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A meeting to promote ending the death penalty in Santa Clara County will be held tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos Hills.
The meeting, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Palo Alto and the Americal Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, will feature speakers with personal connections to capital crimes.
Judy Kerr, a registered nurse whose brother was murdered and who now is spokesperson for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, will discuss how she became opposed to the death penalty.
Natasha Minsker, Death Penalty Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern Calilfornia, will discuss current efforts to abolish the death penalty.
After Kerr’s brother was murdered, in 2004 she reached out to Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, which solidified her opposition to the death penalty. As a nurse Kerr has worked with trauma survivors, and believes that the victims in the current system include both murder victims’ family members and the families of convicted killers.
Minsker previously spent five years at the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, the first year as a research attorney in the Capital Defense Unit and the remaining four as a deputy public defender.
She also served as staff attorney to the Judicial Council of California’s Task Force on Criminal Jury Instructions. In 2008, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty named her as one of its “Abolitionists of the Year.”
— Palo Alto Weekly staff
— Palo Alto Weekly staff
— Palo Alto Weekly staff
Independent of what I personally think of this effort. I think this is a state law, I dont think one can eliminate it, county by county. I think if a group wants it gone, they have to address it at the state level.
*** ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY AND LIMIT THE THREE-STRIKES LAW TO VIOLENT/SERIOUS CASES ***
Hello, Californian Taxpayers,
WHY do you want to pay for the lifetime imprisonment of a pizza thief or a harmless drug-addicted, but NOT for health and education for you and your children? This would be a MUCH BETTER way to invest taxes. Currently, about 50 million Americans have NO health insurance!!!
DO NOT fear a government-supported healthcare system: PRACTICALLY ALL developed countries have one, and IT WORKS WELL!!!
The Three-Strikes Law should be LIMITED to VIOLENT/SERIOUS cases.
The current situation of law and humanity in the USA is as follows: In California, you can get LIFETIME IMPRISONMENT FOR STEALING A PIZZA, and in Florida you can MURDER SOMEONE AND MAY GET AWAY WITH IT thanks to the Stand-Your-Ground Law. Just say you felt threatened by your victim, UNIMPORTANT whether it is true or not. This means in USA, a pizza is more valuable than a human life. In spite of massacres at schools, universities, shopping malls, etc., gun laws are not hardened, but rather softened. Everybody wants to have his own gun and can buy it without any problems, so even MORE massacres are the consequence. But if a pizza is really more valuable than a human life, WHY are people so shocked about these massacres? If you lose a beloved person, killed in a massacre or by a sickness that could not be treated, because he/she had no medical insurance, you just lose a slice of pizza, no reason to cry; just buy a new one! That is so hypocritical…
The death penalty should be ABOLISHED: It is NOT A DETERRENT AT ALL (see Texas with its over 400 executions!!! This means 1. one executed killer is just replaced by another one-–PROOF THAT THERE IS NO DETERRENT!!!, or 2. most of the executed were innocent, only a handful were really killers-–PROOF THAT MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE WERE EXECUTED AND THAT THIS RISK IS JUST TOO HIGH!!!); it is often used for POOR and MINORITY people who cannot afford a good defense (HOW NEUTRAL, OBJECTIVE, and COMPETENT is a jury of average citizens???); INNOCENT EXECUTED PERSONS CANNOT BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE!!!! The death penalty is INCOMPATIBLE with MODERN INDUSTRIALIZED DEMOCRACIES (only the USA, Singapore, Japan [Justice Minister KEIKO CHIBA wants discussion/moratorium/abolition], and–with a JUST PROLONGED MORATORIUM–South Korea still have it).
This year, about 10 US States have wanted to abolish the death penalty, and t is a shame that ONLY ONE, NEW MEXICO, has really done so. The ILLINOIS moratorium is a step in the right direction, but a full abolishment would be better. Kansas and New Hampshire have had no executions since the reintroduction of the death penalty, but they have no official moratorium either, so the future is unclear. I hope many US States and other countries will follow New Mexico’s example.
Many greetings, 🙂
ABOLITIONIST
Dear Um, It sounds to me like this is part of a grassroots movement: start local and make your way up to the state level, gaining support all the while. As voters and citizens in a state that has the death penalty, we are all responsible for the actions of our state/representatives, so we need to get a grip and do away with the death penalty.
I think the death penalty is beyond shameful in a so-called ‘civilized’ society (or any society for that matter). My cousin was murdered in 1987 and the tragedy further strengthened my resolve against the death penalty. Why continue the cycle of violence? I want no part of that cycle and if I don’t act on my objections, I am part of it.
The discussion last night was edifying. Consider this:
All of Europe does not have the death penalty.
We rank with Saudi ARabia, Iran, China, North Korea as having more executions than any other country.
Civilized nations also have priorities: the $1B spent in CA alone over 5 years could have helped with preventative interventions. More than 50% of all people on death row have been sexually or physically abused as children.
Time to reconsider whether the death penalty : legalized murder by the state, is consistent with our values.
The death penalty is as American as Apple Pie. If you can’t live with it move to Europe.
“All of Europe does not have the death penalty”
That does not mean out approach is wrong.
“the $1B spent in CA alone over 5 years could have helped with preventative interventions”
That is more of a valid argument, if you could prove that 1 billion spent would decrease the number of murders, even generic violent crime, but lets see you can’t predict who a murderer will be so it must be spent against the entire population, so 1 billion / 38,250,000 people (population of california) is about $27 per person, so I really dont see that this money will have an impact.
“More than 50% of all people on death row have been sexually or physically abused as children.”
So? I dont see how that gives them a pass and wonder how do you gather those stats. You probably ask the inmates and I’m not sure they are credible sources and might think that answer whether true or not, will help their cause.
You are going to have to convince the majority that warehousing killers like Richard Allen Davis, Polly Klaas’s killer, and risking their eventual parole is in their best interest.
Some of those european countries you meantion are pro-choice, so just think of capital punishment as a really really late term abortion.
Since nearly 40% of California’s murders are committed by someone who has been previously convicted of some degree of murder, then released, those who have stymied the imposition of that deserved penalty are accomplices in the future criminal acts of that killer.
As for the “Just a pizza” three strikes inmate, the pizza was taken from its owner through threat of force. The perp thought so little of his freedom he risked it for a pizza – an indication he never learned, and his incarceration prevented how many other pizza buyers from being robbed.
Removing restrictions on concealed carry in Florida did not result in carnage, but did change the behavior of crooks – they switched their attention to rental cars, on the assumption people flying in and renting were less likely to be armed. The stand your ground laws likewise have reduced crimes. Some people prefer to “Dial 911 and die”. Not I.
That guy in the recent news charged with a child murder had previously served jail time for killing another child. That second [known] victim was equally a victim of the anti death penalty folk. Shame on you! Go home and pray for the innocent victims of your folly.