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’
<>
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.
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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SOURCE: http://izquotes.com/quote/139782
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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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