Sister Helen Prejean

I’m thrilled for Troy Davis and his family that the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that new evidence of innocence merits a hearing in a federal court. My lawyer friend, Denny LeBoeuf, tells me we haven’t had such a decision from the Supreme Court in direct response to a plea from a district court in 50 years. It had to be that evidence of innocence was so palpable and Troy’s execution so imminent, that six members of the court threw regular procedural rules out the window.

But not all. There were two dissents, and one of them came from Justice Antonin Scalia. Here’s what he said.

“This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.”

If you find that chilling, that means you get it.

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Juan Meléndez spent 17 years on Florida’s death row for a murder he did not commit. Although the real killer confessed, his confession was never shown to the defense and the jury never heard it.

Juan Meléndez – 6446 tells Juan’s story and the story of the dedicated people who stood by him and finally helped win his freedom.

Juan was present at this year’s National Campaign to End the Death Penalty conference in Pennsylvania in January, when we all got to see the premiere of this powerful  film. His mama was there, too. It was heartbreaking and maddening and it stirred the soul.

Now comes the news that Juan Meléndez – 6446 has been accepted to the New York Latino International Film Festival. It will be screened on Wednesday, July 29 and on Friday, July 31. Juan will be there for the screening on Friday. The documentary has also been accepted to the Montreal World Film Festival where it will be shown at the end of August.

If you live in the New York area or know someone who might be interested,  I encourage you to attend and spread the word. The film will be screened on Wednesday, July 29 at 5:00 PM at Clearview Cinemas Chelsea Screen 7; and on Friday, July 31 at 2:00 PM at Clearview Cinemas Chelsea Screen 8. For ticket information and to learn about other films that will be screened at the festival, please visit the New York Latino International Film Festival site.

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President Obama met with the press before his visit with Pope Benedict on July 10. He talked about how he admired Cardinal Bernardine’s “seamless garment” approach to pro-life, that the cardinal included in its scope a wide range of issues: “He was concerned about poverty, he was concerned with how children were treated, he was concerned about the death penalty…”

Now here’s interesting fodder for a conversation with President Obama. For starters: “Aren’t you, too, very, very concerned about the fact that already 135 innocent people have been released from death row? How many will it take before we recognize the failed system? Not to mention the shocking, appalling racist application of the death penalty presently carried out in the Deep South states.”

Do you have any ideas about how we might get a conversation going with President Obama and his wife, Michelle, about this issue? Would you like to help us mount a young people’s letter writing campaign to the White House to end the death penalty in the U.S.?

Think boldly. Organize strategically. Act quickly. Please respond and let me know your thinking!

- Sister Helen

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Here is good news to help further galvanize the Catholic troops who number 67 million strong in the US. Speaking in Mexico, the Pope issued a clear statement against the death penalty:

One cannot insist enough on the fact that the right to life must be recognized fully. [Governments must enact laws and public policies that] take into account the high value that a human being has at every moment of existence. In this regard, I welcome with joy the initiative of Mexico, which in 2005 eliminated its capital punishment legislation, as well as the recent actions some Mexican states have taken to protect human life from its beginning.

Meanwhile, here in the US the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty is doing great work, educating Catholics about the death penalty. This group was launched this year under the leadership of my good friend, Karen Clifton, with a coordinating committee that rocks.

The Catholic Mobilizers welcome new members and volunteers as well as your feedback about their programs. Their website is bristling with useful resources, so I urge you to take a look.

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I want to share a letter I received from Kurt Rosenberg, the dedicated director of Witness To Innocence. Witness to Innocence is spearheaded by former death row prisoners who have been exonerated and released from death rows across the United States and who are now actively engaged in the struggle to end the death penalty. These courageous people bring a human face to the death penalty that no one else can.

Here’s what Kurt had to say after the recent exoneration of another two men from death row:

It’s become more clear than ever that as wrongfully convicted men continue to be released from death row, the issue of innocence is alive and well in the struggle to end the death penalty. Two more death-row exonerations last week – in the states that lead the nation in having sent innocent men to death row – have brought the nationwide total to 135 since 1973. Just over halfway through the year, there have been five exonerations in 2009, the most in the United States in a single year since 2004.

On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered that Herman Lindsey be set free because there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of murdering a Fort Lauderdale pawnshop worker. Lindsey’s exoneration was the 23^rd in Florida since the reinstatement of the death penalty.

Three days earlier, Ronald Kitchen was exonerated in Illinois when the state’s Attorney General dropped all charges against him. Kitchen and a co-defendant had been convicted of a 1988 murder. He had confessed to the crime after being subject to interrogation by a police unit that used torturous tactics against suspects.

Kitchen’s case is yet another exoneration linked to disgraced former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Kitchen had claimed that detectives under Burge’s command coerced him into confessing to the murders through torture, including hitting him in the head with a telephone, punching him in the face, striking him in the groin, and kicking him. Years after Kitchen’s conviction, Police Commander Burge was fired after the Police Department Review Board ruled that he had used torture. Burge currently awaits trial on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in relation to a civil suit regarding the torture allegations against him.

Kitchen’s exoneration was Illinois’ 20^th death-row exoneration. Florida and Illinois rank first and second in the United States, respectively, in death-row exonerations. Last week’s exonerations bring to four the number of death-row exonerations in the last two months. In mid-May, Paul House (Tennessee) and Daniel Wade Moore (Alabama) were also exonerated within three days of each other.

For more information on Lindsey’s exoneration, see: “Florida Supreme Court frees Death Row inmate in 1994 Broward murder” and “Death Row inmate convicted in 1994 Broward murder will be set free”. To read more about Kitchen’s exoneration, see “Burge-linked cases” and “Charges dropped in 20-year-old murder case”.

Kitchen after he was released from prison (photo Chicago Sun-Times)

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