New member video

One of our brilliant members, Harriet, RockyHorrorShow on Stardoll, (or RockyHorrifying on this blog and YouTube) sent in her entry to our video competition "Ideas in motion". And we think it's excellent. Although very few people have entered - I'm honestly not trying to point fingers - the quality of the few entries we have are excellent.

Because it's already up on our YouTube channel, and because it takes so much time to upload to this blog, I'm just going to paste the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QOoBhk9aKk

There's still time to enter if you haven't already. The closing date is the 31st of this month. See our previous post about it for details or email us if you have any questions.


Well done Harriet, we love this video. Very creative - very powerful. Thumbs up!

Ronnie Lee Gardner - "I would like the firing squad please"

25 years ago, Utah inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner killed an attorney during a failed escape attempt and was sentenced to death. A judge has signed a warrant for his death four times since then. The fourth attempt is scheduled for June 18th - and Gardner has been granted death by firing squad.

Utah is the only US state which still uses the firing squad as a method of execution (Oklahoma technically has it on the books if lethal injection is deemed unconstitutional, but they've never used it). For decades, Utah's death row inmates were allowed to choose the method of their death and, though that option was removed in 2004 when lethal injection was made default, inmates sentenced before that date still get the choice. Thus was the case of Gardner. When given the choice between death by lethal injection or by a 5-man firing squad, Gardner (49) replied "I would like the firing squad, please."

If Gardner is executed in June, he will be Utah's first executionee since 1999. Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Utah has executed 2 men by firing squad - most famously Gary Gilmore in 1977 whose final statement was "Let's do it". Gardner will be the third.

Gardner was convicted for the murder of attorney Michael J. Burdell on April 2nd, 1985. After somehow aquiring a gun from a female accomplice (whilst under guard and handcuffed) he shot the attorney in the head as well as wounding the court bailiff in the old Metropolitan Hall of Justice in Salt Lake City. A firing squad is poetic justice, some may say. But both Burdell's father and 1985 girlfriend, Donna Nu, testified at the recent hearing that Burdell would not have wanted Gardner to be put to death. "He would have not wanted Ronnie Lee's execution. He didn't believe in that," Nu said tearfully, when referring to pacifist Burdell.

To me, this begs a simple question: who does the death penalty actually benefit? Countless parents/spouses/siblings of murder victim's protest that their loved one would not want to see the killer put to death. So why do we insist on doing it anyway? Is society's bloodlust so great that we can't listen to reason? Are we so intent on watching men suffer and die that we forget about what the real victim's would have wanted?

If this is the case, perhaps we need to re-evaluate the death penalty's place in our society. My normal procedure for expensive dangerous things is to get rid of them as quickly as possible. But the death penalty remains an ugly blip in our apparently civilised nations.

And if we're still putting men against brick walls and shooting them, perhaps we need to remember that - yes - we do live in a civilsed nation.

Not the old West.

Sign the petition to spare David Powell

The execution of David Powell in (surprise surprise) Texas is schedlued for June 15th. Follow the link below if you want to sign the online petition to Rosemary Lehmberg, Travis County District Attorney, urging her to withdraw Powell's execution date:

http://www.change.org/texasmoratorium/petitions/view/help_stop_the_execution_of_david_powell_scheduled_in_texas_on_june_15_2010


David Powell was sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer which he committed 32 YEARS AGO when he was 27. He's now 59.
Over the course of Powell's stay on death row, more than 70 countries have legislated to abolish the death penalty.

Rosemary Lehmberg has the power to withdraw the warrant, but she won't do it unless she knows how the good public feel about it. It only takes two minutes to sign the petition.
32 years on death row is just wrong. If that doesn't constitute cruel and inhuman punishment, I don't know what does. 32 years sitting waiting to be killed. This is American "justice" at its worst.
You can learn more about the David Powell case at letdavidlive.org or watch the 4 parts of his documentary on YouTube

But please sign the petition. You don't have to live in the US (just click the bit that says you're not from the US when you sign it). Two minutes of your live could spare someone elses.

Happy Birthday, Death Watch Stardoll!

It's official - we are one year old!

We're not exactly sure what date we started Death Watch; Stardoll (remind us to write things down in future...) but we think it was the last week of April, so that is now our official birthday!

In our first year, we've achieved over 450 members in our club, started our own YouTube channel and posted some fab inspirational vids from our followers, been congratulated for our efforts by a former chaplain to death row inmates, made countless protest phonecalls (mostly to Texas governor, Rick Perry), emailed world leaders appealing for them to abolish the death penalty in their country, and tried our very best to raise awareness of the innocent man, Todd Willingham, executed in Texas in 2004.
What a busy year!

But next year lets do more!!!

We've got a long way to go. But let's take it one step at a time. We can make a real difference here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEATH WATCH; SD!!!






Twitter Backgrounds