Colorado Death Penalty Watch

State Sen. Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora) and State Rep. Paul Weissmann (D-Louiseville) have written an interesting commentary regarding the possible repeal of the Colorado death penalty. While they dismiss moral reasoning as being not very helpful to the present debate, they advance two pragmatic arguments. For example, they note that Colorado is a defacto no-death penalty state, having only executed one person in the last forty years. But during that same time period there have been 1,435 unsolved murders in the state. Yet, Colorado spends millions of dollars each year on legal expenses related to the death penalty that could be better spent on putting murderers behind bars.

A secondary argument is that the death penalty is irreversable. In other words, if someone is wrongfully convicted and incarcerated, he can always be released later if he is exonerated. But if that person is wrongfully executed, then there is no way to bring him back to life. While there are no known cases in Colorado where somebody has been wrongfully sentenced to death, this has been a problem in other states and at least 130 persons have been exonerated from the death penalty after it was later found they were not guilty. As Carroll and Weissmann point out, there should be a zero margin of error when it comes to sentencing someone to death.

While I differ from Carroll and Weissmann regarding the weight that should be given to moral arguments in evaluating the death penalty, I think both of their arguments should be given serious consideration by all Coloradoans when this issue is raised again in the next legislative session.

Colorado Death Penalty Watch

Sadly, the Colorado Senate has voted down a bill to repeal the death penalty.

Colorado Death Penalty Watch

It looks like there might not be enough momentum to push the current legislation through the Colorado Senate. We should know the outcome by tomorrow.

Colorado Death Penalty Watch

Looks like the Denver Post published my letter to the editor along with two others on this topic.

Colorado House Votes Down Death Penalty

Anti-death penalty legislation barely squeezed through the Colorado House yesterday, passing by just one vote. It will still have to get through the Senate and Gov. Ritter's office before it can become law.

If the bill passes in the Senate, it is unclear as to whether Gov. Ritter will be receptive or not. As a former DA, he has typically been supportive of local prosecutors and they are in favor of keeping the death penalty. On the other hand, Ritter is a devout Roman Catholic (and even did missionary work for a couple of years in Africa) and is one of the rare elected Democrats to adhere to a pro-life position on abortion. Thus, he might well adhere to Catholic seemless-garment of life ethic, which advocates for the preservation of life "from conception until natural death."

On a related note, Gov. Bill Richardson of NM--also a devout Catholic--recently signed off on similar legislation in New Mexico so it will be interesting to see what parallels, if any, take place here in Colorado.

That being said, I was pleased to learn that Colorado has only executed one person since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Hopefully, it will also be our last.

Bahamas Watch

PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 14/001/2009
06 March 2009
UA 65/09 Fear for safety / ill-treatment
BAHAMAS Detainees at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre

A number of recent media reports in the Bahamas have indicated that people being held at the country’s immigration detention centre are being ill-treated. Amnesty International is concerned for their safety. The Carmichael Road Detention Centre, which is located in the capital, Nassau, houses foreign nationals alleged by the authorities to have breached immigration laws, including asylum-seekers, some of whom are believed to be children. A journalist from a local newspaper gained access to the facility on 26 February and managed to speak to ten detainees who described the conditions of their detention. A Dominican national who was detained on 24 February claimed to have been badly beaten by guards who were trying to extract information from him. The beating caused him to cough up blood and he was repeatedly struck on his genitals. Three Cuban men have reportedly been on hunger strike since 25 February in protest at the ill-treatment they have received and their conditions of detention. One of them claimed to have been severely beaten leading him to lose several toenails and fingernails. The detainees claimed that all those held at the Centre, including women and children are marched outside three times a day in order to be counted by heavily armed guards who push them with the butts of their guns. There were also claims that there were severe problems with overcrowding with some detainees forced to sleep on concrete floors. The Bahamian authorities have publicly denied the abuses but said they would investigate. Amnesty International, however, is concerned that any investigation would be conducted internally without independent review and oversight.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Asylum seekers and those deemed by the authorities to be irregular migrants, including women and children are currently detained at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre. In most cases they are subsequently returned to their country of origin. There have been frequent reports over a number of years of poor conditions at the Centre, including beatings and overcrowding. There are also allegations that some asylum-seekers have not been granted access to a fair and effective refugee determination procedure. In October 2004 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment raised serious concerns about conditions of detention in the Carmichael Detention Centre. This followed the receipt of several allegations of beatings by guards, including that of several Haitians on 9 October 2004 following the escape of a number of them from the centre. While under review at the UN Universal Periodic Review in December 2008, the Bahamas promised to respond “without delay” to concerns raised by the Special Rapporteur on the conditions of detention in the Carmichael Detention Centre.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language:

- expressing concern at reports that people being held at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre have been beaten and ill-treated;

- calling on the authorities to provide appropriate medical treatment to those detainees who have been ill-treated;

- requesting an immediate, thorough and independent investigation into these allegations, ensuring that anyone found responsible is brought to justice;

- calling on the authorities to allow independent monitoring of the facility by civil society including human rights organizations;

- urging that no asylum-seeker be returned without access to a fair and effective refugee determination procedure, including the right to appeal to an independent tribunal and access to effective legal assistance, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and interpreters;

- urging the authorities that the detention of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers should only be used as a measure of last resort and to ensure that alternatives to detention are available and accessible, in law and in practice, without discrimination.


