Missouri executes fully rehabilitated man

Posted on 11. April 2024 by ihflgermany

The US state of Missouri has executed Brian Dorsey by lethal injection of the drug pentobarbital. Governor Mike Parson ignored all appeals for clemency. Brian Dorsey was found guilty of the murder of Sarah and Ben Bonnie on December 23, 2006 in their home near New Bloomfield.

In a statement, Megan Crane (Brian Dorsey’s defense) commented on Mike Parson’s decision on April 8, 2024:
“Despite broad and diverse support for Brian Dorsey’s clemency petition, Missouri Governor Mike Parson today denied the request to commute Mr. Dorsey’s death sentence ahead of his Tuesday, April 9 execution date. Mr. Dorsey’s clemency petition was supported by more than 70 current and former Missouri correctional officers, a former judge of the Missouri Supreme Court, five of the jurors who sentenced Mr. Dorsey to death, Republican state legislators, mental health experts, faith leaders, and many members of Mr. Dorsey’s family, several of whom also are family members of the victims, Mr. Dorsey’s cousin Sarah Bonnie and her husband Ben.
Mr. Dorsey’s clemency petition described his profound remorse and commitment to rehabilitation, including a flawless prison record and serving for more than ten years as the staff barber at Potosi Correctional Center. The petition also explained that Mr. Dorsey was experiencing drug-induced psychosis at the time of the crime, a fact that was critically important to his defense but was not uncovered by his attorneys. Instead, those attorneys, who were paid a flat fee by the state public defender system, convinced Mr. Dorsey to plead guilty with the death penalty still on the table. Such fee arrangements are no longer allowed in Missouri capital cases because they create a financial conflict of interest.” (see here)

In his latest statement, Brian Dorsey said:
“To all of the family and loved ones I share with Sarah and to all of the surviving family and loved ones of Ben, I am truly, deeply, overwhelmingly sorry. Words cannot hold the just weight of my guilt and shame. I still love you. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I am sorry I hurt them and you… To my family, friends, and all of those that tried to prevent this, I love you, I am grateful for you. I have peace in my heart, in large part because of you and I thank you. To all those on all side of this sentence, I carry no ill will or anger, only acceptance and understanding.”

In fact, Brain Dorsey was probably not properly defended because the public defender’s office received a flat fee of $12,000 and thus, since the money had already been collected, had no real incentive to adequately take care of their client.

If even a man who has been shaving the prison staff for years, even with sharp objects, who has a reputation among these people as a man with a good heart and who has not once broken a prison rule in the entire time of his imprisonment – if even such a person no longer finds mercy in the USA, then the author of these lines is simply at a loss for words…

IHfL
Peter K.

Sources:
https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/133973/missouri-death-row-inmate-brian-dorsey-execution-last-words
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/10xWj_O8eLE2JM-5sACFi0IcvD5u8rhUO1V470_XW6c8/mobilebasic
https://ihflger.wordpress.com/2024/04/01/missouri-execution-of-brian-dorsey-planned/

Please support our work. The support of the prisoners we care for, as well as our work against the death penalty, is on a honorary basis. Therefore we ask for donations for our work. If you would like to help, please click on the following image:

Direct URL: https://ihfl.de/st-konto.htm

Oklahoma: Execution carried out for Michael Smith, whose lawyer refused to work

Posted on 6. April 2024 by ihflgermany

The US state of Oklahoma has executed another person. Michael Smith (41) is accused of murdering two people. At his clemency hearing, Michael tearfully insisted on his innocence: “I didn’t commit these crimes. I didn’t kill these people…I was high on drugs. I don’t even remember getting arrested” – But there was no mercy in Oklahoma. By a vote of 4 to 1, they denied the clemency request. There seems to be no real defense for such a prisoner there either…

Reverend Don Heath, chairman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, made the following statement: “Michael Smith was a troubled and vulnerable young man with intellectual disabilities…He was ill-served by advisers who encouraged him to proclaim his innocence instead of accepting responsibility for his crimes. That cost him any chance for clemency. He needed mercy and forgiveness and got none”.

