Letter to CA Department of Corrections
June 26, 2009
To: Mr. Timothy Lockwood
Chief of CDCR Regulation and Policy Management
Regarding Proposed Amendments to Title 15, Article 7.5, Sections 3349
Dear Mr. Lockwood,
All of my remarks about the proposed amendments to the lethal injection protocol center around this theme: Keep the window open. Make the torture and killing transparent.
Sadly, it is the personal experience I have had of accompanying six human beings to their deaths at the hand of the state that urges me to give this testimony.
KEEP THE WINDOW OPEN as the execution team goes about strapping down the person to be killed and as they insert the intravenous lines, including cut downs that may be necessary if there is difficulty in finding a suitable vein.
KEEP THE WINDOW OPEN during the administration of the poisonous chemicals and as the person is dying as well as after the person has been killed, as the medical professional verifies the death and as the corpse is put into a body bag and removed. Do not conceal any part of the killing process, and do not hide the identity of the personnel who carry out the killing, including the medical personnel. If we feel no need to protect the identity of legislators who have enacted death as punishment on the statute books or district attorneys who seek and secure death sentences, or juries who sentence people to die or judges who pronounce sentence, why do we hide the identity of those who carry out the killing, including those who concoct and administer the lethal chemicals and the medical personnel who supervise the proceedings?
KEEP THE WINDOW OPEN TO THE MEDIA so the citizens can witness the killings done in their name and which, perhaps, they themselves have called for. Through media coverage let legislators see the killings they have desired and mandated into law, and require district attorneys who procured the death sentences to witness the killing they sought.
DO NOT KEEP OUR EYES FROM SEEING THE DEATH AGONY of the person being killed by use of a paralytic drug. Are you aware that in hearings about lethal injection, veterinarians have testified that in the euthanasia of animals they no longer use paralytic agents because such drugs prevent them from seeing if the animal is in distress as they are dying? Use of a paralytic agent in the killing of a human being may be the most cowardly act of all. Its sole purpose is to hide the death agony from the eyes of those who witness the death. What if, for whatever reason, the sleeping barbiturate does not take effect? What if those being killed at our hands are fully conscious but, because of paralysis, are unable to move a finger or cry out as the potassium chloride burns through their veins and convulses their heart? If these killings are legitimate and legal, why do we take such pains to shield ourselves from seeing the agony they necessarily entail? The curtain that must be removed is not only the curtain on the window of the execution chamber at San Quentin, it is the curtain masking our own hearts toward these killings of our citizens, which we claim to want, yet are so reluctant to face.
I wrote the books, Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents, and give talks around this nation to bring people face to face with state-sanctioned killing and what it does to us all. May my testimony advance the day when the great state of California will forever consign to a museum the instruments and policies and protocols of state killing that we address today.
Sister Helen Prejean, csj
[...] As I said, this is stellar. Take a read of the letter. It will only take a few minutes to complete, and will cause (hopefully) a lot more time of contemplation and action. Here’s the link to her letter. [...]
agree that the abolitionists are not really interested in LWOP. >
I send this e-mail so you know the disastrous results that has resulted in Spain further legal reforms proposed by the liberals: should know the Spanish experience in abolishing the death penalty.
http://www.elmundo.es/papel/2005/12/04/cronica/1898002_impresora.html“It was not the first time they killed. And he did not need to be put to the eyebrows to know that perhaps need to use the huge machete which accompanied the gun blanks decorativa also carried on Tuesday with his nephew when he entered the jewelry in the basement of the municipal market Castelldefels.Ya stuck with him 18 years, almost two decades ago, a shot in the head to lift a trader Barcelonan booty amounting to 1,000 pesetas and then some sneakers.
When leaving uncle and nephew, on the floor of the jewelry Royo lay the owner of the establishment, Jose Luis Royo, his wife Rosa Maria Alonso and Carlos, one of their children.
The alleged perpetrators of the crime were arrested three minutes later. Juan Antonio Hernandez Sanchez is 20 years and, despite having committed at least a dozen robberies, has not put one foot in prison or a detention center until now. Fernando Sánchez Medina, the man who knew death is 37 years, and has an extensive criminal history. The two are neighbors in the slum of La Mina de Sant Adrià del Besos. Fernando is the uncle of John.
The cruelty of the murderer did the researchers think that the criminals had acted under the influence of drugs or withdrawal syndrome. They are not escaped, of course, that were committed against two politoxicómanos.Pero was not the case. Apparently, Sánchez Medina does not need to get wild horse.
JUNE 1985 / disorder AND DAMAGE
The first arrest of Sanchez Medina came in June 1985 for public disorder, damage to a trade in the city. He counted 16 years. Failed to enter prison. Neither took the train when the July 22, 1987 was arrested for a robbery with force, including Barcelona.No was armed, which helped to achieve his lawyer’s release.
JULY 1987 / FIRST BLOOD CRIME
His first offense of blood occurred two days after this latest incident. On July 24, 1987, Sánchez Medina came along with his two buddies, Pedro Alberto, and Vicente, both aged 17, a shop in the street Pujades Barcelona. He was 18 years. It was not the first club to beat all three together. But that would leave there with his first fatality in the … ¿Conscience?
The owner of the trade, Enrique Jaen, resisted. He blew the head with a shotgun cut canyons. He lives for some sneakers and 1,000 pesetas. A botín.Seis days later, the three murderers were arrested in a stolen car. Tried to avoid capture, but a police officer shot and blew the wheels of the vehicle.
AUGUST 1987 / THE FIRST STEP BY JAIL
Medina Sanchez then hit a first jail. Entered the model of Barcelona, one of the oldest of his stay there España.Durante before trial played an escape attempt. Hearing Barcelona sentenced to sentences totaling 27 years and four months for robbery with homicide.
FEBRUARY 1993 / robbery
For the five years of their admission to prison, came out on parole because he suffered a “serious illness with incurable illnesses, according to Article 60 of the old prison rules, then set aside for AIDS patients. Quickly return to crime. In February 1993 he was arrested for robbery with violence in Barcelona. Not entered the prison, but days later he was again arrested for injuries and returned to prison. It weighed on an arrest warrant.
Only two parts were written in the three incidents in prisons that has been entered: the Model, Ponent and Quatre Camins.Uno in 1997: one was requisitioned a leek. Neither rechistó.Un years later, got stoned in the laundry. It imposed a small fine.
The Criminal Code of 1973 allowed for the reduction of sentence for good behavior and Sanchez Medina knew. In 1999 came out on parole. He married and has since lived on the streets of the Levant mine with his wife and daughter three years.The police are reviewing recent unsolved robberies perpetrated in Catalonia because they suspect that, with or without the help of his nephew, not may have been last Tuesday to do what it takes without doing all their lives.”
Clear that after abolishing death the “reformers” would seek to attack LWOP next, then any long prison sentences.
conclusion: the abolition capital punishment is a mistake.
All the best for your future.