[CUADPUpdate] Death in the Family & This & That....

[Abraham J. Bonowitz]

Sent *ONLY* to the recipients of CUADPUpdate
Feel Free to Forward

Greetings All,

It's been a LONG time since I've had the energy to put together a 
post.  My job as Field Manager at www.NJADP.org is rather consuming, 
on top of being a daddy to a now nine-month-old.  It just happens 
that the energy I feel tonight after working the crowd at the Diocese 
of Camden Catholic Charities dinner is still buzzing, so here we go!

Many thanks, BTW, to those of you who have been in touch, and 
apologies to those who I owe a response!

--abe

***************

CONTENTS

Death In The Family
AI Report on Executions
Largest-Ever Mass Commutation
US May Be Expelled
Mark Your Calendar!
Activists Go On Trial
New Web Page - "I was in prison"

****************



DEATH IN THE FAMILY

If you have ever heard Bud Welch tell his story about losing his 
daughter Julie in the Oklahoma City bombing and his response to that, 
then you have heard Bud talk about Sister Karen Klimczak.  Sr. Karen 
helped arrange for Bud to meet Bill McVeigh, Timothy McVeigh's father 
- a meeting that brought much healing for Bud and demonstrated an 
incredible level of compassion - imagine a victim family member 
reaching out to the family of the murderer.   In any case, Sr. Karen 
dedicated her life to helping people, including people making the 
transition out of prison.  Last week one of the parolees living in 
her half-way house.  Sr. Karen was a dedicated abolitionist, and a 
member of the Sisters of St. Joseph (the same order as Sr. Helen 
Prejean.  She touched many.  We mourn her loss and send condolences 
to Bud and all who knew her....

Read more at 
http://www.buffalodiocese.org/   and 
http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=37184&provider=top

****************



AI REPORT ON EXECUTIONS

PRESS RELEASE----ANNUAL DEATH PENALTY REPORT REVEALS 20,000 ON DEATH ROW
WORLDWIDE


Execution numbers down in 2005, trend toward abolition continues

There are around 20,000 prisoners on death row around the world, said
Amnesty International today (20 April), as it released its annual report
on the global death penalty.

The report, "The death penalty worldwide: developments in 2005", also
shows that at least 2,148 people were executed last year - the vast
majority in China (1,770), Iran (94), Saudi Arabia (86) and the USA (60).
These 4 countries alone accounted for 94% of executions recorded during
2005. The figure for the preceding year (2004) was 3,797 executions,
meaning that last year saw a substantial drop in recorded executions as
well as a fall in the number of countries carrying out executions (22,
down from 25). The number of countries carrying out executions has halved
in the last 20 years and has dropped for the 4th consecutive year.

Amnesty International's report however cautions that these figures are
minimum figures only, as countries like China refuse to publish full
official statistics on executions. Vietnam, for instance, has made death
penalty information a "state secret."

A Chinese legal expert has estimated that China actually executes about
8,000 people every year, while a Chinese state official said in 2004 that
"nearly 10,000" people are executed in China each year. A person in China
can be sentenced to death for 68 different crimes, including non-violent
ones like tax fraud, embezzlement and drugs offences.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

"It is an affront to human rights that in 2006 20,000 prisoners are
currently on death row waiting to be taken out and killed by their
governments.

"The death penalty is cruel and unnecessary, does not deter crime and
often comes after torture, false "confessions" and deeply unfair trials.

"It is particularly disturbing that China is executing thousands of people
every year (more than all other countries combined) - not least because
China's legal system is deeply flawed. We need to ramp up international
pressure on the Chinese authorities for executions to end."

One of the world's 20,000 death row prisoners is Kenny Richey, a Scotsman
from Edinburgh, who was convicted in 1987 of murder and arson in Ohio,
USA.

Mr Richey has always protested his innocence, turning down a plea-bargain
deal that would have seen him avoiding a death sentence. An appeal court
in Ohio is currently considering his case, as Mr Richey seeks to have
fresh evidence heard by the courts.

Speaking about his predicament last year, Kenny Richey said: "It's a
24-hour-a-day torture. You have no life. You're just existing from one day
to the next. Believe me, it's an ... existence you don't want."

Amnesty International's report shows that in 2005 2 prisoners were
released from death row in the USA after evidence of their innocence
emerged. This brought the number of such "exonerees" in the USA since 1973
to 122, more than 1/10 of the number executed in that time. Amnesty
International continues to warn of the danger of executing wrongly
convicted prisoners as well as pressing for the abolition of the death
penalty in all cases - whether guilty or not.

