Pastor-in-training takes on the death penalty

Some years ago NCADP was involved in pushing bills to abolish the death penalty for juvenile offenders through several state legislatures. One of the states where we were successful was South Dakota. So I was pleased when my colleague Earl Bender sent me this feature article from the Argus (S.D.) Leader about one of the young people who helped us with our work:

Pastor-in-training takes on the death penalty
By JILL CALLISON
jcalliso@argusleader.com
September 17, 2006
Six years ago, Karl Kroger was a high school student in Lead when the lives of two young men not much older than he tragically collided. Elijah Page, then 18, and two other men brutally murdered 19-year-old Chester Poage.

Page was scheduled to be executed for his role in the killing Aug. 29; Gov. Mike Rounds issued a stay because of issues with state law. Last year, Kroger interned at the South Dakota State Penitentiary chapel. Every week, he walked past the cells that confined Page and three other death row inmates.

"I abhor what each of those four men did, but when I think about that table in the execution room, that room that I have been in, I abhor what my government does in continuing the violence," Kroger said. "Why do we teach people that killing people is wrong by killing people?"

His abhorrence of the death penalty led Kroger, then attending Dakota Wesleyan University, to organize students to lobby in Pierre to end the juvenile death penalty. It passed by two votes.

Kroger has e-mailed Rounds, urging commutation of Page's death sentence. Kroger, who will follow in his father's footsteps and become a pastor in United Methodist churches in South Dakota and North Dakota, also wrote a resolution opposing the death penalty. The UMC's Dakotas Conference passed it in June 2005.

Other social justice issues that engage Kroger's heart, mind and soul include erasing poverty, fair wages for workers worldwide, good stewardship of the environment and AIDS prevention.

Jeanne Koster, retired director of the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center, calls Kroger a natural-born diplomat who doesn't compromise his principles.

"The leadership he exercises in coming years will be persuasion, not coercion," she said. "He has a firm sense of what is right, and yet he can work and manage not to compromise that and bring people around without being abrasive."

The Rev. Cody Schuler of Fargo first met Kroger when Schuler was a church camp counselor.

"Karl is not a loud person. He's not the voice that you hear above everybody else's voices, but Karl is someone with a very caring heart," Schuler said."To look at what he's accomplished and where he can go in the future is exciting."

A humorous note regarding Ann Richards

Back in my former career, I was a newspaper reporter down in Texas. Back (okay, wayyy back) in 1990, I had the good fortune to cover the gubernatorial race that featured Democrat Ann Richards vs. Republican Clayton Williams. It was very interesting watching history in the making as Richards became the first woman elected Texas governor in modern history. (Actually, in the 1800s, there was another woman governor named Ma Ferguson, but she somehow ascended to the office when her husband got thrown in jail. Anyway, I digress.)

As anyone who follows the news knows, Ann Richards died the other night after a brief illness. Courtesy of Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, I stumbled across the following funny quote:

Bowing to the reality of the pro-death penalty Texas Legislature, Ann Richards was not a vocal critic of the Texas death penalty law while Governor. While campaigning for Governor, she was asked if she supported or opposed the death penalty. She said, "I will uphold the laws of the State of Texas." The reporter then asked, "But what would you do if the Legislature passed a bill repealing the death penalty?" to which she replied, "I would faint."

Quote of the day

Today's quote of the day comes from Iowa, where a candidate for governor is trying to garner votes with his call for reinstatement of the death penalty. Scroll down and find the paragraph in bold:

Nussle says he'd push for death penalty as governor

Republican candidate for governor Jim Nussle said Tuesday that reviving the death penalty in Iowa would be one of his legislative priorities next year if he wins the November election.

Although Nussle and his Democratic rival, Chet Culver, each support capital punishment, Culver has said he would not actively push for reinstatement.

Nussle said the issue will be on his crime-fighting agenda, along with beefing up funding and staffing for the Iowa State Patrol and at the state's prisons. "I believe the death penalty should be an option for judges and juries inIowa, in particular for heinous crimes involving felony murder. That's where I believe we should head," Nussle said in an interview. "I think a lot will be determined in the election for the Legislature," Nussle said.

Culver was as the only pro-death penalty candidate in a 4-way Democratic primary contest in June. He sought to de-emphasize the issue then and that hasnt changed, according to his spokesperson Taylor West. She said he favors capital punishment in a limited number of cases, such as the abduction and murder of a child. "He's not running for governor to reinstate the death penalty," West said.

