I know the Daily Kos has turned into the "All-Rove, All-The-Friggin'-Time" channel, so please pardon this intrusion, BUT
I will be testifying on Thursday against Governor Mitt Romney's "perfect" death penalty bill which is coming before the State Senate for consideration. As one of the leading anti-death penalty scholars said, "Romney doesn't care at all about executing people, he just wants a death penalty statute." Imagine the campaign ads: "Romney brought the death penalty back to ... Liberal Massachusetts!!!" Well, I am hoping that the legislature is in no mood to give him such a gift.
Anyway, before the fun begins at the Statehouse,
You Are Invited
to a discussion sponsored by the Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty Fund, Inc., and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights tomorrow night, July 13, at 5:30 p.m at Suffolk University Law School.
Roll it over for details:
Speaking at the event are some fabulous people:
Bud Welch whose daughter was killed in the Oklahoma City Bombing;
Bill Babbitt who was a witness to his brother's execution in California;
David Kaczynski, brother of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski;
Robert Curley whose 10 year-old son was murdered in Cambridge MA and who has moved from chief proponent to critical opponent of the death penalty in the Commonwealth;
Renny Cushing, Executive Director of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights whose father was murdered in 1988; and
Hugo Bedau, Professor Emeritus at Tufts University, who is a wonderful and smart man who authored The Death Penalty in America
Each of these people have amazing stories to tell and have witnessed some of the most amazing moments in our countries recent history -- both good and bad. If you can make it, I promise you will not be unmoved.
My personal interest in this issue comes from years of work representing persons on death row in Texas. Through that work as a defense attorney, I came to realize that the prosecutors' general claim to speak on behalf of victims was generally paternalistic, almost always arrogant and often entirely misplaced. Compassion for the victim of a terrible crime does not negate compassion for the criminal. Indeed, understanding how crimes come to be committed has made me, if anything, more keenly sympathetic to victims and perpetrators alike -- it has shown me the humanity of everyone, both the human grandness and the human failings. I have generally learned that no one is as bad as the worst thing they ever did.
I have recently been deeply interested in reclaiming a dignified place for victims in the criminal justice system -- not just as a lesser partner of the prosecution, but as an autonomous individual whose needs (legal and otherwise) almost always far exceed the limited experience of a criminal trial. This discussion will be, I hope, part of that ongoing effort.
Please join us!
Directions: http://www.law.suffolk.edu/about/directions.cfm