July Headlines:

America without the Death Penalty--A New Book by John Galliher

Courts Deliver Good News in Death-Penalty Actions

Missouri Executes Two More People

Support Innocence Protection Act

Urge Boone County Commission to Pass Moratorium Resolution

Contact Gov. Holden, Urging Him to Set Joe Amrine Free

A Peace to Ponder

Community Peace Events

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Newspaper Signature Ad

Help Make Our Schools De-Militarized Zones

Dreams Deferred for Asylum Seekers

Mid-MO FOR offers free military and draft counseling

Invest in Peaceable & Just Alternatives--Support the FOR!

Please Attend the Next FOR Meeting

Thursday, 18 July
Potluck at 6 p.m., Meeting at 7 p.m.
(Death-penalty concerns till 7:45;
peace issues till 8:30 p.m.)
112 Spring Valley Road
Bring your appetite and ideas to share.
Call 449-4585 for directions.

America without the Death Penalty

A New Book by John Galliher

In the face of overwhelming yet ebbing public support nationally for capital punishment, this landmark study is the first to examine why 12 U.S. states continue to refuse to reinstate the death penalty. Galliher, a University of Missouri-Columbia sociology professor, who's also director of the Peace Studies program, teamed with Larry Koch, David Keys and Teresa Guess to co-author this book. Copies of both death penalty books will likely be available in the next few days at the Peace Nook, 804 C Broadway in Columbia along with the 9th St Bookstore.

Courts Deliver Good News in Death-Penalty Actions

It would be a bit hasty to say the U.S. and Missouri Supreme Courts are on the verge of wisely banishing the death penalty as an immoral and unconstitutional blight, but the high courts have in the past few weeks made some dramatic changes which will likely spare the lives of hundreds of individuals.

Chronologically, the state Supreme Court intervened twice to spare the life of Christopher Simmons first set to be executed at the Potosi prison on May 1. For unreported reasons, the justices issued a month stay. It seemed the court was waiting to see if the Missouri legislators would indeed pass a bill to protect juvenile offenders from being considered for the death penalty. Lawmakers, led by conservative leaders blocked the bill from even being debated, much less voted on by the full Senate in the closing weeks of the session.

The second time around, state justices stayed Simmons' execution, commenting that they wanted to see how the U.S. Supreme Court would decide on Atkins v. Virginia. It was a bold but welcome interpretation of the law by the Missouri body. Atkins involved the death-sentencing of a mentally-retarded man. The state's high court correctly made the logical connection that sentencing juveniles-Simmons was 17 years old when he committed murder- involved a similar consideration of culpability or relative responsibility. On 20 June, the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for mentally-retarded individuals with its 6-3 decision in the Atkins case. The Court's actions will overturn many death sentences. Nationally, it's estimated that approximately 10-15-percent of those living under a death sentence are mentally retarded. In Missouri, the ruling will most likely mean overturning of the death sentence of Antonio Richardson and perhaps another 3-4 other individuals. The Court's decision came in large part due to the changing societal standards as reflected in state changes, including in part, the bill passed by Missouri lawmakers and signed by Gov. Holden last year which protected mentally-retarded individuals from being considered for a death sentence.

A few days later, the high court voted 7-2 in favor of the defendant in the case Ring v. Arizona. That decision ruled that it was unconstitutional for judges to impose death, as defendants had a right to be sentenced by a jury of one's peers. The ruling meant that the death sentences of at least 150 individuals in five states were overturned, at least until jurors would consider sentencing in separate proceedings.

In Missouri, juries recommend either "death" or life in prison in capital cases, but a judge has the final say on sentence. The court's ruling will likely force a change in the state's procedure. It seemed certain this past legislative session that lawmakers would pass a bill. A measure, taking away that power from the judge, passed both the House and Senate as part of another bill, but legislators were unable to get an identical version of the bill agreed to by representatives of each chamber, then finally passed by both bodies. There have been about 20 instances in Missouri where jurors were unable to unanimously agree on sentencing so the judge intervened, in nearly all instances-chosing a death sentence.

Missouri Executes Two More People

Missouri workers lethally poisoned on March 6, Jeffrey Tokar and on April 10, they executed Paul Kreutzer. Our state's "legally" and shamelessly killed 57 people since 1989, 3rd most of any U.S. state. The FOR condemns these killings, as we do the murders of Johnny Douglass by Tokar and of Louise Hemphill by Kreutzer. We mourn with both families, their horrible losses and wish them comfort and a dulling of their pain. Tragically, the loved ones of these two men have been forced to mourn, their lives shattered by even more deliberate state actions.

