Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
(CUADP) is pleased to forward this important press release. Thanks for
your attention....
--abe
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
800-973-6548
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MURDER VICTIMS' FAMILIES FOR RECONCILIATION PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT:
Kate Lowenstein
Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation
Cell: 202-270-0279
Renny Cushing
Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation
Cell: 617-930-5196
cushing@mvfr.org
www.mvfr.org
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DIGNITY DENIED: NEW REPORT REVEALS BIAS AGAINST
SURVIVING FAMILY MEMBERS WHO OPPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY
Aug. 19, 2002 - A new report released today paints a
startling picture of systemic bias and discrimination by those who serve
victims against surviving family members who, contrary to popular
stereotype, oppose the death penalty.
"Dignity Denied: The Experience of Murder Victims'
Family Members Who Oppose the Death Penalty" was released today by
Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation (MVFR). MVFR is a
victim-founded, victim-led organization that represents murder victims'
families who oppose the death penalty. MVFR Executive Director Renny
Cushing, a former New Hampshire state legislator whose father was
murdered in 1988, will release "Dignity Denied" at the annual
conference of the National Organization for Victim Assistance, scheduled
for this week in Nashville, Tennessee. The report can be viewed by
visiting www.mvfr.org
and clicking on "What's new."
"Too often, family members who oppose the death
penalty are silenced, marginalized, and abandoned, even by the people
who are theoretically charged with helping them," Cushing said.
The victims' rights movement of the late '70s gave rise
to victims' rights laws and victim assistance programs, with the goal of
enabling victims to be "informed, present, and heard"
throughout the criminal justice process. But today, Cushing explained,
"victims' services usually operate under the auspices of the
prosecutor, so rights are granted and enforced only at the prosecutor's
discretion."
"Today, as MVFR publishes this account of silencing
and discrimination against anti-death penalty victims, we are not aware
of a single protocol in the office of any prosecutor in the United
States that alerts victim assistants to the possibility that some family
members of victims may oppose the death penalty and that they are
entitled to the same assistance as those who support it," Cushing
said.
Cushing explained that there are three primary ways
victims who oppose the death penalty face discrimination:
****Denial of the right to speak and be heard. Victoria
Lamm was murdered in Nebraska in 1980, and the perpetrator was given a
death sentence. When the Nebraska Board of Pardons was considering
commuting the death sentence years later, three family members of the
victim asked to present testimony, but only one was allowed to do so.
Victoria's sister, who supported the death penalty, was allowed to
testify. Victoria's husband and daughter, who opposed the death penalty,
were denied that right - even though the Nebraska Constitution
specifically guarantees victims the right to make a statement at such
proceedings.
****Denial of the right to information. Often, when
prosecutors learn that a surviving family member opposes the death
penalty for the perpetrator, that person will be denied information
about upcoming hearings, court dates or other important information
about the case. In Austin, Texas, for example, when Jeannette Popp, who
opposed the death penalty for the murderer of her daughter, "the
district attorney's office cut off communication with her and would not
inform her of upcoming court hearings involving her daughter's
murder."
"Sometimes this denial is made explicit, as when
members of a district attorney's office warn families that if they
advocate against the death penalty the office will no longer communicate
with them," Cushing says. "At other times, the office may
communicate with the family but do so in a way that is incomplete,
inaccurate or misleading."
****Denial of the right to assistance and advocacy.
Victim SueZann Bosler came close to losing her life when an assailant
severely injured her and murdered her father. The state of Florida
decided to seek the death penalty against the perpetrator. She reported
that during the first two trials of her father's murderer, the victim
witness advocate "held my hand, got coffee for me...[but] on the
third trial, when I wasn't doing what they wanted, they wouldn't talk to
me or sit next to me or look at me. They wouldn't have anything to do
with me."
"Some advocates see victims who oppose the death
penalty as more closely identified with the defendant than with their
own status as victims, thus rendering them ineligible for or undeserving
of advocates' help," Cushing said. "Such a view disregards the
possibility that survivors may oppose the death penalty for their own
reasons, not because of sympathy for the murderer."
"Dignity Denied" challenges lawmakers, the
federal government's Office of Victims of Crime, and leaders within the
victims' services community to address past and current discrimination
and commit to equitable treatment of survivors of homicide victims.
Specifically, the report recommends that victims' rights laws should be
amended to ban discrimination based upon a victim's position on the
death penalty; victims' services should be administered independently,
not as part of the prosecutor's office; and leaders in the victims'
services community should develop protocols for serving victims'
families who oppose the death penalty.
FORWARDED BY:
Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director, CUADP
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YES FRIENDS!
There is an Alternative to the Death Penalty
Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty
(CUADP) works to end the death penalty in the United
States through aggressive campaigns of public education
and the promotion of tactical grassroots activism.
Visit <http://www.cuadp.org>
or call 800-973-6548
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