|
|
August 4, 2000/3 Av 5760, Vol. 52, No.47
Group wants moratorium on executions
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
A group of civil liberties advocates and religious leaders have demanded a moratorium be placed on executions in Arizona.
But both the governor and the attorney general stand in opposition.
"We ought to speak out in the same principled, courageous way as Governor Ryan," said Eleanor Eisenberg, executive director of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union, referring to Illinois Gov. George H. Ryan, who in January declared a moratorium on executions.
"(It) is only God who can impose a death sentence. (Humans) are too fallible. God created us, God formed us, and it is only God who can execute the final punishment," said Rabbi Andrew Straus of Temple Emanuel, a Reform synagogue in Tempe.
"We do not have the same problems in Arizona as the governor in Illinois," said Francie Noyes, Arizona Gov. Jane Hull's press secretary.
"Illinois, not Arizona, had clear corruption. The (Illinois) governor had to admit that they needed a moratorium," said Dennis Burke, chief deputy for policy and planning in the attorney general's office.
In the last nine executions, "none had an issue of guilt or innocence," said Burke. "None of them said, 'I didn't do this.' "
Craig Orent, representing Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, used a plane-crash analogy in criticizing the Arizona criminal justice system.
"When the Concorde crashed (in Paris July 25), all other flights were suspended until they got to the bottom of the problem," he explained. When someone has been put to death and then is found to be innocent, "It is too late to go back, study, and determine what went wrong."
For that reason, Orent said, a moratorium should be placed on executions nationwide.
The state group, Arizonans for a Moratorium on Executions, is part of a "national and statewide effort" calling for a halt of death sentences until the "criminal judicial process" is adequately reviewed, said Eisenberg.
She explained there are not enough trained attorneys to represent death-row inmates and handle cases post-conviction. In addition, "prosecutors rely on unreliable witnesses," prisoners who "make a deal (in order to gain) something by testifying on behalf of the state," Eisenberg said.
The attorney general's office in March began appointing a 30-member commission to "examine the death penalty in Arizona," said Patty Urias, Attorney General Janet Napolitano's public information officer.
The commission, scheduled to hold its first meeting in September, will include prosecutors, defense attorneys, academics, judges, representatives of victims and at-large members. It will report to Hull, the Supreme Court and the legislature.
Burke said the commission would address four issues: fairness, competent counsel, adequate review of claims of innocence and causes of delay between the crime and the execution of the sentence.
"The commission does not have an adequate cross-representation of people who handle these cases, who are needed to effectively make a recommendation," said Orent, expressing his personal opinion. "If they select more acceptable people, I would be supportive."
Statistically, crime is down in all categories and in all age groups, but Americans are still afraid, said Eisenberg.
"Fear makes us overlook abuses in the criminal justice system, and people have demanded, 'do whatever it takes to make us feel safer,' " she said.
In attendance at the moratorium advocacy group's July 12 press conference, held at St. Mary's Basilica Church in Phoenix, were Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, Straus, Eisenberg and attorney Victoria Washington, among others.
Monsignor Edward Ryle, executive director of the Arizona Catholic Conference, said that O'Brien (who was out of the country when this story was written) has been on record for years in opposition of the death penalty.
"We do not have an abolition yet, but a moratorium would educate people on the problematic nature of capital punishment," said Ryle.
Eisenberg said the Arizona group would participate in Moratorium 2000, an effort calling for the adoption of an execution moratorium resolution. She said local representatives will "move with all deliberate speed" to ask individuals and religious, secular, and nonprofit institutions to sign the resolution.
|
