Sept. 5
USA/OKLAHOMA:
Capital punishment a costly option
“I no longer believe you can fix the death penalty. (It) throws millions of
dollars down the drain. Give a law enforcement professional like me that $250
million, and I’ll show you how to reduce crime. The death penalty isn’t
anywhere on my list.— New Jersey Police Chief James Abbott
Those Jersey boys know how to lay it on the line. Abbott made that observation
years ago when asked his opinion of whether his state should scrap its costly
deathpenalty law. New Jersey did so in 2007.
Forget all the arguments about the rightness or wrongness of capital punishment
— if it is a powerful deterrent or morally repugnant, if its use is appropriate
for worst-of-the-worst crimes.
Should death-penalty laws eventually go by the wayside here and elsewhere,
their demise won’t be based on philosophical debates.
The issue will come down to the bottom line. In this era of fiscal peril,
legislatures and voters must decide: Do they continue sustaining the nation’s
most expensive punishment option — for a relatively small number of convicted
murders — when other needs, including education, health care, infrastructure
and public safety, go wanting?
Budget cutbacks in Oklahoma since 2008 have resulted in layoffs and the drastic
slashing of services and programs.
The state’s safety net, which so many people rely upon, is ripping at the
seams.
Prisons are at capacity, yet the per-capita violent crime rate remains among
the highest in the U.S.
No reliable figures exist for how much Oklahoma deathpenalty system costs.
Suffice it to say it’s tens of millions of dollars.
Throwing political caution to the wind, some leaders have suggested dropping
the death penalty. State Sen.
Constance Johnson, DOklahoma City, was roundly ignored when she proposed
scrapping that system and going to a far less costly lifewithout- parole
system.
A few states have abolished their systems in light of cost. In the 34 states
with a death penalty, some are asking: Can the needs of so many be sacrificed
to pay for punishment of so few?
Death row numbers
Nationally, about 3,200 people are on state and federal death rows, including
69 in Oklahoma. The average cost, from arrest to execution, for a single
deathpenalty case ranges from $1 million to $3 million. Those costs, on a
per-offender basis, rank as among the most expensive part of criminal justice
systems. That fact has prompted countless studies, including an eye-popping one
released in June in California.
That state has the nation’s largest and costliest death row – 714 inmates.
Since reinstating its death penalty in 1978, California has conducted nearly
2,000 capital trials and has executed 13 people. Over those 33 years, the
death-penalty system cost the state $4.6 billion.
Divided up, that equates to $308 million per execution.
For a state teetering on the brink of financial collapse, here’s how the $4.6
billion broke down: pre-trial/trial costs, $1.94 billion, automatic appeals and
state habeas corpus petitions, $0.925 billion, federal habeas petitions, $0.775
billion; costs of incarceration, $1 billion.
In light of those costs, backers of a stalled legislative bill to abolish the
death penalty recently kicked off a campaign to put the question on the
November 2012 ballot.
If approved, California’s death-penalty laws would become history. The measure
would do something else, which could persuade voters to pass it: $100 million
from the state’s general fund — the estimated savings from eliminating death
row — would be distributed over the next 4 fiscal years to local police for
solving more homicides and rapes.
Death-penalty studies
A North Carolina study also performed a cost-benefit analysis and found a $2
million difference between a death sentence and a lifewithout- parole sentence.
In Texas, a death-penalty case costs about $3 million, 3 times the cost of
imprisoning an inmate for 40 years.
In Maryland, a death-penalty case costs about three times more than a case in
which the prosecutor does not seek the death penalty, according to an Urban
Institute study. Since 2000, death sentences across the U.S. have dropped
precipitously.
A 2008 poll of police chiefs, often cited by Richard Dieter, executive director
of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., produced
surprising answers. Almost all the chiefs surveyed ranked the death penalty
last among their priorities for crimefighting, saying that they did not believe
— based on murder rates — that it deterred homicides. Most rated it as the
least efficient use of limited taxpayer dollars.
New York abolished its death penalty in 2007. In the many years the law was on
the books, no death sentences were upheld by its courts nor was any offender
executed.
