|
|
||
|
|
Alabama NOW members write Letters to the Editor (do they ever!) Also full-length Op-Eds! ____________________________________ Op-Ed Published in The Birmingham News, December 16th, 2007 Alabama should see death penalty flaws Sunday, December 16, 2007 DIANN RUST-TIERNEY and ESTHER BROWN What do law enforcement officers, prosecutors, crime victims' advocates and both Democratic and Republican state legislators have in common? Recently, all these groups came together in New Jersey to support legislation to repeal that state's death penalty. Once the legislation is signed by Gov. Jon Corzine, New Jersey will become the first state to legislatively repeal the death penalty since Iowa and West Virginia did so in 1965. The fact New Jersey acted as it did may surprise anyone not familiar with the growing national discussion over capital punishment. But for those who are familiar with this discussion, the surprise is not that New Jersey acted as it did - but rather why other states such as Alabama have not taken steps toward a moratorium on executions while an independent commission studies the fairness of the application of the death penalty in the states. The overwhelming and bipartisan vote to repeal New Jersey's death penalty did not happen overnight. Far from it. And a moratorium will not happen overnight in Alabama, either. What happened in New Jersey came after study, discussion and deliberation, and after hundreds and hundreds of hours of testimony from police, prosecutors, murder victims' family members and others. In New Jersey, a special commission was appointed to thoroughly study the pros and cons of the death penalty and to recommend what measures could be taken to fix the state's death penalty statutes. The commission was made up of victims' rights advocates, county prosecutors and other members of law enforcement, a retired New Jersey Supreme Court justice and many others. No 'fix': The study found there was no "fix" for the death penalty. It found it is a deeply flawed public policy and, in the words of one state senator who in 1982 voted to reinstate the death penalty in New Jersey, it is a "false and ineffective choice for taxpayers and residents who have lost loved ones. It has for too long been sustained by mythology and fiction, propped up by outdated rhetoric when courage and common sense would have served us better." The commission further found the death penalty squanders millions of dollars in tax dollars, does not serve a legitimate purpose such as crime deterrence, delays healing for the loved ones of murder victims and, despite many safeguards, carries no guarantee against what would be our worst nightmare: the execution of an innocent person. New Jersey is hardly the first state to begin to rethink the nation's experiment with capital punishment. Illinois and Maryland have had moratoriums. California, North Carolina and Tennessee have had study commissions. All the while, death sentences are down sharply, and executions have decreased since reaching a crescendo in the late 1990s. In Alabama, more death sentences were handed out last year than in our neighboring states of Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana combined. While the rest of the nation put executions on hold, Alabama squandered tax dollars by setting two dates, knowing they would be stayed. At the same time, 25 Alabama murder victims' families signed letters in support of a moratorium, and Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, has committed to filing moratorium bills in the upcoming legislative session. Increased scrutiny: In Alabama and across the nation, the death penalty is under increased scrutiny, and the result of such scrutiny is that the public is beginning to arrive at an inevitable conclusion: Capital punishment is collapsing under the weight of its many blunders, biases and bureaucracies. Blunders? At least 125 people have been freed from Death Row after evidence of their innocence emerged. Biases? Try as we might, we have yet to find a way to fairly decide who gets death and who doesn't and, at the end of the day, who is actually executed. Bureaucracies? In New Jersey, $253 million has been spent on capital punishment, 60 people have been sentenced to death, 52 death sentences have been reversed, and not one person has been executed. Across the nation, many of the 3,300 people on Death Row have sat there for decades. In New Jersey, a panel of experts and a bipartisan group of lawmakers determined the death penalty system is beyond repair. When will Alabama come to the conclusion the time has come for a moratorium? Diann Rust-Tierney is the executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. E-mail: diann@ncadp.org. Esther Brown is the executive director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty [and a member of Alabama NOW]. E-mail: beesther@earthlink.net. © 2007 The Birmingham News © 2007 al.com All Rights Reserved. ____________________________________
Letter to the Editor Printed in the Mobile Press Register, December 15th, 2007 Voting Against Public Schools I want to urge all working men and women who have children enrolled in our public schools to call or write letters to Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby to urge them to vote to override President George W. Bush’s veto of the 2008 federal education funding bill. This bill contains critical funding for a wide variety of programs, including special and early childhood education, smaller class sizes, dropout prevention, teacher quality grants to get the most experienced teachers to teach in low-performing schools, and student aid for those wanting to attend a college or university. If this veto stands, here is what is at stake for our nation’s public schools: * Forty-nine federal education programs would be eliminated. * Head Start programs would be cut by $300 million, which would affect 30,000 preschool children. * Special education would be cut by $800 million. * Teacher quality grants would be cut by $100 million. * Funding for career and technical education would be cut by 50 percent. On November 16, the House of Representatives fell just two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override President Bush’s veto of the federal education spending bill. I want to commend Congressmen Bud Cramer, Artur Davis, and Mike Rogers for supporting our public schools and the children who attend them. On the other hand, I am very disappointed in Congressmen Jo Bonner, Spencer Bachus, and Robert Aderholt for voting against our public schools and the children who attend them. Scott Lacey Mobile NOW member ____________________________________ Letter to the Editor Published in Montgomery Advertiser, November 11th, 2007 Re: Oak Park Reunion article of November 3, 2007 Dear Editor: This is in response to the half-page coverage given on November 3rd to a reunion of the “Children of Oak Park” by some 200 attendees and the placing of a historic marker. The glory days of Oak Park were lauded, when it was “a hub of recreation for the city’s youth, with a couple of swimming pools, tennis courts, a pavilion where music played and young people danced.” The article describes memories of an idyllic time -- indeed, “paradise” -- and concludes with the news that the organizer of the reunion will use the remaining donated funds as seed money for a sculpture “that would serve as a permanent reminder of the kids and their love for the park.” Buried in that lengthy article were these two sentences: “Oak Park was a segregated facility. The city closed it in 1957 and reopened it in 1968 as an integrated park and gardens.” City officials, rather than allowing African-American children to enjoy this beautiful park, closed it to all children, for 11 years. As I read the article, all I could think about was the high probability that a whole other population of Montgomery’s children of that era have reoccurring disturbing and painful memories of being excluded, before the park was closed. And I thought about their parents who had to tell them why they were. Cheryl T. Sabel State President, Alabama Chapter National Organization for Women ____________________________________
|
|
