GILLESDENIZOT

It only took one day for a Federal jury to convict sailor Thomas Bird to be hanged in Maine, USA. A month later, on June 25, 1790, he became the first man to be executed under the US Federal capital punishment law. Since then, according to studies by the Capital Punishment Research Project, 336 men and 4 women have been executed under federal auspices. On October 30, 2009, there were 58 death row inmates sentenced to die because of the Federal capital punishment law in the USA, including 2 women.

The Federal death penalty can be enacted in any state or territory of the US, even in states that do not have their own death penalty law. There are currently 6 death row inmates in abolitionists states: Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Vermont, and North Dakota. The manner of execution is that employed by the state in which the federal sentence is handed down. If that state does not allow the death penalty, the judge may choose another state for the carrying out of the execution. We can expect more people ending in federal death row since the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 restored the death penalty under federal law for drug offenses and some types of murder. Death sentences increased sharply since President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act expanding the federal death penalty in 1994. And yet, since 1963, “only” 3 men have been executed by the government of the USA: Timothy McVeigh (on June 11, 2001 for his involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing), Juan Raul Garza (on June 19, 2001) and Louis Jones Jr. (on March 18, 2003). Clearly, the US Government could turn this de facto abolitionist situation into a clear and official refusal of the death penalty.

In the USA, only the President has the power to pardon Federal death row inmates and commute their sentences to another punishment than death, such as life in prison without the possibility of parole. While the first American cannot intervene in the way US states deal with capital punishment, he could however choose audacity and tell the world: “My Administration has abolished the death penalty”. This would send a tremendously powerful signal not only to the 58 countries that still kill its citizens, but also to the majority of countries where capital punishment is no longer in use, either in law or in practice. We are talking about 138 countries without executions. Two thirds of the world’s nations. Yes, the abolition of the death penalty is audacious, but we can hope it will happen. It is already happening.

What will also happen is that the current President of the United States may soon have to decide the fate of six federal death row inmates at most imminent risk of execution. The election of Barack Obama already was perceived by many as a sign of change and hope. It will take audacity to honor the privilege and duties that come with a Nobel Peace Prize. The time to abolish the US federal death penalty has come. Lifting the death sentences of all 58 inmates would mean that the United States refuses to kill in the name of justice, whereas US state governments authorized 52 executions last year. Can we hope?

As a state senator in Illinois, Obama pressed for death penalty reforms, including a requirement that interrogations in capital cases be audio- or videotaped. He also opposed adding gang-related crimes to those which could prompt the death penalty. In his book, “The Audacity of Hope”, Obama said he saw little evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent. True, the death penalty is not a deterrent. We have been executing since centuries, and yet crime still is an issue our societies have to face. Yes, we can change and find a solution elsewhere. Barack Obama nevertheless stated:

I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances, for the most egregious of crimes. I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime, and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances, the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution.

When Senator Robert Badinter addressed the French Parliament on September 17, 1981 and asked for the abolition of the death penalty, he also spoke of the “heinous crimes” issue: being against the death penalty is a moral issue. Because it is a moral issue, one must be clear and unequivocal in opposing capital punishment. Saying that one is against the death penalty, except under certain circumstances, means in fact that one is a supporter of capital punishment. When Obama says he agrees to see someone executed, he means that some victims deserve more pity than others. He means that killing a child or an old person is more heinous than killing a – let’s say – 30-year old man. True, the life of a child is most precious, but so is any life. This type of horrendous, atrocious murders provoke a legitimate emotion but, as Badinter rightly says, all victims are worthy of pity and all deserve compassion. Therefore, when Obama supports the death penalty for the most egregious crimes, he in fact considers that we are not equals in the eye of justice and/or he simply supports capital punishment as a deterrent against crime.

On the Journey of Hope from Violence to Healing, we learn that not only crime creates victims, but also that more victims are created when a government takes the moral responsibility to execute its citizens. We see the blind violence imposed on family members of a death row inmate before and after the sentence has been pronounced and executed. We see 12-year-old Gavin Been, of KADP, 2009 Youth Abolitionist of the Year, fighting for the abolition of the Texas Law of Parties and for the life of his uncle Jeff Wood. We see Bud Welch, whose daughter Julie Marie was killed, along with 167 others in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. We see him still missing his daughter and opposing the death penalty, just as he spoke against executing Timothy McVeigh because “it wouldn’t help” him. We see Bill Babbitt still dealing with the fact that he turned his brother Manny in, hoping for help. Instead that led to his death on the electric chair in California. Yes, we learn that all victims are worthy of compassion and that the death penalty is not what all victims expect from their governments.

Now is the time to tell President Obama to turn away from the violence of capital punishment! Now is the time to address the real issues of criminality and justice! Now is the time to hope, to be audacious, and to abolish the US federal death penalty! When “Abolish the Death Penalty“, my Idea for Change in America, will be among the Top Ten Ideas for America on March 12, 2010, I will personally ask members of the Obama Administration to be audacious enough to say NO to executions. This is how audacious and hopeful I am. And thanks to all our votes, yes we can hope and be audacious!