New Mexico abolished its death penalty in 2009.
The death penalty is widely favored in Oklahoma, which has the executions to
prove it. For many, keeping it as an option is crucial — whatever the cost. But
is that an informed stance?
One need not put aside a philosophical beliefs about capital punishment to
recognize the financial impracticality of the system.
Oklahoma leaders should undertake a study to determine the cost of the
deathpenalty system here. Relying on those results, Oklahomans could make a
more informed choice about whether to keep it. Ultimately, the question comes
down to priorities.
(source: Tulsa World)
USA:
Death penalty — costly for families of victims too----Washington justice-system
leaders are debating the merits of the death penalty, given its public costs.
Guest columnist Karil S. Klingbeil, the sister of a woman murdered 30 years
ago, discusses the traumatic costs to victim's loved ones of the legal
machinations when the death penalty is in play.
A recent Seattle Times story educated us about the soaring financial costs of
the death penalty ("Death penalty dilemma: Is soaring cost worth it?" page one,
Aug, 15). I would like to address the other soaring cost, the emotional and
psychological impact on family, friends and the community, which may be even
greater than the financial costs.
Sept. 17 marks the 30th anniversary of my sister Candy Hemmig's murder. She had
just celebrated her 33rd birthday at our family home in Olympia the previous
Sunday. Candy and her co-worker, Twila Capron were gunned down in an Olympia
bank by Mitchell Rupe, a man later dubbed "too fat to be hanged."
Candy left a husband and 3 children, ages 7, 13 and 16. Twila, too, had a
husband and 2 young children. In an instant, there were 2 widowers and 5
children left motherless, not to mention the loss to mothers, fathers, sisters,
brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends. Murder, like death, wracks
the entire family including the community.
I have had 30 years to grieve and think through this horrible crime and major
insult to our family. My sister Gail and I were enraged yet felt helpless,
dependent on the criminal-justice system to deliver justice. Initially we
desperately wanted the death penalty, which seemed to be the "worst punishment"
that a murderer could receive. My emotion arose out of the terrible pain this
man caused my entire family.
After Candy's service, it was all about Mitchell Rupe. It remained so through
three trials. I attended all them and listened to the heinous accounts over and
over. At the end of each trial, I was left with the same empty feeling. Time
passes and begins to heal the wounds and emptiness, but there is no such thing
as closure.
Rupe received the death penalty after the first two trials. The third jury had
one holdout for life, so Rupe received life in prison without the possibility
of parole. Over 20 years, he had been found guilty by 36 members of three
juries and given the death penalty by 35 jurors. We were disappointed but not
surprised. Rupe died in prison in 2006.
After years of reflection, my opinion about the death penalty has fully
evolved. I now oppose the death penalty in favor of life in prison without
parole — still a substantial penalty — for murderers like Rupe.
I have spent my professional career working to prevent interpersonal violence
and protect its victims. I oppose all forms of abuse. I am opposed to wars. I
realize that opposing the death penalty is in line with my philosophy about
other issues of nonviolence I have supported my entire life.
I have come to believe that no one has the right to take another person's life
for whatever reason. To kill someone for killing someone makes little sense. It
speaks of anger, frustration, revenge, retaliation and a fallible law. It
answers violence with violence.
All studies I have read make it clear that the death penalty is not a deterrent
to crime. Murderers don't pause at the critical moment they are killing and
think, "Gee, I wonder if I'll get the death penalty?"
But I have explored many other issues beyond deterrence including questions of
morality, constitutionality, retribution and revenge, irrevocable mistakes,
costs, race, income levels, attorney quality and finally issues of physicians
at executions.
Victims' families, like our family, relive the horror of their loved one's
murder with every court proceeding. Our system cannot seek this ultimate
punishment without a great deal of procedure to avoid and correct errors, and
still errors are made. The more hearings and trials there are, the more
emotional trauma there is for the surviving family members.
