FCL NEWSLETTER -- June, 2003
Sacrificing Truth for the Death Penalty?
"I never knew until I became governor and had to take a look at it."
- former Illinois Governor George Ryan
In April, the Senate Select Committee on the California Correctional System
began an examination of the death penalty with an overview of its application
in California. Law enforcement officials and Governor Davis have resisted calls
for a temporary freeze on executions coupled with a full and complete examination
of death penalty implementation in the state. Dane Gillette of the California
Attorney General's Office told the Committee that he isn't convinced of the
need to study capital punishment in California.
If California's criminal justice system for capital cases is working properly,
proponents should welcome a study as an opportunity to make their case that
California's death penalty is fairly administered and provides sufficient legal
protections to ensure that innocent people are not put to death. Still there
is resistance to a full inquiry, presumably for fear of what truths may emerge.
The Select Committee, chaired by Senator Gloria Romero (D., Los Angeles) heard
testimony from former Illinois Governor George Ryan, who explained his decision
to commute the sentences of 167 Illinois death row inmates to life in prison.
Nick and Amanda Wilcox, parents of Laura Wilcox, who at age 19 was murdered
by a mentally ill man who also murdered two others, testified on behalf of Murder
Victims Families for Reconciliation. (See their testimony on page 3.) Legal
experts also testified, both in opposition to and in favor of the death penalty.
In recent years, awareness has grown that even the best legal safeguards cannot
ensure that innocent people are not put to death. Although Maryland's newly
elected governor overturned a ban on executions in that state, a determined
national moratorium movement persists. In addition to a moratorium on executions
in Illinois, the North Carolina Senate recently passed a bill calling for a
two-year freeze on executions, and there are 13 similar bills pending in state
legislatures. Fourteen local governments in California have passed resolutions
in support of a temporary freeze on executions, and over 165,000 Californians
have signed a petition to Governor Davis supporting a moratorium.
Convictions Overturned
Nationwide, 109 people have been exonerated for wrongful convictions, and two
thirds of death penalty verdicts are reversed. Death penalty proponents downplay
these facts by arguing that legal innocence is not the same as factual innocence.
To suggest that Californians should dismiss the growing number of exonerations
because most of the exonerated are assumed to be factually guilty is to trivialize
one of our legal system's greatest protections against unlimited police power-that
the accused are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a
court of law.
A recent California District Attorneys Association (CDAA) white paper, Prosecutors'
Perspectives on the Death Penalty (2003) says, "the remote prospect that
an innocent person may be executed . . . [must be weighed against] the possibility
of innocent people horribly and brutally murdered in the streets and in their
homes with no legal review process at all." The threat of capital punishment
has proven to be a poor deterrent to murder, however. We hope that the CDAA
has not concluded that the state-sponsored killing of even one innocent person
is an acceptable price to pay simply to perpetuate that threat.
Ryan told the Committee that as an Illinois state legislator, he never questioned
his support for the death penalty. As a legislator, supporting the death penalty
was easy. But when, in his words, he became "the executioner," Ryan
became alarmed by the fact that 13 condemned prisoners had been exonerated after
Illinois resumed executions in 1977. During that same period, Illinois executed
12 people. Inadequate legal counsel for defendants and racial and geographical
disparities also bothered Ryan, as the defendant's race or the location of a
murder could determine whether the state sought the death penalty. California
mirrors Illinois in these respects. Just under seven percent of Californians
are black, while blacks make up 35 percent of the state's prisoners on death
row. Since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978, Alameda County has
sent 46 people to death row, while San Francisco and Marin counties have each
sentenced only one person to death.
Recalling Furman
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty
as it was then applied was unconstitutional. The ruling challenged states to
enact laws that would guide juries to verdicts free of racial bias and arbitrariness.
Several states, including California, proposed mandatory executions for everyone
convicted of premeditated murder. The Supreme Court ruled that this approach
was unconstitutional. Other states proposed "special circumstances"
and "aggravating and mitigating factors" that would meaningfully narrow
the kinds of murders that would be eligible for the death penalty. In Gregg
v. Georgia (1976), the Supreme Court approved this approach, and it was incorporated
into California law in 1978 with the passage of the Briggs Initiative.
