explain some of his silence here on this blog to most of us who write or know writers, yes?  I'm happily looking forward to getting more updates and PHOTOS from him soon so that I will be able to intelligently post his current work, thought and speaking events. This blog is gradually becoming more photo and link friendly.  Thanx for your patience!  Here's hoping you'll KEEP COMING BACK!

Robin & Friend . jpg  on the top


In the banner,  I'm next to the tall guy - one with the white hair -- on the left side of the banner is the amazing lady in the green shorts with whom I traveled TWICE in my old beat-up red minivan to Texas & made the trip lots of fun having her along...she would picnic anywhere on the ground and wanted me to listen to our GSP lady's voice (Melva?) even when she told us to take
a non-existent exit OFF a Texas bridge! She lost two children to murder -- one a son to state killing and the other, a daughter to a crime & had incredible drive, resilience and dedication to other 
families effected by the death penalty, imprisonment, execution and loss of a child through a crime.
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Website and Social Media links:

I am still waiting for Go-Ahead as to when the Website is ready for linking with this blog. I appreciate that to do such work requires plenty of time, patience and in some cases, resources. So
I will wait gladly...

While I don't do FB at all, I understand that it's easy to go to some FB links without needing to be a
member -- if you'd like to do so for the information.  I am NOT currently connected with any of the writers there at Journey FB page...so if you ARE, let me know if we're missing anything
important on this blogsite, please...

Other social/media outlets & possibilities:  I'm keenly interested in possibly hooking up this blogsite with Tweeter....let me know you suggestions.  Also, there are some new blogsite and Social media possibilities -- let me know your  experience or research.  This will probably take me until after September to make any substantial changes....let's work methodically, carefully, intelligently here...

=======

Suggestions as to articles need to come to me directly:  Connie  newlease7@yahoo.com  (I am no longer able to receive emails adequetely at my othere gmail address, especially personal ones
requiring a reply and I do NOT receive items at my current official email if anyone would happen to send something and include the yahoo one so JUST send to the newlease7@yahoo.com along. Thanx a lot..

WE CONTINUE TO GET PLENTY OF HITS for which we are most grateful.

HOWEVER, if you'd like to see this blogsite flourish for months and years to come, PLZ post your
COMMENTS & SEND SUGGESTIONS.

Thanx so much for coming by.  May your week be especially satisfying and filled with joy, peace, friendship.


Connie

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We invite you not only to peruse the following posts and archives frequently -- yet also to avail yourselves of a few unique to death penalty blogs:  Not only the latest news on the death penalty but also items on PRISONS & PREVENTION (of the need for folk to end up there, stay there, and be tortured with only punitive environments while there.) ; HELP for HEALING through personal and worldwide stories of forgiveness,  interfaith and international items on personal, family and group healing.  Plenty of items to help us understand one another and to remember the ONENESS & COMMUNITY OF US ALL.

Arkansas Declares Letal Injection Law Void

What's New

Arkansas Supreme Court Holds Lethal Injection Law Unconstitutional

Posted: June 22, 2012

On June 22, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the state’s lethal injection law as unconstitutional because it delegated too much authority to the Department of Corrections. In a 5-2 decision, the court sided with 10 death row inmates who argued that, under Arkansas's constitution, only the Legislature can set execution policy, and that legislators violated the state's separation of powers doctrine when it voted to give that authority to the prison system in the Method of Execution Act of 2009. The ruling does not invalidate Arkansas’s death penalty but does leave the state without a lawful way to carry out executions until a new law is passed.  Associate Justice Jim Gunter, writing for the majority, said that the law governing executions failed to include reasonable guidelines for executive branch agencies to follow when deciding on an execution protocol: "The statute provides no guidance and no general policy with regard to the procedures for the (Arkansas Department of Corrections) to implement lethal injections.” There are currently 40 prisoners on Arkansas’s death row. The last execution carried out in the state was in 2005.

When We Need Something Bigger Like Prayer

Zero Circle

Be helpless, dumbfounded,

Unable to say yes or no.

Then a stretcher will come from grace

to gather us up.

We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.

If we say we can, we’re lying.

If we say No, we don’t see it,

That No will behead us

And shut tight our window onto spirit.

So let us rather not be sure of anything,

Beside ourselves, and only that, so

Miraculous beings come running to help.

Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,

We shall be saying finally,

With tremendous eloquence, Lead us.

When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,

We shall be a mighty kindness.

Rumi, Version by Coleman Barks

Rumi is popularly known as Mevlānā in Turkey, Mawlānā in Iran and Afghanistan,
and simply Rumi to the English-speaking world.  
Rumi (September 1207 –  December 1273) was a 13th-century Persian-Muslim-poet-teacher-jurist-theologian-Sufi-mystic.