The death penalty should be abolished. We should join the many countries that
have long ago banned the death penalty. Capital punishment remains a barbaric
remnant of uncivilized society. It does constitute a cruel and unusual
punishment at odds with our culture and way of life in the United States. We
should be putting the money we spend on the death penalty on the front end of
crime and apply it toward prevention.
I don't believe calling for someone's death makes any of us a better person. I
strongly believe working to end violence makes each of us a better person.
Opposing the death penalty makes my philosophy of nonviolence a more powerful
belief.
The emotional and financial costs are too great for this country to bear.
(source: Guest Columnist; Karil S. Klingbeil is the former director of social
work at Harborview Medical Center and a retired associate professor in the
University of Washington's School of Social Work----Seattle Times)
FLORIDA:
While seeking justice, slain officer's son dealt setbacks
For 33 1/2 agonizing years, Louis P. Pena has waited not so patiently for
Florida to put his father's killer to death.
He has endured multiple appeals and 7 governors before Rick Scott signed a
death warrant for Manuel Valle on June 30.
Tuesday was supposed to be death day for Valle.
It won't happen.
On Friday, a federal court in Atlanta temporarily stayed the execution until 7
p.m. Thursday to decide if Valle - who shot Coral Gables police Officer Louis
Pena on April 2, 1978 - was improperly denied a clemency hearing.
On Wednesday, the news was worse.
Pena, 53, of Lehigh Acres learned he won't realize his dream of watching Valle,
61, die by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke.
"The warden won't let me in,'' Pena said Friday. "I didn't pass the criminal
background check.''
In 1995, he was convicted of lewd/lascivious assault/fondling, a third-degree
felony. After completing 1/2 of his 5 years' probation, adjudication of guilt
was withheld. But in 2004, he was convicted of failing to register as a sexual
offender, a 3rd-degree felony.
"When I got off probation, my public defender didn't tell me I had to
register,'' Pena said.
Gretl Plessinger, Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman, says a felony
excludes a witness.
"It doesn't happen too often,'' she said Friday.
This isn't fair to Pena.
The state shouldn't hold past transgressions against him when he has been
waiting this long for a front-row seat to justice.
Pena has been a pain in the state's butt, trying to push his father's murderer
closer to extinction for more than half of his life.
"I call the governor's office once a month,'' he said. "I know they get tired
of hearing from me, but it's ridiculous he is still alive.''
What son or daughter would feel differently?
Here are 3 death-row statistics to support Pena's argument:
- 12.86 years is the average length of stay before execution. Valle was
incarcerated May 16, 1978.
- Only 19 of 397 inmates have been on death row longer than than Valle.
- 69 prisoners have been executed since reinstatement of the death penalty in
1976.
Yet Valle hangs on.
Once his stay expires, the governor is expected to set another execution date.
"Laws are laws,'' Pena said. "If I can't get inside the gate, I'll be outside
the gate waiting for justice.''
He deserves better.
He needs a reprieve from Warden Steve Singer.
Pena is disabled and walks with a cane.
How much of a threat is he to overpower security guards and take Valle's
execution into his own hands?
If Pena offers to wear handcuffs would Singer change his mind?
It's not like he killed anyone, like Valle did.
Remember the 3 decades Pena has spent tracking the case.
The warden needs to give him a get-into-prison-free card for the execution.
Pena shouldn't be outside looking in when justice is finally carried out for
his father's family, fellow cops and friends.
(source: News-Press)
*******************
Awaiting execution, he's 'The Death Row Poet'
From a windowless cell on Florida's death row, Ronald Clark writes for justice.
For vanity. For help.
For everyone.
"This cage is 9 x 7 … 63 square feet of hell, and it will drive you crazy if
you're not careful. You need to check your sanity daily. Like, right now, nine
cells down the hall, some idiot is snapping his fingers and clapping his hands
to music. You hear toilets flushing, lockers slamming and guys arguing over the
stupidest of issues."
Twice convicted of 1st-degree murder, Clark, 43, has been awaiting his
execution for 21 years. He has never had a laptop and has no Internet access.
But much to the dismay of the Department of Corrections, he has his own blog.
