KCADP
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Why do we kill people
who kill people
to show that killing
people is wrong.
NEWSLETTER NO. 14
NOVEMBER 1991
MAZZOLI, PERKINS VOTE FOR RACIAL JUSTICE ACT
Death squads score
As this newsletter goes to press, Congress has passed a
major crime bill which increases by 50+ the number of federal
crimes punishable by death, ignores the racist application of the
punishment, and may, depending on what happens in the
conference committee working on the final wording, deform
Habeas Corpus by keeping the “full and fair” language of the
Senate version.
Both Senators Wendell Ford and Mitch McConnell failed
to vote for the inclusion of the Racial Justice Act in the Senate
version; only Representatives Ron Mazzoli (3rd District) and
Chris Perkins (7th District) voted for its inclusion on the House
side.
Annual Meeting Set For November 24
At St. Peter Claver Church In Lexington
The annual meeting of the KCADP is scheduled for
Sunday, November 24, 1991, from 2 pm - 5 pm at St. Peter
Claver Church, 410 Jefferson St., Lexington, Kentucky.
Professor Richard Halperin, who teaches Southern and
Racial History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas will
open the meeting. Rick is a board member of Amnesty
International USA and the National Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty. He is a leader of the abolitionist movement in
‘Texas and helps keep many others in the country informed
through his distribution of news articles from various sources
around the nation.
The agenda also calls for an update on legislative matters
at the national and state level, a preview of any significant pre-
filed bills for the upcoming Kentucky General Assembly, a
workshop on lobbying: techniques and strategies, and a report
from the Treasurer. Chapter chairpersons will report on the
past year’s activities and plans for the future.
Members are urged to present personal reflections about
their work to abolish the death penalty and ideas that can help
us all do a better job convincing the death-hungry that the
State’s violent response to violent crime is not a solution, but
part of the problem.
another victory
Ironically, Kentuckians, by far, disagree with the Senators
and Representatives who voted against inclusion of language to
outlaw racial bias in capital sentencing. In a survey conducted
by the Urban Research Institute of the University of Louisville,
researchers asked Kentuckians in the 7 Congressional Districts
to respond to the following statement: “Death penalty laws
should guarantee that there is no racial bias in the application
of the death penalty. Would you say you strongly agree,
somewhat agree, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree or are
you not sure?”
Less than 1% strongly disagreed; 1% somewhat disagreed;
5.9% were unsure; 6.4% somewhat agreed; and an overwhelm-
ing 85.8% strongly agreed that death penalty laws should
guarantee that there is no racial bias in the application of the
death penalty.
In most, if not all, Southern states, including Kentucky,
there is clear statistically significant evidence that race, especial-
ly that of the victim, determines which defendants face trials in
which the death penalty can be imposed.
Attorney General Fred Cowan joined several others in
1990 and signed a letter asking Congress to reject that year’s
version of the Racial Justice Act. Civil rights advocates can only
hope the Attorney General-elect, Chris Gorman, does not
continue to adopt this racist stance and joins those Attorney
Generals who supported eliminating race from the capital
sentencing process when similar legislation is introduced in the
next session of Congress.
“Law enforcement, of course, takes us
smack into politics. What is a district at-
torney, after all, but a lawyer dreaming of a
governorship en route to the Presidency of
the United States?”
Russell Baker in the New York Times
We welcome three new organizational members:
NAACP Interdenominational Ministerial
Coalition, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and St. Walburg Monastery!
Page 2
November 1991
On Capital Punishment
by Martin Levy
“Why do we kill people who kill people to prove that killing people is wrong?”
The above question - slogan of the abolition movement -
makes sense! We live ina society premised on the sanctity
of life. That is the Judeo-Christian ethic! Although society
is changing, with a great confrontation on the question of
death, as more and more people talk about the quality of
life and make living wills, that does not change the concept
that our lives belong to ourselves and God and not to the
state.
Murder is a horrible crime. Victims’ families seek re-
venge, but what does it accomplish? Capital punishment
does not bring the victim back to life. Revenge, however
sweet for the moment, only causes those who grieve to pile
guilt on top of grief and to equate the grievers and mourn-
ers with the object of their scorn.
No evidence shows a deterrent effect for capital punish-
ment, and indeed, some studies indicate its use may
actually increase violent crime by creating a violent “atmos-
phere,”
How we treat societal outcasts is a measure of the moral
tone of the society. Criminals are mentally disabled people
to a large extent and the Supreme Court’s decisions that it
is constitutional to execute mentally retarded and juvenile
murderers does not portend well for a legal solution to this
vexing problem of what to do with violent criminals.
