ACTIVIST EDITORIAL
MURDER BY STATE

HOW STRANGE it must feel to serve a cheeseburger, french fries and a strawberry milkshake to a fellow human being-and to know that in a few hours that same living, breathing person will be dead, killed by the enterprise you are part of. How incomprehensible it is for pacifists to imagine being part of the death system sanctioned by 38 states and the federal government!

This past March Florida death-row inmate Pedro Medina was burned to death in the electric chair called "Old Sparky." Foot-high flames burst from his head. Accounts of even that horrible event failed to inspire mass calls to end the death penalty. Instead, the media noted as a witticism Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth's ghastly warning, "People who wish to commit murder better not do it in the State of Florida, because we may have a problem with our electric chair." Such flip comments in the face of murder make one tremble.

In May, Attorney General Janet Reno announced that Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski could be tried under the federal death penalty law. With this announcement, one could feel the agony of Kaczynski's brother, David, who had feared that if he gave up his brother to officials they would choose to kill him. The grace with which the Kaczynski family dealt with what must have been the most difficult decision of their lives deserved more than Reno's political expedience. How tired we have grown of hearing politicians say, "Personally I am against the death penalty-but..."

Texas-with the highest number of executions in the country-murdered eight men in May of this year and planned to execute eleven in June (this is written before the full count is in). A 1995 act by the Texas state legislature changed the time of executions from midnight to early evening to "make it easier on everyone involved," said a state official recently; the problem for prison personnel was not being part of the execution system, but having to work such late hours.

Most of you have probably followed the news of the trial and the June death sentence of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 adults and children. While the majority of day-by-day news stories showed families of victims anxious to see the death penalty exacted, other testimony was less visible but very moving. After the sentencing, Bud Welch, father of one of the adult victims, was quoted as saying, "Hate and vengeance is where the bombing came from. Hate is exactly what it is. His death will not solve anything. It's not going to bring my daughter back. It's not going to bring any peace." Mr. Welch came to that position six months after his daughter's death-and after much agonizing. He remembered a conversation he had with his daughter a few years earlier when they had disagreed on capital punishment. She had told him, "It has no redeeming social value. It's no deterrent to crime. It just teaches our children to hate."

His grief and his loss-the tears of any parent, spouse, lover, or friend at the death of a loved one-are understood and felt by us all. Our opposition to the death penalty does not lessen our sympathy with families of victims. And for us, too, it is difficult to see the humanity in the perpetrator of a horrendous crime. But we, too, know that hate and revenge do not heal the wounds. And a country that chooses revenge as public policy is a country that demands vocal dissent.

Our dissent has brought about one item of better news: The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has given special attention to Mississippi case of Azi Kambule. Azi was 17 when he became involved in a crime that resulted in a carjacking and murder. Azi was not present at the scene of the killing; he waited in a stolen car while others involved in the crime killed the victim. Yet for many months Azi had been facing the possibility of capital charges and a death sentence.

The NCADP and hundreds of friends and relatives from around the world lobbied the state of Mississippi not to kill a child, especially given that Azi had never been in trouble before. Finally, in June, the judge ruled against the possibility of a death sentence in the case. Something of a success can be felt here, except that Azi has now been sentenced to an excessive 35 years in prison-a punishment unlikely to do him or society much good.

All of us who espouse nonviolence must continue to speak out loudly against the crime of capital punishment. We should support (or initiate) vigils, protests and programs against the death penalty in each of our communities, regions and states-until we convince the governments that they must not kill in our name.

For organizers in your area-and for information about the Azi Kambule case-contact the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, 436 U St., NW, Suite 104, Washington, DC 20009, (202)387-3890. Send letters of protest regarding the Kaczynski case to Attorney General Janet Reno, 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, #4400, Washington, DC 20530-0001; fax (202)514-4371. To protest the execution rate in Texas, write Gov. George Bush, PO Box 12428, Austin, TX 78711; fax (512)463-1849. And for excellent data to back up the many arguments against the death penalty not mentioned here, contact the Death Penalty Information Center, 1320 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, (202)293-6970.

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