[FADPUpdate] Letters to the Editor

[melliott3 at aol.com]

Friends,

Letters to the Editor are a quick and effective way to get your views 
in front of thousands of people, including Florida's leaders.  It is 
crucial that YOUR opinion be heard.

Make your efforts count!  Make known both your concerns and your hopes. 
 Now is the time.

Every major Florida newspaper prints Letters to the Editor.  They can 
be sent in by email, fax, phone and mail.  The best chance to have a 
letter printed is in response to a specific news article, event or 
editorial.  Published letters are short and to the point.  There are 
numerous opportunities to respond with your views on the Death Penalty. 
  Upcoming newsworthy events that are favorable for having your letters 
published:  Thursday, Dec. 13, the New Jersey State Assembly will vote 
on repealing the Death Penalty and Dec. 18, the United Nations General 
Assembly is set to vote on a resolution calling for a worldwide 
moratorium on the Death Penalty.

Your letters to the Editor make a difference.

Shine the light,

Mark

Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum think Letters to 
the Editor are important...They write them!

Read the following editorial from the St. Pete Times and the Letter to 
the Editor sent by Crist and McCollum.  Please also read the response 
letter from concerned Floridian, Lucy Fuchs.

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

St. Petersburg Times Editorial
Nov. 20, 2007

A POINTLESS PUSH FOR EXECUTIONS

How wrongheaded and wasteful of Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General 
Bill McCollum to continue to push for executions when the U.S. Supreme 
Court has made it clear that none will go forward until it has decided 
the constitutionality of lethal injections.

Early next year, the nation's high court will hear appeals from two 
death row inmates in Kentucky who claim that the three-drug lethal 
cocktail used by most death penalty states has the potential to cause 
undue pain and suffering. Florida uses this mix and botched the 2006 
execution of Angel Diaz, who some witnesses said appeared to suffer 
during the 30 minutes it took for him to die.

Since the Diaz execution, there have been changes to the state's 
execution procedure but not to the chemicals. The high court's ruling 
in the Kentucky cases is likely to have direct implications for 
Florida. If the U.S. Supreme Court determines that this cocktail 
violates the Eighth Amendment (as it should), Florida will have to 
change as well.

In the meantime, the nation's high court has been imposing stays on 
executions, making it quite obvious that until it decides the issue, 
lethal injections are temporarily on hold nationwide. Unfortunately, 
that hasn't stopped Crist and McCollum from trying to push ahead. Crist 
has so far refused to issue a moratorium, and McCollum recently 
appealed an Orlando federal district court's stay on the scheduled 
execution of child killer Mark Dean Schwab. The stay request was fought 
all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which, of course, blocked the 
execution indefinitely.

While McCollum's office says there is no way to break down the cost of 
the legal battle, state taxpayers were on the hook for the state's 
lawyers and for Schwab's. And a gaggle of lawyers doesn't come cheap.

Crist should impose a moratorium on executions until the Supreme Court 
rules, which is expected to be by the end of its term in early summer, 
if not before. Until the court lifts the cloud of legal uncertainty 
over the lethal chemical mix, there is no point to pushing for 
executions that will not take place.

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

Letter to the Editor
Published Nov. 25, 2007

Justice should not be delayed:

Tuesday's editorial calling for a moratorium on lethal injections in 
Florida was misguided on two essential points. First, there is no such 
moratorium currently in place on a national level. Florida's moratorium 
was lifted when the Governor's Commission on the Administration of 
Lethal Injection released its recommendations for an improved process 
for lethal injection, which has twice been upheld since then as humane 
and effective by the Florida Supreme Court. We are confident the U.S. 
Supreme Court will not invalidate those procedures.

Additionally, it is abhorrent to call fighting for Mark Dean Schwab's 
execution a waste of taxpayer revenue or attorneys' resources. If fault 
should be assigned for creating a public expenditure in this case, it 
should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the man who kidnapped, 
raped and murdered an 11-year old boy.

In March 1991, Mark Dean Schwab was released from prison after serving 
a fraction of an eight-year sentence for raping a 13-year old boy at 
knifepoint. Just weeks later, Schwab visited 11-year old Junny 
Rios-Martinez, posing as a newspaper reporter. On April 18, 1991, 26 
days after meeting Junny, Schwab called the boy's school pretending to 
be his father and told Junny to meet him after school. Junny was never 
seen alive again.

The Rios-Martinez family and the state of Florida have waited for 
justice for nearly two decades. This case cannot be characterized in 
terms of reckless litigation or by dollars and cents. It is time for 
justice to be served.

Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum, Tallahassee

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

Letter to the Editor
Published Dec. 2, 2007

In Death Penalty debate, fairness is a key concern:

Since Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum sought to 
defend themselves in the newspaper, I would like to publicly address 
this to them:

Mr. Crist and Mr. McCollum:

Your concern seems to be that you are acting according to norms and 
that you are not to be blamed for a waste of taxpayers' money.

I wish you would think of much larger issues than that. First, no one 
is saying that Mark Schwab is a nice guy. Those of us who oppose the 
death penalty abhor what he has done and hope that he spends the rest 
of his life in prison. So the question is not so much concern for him 
as it is concern for fairness as well as concern for ourselves.

Unfortunately there are murders committed every day in this country, 
but only a few murderers get the death penalty. And they are not always 
the ones guilty of the most horrible offenses. Look over the records of 
those who have received the death penalty: Most are poor, badly 
educated, sometimes from abusive homes. This does not excuse their 
crimes; they are still criminals. But it does bring up the issue of 
fairness.

Second, executions do not stop other people from committing murders. 
European countries do not have the death penalty and they have fewer 
murders. Even here in the United States, states that do not use the 
death penalty do not have more murders.

Are you really talking about justice or are you talking about 
vengeance, and anxious to make a name as being "tough on crime?"

Ultimately, killing to prove that killing is wrong brutalizes all of 
us.

Lucy Fuchs, Brandon

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

One year ago, December 13, 2006, the People of the State of Florida 
killed Angel Diaz in a torturous, botched execution that lasted over 
half an hour.  His last recorded words:  "The state of Florida is 
killing an innocent person." Diaz said from the gurney on Death Row. 
"The state of Florida is committing a crime, because I am innocent. The 
death penalty is not only a form of vengeance, but also a cowardly act 
by humans. I'm sorry for what is happening to me and my family who have 
been put through this.''


Write a letter to the Editor.  Please speak up and speak out.

Mark Elliott
Executive Director
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org

2840 W. Bay Drive, #118
Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770
(727)215-9646
mark at fadp.org

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