Prisons are undoubtedly ugly places, no matter how
many TV's, pool tables, recreation hours are available.
Incarceration - confinement, loss of friends, occupation,
leisure activity, and the deprivation of sex - just cannot be
pleasant. We need to be more human about our prisons.
But what's wrong with life without parole for murderers?
Always, where there is life there is hope. The probability of
rehabilitation, exoneration of those wrongfully accused can
occur with life sentences. The death penalty is final and
cruel.
Not only is there a chance of innocent people being
electrocuted, the waiting for death is itself a “living death.”
Amnesty International, an organization devoted to removing
torture by the state, is against the death penalty as degrad-
ing and inhumane. They report that the fear of execution is
the most terrifying form of torture.
It is as if all the discussion of the pros and cons on
capital punishment, even as we talk about the prisoner's
humanness, sets the murderer apart. He/she is, however,
amongst us and “in us.”
Are murderers so far beyond our conscious recollection
that we cannot recall our unconscious struggle when, at an
early age, we wrestled with our own lawlessness as we
decided whether or not to respect authority figures in our
lives? It seems we think it is better to cast criminals out
than to remember early decisional processes. As lawful
robots we serve society's interests without genuine compas-
sion for ourselves or others.
Can we honestly live with the decision to execute an adult
or worse, a juvenile or mentally retarded person, without
running away in our minds from the ugliness of the scene
of execution: smoke pouring out of a person's head, feces
and urine showering about the room--utter helplessness
angrily destroyed by society?
Forty percent of all countries have abolished the death
penalty in law or practice, indicating they have found
satisfactory alternatives to capital punishment.
An analysis of the factors influencing decision-making in
capital sentencing in Kentucky showed that race plays a
part in the process, not only in the selection of cases by
prosecutors, but also in jury decision-making. Should life -
that fragile candle of spirit - all we have - be snuffed out
because of the color of a person's skin?
Capital punishment is morally wrong. It is wrong in
theory and while accomplishing nothing in practice except
bringing pain and setting a bad moral tone for the nation, it
is unfairly applied as discussed above.
It appears that the law is a set of rules that serves societal
purposes. These purposes are relative and change with the
mood of the culture.
When it comes to the issue of capital punishment, the
mood of the country has turned ugly and vengeful. The
polls show the majority of people favor capital punishment
and stricter rules for prisoner release. This is a response to
the increase in crime.
But some laws do not change. These are higher laws
that bond people to each other. Our common origin is the
womb and our final resting place is the grave. We have all
gone through the same developmental stages and resolved
them or express our pain. It seems we communicate
through this common bond.
Does a doctor attending a dying patient have the mixed
feeling that “some day that will be me’? Perhaps a judge
and jury ought to think in capital cases--that could be me.
Perhaps a warden who may project his own criminality onto
his prisoners ought to have these thoughts when he orders
the switch thrown, Perhaps it is time for society to change
the vengeful and ugly mood of projecting evil and concen-
trate on humanness. After all, all of us, from bank presi-
dents to murderers, are only human.
MartIN LEvy is a /ong time abolitionist. This article repre-
sents his personal reflections on the use of capital punish-
ment in our society.
November 1991
Page 3
Directions to
St. Peter’s
From the Louisville
area take I64 to exit
115, Newtown Pike.
Take this until you
come to Georgetown
Pike intersection where
there is a traffic signal.
Go straight to railroad
crossing. Turn left on
3rd St. Stay in left lane
to Jefferson and turn
Jeft on Jefferson to the
corner of 4th and Jef-
ferson.
From Pikeville, Ash-
land, take exit 113 off
164. Make a right onto
North Broadway. Fol-
low this until you come
to 4th St. Take right
on 4th to corner of 4th
and Jefferson.
From northern Ken-
tucky, take 175 to 164
east to exit 115. Then see above and follow the same directions as those from Louisville area.
From western Kentucky, take appropriate roads to Bluegrass Parkway.
When Parkway ends
continue on 60 to West Main. Turn right on West Main. Go to Broadway and turn left. Follow
Broadway to 4th St. and turn left until you come to the corner of 4th and Jefferson.
