democrats end DP moratorium


By JASON ROSENBAUM of the Tribune’s staff
Published Monday, July 21, 2008
Five years after a Kansas City man was released from prison after 
nearly two decades on death row, opponents of capital punishment 
renewed a call for a moratorium on the state’s death penalty and a 
review of the practice.

Joe Amrine, who spent 17 years on death row before being released 
from prison in 2003, joined anti-death penalty activists and 
candidates running for state House seats this morning at Ragtag 
Cinema in Columbia.

Amrine was convicted in 1985 of stabbing Gary Barber in the state 
penitentiary in Jefferson City. Three men who had testified against 
Amrine later recanted, and in April 2003, the Missouri Supreme Court 
overturned the case against Amrine.

Amrine’s case was chronicled in the documentary "Unreasonable Doubt," 
which debuted at Ragtag five years ago.

Amrine said his situation shows a need to revisit whether capital 
punishment should be used in the state, and he said there needs to be 
more public outcry about the practice.

"When I was on death row, it used to break my heart, and I would see 
a story in the paper - 5,000 people protesting down in Miami, Fla., 
about the greenhouse effect. And the very next story’s about somebody 
getting executed, there’s only five people out there in protest," 
Amrine said. "This is a human being’s life at stake. We only got 10 
people out to come here and say, ‘Don’t execute him.’ But we can get 
5,000 people to come out there and say, ‘We don’t want you burning 
any more grass.’ There’s something wrong with our society in itself 
right there."

Cande Iveson and Stephen Webber, both Democratic state House 
candidates in the 23rd District, made statements in support of a 
moratorium of the death penalty. Democrats Sean Spence and Bob Pund, 
candidates in the 25th House District, also voiced support for the 
move, and Democrat Mary Still said through a spokeswoman that she 
would support a moratorium.

During the most recent legislative session, a committee in the 
Missouri House heard a bill sponsored by state Rep. Bill Deeken, R-
Jefferson City, to place a moratorium on the death penalty and study 
its application. The legislation did not pass.

In the near future, the biggest obstacle for death penalty opponents 
could be in the Governor’s Mansion. The two major Republican 
candidates for governor - state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and U.S. 
Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia - favor the death penalty. Likewise 
for Attorney General Jay Nixon, a Democrat running for governor. To 
back up a claim that he was the "toughest attorney general in 
Missouri history" at a news conference announcing an endorsement by 
the Fraternal Order of Police, Nixon’s staff forwarded reporters 
statistics noting that Nixon had overseen more executions than all 
other state attorneys general.

Both Pund and Jeff Stack of the Fellowship of Reconciliation noted 
that former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, reversed course 
on the issue and ultimately commuted all of the state’s death 
sentences to life in prison. "People are capable of change," Stack said.

Reach Jason Rosenbaum at (573) 815-1724 or jrosenbaum@tribmail.com.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Jul/20080721News005.asp