Michael Smith’s lawyer had refused to continue to fight for him!
Abraham Bonowitz (DeathPenaltyAction) reports that the lawyer called Michael to tell him that he had no more time and didn’t want to file anything more with the court… An impossible process!

The author of these lines could write a lot more about this case, but unfortunately Michael Smith can no longer be helped and he is very worried that his close friend Richard Rojem, who is supported by the IHfL, will soon be murdered by these bloodthirsty people in Oklahoma.
As we see in the Michael Smith case, there is no justice, no fair defense in Oklahoma. In cold blood, they put this man crying for his life and insisting on his innocence on the death bar, tied him up and murdered him.
Just as they want to do with Richard Rojem soon. Richard is one of the next death row inmates to receive an appointment, probably later this year. Peter K. (Co-initiator of the IHfL), who is in close, friendly contact with Richard, says: “These people have no idea what they are doing with their dark morality of revenge. Through my close association with Daiji (as Richard likes to be called), I live through the horror of what they do to people. Richard, who has always insisted on his innocence, has been mistreated for some 40 years with solitary confinement and the threat of trying to kill him. Despite everything, he has remained a wonderful person, but he almost sees his murder as a liberation. They have brought him this far… For me, as I am sure for all those who love him, the time leading up to his murder is traumatizing… Once I woke up from a dream with tears in my eyes and a feeling of total helplessness. In this dream, Daiji was lying on death bar and I was very close to him, talking to him, desperately trying to comfort him where there is no comfort… These people are hurting a lot of people with their death penalty…”

Read Richard Rojem’s own words and the latest developments in his case on our website.
https://www.ihfl.de/rj/eng/index.htm

We don’t know how many people you have seriously injured and traumatized with your death penalty. But we do know that there are far too many…
Finally put an end to it!

IHfL
Peter K.

Sources:
Emails from DeathPenaltyAction
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/oklahoma-execution-michael-smith-innocence-b2523490.html
Own source

Direct URL: https://ihfl.de/st-konto.htm

Life (a commentary by Kai Friedrich)

Posted on 4. April 2024 by ihflgermany

Life…

How much can a person endure? I ask myself this question again and again. Many people are driven into poverty, others are constantly bullied. Still others have to try to survive in war zones, others suffer from hunger and so on…

Then there are those people who have to vegetate like animals in an isolation cell. Knowing that one day they will be killed. Ordered by the state. To serve a “justice”… A “justice” that is always a matter of interpretation…
Depending on who you ask.

I’m talking about the people on death row. Those condemned to death.
Yes, they are human beings… Even if some people deny them precisely this humanity and declare them to be monsters.

Yes, that’s why I ask myself – how can a person endure something like that? To be locked up permanently, sometimes for decades? Often being harassed and cast out by guards? Without any hope of positive change… To be able to do something meaningful in life?

I am always amazed to see how THESE PEOPLE still live… Yes, live. Continue to develop under the most adverse circumstances, often no longer being the people they once were. Whether guilty or not…

They change… bit by bit… And… they live…
Some live out their lives with the art that inspires them.
Some process all the horror in texts or write beautiful poems. Others literally draw & paint for their lives, just like Lancelot Armstrong did when he was still on death row.

If he hadn’t had his art, he wouldn’t have been able to “break out” of prison, at least mentally… Because he painted beautiful dreamlike paintings… This is how he dreamed his way to freedom…

A freedom that is still denied him today. He is no longer on death row, as his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, but he still insists on his innocence… And he has never given up…

So now he helps other inmates to express themselves through art and so on…
It shows – although people are locked up like animals. There is life in them…

There’s Kosta, who creates wonderful works of art out of plain paper. Miniature models of airplanes, flowers, guitars and so on…
I think he tinkers for his life… Simply to avoid going mad.
With his art, he manages to put a smile on the faces of people outside of death row. To touch people…

We humans may be individual universes, each on our own… But with art, our individual universes can touch each other for a fraction of a second, if you know where that art comes from.

