From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Mass. Friends on death penalty
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 08:04:58 GMT

/** justice.usa: 430.0 **/
** Topic: Mass. Friends on death penalty **
** Written  4:50 am  Jan  7, 1993 by mphillips in cdp:justice.usa **
From: Margaret B. Phillips <mphillips>
Subject: Mass. Friends on death penalty

From: Joel Sax <jsax>
Subject: Death Penalty

Date: 06 Jan 1993 03:25:33 -0500 (EST)
From: HARRISON@wccf.mit.edu
Subject: For Redistribution
Organization: Mass. Inst. Tech. - Whitaker College

A REQUEST TO CITIZENS OF MASSACHUSETTS
Some thoughts about the Death Penalty and Related Matters
Prepared by the Massachusetts Friends Committee on Public Policy (Quakers)

We request citizens of Massachusetts to take part in considering whether a
death penalty would be good for our community.

Our own reflections about capital punishment have resulted in the thoughts
we offer in this communication.

Deterrence of Crime and Healthy Communities -------------------------------

We believe it is very important to protect citizens from perpetrators
of violence. We think that crime should not be excused or tolerated.
We accept that confinement of dangerous people is often necessary.

We recognize and respect that many people believe that enacting a death
penalty in Massachusetts will prevent some violent crime. As we understand
this viewpoint it is based on the fact that executed people cannot commit
crime again and on the idea that some people considering capital crimes may be
deterred by the possibility of execution.

We urge Massachusetts citizens to consider how a healthy community most
effectively deters crime. While execution and punishment may prevent some
individual crimes, it seems to us that we are all safest from one another's
violence when we live in communities in which people's basic needs are
met and when people feel fundamentally respected and cared for by others
regardless of their ideas, economic condition, racial grouping, or
personality.

We do not think that enactment of a death penalty in Massachusetts is
compatible with the creation of healthier communities. Has any society
ever created healthier communities by emphasizing punishment and revenge?
Doesn't human experience demonstrate that increasing reliance on
punishment as a central method of social control contributes to the
development of environments in which resentment, fear, and hopelessness
grow? It also seems to us that state sanctioned killing persuasively affirms
the idea that hurting or killing those we feel have wronged us is
justifiable and therefore contributes to the development of environments
in which violence is more readily accepted as legitimate and thus is more
often practiced by those who feel aggrieved.

We are also mindful that statistical evidence seems to indicate that no
overall deterrence of violent crime is evident in States that use the
death penalty.

We think the creation of healthier communities is achievable. We believe
that community change and conciliation become possible when people engage
in respectful communication. It is our sense that such communication
is characterized by an on-going willingness to search for non-coercive
and mutually beneficial resolution of differences, an openness to
re-evaluate our own opinions, and by maintenance of patient open-hearted
attitudes.

Execution and punishment have a long history of use and yet our world
remains a dangerous place. Is it possible that a society that focuses
on promoting a better life for all, including actual and potential
criminals, has taken an important step away from violence?


The Sacredness of Life -------------------------------------------------

Many religious and humanistic traditions as we understand them agree that
there is a special quality about life that calls for us to act on the
assumption that every life is deserving of careful protection and
respect. We believe that human experience demonstrates that when we
have acted on this assumption, civilization has progressed.

When we execute people, especially when we are capable of protecting
ourselves by other methods, have we respected fully enough our past
experience and the possibility that all life is sacred?


Revenge ----------------------------------------------------------------

We reaffirm our acceptance that confinement of dangerous people is
sometimes necessary. Nonetheless, we are convinced that confinement
motivated by the will to protect and the hope to facilitate healing
is different than confinement motivated by the desire to 'hurt back'.

Many people are angry when vicious crime is committed and many long
for revenge and punishment. Nonetheless, haven't we also seen that
allowing such impulses to take hold and motivate our individual and
societal responses results in our becoming less able to live our
lives in a fulfilling manner? Mohanda Gandhi reportedly said that
"an eye for an eye ultimately results in the whole world becoming
blind"; we are hopeful that many will consider such possibility
carefully.


Wrongful Conviction ----------------------------------------------------

We are aware of 6 documented cases of wrongful conviction for
first-degree murder during the past 25 years in Massachusetts. Several
cases included ten years in prison. Had the death penalty existed during
that time innocent people might well have been executed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


We think that the tone and methods our society selects in responding to
violence and crime are centrally important to the future safety and
quality of life for all of us. It is our conviction that passage of
death penalty legislation in Massachusetts would offer no net increase
in deterrent effect and would endanger the lives of those wrongfully
convicted. We also believe that passage of death penalty legislation
would affirm the messages that 'killing can be justified', that 'the
sacredness of life is not absolute' and that 'punishment, not
community engagement, is the proper response to crime'. We believe such
messages do not create a more just and healthy society.

Thank you for considering this communication.

If you find this communication helpful, please copy it and share it with
others.



************






Posted by:
Cliff Harrison
Legislative Coordinator
Massachusetts Friends Committee on Public Policy
harrison@wccf.mit.edu



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