Death penalty proposals have faced an uphill struggle at the Statehouse in recent years. And it's much less likely that the issue will reach the next governor's desk if Democrats succeed in winning control of the Senate, House or both.

Democrats are favored to take over the now evenly-divided Senate, where Republicans are defending 6 open seats this fall. During the past 2 legislative sessions Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs has blocked votes on the death penalty. An analysis by Lee Newspapers and Radio Iowa news in February found that 29 of 50 state senators opposed reinstatement.

Gronstal said it's uncertain whether elections will change the equation. "Republicans are big about talking about the death penalty in October of even-numbered years," Gronstal said. "I expect the Republicans to attempt to make that an issue."
(source: Globe Gazette)

Just say no, Wisconsin

Today is primary election day in nine states plus Washington, D.C. Seems like a good time to remind people that this November, Wisconsin voters will cast ballots in a nonbinding referendum on whether to reinstate the death penalty (which Wisconsin has not had in 154 years, and which they have not appeared to miss).

Recently an alternative weekly in Milwaukee published this article on Ray Krone, who was the 100th person freed from death row due to new evidence of innocence. (Later, a DNA "cold hit" would apprehend the guy who actually committed the crime.)

Hat tip to my friend and former NCADP intern Kurt Rosenberg for sending the article my way.

It starts off like this:

A Former Death Row Prisoner Speaks Out
Why Wisconsin should not bring back the death penalty

Ray Krone was convicted for murdering a woman in a Phoenix bar and sentenced to death in 1992. He maintained that he was innocent. The courts disagreed. But after more than 10 years, DNA evidence exonerated him of the crime and he became a free man.

Krone was in Wisconsin this week as part of the organization Witness to Innocence, telling everyone far and wide about the dangers of reinstating the death penalty in the state. Wisconsin’s voters will be able to weigh in on an advisory referendum in November that would allow capital punishment to be used in cases of first-degree intentional homicide, “if the conviction is supported by DNA evidence.”

Krone said the referendum is pure politics. “Your state had no death
penalty for 150-some years and I think that’s very wise and insightful,” he said. “But people act on emotions and politicians want your vote and this is a way to use emotions to get your vote and get the voters to turn out.”

The article then asks a series of compelling questions and Krone answers them:

But why not allow the death penalty to be used in cases that are proven by DNA evidence?

“DNA is only present in 20% of homicide cases,” Krone said. “There’s also
been proof that DNA, if not handled properly, can come back with false positives
and lead to wrongful and erroneous convictions. Human error is inevitable. But
the death penalty is not revocable, it’s not reversible. If you kill somebody,
you can’t bring them back when you realize that you’ve made a
mistake.”

But doesn’t the death penalty deter crime?

“No. Very rarely do murderers go on to commit murder again,” Krone said.
“If it were true that the death penalty deterred crime, then your state would be
overrun with murderers because you don’t have it and surrounding states would be
free of murders.”

Doesn’t the death penalty give closure to the families of victims?

“Actually, it leaves them open to a lot of things,” Krone said. “Because of
all of the appeals, the process [drags] out for a while and the families have to
go through that emotional state again. Whereas if you sentence someone to life,
you’re not going to really hear from them again.”

But isn’t a life sentence easy, compared to facing death?

“When I was on death row and they were executing people around me, they
took those men off to be executed and none of them was fighting it or putting up
any resistance,” Krone said. “They all said, ‘Kill me, because it’s got to be
better than living here.’ So if people are all about punishment and making
people suffer, if you make them [convicted murderers] get up every day in
prison, with its horrible conditions and the violence that goes on there, that’s
real punishment.”

If you're in Wisconsin or are interested in the referendum, check out No Death Penalty Wisconsin's new site.

Yes. We're blogging on Ruben Cantu again

And we're going to keep blogging on Ruben Cantu until someone down in Texas gets it right.

And by "someone," we do not mean Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed, who, having signed the order authorizing Cantu's [wrongful] execution, is singularly unqualified to lead the investigation into what terrible things went wrong.

For those who have just stumbled across this blog and are unfamilar with the Cantu case, let us recap: Last year the Houston Chronicle published a two-part investigative series strongly suggesting that Ruben Cantu was innocent of the crime for which he was tried, convicted, sentenced to death and executed. You can read part one of the series here and part two here.