We have a number of inmates in our care who share their art with us in the form of poems/texts and other works of art… They are as alive as we can hardly imagine.

I can hardly believe how they manage to keep the life inside them alive. I often admire these people.

Whenever I’m lying on the floor, crushed for legitimate reasons, I always remember these poor people. Who still keep going. Because life is a struggle. A fight to survive, to live.

So we should all try to live more. To use the precious time we have left – Carpe Diem – Seize the day…

Our fight against the death penalty may often be very tough. But when I get to read lines from inmates about how what we do gives them hope, then it’s worth every effort.
Because I see, no, I feel that they are alive…

Sharing their life force with ours. United, the suffering is less.
Together we are stronger. Even bars and steel, even an ocean, hatred around us cannot take that away.

Even if they execute the inmates, what we have experienced with the inmates remains. Forever… And they left something valuable behind. Their words/thoughts/artwork and all that, is the seed in us… The seed of life, is their legacy they leave us, should the day come when they are executed. For they have lived.

And they live on in us…

Maybe that’s why they endure… Precisely BECAUSE they live…
Because something inside them is fighting back. Even if it’s just survival…

It is…

..life…

IHfL
Kai

Missouri: Execution of Brian Dorsey planned

Posted on 1. April 2024 by ihflgermany

The US state of Missouri wants to execute Brian Dorsey, who has been sentenced to death for two murders, on April 9, 2024. The Missouri Supreme Court recently refused to stop the execution.

Brian Dorsey was found guilty of murdering Sarah and Ben Bonnie in their home near New Bloomfield on December 23, 2006. According to the prosecution, Dorsey had previously called Sarah Bonnie to borrow money to pay two drug dealers who were staying at his house.

At the time of the crime, Brian Dorsey appears to have been completely drunk and under the influence of severe depression, as well as drug abuse, which repeatedly led to hallucinations and paranoid delusions. He is also said to have suffered from a 72-hour sleep deprivation.

Brian Dorsey’s defense commented on the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision as follows: “The Missouri Supreme Court’s refusal today to even consider the merits of the Brian’s Dorsey’s critical Sixth Amendment constitutional claim — that his lawyers pleaded their client guilty for no benefit, with the death penalty still on the table, without conducting any investigation, as a result of the low flat fee they were paid by the Missouri Public Defender System — is yet another example of how our legal system has failed him… We will appeal to the United States Supreme Court and ask that Governor Parson consider this injustice in our plea for mercy for Brian.”

Action now:

Petition
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-brian-dorsey-in-missouri

The Brian Dorsey case shows once again the power with which the judiciary acts against the accused without giving them an adequate defense. Brian Dorsey has also not committed any disciplinary offenses in the 17 years of his imprisonment, which is a great achievement! – Due to his drug addiction and mental health problems, he was not in a position to take full responsibility for his actions.

IHfL
Peter K.

Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brian-dorsey-missouri-death-row-supreme-court-declines-petition-execution-man-murder-couple-2006/
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-brian-dorsey-in-missouri

Direct URL: https://ihfl.de/st-konto.htm

Michael Smith to be executed on April 4, 2024 in the US state of Oklahoma

Posted on 27. March 2024 by ihflgermany

On April 4, the US state of Oklahoma plans to execute Michael Smith,
for the murders of Janet Moore and Sharath “Babu” Pulluru.

Michael Smith himself said that he did not commit the crime he is accused of.
His lawyers also argue that Smith is mentally disabled. He also told a parole board that he was hallucinating due to drug use.

DeathPentaltyAction writes that a significant mental disability is involved, just like in the case of Darrin Pickens, whose death sentence was even overturned for this reason. A report by the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission should also make this inequality clear.

So the state of Oklahoma is preparing to execute a person who should not actually be executed.

