Myself and my co-director ScofieldBurrows have been discussing the best way to move our little organization forward and make it more accessible in this computer generation, et cetera, and so we decided to start a Facebook page for Death Watch; Stardoll.
Since neither of us is especially computer-literate, it might take us some time to get things well and trully underway, but we're just getting started. We think a Facebook page is the perfect way to make information more readily available to members (most people check their Facebook status at least once a day), and also easier for ScofieldBurrows and I to get information out quickly and easily. But we'd love to hear what you think about the page, and if you have any ideas for how we might use it. And of course, whether you'll be following our not!
Click HERE to go to our Facebook page (remember to 'like' us!)
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Tell the UK not to export execution drugs to the US!
The UK hasn't had the death penalty on it's statutes since 1998, and the last execution was way back in '64. Despite what some of our citizens might think (you should hear some of them in my RE class...) the UK does not support the death penalty - we already ban the export of guillotines and tools used in gas chambers and electrocutions - so the export of a drug used to carry out lethal injections is a clear violation of our government's position on the death penalty.
Vince Cable, the British Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, refused to block the export of the drug for executions, although the law allows him to. The issue is now before UK courts, but please sign the petition urging Cable to change his position and ban the drug's export for executions!
Click Here to Sign the Petition
By the way, you can sign the petition even if you're not from the UK, although if you are that would be great! Let them know we do NOT support the death penalty, and we do NOT support other countries carrying it out either! Thanks everyone :)
- ScofieldBurrows
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
British author jailed over book critisising Singapore's death penalty
75 year old British author Alan Shadrake has been jailed for six weeks and fined 20,000 Singapore dollars ($15,000) for publishing a book critical of executions in Singapore.
The book, titled "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock", unearths the disturbing truth about Singapore's use of the death penalty.
Prosecutors representing the attorney general's office had demanded a 3-month jail term for Shadrake.
Shadrake offered an apology last week but stood by the claims made in his book. Judge Quentin Loh dismissed the apology as "nothing more than tactical ploy in court to obtain a reduced sentence." He ruled the journalist will have to serve an additional two weeks in prison if he fails to pay the fine.
"A fine should be imposed to prevent Mr Shadrake from profiting from his contempt [of court]," the judge said.
Shadrake has admitted one minor innacuracy in his book but insists the rest is "devastatingly accurate".
"They know the book is accurate, which is why they're going to all this trouble," he said.
Ohio Gov. grants clemency for Sydney Cornwell
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland yesterday spared Sydney Cornwell from execution - a day before the sentence was due to be carried out.
Cornwell was convicted of killing 3-year old Jessica Ballew and 3 adults in 1996, and was scheduled to die by lethal injection today. He will now serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Strickland's decision is at least in part influenced by Cornwell's recent diagnosis with Klinefelter syndrome. From what I remember of high school biology, this condition means that males have an extra X chromosome in most of their cells (XXY instead of XY) which affects the amount of testosterone produced during puberty. Some males with XXY condition can exhibit symptoms during puberty such as less facial and body hair, broader hips and larger breasts, but it can also lead to boys developing language problems and struggling in school and sports. Althouth adult males with XXY condition live similar lives to men without the condition, Strickland questioned whether the jury or sentencing judge would have sentenced Cornwell to death had they known about his disorder. Strickland believed there was a "substantial possibility that... one of more of them would have found that the death penalty was innapropriate in this case."
Cornwell is the third death row inmate that Strickland has spared this year.
Surely it would save a lot of time and money to just call a moratorium... Just saying.
Cornwell was convicted of killing 3-year old Jessica Ballew and 3 adults in 1996, and was scheduled to die by lethal injection today. He will now serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Strickland's decision is at least in part influenced by Cornwell's recent diagnosis with Klinefelter syndrome. From what I remember of high school biology, this condition means that males have an extra X chromosome in most of their cells (XXY instead of XY) which affects the amount of testosterone produced during puberty. Some males with XXY condition can exhibit symptoms during puberty such as less facial and body hair, broader hips and larger breasts, but it can also lead to boys developing language problems and struggling in school and sports. Althouth adult males with XXY condition live similar lives to men without the condition, Strickland questioned whether the jury or sentencing judge would have sentenced Cornwell to death had they known about his disorder. Strickland believed there was a "substantial possibility that... one of more of them would have found that the death penalty was innapropriate in this case."
Cornwell is the third death row inmate that Strickland has spared this year.
Surely it would save a lot of time and money to just call a moratorium... Just saying.
