Some history on the dates:
On June 29, 1972, the Supreme Court decided in Furman v Georgia that the death penalty was applied in an "arbitrary and capricious manner" and put a moratorium on it. All States had to rewrite their death penalty laws.
On July 2, 1976, in Gregg v Georgia, the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in the US. (Not much had changed though)
So every year (for the past 22) people have been gathering from all over the world and the US. Last year we had a couple from Australia and this year a young man from New Zealand. People come for all sorts of reasons. Each evening we have speakers as well: swath row survivors, murder victim family members, family members of the executed, a jury member from a capital case, lawyers, priests. They tell the stories of why they are here and how they got here. Many of them started on the other side of the issue.
On the sidewalks we pass out a pamphlet entitled "Why End the Death Penalty?" Some take it easily, others decline to take it Brut say they agree, some chant "Texas Texas doing it right" as they walk by. Here are some of the facts inside:
Since 1972, 154 wrongly convicted persons have been released. They were all deemed to have had FAIR trials. In Herrera v Collins the Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional to execute the innocent if they had a fair trial!
It cost 2 to 6 times as much to execute than to incarcerate for life. The cost is weighted in the initial trial and sentencing, not in the appeals process.
The outcome is racist. When the victim is white, the perpetrator is 4 to 11 times more likely to receive the death penalty.
States without the death penalty consistantly have lower murder rates (as do countries that have abolished the death penalty) . In fact, studies show the murder rate increases slightly after a highly publicized execution.
No comments:
Post a Comment