Shockingly, this is just one of 25 executions that Oklahoma has planned in the coming months. This is despite the fact that there are serious concerns about the protocols and drugs used for lethal injection.

We at IHfL are fundamentally opposed to the death penalty, whether someone is guilty or not. Execution only creates further suffering and prevents people from evolving.

That is why we ask you to sign these petitions for Michael Smith to ask Governor Stitt and the Board of Pardons and Paroles not to carry out the execution, but to do everything in their power to find a way to pardon him in this case.

Petition from DeathPenaltyAction:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-michael-smith-in-oklahoma

IHfL

Kai Friedrich

Quellen:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-michael-smith-in-oklahoma
https://apnews.com/article/oklahoma-executions-clemency-hearing-michael-dewayne-smith-720da009636f96e0da21fcb4258e4bff
https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/03/26/oklahoma-death-row-inmate-michael-dewayne-smith-had-unusual-request-execution-stay/73095139007/

USA: Was Willie Pye another mentally disabled person executed?

Posted on 21. March 2024 by ihflgermany

Georgia: Willie Pye (59) was executed by lethal injection after a delay of around 4 hours. Once again, there are indications of a violation of the US Constitution, which actually prohibits the execution of mentally disabled people. Pye was sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend over 30 years ago.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Willie Pye was executed around 11:03 p.m. local time, in Butts County, south of Atlanta. He reportedly said no last words before being injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital. His execution was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. local time, but his defense attorney appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied the appeal.

In their petition for clemency, his defense stated that he regretted his crime and should not be executed because he was mentally disabled. His trial lawyer at the time had not disclosed this. The jury were not informed of this. His defense attorney wrote: “Had defense counsel not abdicated his role, the jurors would have learned that Mr. Pye is intellectually disabled and has an IQ of 68.“ He also wrote about it: “This is precisely the kind of evidence that supports a life sentence verdict.“

His defense attorneys also had trouble getting in touch with Willie Pye after the state decided to execute him. They said: “This is not normal or consistent with access to and availability to counsel that was previously possible, and it is unacceptable.”

Willie Pye’s childhood was characterized by violence, neglect and poverty. His lawyers also presented evidence that the frontal lobe of his brain was damaged. Injuries to the frontal lobe can lead to barely controllable aggression, as impulse control is also located in this area of the brain. This may be the result of a fetal alcohol syndrome in his case.

The justice system in the USA is characterized by racism and discrimination against the poorest of the poor. The constitution does not seem to be worth the paper it is written on. Clear indications of mental disabilities and severe psychological impairments of prisoners are repeatedly ignored, even by the highest courts. The main thing is that the need for revenge can be satisfied. An “eye for an eye” from a justice system that is blind to justice.

IHfL
Peter K.

Sources:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/georgia-execute-willie-pye-death-penalty-sparks-allegations-rcna144170
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/20/willie-james-pye-execution-georgia/73037955007/

Direct URL: https://ihfl.de/st-konto.htm

Georgia: Execution of Willie Pye scheduled for this month

Posted on 4. March 2024 by ihflgermany

In the US state of Georgia, Willie Pye is to be executed by lethal injection with pentobarbital between March 20 and 27. A judge recently set this time frame. Pye was sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend over 30 years ago. The trial is suspected to have been racist and unfair. The last execution in Georgia took place in 2020.

Based on the testimony of a 15-year-old who was himself involved in the crime and agreed to a deal with the prosecution, Willie Pye was heavily incriminated and sentenced to death in 1996.

His lawyers complain that their client was not adequately defended. His defense at the time is said not to have prepared adequately for the trial. There was also a failure to shed light on Willie Pye’s personal background. It would have been important to examine his life circumstances as well as his psychiatric and physical health. This was probably not done in order to prevent the jury from being influenced in their decision.

Three judges accepted the defense’s arguments
Three U.S. Circuit Court judges agreed with the arguments of Willie Pye’s defense team! However, the case was then reheard by the full federal appeals court and this reversed the decision of the three judges in October 2022.