We're also reminded that the ripples of compassion and resistance to state killing continue to extend ever further. For example, members of Princeton's Theological Seminary wrote "A Lament and Protest" following the killing of Kreutzer (his cousin, Sarah Griffith attends classes there). Signed by about 100 people, it notes, "Missouri has taken the easy way out... Neither the victim and her family, not Kreutzer's family, nor any of us, are well served by this ritual of killing without understanding." (see FOR website for their full statement)

Support Innocence Protection Act

The Innocence Protection Act (House Resolution 912/ Senate Bill 486) would provide critical safeguards in the nation's capital cases, ensuring greater access to DNA testing, helping states provide competent attorneys at each court level and providing some compensation for those proven innocent after being wrongfully convicted. Hearings were held on June 18 for both versions of the bill, co-sponsored by half the representatives (including from Missouri, Reps. Richard Gephardt, Jo Ann Emerson, Bill Clay and Karen McCarthy) and 26 senators (none from MO) .

Please contact your congresspeople (switchboard- 202-224-3121, asking him/her to sign on as a co-sponsor; urge him/her to vote for the bill, likely to come before Congress in the next few weeks.

Urge Boone County Commission to Pass Moratorium Resolution

On 23 April, two FOR members plus a leader with the University's Amnesty International made a 30-minute presentation before the Boone County Commission, urging them to adopt a resolution for a moratorium on executions in Missouri. To date more than 70 city or county governments have passed such resolutions, yet none so far in Missouri.

Among our concerns: death sentencing is arbitrary (about 1.5% of all Missouri homicides end in a death sentence); racist (about 40% of all individuals executed and those living with "death" are African-American while they comprise about 12-percent of Missouri's population); about 2-5 times more expense (according to surveys from more than a half dozen states) and has certainly led to the conviction of innocent individuals (while nearly 800 people have been executed since 1977 in the U.S., more than 100 have been released from "death rows" after being found to have been wrongfully-convicted).

(Especially Boone Co. residents) please contact Commissioners Don Stamper, Karen Miller and Skip Elkin. Urge them to pass the non-binding resolution-- not a statement for death-penalty abolition-- merely a realization that it makes sense to halt executions while the system is being scrutinized. Please send separate letters to the commissioners at 801 E. Walnut, Columbia MO 65201, call 573-886-4305 and/or contact Jeff (449-4585) for more info.

Contact Gov. Holden, Urging Him to Set Joe Amrine Free Or at Least Issue a Stay of his Execution and Convene a Board of Inquiry

Joe Amrine, a man almost certainly wrongfully convicted of a prison killing, is one of five men who could receive an execution date in the next few months (56 people have been executed since 1989 in Missouri, 3rd most of any U.S. state). At the time of this writing, thankfully state officials have not scheduled anyone to be executed.

Please do contact Gov. Bob Holden, by letter, Capitol Bldg. Room 216, Jefferson City MO 65101 or fax 573-751-1495; or by calling 573-751-3222. Ask him to set Amrine free or at least issue an indefinite stay of execution, then convene a board of inquiry or a grant him a new trial. Even if you have contacted Holden before about Amrine's case, it would be worthwhile to do so again.

By November last year, Attorney General Jay Nixon had asked the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates for six men, including Amrine. The court did set killling dates for five of those men. Four of them-Jim Johnson, Michael Owsley, Jeffrey Tokar and Paul Kreutzer-were executed. The court issued a stay of execution in the case of the fifth human being, Christopher Simmons. In the meantime, Nixon requested the state court set execution dates for four more individuals. Amrine could receive an execution date at any time, especially since he's been the man Missouri officials have held longest in this tortuous and lethal holding pattern.

Joe Amrine was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing fellow prisoner Gary Barber in 1985 at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. The state's case rested solely on the purported eyewitness accounts of three other prisoners, all of whom now say they lied at Amrine's trial and never did see Amrine commit the crime. Consequently, there is currently no evidence connecting him to this crime.

His case is presented in the acclaimed documentary, "Unreasonable Doubt: the Case of Joe Amrine," directed by John McHale, edited by Ryan Wylie and produced by McHale, Wylie, and Dan Huck. It is available for rental at 9th St. Video and through the FOR at no charge for home or public viewings. Call Jeff at 449-4585 for details. For more information about Joe Amrine's case check out the Amnesty International report, released in mid-June. Log on to http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish/reports/amrine.pdf (If you can't access through a pdf format, try typing in "rft" instead at the end of the address.

A Peace to Ponder

More than 60 years ago President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed that because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, would live in infamy.

At his recent West Point address earlier this month, President George Bush promoted the concept of a preemptive military strike by the United States, presumably against Iraq.

One must ask, has not our President now accepted as valid the very policy that seemed so evil when carried out by our then adversary over a half century ago?

