`Death Row The First Stop On U.S. Campaign Trail`

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Im Original veränderbare Word-Dateien
DEATH ROW THE FIRST STOP ON U.S. CAMPAIGN TRAIL
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It has become one of the great "will they or won't they" cases of modern American justice.
Until a last-minute stay of execution, Robert Alton Harris, convicted murderer and bank robber,
was due to step from his cell in San Quentin prison this week and take a short walk to oblivion.
At 3 a.m. on Tuesday he would have walked a few hundred yards
to a gas chamber to be dispatched by sodium cyanide.
The repercussions of what would have been the first execution in
California for 23 years are rippling across the United States. Already
the death penalty has become a hot campaign issue for both
Democrats and Republicans.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976,
there have been 121 executions in America, including the first firing
squad death, of Gary Gilmore in Utah. But they have been largely
carried out in the traditionally-conservative Deep South*).
Now that free-wheeling, trend-setting California intends to join
the enforcers of the ultimate penalty, a signal has been sent to more liberal states that killing
murderers is acceptable. For many of the 2,331 people on death row, their time may have come.
Two weeks ago Mario Cuomo, New York's governor, vetoed for the eighth time a death
penalty bill that would have brought the electric chair back into use for the first time since 1963.
But, even in his liberal state, the tide of public opinion is turning.
The state legislature is only a Copyright
couple ofwww.park-koerner.de
votes away from overturning
Cuomo's
veto. And the
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events of last weekend, when a Cuban refugee set fire to a New York social club, killing 87, have
done nothing to support Cuomo's view that the death penalty is no deterrent.
Horrified New Yorkers were baying for the blood of Julio Gonzalez, and his act of mass
murder might just be enough to send the state senators over the edge.
These arguments are now taken for granted on the West Coast. San Quentin has for five years
been rehearsing its first execution, since the new warden hired 86-year-old Joe Ferretti, a retired
gas chamber guard, to share his experience of 126 executions with a new generation of
executioners.
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Ferretti says he tells the guards to hand down the advice that he always whispered to those
about to die as he strapped them into the chair: "Take a big whiff, son, and it won't bother you."
On the face of it, Harris seems the perfect candidate for death row. The 37-year-old murdered
two teenage boys in 1978 just to steal their car for a bank robbery. But Harris has gained some
influential and unlikely friends during his 10-year stint on death row.
Last week Mother Teresa made an impassioned plea on his behalf to George Deukmejian, the
governor of California. She asked Deukmejian, who helped to draft the death penalty law, to "do
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whatwww.park-koerner.de
Jesus would do if Jesus wasCopyright
in your position".
Deukmejian thanked her, but pointed out that 82% of Californians supported the death
penalty. "It is a just and appropriate punishment for those who wilfully murder another person,"
he replied.
Harris has also been befriended by Mike Kroll, a local journalist. "He's realistic about what
might happen, but sometimes very frightened," said Kroll. "He doesn't want to die, but it's almost
like he's ready."
Now Harris's agonising wait may be prolonged. On Friday, a judge delayed the execution so
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a court could consider whether
he was a victim of child abuse
and of "foetal alcohol
syndrome", caused by his mother's alcoholism. The state's attorney general said he was asking the
Supreme court to ignore the ruling and allow the execution to go ahead.
Outside the prison, the delay brought relief to protesters. The Rev. Joe Doss, one of his main
supporters, said he was deeply worried about the influence California would have on the rest of
the country. "California is desperately important. People from the South will look to places like
California and say. 'You see, they have the death penalty too. It must be right'. I can only hope
that, rather than influencing places like New York to do the same, this will galvanize people to
rise up against capital punishment. It is not just Southern justice any more - it is American
justice. This is a violent society and further violence is not the solution. Death is the enemy, not
the answer."
Execution has become the new macho, all-American issue for politicians. In California,
Dianne Feinstein, the former mayor of San Francisco, has cornered the Democratic vote in the
primary for governor by leading the rallying calls for Harris's death. Her astonishing success is
being touted as a model for the revitalisation of the party nationwide.
In Texas and Florida, where the governor's office is also up for grabs this November,
candidates have been boasting about how many executions they have furthered. Bob Martinez,
the governor of Florida, has even used in his television commercial the example of a serial killer
electrocuted last year.
John Poulos, a professor of constitutional law at the University of California, said: "When this
state resumes executions it will send a message to the world that America is in the business of
killing people."
For Harris all this may be academic. By tomorrow he should know whether he will survive a
bit longer. But, given the mood in California, few doubt that his end is near.