APPEALS TO:
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Honourable Brent Symonette
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Goodman's Bay Corporate Centre
West Bay Street
P. O. Box N 3746
Nassau, The Bahamas
Fax: +1 242 356-5990, 328-8212 or 326-2123
Salutation: Dear Deputy Prime Minister


Minister of National Security
The Honourable Tommy Turnquest
Ministry of National Security
Churchill Building, 3rd Floor
P. O. Box N 3217
Nassau, Bahamas
Fax: +1 242 356 6087 or 356 7444
Salutation: Dear Minister


Minister of State for Immigration
The Honourable Branville McCartney
Hawkins Hill
P. O. Box N-831
Nassau, Bahamas
Fax: +1 242 326 0977
Salutation: Dear Minister


COPIES TO:
Newspaper
The Tribune
P.O. Box N 3207
Nassau, Bahamas
Fax: + 1 242 328 2398
and to diplomatic representatives of BAHAMAS accredited to your country.


PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 17 April 2009.

Bahamas Watch

The Bahama Journal reports that "An early morning fire gutted one of the holding dorms at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre on Monday, leaving immigration officials scrambling to place 21 illegal immigrants in new quarters."

Victims Families Call for Halt to Death Penalty

Recent protests to resume the death penalty in the Bahamas have prompted a member of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights to write a letter to the Tribune arguing that killing murderers is not the solution to murder.

Twenty years ago, two shotgun blasts took my father's life in the doorway of our family home, right in front of my mother's eyes. That day changed my family forever, and as a result I feel a unique solidarity and kinship with anyone who has suffered the devastating loss of a family member to murder. I share the grief, outrage, and desire for recognition felt by the victims' family members who marched in the streets last month. Where we differ, however, is in regard to whether the death penalty is the best way to address our pain, our loss, and the injustices we have experienced.

Read the rest of the letter here.

R.I.P., Amparo Palacios, 1939?-2008

In memory of Amparo Palacios, Baptist peacemaker extraordinaire:

Peace Activist Amparo Lopez Palacios; Fought U.S. Aid to Salvadoran Military

By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 11, 2008; B05

Amparo Lopez Palacios, 69, a Mexican-born peace activist who fled El Salvador in 1989 under armed guard and then lobbied Congress to stop U.S. aid to the Salvadoran military, died of lung cancer Nov. 14 at the Washington Home hospice.

Mrs. Palacios and her husband, the Rev. Edgar Palacios, had worked to stop the 1980-92 civil war in the Central American nation, actions that landed them on the military junta's death-squad list.

It was a violent time -- in March 1980, Archbishop Óscar Romero was shot during Mass, a month after publicly asking the U.S. government to stop military aid to the government. At his funeral, bombers and snipers massacred 42 mourners.

A National Guard death squad raped and murdered three American nuns and a laywoman in December 1980. The El Salvador government killed tens of thousands of civilians during that decade.

David R. Nagle, then a Democratic member of Congress from Iowa, was the couple's guest during a fact-finding trip to El Salvador in the late 1980s. He recalled visiting a prison where thousands of people were crowded into cells meant for 400, and how activists would suddenly disappear after irritating the military.

"She and her husband were just fearless," Nagle said. "It was intimidating enough to go there once, because bombs were frequently placed in buildings where opponents to the government were gathered. I remember going back to Washington, and it wasn't like I'd been in a foreign land, but on a foreign planet."

The couple ran the National Debate for Peace, which Nagle described as a "middle way" group between the opposing forces of government and rebel fighters. But after six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed in November 1989, the Palacios left El Salvador under the protection of United Nations troops.

Mrs. Palacios began working as executive director of the Washington office of the Debate for Peace in El Salvador. She also began walking the halls of congressional office buildings, urging an end to U.S. aid to the military in her country.

"Ultimately, she was successful," Nagle said. "No one could have been as effective as she was, because she had been there."

She and her husband sat in the front row at the United Nations General Assembly when the peace treaty was signed in 1992.

Mrs. Palacios was born in Guadalupe Victoria, in the north-central Mexican state of Durango. She graduated from the Hispano American Baptist Seminary in Los Angeles and married in 1969.

After coming to Washington, she joined Festival Church, a small, multicultural, ecumenical church in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, where she was ordained in 1993 and served as an outreach pastor. She also belonged to Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, where her husband is pastor of a Spanish-speaking congregation and the minister of education.

