The UC Commonwealth Auditorium hosted one of this year's last stops on the “Journey of Hope” speaker series Thursday night, 22 April, which is intended to spread information and personal experiences in opposition to the continued exercise of the death penalty in America. Three speakers shared their stories with students, brought to the College by Students for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, an organization on campus.

Abe Bonowitz, Director of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Bill Pelke, the grandson of a woman murdered in her home by a teenager, and Juan Melendez, a man wrongfully convicted of murder who spent nearly 18 years on death row, addressed the assembled with different perspectives, but the same vision.

“There is no such thing as closure. There will always be that empty seat at the table,” said Bonowitz, who began work with Amnesty International in college at Ohio State University in full support of the death penalty.

“'I'll pull the switch myself,' I said that, and I meant it,” Bonowitz said. He described that over time he “found out that the truth was the opposite,” concerning his knowledge of the issues surrounding the death penalty.

Among the issues, he argued that it is less costly to keep inmates in prison for life than it is to execute them. For example, he offered that California would save $90 million per year above the cost of the life without parole, if it abolished the death penalty. He further claimed that the death penalty is unfairly administered, citing that of the approximately 900 executions since 1977 in America, “82 percent were killed for killing white people, when over half the victims of violent crime were people of color.”

“It has less to do with the severity of the crime and more to do with money, geography, race, and politics,” Bonowitz continued. He explained that many localities cannot afford the death penalty, and that, in his view, politicians often emphasize being tougher on crime in order to get elected, leading to unfair application of the death penalty.

Following Bonowitz was Bill Pelke, who recounted the day of 14 May, 1985, when three girls who were skipping school knocked on door of Ruth Pelke, his grandmother, saying they were interested in the Bible lessons she was known to lead. Using this explanation to gain entry to the house, they planned to rob the house to get money to go to an arcade. One girl hit the 78-year-old woman, and then another, Paula Cooper, stabbed her to death. The girls found $10 and keys to her old car. Despite the nature of the crime, Pelke came to forgive Cooper, who became the youngest person on death row in the country.

Pelke described that one day shortly after the murder, while he was at work in a crane cab high in the air, he decided to forgive Cooper on religious grounds Ironically his father had justified Cooper's sentence with the Bible.

“I realized that I didn't have to see somebody else die,” said Pelke.

Despite intense public demand for Cooper's execution in Pelke's hometown of Gary, Indiana, Cooper received widespread support in Italy. Pelke was given similar attention following his decision to work to stay her execution. 40,000 people signed a petition circulated in Italy in opposition to her sentence, and Pelke eventually spoke throughout the country on a 19-day tour. After the number of signers swelled to 2 million, and the Vatican became involved, legislators in Indiana raised the limit for the death penalty to 16 years of age.

On Christmas Day in 1998 Pelke was invited to carry the “Journey of Hope” at the head of the march to the Vatican for the day's services, attracting international media attention.

Pelke pointed out that Cooper's eventual removal from death row paid dividends, as two years ago she earned a college degree and now works for a firm from inside the prison, most of her earnings going toward a fund for the victims of violent crime.

“It's [the death penalty is] purely a matter of revenge. Revenge is never the answer. The answer is love and compassion for all of humanity,” said Pelke.

Concluding the forum was Juan Melendez, a Puerto Rican man who emigrated to the United States and was arrested and put on death row for a murder he did not commit. In his own words, he spent 17 years, eight months, and one day on death row.

“I never thought I would be convicted, and sentenced to death, for a crime I did not commit,” Melendez said. He spent most of his time describing the prison in which he spent a significant portion of his life.

“It's hell in there,” he said, and corroborated this assessment with details of his time in captivity. He spoke of the roaches that would cover his food within a moment of its being placed by his cell, and the rats which would warm themselves on his bed during cold nights. Perhaps the most disturbing image he shared was that of the runner who could bring an inmate a plastic garbage bag with which one could make a noose and hang himself.

“Believe me, I saw lots of my friends commit suicide,” he said.

Melendez went on to explain how eventually his case was transferred out of the rural jurisdiction in which he was convicted to Tampa, Florida, where a judge granted him a new trial after evidence of his innocence was discovered, including a taped confession of the real killer, papers the prosecutor never turned in, about twenty witnesses against the real killer, and even physical evidence linking him to the crime.

“I was saved in spite of the system, by miracles, by the grace of God,” Melendez said. “I'm living on borrowed time. I should have died a long time ago. Why? I don't know.”

Melendez further drew attention to Florida's Governor Jeb Bush, who he claims recently ordered recreational facilities to be removed from death row inmates.

“Jeb Bush is running all the death facilities now, and he took away everything that gives a man the will to live. Jeb Bush is the runner.” Melendez ended his comments with a call for students to get involved in his cause of ending the practice of the death penalty.

“[...] I need your help. You all are part of my dream,” he said. “All it [the death penalty] does is bring collateral damage to both sides.”