From Salon:
“Missouri is determined to execute Joseph Amrine for murder even though every prosecution witness and the jury foreman now say he’s innocent and new witnesses point to another man. Why? A federal law says the evidence came in too late.”
The whole story is here.
Please read this, and if you feel that this man may be innocent, contact the governor of Missouri, Bob Holden, asking him to grant a pardon, or at the very least a new trial, using the following contact information:
Governor’s Office In Jefferson City
Missouri Capitol Building, Room 218
PO Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0720
Telephone: (573) 751-3222
FAX: (573) 751-1495
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Sadly this does not surprise me… the American judicial system has so many problems and I am sad to see someone innocent lose their life.
***THE BEEJ***
Aye Aye Captain. I’m Number one. You all want what I got so bad. I might as well, nothing else better to do. Plus I agree with ya.
Dang you Beej.
Like he’s going to get off. You know us Americans aren’t happy until we see BLOOD SHED!
I have recommended the book “Dead Man Walking” by Sister Helen Prejean to just about everyone that I know. I was firmly on the fencepost about capital punishment for years until I saw her speak and read that book. The woman is persuasive….
Sometimes I really hate living in this state. Bobby-boy can expect a LONG letter from me.
Thanks for posting this.
And that is the A #1 reason that we should abolish capital punishment.
A #2 being it is cheaper to keep the garbage under permanent lock and key rather than going through appeal after appeal before we waste critical resources to give them what they truly deserve IF they are guilty.
But I say err on the side of caution and throw their farking asses in the stir and forget about them.
I have to watch, on a semi-annual basis, the misbegotten, disenfranchised, issue lacking youth of America (and Susan Sarandon besides, WHO I think is a pretty talented person otherwise) trapse through the streets of Philadelphia crying for a new trial for cop-killer, Mumia Abu Jamal. And it makes me physically ill and so help me if I had my way, I’d at least waste a dozen eggs on these protestors except that I have already spent a night as a guest of the detectives in the City of Brotherly Love and do not intend to repeat it.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Yeah…I used to support the death penalty as a general rule. But it is racist, sexist, and it can be totally avoided if you have enough expensive lawyers. There is just too much room for error.
Well, I fond a email that Holden can be reached at via of searchin the net.
Give ’em hell troops.
[email protected]
This should make it easier for us.
BUT REMEMBER:
Email’s can be deleted but letters although can be thrown away are beound to get more attention when they have to have a dump truck to deliver their mail to the executioner (Holden). Time to take his hand off the switch.
folks:
at the moment, i’m not too proud to confess that missouri is my home state, but please, please PLEASE understand that what is happening there is happening all across the country!
in fact, the u.s. supreme court has just agreed to hear a case regarding the captial punishment conviction imposed upon a mentally retarded man who DOES NOT possess the means to determine right from wrong!! keep your eyes peeled on this one, i just KNOW justice o’connor will provide the swing vote, yet again, and bring some sort of order to this matter.
getting back to missouri, and governor bob holden??
ah hell, what can one say? indeed, write letters, send emails, plead yell scream shout, do whatever it is you hearing folks do with those mouths and tongues and vocal cords of yours, but do it, you must do it, we must act.
*sigh*
and other countries wonder why we take such a moral high path when it comes to their actions and we can’t even look at our own reflections in the mirror.
thanks for posting it, will.
missy
The vengeful part of me loves capital punishement and I can’t help but smile at the thought of some twisted murdering fuck getting what he deserves.
But my head says otherwise – and cases like this underline the fact that I just cannot reconcile the death penalty with true justice.
I hope things go well for Joseph Amrine .
“I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effectual as their strict construction.”
U S Grant Inaugural address, March, 1869.
From the article:
As a historical footnote, it was under then-state Attorney General John Ashcroft, now the U.S. attorney general, that the initial decision was made to fight Amrine’s appeal, even though witnesses had recanted. Sean O’Brien, director of the Public Interest Litigation Clinic at the University of Missouri Law School in Kansas City, says that decision was vintage Ashcroft.
“While his fingerprints aren’t on this case, he set the tone in the office,” O’Brien charges, “that the attorney general’s office is duty-bound to oppose all applications for relief, no matter how meritorious. In other words, they would continue to press for execution even if there is some doubt about guilt.”
hi, me again…
please forgive all constituents in the state of missouri for fostering john ashcroft upon your psyches…it was bad enough we had to watch him get elected and be governor of our damned state, but to see him successfully run for senate and then be handpicked for attorney general?? it’s enough to make one fetch a bottle of tequila and sit under the stars, counting each one by one, thinking of the ways we could HAVE PREVENTED this travesty of justice.
ok, i’m rambling, but hey, i’m deaf, words to me are like flowers to bee — *sweet*
thanks again for posting, wil.
keep up the good fight.
missy
Well, I’m still all for capital punishment, but only when its needed. If there is evidence showing this guy is innocent, then in my opinion it can NEVER come too late. I’m emailing the gov to urge him to grant a pardon.
