police surveillance of death penalty opponents & peace activists

wow! here's a scary post from karl keys at capital defense weekly. i'll just paste the whole thing:

As most probably know, cops in Maryland have been targeting people opposed to the ultimate use of state power. I’m too cheesed off to even pretend I can talk rationally about this as everyone I know who supports ending the dp in Maryland is, well, ridiculously normal/mainstream. I’ll leave it to Dr. Michael Blankenship from the Justice Gambit:

Maryland State Police officers conducted surveillance on local peace activists and groups opposed to the death penalty, including some in Takoma Park, for more than a year during the administration of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), documents released this morning show.

Read more…

No evidence of criminal behavior was reported during almost 300 hours of undercover surveillance. It was doubtful that the investigation originated because of any illegal activity. So? Being opposed to capital punishment has rarely been viewed in a positive light by the government. I speak from experience when local prosecutors and sheriff’s joined together to complain to the university about my research and testimony as an expert witness.

However, this is a new low. The use of public funds and resources that were supposed to be expended on crime control activities to conduct covert surveillance on a legal and peaceful group of people should make rational individuals afraid - very afraid. Will there be any accountability for this outrageous abuse of power and public resources?

The Maryland docs are here. The only positive thing I can say about all of this (and friends are listed in the docs) is that the officer(s) assigned determined that this was (B)ravo (S)ierra and asked the investigation be terminated.

this is worse than spending all those fbi resources to find all the iraq war protestors when we were signing our names & providing personal info on all those petitions.

truth is this is outrageous, but on the other hand maybe there'll be another good thing to come of this. (i'm making some assumptions here:) i guess we middle-class middle-aged white folks are discovering that the whole criminal justice thing really isn't all that fair and that law-abiding peaceful people are not immune. maybe if this hits home then we'll start to pay better attention to what's really happening in other neighborhoods. and maybe be more willing to believe similar claims by others.

not that the life i have now is boring

just got home from hearing edward chapman speak to the incarcerated youth (including the one i tutor) at swannanoa valley youth development center, which everyone around here calls "j.e.c."

some of edward's messages for the guys:

• no matter where you are, you have choices
• keep your mind busy with positive things (art, poetry, whatever is your niche)
  
• surround yourself with people who will help you succeed, not pull you down
• holding grudges takes a lot of energy
• ask for help, talk to people
• stop blaming other people and look at your own part in your situation
  
• and then forgive yourself

it was beautiful to watch the guys ask him questions. not one of them acted out even a little for a solid hour.

it's hard to believe that here is a man who did not have advantages and who spent 14 years under a death sentence for crimes he didn't do -- and he has this kind of wisdom while i can hold grudges with a vice grip.

anyway, i wish each of you a friend like edward.

gathering

seems it's time to start saying goodbye. here's the fam (all 10.5 of us) at sourwood inn last weekend -- what a lovely peaceful place . . .


and then we had a low-key party-ish sort of thing, which we called our housewarming and going-away party. david took this great pic of me with edward chapman. i'm glad to have a visual to take with me to remind me why i need to do this work. what a privilege to call this generous, gentle man my friend!



life is good, but very busy! we've suddenly realized that -- sale or no sale -- we need to be out of here by about the end of the month, so that means a fast pace for the next few weeks. after i get back from a couple of days at the beach, that is! feels like one last deep breath, then diving in.

eric is here but will leave tomorrow and i won't see him until august -- we're taking this 'apart' thing for a test drive -- pretty scary for both of us, but exciting, too. it just occurred to us that there are other couples who have lived apart (duh) -- if you have any advice, bring it on!

mental retardation and death penalty

my home state of north carolina sure has sentenced a lot of mentally retarded people to death.

in 2002, the supreme court decided that we could no longer constitutionally execute mentally retarded people.

at my future alma mater, john blume has compiled a rough list of the number of people who have had their sentences reduced from death in light of this ruling. nationally, there are 83 on the list, and guess how many north carolina claims? 16! maybe that means nc is just busier getting them off the row than other states, but i kinda doubt it.

thanks, as always to karl keys for his faithful gathering and posting.

there are three executions scheduled for this week.

long post on american v. french culture and the death penalty

on a facebook discussion board, this question from ali naderzad: Why do most French understand that the death penalty is barbaric and so many Americans still think it's the only way to go in certain cases?

here's my response:

that’s a fascinating question, ali. i've been thinking about it a good bit. sorry this post is so long.

i’m not qualified to compare the cultures. though i am proud to say i was conceived in france, i didn’t stick around long enough to be knowledgeable about the culture. here are a few thoughts on american culture.