Ironically, California's long list of "special circumstances" makes
84 percent of all murders in California eligible for the death penalty (The
California Death Penalty Scheme: Requiem for Furman?, Schatz and Rivkind, 1997).
As a result, prosecutors seek the death penalty when they think they can convince
a jury that the defendant deserves to die. Often these distinctions are arbitrary,
and too often race and economic class-not the facts of the case-determine who
gets the death penalty. "If you're poor and a minority, you haven't got
a prayer," Ryan told the Committee. This can hardly be construed as a meaningful
narrowing of the application of the death penalty.
Federal Reversals
While the California Supreme Court reverses only 10 percent of death penalty
verdicts, federal courts reverse 62 percent of California's death penalty verdicts-the
highest rate in the nation. While arguing that our legal system contains adequate
safeguards and protections for the innocent, death penalty proponents routinely
criticize the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for its high reversal rate.
The problem, they insist, is not in California's prosecution of the death penalty
but in the Ninth Circuit. However, the Circuit's 40 percent reversal rate for
states other than California mirrors the national average.
While concluding that no system of justice could guarantee that the innocent
are not put to death, the bipartisan commission appointed by Governor Ryan made
85 recommendations to the Illinois Legislature to decrease the chances for wrongful
convictions in capital cases. An analysis by Robert Sanger, a noted defense
lawyer who has handled numerous death penalty appeals, demonstrates that California
chooses to meet only five of these recommendations. (Analysis is available from
Death Penalty Focus. See Resources, page 2.)
The nation now has a quarter-century of experience implementing new capital
punish-ment laws in the post-Furman era, and that experience reaffirms the doubts
of FCL and others that the death penalty can ever be administered fairly. While
a majority of Californians continue to view the death penalty as a fair and
just punishment for the most heinous crimes, we think that their sense of justice
would be offended by the execution of the innocent. A system that is fraught
with inequities is not what proponents have in mind when voicing their support
for the death penalty. These concerns about justice are deserving of the attention
of lawmakers who, like Governor Ryan, should undertake a courageous and comprehensive
examination of a very serious problem.
- Jim Lindburg, Legislative Advocate
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Contact Death Penalty Focus (888-222-6547 or http://www.deathpenalty.org) and
sign the petition to Governor Davis urging a temporary freeze on executions.
Urge your city council and/or county board of supervisors to join California's
14 municipalities in passing resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions.
Write letters to your state representatives and to the editor of your local
newspaper in support of a moratorium and a full and complete examination of
death penalty laws and implementation in California. Please send copies of your
letters to FCL to assist with our lobbying activities.
Death Penalty Resources
- This Life We Take: A Case Against California's Death Penalty; Friends Committee
on Legislation Education Fund and the American Friends Service Committee,
2002. ($5 donation requested)
- Prosecutors' Perspectives on California's Death Penalty, 2003. California
District Attorneys Association, 731 K St., Third Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814-3202.
(916) 443-2017; http://www.cdaa.org/whitepaper.htm
- Friends Committee on Legislation Education Fund
926 J St., Room 707, Sacramento, CA 95814-2707
(916) 443-3734
- American Friends Service Committee
Pacific Mountain Region
65 Ninth St., San Francisco, CA 94103-1401
(415) 565-0201
- Death Penalty Focus
870 Market St., Suite 859, San Francisco, CA 94102-2903
(415) 243-0143 o http://www.deathpenalty.org
- Death Penalty Information Center
1320 18th St., NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 293-6970 o http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
- Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation
2161 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140
(217) 868-0007 o http://www.mvfr.org
- The Moratorium Campaign (led by Sr. Helen Prejean)
PO Box 13727, New Orleans, LA 70185-3727
(504) 864-1071 o http://www.moratorium2000.org
The Death Penalty in California
Testimony by Nick and Amanda Wilcox on April 22, 2003 before the Senate
Select Committee on the California Correctional System
Good afternoon Senators. My name is Nick Wilcox. I am here this afternoon with
my wife Amanda to present our personal perspective on the death penalty. We
also are speaking on behalf of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, or
MVFR for short. MVFR is a national organization, based in Boston, of people
who have lost a family member to murder and who oppose the death penalty. There
are MVFR members in every state, with the largest number living in California.
