The StandDown Texas Project

Journalist Tells Story of Violence, Forgiveness

That's the title of a news article in today's Yale Daily News by Staphany Hou.

On Sept. 21, 2001, Mark Stroman walked into a convenience store and attempted to murder Raisuddin Bhuiyan. Ten years later, in a twist of fate, Bhuiyan campaigned against the Texas courts to save Stroman from the death penalty.

In his most recent book, “The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas,” New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas, who spoke at a master’s tea in Ezra Stiles College on Wednesday afternoon, tells the story of Stroman’s shooting spree and Bhuiyan’s mission to prevent his execution. At the event, which drew about 30 people, Giridharadas talked about the process of writing “The True American.”

Earlier coverage of Mark Stroman's execution and Rais Bhuiyan's campaign to stop it begins at the link.

Related posts are in the books category index.

A New Book From John Bessler

The Birth of American Law: An Italian Philosopher and the American Revolution by John D. Bessler, has just been published by Carolina Academic Press.  Here's more from the publisher:

The Birth of American Law: An Italian Philosopher and the American Revolution tells the forgotten, untold story of the origins of U.S. law. Before the Revolutionary War, a 26-year-old Italian thinker, Cesare Beccaria, published On Crimes and Punishments, a runaway bestseller that shaped the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and early American laws. America’s Founding Fathers, including early U.S. Presidents, avidly read Beccaria’s book—a product of the Italian Enlightenment that argued against tyranny and the death penalty. Beccaria’s book shaped American views on everything from free speech to republicanism, to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” to gun ownership and the founders’ understanding of “cruel and unusual punishments,” the famous phrase in the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. In opposing torture and infamy, Beccaria inspired America’s founders to jettison England’s Bloody Code, heavily reliant on executions and corporal punishments, and to adopt the penitentiary system.

The cast of characters in The Birth of American Law includes the usual suspects—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison. But it also includes the now little-remembered Count Luigi Castiglioni, a botanist from Milan who—decades before Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America—toured all thirteen original American states before the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Also figuring in this dramatic story of the American Revolution: Madison’s Princeton classmate William Bradford, an early U.S. Attorney General and Beccaria devotee; John Dickinson, the “Penman of the Revolution” who wrote of Beccaria’s “genius” and “masterly hand”; James Wilson and Dr. Benjamin Rush, signers of the Declaration of Independence and fellow Beccaria admirers; and Philip Mazzei, Jefferson’s Italian-American neighbor at Monticello and yet another Beccaria enthusiast. In documenting Beccaria’s game-changing influence, The Birth of American Law sheds important new light on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the creation of American law.

Bessler is an Assocate Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore.  He has written extensively about the death penalty, including Cruel & Unusual.  You can also jump to other news involving Bessler.

Related posts are in the books category index.

If the name of Cesare Beccaria seems familiar to loyal readers, it may be because of this Maryland post from last year.

Montour Case in Colorado Settles with Life Plea Agreement

"Montour agrees to plead guilty after prosecutors drop death penalty demand," is by Jordan Steffen for the Denver Post.

Inmate Edward Montour has agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder in the beating death of a corrections officer in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, his attorney said Thursday.

Montour, 34, had faced the death penalty for killing officer Eric Autobee, 23, at the Limon Correctional Facility in 2002. He previously had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Defense attorney David Lane told The Denver Post early Thursday that prosecutors had offered — and Montour had accepted — the agreement to drop the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea.

The deal will be finalized at a court hearing Thursday afternoon.

Opening arguments in Montour's trial began Wednesday in Douglas County District Court.

"Edward Montour to plead guilty, avoid death penalty," is the AP filing, via the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Montour was serving a life sentence in the 1997 death of his 11-month-old daughter when Autobee was killed.

His lawyers argue that Montour was wrongfully convicted of his daughter's death and say that affected his mental health.

The guard's father opposes the death penalty and has protested prosecutors' decision to seek it.

Westword posts, "Edward Montour death-penalty bid dropped in favor of life without possibility of parole," by Michael Roberts.  These comments are from David Lane, the Denver lawyer who represented Edward Montour:

In the meantime, Lane's head is still spinning for the twists and turns of the case. According to him, "the human tragedy that flowed from Edward Montour accidentally dropping his baby in 1997 has had ripple effects that are beyond anyone's wildest imagination."

