KCADP Newsletter No. 3, 1987 December

KCADP

Kentucky Coalition To Abolish The Death Penalty

NEWSLETTER NO. 3

December 1987

+UPDATE FROM THE EXECUTIVE BOARD+

With the General Assembly only weeks
away, members of. chapters of the coa-
lition continue to meet with legis-
lators concerning three changes in
Kentucky's capital punishment statute:
Ca] no death penalty. for those under
18 at the time of the crime; [6] no
death penalty for mentally retarded
individuals; [ec] an added mitigeting
circumstance related to severe ebuse,
physicial and/or sexual, during child-
hood.

After the Assembly opens we will have
an additional opportunity to explain
these proposals at a meeting of the
Jefferson County delegation and in the
hearing before the Judiciary-Criminal
Committee,

Our own efforts are bolstered by po-
sitions taken by other organizations.
At its 40th Annual Assembly, Oct 28-29
The Kentucky Council of Churches ad-
opted a policy statement of "Crime and
Criminal Justice" in which the death
penalty is condemned. In addition,
the Kentucky Association for Retarded
Citizens has endorsed our proposal re-
lated to retarded persons, and at the
annual statewide meeting of NAACP
branches, a resolution related ta
juvenile offenders and the mentally
retarded was adopted. Amnesty Inter-
national chapters throughout the
Commonwealth, as well as the Fellow-
ship of Reconciliation, are also work-
ing on these issues.

In addition to these local concerns,
there is movement on the national
Front. Avcivil rights bill will be Fil-
ed in Congress in 1988 which relates
to racism and captial sentencing.
Similiar legislation is also being
discussed by the Executive Board for
possible consideration by the 1990
General Assembly. Once this occurs, a
specific plan of action will follow
and we will keep members and other
terested parties informed.

in-

Peace to all during the holidays.

SURVIVORS, THE COURTROOM
AND THE DEATH PENALTY:
ONE DEFENSE LAWYER'S VIEW.

by Kevin McNally

On June 15, in @ narrow 5-4 vote, the
Supreme Court threw out John Booth's
death sentence (but not his conviction)
because a "victim's impact statement"
[VIS] was used by the prosecutor.
Justice Powell wrote the opinion short-
ly before resigning from the Court.

“Irvin Bronstein, 78, and his wife Aase,
7S, were robbed and murdered in their
West Baltimore home...bound and gagged,

then stabbed repeatedly...The bodies
were discovered two days later by(their)
son."

The VIS emphasized the Bronstein's
"outstanding personal qualities...des-—
cribed the emotional and personal prob-
lems the family members faced as a re-
sult...{such as] lack of sleep and de-
pression...[being] ‘fearful for the
First time'..." The murders ruined the
wedding of a granddaughter who cancell-
ed her honeymoon in order to attend the
Funeral, The VIS noted the family Felt
Booth was lower than an “animal” and
could never “be rehabilitated" but it
stopped short of specifically calling
for the death penalty.

For those of us who are asked to defend
the John Booth's of the world, the dec—
ision was quite a surprise. In case
after case, the Rehnquist Court was
hostile to claims of injustice by con-
victed killers. Why then this sudden
if temporary, turn-around? The answer
lies in another 5-4 opinion Justice
Powell wrote earlier in the year, on
April 22. McClesky v. Kemp dealt with
the disturbing question of race and
the death penalty. The Court had be-
Fore it a massive and very expensive
study of all Georgia murder prosecut-
ions From 1973-79. After testing and
retesting 253 variables, researchers
came again and again to the shocking
[cont. next page]
HOPE HARKENS POSSIBILITIES

“Hope springs eternal."' How often we have
heard that quote without realizing that it is
true everywhere in the world. Why? John 3:14
states it so succinctly. "Yes, God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son, that who
ever believes in him may not die, but may have
eternal life."

I have the privilege of sharing with you a
story that verifies the presence of the re-
deeming grace of Jesus, our God enfleshed.
The story unfolds in what might be perceived
as the least likely place in the world for
hope--a place where hope is about as scarce
as water in the desert. That place is the
Special Security Unit in cellhouse number 6
at the Kentucky State Penitentiary. It is on
this unit also called "Death Aow", where over
thirty men make their home as designated by
their sentences handed down From our state
courts.