Our personal struggle with the death penalty began on January 10, 2001. On
that day our daughter Laura was home on Christmas break from Haverford College
and was working for a few days at the Nevada County Behavioral Health Clinic.
A patient suffering from paranoid schizophrenia appeared for his scheduled appointment
and without warning, opened fire with a handgun. When the rampage at the clinic
and at a nearby restaurant ended, Laura and two others lay dead, and three were
critically injured.
Amanda and I have been raised in the Quaker faith. From the earliest days,
over three hundred years ago, Quakers have given witness to their beliefs in
their daily lives. One of these beliefs is that the death penalty is morally
wrong. We shared in this belief.
Prior to January 10, our attitude regarding the death penalty could best be
described as an intellectual and a religious exercise. The event of that day
forced us to reexamine our values regarding the death penalty, and has strengthened
our opposition.
Advocates frequently cite the death penalty as a means to provide justice to
victims and to bring closure. As legislators, you need to know that not all
families of crime victims feel this way. We believe that the death penalty is
fundamentally an institutional expression of rage and vengeance. To the extent
that we enshrine these emotions in law, we believe that our society as a whole
is diminished. All crime victims experience their own personal versions of hell.
We have come to believe, along with the members of MVFR, that the death penalty
will not help us heal and makes us into that which we abhor. Only if we set
aside rage and vengeance can we truly become crime survivors.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best. He said that, "The ultimate weakness
of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing that
it seeks to destroy." In our view, the death penalty perpetuates the downward
spiral of violence in our society. Thank you.
...........................................
My name is Amanda Wilcox.
Many call the death of a child the worst loss. As a mother outliving her daughter,
I no longer have the future I envisioned. To me, Laura will always be a teenager,
full of plans for a busy, happy and meaningful life.
Laura had extraordinary capabilities. She was an outstanding student, graduating
as high school valedictorian and was at the time of her death a college sophomore
and in the midst of her campaign for the student body presidency. Laura was
extremely organized, disciplined and motivated. Couple these traits with her
positive energy and she was a natural leader. At age nineteen, Laura was already
living a life full of service; she wanted to make a positive difference in the
world. She had unlimited possibilities and the brightest of prospects.
It made no sense that someone as good and innocent as Laura could be murdered.
After her death, life seemed mean-ingless. I felt great despair. I felt I had
seen humanity at its worst. In the following months I heard comments such as
"Fry the Bastard" or "I hope he gets what he deserves."
These statements did nothing to restore my faith in the goodness of people.
Those who expressed hatred and revenge did not comfort me. Those who thought
execution would bring justice did not realize that there is no justice. Justice
would be to have Laura alive again.
The death penalty is frequently justified in the name of the victims; it is
said it is needed for them to find "closure." The lengthy process
of trials, appeals and anticipated execution would only impede coming to terms
with a horrible loss. If closure means healing, that healing must come from
within, not from the fate of the murderer.
I believe that the man who killed our daughter must be held fully accountable.
He cannot be trusted to be free in society again. However, further feelings
of him would give him a hold on my life that I do not wish to grant. I want
to focus on Laura, and my sons and husband. When I feel anger and hatred, I
do not like who I am. I feel farther from Laura. I had no control over what
happened to my daughter but I can choose how I respond. I cannot condone another
person's life being taken in my daughter's name.
We have new friends in our community, who have reached out to us because of
their own circumstance. Their son, Jon, much loved and very bright, but with
undiagnosed and untreated schizophrenia, killed two people, in two different
states. For the same crime, Jon received a death sentence in Illinois, but was
judged not guilty by reason of insanity in California. This situation illustrates
the arbitrary and inconsistent manner in which the death penalty is applied.
Last January, on the second anniversary of Laura's death, we learned that Governor
Ryan commuted Jon's death sentence. The news brought joy into an otherwise sorrowful
day. We have shared our mutual pain and grief with our friends; we know the
family of a murderer also suffers.
