Tuesday, December 17, 2013

THE ROAD TO INJUSTICE AND CHAOS IN NEW JERSEY (THE ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY IN NEW JERSEY ON DECEMBER 17, 2007)



                On this date, December 17, 2007, New Jersey became the first State in the United States of America to abolish the death penalty since it was reinstated on July 2, 1976. Unit 1012 will now present a rebuttal essay to Senator Raymond Lesniak who was the main abolitionist to end the death penalty in that State. We will rebut his speech on his abolition effort.


I come here today not to plead a case for a victim whose fundamental human rights have been violated. But, rather, to plead the case that the death penalty violates the fundamental human rights of mankind.

REBUTTAL: So obvious that Senator Raymond Lesniak values the lives of murderers more than that of the victims and their grieving families. Lesniak, you do not seem to realize that the ACLU will declare LWOP to be a human rights violation too.

In my country, The United States of America, over 3,000 human beings are awaiting execution, some for a crime they did not commit. I plead the case that the death penalty in the United States, Iraq, Pakistan, Japan, wherever, exposes the innocent to execution, causes more suffering to the family members of murder victims, serves no penal purpose and commits society to the belief that revenge is preferable to redemption.

When Governor Jon Corzine signed the legislation I sponsored into law, he also commuted the death sentences of eight human beings. The Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome, Italy, a lay Catholic organization committed to abolishing the death penalty throughout the world, lit up the Roman Coliseum to celebrate this victory for human rights.

REBUTTAL: Lesniak and Corzine now have blood on their hands for sparing the lives of the 8 killers on death row. Since that Catholic organization since to value murderers so much, why not they should all go to live with Killers?

How was this victory achieved? First, by demonstrating that the death penalty creates the possibility of executing an innocent human being. One of our founding founders, Benjamin Franklin, quoting the British Jurist William Blackstone, said: "It's better to let 100 guilty men go free than to imprison an innocent person." Yet Governor Corzine and my legislation let no guilty person go free. It merely replaced the death penalty with life without parole, eliminating the possibility of putting to death an innocent human being.

REBUTTAL: Please see Force 1109 Blog post, ‘BLACKSTONE’S FORMULATION

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There are people who died behind bars through prison homicide, suicide or illness. Assuming if any of those who died in prison are innocent of their crimes, we cannot bring them back too. Timothy Cole and Bobby Joe Clark were perfect examples. The fact the capital cases are given close scrutiny at every level means that an innocent person is more likely to get off Death Row than die behind bars.

Byron Halsey could have been one such human being. On July 9, 2007, Byron walked out of jail a free man after serving 19 years in prison for a most heinous crime: the murder of a seven year old girl and an eight year old boy. Both had been sexually assaulted, the girl was strangled to death, and nails were driven into the boy's head.

Halsey, who had a sixth grade education and severe learning disabilities, was interrogated for 30 hours shortly after the children's bodies were discovered. He confessed to the murders and, even though his statement was factually inaccurate as to the location of the bodies and the manner of death, his confession was admitted into evidence in a court of law. The prosecution sought the death penalty.

Halsey was convicted of two counts of felony murder and one count of aggravated sexual assault. He was sentenced to two life terms: narrowly evading the death penalty by the vote of one juror who held out against it during the sentencing portion of his trial.

After spending nearly half his life behind bars, post-trial DNA analysis determined, with scientific certainty, that Byron did not commit the murders. A witness for the prosecution at his trial is now accused of those crimes.

But for the good judgment of that one juror, Mr. Halsey might have been executed, and the real killer would never have been discovered and brought to justice.

Stories like Byron's are not uncommon. Since 1973, 130 human beings on death rows throughout the United States have been released from jail for being wrongfully convicted. During that time over 1,100 prisoners were executed. How many of them were innocent? 3,309 remain on death row throughout the U.S. How many of them are innocent? How many of the innocent will be executed?

Stories like Byron's are not uncommon. Since 1973, 130 human beings on death rows throughout the United States have been released from jail for being wrongfully convicted. During that time over 1,100 prisoners were executed. How many of them were innocent? 3,309 remain on death row throughout the U.S. How many of them are innocent? How many of the innocent will be executed?