"The Death Row Poet" is the online diary of a condemned man who is determined
to be heard. The site is thedeathrowpoet.blogspot.com.
• • •
Clark's blog posts began appearing about a year ago, though many of his
writings are years older.
In a post addressed to Florida taxpayers, Clark writes of a penal system he
says is devoid of rehabilitation.
"You better open your eyes and take a look at what is going on in the prison
system. Currently your money is being spent to raise an army of mad dog thugs
that one day will be released in your back yard," he writes.
In other posts he details alleged injustices and mistreatment by death row
correctional officers at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford.
During a jailhouse interview, he says his goal is to expose conditions at
Union, but at times, his crusade seems to be about seeking attention as much as
justice.
Twice he has staged hunger strikes to protest conditions on death row. Days
before Christmas 1999, his wife hijacked a helicopter to spring him, but she
called it off at the last minute.
A prolific writer with meticulous penmanship, he mails handwritten letters (on
personalized stationery featuring a self-portrait of his face) to Dina Milito,
a mother of 2 children in Sunnyvale, Calif. She learned about Clark through a
website called the Death Row Support Project.
Her husband, a Silicon Valley software engineer, set up the blog, and she says
it gets several dozen visitors each day.
Milito says that she wanted to give Clark a forum to express himself and that
she strongly opposes capital punishment.
"It's barbaric," Milito says. "There's no rehabilitation and no belief in
redemption. Death row is a horrible place."
• • •
Ronald Wayne Clark Jr. grew up in Yulee, just north of Jacksonville.
His parents split when he was young, and he recalls once standing in front of
his mother as his father aimed a gun at her, point-blank. "He was screaming at
me, 'Ronnie, get out of the way,' and I was crying. I said no," Clark recalled
in an interview.
Clark has a 5th-grade education. His blog describes a boyhood of alcohol-fueled
violence and the discovery that his mother was a lesbian, which she confirmed.
"Because my mother was gay, I had a father who worried about me being gay and
therefore took a little boy who had nothing but love and compassion in his
heart and tried to make that little boy as mean and tough as possible," Clark
writes on his blog.
He went to Oklahoma to live with his mother, Shirley, but at 15 he rejoined his
father in Florida, who he said made him sell drugs on the streets of
Jacksonville.
The father, Ronald Wayne Clark Sr., is also in a Florida prison, serving a life
sentence for killing his second wife.
"His dad was an S.O.B., and I wasn't the best mother, either," Shirley Clark
said. "I would do anything in the world to change how it came out."
Clark regrets going back to Florida.
"I never should have left her. She kept her hand on me," Clark says of his
mother, who he says is the one person he knows still loves him.
Running with a rough crowd in Yulee and growing up too fast, he worked at a
lawn care business, drank and did drugs excessively. As a teen, speeding in his
1979 Buick Regal and swerving to avoid a semitrailer truck, he sideswiped a car
on U.S. 17 in Jacksonville in which two people were killed.
"I'm haunted by my past," Clark wrote in a blog entry.
• • •
Clark is one of 397 people living on Florida's death row.
He's 1 of 3 condemned inmates with a blog, along with Michael Lambrix's "Death
Row Journal" and James Hitchcock, who calls himself the "Average Joe on death
row."
Union's death row has its own Facebook page, too.
Blogging didn't exist in 1990 when Clark committed the crime that put him on
death row: the shotgun killing of Ronald Willis, who had picked up a
hitchhiking Clark and a friend, John Hatch.
Hatch testified against Clark in exchange for a 25-year term.
Clark was found guilty of stealing Willis' truck and shooting him repeatedly in
the head with a shotgun, tying concrete blocks to his body and dumping it in a
river.
Earlier, on a 1989 drunken binge with three men, he pulled a shotgun on shrimp
boat worker Charles Carter, wounding him. Court files show that Clark reloaded
the gun and shot the 37-year-old Carter in the mouth, killing him, then rolled
Carter's body in a ditch and took his cash and his boots.
"I shot him," Clark told the Times/Herald during an interview. "He did nothing
to me. I mean, nothing."