We would not presume to tell a victim what to feel or believe. Grief and healing
are very personal. There is no right way. However, not all victims support the
death penalty. My husband and I, and those involved with MVFR, choose a different
path of healing. We hope to break the cycle of violence and revenge in our society.
Thank you.
My Nightmare of a Journey through the Criminal Justice System - An Interview with Greg Wilhoit
FCL Development & Outreach Coordinator Ira Saletan recently met with
Greg Wilhoit, who served four years on Oklahoma's death row. Following are excerpts
from their conversation, augmented with details from writings by and about Greg
Wilhoit.
IS: What were the circumstances that put you on death row in Oklahoma?
GW: On May 31, 1985, my wife Kathy was found raped and murdered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
We had been separated for three weeks and had two young daughters. No one had
seen anyone entering or leaving the apartment that night. No physical evidence
collected at the crime scene matched me. Almost a year after Kathy's death I
was arrested for her murder, allegedly based on a bite mark. I was devastated.
Trying to raise two infant daughters on my own plus working full-time as a journeyman
ironworker had kept me very busy, but not busy enough that I didn't have time
to dwell on how horribly wrong my life had gone.
I was charged with first degree murder and the prosecution sought the death
penalty. Depression set in and almost consumed me. It was only by God's grace
that I was able to survive the emotional roller coaster that I rode for the
next 18 months until my capital murder trial.
I hired two lawyers, paying them almost everything I had except for my home.
As the trial date drew near, it became clear the lawyers hadn't done their work
and I fired them.
All they wanted me to do was enter a guilty plea, despite the fact that I had
pleaded not guilty. I hired another attorney, who also turned out to be incompetent.
I felt helpless and defeated. I felt I was going to be convicted and there was
nothing I could do about it. The experts against me were very convincing. If
I had been on the jury, I wouldn't have hesitated to find me guilty.
The jury was out only two hours before they returned with a guilty verdict.
Before the punishment phase, I was given an opportunity to explain why my life
should be spared. I spoke, but presented no other witnesses. As a Christian,
feeling secure in my afterlife, I indicated I would rather die than spend the
rest of my life in prison for a crime I did not commit.
I was sentenced to be executed by lethal injection, but I was shaken even more
when the judge told me that I might be electrocuted, hung or shot if necessary.
This would prove to be the most sobering moment of my life.
IS: What was significant about your experience inside?
GW: I had supported the death penalty my entire life, but I had no idea what
awaited me. I entered death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in July 1987.
With my hands and feet shackled, I found myself in a rotunda of cells four stories
high. I was then led to cell #13, the only home I would know for the next four
years. I figured I was never getting out.
Soon after arriving on death row, things began to change for the better. Mark
Barrett, the Public Defender appointed to handle my appeal, became a trusted
friend. His work would eventually result in the release from death row of both
me and my friend Ron Williamson, an event which had never occurred before in
Oklahoma.
For the first three years I was on death row, I continued to strongly support
the death penalty, as I did earlier in my life. I was clearly in the minority
among the inmates, and we had heated arguments about this. But I got into more
trouble for playing my TV late than my views on the death penalty.
When I first met Barrett, I told him I would rather be put to death than live
for years on death row, and would not pursue the appeal process if the first
appeal failed. While experts determined that the key evidence against me did
not support my guilt and light appeared in my case, another inmate faced his
death. Chuck Coleman was to be the first Oklahoman executed in almost 30 years.
His crimes were horrible, but I considered him a friend.
When he was killed, I was overwhelmed with grief. I had an epiphany, which
led to a great change in my views on the death penalty. I now feel this was
a religious experience. Executing him hadn't solved anything. The world was
not a safer place to live. Life without parole would have made much more humane
sense. State-sanctioned murder is simply wrong.
It is only by God's grace that I escaped execution. In 1991, I was granted
a new trial. It was almost two more years before my second trial. The judged
rendered a directed verdict of innocence. "Mr. Wilhoit, you are free to
go," said the judge. My nightmare was over, after my family and I had lived
for almost eight years with this tragedy and its aftermath.
IS: Why do you believe the death penalty is wrong and should be abolished?
