Winter 1998

Amnesty International's Secretary General Pierre Sane has challenged Pennsylvania's governor and attorney general "to initiate a full investigation into the racist and unfair application of the death penalty in the state, and to call for a moratorium on all executions.

Amnesty's moratorium call came on November 25, one day after Sane's visit to Pennsylvania's death row at the State Correctional Institution in Greene County (SCI-Greene), where he met with death row prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Scott Blystone.

"Death row in Pennsylvania looks and feels like a morgue," Sane reflected after his visit to SCI-Greene.  "Everything is high-tech, and there is no human being in sight."  He also expressed concern about the brutal conditions for prisoners, including beatings by guards, isolation, withdrawal of privileges, unnecessary disciplinary action and harassment of visitors, who are often denied entry.
 
Sane also spoke on November 25 to the Philadelphia Bar Association, urging the group's board of governors to issue its own call for a halt of executions.  The Association did just that, voting 18 to 10 to adopt a resolution calling for "a moratorium on capital punishment in Pennsylvania until such time that fairness in its administration can be ensured."

The Philadelphia Bar Association's decision comes just weeks after a similar resolution was passed by the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

Nation's Hanging Judge Forcibly Retired

Beginning January 1998, Judge Albert Sabo's tenure at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas will finally come to an end.  Sabo, who is 76 years old, has served as a part-time senior judge since 1991.  The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court announced its decision just before Thanksgiving to forcibly retire him along with two other judges.

A Supreme Court official close to the decision told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the criteria used to determine which judges were dropped was based on "productivity and temperament."  The official added that, "there have been numerous complaints from lawyers about the quality of some senior judges; the cases take too long; the judges don't necessarily have a grasp; the judges are not all that kind and civil."

Sabo protested he was being targeted arbitrarily, telling the Inquirer that he "was given no reason" for the cut.  He noted that older judges are still on the bench.

Sabo's critics emphasize the arbitrary nature of Philadelphia's death penalty machinery within which Sabo amassed an extraordinary record of death sentences.  He is responsible for sending more than twice as many people to death row (32 total) than any other judge in the U.S. - all but two of whom are people of color.

Sabo has heard fewer homicide cases than many of his colleagues but still ended up with far more death sentences.  He was routinely assigned the grisliest and most controversial cases because he would dispense with them more quickly than more evenhanded judges.

Most known for his belligerent handling of Mumia Abu-Jamal's case, Sabo persistently opted to hear the appeals of those he had sentenced to death.  His retirement brings a ray of hope for the 20 men he sentenced who remain on the state's death row.

Philadelphia Moratorium Campaign Launched

Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty has launched a campaign to halt capital prosecutions and executions in Philadelphia.  Over 500 people attended their October 18 "Rally to End the Death Penalty."  On October 20, 23 people were arrested at a nonviolent blockade of the main entrance of Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham's office (photo right).  Abraham, dubbed by the New York Times Magazine as the nation's "deadliest D.A.," seeks the death penalty in approximately 85% of all homicide cases.  Philadelphia County is responsible for over half of all death sentences now pending in the state; 84% of those people sentenced in the county are African American.  Nationwide, Philadelphia has sent more people to death row than 28 of the 38 states with the death penalty.

Pennsylvania Abolitionists is seeking over 200  groups in the Philadelphia area to pass moratorium resolutions - one for each person on death row in the state.

To get involved, call Pennsylvania Abolitionists at 610-891-8968.
 
Illinois and the Innocence Factor

The Human Services Committee of the Illinois House of Representatives passed a resolution in November calling for “a moratorium on all executions.”   This resolution is expected to hit the floor of the statehouse in Springfield sometime in January.  Illinois residents: Be sure to call your representative and urge him or her to support the resolution!  The general state-house number is 217-782-4014.

Meanwhile, dozens of grassroots groups have joined in the call for a moratorium on both executions and prosecutions.  Amnesty International’s Midwest Regional Office is leading the statewide campaign.  Since Illinois reinstated the death penalty in 1977, the state has distinguished itself by sentencing the highest known number of innocent defendants to die.  According to a July 1997 report published by the Death Information Center (DPIC), 21 prisoners on death row in the U.S. have been released since 1993 because they were found to be innocent.  Nine of these men alone were released in Illinois.

Feeding public concern is the fact that police and prosecutorial abuses, particularly in Chicago, have played a primary role in these wrongful convictions.

Furthermore, DPIC’s report reveals that these 21 innocent defendants spent an average of seven years on death row before being released.  On average, time from conviction to execution is eight years.  Recent state and federal legislation will only quicken the journey from courtroom to coffin.  In the future, the average death row defendant will likely be executed before his or her possible innocence can be discovered.