The death penalty worldwide also shows that Iran was the only country in
the world in 2005 to execute child offenders (those convicted of
committing crimes when aged below 18). Despite promises to halt child
offender executions (banned under international law), Iran allowed 8 to go
ahead last year - 2 involving prisoners still aged below 18 at the time of
their execution.

Cases

Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, 19, a Nigerian citizen, and Okele Nelson Malachy,
33, reportedly a South African, currently face execution in Singapore.

Mandatory death sentences have been imposed on the men after they were
arrested for heroin trafficking in 2004. The men lost appeals on 16 March
and their final recourse is now presidential clemency. Singapore has a
mandatory death sentence of at least 20 drugs offences. More than 420
people have been executed in Singapore since 1991 and the per capita
execution rate is believed to be the world's highest.

DD Ranjith de Silva, EJ Victor Corea and Sanath Pushpakumara, all Sri
Lankans, currently face execution in Saudi Arabia. The 3 were reportedly
arrested in March 2004 in connection with a series of armed robberies.
They were sentenced to death in October 2004 and remain on death row in
Riyadh. Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of
offences. Court proceedings in the country fall far short of international
fair trials standards and are held in secret. Defendants do not have the
right to formal representation by a lawyer. Convictions may be solely on
the basis of "confessions" obtained under torture.

Executions in 2005

China: 1,770+

Iran: 94+

Saudi Arabia: 86+

USA: 60

Pakistan: 31

Yemen: 24

Vietnam: 21

Jordan: 11

Mongolia: 8

Singapore: 8

Kuwait: 7

Libya: 6

Palestinian Authority: 5

Taiwan: 3

Iraq: 3

Bangladesh: 3

Uzbekistan: 2+

Indonesia: 2+

North Korea: 1+

Somalia: 1+

Belarus: 1

Japan: 1

Note: + symbol indicates that the figure is a minimum one; the true figure
may be higher but information was limited

(source: Amnesty International UK)

****************

Fewer countries using death penalty


MORE than 2,000 people were executed in 22 countries last year and another
20,000 have been sentenced to die, but a growing number of nations have
turned against the death penalty, Amnesty International said in a report
today.

The total of 2,148 known executions was down from 3,797 the previous year,
said the human rights group, which opposes the death penalty in all cases.

"There is a global tide against the death penalty which has left us with
just the hardened countries still using it," said Amnesty researcher Piers
Bannister.

(source: The Scotsman)

***************



LARGEST EVER MASS COMMUTATION


Terms of 1,000 death row convicts down to life


President Arroyo  on Black Saturday ordered the commutation of the
sentences of at least 1,000  death row inmates to life terms as Filipino
Catholics marked the end of the  Lenten season.

"I wish to announce that we are changing our policy on  those who have been
imposed the death penalty. We are reducing their penalty  to life
imprisonment," the President said in her Easter Sunday message posted  on
the government Web site, www.ops.gov.ph.

She said Jesus had  suffered for the redemption of mankind from sin and "we
should have hope in  our hearts in suffering and always stand up strong
whenever we  fall."

The President declared a moratorium on the execution of death row  inmates
when she assumed the presidency in 2001, but the rash of kidnappings  and
killings 2 years later prompted her to lift the order.

However, no  execution has been carried out under her administration as she
has always  granted reprieves to those scheduled for lethal injection.

The President  did not state the reason why she made the decision now.

The country's  influential Catholic bishops have long called for the
abolition of the death  penalty. In recent months, they helped Arroyo by
refusing to join the  opposition-led campaign to oust her from power over
charges that she cheated  in the May 2004 elections.

At least 1,280 people are on death row in the  country.

The government lifted a ban on judicial executions in 1999  during the term
of deposed President Joseph Estrada as part of an anti-crime  drive.

Seven inmates were executed between 1999 and 2000 before Estrada  imposed a
moratorium on further executions after pressure from the Catholic  church
and rights groups.

(source: ABS CBN  News)

******************



US MAY BE EXPELLED

Council of Europe may expel U.S., Japan over death penalty

STRASBOURG. April 14 (Interfax) - The United States and Japan may 
lose their observer status at the Council of Europe if they fail to 
abolish the death penalty before the end of 2006, said Konstantin 
Kosachyov, leader of the Russian delegation to the Council's 
Parliamentary Assembly (PACE).

