Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 3, 2006 21:14:19 GMT -5
For more than 150 years, the people of Wisconsin never approved of laws that would allow state authorities to execute anybody.
Now, however, some citizens of that mid-western U.S. state appear to have changed their minds.
The state senate voted by a narrow margin in May to allow Wisconsinites to vote on a referendum that could reinstate the death penalty.
Proponents of the death penalty describe the move as an opportunity for state residents to make their choice, but critics describe it as a tool that conservative lawmakers want to use for political gains.
Though Wisconsin is ruled by a Democratic governor who strongly opposes the death penalty, its legislature is dominated by Republicans, most of whom want to reintroduce the death penalty.
"I believe a majority of Wisconsin citizens strongly support the death penalty," state Senator Alan Lasee, a Republican who has been pushing for the restoration of death penalty for nearly three decades, said in a recent statement.
Lasee and others cite a number of murders in recent years, including serial killings, as reasons to support capital punishment. A death penalty in the state, they assert, would prove a strong deterrent against serious crimes.
They point to an April survey jointly conducted by a local public radio station and St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin in which more than 60 % of those polled supported the death penalty referendum.
Though critics do not dispute the findings of the poll, they seem
sceptical about the real motives behind the Republican initiative to restore death penalty.
"It's a biased decision because it's politically-motivated," Christopher Watson of Amnesty International's Wisconsin chapter told IPS.
Republicans are using the referendum as a political favour, Watson said. "Lasee is going to retire, and a lot of politicians want to grant him a favour," he said.
Despite a slight increase in public opinion in favour of death penalty, most Democrats oppose the proposed measure. Civil society groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), already are fighting the referendum.
"ACLU members and others who oppose the death penalty will be going to polls in November to keep state-sanctioned killing from returning to our state," said Chris Ahmuty, of the Wisconsin chapter of the ACLU.
The death penalty was banned in Wisconsin some five years after the state joined the union in 1848 in response to citizen revulsion over a public hanging in the town of Kenosha of a man who had drowned his wife.
"It has been 153 years since the government killed a person in the state of Wisconsin," Democratic Senator Jon Erpenbach said during senate debate in May. "We have functioned as a state without it. We don't need it."
In addition to Wisconsin, 11 other states prohibit capital punishment. They are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia.
Among the civil society groups opposing the restoration of death penalty in Wisconsin are leading faith-based groups in the state, including the Jewish Conference and Catholic Conference.
As elsewhere in the United States, many Republicans in Wisconsin believe the death penalty is an effective way to deter serious crimes. Opponents point out, however, that no study has ever proven that capital punishment discourages crime.
"It is no better deterrent to crime than life in prison," the Wisconsin State Journal, a well-respected local newspaper wrote in a recent editorial.
Southern states have not only the highest murder rate in the country, the paper said, but also the highest percent of the nation's executions. In contrast, the murder rate is lowest in the northeast -- a region which accounts for only 1 % of total executions.
Currently, some 87 % of the 5.3 million people who live in Wisconsin are of European descent. Only 6 % are African-Americans.
Critics fear that if death penalty laws were restored in the state,
African-Americans and other poor minorities, like Native Americans, would suffer the most.
"The statistics show that the poor don't have the resources to defend themselves," the journal observed in its editorial, noting that 42 % of death row prisoners nation-wide are African-Americans.
"This disproportion," the journal added, "would likely be sharper in Wisconsin, which leads the nation in the number of black people in prisons."
Amnesty International's Watson does not question the validity of the opinion polls that suggests a majority of people in the state support death penalty laws. Still, he wonders how people would respond if they were asked the question differently.
"(The polls) always focus on the nature of the crime," said Watson. "The way they ask questions about the death penalty is not the right way. When you ask a question about life without parole, for example, people look the other way."
In November, the referendum will ask: "Should the death penalty be enacted in the state of Wisconsin for cases involving a person who is convicted of 1st degree intentional homicide, if the conviction is supported by DNA evidence."
Though still hopeful about the outcome of the November ballot, Watson admitted that he has no illusions about the possibility of success for those pushing for legislation in support of death penalty. "It is disheartening," he said.
Not all have lost heart, however. "Those who are counting on fear to change our state will be in for a surprise," ACLU's Ahmuty said.