One of the young men on this unit is Paul

courses included the Old Testament, the New
Testament, Church Doctrine, Church History,
Morality and Catechetics. He is a certified
catechist for the diocese and conducts the
ACIA [Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults]
program on the Special Services Unit. His
efforts have born much fruit. Each year
there has been one convert to the Catholic
Church on death row and this year he has

two candidates in the ACIA program.

I asked Paul how he had changed spiritually
since he came to prison. He said that he
had learned to let go of stuff that bothered
him. He said he prayed more, read and
studied the scriptures more and shared more
oF his Faith experiences with others. He
said that the most significant lesson for
him in prison has been learning to replace
his preoccupation with the problems in his
environment by an embrace of the possibil-
ities in his environment--a fruit of the
time he spends in centering prayer where

Kordenback. Paul was born January pttett eee tt+++ he is in the presence of God with-
17, 1955 at Ft. Thomas, Kentucky. He + { in himself each day.

grew up in the sensate culture of the ¢ +

‘60's when the predominant philos- t Whet a privilege it is to share
ophy was,"If it Feels good, do it. + + Peul's Faith experience in prison.
In 1981 he was condemned to be ex- t { His conversion and rehabilitation
ecuted in the electric chair in the { = serves to remind me of the love

Kentucky State Penitentiary. It is
there that he caily awaits the slowly grind-
ing wheels of justice bent on carrying out
his sentence. While there, Paul has not been
one to be totally preoccupied with this pro-
blem. I met him in 1982 on the Death Row
Unit in three cellhouse thirteen walk left,
two floors above the electric chair. He
wanted me to hear his confession and bring
him Holy Communion. I took time to listen to
his concerns and bring him a bit of cheer on
a weekly basis. He introduced me to the re-
maining Catholics on death row and others who
desired the presence of a Catholic Chaplain.
He asked that the administration allow the
celebration of the Mass on the unit each week.|
Permission was granted by the administration
for me to celebrate the Mass in a steel cage
on death row.

Because of the persistent efforts of Paul, a
Catholic Faith community was born on the unit.|
And this was not be accident. Ouring the
time Paul has been at the Kentucky State
Penitentiary, he has taken six correspondence
courses from the Catechetical Office. The

+ +
FETTER EEE EE EET

God has for each of us. He has

sent his San Jesus to become one with us
so that through conversion and rehabil-

itation we might become one with him.

That is the meaning of the Christmas

story and that is why hope springs eternal
--a possibility that can be embraced where-
ver we are in the world, even if our home
is on the death row unit at a state prison.
Editor's note: Father Frank Roof, author of
"Hope Harkens Possibilities" was the Catholic
Chaplain at Eddyville and served as Vice
President of the American Catholic Correct-
ional Chaplain's Association. He is mow the
Pastor of Immaculate Parish, Owensboro, Ky.

= @
()
a
)

,

att

conclusion that the race of the de-
fendant, and more importantly, the
race of the victim, determined who
went to the electric chair and who
went to a prison cell. Killers of
whites were 11 times more likely to
get the death penalty than killers of
blacks. 22% (50/228) of black de-
Fendants who killed whites, 8%(58/745)
of whites who killed whites, 1%
(18/1438) of blacks who killed other
blacks; and 3% (2/4) of whites who

led blacks were sentenced to death.
Every other study (Florida, Illinois,
Oklahoma, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Mississippi, Virginia and
Arkansas) has shown the same: A
killer's punishment depends on wha he
kills,

Justice Powell's crucial fifth vote in
McClesky rejected the last braad-
based legal challenge to capital pun-
ishment in this country. Powell con-
ceded the researchers' Findings, but
said that there was little that could
be done about it the Court wasn't
about to overturn the death penalty
in 36 states. It is in this Light
that we must look at Powell's ap-
proach to the Booth case.