Action now:

Petition:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-willie-pye-in-georgia/

Petitions for clemency can be submitted to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles:
GaParoleBoard@pap.ga.gov
http://twitter.com/GA_ParoleBoard

As well as to the Governor of Georgia via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/GovKemp

Postal address of the governor:
Office of the Governor Brian Kemp
206 Washington Street
Suite 206, State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
United States

After more than 30 years, a man is now to be executed who has certainly already served long enough for his crimes under the terrible conditions on death row. It is hard to imagine the mental torture it must have meant for him to know that the state want to to kill him.
Apart from that, it is also more than questionable when a justice system wants to execute an obviously sick man for a crime that he committed under the influence of a mental disorder.

A justice system that has only execution as an answer for the deeds of such a man is a sick, perverted justice system, without moderation and empathy. Instead of providing Willie Pye with adequate medical and psychiatric treatment, they want to murder this man… And in doing so, they are also pushing countless other people into misery, who will be severely traumatized by the execution. People close to Willie Pye, but also the officers themselves, who are directly or indirectly involved in Willie’s execution. We have also received harrowing words of fear and sadness from prisoners on Georgia’s death row who fear for Willie Pye’s life…

IHfL
Peter K.

sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2024/02/29/georgia-execution-date-set-pye/3f4db52a-d749-11ee-82ad-c2391b06a8f5_story.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentobarbital
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontal_lobe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_alcohol_spectrum_disorder

Direct URL: https://ihfl.de/st-konto.htm

Failed execution in Idaho and execution of a possibly innocent man in Texas

Posted on 29. February 2024 by ihflgermany

In the USA, the “defender” of so-called “Western values”, the world was once again shown what this means. The murder of a person whose guilt is in question and the torture of a convicted person…

Was Ivan Cantu innocent?

Ivan Canutu (50) has been executed by lethal injection in the state of Texas. Ivan has always insisted on his innocence. We documented in an earlier article the evidence of his innocence and that he had received no fair trial. See HERE. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. at the state prison in Huntsville.

In his last words, Ivan Cantu said: “I’d like to address the Kitchens and Mosqueda families…I want you to know that I never killed James and Amy…And if I did, if I knew who did, you would’ve been the first to know any information I would’ve had that would’ve helped to bring justice to James and Amy.”

In an interview a few days before his execution, Ivan also protested his innocence. He hoped to get a stay of execution so that his innocence could be proven. However, neither a court nor Governor Greg Abbott were prepared to do so. This is what Ivan Cantu feared, saying: “They ignore everything and place me on that gurney and kill me.”

We have seen over 186,000 signatures in various petitions – but they were ignored in Texas. In the name of a justice that is not justice, an innocent man may have been murdered by the state.

Sources:
https://www.the-sun.com/news/10532266/death-row-ivan-cantus-final-words-kim-kardashians-execution/
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/23/us/ivan-cantu-texas-death-row-double-murder/index.html

Execution in Idaho failed. Thomas Creech back in his cell.

The state of Idaho attempted to execute Thomas Creech, 73, by lethal injection yesterday. According to the FEDERAL DEFENDER SERVICES OF IDAHO, his executioners tried to stick a hypodermic needle into his veins 10 times. But it failed again and again. An unimaginable situation, a terrible torture for their victim. In the end, they gave up and took Thomas Creech back to his cell.

In its statement, the FEDERAL DEFENDER SERVICES OF IDAHO makes the following comments: “We are angered but not surprised that the State of Idaho botched the execution of Thomas Creech today. This is what happens when unknown individuals with unknown training are assigned to carry out an execution. This morning, they tried and failed 10 times to access Tom’s veins in both of his arms and both legs so they could inject him with the State’s mysteriously acquired pentobarbital. This is precisely the kind of mishap we warned the State and the Courts could happen when attempting to execute one of the country’s oldest death-row inmates in circumstances completely shielded in secrecy despite a well-known history of getting drugs from shady sources. Yesterday, the State called Mr. Creech’s worries “patently absurd” in its motions to the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately, what is absurd is Idaho’s continuing efforts to kill this harmless old man, who by this point surely has suffered enough.”