-- John Schuder

Tuesday, July 9-Pastors for Peace Spaghetti Dinner, 6:30 p.m., Missouri United Methodist Church, 204 S. 9th St., Wesley Rooms, 2nd floor. Members of the 13th US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan will spek; entertainment by Larry Brown, & Raging Grannies. Love offering requested. For more information, call Larry Brown (884-7851) or Peace Nook (875-0539).

Saturday, July 13- Prayer for All People from 9:00 -9:45 a.m, at Russell Chapel CME Church, 108 E. Ash (and on the second Saturday of each month at various houses of worship). Sponsored by the Interfaith Peace Alliance. Call Mike (657-5546) for details.

Saturday, August 3-Hiroshima Commemoration, 6 p.m., Columbia's Bethel Park. Potluck picnic, cooperative games, music & dancing, lantern- & paper crane-making, speakers, lantern floating. Sponsored by Mid-Missouri Peaceworks. For more information, call Peace Nook (875-0539).

Peace Vigils

Please join any of the three vigils each week to stand for peace: *Saturdays 10-11 a.m., Columbia Post Office coordinated by FOR *Tuesdays noon-1 p.m., MU's Speakers Circle coordinated by Women in Black/WILPF *Wednesdays 4:15-5:45 p.m., Broadway and Providence, coordinated by Peaceworks

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Newspaper Signature Ad

The statement below will be run as a signature ad in the Columbia Daily Tribune &/or the Columbia Missourian on August 6. Below the statement and the names we will list contact info for the sponsors, event info and Web resources. We invite you to add your name. Suggested donations of $2-$25 to help defray the cost are not required but are needed and encouraged.

HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI

Fifty-seven years ago, on August 6, 1945, U.S. forces dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second one was used against Nagasaki. Approximately 100,000 human beings died in the Hiroshima blast; 70,000 died in Nagasaki. Thousands more in Japan have died, and continue to die, due to after effects of those two bombs.

Today we live in a world with eight avowed nuclear powers, a number of other states seeking nuclear capabilities, and, as events this year on the Indian subcontinent have demonstrated, nuclear war is an all-too-real possibility. Now, more than ever, the world's nations must actively pursue nuclear disarmament and a halt to weapons proliferation.

The Cold War is over, yet rather than taking steps required of us as signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to pursue universal nuclear disarmament, our government plans to maintain arsenals of thousands of nuclear warheads in perpetuity. This only encourages others to seek similar capabilities.

Instead of working toward cooperation and mutual security, the Bush administration is leading a headlong charge to deploy Star Wars (national missile defense), a seriously flawed concept. Such a scheme will cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, enriching military contractors, putting a wrench in the arms control process, and ultimately, it will fail to protect us. We would be much safer eliminating weapons of mass destruction throughout the world, including our own. Meaningful disarmament requires the actual elimination of warheads and launchers, not putting them in ready storage as the Bush administration is doing.

While nuclear weapons are a primary threat to our survival, far more death and destruction has come from conventional warfare. In fact, since World War II, the U.S. military and their allies have killed millions of people in many countries. We, as U.S. citizens, are deeply disturbed that our government is using its so-called "war on terror" to legitimize intervention around the world. We'd be far more successful at eliminating terror if we responded to criminal acts by pursuing justice through the mechanisms of international law, while simultaneously seeking to eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism. The United States should ally itself with the cause of democracy and end support for repressive governments. Our nation should stand in opposition to economic injustice and impediments to self-determination.

The currently escalating U.S. interventions in Colombia, the Philippines, Central Asia and the Caucuses, the ongoing military and economic war against Iraq, the four-decade-old embargo of Cuba, and Washington's lack of an evenhanded policy in the Middle East are prime examples of a foreign policy that causes horrific suffering. While we are told that our country is pursuing noble purposes, the means used are not consistent with those ends. Peace, justice and democracy do not flow from the barrel of a gun. They are not achieved by starving children or by defoliating jungles and pushing peasant farmers off their land. To attain peace with justice, our nation must take up the tools of peacemakers.

We cannot undo the harm already done by wars, terror and sanctions, but today we pledge to help eliminate the threat of nuclear war and create a more peaceful and just future. We urge President Bush to lift economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq and Cuba, to end our misnamed "war on terror" and to commit U.S. resources to partner with people everywhere to help create peaceful, sustainable economies. We implore our elected officials to work toward attaining these realities.

We, the undersigned, call upon all governments to halt the international arms trade and to work toward nuclear disarmament and the elimination of all conventional weapons. We support non-violent conflict resolution, a non-interventionist foreign policy and the redirection of the hundreds of billions of dollars currently being squandered on the world's military toward environmental improvement and fulfilling the unmet needs of the world's people for adequate nutrition, housing, health care and education.

