We Ain’t Done Yet!
For those of us on death row here at Holman and for our friends, family and supporters, January 21, 2016 marked the day the State of Alabama returned to the business of state-sanctioned murder. For some of was the first execution since they came to Holman as there were no executions for the previous 2 years due to legal challenges. But, for some of us it was a return to how things have been since we arrived here at Holman.
My name is Ronald B. Smith Jr. and I am the Chairman of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty. I have been at Holman since October 7, 1995. The first person executed after my arrival was Ed Horsely at the very beginning of 1996. My reaction was one of shock, dismay and a creeping despair. Way beyond sadness.
The advice given to me at the time by my mentor Brian Baldwin may seem harsh but, it has served me time and again as my brothers were murdered, time and again by the State. “Time to get up and put your big boy pants on. We don’t have time to wallow. No one’s coming to save you. So, get up and fight, because we deal with flesh and blood, life and death every day.”
Over the past two years, some forgot. We at Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty did not. We attended the NAACP Executive Conference, National Association of Social Workers Conference, paid a visit to Senator Hank Sanders to talk about death penalty legislative bills, all in the person of our Executive Director Mrs. Esther Brown, and we will attend Alabama Arise Lobby Day on March 8th, also in the person of Mrs. Esther Brown.
The Board began our Essay contest, with high school students, and will be answering questions posed to us by students at John Carroll High School. We held an informal meeting with those in their latter stages of appeals to discuss strategies. And we have begun research that we hope will end in a class action lawsuit regarding AEDPA and Habeas restrictions. Also, we have been collecting articles for our upcoming newsletter.
What can you do? You can be the other voice, to say “Don’t kill in my name!” or ask, “Why do you kill to prove killing is wrong?” The people t write, talk to, and email are Representatives of Alabama’s government and their addresses are listed on this website. Start a discussion group online. Sign the Daimler or Boycott petitions if you haven’t already. Continue to support Project Hope and oppose. We ain’t done yet!
Keeping Hope Alive!
Sincerely,
Ronald B. Smith Jr.
Chairman PHADP
The Death Penalty Pendulum
As societies develop, so do their laws. Certain practices become unconscionable and are cast aside as inhume. In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court wrote about the “evolving standards of decency that marked the progress of a maturing society.” Nearly 50 years later we still await the mark of maturity concerning capital punishment. As the number of executions rose since 1997, concerns, as well as, opposition has grown to the death penalty. The trend begins in 1997 when the number of executions easily surpassed the highest figure for any year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The last time more people were executed in a single year in the United States was 1955, when 76 people were executed. Even though the number of persons executed in 1998 declined slightly, the number rose again in 1999. The number of executions in the U.S. in 1999 outpaced the number of executions in 1997. There were 98 executions, one third of them in Texas. The 44% increase in executions was partly due to the large number of older cases facing an expedited federal and state appeals process. At the same time the number of innocent people freed from death row also grew in 1999, with 8 more people released. The number of inmates exonerated since 1973 had reached a total of 84. Most notable among such cases was that of Anthony Porter who was released in Illinois through the hard work of a class of Northwestern University journalism students. Executions in 2000 declined 13% from the previous year. Executions reached 85, the second highest year since 1976. 90% of these executions took place in the south. (Source of Statistics: Death Penalty Information Center Year End Report 1997 – 2000)
This is not a new trend. The south has always been fertile ground for capital punishment. Executions simply replaced lynching as the accepted way to exclude certain groups of people from society. It led the nation in executions in the earliest times, when there was barely a nation to speak of, and it has maintained its position into the modern era. Of the twenty six death sentences handed out by federal juries from 1988 to 2000, twenty three were from cases in southern states. Interestingly, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report released in October of 1997 showed that the south was the only region of the country to experience a rise in serious crime from the previous year.
As the number of executions rose in the last few years, so has mainstream opposition. A number of mainstream organizations and persons called for a halt to capital punishment in America. Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa reflected this opposition with pleas for clemency in certain cases. The American Bar Association, in February of 1997, voted by margin of two to one, for a moratorium on the death penalty. ABA members cited the inadequacy of representation for those facing executions, the racial disparities on death row versus society’s general population make up and the quickening appeals process as reason for temporarily stopping the death penalty.