*) A)
States without death penalty: N.&S.Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan,
Kansas, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, W.
Virginia
B) States with death penalty, but no executions since 1976: Washington (7), Oregon (15),
California (247), Arizona (86), New Mexico (7), Colorado (3), Wyoming (2), Idaho
(15), Montana (10), Nebraska (13) Oklahoma (98), Arkansas (31), Tennessee (69),
Kentucky (28), Illinois (120), Ohio (92), Pennsylvania (111), New Jersey (25),
Connecticut (1), Delaware (7), Maryland (19)
C) States carrying out executions after 1976 - first figure shows number of death row
inmates, second number shows the executions: Nevada (45; 4), Utah (8; 3), Texas (283;
33), Louisiana (39; 18), Mississippi (45; 4), Alabama (93; 7), Florida (294; 21), Georgia
(102; 14), S. Carolina (46; 2), N. Carolina (81; 3), Virginia (40; 8), Indiana (50; 2),
Missouri (73; 2)
By Mike Graham, The Sunday Times, April 1, 1990, p. A20, slightly adapted
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
- Use your own words as far as is appropriate:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Sum up what kind of people wait
in death
row and who tries to help Copyright
them. www.park-koerner.de
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Who, on the other hand, wants to see them executed?
What is the journalist's attitude towards the death penalty - refer to the text, include examples.
What is your reaction when reading about the eagerness of the politicians mentioned in the
last part of the article?
COMMENT
In January 1992 a young black woman from New York was interviewed for German television;
when asked why she had shot at people whom she hadn't even known, smilingly she said
something like, "Shooting is fun, it's the thrill of it, you know; sometimes it also gets dangerous.
But it's fun. I'd do it again."
If this woman committed a murder, would you think she should be executed after a jury had
found her guilty of murder?
LÖSUNGSVORSCHLÄGE:
1) The
people who wait
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in death
row arewww.park-koerner.de
convicted murderers and massmurderers
who killed
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people in cold blood or committed other crimes which caused deaths, like arson at a social
club.
Those supporting them seem to become a minority, as 82% of Californians back the idea of
executions. There are some governors like New York's Mario Cuomo, who has repeatedly
vetoed bills demanding the re-introduction of executions. Other prominent figures are Mother
Theresa and the Reverend Joe Doss, who try to turn the public tide.
2) Many
populist politicians
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seem
to favour
executions and - as is suggested
the text - do so
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for reasons of political calculation at election time.
3) Mike Graham does not openly state whether he is for or against capital punishment. However,
there are some indications that he is more of a critic than supporter of executions. From line
20 on he presents the reader with the example of an opponent, M. Cuomo; the fact that this
governor eight times rejected legislation that would have re-introduced capital punishment is
shown approvingly. When in the next paragraph Graham says there are "only" a few votes
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he indirectly expresses
his fear
that the situation will change
soon.www.park-koerner.de
This is also his
final statement in the text. When looking at the quotations one can say that those who oppose
capital punishment are given more space so that by the end of the article the reader has been
presented with more material from its opponents than from its supporters.
4) I am deeply concerned to read that there are politicians who publicly favour capital
punishment because they secure themselves election victory by doing so. In my view they buy
their political career with the blood of people who in some instances still insist on their
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Copyrightinnocence
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even when they areCopyright
entering www.park-koerner.de
the gas-chamber or being tiedCopyright
to the electric
chair. This
is an un-Christian attitude which can only be seen in one way: the state is no better than the
murderers - both kill people.
COMMENT
5) Supporters of capital punishment often argue that the execution deters potential killers from
committing such a crime. However, this case clearly shows that there is no deterrence: this
young woman repeatedly shot at people from a car driven by a friend. They only wanted to
feel the excitement of being chased by the police and finally the triumph when they escaped in
a wild chase across New York, posing more danger to other drivers. So what could be proved
by having her executed after a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder? Maybe the
relatives of the victims would feel some satisfaction that the murderer had also lost her life.
But isn't it just as cruel to have someone wait for many months or years in uncertainty as to
or when the sentenceCopyright
is to be carried
out? And, looking at Copyright
the methods
involved, one
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Copyrightwhether
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can only say that they aim at giving someone a terrible death. If a society wants to reduce the
murder-rate, it must not set an example by murdering people itself.

`Death Row The First Stop On U.S. Campaign Trail`

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