That includes the terrible death of Eric Autobee, who Montour killed in a prison kitchen using a heavy ladle. Nonetheless, Eric's loved ones have become some of the most vocal opponents to executing Montour. "From my perspective, the Autobee family's compassion, mercy and understanding transcended the prosecutor's desire for vengeance and death," Lane says.

The attorney is less forgiving when it comes to what he sees as a long and wasteful journey through the legal system.

"Years ago, Edward Montour offered to plead to exactly what he's going to be taking today," Lane points out. "And I would love to see a Colorado Open Records Act request to the DA's office, the Department of Corrections and alternate defense counsel to show the taxpayers of Colorado what a failed attempt to attain the death penalty actually costs. And that cost has been enormous."

His estimate? "Well over a million dollars," he says. "And that's just a wild guess. It could be more. I'm being very conservative."

Of course, the money is only a small part of this story.

"There has been so much tragedy here," Lane notes. "But there has also been so much humanity from the restorative justice process, which has so moved Edward Montour that he's pleading guilty to help the Autobees gain some peace. And there's been so much humanity from the Autobees in understanding they don't want to make Edward Montour's mother go through the pain they went through with the loss of their son.

Earlier coverage of the Colorado case begins at the link.

New Scholarship From Marilyn Armour & Mark Umbreit

The Study, Assessing the Impact of the Ultimate Penal Sanction on Homicide Survivors: A Two State Comparison is available in Adobe .pdf format.

The University of Minnesota news report is, "The Death of the Death Penalty?."  Here's the beginning:

Texas leads the nation in executions. Minnesota has no death penalty. So two researchers—one from the University of Minnesota and one from the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)—teamed up to find out something no one had ever looked at before: what the death penalty does for the murder victims’ families. They compared family survivors’ experiences in Texas with Minnesota, the latter one of 18 states with life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) as its “Ultimate Penal Sanction.”

The study used in-person interviews with victims’ families to examine the death penalty process and its long-term impact on the families.

The study itself does not advocate for the death penalty or for LWOP, but it does reference a key reason often given in support of the death penalty by Americans—that, as a form of retribution, it succeeds in bringing satisfaction and closure to murder victims’ families. In other words, it helps them heal.

The study was led by University of Minnesota alum and former adjunct professor Marilyn Peterson Armour (now with UT Austin, where the research recently won UT’s most prestigious research award) and Mark Umbreit, professor and director of the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota. It is the first systematic inquiry dealing directly with whether capital punishment affects the healing of homicide survivors.

Psych Central posts, "Study Finds Executions Do Little to Heal Victims’ Families," by Traci Pedersen.

A new study suggests that the primary reason people say they support the death penalty is based on an incorrect assumption — that the death of the murderer would bring satisfaction and closure to the victim’s family.

The study itself does not advocate for the death penalty or for life without the possibility of parole (LWOP).  It is the first study, however, dealing directly with whether capital punishment affects the healing of murder victims’ loved ones.

The study was conducted by two researchers who come from states on opposite ends of the spectrum: Mark Umbreit, Ph.D., from the University of Minnesota (Minnesota has no death penalty) and Marilyn Peterson Armour, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin (Texas leads the nation in executions).

Through personal interviews, the researchers compared family survivors’ experiences in Texas with those in Minnesota.  The findings showed that, in Minnesota, victims’ family members show higher levels of physical, psychological, and behavioral health, as well as more satisfaction with the criminal justice system.

Related posts are in the restorative justice, scholarship, and vicitims' issues category indexes.

ABA Journal Profiles Jeanne Bishop

"Attorney forgave her sister’s killer and became an advocate against the death penalty," is the ABA Journal report written by Martha Neil.

A well-known Illinois lawyer who works as a public defender and opposes the death penalty, Jeanne Bishop is also a woman of faith who views the criminal justice system from a very personal perspective.

One of her sisters, Nancy Bishop Langert, was murdered, along with her husband, Richard, in the couple's townhome in a wealthy Chicago suburb more than 20 years ago. Eventually—after theories were floated about unlikely drug connections or possible retaliation for Jeanne Bishop's work defending members of the Irish Republican Army imprisoned in the United States—the truth came out. A 16-year-old neighbor of the couple had murdered them, as he later admitted. A friend with whom David Biro discussed the crimes testified against him at trial, saying Biro told him he killed the Langerts because he found them "annoying," the Chicago Tribune (sub. req.) recounts in a lengthy front-page article.