After the story ran, Reed announced that she would conduct an investigation into Cantu's execution. Many legal observers said, well, an investigation would be a Good Thing (to use the legal term) but why should it be conducted by the very person who once signed Cantu's death warrant? One thing led to another, and eventually the pro-prosecutor Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was asked to step in, which it, of course, refused to do. (You can read about this little controversy here.)

Many Texas newspapers, waking up to the fact that Texas in recent years has carried out not one, not two but three executions of innocent people, protested loudly. This week, the conservative Dallas Morning News joined the fray:

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could have struck a blow for justice
this week in a smarmy death case. Instead, the state's highest criminal court
sat on its hands, essentially blessing Bexar County DistrictAttorney Susan
Reed's investigation of her own office. Worse, in her previous job as a judge,
she personally set the execution date for the man in question, Ruben Cantu. He
was put to death in 1993 for a robbery-murder that has come into question
because of witnesses' changed accounts. Is a disinterested inquiry really too
much to ask for?

Yes, apparently. But we'll keep blogging.

Update: I just saw that the Houston Chronicle this week editorialized on this as well. Here's what they had to say:

Mistrust
Court's decision to leave a wrongful execution inquiry with a
tainted DA clouds Texas justice.

In order to determine whether the state might have executed an innocent man, Texas needs a clear-eyed, objective investigation into the circumstances surrounding the conviction and capital punishment of Ruben Cantu in 1993.

When Texas' highest court for criminal matters declined to halt the
tainted, conflict-burdened investigation, it provided only more uncertainty. The facts in the Cantu case are troubling. Convicted of a 1984 robbery in which one victim was killed and the other wounded, Cantu's execution is clouded by three witnesses' recent claims of Cantu's innocence. One witness is the surviving shooting victim.

The integrity of the criminal justice system depends on a thorough vetting of the evidence, old and new, to determine the truth of those disturbing claims. What's more unsettling, this investigation is being undertaken by the woman who, as a state district judge, reviewed one of Cantu's appeals and signed his death warrant. The court's decision, predictably supportive of the prosecution regardless of the facts, allows Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed to roll forward with an investigation that is tainted by her clear conflict of interest.

Concern for the validity of the investigation grew with the revelation that 2 of Reed's top investigators were recorded on a public police phone line calling Cantu's convicted co-defendant, David Garza, a bastard and declaring that all the witnesses, who include Garza, were lying. That recording prompted Garza's attorney to ask the Court of Criminal Appeals to remove Reed from the inquiry in favor of an independent special prosecutor.

In refusing the lawyer's appeal, the court disregarded a letter submitted to the court and signed by 22 legal scholars calling for an independent inquiry. And the judges left the impression that a clouded investigation into even credible allegations of a wrongful execution is good enough for Texas justice. The judges issued no written opinion.

The situation is made worse by other Texas death penalty cases crying out for review. A "statement of concern" by the heads of 7 justice advocacy organizations points out that the state has executed 2 other men under murky circumstances, Cameron Todd Willingham (based on arson evidence now thought to be unreliable) and Carlos De Luna (possibly because of mistaken identity).

The statement calls on the Legislature to fund the Texas Forensic Science Commission to review the Willingham case and others that raise similar questions of forensic science. It also calls on lawmakers to establish an Innocence Commission to "conduct fair and independent investigations in cases where plausible claims are raised that Texas executed an innocent person."

If Cantu was guilty of killing a man, as the San Antonio district
attorney's office confidently claims, it shouldn't bother the lead prosecutor to have an investigator without ties to the case giving it a comprehensive review. Stubbornly refusing to give up the case only underscores Susan Reed's conflict of interest. Her investigation can't promise that, at the end of the investigation, justice will have been done.

Note on new John Grisham book

For the first time, John Grisham has written a non-fiction book. This book recounts the true story of a wrongful conviction that sent a man to Oklahoma's death row for more than a decade. Here's more:

NEW JOHN GRISHAM BOOK:
AN INNOCENT MAN (Doubleday, hd. 28.95)
Release date: October 10

In 1971 Ron Williamson left Ada, Oklahoma, to join the Oakland A's. He returned to his mother's house six years later with an injured arm and addicted to alcohol and drugs, unstable and unemployed. In 1982, a woman was raped and murdered, and the police were unable to make arrests until five years later, when they arrested Williamson and a friend. Despite the lack of evidence, Williamson was convicted and sent to death row until he was freed in 1999 as a result of DNA testing.

John Grisham was inspired to tell the story of Ronald Williamson, his trial, imprisonment and eventual exoneration. "Not in my most creative hours could I imagine a story as compelling as Ron Williamson’s," Grisham says.

