"The Forgotten" and the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the Heart of America

"If I can prove that this punishment is neither useful nor necessary, I will have furthered the cause of humanity."

- Cesare Beccaria, Dei Delitti E Delle Pene
(On Crimes and Punishments), 1764.

The issue of the Death Penalty isn�t really directly important for most of us in Europe, because we have no death penalty. And so a lot of my friends or family members were surprised to hear of my interest in helping to abolish the Death Penalty in other regions of the world, with a focus on the United States. That was four years ago. Now, when I look back I see how naive I was to believe that someone in Europe could change a broken system in another country. But I am a part of this fight now and every day I learn what that means.

I met a lot of people over these four years - people who lost family or friends through a crime, people who are on Death Row and people who dedicate their time and resources to fight against the Death Penalty. I have heard many different stories. I heard arguments for the Death Penalty and of course, against it. I have witnessed small, but important victories toward the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the U.S. I have also very close to people who have been executed by the State.

Let me share with you some details* and personal experiences so you can better understand why I will never give up my fight against state executions.

There are 38 States in the USA who have the Death Penalty.
The total Death Row population is about 3.471 inmates.
The three Death Rows in the U.S. with the largest number of condemned are:

- California with 638 inmates
- Texas with 455 inmates
- Florida with 384 inmates

The three Death Rows with the least number (2 each) of condemned prisoners are:

- New Mexico
- New York
- Wyoming

This year 59 inmates were executed ( last year 65 ) and 130 Death Sentences were given (last year 144).
The percentage of executions by U.S. regions:

- South 85%
- Midwest 12%
- West 3 %
- Northwest 0%

There were 117 inmates who were exonerated and freed from Death Row since the Death Penalty was reinstated! Last year we had 12 people who were freed from Death Row, this year 5 people have been exonerated.

In Texas for example more and more concerns about the Death Penalty have been expressed because of the questions raised by DNA labs:

"Do we honestly want to risk executing people who may be innocent? I had enough questions about our administration of the death penalty to have my name taken off the prison that houses death row inmates. This is one of the reasons why I did so."

- Former TDCJ Chairman Charles Terrell
(in a letter to The Dallas Morning News, supporting calls for a moratorium on Harris Co. executions in the wake of the Houston crime-lab fiasco.)

A few days ago the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. Earlier this year it was the New York Supreme Court that halted its state�s practice of capital punishment. Under its new Governor, New Jersey is shortly expected to enact a moratorium on executions while a thorough study of that state�s death penalty system is being carried out.

I do not suggest that all Death Row inmates are innocent of the crimes with which they have been charged. No, most of them are not, but if you read all of this it shows that it is time to have a moratorium to take a closer look at this system, as was done in Illinois 2000.

During the last 4 years I have corresponded with people condemned on America�s Death Rows and have traveled from Germany to visit with some of them. Through this correspondence and travels I have learned a great deal about these folks and about myself. I have come to know some and have seen some put to death. One of my first pen-pals was one of the 117 inmates who had been released. In a letter, he offered that if I ever had any questions about the death penalty I could ask, Esther Brown, Executive Secretary/Treasurer of the Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty (www.phap.org)

Nearly four years ago, I wrote a short e-mail message to Esther which resulted in a wonderful friendship. Esther Brown is a powerful, "free world" voice of the Death Row inmates. She is the coordinator for meetings, interviews with the media and much more. For the past year and a half she has been traveling through Alabama to demand a moratorium on executions. Thirty three (33) city councils/ county commissions in Alabama have so far passed the resolution. In November I visited her for the second time and she asked me if I would be interested in going with her to the city council of a small town to urge another moratorium. I was pleased to do so. It involved a two hour drive with a short stop at the highest point in Alabama. The city, Ridgeville, has a population of 158 people and 124 are African-American.

When we arrived the meeting point, I understood what these trips mean to Esther. Some of these small towns and cities have so many problems like bad water, poor public education, poverty, unemployment and so on. We came into the room where poverty could easily be seen but we were immediately met with a warm reception, filled with kindness and cordiality. We had coffee together and small talk with and about the folks of Ridgeville. The mayor asked Esther to make her statement and in the audience I noticed a minister who could be best described as a man with sad eyes. Please understand that all the people in the room, with exception of Esther and I, were African-American and that Esther�s message struck a chord with them. At the time, my thought was that perhaps one or more of them had a family member or a friend in prison.

After Esther had finished her presentation, the members of the city council voted unanimously for a moratorium on the Death Penalty. When we left the room the minister shook Esther�s hands and he was so happy that we had come! At that moment I understood what it means to truly care for another human being. The minister deeply cares for the people in his community and I am sure he talked about that evening at his church on the following Sunday. For me it was a moment which remains deep in my heart.

To feel the gratitude these people had for simply being considered important for a few short moments - to see their thankfulness to two sisters who had come to listen to their problems was one of the most solemn and humbling experiences in my life. For these reasons and for our overall objective, we will continue our fight against state executions. We are committed to do everything we can to help the many within and outside the United States who object to state-run killing and are fighting every day to abolish the Death Penalty. I am fully confident that one day we will be victorious. Every small victory is a step forward. We invite every Axis of Logic reader to do what you can and to join us in our mission to end the death penalty in the United States and around the world. The intrinsic rewards of this work for justice are deeply gratifying and far outweigh the costs.

* Source: Death Penalty Information Center Dec 2004.

Britta Slopianka reports daily as Axis of Logic's specialist on the Death Penalty. Her work and expertise on the Abolition of the Death Penalty has grown out of years of literature/field research and visiting and correspondence with people condemned on America's Death Rows. Britta lives in Germany. Read more of her biography and the fruits of her work in her column on the Death Penalty. She can be reached at brittaigel@yahoo.com.