Both Jeanne Bishop, who once worked for Mayer Brown, and another surviving sister became active as advocates against the death penalty. Bishop publicly forgave Biro, who was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. But as time passed, Bishop began to feel that more was required of her. As a Christian, she believes, it is also her obligation to seek reconciliation with Biro. She wrote to him in prison at the beginning of the year and he responded. For the first time, he admitted that he was responsible for the slayings of the Langerts and their unborn child and apologized.

And:

A lengthy Chicago Reader profile of Bishop from 1992 provides additional background about the Biro case.

Earlier coverage of Jeanne Bishop's advocacy is at the links.

New Leadership at NYADP

"Rev. Valerie Ackerman Named Executive Director of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty," is the news release issued by NYADP, via Read Media.  Here's the beginning of the release:

The Most Reverend Howard J. Hubbard, Bishop of Albany and chairman of the board of directors of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NYADP), is pleased to announce the appointment of the Reverend Valerie Mapstone Ackerman, MSW, MDiv., to be the organization's executive director.

"With her experience in program direction and coordination, her familiarity with communities and individuals in crisis, and her passion for social justice, we believe Rev. Ackerman to be an excellent choice for an organization committed to making Capital Region communities safer and its residents more self-sustaining," Bishop Hubbard said.

Rev. Ackerman brings experience in non-violent social change as a pastor and consultant in large and small churches; founder of Peace House in Tulsa, Ok; chaplain and program director for persons suffering from intimate partner violence; advocate for homeless children and youth; and volunteer in dozens of social change organizations.

She is an expert in creative and innovative program development and has hundreds of hours of training in mediation, anti-racism, anti-oppression and restorative justice; and specialized training in Polarities Management, the Carver Model for nonprofit board service, Bowen Family Systems' analysis and intervention, and Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication strategies.

In 2007, the New York Court of Appeals ruled the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional.  The New York Assembly has chosen to not reform the law.

Earlier coverage of NYADP and it's retired leader, David Kaczynski, at the links.

Marquette University Conference on Restorative Justice to Feature UT Prof

"Restorative justice conference explores death penalty vs. life without parole," is by Annysa Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The death penalty vs. life without parole and their effects on victims' families and their communities will be the topic of the 2013 Restorative Justice Conference at Marquette University Law School Feb. 21-22.

Speakers will include Marilyn Peterson Amour, associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas, who co-authored a 2012 study comparing the impact of sentences meted out in Texas and Minnesota. You can read more on that Marquette Law Review piece here.

The conference explores the effects of both sanctions through the personal stories of survivors, prosecutors, defense lawyers, victims' advocates, and judges. The conference is based on a groundbreaking study by Marilyn Armour of victims' families in Texas (affected by the death penalty) and Minnesota (affected by life without the possibility of parole) and the implications of these punishments for healing.

Marqutte Univesrsity Law School posts, "Restorative Justice Conference: The Death Penalty versus Life Without Parole."  The conference will be held at the Milwaukee campus on February 21st & 22nd.

The death penalty. Life without the possibility of parole. These are society's harshest punishments. But how do they affect the victims' families? Is one more healing than the other? Is there ever closure? And what is the ripple effect on the community?

Marquette Law School's Restorative Justice Conference on February 21–22, 2013, will examine the impact of both sanctions through the personal stories of survivors, prosecutors, defense lawyers, victims' advocates, and judges. The conference is based on a groundbreaking study by Marilyn Armour of victims' families in Texas (affected by the death penalty) and Minnesota (affected by life without the possibility of parole) and the implications of these punishments for healing.
Cost

There is no fee for the Keynote Kickoff event on Thursday. Friday conference fee is $20 per person (includes continental breakfast and lunch on conference day). Marquette University students and employees may attend at no charge but must, like others, register.

The complete conference schedule is at the link.

Related posts are in the restorative justice category index.

Stacy Rector on Tennessee's Death Penalty

Today's Journal News in Tennessee publishes the OpEd, "New dialogue needed on death penalty," written by the Rev. Stacy Rector.  She's the executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

In an article in the Jan. 5 Tennessean titled, “State pursues new death penalty drug,” the issue of Tennessee’s problematic lethal injection protocol is revisited.

The article notes that the state’s stock of one of the three drugs used in the current protocol was seized by the federal government over questions about the legality of how the drugs were obtained. Now, the state says it is pursuing alternative drugs but won’t say much more.