Making Sense of Evil (new book reviewed from The Forgiveness Project)

Making Sense of Evil

May 9, 2012

This week sees the publication of an outstanding and beautifully crafted redemptive memoir by Marian Partington, whose sister was murdered by two of Britain’s most notorious serial killers – Frederick and Rosemary West.
Since founding The Forgiveness Project some eight years ago I am frequently sent novels, poems, memoirs, first-person accounts, critiques and sermons on the subject of forgiveness. I’m sorry to say that I find the majority either so proselytizing as to be unpalatable or so badly written as to be unreadable. Even the books which are not like this are often heavy going, dull or repetitive. So what I found so inspiring about reading Marian Partington’s If You Sit Very Still was that here was something entirely different – terrifying, authentic and beautiful. It was like entering a new world.
I first met Marian Partington just a few weeks after the start of the Iraq war, in 2003. At a time when the whole world was talking about retaliation, I was trying to collect stories from people who had considered forgiveness in the face of atrocity. I’d been told by a friend about Marian’s remarkable journey of healing following the kidnap and brutal murder of her younger sister, Lucy, at the hands of the Wests. I wanted to find out how anyone could line themselves up for forgiveness following an event of such unspeakable savagery. It was an important and pivotal moment for me. It was only after hearing Marian’s story that I realised that the ethos behind my own project could never simply be to present inspiring stories which drew a line under the dogma of vengeance, but rather must provide a place of inquiry for people to explore the limits and complexities of forgiveness.
I subsequently distilled our intense four-hour discussion into a short first-person testimony which, together with a stirring portrait of Marian by photographer Brian Moody, went on display alongside 26 other stories in an exhibition at the Oxo Gallery in London in 2004. I called the exhibition The F Word because by then I knew that forgiveness was a messy business; it was something which no one could agree on and seemed to inspire and affront in equal measure. Marian’s story of moving through murderous rage to a place of understanding and compassion made me realise that forgiveness should never be sanitised or glorified, that it was difficult, painful and costly, but also that it could be the crucial ingredient to transforming deep and unresolved pain.
Since that time I’ve been privileged to witness Marian sharing her story with numerous people in many settings, but mostly in adult male prisons, including one sex offenders’ wing. It is always a profound experience, to watch her telling her story to men who have harmed others. Invariable, and in an astonishingly short time, fixed perceptions start to shift, hardened attitudes soften, and even the most resistant begin to unbend.
Above all, it is when Marian brings out the little, woollen, hand-spun bag, carefully woven from stray sheep’s wool by her sister when she was eight, and passes it around the group that the mood settles in the room. It has always struck me that allowing countless strangers, one after the other, session after session, to handle and hold in the palm of their hands this most precious and delicate of gifts is an extraordinary gesture of generosity. By trusting these men with an object invested with so much emotional value, Marian transforms this story of hell into a message of hope.
I read If You Sit Very Still over one twenty-four hour period. I was mesmerized by the language and gripped not only by the need to know what happened next, but also to understand how anyone can truly reconcile with such evil. You feel you’ve been taken by the hand, led gently along a terrifying path (which few will mercifully know) into previously unchartered territory, and allowed to share in this deeply personal chronicle of grief.
Emerging through trauma, pain and finally to transformation, the author seeks to explain and give voice to a humanity born out of intense sorrow. She repeatedly and painstakingly searches for and then grasps the exact word or expression to faithfully describe every step of the journey until a new narrative emerges. This is a journey towards becoming forgiving – the only creative route Marian could find to soothe and mend her broken world. There were times I stopped to read and re-read the words as they unfolded on the page, in awe of her ability to explain the inexplicable, give meaning to the incomprehensible and describe such deep agony through the towering lyricism of her prose. The great accomplishment of this narrative of healing, is its capacity to uncover the gift in the wound which, to paraphrase W.B.Yeats, permits “a terrible beauty” to be born.

Be sure to see the two comments at The Forgiveness Project and more at this beautiful moving site! This amazing photo found here at http://becomingpeculiar.com/radical-non-violence/ -- the code for the photo : 4883065712_513f2279dd_z (1)

CHICAGO

Preview of Article:

Chicago’s Peace Warriors

By Kazu Haga

Illustration: Jordin Isip

By Kazu Haga

A group of students from Chicago’s North Lawndale College Preparatory High were in the middle of a weeklong summer training to become Peace Warriors—peer nonviolence leaders. Suddenly, a sophomore named Alicia got a text message alerting her that one of her close friends was just involved in a shooting and was in critical condition at the hospital.

A conversation about the violence in Chicago followed. At one point in the discussion, Tiffany Childress, science teacher and civic engagement director at the school, told the students: “This level of violence is not normal. I’ve seen wealthy neighborhoods in Chicago where young people getting shot is not part of the daily reality. Even in this neighborhood, 50 years ago we did not have this level of violence.”
The reactions came quickly.
“What!?”
“Really!?”
“How do you know that? You weren’t around 50 years ago!”
The students were surprised, confused, resistant. The violence in their communities has become so normalized that they literally could not believe that this does not happen everywhere, that this is not how it has always been. It was a chilling reminder of the need to inspire hope, to give youth a vision of peace.
North Lawndale, a charter school located in gang territory on the west side of Chicago, is working hard to provide that vision. In 2009, Chicago witnessed 458 murders—more than the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Many of those killings involved teenagers. Yet, that same year, the rate of violence at the school dropped 70 percent.
Childress was at the heart of the change. “Several years ago there was a culture of violence that surrounded our school, and it was spiraling out of control,” she began. “We needed to do something to get a hold of it.”
That year, she had a conversation with a woman about Kingian Nonviolence at a birthday party. She was immediately interested and attended a presentation shortly thereafter. Kingian Nonviolence, she learned, is a training curriculum developed out of the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by two of his close allies, Bernard Lafayette Jr. and David Jehnsen. Used in schools, prisons, and communities around the world, it provides a framework to understand conflict and violence, and teaches communities a way to build peace.