Missy, annoying doesn’t even begin to describe the crap you are writing.
Well, they’ve just received my email. Hopefully we’ll make a difference.
well FORGIVE me, alexis, for being deaf and not having the same comprehension and understanding of the finese of the english language as you.
crap? jesus, alexis, you might as well toss wil’s cat’s pee on me while you’re at it.
am i supposed to be witty?
i’m commenting about wil’s post and here you’re trashing me because mine isn’t as clever as the other’s??
thanks, alexis.
gee, i may be deaf, but damn, i can read you loud and clear.
missy
Yeah, what’s up with capital punishment? Although, it’s been abolished here in Canada, it really irritates me that such a supposed “free and liberal” country can commit murder and call it justice.
“An eye for an eye, and the whole world goes blind” – Gandhi
LOL! Alexis, relax. Why is everyone so uptight?
Email to government offices does not make a difference, because it takes three seconds to do it.
Writing a letter to them (or less preferably, a fax) makes a much better impression. It’s something they can hold in their hands, and it takes you time to do, so they know you’re serious.
If you’re trying to get a point across to a government official by sending email, you may as well just delete it before it leaves your Outbox. It does about as much good. Harsh, but true.
I suspect this is why Wil didn’t just post an email address in the first place.
Alexis, annoying doesn’t even begin to describe your post
The financial aspects of the death penalty aside… you can free a man 25 years down the road if he’s proved innocent. You can’t bring a dead man back to life or just say “Ooops” if the wrong person is executed. There’ve been, what, 86 people released from death row in the last couple of years because DNA proved their innocence years after the fact? Kinda makes you wonder how many died who didn’t deserve to…
Ian,
I made that point myself however, I feel a email is better than nothing.
I mean I urge all to write the letter but hey, if they are too busy to mail chances are they can find that 3 seconds to email.
ALthough you do make a valid point.
I’m sorry, but the guy was convicted by a jury of his peers. Now all the sudden the witnesses from the first trial are saying something else? Something’s fishy, and convicts aren’t inherently trustable anyway.
I’m not going to be sending a letter.
“convicts aren’t inherently trustable anyway”
So, *convicts* provided the testimony which convicted this guy, and now the jury of his (all-white) peers is saying that, in light of new evidence, they feel that he is innocent, deserving of a pardon, or at the very least a new trial. So the question I ask is, when are the convicts trustable? When they’re providing testimony to condemn this man, or when they’re providing testimoy which exonerates him?
Did you even read the story? It’s all in there.
KAKAZE: I think that warrants another trial at the very least, don’t you?
There still exists the possibility that he’s guilty, but I think it would irresponsible and unjust of us not to at least look into the matter in a new trial. Especially since some of the original “jury of peers” that convicted him now think he’s innocent.
I don’t know what to believe, anymore.
Dubya on the delay in Timothy McVeighs execution:
“This decision is going to create some frustration amongst people whose lives were destroyed and turned upside down by Mr. McVeigh,” the president said, endorsing John Ashcroft’s postponement of the execution.
“But it is very important for our country to make sure that in death-penalty cases people are treated fairly. Today is an example of our system being fair.”
Frankly, I find convicts untrustworthy 100 percent of the time. However, I also find the idea of the state committing murder even more heinious. Innocence or guilt don’t factor into my lack of support for the murder of criminals. I would hope that we have advanced beyond “An eye for an eye.” As a Christian, I find the whole idea of capital punishment morally reprehensible.
BTW, Missy, you guys have nothing to apologize for- Missourans elected a corpse rather than Ashcroft, so I think you can be forgiven. Texas, on the other hand…
“am i supposed to be witty? i’m commenting about wil’s post and here you’re trashing me because mine isn’t as clever as the other’s?? thanks, alexis. gee, i may be deaf, but damn, i can read you loud and clear.
missy”
Get a fucking life! Don’t pull the handicap card just because you’re embarrassed. And just for the record-HELLA annoying.
As a human being I find the idea of using death to punish *anything* reprehensible.
My cousin was murdered 6 years ago and even that did not change my belief that killing in the name of the state is wrong. The worst punishment I could think of for the man who killed him would be to live the rest of his life behind bars, confronted with the evidence of his crime.
Would that we could require our elected officials to face the same fate each time they wrongly execute an innocent person.
For those of you who haven’t read Salon.com in a while, you might also find it interesting that the same Ashcroft who has his hands wet with blood in this case also figures prominently in attempts to get bookstores to give reports to the government about the books we buy from them. All this in the name of “national security.”
I read the article, I still say the same thing. The first people who testified against him said he was guilty and now after how many years, they come back and say “Oh we were bribed for our testimony for rewards.”
UNTRUSTWORTHY…NO CREDIBILITY.
Why did it take them this long to say they were bribed?
The ONLY thing that I can see to justify a new trial would be the fact that his lawyer has been deemed ineffective counsel for two of his other six death row clients.
And Wil, don’t turn it into a race thing…I saw that (all-white) thing you appended to your statement about the jury.
There’s no evidence of racial bias.