As is often the case, the article has a tendency to frame the discussion in terms of simply taking a side, including quotes from me and quotes from those “on the other side.” But this polemical approach to the issue does not get us very far and does not address the concerns that we share.

And:

This new conversation about the death penalty should not be simply about taking a side in a tired debate. Instead, it should be about listening to one another and working together to determine how best to facilitate healing and support for victims’ families after the horror of a homicide has occurred, and how to work together to create smart policies that prevent such tragedies from happening in the first place.

Earlier coverage from Tennessee begins at the link.  More of what Stacy Rector is talking about can be found in the restorative justice and victims' issues category indexes.

Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice?

That's the title of an article by Paul Tullis in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

At 2:15 in the afternoon on March 28, 2010, Conor McBride, a tall, sandy-haired 19-year-old wearing jeans, a T-shirt and New Balance sneakers, walked into the Tallahassee Police Department and approached the desk in the main lobby. Gina Maddox, the officer on duty, noticed that he looked upset and asked him how she could help. “You need to arrest me,” McBride answered. “I just shot my fiancée in the head.” When Maddox, taken aback, didn’t respond right away, McBride added, “This is not a joke.”

Maddox called Lt. Jim Montgomery, the watch commander, to her desk and told him what she had just heard. He asked McBride to sit in his office, where the young man began to weep.

About an hour earlier, at his parents’ house, McBride shot Ann Margaret Grosmaire, his girlfriend of three years. Ann was a tall 19-year-old with long blond hair and, like McBride, a student at Tallahassee Community College. The couple had been fighting for 38 hours in person, by text message and over the phone. They fought about the mundane things that many couples might fight about, but instead of resolving their differences or shaking them off, they kept it up for two nights and two mornings, culminating in the moment that McBride shot Grosmaire, who was on her knees, in the face. Her last words were, “No, don’t!”

Friends couldn’t believe the news. Grosmaire was known as the empathetic listener of her group, the one in whom others would confide their problems, though she didn’t often reveal her own. McBride had been selected for a youth-leadership program through the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and was a top student at Leon County High School, where he and Grosmaire met. He had never been in any serious trouble. Rod Durham, who taught Conor and Ann in theater classes and was close to both, told me that when he saw “Conor shot Ann” in a text message, “I was like: ‘What? Is there another Conor and Ann?’ ”

At the police station, Conor gave Montgomery the key to his parents’ house. He had left Ann, certain he had killed her, but she was still alive, though unresponsive, when the county sheriff’s deputies and police arrived.

The work of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency is referenced in the article.

Related posts are in the restorative justice and victims' issues category indexes.

A Texas Murder Victim's Family Survivor Speaks Out

The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports on a program at Texas A&M, "Woman describes pain after daughter died."  It's by Maggie Kelly.  Here's a small excerpt:

Jan Brown knows that it's almost impossible for people to understand how she can't hate the man who shot her 9-year-old daughter at point-blank range before dumping her body and covering it with debris in a wooded area where Blinn College now stands in Bryan.

But she knows that what's really impossible is loving and hating simultaneously.

"How did I keep from hating him? I kept loving Kandy," she told a small audience gathered in a classroom at Texas A&M University on Wednesday.

They had come to hear Brown share memories of her daughter, Kandy Kirtland, and discuss what life's been like since she was killed and why she considers the death penalty "legalized murder" during CommUnity, a program organized by the Texas A&M Department of Multicultural Services.

And:

Brown requested that she be allowed to visit Earhart in prison, but was denied. And at the time, the victim offender mediation program had not been enacted in Texas, so Earhart had no obligations to meet Brown.

Had he not been executed, Brown thinks she would've gotten a chance to sit down with the man who killed her daughter in hopes of seeking answers.

"The answers died with him," she said. "If he'd gotten life without parole, I would've gotten on with my life long before he was executed."

Today, Brown is an active member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and has become heavily involved in Bridges to Life, a program created to "put a face on crime" by taking families of crime victims into prisons to talk with defendants about how the violent and thoughtless actions of others have impacted them.

TDCJ's victim-offender mediation program was the first of its kind in the nation.  Related posts are in the victims' issues index.

Death Penalty's Unlikely Opponents

That's the title of a report at CNN, posted by Eliott C. McLaughlin.  There is video at the link.  Here are two excerpts from this must-read:

Charisse Coleman has no real compassion for the man who walked into the Thrifty Liquor Store in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1995 and put three bullets in her brother, Russell.

