A story of forgiveness and healing.

This story really hits home to me and confirms why I am strongly opposed to the death penalty.  As a Christian, if you believe in forgiveness, it is hard for me to understand how you can take a life when that potential exists. Also, it reconfirms that real need in terms of dealing with reconciliation between victims and offenders.

In the past five years Patty O’Reilly of Sonoma has gone from a wife to widow, from a private person into a familiar face at San Quentin prison.

On a journey that began with heartbreak and fueled by deep religious faith, the mother of two young daughters finds herself these days focusing on hope.

She admits, she started off hating the man who killed “my Danny.”

“But I was reminded by a good friend that everyone can change. I remembered that as a Christian I am called to forgive as I am forgiven,” she said.

No one is more amazed than she to find herself devoted to the last thing she ever considered doing — volunteering as a surrogate victim in prison restorative justice programs.

“I remember thinking, you’re crazy,” said her daughter Erin O’Reilly, 17, now living in Washington, D.C., where she studies at the Washington School of Ballet.

“I thought, ‘I’m living with insane people,’” she said Erin O’Reilly of her first reaction. Today, she is proud of her mother. “She’s getting a lot out of it and she’s doing something really positive for people in prison. They need help.”

Patty O’Reilly has participated in two pilot programs, the Victim-Offender Dialogue Program through the State of California and Victim-Offender Education Group at San Quentin State Prison. It was through such programs, which facilitate dialogue between victims and inmates, that O’Reilly eventually traveled to Folsom Prison to meet with and forgive Mike Albertson, 51, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for killing Danny O’Reilly.

[…..]

“The fact is that everybody that is in jail — the so called bad people — they’re coming out,” said B. Sullivan of the Restorative Justice and Detention Ministries in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. “Don’t you want people going in and getting rehabilitation? They’ll be back.”

In 2007, Patty O’Reilly was given a Champion of Courage Award by the Sonoma County District Attorney’s office for her work in restorative justice.

In the five years since the death of her husband, O’Reilly and her daughters have forgiven. Their wish for the man responsible for that death is that he one day attains his own peace.

Read it all.

The cost of capital punishment.

Here’s a good summary, from The Boston Globe,  of issues related to the death penalty and why it needs to be abolished.

…money isn’t the only, or the best, reason to stop executions. The death penalty is not a deterrent to most deadly crimes. It is applied unevenly. It places the United States among the world’s most brutal regimes. And there are 130 other reasons: the 130 death-row inmates who were exonerated by new evidence. Their deaths would have carried an awful price tag.

The haunting of a Florida prison warden.

Readers of this blog know of my opposition to the death penalty. I’ve stated many reasons and examples of why I believe this way over the years but here’s a story from a former Florida warden that should give anyone pause. Read it all.  Here is what he says haunts him the most:

The flames that consumed Pedro Medina’s head when the execution went seriously awry, the smoke, the putrid odor, and his death by inferno is deeply embedded in my brain.The memory of telling the executioner to continue with the killing, despite the malfunctioning electric chair, and being at a point of no-return, plagues me still.

And his conclusion rings very true to my beliefs.

Here I want to say that one must be careful in searching his soul…one may just find that God is there and that He does not support the barbaric idea that man should execute man.

During the renewal of my faith and my conversion to the Catholic Church, I was asked to speak out about my feelings on the death penalty.

After twenty-three years in Corrections, I have come to the conclusion that killing people is wrong. We have no business doing it, except in self-defense, in defense of someone else or in defense of the nation. And it’s wrong for us to ask others do it for us. Looking back I wish I had never been involved in carrying out the death penalty. We have an alternative that doesn’t lower us to the level of the killer: permanent imprisonment. It is cheaper, keeps society safe and offers swift justice to the victims.

Remembering Dominique Green–“A Saint on Death Row.”

Even though I’ve been staying away from blogging during Lent, I haven’t stayed away from reading and have read a wonderful book that I highly recommend.  Thomas Cahill’s, “A Saint on Death Row:The Story of Dominique Green” is a moving and sensitive story of a young man who is hard to forget. As Desmond Tuto says on the jacket: “Read it and discover how even the obscenity of capital punishment can be transformed into an occasion of light and peace.”

If you have  read any of Thomas Cahill’s books like “How the Irish Save Civilization,” “The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels,” or “Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter,” you may be surprised by the personal nature of Cahill’s plea against injustice, racism, poverty and the death penalty.

If you believe in forgiveness, you will be amazed at Dominque Green, who, while sentenced to death, becomes instrumental in leading most of his fellow inmates, on Death Row in the State of Texas, to forgive everyone who has ever harmed them and to ask forgiveness from those they have harmed.  This image of Dominique is from a fellow Death Row inmate:

“Even when his world was crashing, he always remained cool. And really, I don’t think he was trying to be cool.  He was just at peace.”

Then there is the moving encounter between Desmond Tutu and Dominique Green. I read it as tears poured down my cheeks.  Archbishop Tutu’s words summarize it,

“I was humbled to be in his (Dominque Green’s) presence because I felt I was in the presence of God.  This is not the monster that many would expect or think, but a human being, a human being who has grown.  He’s like a flower opening and you see the petals come up, particularly when you see him speaking about his concern for others.”

The story would, obviously, not be complete without it’s moments of despair; Dominque Green was awaiting his death.  As the date of his execution was sealed (October 26, 2004), Dominque watches as fellow inmates and close friends are executed, he struggles to maintain his cool and the weight of the reality presses in. But even on his last day, as he makes his way to the Hunstville Death House, as the name of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is called as a witness to his execution (even though Dominique knew he would not be there), the joy and love shows through in this young man, “A Saint on Death Row.”