Monday, 8 November 2010
"Echoes of many" - a letter writing campaign against the death penalty
Just found this on Death Penalty News, but it's after midnight here in Scotland and I don't have time to go through it right now so I'm just going to post what's on their blog. Suffice to say I think it's an excellent idea we should all try to get involved in - I will personally be licking envelopes after school tomorrow, and Tiffany will probably start now if she's awake. Get involved if you can - I will update this tomorrow if I get a chance.
- Samantha
Source:
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2010/11/echoes-of-many-letter-writing-campaign.html
THE DEATH PENALTY. We do not need it as a form of punishment in our modern world. Who are we as a people and a society to decide who lives and who dies? Many countries and states in the USA have found other ways to deal effectively with crime and violence without killing people to show that killing is wrong. Children of today and the future need to learn that all human life is precious and no one should ever allow their actions to end someone else’s life because of greed, jealousy, anger, disrespect, revenge, hatred, or any other reason not mentioned here.
We have the power to swiftly bring a stop to the death chambers and killing machines if we work together and use our pens, computers and voices to speak out and speak up. Tying men and women down to tables and pumping poison into their veins until their blood no longer dances to the beat of their hearts is immoral and not right no matter how you look at it. We are not defending or excusing the actions of murderers; we are defending life, all human life. Death is irreversible. Since 1973, 130 people in 26 states have been released from death row with evidence of innocence.
Echoes of Many is a letter-writing campaign aimed at eliminating the death penalty one–state-at-a-time in the USA by using mostly old fashioned snail mail. We need many to join us on this journey to enlighten others to a greater respect for one’s self and all human life.
The targeted state is the poorest state in the nation: MISSISSIPPI
All citizens of Mississippi who want the death penalty abolished because of moral, ethical, religious, economic or any other reason, this is the time to let your state lawmakers know how you feel. There is now a great deal of national support aimed at your state because of Echoes of Many’s new strategy and other anti-death penalty organizations and groups participating as well.
Here are two things that can be done by those who wish to be more active:
1. Contact newspapers in all parts of Mississippi and make them aware of your opinion regarding the death penalty and aware of your pledge if you don’t live in Mississippi.
2. Contact Mississippi businesses and churches to make them aware of your support to help eradicate the death penalty. Student Presidents of colleges and universities in Mississippi and other states can be contacted also.
Sending any of these mentioned places or individuals a copy of this letter and saying that you support Echoes of Many and hope that they would also is just as good.
For those of you who have creative ideas of your own, please put them into action so that the echoes of many others can join in to let the lawmakers feel our strength, unity and determination.
There’s a new campaign in Mississippi called (EENJ) End Executions Not Jobs. They are inviting everyone to come to Smith Park in Jackson across from the Governor’s Mansion sometime during the entire month of November 2010 if you wish to be a part of a historic peaceful assembly that’s trying to make Mississippi the first southern state to abolish the death penalty for economic reasons. There will be people there of all religions, ages and ethnic backgrounds. (EENJ) wrote that “If the voices and the will of the people are ignored in the November assembly, April and May of 2011 will be even a larger assembly for the lawmakers to deal with.” Things such as what (EENJ) are doing will help our one-state-at-a-time strategy a great deal. Now let us get busy in reminding lawmakers to get it right.
For those who do not live in Mississippi, send your protest letters to one or both addresses.
Mississippi Tourism
P.O. Box 84
Jackson, MS 39205
USA
Phone: (601)359-3297
Website: www.visitmississippi.org
Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference
9 P.O Box 68123
Jackson, MS 39286
USA
Phone: (601) 924-7430
Email: mrlc@netdoor.com
We do not ask for donations because we are not set up for that. You could take that same money which you may want to send us and use it yourself to send copies of this letter out to places of worship, universities, organizations, individuals and other places like we are doing.
A victim’s family and friends have a right to be angry when their loved one is suddenly taken away by a senseless act of violence. Unless you have lost a loved one to violence, you don’t know what the victim’s family and friends are having to deal with inside. In no way should we ever have anything negative to say about them while we work to erase the death penalty from our society because we cannot fully feel their grief.
There are many people on this planet who are thirsty to get involved and take a productive stand against a barbaric practice. We need this letter to spread like an out-of-control wildfire in order to locate those thirsty people.
If you live in the targeted state, send your protest letters to the state representative of your district. Inform them that you want a moratorium placed on all executions until the death penalty is abolished and why.
If you do not live in the targeted state, send your protest letters to the appropriate addresses listed on the last page of this campaign letter. Make them aware that you are pledging to boycott their state by refusing to purchase items made or grown in that state and will not visit that state to spend money as long as the death penalty is there. Let them know that you are also advising your friends and others to make the same pledge and to spread the message.
