[PAA-Discuss] [amnestyhouston] Hearing the voices of those bearing the brunt

Mon Dec 14 15:39:38 EST 2015

Hearing the voices of those bearing the brunt

MORE THAN 60 people gathered for the Campaign to End the Death Penalty's
(CEDP) annual convention, held in Austin, Texas, in mid-November.

The CEDP was formed 20 years ago to challenge the most barbaric aspect of
the U.S. criminal injustice system: capital punishment. It has stood out
from other anti-death penalty and criminal justice reform organizations
because it has put death row prisoners and their families at the center of
the struggle, emphasizing the humanity of the victims of this system. This
year's convention was no different.

Lawrence Foster, the 87-year-old grandfather of Kenneth Foster Jr., who
faced down the death penalty in Texas in 2009, gave the opening remarks for
the conference. Standing before us in his casual blazer and gray Chuck
Taylors, his presence reminded us what is possible.

His grandson Kenny was charged under the unjust "law of parties" law in
Texas, which makes defendants who are merely present when a crime is
committed just as culpable as the person who committed it. So even though he
was in his car with the windows rolled up when someone was shot and killed,
Kenny was charged along with the shooter and given the death penalty.

In 2007, he came within 6 hours of being executed before his sentence was
commuted to life. Lawrence Foster was a tireless fighter for his grandson
the whole time, speaking at press conferences and demonstrations and helping
to organize various events to mobilize the public behind the call to save
Kenny. 
But the fact that Kenny remains incarcerated and--if the system has its
way--will die in prison means that justice still has not been served.

Lily Hughes, the CEDP's national director, spoke during the opening plenary,
discussing the state of the death penalty today and explaining why its use
has declined and the importance of our movement connecting to the broader
fight around criminal justice.

In a session on "2 Cases of Injustice: Stop the Execution of Rodney Reed and
Louis Castro Perez," both Sandra Reed, Rodney's mother, and Delia Perez
Myers, the sister of Louis Castro Perez, spoke about the fight for their
loved ones and their continued determination to stop the execution system.

It wasn't lost on anyone in the room that both cases are in their critical
last legal stages. Delia Perez Myers described her anger over evidence that
was only recently discovered because prosecutors had buried it. Meanwhile,
Sandra said she and her family remained focused on the struggle for Rodney.
"We have to keep fighting" Sandra said.

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

AFTER THE plenary sessions, there were workshops to take on issues such as
"The Torture of Solitary," where presenter Randi Jones Hensley taped out
markings on the floor to show the small space that prisoners are confined to
when stuck in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day. "Just imagine
what that's like--to be in that small space day after day after day. And
many prisoners spend years of their lives there. It's an inhumane and unjust
punishment."

Mark Clements, a former police torture victim from Chicago who spent 28
years unjustly incarcerated, also spoke at the workshop and brought home the
deplorable conditions of today's prisons: "They treat you worse than a dog."

Student Blaine Anderson, who was attending the CEDP's convention for the
first time. approached another presenter, journalist Liliana Segura, to say
that "this is one of the best conferences I've ever been to, and I've
attended many prison justice-type conferences." Anderson said she had never
really thought about how family and loved ones are affected by the injustice
system, and how moved she was listening to people whose lives have been
forever altered.

That power probably came through most clearly when Terri Been, whose brother
Jeff Wood is currently on Texas death row, also under the unjust "Law of
Parties" rule, spoke from the audience. Choking back sobs and surrounded by
her sons who took turns consoling her, Been talked about what it was like
when Jeff came within hours of being executed in 2008:

I just couldn't do it, I just could not go in and watch them kill my
brother--even though he wanted me there. And I just don't know what else I
can do. I can't sleep, I'm a nervous wreck. They want to kill my brother,
and I don't know how to protect him.

While the pain of family members like Terri Been was real and shared
throughout the conference, so was the determination to fight.

LaKiza--the sister of Larry Jackson, who was killed over a year ago by an
Austin police detective, who followed him and shot him in the back--spoke
about her continued pursuit of justice. The cop, Charles Kleinert, was
indicted for murder, but a judge threw out the indictment--that ruling is
being appealed. 
"We are going to keep up the pressure because I am not about to give up," 
LaKiza said.

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

THE EVENING panel discussion was probably the most uplifting event of the
conference. Facilitated by Sandy Joy, the audience heard from two exonerated
death row prisoners who work with Witness to Innocence--as well as Kenneth
Hartman, who is serving a life without the possibility of parole sentence. 
Hartman called in from prison to explain how his sentence and one that
50,000 other people endure is really just "the other death penalty, a lethal
term of imprisonment."

You could hear a pin drop as Sabrina Butler, the first woman ever exonerated
and freed from death row, told us what it was like to be convicted of
killing her 9-month-old baby when she was just 18. "I was trying to help
him," she said. "I was giving him CPR on the way to the hospital, but they
said I killed him." She spent over 6 years on death row in Mississippi
before winning her freedom. She implored us to keep up the fight against the
racist injustice system.

DeWayne Brown, who goes by the nickname "Dough-B," spent 12 years wrongfully
incarcerated, 10 of them on Texas' death row. He has been free since June of
this year, and he talked about the difficulty in adjusting to life on the
outside, but you would never know it by the easy way he addressed the
audience.

He emphasized how desolate and isolating it is when you are on death row.
"The quietist part of the day on Texas death row is when it's mail call. The
radio's go down, the talk stops, and men stand by their doors, hoping the
guard stops and gives them a letter." He urged us to keep reaching out to
those still locked up: "Let them know you are thinking about them, and they
aren't forgotten."

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        Posted by: "Nancy Bailey" <nlbailey at earthlink.net>        

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