Do yourself a favor, regardless of your viewpoint on the issue of the death penalty, read this book, read it twice (as I did within the past week) and you will never forget this man’s last days. But also watch this video to get a sense of both men, Dominque Green and the author Thomas Cahill.

The words on Dominique Green’s memorial stone, in the Bascilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Italy, read:

DOMINIQUE J. GREEN

HOUSTON 13 V 1974 – HUNTSVILLE X 2004

BROTHER AND FRIEND

It is the Lord who set out the steps of a man

and takes pleasure in his journey.

Though he fall, he will not be sent sprawling–

For the Lord is holding him by the hand.

Psalm 37

The Old Fart’s Sunday Recommendations.

• Cathleen Falsani has interviewed faith leaders and learned what they tell people who are suffering through this current economic hard time.
• A few summers ago (wow, it was 2001 immediately before 9-11) the media circus focused on the murder of Chandra Levy and the possible involvement of then Congressman Gary Condit.  Here’s an update from which the most interesting point to me is that her family is opposed to the death penalty for her killer if he is convicted. Robert Levy said he and his wife, Susan, were not told the identity of the person to be arrested “but we all know who it is.” He would not elaborate but said they would favor a life sentence for the killer.
• David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch, coming from two different points of view, propose an interesting compromise on the issue of gay marriage.  I’m not sure how I feel about this after only a first reading, but it’s a proposal worth exploring.
• And, if you’ve been living under a rock, just a reminder that tonight is the 81st annual Academy Awards from down the street in Hollywood.  I usually miss most of the show but tonight am heading out to a party at friends which should be fun. Enjoy but better yet, see some of the movies worth seeing–Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Frozen River and Milk were my favorites.

The Old Fart’s Saturday Recommendation.

• The Third Way, a governing agenda designed to end the culture wars.
• From yesterday’s NY Times comes Mary Frances Berry’s OpEd, “Gay But Equal” which is well worth reading, even a day late.
• The departure of the frat boy, from The Economist.
• Death penalty repeal is on the table in Maryland and Nebraska.

Why Obama is More Pro-Life Than McCain.

In a discussion with some friends, last night, I said that even though Obama supported a woman’s right to choose I considered him the real pro-life candidate as his policies, on the whole, more fully support life in all its forms. Many supposed “pro-life” (really anti-abortion) supporters don’t support policies that make life possible and easier for poor children after they are born. Likewise, they are very strong supporters of the death penalty, which is NOT being pro life.

From Catholic writer, Rocco Palmo comes word of this statement from Nigerian Catholic Archbishop John Onaiyekan strongly supporting Obama over McCain.

“Of course I believe that abortion is wrong, that it’s killing innocent life,” he said. “I also believe, however, that those who are against abortion should be consistent.

“If my choice is between a person who makes room for abortion, but who is really pro-life in terms of justice in the world, peace in the world, I will prefer him to somebody who doesn’t support abortion but who is driving millions of people in the world to death,” Onaiyekan said.

“It’s a whole package, and you never get a politician who will please you in everything,” he said. “You always have to pick and choose.”

End The Injustice Of The Death Penalty, Not More Lives.

At 11 JoJo White wrote this poem.At 23 JoJo was murdered and his last words were, “Peace, brother, One Love.” Read his parents take on who is responsible.

The real criminals are the antisocial monsters who are responsible for a system that is making war on the poor and in the process creating confused and enraged people like the man who killed our son. That man is as much a product of this system as the handgun he used. He obviously had no village that might have given him the love and respect that would have made his horrendous crime impossible. Some people will argue that he had a choice between right and wrong. But if this society denies good choices to children how do they learn to make good choices as adults? If we don’t give a child a decent life, how can that child grow up to respect life?

The Death Penalty And Race.

Since capital punishment was reinstated in California in 1977, death sentences against black defendants, but not Latinos, have been disproportionately enormous by almost every measure: population, homicide rates, victim data and the sentencing patterns of other states.

California’s 5-to-1 ratio of blacks on death row to blacks in the state population, measured in percentages, is much higher than the ratios in Texas, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. The national average is 3 to 1.

The California Commission on the Fair Administration of justice wants why the death penalty is sought in some cases but not in others and what impact race has in that decision.  The Fresno Bee explains.

Last Wishes Of An Executed Inmate.

Before he died Wednesday evening, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop apologized to his victim’s family, thanked America and urged people to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

“For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice,” Bishop said.

Full story from the Clarion-Ledger here.

Effort To End CA Death Penalty By Two Polar Opposites.

In an interesting development, Mike Farrell, of Death Penalty Focus (a group that I have been involved with in the past), and “the hanging judge of Orange County, Don McCartin, have joined forces to try to end the Death Penalty.  See the story in the LA Daily News.  

Here is the perspective of a former judge who sentence 9 people to death.

Don McCartin, having sentenced nine men to death and then watched as the system examined, re-examined and finally overturned all of his convictions while executing none of them, now believes the death penalty is a hideously expensive fraud. It tortures the loved ones of murder victims by dragging them through the years of complex appeals required by the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to protect the innocent.

He’s aware of the constitutional dilemma created by the tension between the need to protect the rights of the accused in a death case and the desire for some form of justice to be done. But he’s outraged that the mother of Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl raped and murdered in 1979, is now required to sit through yet a third trial of the alleged killer almost 30 years later. A sentence of life without parole would have allowed her to go on with her own life so long ago.

Well said.  And, as Mike Farrell said “our entire society is harmed by the dehumanization process inherent in state killing.”

Check out Death Penalty Focus of California.