Feel free to contact Robert Simon Jr. (ex-prison guard now death row inmate) and let him know of what actions you have taken or plan to take. This would allow Echoes of Many to know where they need to strengthen their efforts. Since Robert has become a creative thinker and is at ground zero, he will work harder than anyone to succeed because he has the most to lose and the most to gain. You cannot send him stamps and you must put your full name and complete address on the envelope.
Robert Simon Jr.
46380
Death Row 32-B
Parchman, MS 38738
USA
Email: echoes_of_many@att.net
- Samantha
Source:
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2010/11/echoes-of-many-letter-writing-campaign.html
THE DEATH PENALTY. We do not need it as a form of punishment in our modern world. Who are we as a people and a society to decide who lives and who dies? Many countries and states in the USA have found other ways to deal effectively with crime and violence without killing people to show that killing is wrong. Children of today and the future need to learn that all human life is precious and no one should ever allow their actions to end someone else’s life because of greed, jealousy, anger, disrespect, revenge, hatred, or any other reason not mentioned here.
We have the power to swiftly bring a stop to the death chambers and killing machines if we work together and use our pens, computers and voices to speak out and speak up. Tying men and women down to tables and pumping poison into their veins until their blood no longer dances to the beat of their hearts is immoral and not right no matter how you look at it. We are not defending or excusing the actions of murderers; we are defending life, all human life. Death is irreversible. Since 1973, 130 people in 26 states have been released from death row with evidence of innocence.
Echoes of Many is a letter-writing campaign aimed at eliminating the death penalty one–state-at-a-time in the USA by using mostly old fashioned snail mail. We need many to join us on this journey to enlighten others to a greater respect for one’s self and all human life.
The targeted state is the poorest state in the nation: MISSISSIPPI
All citizens of Mississippi who want the death penalty abolished because of moral, ethical, religious, economic or any other reason, this is the time to let your state lawmakers know how you feel. There is now a great deal of national support aimed at your state because of Echoes of Many’s new strategy and other anti-death penalty organizations and groups participating as well.
Here are two things that can be done by those who wish to be more active:
1. Contact newspapers in all parts of Mississippi and make them aware of your opinion regarding the death penalty and aware of your pledge if you don’t live in Mississippi.
2. Contact Mississippi businesses and churches to make them aware of your support to help eradicate the death penalty. Student Presidents of colleges and universities in Mississippi and other states can be contacted also.
Sending any of these mentioned places or individuals a copy of this letter and saying that you support Echoes of Many and hope that they would also is just as good.
For those of you who have creative ideas of your own, please put them into action so that the echoes of many others can join in to let the lawmakers feel our strength, unity and determination.
There’s a new campaign in Mississippi called (EENJ) End Executions Not Jobs. They are inviting everyone to come to Smith Park in Jackson across from the Governor’s Mansion sometime during the entire month of November 2010 if you wish to be a part of a historic peaceful assembly that’s trying to make Mississippi the first southern state to abolish the death penalty for economic reasons. There will be people there of all religions, ages and ethnic backgrounds. (EENJ) wrote that “If the voices and the will of the people are ignored in the November assembly, April and May of 2011 will be even a larger assembly for the lawmakers to deal with.” Things such as what (EENJ) are doing will help our one-state-at-a-time strategy a great deal. Now let us get busy in reminding lawmakers to get it right.
For those who do not live in Mississippi, send your protest letters to one or both addresses.
Mississippi Tourism
P.O. Box 84
Jackson, MS 39205
USA
Phone: (601)359-3297
Website: www.visitmississippi.org
Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference
9 P.O Box 68123
Jackson, MS 39286
USA
Phone: (601) 924-7430
Email: mrlc@netdoor.com
We do not ask for donations because we are not set up for that. You could take that same money which you may want to send us and use it yourself to send copies of this letter out to places of worship, universities, organizations, individuals and other places like we are doing.
A victim’s family and friends have a right to be angry when their loved one is suddenly taken away by a senseless act of violence. Unless you have lost a loved one to violence, you don’t know what the victim’s family and friends are having to deal with inside. In no way should we ever have anything negative to say about them while we work to erase the death penalty from our society because we cannot fully feel their grief.
There are many people on this planet who are thirsty to get involved and take a productive stand against a barbaric practice. We need this letter to spread like an out-of-control wildfire in order to locate those thirsty people.
If you live in the targeted state, send your protest letters to the state representative of your district. Inform them that you want a moratorium placed on all executions until the death penalty is abolished and why.