The United States also faced international pressure to halt its pursuit of vengeance. In April 1997, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights voted overwhelmingly to urge members to abolish the death penalty. The U.S. along with Indonesia, China, and Bangladesh were in the minority opposing this resolution. Even Russia and the Ukraine, among the leaders in executions, pledged to halt the death penalty. Both of the United States’ neighbors Mexico and Canada have protested the executions of their citizens in the U.S. Mexico protested because its citizens were not notified of their right to consult with their home country per the Vienna Convention’s rules. Three states, Texas, Florida, and Virginia executed foreign nationals in 1997. In 1998, the International Court of Justice in The Hague cited that a Paraguayan defendant’s rights under the Vienna Convention had been violated. The World Court’s request along with a plea from the U.S. secretary of State Madeline Albright was rejected, and Angel Breard was executed on April 14.
The foreign Minister of Canada, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the President of the European Union, Bishop Tutu of South Africa, and The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Summary or Arbitrary Executions, have all called for the United States to abolish its death penalty practices.
In 1998, the execution of Karl Faye Tucker put a new face on the image the public had on the death penalty and those sentenced to death. Along with the issues of racial discrimination, juveniles, and mental retardation, Karla Faye Tucker’s execution brought new voices of opposition to capital punishment in the U.S. Even from within its borders. Rev. Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell both longtime death penalty supporters added their voices to the growing list of new voices calling for the abolition of the death penalty in the U.S.
In 1999, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed another resolution calling for a moratorium on all executions, and a complete ban on the death penalty for juvenile offenders and those with severe mental illness. Again the U.S. opposed the resolution even though it was sponsored by the European Union. The Death Penalty Information Center released its report, International Perspectives on the Death Penalty: a Costly isolation for the U.S. which cited ways in which the U.S. has separated itself from its allies with its insistence on expanding the death penalty, by executing juveniles, the mentally retarded, and those denied their rights under international treaties. U.S. Senator Feingold from Wisconsin introduced the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act and said, “As we head into the next millennium, let us leave this archaic practice behind.”
The race of the victim and the method of execution became serious issues to consider. In 1999, despite the fact that nationally whites and blacks are victims in approximately equal numbers, 83% of the victims in cases resulting in executions have been white. And although almost all the executions in 1999 were by lethal injection, the point was brought to the attention of the U.s Supreme Court following a series of botched executions in Florida. However, the case, Bryan V. Moors, was made moot when Florida amended its method of execution. Alabama and Nebraska were the lone holdouts in offering only the electric chair as their method of execution until recently when Governor Don Siegelman signed the Alabama Lethal Injection bill which made lethal injection Alabama’s primary means of execution.
The year 2000 was perhaps the most significant single year affecting death penalty opinion in U.S. history. More conservative voices such as Senator Patrick Leahy, Oliver North, Congressman Tom Osborne of Nebraska, and Columnist George Will offered strong criticism of the death penalty.
Perhaps the most validation voice occurred in Illinois, when the 13th exoneration of a death row inmate during the same period that the state had executed 12 people and Governor George Ryan announced a moratorium on executions in Illinois. Governor Ryan appointed a commission to study and investigate the death penalty in Illinois and why so many errors were being made. The introduction of a bill in the U.S. Congress followed Governor Ryan’s announcement. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont called for the Innocence Protection Act to ensure access to DNA testing.
Although executions remained at a high level, concerns about the death penalty continue to grow. With the exception of politicians who continue to stress capital punishment as a way to get tough on crime, in order to win elections, many U.S. leaders have called for abolition of the death penalty. In the presidential election, Governor George Bush of Texas’ record on capital punishment was seen as severe and brought the debate to a forefront in the minds of most Americans. Even though George W. Bush was elected President the number of executions has declined. The executions of juveniles, the mentally retarded, executions that damage the United States’ standing in the international community, together with the ever present chance of mistakes, highlighted by the recent number of exonerations have led more people to protest the continued use of the death penalty. Former attorneys, judges, and institutional heads which supported the death penalty in the past, have added their voices to criticize the system. Even the U.S. Supreme Court which is usually split along political lines has agreed to hear cases that will have immediate and profound effect on the death penalty in years to come.
By: Ronald B. Smith
Z-586 7-D-6