Since 1996, Mrs. Palacios had been a caseworker at the Family Place, a drop-in center serving pregnant women and young families. She taught prenatal and parenting classes, ran support groups for victims of domestic violence and accompanied people to court, hospital and school conferences. Her home in Washington became a refuge for destitute women and children over the years.

Besides her husband, survivors include three children, Edgar Palacios Lopez of Navojoa, in Mexico's state of Sonora, Amparo Palacios Lopez of Washington and Ana Xochitl Palacios Lopez of San Salvador; three brothers; and six grandchildren.

BHRN Celebrates Human Rights Day

The Bahamas Human Rights Network (BHRN) celebrated Human Rights Day at the HUB in Nassau this past Wednesday December 10th. The celebration was in observance of the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also marked BHRN's second anniversary since it was publicly launched in conjunction with Human Rights Day 2006.

Prof. Michael Stevenson, head of the law department at the College of the Bahamas, led a discussion on the topic of human rights and the Bahamian constitution. The discussion was followed by a reading of the Bahamian constitution which then flowed into Express Yourself--the HUB's weekly open mike poetry, spoken word, and other performed arts night.

Appropriately, the past week has also marked a significant milestone for human rights in the Bahamas. The Bahamian government has announced its intention to repeal the law permitting corporal punishment during the upcoming legislative term, a move that has been applauded by BHRN as well as Amnesty International.

Sadly, we were also reminded that much still needs to be done to confront religious bigotry and human smuggling.

Haiti Watch

Amnesty International is calling on the Haitian government to do more to tackle the widespread rape of girls, often by gangs of armed men. Amongst other things, Amnesty reports that 55% of the 105 rapes reported so far this year were of girls aged under 18.

Read a BBC report on the situation here or, better yet, read Amnesty's extensive report on the subject here.

U.S. Policy Pushes and Pulls Migrants

Miguel De La Torre, a columnist for Ethicsdaily.com notes that the United States is one of the only nations in the world to make humanitarian aid a crime.

Lest We Forget: Remembering the Other 9/11

Today marks the 20th anniversary (September 11, 1988) of the destruction of St. Jean Bosco Church in the slums of Port-au-Prince. While Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide was giving mass, armed thugs working for the Henri Namphy regime entered the church and, in a siege that lasted several hours, massacred over twenty parishioners and injured many, many more before setting fire to the church. While Aristide managed to escape with his life, the incident eventually led to his expulsion from the Salesian order on December 15, 1988. Aristide, a liberation theologian and Roman Catholic priest, led the popular movement that led to the downfall of the Duvalier regime on February 7, 1986. Twenty years (and two not-so successful Aristide presidencies) later, Haiti continues to be mired in poverty and violence.

Let us continue to work for peace and justice for the Haitian people.

Climate Change and Human Rights

The International Council on Human Rights reports:

Policies on climate change have so far ignored its likely human rights impacts, according to our new report, Climate Change and Human Rights: A Rough Guide, published on 24 June. The report argues that human rights principles can guide climate change policy by focusing on individual suffering and exposure to risk. To date, little systematic research has examined the human rights dimensions of climate change, yet almost every human right is threatened. Climate change will create new health risks, threaten food and water supplies, destroy land and livelihoods, and lead to forced migration and conflict. Global warming will disproportionately affect countries already lacking the resources to meet basic human rights obligations.

Human rights principles can help mobilise and direct adaptation funding, the report finds. They provide criteria for evaluating mitigation and technology transfer policies. The report also examines decision-making processes and accountability, the merits of litigation, and a range of ethical and policy dilemmas that climate change generates.

Rwandan Genocide Survivor to Speak in Nassau

Come hear an inspiring story of a harrowing escape from death, and the power of compassion and forgiveness to resolve conflict and change lives for the better . . .

Immaculée Ilibagiza
survivor of the Rwandan genocide,
author and philanthropist

FREE LECTURE
Thursday June 5, 7:00-9:00pm
St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, West Street, Nassau

With the sponsorship of the John Templeton Foundation, Immaculée llibagiza, an ethnic Tutsi and a survivor of the horrors of the 1994 holocaust in the Central African republic of Rwanda, is coming to Nassau. lmmaculée, author of the inspiring book Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (Hay House publishers), will share the remarkable story of her 91 days in hiding from murder gangs, from which she emerged with a great spirit of understanding and forgiveness that allowed her to pardon those who massacred her parents, two of her three brothers and other members of her family. This is an unforgettable story offering hope for all who live in these challenging times. Left to Tell is available at Logos in the Harbour Bay Shopping Centre and Chapter One Bookstore on Thompson Boulevard.

For further information, contact Eileen Fielder at The Counsellors Ltd at (242) 322-7505/1000.