It is unclear what will happen to Thomas Creech now. It is to be hoped that his death sentence will now be overturned.

Sources:
Message from DeathPenaltyAction to us
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/02/28/idaho-department-of-correction-unable-to-move-forward-with-scheduled-execution-of-thomas-creech/

And where was Joe Biden all this time? The president may not have the power to stop death sentences in individual US states, but he could have spoken out loudly. After all, he claimed during the election campaign that he was against the death penalty. Yet this man remains silent on the horrific torture inflicted on so many people in the States, time and time again.

The death penalty is cruel and inhumane. Sitting in a cell for decades, knowing that the state wants to murder you, is terrible torture. We renounce such “Western values”.

IHfL
Peter K.

Direct URL: https://ihfl.de/st-konto.htm

New execution date for Ivan Cantu on February 28

Posted on 13. February 2024 by ihflgermany

The US state of Texas plans to execute Ivan Cantu by lethal injection on February 28, 2024. He is alleged to have murdered his cousin James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchen and was sentenced to death in 2001. Ivan Cantu did not receive an adequate defense and insists on his innocence to this day.

Instead of investigating possible witnesses and evidence that would have supported Ivan’s innocence or challenging the State’s case, trial counsel pleaded Ivan’s guilt to the jury and was constitutionally ineffective counsel.

Ivan Cantu was not properly defended. In his closing statement, his defense lawyer said, against Ivan Cantu’s wishes: “I didn’t say he was innocent. I said he’s not guilty of capital murder.”
During the trial, Ivan Cantu asked the court if he could defend himself, but the court denied him this opportunity.
Ivan Cantu’s attorney refrained from calling witnesses and presented no evidence of his innocence.

Many questions arise in Ivan’s case:

THE STATE
– Evidence showing the state’s star witness committed perjury.
– After Cantu’s conviction, the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense for 11 years.
– Evidence that the prosecution and investigating officers improperly coached witnesses.
– Post-conviction DNA testing could not definitively establish Cantu was wearing the clothing admitted into evidence. – According to multiple forensic pathologists, there is at least a 6 hour difference in the victim’s time of death and when the state’s star witness testified the murders occurred.

THE DEFENSE
– While the state utilized five experts, the defense requested zero experts.
– Trial counsel called no witnesses during the guilt/innocence phase and presented no exculpatory evidence. – Trial counsel did not interview witnesses on the state’s witness list prior to trial.
– Trial counsel conceded his guilt during the closing argument. – Trial counsel did not request a defense investigator, nor conduct any independent investigation.

STATE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS
– Counsel was not communicative with Cantu and rendered ineffective assistance by failing to challenge trial counsel’s performance at the guilt/innocence phase of trial.
This and more information on the DeathPenaltyAction petition page:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-ivan-cantu-in-texas

Matt Duff, the host and private investigator of the “Cousins by Blood” podcast, has spent years studying the case and has put together a strong argument that Cantu may have been framed and spent the last 20 years suffering in a Polunsky Unit prison cell in Texas for a crime he did not commit:

Action now:

Petitions for Ivan Cantu:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-ivan-cantu-in-texas
https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/save-ivan-cantu-before-the-state-of-texas-kills-him
https://www.change.org/p/texas-governor-give-ivan-cantu-all-the-evidence-before-texas-sets-an-execution-date
https://www.amnesty.de/mitmachen/urgent-action/vereinigte-staaten-von-amerika-hinrichtung-stoppen-2024-01-31

Contact the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles:
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
P. O. Box 13401
Austin, Texas 78711-3401
E-mail: bpp_clemency@tdcj.texas.gov

Contact Texas Governor:
Governor Greg Abbott
Office of the Governor
PO Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428
Phone: 512-463-1782
https://gov.texas.gov/contact/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GovAbbott

Ivan Cantu already had an execution date on April 26, 2023, which was overturned by a Texas judge because two jurors from that trial now support his appeals. The prosecutors are said to have relied on false testimony.