Carter's younger brother Henry, in Liberty, N.C., wonders why Clark wasn't
executed long ago.
"It's a waste of taxpayers' money to keep him alive, and as far as him having
access to the Internet, that should be against state law," Carter said.
Clark agrees executions take too long. He cites the scheduled execution of
Manuel Valle, 61, who has been on death row 33 years for the murder of a Coral
Gables police officer. His execution has been delayed until at least Thursday.
"They're gonna kill this man for a crime that he done, what, 30 years ago, when
he was probably a completely different person, okay?" Clark said. "If they was
gonna kill him, they should have killed him right there on the spot, right
there in the courthouse."
• • •
Death row inmates can have a fan, radio and a 13-inch TV with no cable access.
But no law or rule outlaws blogging.
In fact, the Department of Corrections is on record as saying blogging is legal
as long as an inmate isn't paid and is not seeking pen pals. Clark is neither.
The Florida Death Row Advocacy Group asked the state for guidance in March on
its plan to post "Faces of Death Row" stories online, written by death row
inmates, and specified they would not be paid or seek pen pals.
"This would appear to comport with department rules," Kendra Jowers, a staff
attorney for the prison system, was quoted as saying in the advocacy group's
newsletter.
Corrections Secretary Edwin Buss, who resigned Aug. 24, was incredulous when he
heard Clark had a blog.
"He's got to be stopped. He's making accusations over the Internet," Buss said.
"This social media is causing a real problem."
But Buss said it was unrealistic to prevent Clark's writings from reaching a
friend with Internet access in a system with more than 100,000 inmates.
"Do you know how many pieces of mail go in and out of the system?" Buss said.
"We couldn't hire enough staff to look at everything individually. We can't
read over every single piece of mail."
A handwritten note in Clark's file from an assistant warden at Union, Brad
Whitehead, dated Aug. 15, says: "The decision was made by executive staff that
the Death Row Poet blog was seen as a security risk."
• • •
From his 1st-floor cell on P dorm, Clark writes of the acts that have kept him
locked in a cage for nearly half his life.
Week after week, month after month, he files posts complaining that he can't
seek pen pal correspondence, or that inmates are given too little recreation
time or that prison food is bad or that correctional officers pick and choose
which rules they will enforce.
"I fight against the oppressive tactics of the Florida Dept. of Corrections,
and yes, I often stand to face retaliatory actions by tyrants within the FDOC
and their tyranny that rains down upon me," he writes in an Aug. 14 post titled
"Oppressive Tyranny." "You ask, why fight? … But my question is, why not fight
for change?"
Union warden Barry Reddish denied Clark's allegations that guards ransack
inmates' cells in retaliation for grievances or that lights are left on at all
hours to deprive inmates of sleep.
In other posts, Clark's writings turn from angry to remorseful.
“You can't judge me, for I condemn myself. I don't ask or want forgiveness
because I don't deserve it. I've made far too many mistakes in this life. I've
made more mistakes than 10 men combined. I've hurt more people and caused more
pain than you could ever imagine. I've been a disappointment from day one."
At times he seems to seek sympathy for the simple things in life he'll likely
never experience again.
"Leaning down to pet a cat or dog. The last time I petted a dog was over 20
years ago," Clark writes. "The simplest everyday things that you take for
granted and would never even consider the thought of being deprived of are
things that I miss and yearn for, such as a simple cup of ice. I haven't had
ice in so long I've forgotten how cold it is."
• • •
At 6 feet, 4 inches and 220 pounds, Clark is healthy-looking, even after 2
decades on death row. He has forlorn-looking eyes and his light brown hair is
parted in the middle.
He is currently serving 30 days in disciplinary confinement for taking too long
to get dressed. He says the punishment was retaliation for his blogging and
filing grievances.
During an interview, Clark was asked if he thought he could make it on the
outside if he were released from prison.
"Would I let me out? No. That's the honest-to-God truth," Clark said. "Not me.
Because I make too many damn bad decisions. That's just the honest truth."
Until the governor signs his death warrant, he'll keep writing instead.
(source: St. Petersburg Times)
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