Reprinted from the June 2015 Post Script of Church & Life.
Congratulations to the Nebraska State Legislature (a unicameral body) which on May 27, 2015 abolished the death penalty by overriding the governor’s veto! This occurred in spite of the Governor, Pete Ricketts, who campaigned on a pro-death penalty. The vote was 30-19, just enough to override a veto. In every session of the legislature since 1981, a bill to abolish the death penalty has been introduced. Persistence is sometimes rewarded! Nebraska, the 19th state in the United States to eliminate the death penalty, is the first state with a predominantly Republican legislature to do so since North Dakota abolished the death penalty 42 years ago. At the time of passage there were ten people in Nebraska on death row, but only three inmates have been executed since 1976 when the US Supreme Court allowed resumption of executions. During that time, 11 people have been given clemency.
Nebraska’s most famous electrocution was that of 19 year old Charles Starkweather, for his 1958 killing spree with his 14 year old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. I was a senior in high school then and remember the drama well when Charles and Caril had their 8-day reign of terror that began with the murder of Caril’s family and led to a total of 10 deaths. Remembering those days is a realization of how brutal and sick murders can be. But innocent people are executed. In 1987 a posthumous pardon was granted to William Marion 100 years after his execution in Nebraska for murdering his business partner, John Cameron. His trial was a sensation at the time with the trial moved to the Opera House to accommodate the audience. However, his “victim” was later seen alive, a convincing reason for the pardon.
Another historic Nebraska case is that of Joseph White who in 1985 was convicted of murdering a 68-year old woman and sentenced to life in prison. In 2008 his became the first to be exonerated due to DNA analysis. No less than six innocent people were charged in the case; the others confessed because of their fear of a death sentence. White, the only one person to maintain his innocence in court, was the only one convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Fourteen states introduced bills this year to end the death penalty. Four states have voted no: South Dakota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming. Most states that abolish the death penalty have been using it very little. When Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011, it had been twelve years since anyone was put to death. Nebraska had only executed 3 people since 1976 in contrast to Texas which has put 525 people to death during the same period. Other than Texas there is a movement away from the death penalty. Death Penalty Information Center statistics show 153 people formerly on death row have been proven innocent. There is a very real risk of putting innocent people to death.
Two surprising facts: (1) Killing people on death row rather than imprisoning them for life does not save money. In California it costs an extra $90,000 a year to keep a prisoner on death row compared to the cost of keeping him/her in maximum-security prisons while serving a life sentence. Death row is much more expensive for the state than life sentences. (2) For families, the death penalty does not bring closure; it is quite the opposite. Inmates tend to be on death row for a very long time, as one appeal is filed after another and the case is constantly in the news.
No recent tragedy has touched me more than that of the death of 8-year old Martin Richard, who lost his life at the Boston Marathon. The young bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been sentenced to death for his heinous crime. For the Richard family, in addition to Martin, his little sister Jane lost her left leg; their mother Denise suffered brain trauma and was blinded in her right eye; their father Bill caught burning shrapnel in his legs and perforated his eardrum, and Martin’s 9-year-old brother Henry witnessed all of it. The Richard family pleaded for Tsarnaev not to be executed but to serve the rest of his life in prison. Their argument is that as long Tsarnaev is on death row, their children will “grow up with the lingering, painful reminder of what the defendant took from them.” They want to put this behind them as much as they can: “As long as the defendant is in the spotlight, we have no choice but to live a story told on his terms, not ours.” A death sentence clearly does not bring closure to a family. Nevertheless, the Department of Justice rejected the Richard family’s plea. Bostonians overwhelmingly oppose condemning Tsarnaev to death. Only 15 % want him executed according to a poll conducted by The Boston Globe (compared to 19% statewide). A CBS news poll showed 60% of Americans wanted him to get the death penalty. As one Bostonian asked, “It raises the question, should we react to murder with murder?”
In the news, we see stoning, beheadings and cutting off of hands by Muslim extremists in the name of Muslim law and it seems medieval, cruel and inhumane. Ironically, I understand that in Muslim law, the wishes of a victim’s family are primary in determining punishment. It seems wrong that the Richards’ family wishes and that of the majority of Bostonians are being ignored. Massachusetts has abolished the death penalty, but it was an option because this was a federal case. Hopefully we will get to where each state, including Texas, and also the nation as a whole abolishes the death penalty.
ji
finance.yahoo.com
nyti.ms/1bagtvS
www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us
dpi.com
Another historic Nebraska case is that of Joseph White who in 1985 was convicted of murdering a 68-year old woman and sentenced to life in prison. In 2008 his became the first to be exonerated due to DNA analysis. No less than six innocent people were charged in the case; the others confessed because of their fear of a death sentence. White, the only one person to maintain his innocence in court, was the only one convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Fourteen states introduced bills this year to end the death penalty. Four states have voted no: South Dakota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming. Most states that abolish the death penalty have been using it very little. When Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011, it had been twelve years since anyone was put to death. Nebraska had only executed 3 people since 1976 in contrast to Texas which has put 525 people to death during the same period. Other than Texas there is a movement away from the death penalty. Death Penalty Information Center statistics show 153 people formerly on death row have been proven innocent. There is a very real risk of putting innocent people to death.
Two surprising facts: (1) Killing people on death row rather than imprisoning them for life does not save money. In California it costs an extra $90,000 a year to keep a prisoner on death row compared to the cost of keeping him/her in maximum-security prisons while serving a life sentence. Death row is much more expensive for the state than life sentences. (2) For families, the death penalty does not bring closure; it is quite the opposite. Inmates tend to be on death row for a very long time, as one appeal is filed after another and the case is constantly in the news.
No recent tragedy has touched me more than that of the death of 8-year old Martin Richard, who lost his life at the Boston Marathon. The young bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has been sentenced to death for his heinous crime. For the Richard family, in addition to Martin, his little sister Jane lost her left leg; their mother Denise suffered brain trauma and was blinded in her right eye; their father Bill caught burning shrapnel in his legs and perforated his eardrum, and Martin’s 9-year-old brother Henry witnessed all of it. The Richard family pleaded for Tsarnaev not to be executed but to serve the rest of his life in prison. Their argument is that as long Tsarnaev is on death row, their children will “grow up with the lingering, painful reminder of what the defendant took from them.” They want to put this behind them as much as they can: “As long as the defendant is in the spotlight, we have no choice but to live a story told on his terms, not ours.” A death sentence clearly does not bring closure to a family. Nevertheless, the Department of Justice rejected the Richard family’s plea. Bostonians overwhelmingly oppose condemning Tsarnaev to death. Only 15 % want him executed according to a poll conducted by The Boston Globe (compared to 19% statewide). A CBS news poll showed 60% of Americans wanted him to get the death penalty. As one Bostonian asked, “It raises the question, should we react to murder with murder?”
In the news, we see stoning, beheadings and cutting off of hands by Muslim extremists in the name of Muslim law and it seems medieval, cruel and inhumane. Ironically, I understand that in Muslim law, the wishes of a victim’s family are primary in determining punishment. It seems wrong that the Richards’ family wishes and that of the majority of Bostonians are being ignored. Massachusetts has abolished the death penalty, but it was an option because this was a federal case. Hopefully we will get to where each state, including Texas, and also the nation as a whole abolishes the death penalty.
ji
finance.yahoo.com
nyti.ms/1bagtvS
www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us
dpi.com
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