But she doesn't want Bobby Lee Hampton -- one of more than seven dozen killers on Louisiana's death row -- executed, either.

"My opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do with Bobby Lee Hampton," Coleman said. "He's a bad dude. He's never going to be a good dude. If I got a call that said Bobby Lee Hampton dropped dead in his cell last night, I don't think it would create a ripple in my pond."

She added, though, "I will be goddamned if I will let Bobby Lee Hampton make me a victim, too, by taking me down that road of bitterness and revenge."

Coleman, 50, is among the most unlikely opponents of the death penalty, people who lost loved ones to unspeakable violence yet believe executing the killer will do nothing for family members or society.

Their stance is backed by groups like Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, and their reasons aren't as religious or political as one might think. Some feel so strongly they've spoken against the death penalty even when it wasn't an option in their loved one's case.

And:

Jan Brown of Houston said she can't pinpoint why she loathes the death penalty, but she always has, even when her 9-year-old daughter's killer was executed.

A Southern Baptist until 1984, Brown said capital punishment is tantamount to "legalized murder." She said she doesn't know when she developed her disdain. The first time she considered it may have been when she told a prosecutor she didn't want James Earhart to die, she said.

"Maybe I'm just selfish," she said. "Maybe he'd tell me what her last words were. Maybe he'd tell me why she had to die. Maybe because I think it's barbaric. Maybe if one of my children ended up in the same situation, I wouldn't want them to die."

Brown, 65, said the entire process leading up to Earhart's lethal injection was more about the perpetrator than the victim. Brown was a suspect until police found Kandy Janell Kirtland's deteriorating body, her hands bound, in a rubbish pile in Bryan, Texas. Brown said she was further devastated when protesters staged a vigil at Earhart's 1999 execution -- not for the innocent girl who never got to see fifth grade, but for her killer.

Brown said she went through 12 years of hell because a prosecutor seemed to care more about Texas' reputation for being tough on crime than about helping Kandy's family heal.

Related posts are in the victims' issues index.

Post-Abolition New York

Sunday's Schenectady Daily Gazette had a fascinating article on the activities of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, since capital punishment's abolition in the state.

"Anti-death penalty group turns focus to preventing violence, aiding victims," is the title of Sara Foss' report.  Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:

What does an anti-death penalty organization do with itself after the death penalty is abolished?

That’s the question New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty faced in 2007, after the death penalty was effectively abolished by the New York Court of Appeals.

After some soul-searching, NYADP decided to replace the group’s somewhat single-minded mission with a broader one: violence prevention and healing for victims.

“The best alternative to the death penalty is for the homicide not to occur in the first place,” said David Kaczynski, a Schenectady resident who heads NYADP. “We’re trying to build a grass-roots movement that says, ‘Let’s get serious about public safety and do what actually works.’?”

Kaczynski is the brother of Ted Kaczynski, the serial terrorist better known as the Unabomber.

To better reflect the group’s shift to a more holistic, community-oriented agenda, it has also changed its name, to New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. NYADP sought input from law enforcement, victims groups and other community organizations. Many of these people had never been involved in the fight to abolish the death penalty and often had different agendas.

But there was one thing everyone could agree on.  “We all want less violence,” Kaczynski said.
 
Kaczynski also felt that NYADP should focus on the problems in its own backyard.

In 2009, Kaczynski began attending the community meetings held in Schenectady after four teenage girls committed suicide and six others attempted suicide. The deaths sparked a citywide response as educators, officials and parents came together to discuss how to prevent the tragedies from repeating themselves. Kaczynski eventually joined the grass-roots group that formed in the wake of the suicides, the Community Empowerment Partnership.

“There was a real sense that [the suicides] were something beyond the parameters of a mental health problem,” Kaczynski said. “These kids lacked support. They were victims of violence, of sexual assault and abuse. These are the causes and conditions that lead to suicide, to interpersonal violence.”

A mild-mannered social worker, Kaczynski aided troubled youths at the Albany-based nonprofit organization Equinox until 2001, when he took a job as executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty. In some ways, its new emphasis on reducing violence, particularly among inner-city teens, recalls the work he did earlier in his career.

Marion Porterfield, who coordinates the Weed and Seed program in Schenectady, met Kaczynski at a Community Empowerment Partnership meeting; the two later participated in a discussion on safety and violence prevention at a group retreat.