REBUTTAL: As usual, Byron Halsey is only being made used by Lesniak and the ACLU as an Anti-Death Penalty Propaganda. Please see our blog post, ‘TWENTY YEARS LATER ... KIRK BLOODSWORTH, DON’T WASTEOUR TIME! (28 JUNE 1993)’. It will rebut everything to your ‘innocent release’ from Death Row argument. 

It could be Troy Davis. He's been imprisoned since 1989 in the State of Georgia for a murder he maintains he did not commit. In one of Davis' numerous appeals, the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court said, "In this case, nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do so reliably. Three persons have stated that Sylvester Coles confessed to being the shooter." Coles had testified against Davis at the trial.

On September 23, 2008, less than two hours before Davis was due to be put to death by lethal injection, he received a stay of execution by the US Supreme Court. On October 14 the stay was lifted and the State of Georgia issued an Execution Warrant for October 27. Three days before this execution date, the 11th Circuit Court stayed the execution to consider a new appeal.

REBUTTAL: Troy Davis had since been executed on September 21, 2011. Unit 1012 together with those who studied the full facts of the case knows that he is guilty. We wonder why Lesniak did not mention anything about the White Supremacist, Lawrence Brewer who was executed in Texas on the same day as Troy Davis?

Does the death penalty serve any purpose, other than to do harm to everyone involved, and society in general? Does the death penalty even console the families of murder victims?

Not according to 63 family members of murder victims who stated, in a letter to the New Jersey Legislature:

"We are family members and loved ones of murder victims. We desperately miss the parents, children, siblings, and spouses we have lost. We live with the pain and heartbreak of their absence every day and would do anything to have them back. We have been touched by the criminal justice system in ways we never imagined and would never wish on anyone. Our experience compels us to speak out for change. Though we share different perspectives on the death penalty, every one of us agrees that New Jersey's capital punishment system doesn't work, and that our state is better off without it."

Or more specifically stated by Vicki Schieber whose daughter, Shannon, was raped and murdered, "The death penalty is a harmful policy that exacerbates the pain for murdered victims' families."

REBUTTAL: Just for argument’s sake, there could have been 63 or perhaps even more victims’ families (there are many in Unit 1012) who could have wrote letters asking for the death penalty not to be abolished, why are you not listening to them? The ACLU with their Anti Death Penalty demons deliberately got those Victims’ Families who are against the death penalty to make it look as though that every victims’ family member is against capital punishment. 

            Take that Japanese Mother, Fumiko Isogai whose daughter, Rie Isogai was murdered. She launched a campaign to call for the death penalty on the three murderers in September 2007. Within ten days, her petition was signed by 100,000 citizens. She presented her petition for the death penalty with some 150,000 signatures to the District Public Prosecutors' Office of Nagoya on 23 October 2007. About 318,000 citizens had signed her petition by December 2008. Unit 1012 can get more people to do that and those 63 victims’ families will most probably be outnumbered.
       Please see two of our blog post: ‘UNIT 1012: THE VFFDP DAY (THE 1ST ANNIVERSARY) [FOUNDED ON OCTOBER 12, 2012]’ & ‘DEFEATING THE DEVIL’S GAME: VOTING NO ON PROPOSITION 34 (NOVEMBER 6, 2012)’ to hear the cries of victims’ families who support the death penalty.
   
Some argue that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder, yet more than a dozen studies published in the past 10 years have been inconclusive on its deterrent effect.

REBUTTAL: For your information, There are also other studies that prove that the death penalty does deter homicides. Unit 1012 agrees that some homicide cannot be deterred, for example, crimes of passion and terrorism. We support the death penalty for justice and protection, deterrence is our last issue.
            One of the reason why the death penalty has little deterrent effect in the United States is because the ACLU and their demons kept delaying the death sentence of the killers by letting them appeal and appeal.

The need for revenge leads to hate and violence. Redemption opens the door to healing and peace. Revenge slams it shut.

A society that turns its back on redemption commits itself to holding on to anger and a need for vengeance in a quest for fulfillment that can not be met by those destructive emotions. Redemption instead opens the door to the space that asks healing questions in the wake of violence: questions of crime prevention, questions of why some human beings put such a low value on life that they readily take it from others, questions that help us understand how to help those impacted by violence; questions that take a back seat, and are often ignored, when our minds and emotions are filled with a need for revenge.

