Friends Committee on Legislation Education Fund
Resources on Capital Punishment
[FCL
N/L 4/99]
Questions About the Death Penalty
Declaration of Life
The insert in the April issue of the FCL Newsletter contains camera-ready
copy that you can use to inform your friends about the importance of ending
capital punishment in California. One side of the insert is a flyer containing
Questions About the Death Penalty -- and answers to those questions. This handout
can be used at vigils and educational events. It addresses some of the most
commonly-held misconceptions about state-sponsored killing.
On the reverse side of the Newsletter insert is a Declaration of Life,
which gives everyone a place to start in their journey toward abolition of capital
punishment. Each person who signs a declaration should find an opportunity to
inform family members and friends about his or her decision. Copies may be given
to others, and the original kept with important personal papers.
Amnesty International has published 40 pages of resource materials: Faith
in Action. It contains step-by-step organizing suggestions, fact sheets, and
reprints of sermons. Amnesty International, USA 600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington,
DC 20003 (800)AMNESTY, Ext. 508 (202) 544-0200 www.amnesty-usa.org
A handy summary of the facts and arguments concerning the death penalty is
This Life We Take, published by the FCL Education Fund, and available from the
FCL office at $1 per copy, plus $2 postage and handling. If your congregation,
Friends Meeting, or organization library does not have several copies on its
bookshelf, we recommend that you order a supply.
QUESTIONS
ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY
Does an execution help the victim's
family?
Many victims' families don't think
so.
Families and friends of a murder
victim often discover that it is a mistake to think an execution will "bring
closure" to their loss. In the words of the parent of one victim, "its an impossible
thing. Nothing can bring closure...." The circumstances of the crime, as well
as a sense of loyalty may have encouraged them to seek vengeance, and to call
out for the most extreme penalty. Prosecutors may recreate the earlier emotional
climate at the trial in appealing for the death sentence. In the heat of these
emotions, few seem to realize that a death sentence and the resulting appeal
can simply divert the healing process for the victim's survivors. Media attention
may often be directed to the murderer, and to the legal aspects of the case,
leaving the victim's family feeling betrayed and neglected. Because efforts
to prevent an execution may continue to the last minute, prosecutors may be
tempted to promote a vengeful state of mind in family members. Many families
of murder victims find too late that a vindictive attitude has only multiplied
their wounds, and that the execution gave them nothing.
Does a death penalty improve
morality?
Many religions say no.
Anger, vengeance, and retribution
are not the best foundations of a moral culture, yet they seem to be driving
forces behind the death penalty. Quakers, together with Catholics, Jews, Episcopalians,
Congregationalists, Methodists, and Buddhists, among others, have taken strong
stands against capital punishment, because it has a brutalizing effect on society
as a whole. Rather than duplicating the act that society condemns, they urge
that the government choose life as a way of setting an example for its citizens.
They reject the idea that society honors the victim by killing the offender.
Does it reduce or increase crime?
Proof is lacking.
Because every person is different,
a penalty that stops one person challenges another. As any parent knows, threats
just make some kids more bold. A few individuals are drawn to death-defying
activity. The quest for statistics showing that capital punishment deters more
people than it incites to violence has failed repeatedly. Homicide rates in
1996 for states with the death penalty averaged 7.1 (per 100 thousand population),
almost double the 3.6 average rate for those states that abolished it. Even
those who favor the death penalty, such as the well-known scholar, Ernst van
den Haag have agreed that "...one cannot claim...that it has been proved statistically...that
the death penalty does deter more than alternative penalties."
Is the death penalty just?
Wealthy murderers are rarely executed.
The death penalty is a lethal lottery
in which about one out of every 100 people arrested for murder is condemned
to death row. Local politics, race, wealth, and social status of both offender
and victim are more decisive than the circumstances of the crime in determining
who is executed. Clearly, among those who face death, young men of color who
were unemployed and minimally educated are grossly over-represented. Because
the felony-murder rule makes unintentional killers and accomplices to murder
death- eligible, those sophisticated enough to "turn state's evidence" can live,
while less culpable people die. In recent years clemency has been rare. For
these and other reasons, the American Bar Association has called for a moratorium
on executions. In this century, at least 400 innocent people in the U.S. have
been convicted and imprisoned for capital crimes they did not commit. Some spent
as long as 25 years in prison before their innocence was established. Of them,
23 were executed.
Do executions save money?
Lawyers don't come cheap.
A death penalty trial normally costs
four to six times more than one involving a life sentence. Studies in various
states show proceedings to bring about an execution cost several million dollars--
many times the cost of keeping someone in prison for life. The enormous costs
of the death penalty to the criminal justice system are leading many who have
supported capital punishment to reconsider.
THE DEATH PENALTY -- TO WHAT
END?
When people reject life imprisonment
without the possibility of parole as an alternative to the death penalty, it
appears that what they want is more than protection; they want vengeance. But
vengeance does not heal; it only widens the circle of violence and tragedy,
drawing in the offender's family and friends.
ALTERNATIVES
We must disavow the illusion that
enforcing the death penalty is an answer to violent crime. As a people, we need
to prevent violence by strengthening families, limiting youth access to guns,
delivering mental health services for the emotionally disturbed, acting effectively
against substance abuse, enacting widespread penal and parole reforms, and providing
enough jobs for young adults. Effective crime prevention does much more to reduce
the incidence of violence than do executions.
-Steve Birdlebough
Legislative Advocate
Friends Committee on Legislation
Declaration of Life[FCL N/L 4/99]
I, ___________________________, being of sound mind, do hereby make
this Declaration of Life.
1. Concerned for public safety, the suffering of crime victims and for all involved in violence and
crime, I hereby declare my opposition to the death penalty because:
A. The death penalty has never been shown to deter others from using violence.
B. The death penalty impacts the poor and racial minorities in great disproportion to their
numbers in the population. There are clear pattems of racism in its implementation.
C. The death penalty sends our children a terrible message: that revenge is righteous and
killing fellow human beings is justified.
D. The death penalty creates more victims: the children, parents and loved ones of the
condemned.
E. The death penalty is permanent. If we execute by mistake, we can never correct that
tragedy.
F. The ongoing legal costs of a death penalty case are far more expensive than those of
life imprisonment without parole. If we are serious about reducing crime, we must invest
our resources in programs that prevent violence and deal with the causes of crime.
G. Incarceration for life is all that is required to protect society from further harm.
2. During my life, I want to feel confident that under no circumstances whatsoever will my death
result in the execution of another human being. If I should become the victim of murder, I urge
that the person(s) charged with my homicide not be charged with capital murder. No matter
what the circumstances of the crime, imposing the death penalty would only multiply the
suffering.
Should the death penalty be sought against my wishes, I ask that this declaration be read at the
defendant(s) trial in the presence of the jury. I further request that should any person(s) found
guilty of my homicide be sentenced to death despite my urging against it, the Governor grant
clemency to them.
3. If I am murdered, I ask that this declaration be delivered to all newspapers, television and radio
stations of general circulation in the county in which my homicide took place. Finally, I urge my
family and friends to take whatever steps are necessary to see that my wishes are carried out.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Signature:
Date:
Address:
City/ZIP:
Phone:
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