Everyone likes to play the race card, which is crap.
In Texas right now sitting on death row are:
whites: 152
blacks: 187
hispanic: 110
other: 5
Looks to me like race has nothing to do with it here. Guilty is guilty, white or black.
oh and the the last one we got rid of was white (1/31/02) and the next one (2/28/02) is white also.
Kakaze: I wasn’t trying to turn it into a race-thing. What I was pointing out was that this “jury of his peers” were white, and he was black, and it was in Missourri…oh, wait. I guess race may have played a role in this after all.
Mrbob makes a good point, though.
Anyway, I just want to take a second and point out the mantra of WWDN: Argue *ISSUES* not *PERSONALITIES*. Let’s behave like adults, and leave the flamewars for someplace else.
Usually, I don’t care for Wil’s political standpoints. Quite simply, we don’t speak from the same political platform. Which is a-ok, because this is America and we are (*gasp*) allowed to have different opinions and both still be right.
This time, though, I must put in my $0.02. I am from Columbia, Missouri. I actually live 15 minutes away from Gov. Holden’s mansion. Lemme tell you about his political environment: not a single person in Missouri likes this guy. He was elected under VERY hazy conditions. Democrats nor Republicans like him. His nickname in Jeff City is “One-Term Bob.”
This should strike a nerve in you, Wil — he has asked our state congress to eleminate our film commission.
In a nutshell: This guy is an idiot. Call him. Write him. See if you can get some sense knocked into his thick skull. His constituants sure don’t seem to be having any affect on his idiocy.
Oh… and go check out my journal. 🙂
I still say that ANY doubt about a death row inmate’s guilt warrants another investigation and/or trial. Potentially putting an innocent man to death is unforgivable.
A new trial might be time-consuming and it might be costly, but it’s the right thing to do.
I personally don’t believe in taxes but since we’re stuck with them I’d willingly pay my percentage in the name of justice.
I can’t believe another innocent person was killed.
Mel,
He hasn’t been executed yet. But soon.
In reading the whole story, and then searching around the net for some background to this, it seems that this inmate (and others) didn’t get the full benefit of having competent counsel. It also seems that some witnesses were never called, witnesses who later had to come forward of their own volition — albeit years later — to make the case that this man is innocent.
These and other irregularities cast “reasonable doubt” on the man’s guilt. As such, our society has an obligation to re-examine the case with at least as much due diligence as we can muster. No one was ever hurt by a prisoner staying alive a while longer in order to find out if he’s really guilty or not.
What’s the rush to kill, anyway? He’s already stuck behind bars, and he’s costing the taxpayers a lot less than the care and upkeep of the governor of the state, or his predecessor, for that matter.
Again, if we execute him wrongly, will the politicoes be held responsible?
Yeah, right.
It strikes me that we (collective humanity) are so quick to judge and that somehow death is an appropriate punishment for death. I used to be in favor of the death penalty, but the more I see it used in disproportionate numbers against people of color, the poor, the retarded… just to name a few… the more it seems to be a nuclear bomb solution — a dirty weapon once used but never, ever leaving a clean aftermath.
Say…we could get one big petition together instead of a zillion emails and letters.
Just a thought. I am too tired to evaluate it so I may disagree with it tomorrow.
I’m torn. I’m from Texas and consider myself the classic conservative Democrat, in the mold of Lloyd Bentsen. My basic instincts say keep them in the pokey for as long as they shall live with no possibility of parole – not currently an option in Texas. But my Lord, you read some of the things some of these animals do, and I fully support Dennis Miller’s idea of thinning the herd. I just don’t know…..
Convicted murderers should be locked up for life and tortured the whole time, not put to death. ‘Nuff said.
I sure do like to gab.
At any rate, sent an email out and got a letter in the box.
WHOA!
Jason,
Care to post the reply you got?
Wil,
Should have been more clear. I meant that I sent an email and put a paper letter in my box. Sorry bout dat. Done got uncle willy all excited.
As in my mailbox.
Hi all,
They actually have a contact form on the state website for the governor’s office. One of the topics that you can check off is actually “Executions”! I find that disturbing. There’s strength in numbers. If we all start emailing them through this form, you know he’ll at least hear about it.
http://www.gov.state.mo.us/mail1.htm
mr bob,
You wrote:
“Looks to me like race has nothing to do with it here. Guilty is guilty, white or black.”
Well, statistics do show an interesting trend. Based on the numbers you gave and the 2000 census data for Texas The percentage of people and death row inmates by race in Texas are:
Race Death Row Pop.
White 33.5% 52.4%
Black 41.2% 12.0%
Hispanic 24.2% 32.0%
Other 1.1% 3.6%
There is a disparity. Straight statistics say that the percentages should be roughly equal, all other factors being equal. The fact that those percentages aren’t equal means that some factor must be influencing the numbers. I don’t know what that factor is, but it does merit a second look.
FWIW, I do not condone the death penalty for any reason. Killing is against my moral code for any reason other than self defense, and I don’t believe that killing a prisoner is defending anyone.