07 December 2003

Death - Minnesota:

By far the biggest flap in the press over the death penalty over the last week or so came from this State:
Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday he would push to reinstate the death penalty in Minnesota next year, saying he has had it with tales of violent sexual offenses.

"I think I speak for most Minnesotans — as a Minnesotan, as governor, as dad of two young daughters: I'm fed up," he said at a news conference, reacting to the arrest of a convicted sexual offender in the Nov. 22 disappearance of University of North Dakota senior Dru Sjodin.

Pawlenty said Sjodin's case was the "tipping point" in his decision.
The rallying of opposition to this was almost instantaneous:
Gov. Tim Pawlenty's call for the reinstatement of the death penalty in Minnesota is a profoundly troubling development which voters and legislators should reject.

Not only is state-sanctioned killing impractical, costly and ineffective as a deterrent to crime, but -- more important -- it would make all Minnesotans complicit in the very cycles of violence which everyone abhors and which are tearing at the fabric of our society.

As spiritual leaders of many of Minneapolis' downtown houses of worship, we stand with those who will resist this backward and frightening step. While we do not speak for members of our congregations, our firm opposition to the death penalty rises from what we understand to be the deepest values of our various faiths.

Rev. James Gertmenian of Plymouth Congregational Church and the Rev. Timothy Hart-Andersen of Westminster Presbyterian Church


"There are now numerous examples of innocent people who have been released from death row and many more examples of people being executed in a cloud of uncertainty about their guilt or culpability," said Caroline Palmer, president of the Minnesota Lawyers Guild and a member of Minnesotans Against the Death Penalty, a group formed this spring. "The trend in the United State is turning against the death penalty."

"Not only is it morally wrong … but it also is fiscally dumb," said Rep. Mindy Greiling, a Roseville DFLer. In other states, it costs millions of dollars to deal with the legal appeals of death row inmates.

"We cannot teach that killing is wrong by taking the lives of offenders," Kate Krisik, social concerns director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, read from a letter from the Roman Catholic bishops' organization.

"This should really terrify everyone in our communities of color in Minnesota," said Spike Moss, a Minneapolis African-American leader. Moss and others, including the head of the Minneapolis NAACP, cited studies that have found people of color are disproportionately represented on death row.

"It is a form of torture," said Paul Werger, state death penalty abolition coordinator in Minnesota for Amnesty International.

"Thou shalt not kill. This is God's commandment," said Brian Rusche of the Joint -Religious Legislative Coalition.


NAACP national chairman Julian Bond, in St. Paul on Friday for Minnesota's 20th Human Rights Day Conference, joined those voicing concerns about Gov. Tim Pawlenty's call for reinstating capital punishment in Minnesota.

Bond said the death penalty is applied disproportionately to racial minority group members and is fraught with error. He called the governor's initiative a "bad, bad notion."

"There's a frightening hunger in part of the population for retribution rather than punishment, and that's never a good thing," Bond said. "It's not a good outcome in any case."
The Legislature's reaction seems to doom the effort before it begins

DFL House Minority Leader Matt Entenza of St. Paul says the governor's timing is regrettable.

"The members of my caucus were shocked that at a time that we should be out trying to figure out where this young woman is, that some politicians are trying to pander on hot button social issues," Entenza said.



Of the Senate members who gave an opinion in the survey, DFLers came down 25 to 2 against the death penalty and Republicans were split 10 to 10. But Hottinger said that he didn't want to declare victory and that a relatively popular governor and public anger over the Sjodin case should not be discounted. But, Hottinger said, "In the past, when there's been momentary angry public fervor, long-term thinking has prevailed."

In the House, where Republicans have an imposing 82-51 majority, with one vacancy, the numbers mirrored the Senate's. Republicans who took a side were opposed 31 to 26. DFLers who could be reached and picked a side were opposed 37 to 0.

Fully 85 percent of Minnesota's 200 legislators -- 67 senators and 133 representatives -- responded to the telephone survey conducted Wednesday through Friday. The 201-seat Legislature has one vacancy.



House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, Pawlenty's indispensable ally and commander of a lopsided Republican majority, was only lukewarm about the new agenda item Wednesday. Sviggum was one of 30 House members who voted for capital punishment in 1997, the last time it came to a floor vote. There were 102 nays.

"I would tell you that there is nothing that puts it at the top of our agenda," Sviggum said. "It was kind of laid out without any discussion or notification. But if the governor introduces it, I would guess that it would come to a vote."
The only article I spotted in favor of the death penalty was this one which primarily takes issue with some inflammatory language used by the head of the NAACP.

No comments: