at the national level of death penalty organizing it’s often referred to as the next frontier and with good reason…

consider that in 2002, in atkins v. virginia, the supreme court prohibited the death penalty for people with mental retardation…the court reasoned that the impairments of defendants with mental retardation diminish their personal culpability and their ability to understand consequences, rendering the death penalty unjustifiable on grounds of retribution or deterrence…

and here’s the rub … there is a profound inconsistency in exempting people with mental retardation from the death penalty while those with serious mental illness remain exposed to it…the same rationale of diminished culpability, greater vulnerability and limited capacity applies to defendants afflicted with severe mental illness…

here’s what nami executive director michael fitzpatrick had to say on the subject in january… (click above)

now i suffer from depression and so i know at least a little bit about the ups and downs of struggling with and managing a mental illness … and here in tennessee the cases of greg thompson, abu-ali abdur’rahman, and paul reid both revolve around our lack of understanding about and the stigma that pervades mental illness…

if you have contacts and/or experience with the incarceration (and extermination) of the mentally ill drop us a line at tcask … we’ll be talking more about this over time so stay tuned!

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be so dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

well we’re no james carvilles (is that an amen i hear over there?) but we do face a strategic question we’ve never faced before…

we have 2 executions set for the same day (june 28th) so how do we design our actions leading up to that date??? do we design a message and set of actions for each case (paul reid and sedley alley) ??? if we do, then as organizers we risk overloading our constituents with too big of an “ask” and diminish the response to our appeal for action which is the opposite of our objective…

hence the above reference to carville’s famous advice from the 1992 clinton campaign … rather than create two letters to the editor (one for each case) and either stagger or combine the request(s) for action, we create a single letter to the editor laying out that:

• we’ve had one execution in more than 16,600 days
• now we’re facing 2 in a single day in which…
• one has a 20 year old unreliable conviction in which physical evidence exists but the state refuses to release it for the dna testing that could bring certainty for victim’s family members and general public alike, and…
• one in which a person with a long, diagnosed history of schizophrenia (paranoid type), twice declared incompetent by texas courts, is seeking to give up his appeals while his sister seeks to be declared next friend for reid because, in his delusional state, is incompetent to make the decision to drop his appeals
• and next time it may be an innocent person who was wrongfully convicted like paul house whom the state seeks to kill

the lesson? all actions as an organizer have to go back to answering the question, “does this support our strategic plan and process goals?” … the answer to that question helps determine the path you choose to travel down decision by decision, case by case, year by year with achieving your endgame objective as the pot of gold at the end of the line…

for us that means it’s the broken system stupid…

peace out – <3

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile disfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as core trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be highly dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

backwards…

william tines was intentionally electrocuted to death in november 1960…

tennessee’s ambivalence about carrying out state-homicide meant that 39 1/2 years would pass before it decided to kill a subdued, captured, and defenseless diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic named robert glen coe…

flash forward to june 28, 2006 and tennessee — at the behest of the office of attorney general paul summers, we, the citizens of the state of tennessee, intend to kill 2 people in one day…sedley alley,who is being denied dna testing that could in fact exonerate him, and the other, paul reid, is a severely mentally ill human being like robert coe…

so let’s review…

1 execution in more than 16,600 days

2 executions in 1 day

you do the math…me, i’m busy steadying myself for our collective quantum leap backwards towards barbarity…

peace out – <3

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be highly dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

believe what you ask??? you might think i’m referring to an action on someone’s part that can only produce incredulity (hey, no shortage of that in the world) or, rather, some sort of epiphanic moment i had over the weekend…

nope, much simpler than that … i took the entire weekend off from organizing to abolish the death penalty…

sure you’re disappointed that it’s not something more compelling than that but it is, um, highly unusual, like, say, catching a glimpse of an endangered species or something…

it’s well known that the lil’ jesuit dude and i are somewhat of the workaholics – no analysis please – so taking a saturday and sunday off with no office time, no web surfing, no media work is just plain weird…

so how did i spend my smelling the roses time??? i read a collection of ursula leguin short stories and some 200 pages of ringolevio ( a good read to be for sure); i cleaned my bedroom corner to corner, ceiling to floor, 4th dimensions and all and redid the feng shui thingy(as well as other parts of the house); i worked in my perennial garden; did some cooking; and combed lots of hair off my doggies…

anyway, i returned to the office and the state still intends to kill paul reid and sedley alley on june 28th so back to work i go … it was, however, helpful to stop and smell those roses…

peace out – <3

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as core trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile malfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be so dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

It has been too long since we’ve done a nuts and bolts post, here on the TCASK blog, so I am writing today in praise of Google and particularly in praise of Google Images!

You see on Saturday I was in the office and, aside from the incessent blogging that you read below, one thing I was working on was putting together a flyer for the TCASK Tennssee Student Conference Against the Death Penalty, that will be held at MTSU on September 9th. See, a volunteer had developed a good basic template with all the information arranged, but we needed to turn it into an eye-catching flyer. What to do, what to do.

“Well,” I thought, “to be eye-catching, you need a good visual!”

So I turned to the Google Images search. After a few minutes of searching a few terms (“execution”, “gurney”, “gallows” etc.) I came upon this image, which is now the full page back-drop for the flyer and, if I do say so myself, the flyer has become pretty stunning.

So, shout out to Google. It’s just one of those little tools that helps us git ‘er done!

(By the way, Google Images also brings us most of the amusing photos that get posted to this blog. Is there nothing it can’t do?)

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual appeal among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be very much dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

Well, it’s not just you and I that thought setting the executions of Paul Dennis Reid and Sedley Alley for the same day was a little shocking. The event, apparently, is so unusual that that Times of India carried a story about it. You can read it here:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1611433.cms

Be proud, Tennessee, be very proud.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile malfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as core trouble. Albeit the erectile malfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile disfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be extremely dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

Every so often, the gallop poll asks its respondents about the death penalty, and the results are always illuminating. Gallop’s most recent results show, what I think demonstrates the big disconnect in our thinking in America about the death penalty.

When asked straight up if they support the death penalty about two-thirds (65%) of respondents answer yes. This number hasn’t really changed in the last twenty years. But it’s when we get into the next questions that things get interesting. When asked which they would favor, the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for murder, LWOP actually leads executions by a statistically insignificant 1 % (48% to 47%). What this says is that the vast majority of Americans don’t want the death penalty; they want to be safe i. e. not have convicted murderers back out on the street, which is a perfectly understandable sentiment. So when they’re offered the possibility of LWOP, most find that acceptable.

Then, for me, things get really interesting, in the next two items:

1) the majority of Americans think an innocent person has been executed in the last five years.

2) only one in five Americans think that the death penalty serves as any kind of a deterrent.

So most Americans think that innocent people get executed and that executions don’t deter other murders. So why would anyone still support the death penalty? Two answers spring to mind. The first is ignorance. Perhaps everyone doesn’t know just how serious the problem with convicting the innocent is, or that the death penalty is extremely economically biased, or that it targets the mentally ill. One of the most common arguments made against LWOP is that it costs tax payers too much. Of course, this argument doesn’t stand up to the facts. Every legitimate study finds that the cost of the death penalty is far greater than that of LWOP.

The other reason, is strict vengeance. This is the justification that we can’t argue with as easily. The drive for vengeance is not a rational one, and the rational arguments just discussed make little headway. What we can say is that emotions like vengeance are a very poor basis for public policy. So let’s talk about the public policy. And this one simply fails the test. The good news in the poll is that more and more Americans are realizing this.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong soundness problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile malfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be highly dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

well that’s how adam liptak and ralph blumenthal put it in their article published in the ny times today…though it’s not exactly how i would have phrased the question..;.

but with paul reid, darryl holton, and stephen hugueley all trying to give up their appeals and all suffering from severe mental illness it is the issue we will be discussing and dissecting in detail over the next 12 weeks…

but check out what the national alliance on mental illness, the national association of social workers, and the national mental health association all have to say on the issue…

to read judging whether a killer is sane enough to die just click here (you will need to create a free id and password to enter the ny times web site if you don’t already have one) …