This first work of non-fiction published by John Grisham has been called his most compelling legal thriller yet. THE INNOCENT MAN will profoundly affect our perception of justice in America today.

We are now taking advance orders for signed copies of this momentous new book. Visit us or call us at 800-648-4001 or 662-236-2262. No email orders please.

For more information, visit http://www.squarebooks.com or http://www.myspace.com/squarebooks.

whattup in texas...again...

apparently lawyer's sleeping through trials in texas wasn't enough to warrant the strongest possible legal training for death penalty lawyer's in texas - oops!, my bad, the texas court of criminal appeals ruled that the lawyer dude in question DIDN'T SLEEP THROUGH THE IMPORTANT PARTS OF THAT TRIAL ... i forgot, sorry...

or, as in the following case, other forms of ineffective assistance of counsel did not justify overturning a death sentence upon appeal resulting in another questionable texecution...check this out courtesy of ...the death penalty information center...

Justin Fuller was executed in Texas on August 24. He was the 19th person executed this year, equaling the total number of people executed last year in the state. The San Antonio Express-News reported that Fuller had been represented by an attorney who "filed an appeal with incoherent repetitions, rambling arguments and language clearly lifted from one of his previous cases, so that at one point it described the wrong crime."

The appeal filed for Fuller copied wording that the attorney had filed for a different client and references blood on a gun used in a case seven years earlier. The brief contains irrelevancies, repetitions, and numerous typographical errors. Even the assistant district attorney was disturbed by the quality of the legal brief.

After Fuller lost his appeal, his representation was taken over by another attorney, but the original attorney continued to represent death row inmates. In one subsequent brief, the lawyer "spends 13 pages naming seemingly every document filed in the case. It then makes five claims that are almost word-for-word identical to claims in Fuller's case. The next 24 pages seem copied from his client's letters, so that they seldom if ever cite case law and occasionally lapse into first-person narrative." The lawyer is still on the list of "competent counsel" for Texas death penalty appellate work. (Maro Robbins, San Antonio Express-News, Aug. 24, 2006). See Representation.

uh, peace out, i think... <3

where have you gone thurgood marshall...

every so often in the game of symbolism we call capital punishment a person decides that he/she has had enough and waives their appeals giving the state carte blanche to kill em' up good...usually this person has a long history of diagnosed mental illness and occasionally they were mentally competent when they arrived on death row but have become "a little looney" after having spent years waiting for death to come knocking on their door...

in no instance should we refer to this as state assisted suicide...this is a case of prisoner assisted homicide because such an occurrence is only speeding up what the state has planned for this individual all along...

in tennessee we just missed such an execution in the person of the severely mentally ill paul dennis reid...amnesty international put out the following action (see below) for elijah page...when i come across these instances of state assisted homicide i yearn for the wisdom of the late justice thurgood marshall...

"A defendant's voluntary submission to a barbaric punishment does not ameliorate the harm that imposing such a punishment causes to our basic societal values and to the integrity of our system of justice. Certainly a defendant's consent to being drawn and quartered or burned at the stake would not license the State to exact such punishments.Whitmore v Arkansas, US Supreme Court, Justice Marshall dissenting, 1990.

elijah page, age 24, was scheduled to be south dakota's first execution since 1947 on august 28...he is the 7th inmate this year to waive his appeals or "volunteer"...he was only 18 at the time of the crime, and a co-defendant received life imprisonment...sentencing him to death, the judge acknowledged mr. page's childhood of deprivation and abuse, saying "your early years must have been a living hell...most people treat their pets better than your parents treated their kids."to learn more about so-called volunteers for execution click here...

fortunately south dakota gov. mike rounds stopped this execution so that the state of s. dakota could review its lethal injection protocol...

perhaps people do live on through the remembrance of the good works of others...thank you justice marshall...

peace out... <3

Breaking news: Yet another innocent person about to be freed from death row

We've blogged before about Anthony Graves, who has been on Texas' death row for 12 years for a crime he almost certainly did not commit.

Well, Anthony could soon be gaining his freedom. The state of Texas apparently has until mid-September to retry him or set him free. Lawyers right now are pushing for Anthony to be released on bail.

In addition to the above link, you can read a CBS Evening News report about Graves' case here.

75,000 and counting

Sometime late last night Abolish the Death Penalty received its 75,000th visitor. Now, I know that's nothing compared with Daily Kos (who won't link to us cuz we're too small) or MyDD. But for a single-issue blog on an issue some people undoubtedly find depressing, it's not shabby.

