Published Sunday, February 21, 2010
Religious, human rights leaders protest death penalty
A coalition of religious and human rights leaders held a press conference recently to raise concerns about Georgia's capital punishment laws.
The press conference was held Feb. 16 inside the State Capitol rotunda. Speakers called on lawmakers to address threats to fairness and due process in the state's capital punishment system and address serious concerns about the current conditions at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
Scheduled to speak were Sen. Vincent Fort and Rep. Stephanie Benfield as well as Sara Totonchi, chairperson of Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty; Murphy Davis of the Open Door Community; and Gary Charles, pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
GFADP members have been talking with legislators about concerns relating to a policy change at the prison that houses death row inmates in Jackson. On Jan. 1, 2010, the prison eliminated all contact visits between people on death row and their families and clergy. The men on daeath row are under 23-hour lock down -- allowing only one hour for phone calls, showers and time in the exercise yard.
GFADP members are requesting that the Georgia Department of Corrections immediately restore contact visits and eliminate the current practices at Jackson.
"Abolishing contact visits for families of people on death row compromises conversations with clergy and visits with loved ones which nurture family values and personal responsibility," Totonchi said. "Quality visitation is essential not only to the humanity of those in prison and but also in preserving and promoting prison safety."
GFADP is also calling for a moratorium on the death penalty and study of problems with capital punishment. Problems with Georgia's death penalty cited included:
* The case of Troy Davis has raised the problems with Georgia's death penalty system to an unprecedented level locally and internationally. Davis, a possibly innocent man on Georgia's death row, has three times come within hours of being executed yet questions of his guilt remain.
* A team of Georgia legal experts overwhelmingly recommended a moratorium on executions its January 2006 report. Problems cited included: inadequate funding for indigent defense, failure to guarantee defense counsel in state habeas proceedings, lack of meaningful review of proportionality of sentences, inadequate pattern jury instructions addressing mitigating evidence and continued racial disparities in capital sentencing.
* The Atlanta Journal Constitution 4-part series, "A Matter of Life or Death," (Sept. 2007) details problems with socio-economic bias, disproportionate and arbitrary sentencing.
"We are urging our legislators to support a time-out on executions to allow the state to study and address systematic problems with the state's capital punishment system," said Totonchi.
GFADP is a diverse group of human rights activists, murder victims' family members, law enforcement professionals, members of the clergy and legislators who believe that maintaining a capital punishment system in Georgia discredits the state, diverts public resources that could be used more productively and raises troubling legal and moral issues.
Members across Georgia mobilize to seek clemency on behalf of people scheduled to die and hold candlelight vigils throughout the state during executions. Along with coalition partners, Amnesty International and the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, GFADP is a leader in the campaign for justice for Troy Davis, who will receive an evidentiary hearing in federal court on evidence of his innocence after over 18 years on death row.
