That's the title of an article in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram by Jay Root of the Austin bureau. LINK
In Texas, home of the busiest death chamber in the Western Hemisphere, the question is generally when, not whether, to execute condemned killers.
But 25 years after the death penalty was reinstated in Texas -- and after 405 executions -- a group of homegrown artists and entertainers say it's time to take another look at capital punishment.
Spearheaded by Austin singer-songwriters Sara Hickman and Trish Murphy, the entertainers are staging concerts and town-hall meetings around Texas, taking advantage of an unofficial moratorium on executions to get people talking about the issue.
The concert series has been dubbed "Music for Life," and, as the name suggests, it's an anti-death penalty crowd on stage. But organizers will settle for anything short of silence on an issue they say has generated an almost stunning lack of controversy.
"The whole point is just to open up a dialogue," said Murphy, whose albums include Crooked Mile and Rubies on the Lawn. "I don't think it's going to be done overnight, but that's no reason not to make the effort."
Scheduling a concert in a different Texas city each month, the artists-activists have an event set in Fort Worth at the Jefferson Freedom Cafe in the fall.
Former Death Row chaplain Carroll Pickett and Kinky Friedman, the musician-turned-writer-turned-politician, are among the speakers scheduled to participate in some of the forums. Hickman, a folk-rock singer whose albums include Motherlode and Shortstop, said the events sometimes spark heated, heart-wrenching debate.
"It's definitely the hardest undertaking I've ever had, and it is very, very emotional for me. The music is very emotional," said Hickman, who performs a provocative song called The One, written from the perspective of an infamous killer's mother. "I just felt called to do it."
An earlier post on Sara Hickman's tour with the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is here.
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