It's certainly more than I expected when I launched this thing two years and two months ago. Back then, no one read it except maybe my girlfriend and my pet hamster. Okay. I don't have a pet hamster. But if I did, it would be a cool pet hamster. And it would be a good reader. And it would read my blog.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. We'll try to keep it interesting and we promise we'll try to do a better job of updating!

Tuesday's Focus

Just a reminder that on Tuesdays you can hop over to our sister blog and read the stories of the members of Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing. Today's installment examines the story of Ray Krone, pictured above.

Finding redemption

Sean O'Brien, a capital appellate attorney in Missouri, recently won first place in an essay contest sponsored by the American Bar Association Journal. His essay is certainly worth posting in its entirety:


FINDING REDEMPTION----How Picking Up the Phone Can Change a Lawyer's Life
By Sean O'Brien

"Doyle Williams is on line 2." I debated whether to pick up the phone.

It was 3 p.m., April 9, 1996. Doyle was scheduled to be executed at midnight. Doyle was not my client; he was represented by Charles German, who was doing a heroic job of trying to stop Doyle's execution.

I met Doyle in 1990, when I became director of the Missouri Capital Punishment Resource Center. He was Missouri's finest jailhouse lawyer, a person who helped prisoners with pro se pleadings and other legal troubles. Doyle had landed on death row after he and another man kidnapped and murdered a witness. Doyle's co-defendant was given immunity to turn state's evidence, and he walked free as Doyle was sent to death row.

Doyle never talked to me about his own case; he was worried about his fellow prisoners. Some were mentally retarded. Joe Amrine and Larry Griffin were innocent. "I mean for-real innocent, not convict-innocent," Doyle explained. (Today, Amrine is free, but Griffin is dead.) We talked about life on death row. He called me "counselor" in a way that simultaneously conveyed respect and affection.

Doyle often called to alert me to emergencies. Once he sent me a habeas corpus petition filed by a lawyer appointed to represent Steve Parkus. It was a nine-page cut-and-paste job devoid of facts or issues. I mean literally cut-and-paste; you could see the edges of the Scotch tape on the photocopy. The lawyer had simply rearranged this mentally retarded prisoner's pro se filing and taped it to a preprinted form.

In February 1996, Doyle had called me about Amrine, whose attorney had missed the deadline for filing a notice of appeal. I was working on Amrine's case when Doyle called on April 9.

I am ashamed to say what went through my mind as I debated whether to pick up the phone. I was already not going to make it home for dinner with my family. I ran the risk of losing critical time on the pressing cases of Amrine and others.

What if he wants me to help with a desperate last-minute appeal? Then again, what if he just wants to say goodbye? With some hesitation, I picked up the phone. "Hello, counselor!"

"Hey, Doyle. How are you holding up?"

"Those silk-stocking guys are working pretty hard. You know, they are pretty decent human beings, in spite of what people say about them."

With some trepidation, I asked, "Is there anything I can do?"

Doyle replied, "Well, as a matter of fact, there is."

Uh-oh, I thought -- here it comes.

"Zein Isa needs your help."

Zein was a feeble, elderly prisoner who would not survive long enough to be executed. He was too ill to leave his cell. Zein would live out the rest of his days in virtually solitary confinement.

"Do you think Warden Delo would let us have a wheelchair for Zein so someone could roll him to the dining room to eat with the rest of the guys?"

I promised to look into it. We said our goodbyes, and that was the last time I talked to my friend Doyle. I found out later that Doyle spent his last day calling people with requests on behalf of other prisoners. I had wasted 3 full minutes of his precious time absorbed in my own selfish concerns.

As I hung up the phone, I experienced a profound awareness that no matter what each of us had previously done in our lives, at that moment Doyle Williams was a better human being than I. If a death row inmate can find redemption, maybe a lawyer can, too.
________________________________
Sean O'Brien is a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. He is director of the school's Death Penalty Representation Clinic.

Part One: The Execution of Samuel Flippen

Former NCADP intern Rachel Lawler attended the vigil outside Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina before and during the execution of Samuel Flippen. As has been the case with recent North Carolina executions, some protesters were arrested for acts of civil disobenience although, as it turns out, Rachel was not among them.

She provides this account, brought to you in two parts:

Intense.