It is unbelievable mental torture to have your own execution in front of your eyes again and again. A senseless, bloodthirsty fight for so-called “justice” with only one primitive goal: revenge! – We must not forget that Ivan Cantu still insists on his innocence.

IHfL
Peter K.

Sources:
https://www.texasobserver.org/ivan-cantu-is-set-to-be-executed-but-did-he-get-a-fair-trial/
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-ivan-cantu-in-texas

Direct URL: https://ihfl.de/st-konto.htm

Idaho: Execution of Thomas Creech on February 28

Posted on 12. February 2024 by ihflgermany

On February 28, 2024, the US state of Idaho intends to execute Thomas Creech, who has been on death row there for around 50 years. The last execution in Idaho took place there 12 years ago.

Thomas Creech from Idaho was sentenced to death for three murders in Idaho and one murder each in Oregon and California between 1974 and 1981. The now 73-year-old has been in prison in Idaho for almost 50 years and is scheduled to be executed on February 28, 2024.

DeathPenaltyAction’s petition lists the following reasons why the state should pardon Thomas Creech. The full petition for clemency can be read here:

Tom has been expressing deep remorse for his crime over many years. (PP. 8–9). With his strong Christian faith, he “understands that he needs the Lord’s forgiveness for his actions.” (P. 9). As one friend of Tom’s says, executing him “would deny all possibility of further repentance and change that would offer reconciliation with God.” (P. 9).

Tom has been a model inmate with a nearly spotless prison record for 30 years. (P. 5). The director of the prison system in Idaho asked him to serve as an ambassador with visitors because he “was the most stable and respectful person on death row.” (P. 3). Tom is an ailing 73-year-old man who poses no threat in prison. There is no need to execute him.

Tom was sentenced to death by a single judge. That judge now sees that no “purpose would be served by executing” Tom and that “an execution would “just be an act of vengeance.” (PP. 1–2).

Tom’s request for mercy is supported by many of the prison staff with whom he has lived for more than 40 years on death row. (PP. 2–5).

Tom’s execution would traumatize the guards who have grown close to him. (PP. 5–7). Guards already do a tough job to serve the public and the last thing they need is more trauma. Those around the country who have done it are haunted by the experience. One warden wakes up at night seeing the men he executed staring at him. (P. 6).

Tom uses his mistakes to mentor younger prisoners, who he tells not to “mess up like me.” (P. 8). Executing him would destroy that positive influence.

Tom has become an extraordinarily caring, compassionate, thoughtful man who has built strong ties with guards, friends, family members, and his wife of 20-plus years. (PP. 9–10). His execution would send out a ripple of pain and suffering for the many innocent people who care for him.

Action now

Petition:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-thomas-creech-in-idaho/

Contact the governor:
https://twitter.com/GovernorLittle
phone: (208) 334-2100
https://gov.idaho.gov/contact/

This man has been on death row for around 50 years. This alone is a very severe punishment for his crimes. What else should he be punished for now? – What sense does it make to execute this man? – None! – Unless you are a fan of the idea of bloody revenge. But then many people will be seriously injured and traumatized.
New suffering in the name of a justice that is not justice.

IHfL
Peter K.

Sources:
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2024/02/idaho-supreme-court-denies-thomas-creechs-appeals-his-execution-is-scheduled-soon/
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-thomas-creech-in-idaho/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1go4OmiFVl654WGmLvTYUhuvB9ZDjb6Xk/

Please support our work against the death penalty. The support of the prisoners we care for, as well as our work against the death penalty, is on a honorary basis. Therefore we ask for donations for our work. If you would like to help, please click on the following image:

Direct URL: https://ihfl.de/st-konto.htm