<http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11498464>http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11498464

******************



MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Many events are upcoming, including the 30th anniversary of the Gregg 
V. Georgia decision, in which the US Supreme Court upheld new death 
penalty laws.  Plan to be with us in Washington, DC on July 2 to 
protest continuing executions.  ALSO, there is a conference in two 
weeks on race and the death penalty, and lots coming up in the Fall, 
including the Virginia Journey, the National Weekend of Faith in 
Action on the DP, the NAACP conference, and more!  It's all listed in 
CUADP's searchable calendar at http://www.cuadp.org/upevents.html

Check it out and post YOUR events!

*****************



ACTIVISTS GO ON TRIAL

North Carolina Independent Media Center
by Scott Langley
April 18, 2006


10 NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS TO STAND TRIAL
FOR JANUARY ARRESTS AT CENTRAL PRISON

RALEIGH  - In the midst of multiple court appeals challenging the 
Friday execution of Willie Brown in North Carolina, ten death penalty 
opponents are preparing to appear in Wake County District Court on 
Thursday to stand trial for the group's arrest at a recent North 
Carolina execution.

Defendants say that they will be using a "defense of a third person" 
argument to prove that they had the responsibility - both religiously 
and politically - to stop harm to another living being, even if that 
meant trespassing onto prison property.

"By trespassing onto state property on the night of January 20th, we 
were hoping to stop the murder of Perrie Simpson. We acted to get in 
the way of an unjust murder. If this court chooses to uphold 
injustice, then it loses its credibility," said Leah 
Wilson-Hartgrove, a defendant from Rutba House in Durham.

Defendant Eric Getty, a student at Duke Divinity School, said, "The 
state has charged us with a crime for trying to stop a homicide, and 
so we hope to get the message out that it is the state that has 
committed the real crime. Nevertheless, we are willing to face the 
legal consequences for our witness, and we are willing to continue 
facing them as long as we persist in believing that executions make 
our society more orderly and secure."

On January 19, 2006, hours before the execution of Perrie Simpson, a 
group of 15 mostly Christian activists were arrested near the 
driveway of Central Prison while attempting to disrupt the lethal 
injection.  The demonstrators approached the prison driveway with the 
intent of reaching the prison doors to stop state witnesses and 
others from entering to carry out the execution of 
Simpson.    However, they got no further than the crosswalk near the driveway.

All 10 of the defendants will be representing themselves in court, 
and they plan to call several expert witnesses to the stand to argue 
their defense. Among those taking the stand is Stanley Hauerwas, a 
Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School.

"Christians worship a savior who was killed by the state. 
Accordingly, we find it very difficult to support the system that 
killed our savior," says Hauerwas.

A historical, growing resistance to executions is building in North 
Carolina as people are feeling obligated to peacefully resist illegal 
and immoral state-killing.  Since December 2005, 47 arrests have been 
made at Central Prison on the nights of executions.  The civil 
resistance has been carried out in the nonviolent spirit of Dr. 
Martin Luther King Jr. and others who have risked arrest to confront 
the injustices of society.

Those on trial are:  David Arthur, Beth Brockman, Matthew Gates, Eric 
Getty, Bill Gural, Scott Langley (Raleigh), Sheila McCarthy, Dan 
Schwankl (Silk Hope/Chatham County), Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and 
Leah Wilson-Hartgrove. (All are from Durham unless otherwise indicated.)

In addition to the trial, all 10 members of the group, plus five 
others, will also be arraigned earlier in the day Thursday on a 
separate count of trespass from a March 16 arrest at Central Prison.

***************


NEW WEB PAGE

>To: "Dale At CHM" <dsr at christianhealingmin.org>
>Subject: New Web page for Dale & Susan Recinella: Faith Perspectives 
>on Death Penalty and Death Row Ministry
>Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 14:48:40 -0400
>
>Dear Friends:
>Please check out the new website "I Was In Prison". The web site will house
>weekly articles by Dale & Susan Recinella about the death penalty and
>ministry to death row inmates and their families from a faith perspective.
>
>         http://iwasinprison.org/
>
>It has been designed and is being maintained by the Poor Clares.
>Also, please forward this information to any groups you know which may be
>interested in a flow of fresh insights and information on the DP and Death
>Row ministry from a faith perspective.
>
>And when you go to the site, please consider registering for the weekly
>Ezine: "I Was In Prison News & Updates".
>Keep us in your prayers.
>yours faithfully,
>
>Dale S. Recinella
>Catholic Lay Chaplain
>Florida's Death Row & Solitary Confinement

*************

SENT BY:

--abe