For several days after Sammy Flippen's death at the hands of the state of North Carolina, that was the only word I could use to describe my experience there. Since the 1,000th execution back in December, North Carolina has made local and national news because death penalty opponents there have taken a stand against executions by participating in direct action and risking arrest because of their convictions. They have risked their freedom and liberty because they so strongly believe that taking the life of another human being is wrong.

I've been involved with many anti-death penalty events, but prior to Sammy's execution, I had only been involved with one other execution event, that of Michael Ross in Connecticut – the event that had been the impetus for my immersion in and dedication to this cause. The events of Sammy's execution brought back many of the truly raw feelings that initially drew me in.

On the evening of Aug. 17th, a prayer service was held at a church in Raleigh, lead by the former Baptist minister and current Nazareth House resident, Scott Bass. The introductory paragraph on the program read "We gather to pray for Samuel Flippen, for members of his family and his friends. We also honor the memory of Britnie Hutton and we pray for healing for her loved ones." In attendance at the service were more than 30 of Sammy's friends and family members, all of whom spoke and introduced themselves. It was heartbreaking to hear them talk and see the absolute sadness in their eyes – a reminder that the death penalty punishes all, not just the person who is put to death. Being in the presence of these people who were grieving for the impending loss of their loved one immensely drove home the reality and humanness of the death penalty. Their sobs throughout the ceremony and especially during "Amazing Grace" left not a single dry eye in the room.

After the prayer service, we walked by candlelight (and by escort of several police motorcycles) to the prison a few miles away. Upon our arrival around 9pm, we were "caged in" and not allowed to step outside of our designated area for five hours - until after 2 a.m. Hourly liturgies had been prepared and were distributed by the organization People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (PFADP). They were very moving and appropriate. But all the while, I was occupied by an increasingly growing sense of uneasiness and nervousness; I was planning to participate in the direct action, (scheduled to take place when Governor Easley announced that he was denying clemency) a simple act of trespassing.

I desperately, in the very depths of my heart, wanted to risk arrest that night. However, I recognized that to do so would present a tremendous burden (financially and mentally) to my parents. I will undoubtedly be arrested at some point along my journey to abolish the death penalty (in fact, there's a definitive date set and plans in the works as I write this). But when that time comes, I want the burden of my actions to be mine and mine alone. I do not want others to have to be responsible for what I choose to do; that would simply not be fair of me.

A few hours after we had been there, a very official Government-looking van pulled up and a small group of people, including a young girl who couldn't have been more than 16 years of age, got out and were immediately escorted by the police to the opposite side of the driveway. They were family members and supporters of Britnie Hutton, the girl who's death Sammy Flippen was being executed for. It was sad to see that they had been placed on the other side of the driveway and were effectively there in opposition to us and to the family members of Sammy Flippen. Any chances of the two families uniting in their grief and providing support for one another had been seriously eroded that night. I wish someone could have been there to reach out to the family members of Britnie Hutton, to let them know that we too were there supporting her and remembering her, that we didn't oppose them, but only the broken death penalty system.

(For Part Two of "The Execution of Samuel Flippin," see below.)

Part Two: The Execution of Samuel Flippen

Part two of former NCADP intern Rachel Lawler's account of the vigil outside Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina on the morning of Samuel Flippen's execution:

Those of us who were to participate in the direct action did a lot of praying over several hours, for clemency, for hope. Shortly after midnight, it was announced that the Governor had denied clemency. I was standing near one of Sammy's young cousins who fell to the ground and sobbed "Why, why?" I wish that there was something I could have done to console him, but I knew that no words would have been able to abate the incredible despair. It was then that we circled, joined hands in prayer, and then proceeded to walk out of the designated area and further down the road for approximately a half mile, before turning around and walking back toward the prison.

Strangely, I felt at peace during this walk. I knew that I was doing the right thing. Petitions, calls, media, blogs, nothing else had worked to stop this execution. Direct action was the only remaining option. I was not going to let the execution happen silently and without expressing my dissent, nor were the others with whom I was walking in solidarity. Silence is consent.

During our walk toward the prison we sang "Salvator mundi, salva nos," which increased in volume as we drew nearer to the prison. We were walking along the opposite side of the street and when we finally arrived directly across and waited for a car to pass, all eyes were on us.

We crossed the street together and did not stop at the crosswalk, at which point public property ends. We continued to walk and were then notified that we were on state property and if we refused to leave, we would be charged with second degree trespassing. Four people, dressed in black, had planned to stay and risk arrest. Three others (I included) laid hands and prayed for them, but had not planned to risk arrest. After the first warning, and what turned out to be the only warning, an officer said "You are now under arrest for trespassing," at which point the three of us backed away (we were expecting additional warnings) and to the other side of the crosswalk.