A double execution in November reminds everyone that this drive for a moratorium in Illinois is just beginning.  Joining a national cost-cutting trend, the state executed both Durlyn Eddmonds and Walter Stewart by lethal injection on November 19.

To get involved in the Illinois campaign, call Amnesty International at 312-427-2060.

Forty-year High in Executions

On December 9, Michael Satcher and Michael Lockhart became the 72nd and 73rd persons put death in the U.S. this year.  Satcher was executed in Virginia despite conflicting DNA evidence which raises questions of his guilt.  Lockhart was the 37th man to be executed this year in Texas - the state driving 1997's forty-year high in state murders.
 One ray of hope did came in November.  The Massachusetts House of Representatives defeated a bill that would have reinstated the death penalty, reversing an earlier vote in favor of capital punishment.  According to the Associated Press, the key legislator who changed his vote did so because of the danger of executing an innocent person.  Massachusetts has not had an execution in 50 years.

101 Groups Call for a Moratorium on Executions!

1. Adrian Dominican Sisters, Florida Chapter
2. American Bar Association
3. American Civil Liberties Union/IL
4. American Friends Service Committee
5. American Jewish Committee of Chicago
6. American Philosophy Organization/Eastern Division
7. Amnesty International/IL
8. Association of Chicago Priests
9. Benedictine Sisters of Chicago
10. Campaign to End the Death Penalty
11. Cana Community (Washington DC)
12. Catholic Diocese of Joliet, Peace and Social Justice Ministry
13. Catholic Theological Union
14. Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
15. Chicago Council of Lawyers
16. Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus
17. Church Women United in Illinois
18. Citizens Alert
19. Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
20. Committee to End Marion Lockdown
21. Criminal Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association
22. Crossroads Ministry
23. Daughters of Charity, Emmitsburg Province Leadership (MD)
24. Eighth Day Center for Justice
25. Episcopal Diocese of Chicago
26. Equal Justice USA/Quixote Center
27. Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity
28. General Board of the Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
29. General Council of the Sisters of St. Dominic, Amityville NY
30. General Council of the Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenberg IN
31. Goody Schleider Co.
32. Huntington Fellowship of Reconciliation
33. Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty
34. Illinois Council of Churches
35. Illinois Public Defender Association
36. Jane Addams Hull House
37. John Howard Association
38. Justice Committee/Congregation of the Holy Cross
39. LaWanda's Window
40. Leadership Conference of Women Religious, LCWR
41. Leadership Council, Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati
42. Leadership Group, Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
43. Leadership Team Franciscan Sisters of Mary
44. Little Flower Church
45. Little Sisters of Assumption
46. Loretto Community, Sisters and Co-Members
47. MacArthur Justice Center
48. Media Alliance
49. National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression
50. National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
51. National Coalition of American Nuns
52. National Lawyers Guild/ San Francisco
53. National Legal Aid and Defender Association
54. Native American Prisoner Support
55. New Jersey Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
56. New Ways Ministry, Mt. Rainier MD
57. Not on the Guest List
58. Ohio Bar Association
59. Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
60. Pax Christi Illinois
61. Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty
62. Pennsylvania Bar Association
63. Peoria Catholic Worker
64. Philadelphia Bar Association
65. Prairie Fire Organizing Committee
66. Prison Radio Project/Quixote Center
67. Provincial Council, School Sisters of Notre Dame, St. Louis Province
68. Public Defenders' Office (Cook County)
69. Quixote Center
70. Radical Philosophy Organization
71. Rochester  MN Franciscan Community
72. Rockford Urban Ministry
73. Roman Catholic Diocese of Joiliet
74. Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet, Peace and Justice Ministry
75. Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria
76. Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield
77. Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth-Southern Province Council
78. Sisters of Divine Providence, St. Louis
79. Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
80. Sisters of Mercy, Brooklyn Regional Community
81. Sisters of Mercy, Regional Community of Rochester NY
82. Sisters of Providence
83. Sisters of St. Dominic, Amityville
84. Sisters of St. Joseph Carondelet-St. Louis Province
85. Sisters of St. Joseph of La Grange
86. Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille
87. Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace
88. Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, Washington, DC
89. Sisters of the Holy Cross
90. Sisters of the Holy Cross/East Cluster
91. Sisters of the Holy Faith
92. Sisters of the Holy Faith, St. Raymonds Convent
93. Sisters of the Living Word, Arlington Heights, IL
94. Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order
95. Sisters, Servants of Mary, Ladysmith, Wisconsin
96. SPARK/ Burlington, Vermont
97. Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
98. The Brethren Peace Fellowship
99. The Passionist Community
100. Unitarian Universalist Association of   Congregations
101. Ursuline Sisters

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