The Court was "troubled by the im-
plication that defendants whose vic-
tims were assets to their community
are more deserving of punishment than
those whose victims are perceived tao
be less worthy..." A decision to ex-
ecute someone, anguished Powell, can't
“under our system of justice...turn

on the perception that the victim was
a sterling member of the community
rather than someone of questionable
character..." (These are all code
words For “race".) Actually, whem it
comes to the death penalty, cases in-
evitably turn on the jury's perception
of the victim. Eliminating VIS,
stead of the death penalty, does
nothing to change that. The jury
still sees the survivors, their race,
economic standing, courtroom presence,
etc. In the end, Booth only victim-
izes the survivors again - while
little solace to the accused

in-

offering
killer.
It

might seem unusual For a defense

lawyer to criticize a supposedly pro-
defendant ruling by the Supreme Court.
But the death penalty is full of con-
tradictions. Many assume that all
survivors want the killer(s) executed.
That simply isn't so and, from all we
can tell from the VIS, may not necess-
arily be true of the Bronstein Family.
Before the Booth decision, in talking
with Fellow “death penalty lawyers,"
I speculated that a decision against
survivor impact testimony might, in
the long run, hurt, not help, capital
defendants. Example? One judge re-
fused to permit the jury to hear that
the widow, mother of three children,
opposed the death penalty on religious
grounds for the killer of her husband.
The defendant, William Thompson, now
on death row. "Widow in Turmoil Over
Death Sentence," Kentucky v. Post,
(10/23/86). A condemned cell-mate of
Thompson's lost his appeal when the
Kentucky Supreme Court said it was
okay for the trial judge to "refuse
to allow testimony [about] the impact
af the death penalty on... the vic-
tim's families..." Sure enough, an
September 25, a federal appeals
court, specifically because of Booth,
declined to block an execution al-
though a trial judge had refused to
let the jury “hear relatives of the
victims testify that the death pen-
alty should not be imposed."
As a human being, I em moved by the
survivors outrage, as stated by Susan
Asquith of POMC, that they can't"tell
the jugde and jury what the loss" of
a Family member to homicide means. As
a lawyer, I can understand Justice
Powell's concern that the death pen-
alty not be the exclusive punishment
For killing prominent (too often
white) community members who have
articulate friends and family. After
all, how should the survivors Feel
who are denied the ultimate penalty?
Is the life of their husband, wife or
child somehow worth less in the eyes
of society?
I also understand Justice Powell's
Fear that the victim would be put on
trial - if the deceased's character
becomes the issue in court. And I
can understand his concern that VIS
(cont. back page)
would only “inflame™and "divert" the
jury. But who doubts "the grief and
anger of the family caused by brutal
murders...? As Justice Powell admits:
" There is no doubt that jurors gen-
erally are aware of these feelings."
Absent some unfortunate tactic de-

signed to exclude the survivors from
court, a defense strategy I Find im-
proper and pointless, the jury sees

and feels the tears of the loved ones.

Permitting the survivors to be heard
(as well as seen) in some manner is
emotionally and psychologically im-
portant For them. Why can't the
criminal justice system give them
[cont. above]

this...at least? All Sooth does is
keep survivors From saying what they
Feel. Family members will testify
anyway. The Bronstein's son, who
first found his murdered parents, is
but one example. Booth's jury could
see Mr. Bronstein's pain even if he
never apened his mouth. As it stands
how the jury, judge and public assume
survivors, only and always, demand
blood for blood. Let them speak for
themselves.

The problem, Justice Powell is not
victim's impact statements. The
problem is the death penalty.

KM

[Newsletter: Parents of Murdered Children]

THANK YOU
Many thanka to neadena who neaponded to the October appeal fon donations. Aa Lobbying
efforts intensify on the 3 legislative proposala deacribed in “Update”, we ane appealini
again fon auppont from thane who might have pega es on who could not contaibute then but

ane able to do a0 now.
effont in thia new yean.

KCADP needa’ youn contat

Let this be youn gift to the men and women Living in the shadow

ution to defray expensea fon the Lobbying

death aa we celebaate the season of hope and Light...

clip here - - - + = = + = = = = = = =

YES! I CAN GIVE: ENCLOSED IS MY GIFT $
NAME:

ADORESS:

CITY: ZIP?

Make checks payable to KCAUP 425 W. Muhammad Blvd.

Suite 230
Louisville, KY.

KCADP

Kentucky Coalition To Abolish The Death Penalty
2704 West Chestnut Street

Louisville, Kentucky 40211

40202