Joined by several others who had walked with us, but not trespassed, we sang a hymn for them and read the following Lamentations:

"When all prisoners of the land
Are crushed under foot,
When human rights are perverted
In the presence of the Most High,
When one's case is subverted,
--Does the Lord not see it?

Let us test and examine our ways,
And return to the Lord.
Let us lift up our hearts
as well as our hands,
To God in Heaven.
We have transgressed and rebelled,
And you have not forgiven.

My eyes flow with rivers of tears
Because of the destruction of my people.
My eyes will flow without ceasing,
Without respite,
Until the Lord from heaven looks down,
And sees."

I was participating that night, first and foremost, on behalf of myself and my convictions, not necessarily on behalf of any organization (especially ones that have policies about civil disobedience!) We all stood and watched as those who had refused to leave were handcuffed, led away, searched, put into the paddy wagon to be taken downtown where, as we would later find out, they would each be held on a ridiculous $5,000 bail (raised from $3,000 the time prior, $1,000 before that, and a written promise the first time). Two of the participants chose not to post bail and were released later that day.

The action was over. Clemency had been denied. There was nothing left to do except wait, anxiously, in dread to hear that Sammy Flippen had been executed. It was somewhat reassuring to hear earlier that night from one of his family members that he was at peace and was prepared for his fate.

At 2 a.m., when most of the state of North Carolina was fast asleep, we were outside facing Central Prison, knowing at that very moment that the life of a man was being ended unnaturally and at the hands of the state. Some children had long ago fallen asleep on the ground, but were awoken by ubiquitous cries and sobs when the family members got the news – Sammy was dead. A young, female cousin cried out in sorrow and confusion "Why did they have to do this?"

And the truth is, Sammy Flippen's death was unnecessary. His death did not bring Britnie back. It was obvious, however, that it caused an immense amount of additional pain. Opponents of the death penalty who were present could do nothing but stand and allow their physical presence there with the family to be an offering of support. An uncle of Sammy's prayed for the family and afterward, there was nothing left to do. Sammy's mother and father exited Central Prison and some family members were escorted out of the cage area and into the cars that the mother and father were driving. Sammy's mother and father thanked us for all that we did. I only wish we could have done more. Signs were disassembled, barriers were removed, small puddles of wax from vigil candles that had dripped and melted over the course of the evening remained on the sidewalks; tears had evaporated.

I'd say that we all walked away that night a bit worse off than when we arrived. We bore witness, not visually, but to the best extent we could, to the extinguishing of a man's life and future and the devastating effect that it had on his family members. I arrived back at the Nazareth House that night and realized that for several hours, sharp pains (which I attributed to the stress of the evening) in my stomach had gone unnoticed because of all the commotion. I could barely sit at the kitchen table with the others who were eating, solemnly. None of Sammy's family showed up that night. But I don't blame them. I can't even imagine how they felt. In a sense, I was glad that there were so many of them there that night, so that they wouldn't be alone in their sorrow; they had one another to endure with. Although I wish that I'd never again have to be outside of a prison when an execution is taking place, I will continue to do all that I can, for as long as it's necessary. My experience in North Carolina only strengthened my resolve to work for achieving complete abolition of the death penalty. It is definitely exhausting (physically and emotionally), but it is what I must do.

If you would like to see some really dramatic pictures from this vigil, go

Tyrone Noling, meet Ruben Cantu

Well, actually Tyrone Noling can't meet Ruben Cantu because, as misfortune would have it, Ruben Cantu is dead, and no one has found a cure for that yet.

Hat tip (yet again) to Scott over at Ohio Death Penalty Information for pointing out this Leonard Pitts column, which appeared in the Miami Herald and Hoston Chronicle, among other places. I'm publishing it here in its entirety for no other reason than we first blogged last week on the case of Tyrone Noling and have blogged repeatedly (and sometimes futile, or so it seems) on the case of Ruben Cantu:


Where is justice with innocent on Death Row?
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.

So I read in the paper where another man is about to be lied to death.

The first such story I am aware of was published last year in the Houston Chronicle. It concerned a street punk named Ruben Cantu, who was executed in 1993 for shooting two men, killing one. Cantu was sentenced based on the word of a single witness, the shooting survivor. That man now says it wasn't Cantu who shot him and that he was pressured to say otherwise by police. The Chronicle concluded that Cantu almost certainly did not commit the crime for which he was killed.