(source: IPS News)
Now, however, some citizens of that mid-western U.S. state appear to have changed their minds.
The state senate voted by a narrow margin in May to allow Wisconsinites to vote on a referendum that could reinstate the death penalty.
Proponents of the death penalty describe the move as an opportunity for state residents to make their choice, but critics describe it as a tool that conservative lawmakers want to use for political gains.
Though Wisconsin is ruled by a Democratic governor who strongly opposes the death penalty, its legislature is dominated by Republicans, most of whom want to reintroduce the death penalty.
"I believe a majority of Wisconsin citizens strongly support the death penalty," state Senator Alan Lasee, a Republican who has been pushing for the restoration of death penalty for nearly three decades, said in a recent statement.
Lasee and others cite a number of murders in recent years, including serial killings, as reasons to support capital punishment. A death penalty in the state, they assert, would prove a strong deterrent against serious crimes.
They point to an April survey jointly conducted by a local public radio station and St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin in which more than 60 % of those polled supported the death penalty referendum.
Though critics do not dispute the findings of the poll, they seem
sceptical about the real motives behind the Republican initiative to restore death penalty.
"It's a biased decision because it's politically-motivated," Christopher Watson of Amnesty International's Wisconsin chapter told IPS.
Republicans are using the referendum as a political favour, Watson said. "Lasee is going to retire, and a lot of politicians want to grant him a favour," he said.
Despite a slight increase in public opinion in favour of death penalty, most Democrats oppose the proposed measure. Civil society groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), already are fighting the referendum.
"ACLU members and others who oppose the death penalty will be going to polls in November to keep state-sanctioned killing from returning to our state," said Chris Ahmuty, of the Wisconsin chapter of the ACLU.
The death penalty was banned in Wisconsin some five years after the state joined the union in 1848 in response to citizen revulsion over a public hanging in the town of Kenosha of a man who had drowned his wife.
"It has been 153 years since the government killed a person in the state of Wisconsin," Democratic Senator Jon Erpenbach said during senate debate in May. "We have functioned as a state without it. We don't need it."
In addition to Wisconsin, 11 other states prohibit capital punishment. They are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia.
Among the civil society groups opposing the restoration of death penalty in Wisconsin are leading faith-based groups in the state, including the Jewish Conference and Catholic Conference.
As elsewhere in the United States, many Republicans in Wisconsin believe the death penalty is an effective way to deter serious crimes. Opponents point out, however, that no study has ever proven that capital punishment discourages crime.
"It is no better deterrent to crime than life in prison," the Wisconsin State Journal, a well-respected local newspaper wrote in a recent editorial.
Southern states have not only the highest murder rate in the country, the paper said, but also the highest percent of the nation's executions. In contrast, the murder rate is lowest in the northeast -- a region which accounts for only 1 % of total executions.
Currently, some 87 % of the 5.3 million people who live in Wisconsin are of European descent. Only 6 % are African-Americans.
Critics fear that if death penalty laws were restored in the state,
African-Americans and other poor minorities, like Native Americans, would suffer the most.
"The statistics show that the poor don't have the resources to defend themselves," the journal observed in its editorial, noting that 42 % of death row prisoners nation-wide are African-Americans.
"This disproportion," the journal added, "would likely be sharper in Wisconsin, which leads the nation in the number of black people in prisons."
Amnesty International's Watson does not question the validity of the opinion polls that suggests a majority of people in the state support death penalty laws. Still, he wonders how people would respond if they were asked the question differently.
"(The polls) always focus on the nature of the crime," said Watson. "The way they ask questions about the death penalty is not the right way. When you ask a question about life without parole, for example, people look the other way."
In November, the referendum will ask: "Should the death penalty be enacted in the state of Wisconsin for cases involving a person who is convicted of 1st degree intentional homicide, if the conviction is supported by DNA evidence."
Though still hopeful about the outcome of the November ballot, Watson admitted that he has no illusions about the possibility of success for those pushing for legislation in support of death penalty. "It is disheartening," he said.
Not all have lost heart, however. "Those who are counting on fear to change our state will be in for a surprise," ACLU's Ahmuty said.
(source: IPS News)