“We found out that we were working toward the same goals,” she said. “I hear more and more throughout the community that these are the things people are concerned about.”

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, Weed and Seed is a nonprofit that is designed to prevent violent crime, drug abuse and gang activity in high-crime neighborhoods.

One issue that has emerged involves the aftermath of violence and the importance of making sure resources, such as counseling for the stress, trauma and mental issues that linger long after physical wounds heal, are available to people who need them, she said.

NYADP lobbied the state to provide funding for a new community-based violence prevention program called Operation SNUG, which is in the process of being implemented in 10 cities throughout the state, including Albany.

SNUG (which is guns spelled backward) is based on CeaseFire, an anti-violence program in Chicago that reaches out to people who are most likely to shoot a gun or be shot.

The program takes a public health approach to reducing shootings and killings by placing outreach workers on the street to interact with high-risk youth, mobilizing the community, working with faith-based leaders and educating the public. The program seeks to use “credible messengers” — people who know the neighborhood and the people who live there — to spread an anti-gun message.

David Kaczynski was recently in Texas participating in the Journey of Hope.  Others posts of interest include:

• The Death Penalty Fizzles Again
• David Kaczynski's Newsday OpEd
• In New York

Thanks to Ron Tabak for distributing.

More Reflection on the Gardner Execution

Valerie Elverton Dixon posts, "Capital punishment and the medium is the message," at the Washington Post On Faith blog.  Dixon is the founder of Just Peace Theory, and has taught Christian Ethics.  Here are two brief excerpts from this must-read:

Q: Was the Utah attorney general wrong to use Twitter, or religious language, to describe an execution? With all our technology, are we losing sight of our humanity? Should matters of life and death be reduced to a tweet?

A tweet trivializes the gravity of death by state sanction. It is wise to remember what Marshall McLuhan taught in the 1960s: "the medium is the message." Using 140 characters to announce the death of a human being by state decree is to deny the history, the philosophical, moral and legal complexities of the moment; it is to rush too fast past religious prohibitions against retribution and to evade alternative reasoning.

And:

The state does not have the right and ought not to have the power to take from an individual what it cannot restore or for which it cannot compensate that individual. This is why the issue of capital punishment is considered a human rights issue. More countries in the world than not recognize this and have abolished capital punishment. It is considered a violation of the right to life provision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Right requires signatories to agree not to carry out executions. The Conventions on the Rights of the Child prohibits execution of minors. Despite these international conventions, the United States ranks fifth in the world in the number of executions by the federal government and 35 states. China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are ahead of us in this regard.

Related posts are in the religion and restorative justice indexes.

David Powell Execution Set for Tonight

"Elusive justice in the death chamber," is the title of a Dallas Morning News editorial, today.

Powell's three-decade stay on Death Row also draws into question the legal requirement that jurors must find that a defendant possesses "future dangerousness." Powell's attorneys argue that since he has been a model prisoner with a record of helping others behind bars, jurors reached the wrong conclusion on the threat he poses.

If the death penalty erases no real threat and fails as a deterrent, it serves no purpose other than retribution.

There is no debate that Powell's crime was a cruel act and he should pay an extraordinarily high price. Today, jurors have an option that juries didn't in Powell's three trials: life without the possibility of parole. Essentially, that's a sentence of death by prison, a punishment that better fits his crime.

Sissy Farenthold writes the OpEd, "Should we kill David Lee Powell?"  It appears in today's Austin American-Statesman.

There is an alternative to the death penalty provided by the principles of restorative justice. Instead of seeking retribution through execution, restorative justice addresses the effects of a crime on victims, offenders and communities. It focuses on prevention of future crimes and reparations for harm done to victims in order to lead the transgressor toward positive change while fostering healing in all those touched by crime.

Restorative justice promotes respect for human life with the conviction that no one is irredeemable.

Powell's case is an appropriate case for restorative justice.

Powell has demonstrated his remorse and humanity by living a redemptive life for three decades. He has taught illiterate inmates how to read, write and improve their lives. He had no history of violence before his crime and none in his 32 years on death row. And he has expressed his deep remorse to Ablanedo's family.

Restorative justice calls for Powell to be spared so that he can continue to address the needs and concerns of the Ablanedo family and the prison community in which he lives.

Executing Powell will do nothing to deter other murderers. It will do nothing to restore the loss suffered by the Ablanedo family. To the contrary, it will end any possibility of restorative work Powell could continue to do.

The death penalty is on its way out. Since Powell was sentenced to death, 70 nations have abandoned the death penalty; three states in the United States have abandoned it; and the rate of death sentences is decreasing.

Justice should be based on laws and principle, not rage and revenge. Join me in advocating for restorative justice and an end to the death penalty.

"Appeals court declines to halt Powell execution," is the Statesman news article written by Chuck Lindell and Tony Plohetski.

In his final state appeal, filed last week, Powell had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to replace his death sentence with a life term in prison, arguing that jurors inaccurately predicted that he was a future danger to society. To impose the death penalty, jurors must find that a defendant poses a continuing threat to commit violence.

Seven of the court's nine members rejected Powell's request without ruling on its merits, with Judges Paul Womack and Cheryl Johnson not participating. Instead, the court declined to accept the appeal, ruling that it violated a state law that limits death row inmates to one application for a writ of habeas corpus — unless they unearth information that wasn't available during the first appeal.

Defense lawyer Richard Burr had argued that Powell's exemplary life on death row was new information proving that jurors wrongly concluded that he remained a danger. Because the death sentence was based on inaccurate information, Burr argued, executing Powell would be cruel and unusual punishment and violate his due process rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Within an hour of the court's rejection, Burr filed a petition containing the same arguments with the U.S. Supreme Court. That petition was still pending Monday night.

Earlier coverage begins with this post.

Powell's would be the 13th Texas execution of the year; the state's 460th execution since 1982.  Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions. 

To date, there have been 27 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,215 executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

According to TDCJ, five more executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including two more this month.  More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year. 

Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states.

Restorative Justice Blog

I see that Howard Zehr has started a Restorative Justice blog.  I'm adding a new category to the left-column webroll and will add a link.

Offering Up Comfort for Crime Victims

That's the title of a Q & A with Howard Zehr, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University.  It's subtitled, "Liaisons foster good will between families, defense counsel."

The Anglo-American criminal justice system hasn’t done a good job of taking care of crime victims. That was clear to a couple of parole officers in Quebec, Canada in 1974, after two drunk teenagers vandalized 22 properties on one street. The neighborhood was outraged, but everyone knew the kids were unlikely to have to face up to what they had done or make restitution. The judge was asked to make the boys go back and meet the victims. Reluctant at first, upon sentencing the judge did just that. It was so successful, says Professor Howard Zehr, that it launched the field of restorative justice.

The idea is to figure out what crime victims need that will help them find personal peace and feel that a sense that justice has been done.

And:

One aspect of the movement is DIVO, or defense-initiated victim outreach. As counterparts to state victim advocates, who tend to favor the prosecution’s perspective, DIVO representatives are brought in by the defense and offered as a resource to victims and crime survivors. They might simply explain the court process or help access state funds designated for crime victims. One thing they’re not, Zehr emphasized, is therapists.

LAW TRIBUNE: Tell me about restorative justice.

HOWARD ZEHR: I’m not sure how well known it is in the legal community. The DIVO work is one of the more far-out forms of it. Back in the 1970s, we began training third-party facilitators to bring people together, so that offenders could take responsibility, and victims could speak their mind, express their needs and maybe get restitution. It started with property crimes.

LAW TRIBUNE: Property crimes must be easier, I’d think.

ZEHR: It’s easier, although, my experience suggests it’s more powerful in the most serious crimes. When the Timothy McVeigh Oklahoma City bombing case was going on, I got a call from one of McVeigh’s attorneys who said, “We have all these people out there who’ve been affected by this. We think what we’re going to do will only make things worse. We don’t know what we’re doing.”

And so, a then student of mine, Tammy Krause, and I went out and did some training with the attorneys, and some strategizing. The attorneys convinced Tammy to apply for a Soros Foundation fellowship, and she went on to develop this [DIVO] field.

We knew that death penalty cases are highly adversarial. They have to be. They’re highly traumatic to survivors, often. And a lot of what survivors needed they had no access to. What is the defense up to, why did this happen, what are they doing? A [state victim advocate is] associated generally with the prosecution. Our goal was to provide a bridge so [victims and families] would have access to more than just the prosecution. [Victim liaisons] have two goals. To identify the needs of the survivors who want to work with them, and strategize about how those needs can be met.

LAW TRIBUNE: Is there a religious component here?

ZEHR: It’s not necessary. Some victims want to talk about the religious dimension, and we want to have someone they can do that with. Some won’t.