If you do not live in the targeted state, send your protest letters to the appropriate addresses listed on the last page of this campaign letter. Make them aware that you are pledging to boycott their state by refusing to purchase items made or grown in that state and will not visit that state to spend money as long as the death penalty is there. Let them know that you are also advising your friends and others to make the same pledge and to spread the message.
Feel free to contact Robert Simon Jr. (ex-prison guard now death row inmate) and let him know of what actions you have taken or plan to take. This would allow Echoes of Many to know where they need to strengthen their efforts. Since Robert has become a creative thinker and is at ground zero, he will work harder than anyone to succeed because he has the most to lose and the most to gain. You cannot send him stamps and you must put your full name and complete address on the envelope.
Robert Simon Jr.
46380
Death Row 32-B
Parchman, MS 38738
USA
Email: echoes_of_many@att.net
Anthony Graves - 12 years on death row for a crime he did not commit
It was unfortunate for my friend that it was October 29th, two days after Anthony Graves was released from prison after spending 18 years behind bars (12 of which were spent on death row) for someone else's crime. He was convicted for the 1992 murders of an entire family, including 4 children - an unforgivable crime, I know, but one which he did not commit. On October 27th 2010, after almost two decades in prison, some bright spark finally listened to what he'd been saying all along.
He's innocent.
Let me tell you a few things about Graves's trial. There was no physical evidence tying him to the murders. There was no motive for him to slay the six strangers. And there was no possibility of it being true. Three witnesses testified that he was at home at the time of the killings.
In fact, the only 'evidence' came from the absolutely reliable testimonies of some jailhouse inhabitants who claimed they'd heard him confess, and on the testimony of Robert Carter, a death row inmate executed in 2000 who admitted to the killings but initially blamed Graves. Carter actually recanted the claim several times. He told District Attorney Charles Sebesta the day before Sebesta put him on the stand to testify against Graves that is wasn't true - something which Sebesta never told the defense, even though he was required to.
I bet I know what you're thinking. You probably think I'm exaggerating. You think that there's no way a jury would convict a man at all based on that little 'evidence', let alone send him to death row. But convict they did, and send him away to be executed they did.
He wasn't executed - thank the Lord for small mercies - and a few days ago he called his mother to ask what she was cooking for dinner. When she asked him why he wanted to know, he said "Because I'm coming home". Hurrah. Justice has prevailed this time.
Or has it? Anthony Graves spent 18 years in prison - 18 years which we, as a society who favor irrevocable punishments like the death penalty, will never be able to give him back. He was 26 when he was arrested. Now he's 45. The phone call to his mother was made on a cellphone he borrowed from his lawyer. His lawyer had to show him how to use it. Can you even begin to imagine how terrible it would be to spend 18 years of your life in prison, 12 of those years spent waiting to be killed, and then just be expected to put your life back together? I can't. I think I'd rather be executed. It's all fine and good to say that he's free now, wonderful... But can we just ignore the irreparable damage we've caused to him, mentally and in terms of what he might have done with his life if we hadn't stolen such a huge chunk of it? Furthermore, is it right to shrug and say we caught it in time, and then continue with the killing?
No. Just finding one innocent man on death row is enough evidence to support a moratorium in my opinion. I don't think any evidence was even needed to support a moratorium (if a man can be sent to death row on no evidence, why can't we do the same with the death penalty?).
Just as every argument about the death penalty which I have with my friend bottles down to the very real problem of innocent people ending up on death row, so does almost every single thing I post in this blog, and this post is no exception. The death penalty is dangerous. It is an addiction which America (indeed, the world) needs to kick because if we keep bargaining with ourselves in tinkering the legal processes and everything in between to make the death penalty more 'foolproof' just so we can keep fueling that addiction a little bit longer, the more dangerous it becomes and the less likely it is we'll ever be able to kick it. Aristotle once said "the law is reason, free from passion". That's what it should be, at least. Passion is the downfall. It is society's passion for vengeance which makes us crave the death penalty (no matter how we sugarcoat it to make ourselves feel better) and it is this same passion which clouds our judgment and prevents reason from having anything to do with it. Just look at Graves's case. The District Attorney who prosecuted him was told by his key witness that his testimony was a load of crap! (Not in those words, obviously). The DA chose to put the man on the stand anyway and then stood there calmly while an innocent man had an undeserved death sentence handed to him by the jury, another bunch of idiots I supect were blinded by their support for the death penalty. How else could they come to that verdict from the 'evidence' they were presented?
Gandhi was right. An eye for an eye is really making us all blind. Because if we cannot see that men like Graves are innocent, and that our addiction to the death penalty needs to be kicked, we must all be blind as bats.
You can read more about Graves's case at www.texasmonthly.com/
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