Printed Name (As will appear in paper) Legibly please! Signature Full Address or E-mail Address Phone Donation (Optional) $2 -$25

This signature ad is a joint effort of the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Columbia Interfaith Peace Alliance and Mid-Missouri Peaceworks. Please return signatures as soon as possible and no later than July 25 to the Peace Nook, 804-C E. Broadway, Columbia, MO 65201. Make contributions payable to Mid-Missouri Peaceworks. For more information please call 875-0539.

Help Make Our Schools De-Militarized Zones

Columbia's School Board apparently will finally consider at one of the next two meetings whether to allow the teaching of war in its high schools. The Board will vote on the inclusion of a Junior Reserves Officer Training (JROTC) at Hickman and Rock Bridge High School either at its Friday, 12 July meeting beginning at 8:00 a.m. or its regular monthly public meeting on Tuesday, 9 September. Many individuals have offered comments over the past several monthly meetings, most of them against getting JROTC initiated in Columbia. In the next few weeks however, it will especially be critical for peace activists, concerned citizens and parents to speak up if they want to keep Columbia's schools de-militarized.

Leaders across the country have offered young people rather contradictory messages. On the one hand, students are sternly told in 92% of U.S. public schools, no weapons are allowed on the property. Officials frequently speak of a "zero tolerance" for violence by students, through legislation like the Safe Schools Act. Compare that though to efforts by some to bring in JROTC, a training ground for future soldiers. All too often JROTC programs glamorize wars and trivialize the human costs and consequences. Its presence also serves as a mechanism to make the military a more pervasive and acceptable institution in our society.

Contact members, letting them know your views by writing each of them separately c/o the Board of Education, 1818 W. Worley St., Columbia MO 65203. You can also call/fax them a letter at the following numbers: David Ballenger (573-445-5488, 446-7033); Russell Still (875-4730, 443-3354); Dr. Kerry Crist (445-2772, 445-9981); Karla DeSpain (445-4930, 234-1771); Elton Fay (474-5674, 443-2808), J.C. Headley (449-6670, same for fax), Dr. L.D. Schoengarth (474-2020, 449-3706). For more updates and/or more information call John Schuder (445-7569) or the Peace Nook (875-0539).

Dreams Deferred for Asylum Seekers

Last spring, mainstream corporate news reports on the so-called U.S.-led "War on Terrorism" highlighted the transport of captured al Qaeda fighters to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Human rights advocates appropriately condemned the inadequate medical care and denial of legal counsel for those captured-yet a much larger group of detainees continues to wait for justice. Sometimes for years. These detainees are part of the approximately 85,000 asylum seekers arriving in the U.S. annually. About half end up incarcerated from weeks to years in local prisons in the United States at an average daily cost to taxpayers of $58 and at horrific cost upon their psyche/spirits.

While al Qaeda prisoners participated in war-making, the majority of those currently detained in local U.S. prisons came to this country seeking a better life and freedom from the violence and poverty that had become so pervasive in their homelands. From where did these freedom loving people flee? Human Rights Watch reports that most immigration detainees in the United States fled Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Iraq and Iran. The United States has welcomed these immigrants with a very different reception than that offered new arrivals from France, Germany and Italy in the late 19th century. Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted in 1998 that "the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is holding more than half its detainees in jails where they are subjected to punitive treatment and may be mixed with criminal inmates." HRW adds that problems arising from this co-mingling of freedom-seekers with violent offenders includes a lack of outside exercise, isolation from family and friends and the presence of correctional officers lacking language and other skills needed to assist detainees in their resettlement process.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) resettles 12,000 refugees annually and recently reported on the 167 Haitians who fled persecution, violence and torture in their homeland only to find a waiting jail in the Miami area. This group is representative of other Haitians seeking opportunity in the United States in that the INS' Miami District office detains 97% of Haitians while paroling non-Haitian asylum seekers at a rate of 91%. LIRS reported that a specific order from Washington D.C. resulted in this group - including children - being detained and mixed with local prison populations.

To find out more about the shameful and discriminatory policy and what people of conscience can do to affect compassionate change check out the following resources:

LIRS (410-230-2700)
Human Rights Watch (212-290-4700)
or view how the civil liberties of immigrants have been affected since Sept. 11 thru Harvard University's Committee on the Study of Religion's Pluralism Project
--Trevor Harris

Conscientiously opposed to war?
Or are you considering enlisting in the military?

The Mid-MO FOR offers free military and draft counseling. Especially worthwhile for men approaching their18th b-day. For appt. call: John Galliher (882-3441), Lana Jacobs (443-0096), John Schuder 445-7569) or Jeff Stack (449-4585).

Invest in Peaceable & Just Alternatives--Support the FOR!