Abolish the Death Penalty Blog
Happy Anniversary! An Abolition Date to Celebrate! December 18, 2008
A year ago this month, the state of New Jersey abolished its death penalty. Celeste Fitzgerald, Director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, shares her thoughts about the occasion:
December 17, 2008 marks the one-year anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey. Happy anniversary to all of us! To mark the occasion, the Star Ledger editorial board took a look back at New Jersey's historic bill signing, weighing in with an editorial titled, "Reason for Pride in New Jersey." That pretty much sums it up. The editorial can be found at: http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1229492198283740.xml&coll=1
The Star Ledger also ran an interesting and informative article on New Jersey's first year without capital punishment. Read the article at: http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1229319352223800.xml&coll=1
I'd like to share a special experience related to our work for abolition. Just two weeks ago I had the honor of speaking about our abolition campaign in Rome, where I joined the Catholic Community of Sant'Egidio for their annual "Cities for Life" conference. The first evening I arrived in Rome, I stood with fellow death penalty abolition supporters outside the Roman Coliseum, which was once again bathed in light to signal support for an end to executions around the world. It was a very moving sight.
As I stood at the Coliseum and reflected on our wonderful accomplishment, I thought of the many people who helped us along the way, especially the families who have lost a loved one to murder and the men and women who had been wrongfully convicted in New Jersey and elsewhere. I also thought about how our work here in New Jersey is not done. There are many things that we can do together to fill the space created by abolition of the death penalty with justice. Of critical importance is the second recommendation of the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission, to increase benefits and services for survivors of homicide victims. We must not lose sight of that goal and we must continue to work together to insure that our fellow New Jerseyans who have lost loved ones to murder receive the counseling and other services they need.
As the year grows to a close, I wish all of you a healthy, happy, and peaceful holiday season.
In peace,
Celeste Fitzgerald
Director, New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
posted by Margaret Summers at 12:50 PM
The Holidays and the Death Penalty December 17, 2008
Holidays can be an especially painful time for those who are caught up in the death penalty system, whether they are death row inmates, family members of death row inmates, family members of those who were executed, or murder victims' families. For them it means a permanently empty space at holiday family gatherings where their loved one would ordinarily be.
Several years ago, Juan Melendez knew that pain all too well, as he spent Christmas after Christmas on death row, an innocent victim of the death penalty system. Here is his story:
The Death Penalty Never Takes a Holiday
By Juan Melendez
The December holidays are a period of mixed emotions for death row inmates awaiting execution, knowing that any Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa could be their last.
That’s how it was for me. I was on a Florida prison’s death row for a crime I did not commit. There was no physical evidence linking me to the killing of a beauty salon owner I never met. My conviction was based on the testimony of an informant with a criminal record. I couldn’t help in my own defense; at the time I couldn’t read or write in English. Three times the Florida Supreme Court upheld my conviction and death sentence on appeal. It took 16 years after my conviction for another set of attorneys to discover the taped confession of the man who committed the crime. If I had been on death row in Texas or Virginia during those 16 years, I would not be alive today.
The holidays on death row were the worst time, they were terrible. I was lonely. Death row was real quiet during the holidays. I wanted to be with my family. I missed my family, but I didn’t get any visitors. I can only imagine how my mother and the rest of my family felt spending Christmas without me.
There was a woman who would come to the prison with a church group, and they would hold a holiday get-together. They brought us Christmas cookies, and Christmas stockings, but the prison stopped that. Sometimes the prison would give us Christmas dinner with turkey and things like that, but it was still sad.
The hardest part was Christmas Day. We inmates used to be able to stick our hands out through the bars of our cells, but then the prison put chicken wire over the bars so we couldn’t do that anymore. Then we tried sticking our hands out through the slot in our cell doors where the guards would slide our food trays into our cells. I’ll never forget the Christmas when the guards came to each of our cells and put locks on the slots so we couldn’t open them and stick our hands out. At each cell as they put the lock on, a guard would say ‘Merry Christmas.’ It was cruel. When they came to my cell and told me ‘Merry Christmas’ as they locked up my slot, I said ‘Merry Christmas’ back to them.
I could have been released sooner than I was. The judge ruled in my favor, reversing my conviction and death sentence on December 5, 2001. I could have been home in time for Christmas with my family. But the prosecutor waited until the last minute to drop the case on January 3, 2002. So there I was, spending my 18th Christmas on death row.
Juan Melendez left prison with $100 in compensation from the state and no apologies. Today, he is a public speaker, a human rights activist, and a member of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s Board of Directors.
posted by Margaret Summers at 11:56 AM
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