Ruben Cantu, meet Tyrone Noling. Noling is a resident of Death Row at Ohio State Penitentiary whose story was told last week by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Noling, a petty thief, was convicted of the 1990 murder of an elderly couple. The case against him was based on testimony from three members of his gang who told the court Noling forced his way into the home of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig and shot them to death.

All three now say they were lying, two in exchange for lesser charges and a third in exchange for immunity. They say they were coached and coerced by Ron Craig, an investigator for the prosecutor's office. For instance, Butch Wolcott, the man who received immunity, could not describe the murder scene until Craig took him there. Wolcott told the Plain Dealer the investigator also gave him access to the evidence file.

THE WORD OF THIEVES

Wolcott still had trouble getting his story straight. He claimed Noling used a phone cord yanked from the wall to bind his victims. But the phone cord was found intact and the couple were not tied.

And yet on the word of this man and two others -- one of whom recanted on the witness stand -- Noling was sentenced to death. No murder weapon, no DNA, no fingerprints, no nothing except the word of three thieves. Noling was 18 at the time of the murders.

I am no fan of capital punishment under even the best of circumstances. Its faults are legion, including that it is biased by race, gender, geography and class, is more expensive than lifetime incarceration, has no deterrent value, and once applied cannot be reversed in the event of error. The death penalty is a crude, vestigial remnant of frontier justice and an embarrassment to any sense or pretense of moral authority this nation might claim. The best thing we can do with it is end it.

NO CONSCIENCE, NO FACTS

But, even if I didn't feel that way, I'd still be appalled by the idea that a man can be sent to Death Row based on little more than some guy's word.

Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci feels differently. He told the paper none of this causes him to lose sleep, which is pretty much what you'd expect him to say. Belief in the death penalty requires a facade of certitude. Conscience is an inconvenience. Facts even more so. Don't know what you know. Don't ask, don't tell.

And never mind that while the probably innocent are being nudged toward conviction, the certainly guilty get away with murder. Never mind that justice is perverted, subverted and denied in the name of justice. Most of all, never mind that you can be sent to death without a shred of evidence except the word of liars given every reason to lie.

LOOKING THE OTHER WAY

Tyrone Noling was a punk. Ruben Cantu was, too. And it is easy, from the perch of middle-class respectability, middle-class fear, not to care overmuch that they were treated unfairly. It requires only moral cowardice and a willingness to look the other way. These things we have in abundance.

What we have in lesser supply is the guts to see and say the obvious: The law should not allow the death penalty in cases hinging solely on witness testimony. That has nothing to do with sympathy for devils. It has everything to do with the integrity and credibility of a broken system.

If we don't care about Cantu or Noling, we should at the very least care about that.

Quote of the day

"The major public housing project in this country is building prison cells."

-- Ralph Nader

(Hat tip Texas Students Against the Death Penalty)

Yet again: Innocent and on death row

Hat tip to Scott over at Ohio Death Penalty Information.

Looks like we've got another innocent person on death row -- this one in Ohio. Guy's name is Tyrone Noling and folks, this one is a death penalty trifecta -- you've got a false confession, you've got prosecutorial misconduct and you've got perjured witnesses.

Scott's got excerpts and a good roundup of the case, in addition to all the links you'll need, right here.

Meanwhile, you can see a web site that has been launched to support Noling (still under construction) by going here.

The blogging will resume when morale improves

Or something like that. Actually, we've been taking a few days off. We'll be back soon -- I promise!

Meanwhile, please check out the continuing Tuesday's Focus series at our sister blog.

Quote of the day

"People are largely unaware of the information critical to a judgement on the morality of the death penalty … if they were better informed they would consider it shocking, unjust and unacceptable."

-- Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Today's mailbag

Lots of hate email is coming in to NCADP today in the wake of today's execution in Ohio.

I don't mind it -- it is par for the course and very easy for me to hit the "delete" button (not so easy for the interns, I sometimes fear). What is surprising to me is how the hate mail fluctuates from execution to execution. When blacks are executed, we ALWAYS get more hate mail than when whites are executed -- and the hate mail usually comes with racial epithets attached. (Draw your own conclusions here about whether the death penalty brings out the worst in us.)

Today we had a trifecta. The person being executed was black, mentally ill, and he was allegedly a Satan worshiper. Hate mail? Indeed.