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual claim among men is the erectile disfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile malfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be very much dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

while the tennessee supreme court just set a june 28th execution date for sedley alley it should be noted that one justice dissented in the order…

retiring justice adolpho birch, jr. has consistently objected to death sentences in tennessee because the state has no functioning proportionality review in place …

we will miss justice birch high standard of ethical behavior regarding this issue…

meanwhile we have 2 executions scheduled for june 28th … gotta get back to work …

peace out – <3

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual claim among men is the erectile dysfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Albeit the erectile disfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying soundness conditions that can be very much dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile disfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.

Today the Tennessee Supreme Court set and execution date for Sedley Alley – despite the existence of DNA evidence that has never been tested which could prove his innocence. When is the execution? one might ask. The answer: June 28th.

Now ignoring the fact that the date is very near at hand, that date might sound familiar to you. Why? Because it is the same date that Paul Reid is scheduled to die!

There is much to write, so many things wrong, that it is almost hard to choose, but this is a unique moment to focus on other hidden human costs of the death penalty. The psychic strain that executions put on prison employees.

Now, whether or not you believe in the death penalty, taking a healthy man from his cell in the middle of the night, strapping him to a gurney, and slowly poisoning him, is not an easy task. Executioners in the middle ages were shrouded, to hide them, separate them, from their unseemly task. Today, corrections officers don’t wear shrouds, but are protected by endless protocol. Members of a strap down team all have individual, compartmentalized tasks. One straps down the right arm, another the left leg. A different technician inserts the needles, yet another person pushes the button that begins the flow of deadly chemicals. All of these procedures are meant to separate any one person from the psychic trauma of killing a person. Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence suggests that the strain of participating in an execution can be serious. In his book, Death at Midnight: Confessions of an Executioner, former Mississippi warden Don Cabana relates his own experiences with two executions after which he had to leave his job. Here in Tennessee, guards from unit 2 (death row) are not assigned to strap-down teams; participating in the execution of a person they have been personally guarding is deemed too hard.

Now imagine all that strain. All the tension in the prison. All the press and media. All the energy draining experiences of dealing with the families of the executed and the victim. And now imagine it all doubled because the state of Tennessee has chosen to execute two men in the same night. Imagine slowly leading the sobbing members of the executed inmates family out of their viewing room only to know that another man was saying his last goodbyes and that, a few hours later you would have escort his sobbing loved ones out as well. Imagine having to give the order to proceed, a heart-wrenching order, even if you are just doing your job and believe that it is right, not once, but twice in one evening.

Imagine it all, if you can.

I’m not sure that I can or want to imagine the pain and stress that such a double killing could exact on corrections officers. But I think it once again shows that, in pursuing executions, the state isn’t concerned about people, even its own employees. It is interested in revenge. I hope and pray, for all of our sakes, that we can find another way.

Fairly, there are numerous aspects you would like to think about medications. All discount medicaments save money, but few online drugstores offer better deals than other online drugstores. There isn’t anything you can’t order online anymore. Remedies like Deltasone ordinarily is used to treat diseases such as eye problems. Glucocorticoids naturally occurring steroids, which are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. There are varied drugs for every conditions. Cialis is a remedy prescribed to treat many illnesses. What do you already know about long term side effects of cialis? What consumers talk about how long does it take for cialis to take effect? A general sexual complaint among men is the erectile malfunction. Sexual problems mostly signal deeper problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as soul trouble. Albeit the erectile dysfunction itself isn’t necessarily dangerous, erectile dysfunction is sometimes one of the early warning symptoms of other underlying health conditions that can be so dangerous. Unfortunately nearly all over-the-counter medicines have sometimes dangerous aftereffects, from muscle aches to death. If you buy any erectile dysfunction medicaments like Cialis, check with a physician that they are sure to take with your other drugs. Do not take unwanted medications. Take Cialis to your local chemist’s shop which will dispose of them for you.