GW: I feel the death penalty is strictly a punitive measure. It is not a deterrent
to crime, a view supported by getting to know over 100 death row inmates. The
death penalty is applied arbitrarily and inconsistently through our criminal
justice system in ways that have a discriminatory impact on the poor and minorities.
These cases are coming to light now, in part because of the study in Illinois
and Governor Ryan's actions. If Kathy's murder had been committed just 200 yards
south in another county, I was told that I probably would have never been charged
in the first place because of the different evidence standards and practices
there.
Ron Williamson, my friend from death row, sued and received an unprecedented
wrongful conviction compensation award from Oklahoma. The Oklahoma legislature
has passed a statute enabling exonerated inmates to file claims of this kind,
but it has not yet been approved by the governor.
IS: What has been most difficult and rewarding about your experience since
your release?
GW: I'm a better person for having spent time on death row. I got off drugs
and got straightened out. I manage to live on Social Security [disability].
Living on the periphery of society seems to suit me.
I have been out more than 10 years. The toughest parts have been re-assimilating
into society, and dealing with emotional and psychological damage from my experience.
I lost the opportunity to raise my two daughters. I never received an apology
or a dime of compensation. I struggled for about five years, and have been in
counseling for post-traumatic stress syndrome. A key to turning things around
was getting involved in the abolitionist movement against the death penalty,
working with Death Penalty Focus and others.
I love living here in Northern California. I've met people full of compassion
and tolerance. Sharing my experience with others is very rewarding. I enjoy
educating others and growing as I do this work. Every time I tell my story,
it validates my experience. I tell what happened to me, how I feel, and let
people draw their own conclusions.
I was at the death penalty hearing in April where former Illinois Governor
Ryan testified, along with Nick and Amanda Wilcox of Penn Valley. I spoke on
May 1 on the Capitol steps during the Moratorium Day rally.
I've done interviews with TV programs, including 48 Hours, 20/20, and Good
Morning America. I've spoken at schools, colleges, congregations, and at other
groups and events, mostly in California. It's taught me the importance of being
prepared and having confidence.
I believe I'm the only former death row inmate doing this kind of outreach
against the death penalty west of the Mississippi River. I hope to have some
company soon. I am thankful to my family and friends, both old and new, for
sticking with and supporting me through all this, as well as the community of
Public Defenders. Ellen Eggers and Rita Barker of the California State Public
Defender's Office in Sacramento have been important allies.
Although I enjoy living in California, I am disturbed that we have so many
people stacked up like cordwood on our state's death row. Now Governor Davis
wants to spend many millions on creating an even bigger death row at San Quentin,
where I just visited for the first time. I admire what Governor Ryan did in
Illinois, but I'm not optimistic that California will do away with the death
penalty unless public opinion shifts significantly. The politicians, after all,
usually follow rather than lead.
I would like to see the day that the death penalty is abolished. I doubt it
will be in my lifetime, but I want to use my life to contribute as I can to
this cause that I believe in.
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FCL Fundraisers
June 14 Concert in Palo Alto
The Novello Quartet will play a benefit concert for FCL at the Palo Alto Friends
Meetinghouse at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 14th. Suggested donation for this
annual event is $25 for adults and $10 for children 4-16. For more information,
contact Eric Sabelman at (650) 322-2455 or Sabelman@aol.com
June 29 Strawberry Social in Santa Rosa
This annual fun(d)raiser will feature discussion with FCL staff, a large-screen
showing of the new FCL video, delicious dessert with the special fruit of the
day, and an afternoon of good company. Join us starting at 1 p.m. at Friends
House. For more information, contact Harriet Lewis at (707) 433-3915.
Fall Dinner in Southern California?
As the Sacramento dinner is held this month, it is uncertain whether the newer
tradition of a southern California dinner will continue this fall. Last year,
we had a very successful event thanks in large measure to the efforts of Carrin
Bouchard and others from Whittier First Friends Church. If you can help make
the southern dinner happen this year, please contact FCL Development & Outreach
Committee Co-Clerk Carole Lutness at (661) 799-3632 or FCL Southern Regional
Committee Clerk George Gastil at (619) 465-9176.
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