Groups try to persuade Rell to abolish death penalty



By Ken Dixon
STAFF WRITER
05/28/2009

HARTFORD -- Opponents of the death penalty began a campaign Thursday
to persuade Gov. M. Jodi Rell to sign a bill that would end capital
punishment in Connecticut.

Defense lawyers, human rights activists and church leaders from
throughout the state asked the Republican governor to reconsider her
pledge to veto the legislation, which was approved in historic votes
in the House and Senate over the last two weeks.

While a new Quinnipiac University Poll indicated Thursday that 61
percent of the state wants to keep the death penalty, defense lawyers
-- during a news conference that featured the author of "Dead Man
Walking" in a teleconference from Iowa -- said the survey was flawed.

The lawyers noted that a quarter of capital-punishment supporters in
the Q Poll seem to erroneously believe that keeping murderers behind
bars for life is more expensive than executing them after decades of
expensive appeals.

First-term Rep. Gary A. Holder-Winfield, a New Haven lawmaker who had
a private, half-hour-long meeting with Rell this week, said she
seemed interested in the issues, but doubts she'll change her mind
when the bill gets to her desk over the next couple of weeks.

An executive with the national office of the NAACP said in an
interview that Rell should consider the racial implications of a
tradition linked to the violent lynchings in the Deep South.

Meanwhile, Rell's communications office said that since the Senate
voted May 22 to repeal the death penalty, the governor's office has
received 1,141 e-mails asking her to sign the legislation and 359
asking for a veto. Chris Cooper, her spokesman, said about 400 phone
calls were received, most asking her to sign the bill. About three
dozen pieces of mail have been about 2-1 in favor of the repeal.

Roman Catholic leaders from throughout the state, including
Bridgeport Bishop William E. Lori and Bishop of Stamford Paul P.
Chomnycky, said in a letter to Rell that they believe the death
penalty may have been sought throughout the state in an "inconsistent
and uneven way" and that the appeals process has become expensive.
"This legislation better serves society and, at the same time,
punishes the criminal, shortens the sentencing process by eliminating
endless appeals, and shows a profound respect for human life," said
the Catholic leaders, led by Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford.
Bob Nave, state and regional death penalty coordinator for Amnesty
International, said in an interview this week that the group is
encouraging all state members to persuade the governor to sign the
bill into law.
"In Connecticut and the United States, we are proud we're not
countries like China and Iran, where flagrant human rights violations
are the daily norm," Nave said in a phone interview. "This is an
issue in our own backyard where we can make positive and substantive
change."
Nave said that while the Amnesty International effort is focusing on
members within Connecticut, members from outside the state and
internationally are not being discouraged in taking part.
Steven W. Hawkins executive vice president of the NAACP, said in a
phone interview from Washington this week that nationally, capital
punishment is the last vestige of institutionalized racism that dates
back nearly 145 years to the end of the Civil War.
"Our view is that the death penalty continues in this country to be
susceptible to race and class bias and that has been its historical
roots," Hawkins said. "Lynchings in the Deep South and those forms of
terrorism came to an end and the modern death penalty began. It is
most often reserved for poor people and used disproportionately
against persons of color."
Edward Gavin of Shelton, president of the Connecticut Criminal
Defense Lawyers Association, led an afternoon news conference that
featured Randy Steidl, 57, of Illinois, who was celebrating the fifth
anniversary of his freedom from death row, after he was finally
exonerated for a double murder after 17 years in prison.
"The death penalty in this country is nothing more than revenge,"
Steidl said. "And revenge, we know, is what? A hate crime." Steidl
recalled that during his appeals process in an attempt to become
freed from death row, there were many times he would have preferred
execution to living in the prison environment.
"This is the right thing to do," Gavin said. "No one else is going to
be executed in the state. I'm absolutely convinced that imposition of
life without the benefit of release is the appropriate punishment for
heinous crimes. We will not rest until capital punishment is
abolished in Connecticut. "
Gavin was backed by other high-profile defense lawyers among the 300-
member association, including Michael Fitzpatrick, who defended
Michael Ross, the serial killer who dropped appeals and was executed
four years ago, and William F. Dow of New Haven.
Gavin said Rell is "afraid" to sign the legislation, not because
she's a coward, but because she is fearful of hurting the families of
crime victims.
"What we're here to tell you, governor, is the capital-punishment
scheme does not help those families whose feelings you so much want
to protect," Gavin said. "It only causes them pain to be stretched
out for years, providing them an empty promise that will never be
fulfilled.
Sister Helen Prejean, whose "Dead Man Walking" book on the death
penalty in Louisiana was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, said in a
teleconference that Connecticut should join other states in the
Northeast that have repealed the capital punishment. "You have to
think in the long run for the common good," she said over the phone
from Iowa.
Douglas Schwartz, director of the Q Poll, told reporters in the
Capitol Thursday morning that this year's poll was worded differently
from the 2007 poll, where 73 percent said they supported capital
punishment. He admitted that while 61 percent now support the death
penalty, the 1,575 respondents might not have had enough information
if a quarter of capital punishment supporters believe executions save
money.
Nonpartisan legislative researchers have estimated that it costs
about $4 million a year to fund mandatory appeals for capital felons,
while it costs about $96,000 a year to house each of the most-
dangerous inmates.
"I think she may still veto the bill," he said. "I think that's a
pretty firm possibility. I hope she still wants to meet with the
families who want to meet with her."
Holder-Winfield said he doesn't want Rell to use the Q Poll to back
up her opinion, since majorities in the House and Senate approved the
repeal legislation.
"Simply reflecting what the people who sent us here think, doesn't
really do us any good," he said. "Unless we're taking that
information we learn here back, we're not doing our job."
Gavin said the Q Poll is flawed and should be discounted as a public-
policy instrument.
"The poll doesn't mean anything to me," Gavin said at the news
conference.

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