LAW TRIBUNE: How often are victim liaisons used?

ZEHR: We have groups working on the federal level, and groups working in the states. A group that came out of our group, the Georgia Council for Restorative Justice, now operates in Texas and other states. The group Tammy came out of handles federal referrals. I would say that every high-profile federal case in the country has somebody working on it. It’s usually low profile, and victims may decline.

Related posts are in the restorative justice category index.

Restorative Justice

That's the topic of a symposium at UT Law that will be held Thursday, April 23.  The full title is, "Restorative Justice: Putting a Spotlight on Harm & the Personal Dimensions of Crime."  The program begins at 9:30 am, the panel discussion is expected to end around 12 noon.

The keynote, "Restorative Justice: Putting a Spotlight on Harm and the Personal Dimensions of Crime?" will be delivered by Dr. Marilyn Armour, from the UT School of Social Work.  Her remarks will be followed by a panel discussion involving:

Ronnie Earle, former Travis County District Attorney,
Mark Odom, Texas Department of Criminal Justice; and,
John Sage, Bridges to Life

With the personnel involved, I'm sure it will be an excellent program.  It will be held in the Eidman Courtroom at UT Law.

Restorative Justice & the Bridges to Life Program

Melissa Stoeltje has a lengthy article and sidebar in the Sunday San Antonio Express-News on restorative justice.  The article is, "Prison program puts faces on criminals, victims."

The men file into the meeting room clutching thick white binders, all of them dressed in identical beige khaki scrubs.

If it weren't for the heavy locked door just outside, they could be mistaken for a group of doctors here to discuss the newest medical regimen. But the agenda is far more serious than that. The goal of the night is nothing less than redemption.

They're taking part in a program called Bridges to Life, a prison ministry that seeks to heal victims and reform criminals by bringing them together to tell their stories and listen to one another. Part of a movement called restorative justice, it's designed to prompt offenders to accept responsibility for their crimes as it gives victims an outlet for their pain.

In place in more than 20 prisons across Texas, the program has shown to drastically reduce the rate at which inmates return to prison, especially when it comes to committing violent crime.

And:

It seems simple — a victim telling her story to offenders, imparting how crime has wounded her — but what's happening inside this minimum-security prison is nothing short of revolutionary.

This program "makes inmates face reality and get out of denial," says John Sage, a lanky, folksy man who started it in 1998. "The whole system says deny, deny: Don't admit to anything. We're going contrary to that. They have to own up to what they've done, put it out there in the light. In the process, we create empathy where there was little or none."

The inmates sit down in small groups with victim-surrogates — not the actual victims of their crimes — to talk about the "ripple effect" of their actions, not just on their victims but on their own family members and society at large. They hear how victims were hurt. But in the victim-volunteers they find an open, nonjudgmental ear.

"We don't judge them or condemn them," Sage says. "We do challenge them."      

But the inmates do more than that. Under strict rules of confidence, they tell the stories of their own broken lives — narratives typically pockmarked with abuse, abandonment and neglect. They do the one thing that is verboten in prison society: They become vulnerable.

The sidebar is, "In restorative justice, victims and offenders have active roles."

"The underlying premise is that people are actually happier, more cooperative and more likely to change if those in authority do things        with them rather than to them or for them," says Ted Wachtel, president of the International Institute for Restorative Practices, who brings restorative practices to group homes and schools.

In traditional criminal justice, victims and offenders become passive players in a system dominated by the courts, lawyers and judges. In restorative justice, they take center stage.

"In the process of focusing on the victim, you end up providing a way for the offender to make amends and be re-accepted back into society," says Mike Gilbert, associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio Downtown Campus who teaches a course on restorative justice.

Critics no doubt will say restorative justice is so much pie-in-the-sky bleeding heart liberalism, out of touch with the realities of criminal behavior, but Gilbert counters that traditional justice hasn't proven very effective.

"It really doesn't work very well," he says. "If it did, the nation that punishes the most people for the most crime should have the lowest crime rate. That's us, and we don't."

Coddling offenders, he says, "is letting them sit on their bunk all day and watch TV. It's not coddling when you have to sit face-to-face and talk to people you've harmed. That's tough accountability."

Gilbert and other experts say restorative justice shouldn't be seen as a wholesale replacement for traditional justice — some people should definitely be locked up, he says — but rather as an alternative and added layer when appropriate.