BOARD MEMBERS
Chair
Patrick Delahanty
Louisville
‘Vioo-Chatr
Joe Roberts
Irvine
Sesretary
Katie Nienaber
Fort Wright
‘Treasurer
Mary Lou Houck
Louisville
Members
David Funke
Pewee Valley
Janet Geurin
Louisville
Kelly Gleason.
Lexington
Bernie Halvorsen
Lexington
Edward Heeg
Fort Thomas
Kathleen Hils
Erlanger
Peter Houck
Louisville
Sandra MoClure
on
Edward Stieritz
Fort Thomas
Oleh Tustaniwsky
Louisville
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CONTRIBUTIONS ARE WELCOMED AND TAX DEDUCTIBLE.
Page 4
November 1991
Northern Kentucky Chapter Raises Cost Issue
On October 7, 1991, Coalition Board Member Katie
Nienaber spoke to a caucus of Northern Kentucky legislators
about the extreme costs to Kentuckians caused by the policy of
death sentencing.
After thanking them for the opportunity to speak, she said,
“Because many people assume that the execution of death row
prisoners costs less than life in prison, we feel a study of this
issue in Kentucky could clarify this budget item.” She pointed
out that the Kansas legislature did not reinstate the death
penalty because of costs associated with the death sentencing
process.
“Tt is our assumption,” she remarked, “that if Kentuckians
(and legislators, in particular) recognized the extreme costs of
the trials involved before an execution, they might consider
another less expensive and very severe punishment, such as life
without parole, which would protect our citizens.”
In closing, she added, “With Kentucky’s pressing needs for
tax dollars for education, health care, police protection and
victim’s programs, does it not seem advantageous to evaluate
this concern?”
Individual and organization members of the Coalition
should take this “cost” issue to legislators in their area. In the
same survey mentioned elsewhere in this issue, the Urban
Research Institute of the University of Louisville found that
64% of Kentuckians actually prefer life without parole, instead,
not in addition to, the death penalty. If Kentuckians knew the
real costs and why those costs accrue, an additional 20% - 30%
might well want their tax dollars spent more wisely.
In the 1990 Fall issue of the Northern Kentucky Law
Review, Alan F. Blakley wrote an article, “The Cost of Killing
Criminals,” that details just two Kentucky death penalty cases,
both from Jefferson County.
In the introduction, he points out that the article is not
intended to reduce human life to dollars and cents. “Human
beings should not be reduced to mere economic considerations.
But even if they are reduced to such dollars and cents, the death
penalty is absurd.”
“Capital cases,” he continues, “require greater amounts of
KCADP
KENTUCKY COALITION TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY
712 EAST MUHAMMAD ALI BOULEVARD
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due process than other criminal cases. Absurd costs arise from
these requirements and the distinctive nature of capital punish-
ment.”
Blakely then details the two cases in question: Brian Keith
Moore’s and Kevin Stanford’s. Readers who want all the details
need to read the whole article. Space here only permits
mention that Moore has had two trials and has only progressed
through one of ten levels of appeal to date (Fall 1990).
Stanford has had one trial and has reached level two of the ten
available.
Using cost estimates from States that have studied this
matter, Blakely concludes that the cost of executing Moore
currently range between $1,192,000 and $3,112,000. For
Stanford the estimates are $981,000 and $1,941,000. Stanford
has been on death row two year less than Moore, has had only
one trial, and has been to the Kentucky Supreme Court only
once. However, Stanford’s appeal based on his age (he was a
juvenile at the time of the crime) did reach the Supreme Court.
Costs for that appeal are estimated at $340,000 and are included
in the above figures.
Using $15,000 as the yearly cost of incarceration, Blakely
then points out that had Moore been sentenced to life without
parole at age 21 (the age he was sentenced) and lived to 70, the
Commonwealth would spend $735,000. Had Stanford been
sentenced at 17, and lived to 70, the total would be $795,000.
The writer points out that these two cases are not unusual-
ly expensive, nor is either case near an end. Death sentencing
is not going to become cheaper (nor is incarceration). He asks,
“Does society really wish to kill killers so badly that it will spend
the amounts of money and time necessary to do so?”
Kansas legislators finally understood that a public policy of
killing murderers has the downside of depriving law-abiding
citizens of the quality of life they deserve.
Several former Kentucky legislators were not returned to
the 1992 General Assembly because they voted for tax increases
to provide better education to Kentucky’s children.
One wonders what citizens might do when they begin to
understand how much killing others is really costing them.
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