Campaign to End the Death Penalty

Kenneth Foster Journal Entry from August 30

Resurrection: August 30th, 2007

Like thieves in the night they swooped me up. It was the eve of my
own State sanctioned murder, approximately 8:20 PM and I was
listening to shout-outs pour in to me on 96.1 KDOL.

Unexpectedly, there was a knock at my cell door.

There stood a death row Lieutenant and 2 Wardens (Simmons and Hirch.)
"Strip out!" was the Lieutenant's order. "For what reason?" I
responded. "Because we told you to" was all that I got back. Having
no idea what the situation could be I complied with the order.
Though I was being provoked I didn't want to act before knowing what
the situation was. I stripped out and exited the cell. I could feel
in my bones that something wasn't right. And as we exited the pod my
feelings were true - there waiting for me was a 5 man extraction team
and all of the shift supervisors (several Sergeants) and to top it
off several plain clothed people (at first I thought these were
Sheriffs, but later found out that it was the TDC Regional Director
Mr. Treon and the Warden from the Walls Unit.) As soon as I set my
eyes on this circus like spectacle I immediately dropped to the
ground and announced that I wasn't going anywhere until somebody told
me where I was going and why. In his typical tyranical rage Warden
Hirch said "I told you we'd tell you when you got up the hallway." I

This just in from Campaign to End the Death Penalty:

Groups Opposed to Executions Applaud Ruling on Lethal Injection

Activists agree that the procedure is broken but disagree that the
execution process can be fixed.

Oakland, CA, December 15, 2006:

Anti-death penalty activists spoke out Friday in response to the ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel stating that the State of
California's lethal injection protocol is unconstitutional.

The lethal injection process amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, according to Crystal Bybee, the California Coordinator of the Campaign
to End the Death Penalty. "We have been saying that lethal injection is cruel and unusual," said Bybee. "The hearings that Judge Fogel conducted showed the serious issues involved and the possibility of prisoners being conscious during the painful procedure. But the bigger picture is that no matter what the mix of chemicals, all executions are cruel and unusual. Judge Fogel is right that the lethal injection process is broken, but is wrong in thinking that it can be fixed."

Individuals who have witnessed executions attest to the fact that these executions are not simple, painless procedures. Barbara Becnel, advocate for Stanley Tookie Williams, witnessed Williams' execution on December 13, 2005. The execution, which Becnel calls "torture-murder," took 35 minutes. The State has admitted that it was botched. "I know the truth, I know what I saw," said Becnel after hearing Judge Fogel's decision. "I saw Stanley Tookie Williams tortured to death. The anniversary of the execution was marked by a reenactment in Berkeley, CA just this week. Becnel added, "What they did to Stanley Tookie

When are we going to abolish the death penalty already?

Death Sentences Decline, and Experts Offer Reasons

By NEIL A. LEWIS, NYT

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 — The number of death sentences in the United States has dropped to its lowest level in decades, according to recent studies, including one released Thursday that predicts the trend will continue because of publicity about cases in which people are wrongly accused of crimes.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a group based in Washington, reported that the number of death sentences, which had remained at about 300 a year in the 1990s, began to drop steadily in 1999 and has declined almost 60 percent since then.

At the Justice Department, the Bureau of Statistics reported last week that there were 128 death sentences in 2005, down from 138 the year before. While the department study does not include an estimate for 2006, the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty and tracks cases closely, says the number for this year will be about 114.

Defense lawyers, prosecutors, and groups that study the application of the death penalty all say there are several reasons for the trend. Among them are increased publicity about cases other than murder in which DNA testing resulted in freeing people who had wrongly been convicted of crimes, producing skepticism about the reliability of verdicts; recent Supreme Court decisions requiring that juries be told when life in prison without possibility of parole is an option, and improved legal representation for capital defendants, including a sharp increase in using specialists to develop arguments for mitigation.