Thirty-six states and the federal government of the United States still impose the death penalty. The United States has more human beings in prison and more violence than just about every other civilized country in the world. As long as we continue to choose revenge over redemption, it's likely we will continue to be a leader in the amount of violence and size of our prison population.

It doesn't have to stay that way.

When New Jersey abolished its death penalty, it chose redemption over revenge, healing over hate, peace over war. We need more states and our federal government to make those same choices.

Consider the following headlines which appeared side by side in the New York Times: "Iraqi Leaders Say the Way Is Clear for the Execution of 'Chemical Ali'." The other headline read: "Bomber at Funeral Kills Dozens in Pakistan."

Both Iraq and Pakistan have the death penalty. After the announcement setting the execution date for "Chemical Ali," San Jawarno, whose father and other family members were killed in attacks directed by "Chemical Ali" said, "Now my father is resting in peace in his grave because Chemical Ali will be executed."

The two events, the bombing in Pakistan and the words of the bereaved son whose father was killed, are not unrelated. We must speak up, at every forum, in our homes, our churches, synagogues, mosques and temples, in our legislative bodies, wherever an opportunity exists, to convince political leaders, community leaders, religious leaders, anyone who will listen, that the death penalty has no reason to exist, promotes violence, and brings peace to no one: in the grave or not.

That was to be the end of my plea to abolish the death penalty. Then I read a report from Amnesty International about the 13-year-old girl who was stoned to death in a stadium packed with 1000 spectators in Kismayo, Somalia. Her offense? Islamic militants accused her of adultery after she reported she had been raped by three men.

Will this senseless, inhumane killing ever end?

Perhaps. The brutality of the death penalty and of Islamic militants can end, if we speak out against it, wherever it exists, in any shape, in any form.

The death penalty is a random act of brutality. Its application throughout the United States is random, depending on where the murder occurred, the race and economic status of who committed the murder, the race and economic status of the person murdered and, of course, the quality of the legal defense.

I'm proud of the people of the State of New Jersey for electing political leaders who ended this random act of brutality. And I applaud Amnesty International for alerting the good people of the world to the brutality of the Islamic militants in Somalia who stoned to death that poor girl.

No good comes from the death penalty, whether it's imposed by duly elected governments, or by radical, religious fanatics. No good.

The burden of proof in the Court of Public Opinion should be on those advocating for the death penalty. That burden has not been met.

Just ask Byron Halsey. Or Troy Davis. Or, if you could, that 13 year old girl.

REBUTTAL: Do you think New Jersey is now a safer place without the death penalty? The answer is No.

George Orwell and Robert A. Heinlein have quotes for you in regards to the cycle of violence.

- Robert A. Heinlein


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A society that turns its back on redemption commits itself to holding on to anger and a need for vengeance in a quest for fulfillment that cannot be met by those destructive emotions. Redemption instead opens the door to the space that asks healing questions in the wake of violence: questions of crime prevention, questions of why some human beings put such a low value on life that they readily take it from others, questions that help us understand how to help those impacted by violence; questions that take a back seat, and are often ignored, when our minds and emotions are filled with a need for revenge.>>

Unit 1012 are not revengeful people as you think we are, the word, revenge is being used by abolitionist who want to protect their murderers. As long as nothing hurt their murderers, they are happy. What a morbid compassion to spare the life of the pedophile who murdered Megan Kanka, when he should have been executed. Putting him to death was an act of justice and not revenge. 

If Lesniak claim that those killers can be redeem and heal society, he should learn the case of Leonard Keith Lawson and Barry Gordon Hadlow, who were devout Christians and model prisoners, who won their parole for good behavior and went on to murder again. Lesniak should also learn about James Tramel who became an Episcopal priest after serving a prison sentence for murder, he is now suspended from church duties as he had been accused of sexual misconduct. 

At the same time, on June 25, 2012, LWOP for juveniles had been declared unconstitutional by the SCOTUS. It means that the juvenile killers of Autumn Pasquale will not only be spared the death penalty but also will not be locked up for life instead.

Senator Lesniak, if you claim that the death penalty is wrong and barbaric then, why are you Pro Choice that support abortion, the killing of the innocent unborn?

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