1. the cowboy myth. we see ourselves as rugged individualists and self-made people. the land of opportunity, the free and the brave. we somehow miss the ways we are dependent, interdependent and connected to each other and the rest of the world.

2. the white hat myth. we believe that as a nation we are always on the side of right. we are in so much denial that we cannot tolerate any question about it, and become outraged if one is raised. note, for example, that we have had no national “why did they do this?” conversation about the 9/11 events — we are satisfied with “terrorists who hate freedom.”

3. adolescence. we are a young country and are in an adolescent (male) phase, nationally. i can’t remember where i first heard this idea but it isn’t mine: as a nation we are all swagger and strut. we have gasoline in our blood, are completely self-centered and seem to enjoy annoying neighbors and torturing things. we are concrete thinkers — black/white, right/wrong, good/bad, us/them — and believe we’re immortal. we are outraged when anyone else is in the wrong but we cannot see our own faults.

these things conspire to make several things impossible which might get us to better answers.

— articulated principles. we believe we know what’s right without much thought. it’s an emotional gut-level knowing. when this is the case, vengeance — an old brain response — is easy to drum up.

— careful reflection, thorough examination and open debate. these are more costly and require good leadership. it’s much easier to look for a bad guy to blame.

— empathy. without empathy we are unable to take a more compassionate approach. we can’t put ourselves in the shoes of any but the victims, so fear is easy to tap, and fear makes both compassion and reasoned debate difficult. without empathy, we are also unable to imagine that the wrongful conviction might happen to us, which would motivate us to ensure a fair (and at least partially reversible) process.

— an examination of the costs and flaws of the death penalty. this might motivate us to find another solution, but we are unable to examine, much less analyze or criticize the system.

— a system view. we are unable to focus on prevention or treatment, because this would require a look at the way an individual operates within a system. we can only consider punishment, and when punishment doesn’t work, we just need more punishment. taken to its logical end, we see only one response to criminal behavior and need the most extreme punishment for the worst of the worst (or for when we are most emotional).

the u.s. is young. france and many other countries are older. i remember being struck by how history is everywhere in france. this makes for a longer view and a better memory.

i believe the u.s. is slowly outgrowing the death penalty, but the path is not linear. dna exonerations are slowly bubbling up into our national consciousness and demanding attention to the brokenness of the system. race — a major issue in the death penalty — is more in the forefront today. good groundwork has been laid. things are shifting. much will depend on the next administration. i have some hope that with the right leadership, we can get through this difficult adolescence and take a more mature stance.

big fun in death penalty land

going to see/hear mike farrell at malaprops bookstore tomorrow night.

and recent exoneree (and my new friend) edward chapman is front page of mountain xpress! personally i wish the article did a better job of conveying something of who he is now -- in spite (because?) of all he's been through. i don't know of a better example of getting good from a horrible situation.

in other news, our house is officially on the market, which is what's been engrossing me lately. here's what i want to know: is it actually possible to get to the point where i sit back and look around at the house & yard and say, "it's done" or do i just go on hoping the stuff that's not done doesn't completely outweigh the good stuff? i mean, i'm just not a neat person and i don't give a rip if the lawn's not mowed and that makes it harder to get the house in good shape to show, but is it possible to get to the place of being satisfied that it's done, at least for the moment?

link to 60 minutes on exonerations

thanks to steve houseworth for this link to a recent 60 minutes segment on texas exonerations.

about 12 minutes, this segment introduces several dna-innocent men, and raises some important questions. well worth a look.

here's a bit of the transcript:

"I have to wonder after 27 years how did you stand it?" Pelley asks.

"You can only go one day at a time ever. I don’t really know myself. I just did the best I could. Just you know every day I have hope well maybe today will be a better day," Woodard says.

"You had hope?" Pelley asks.

"That’s all a man has," Woodard says. "I had hope for parole. I think I came up about 12 times."

"When you appeared before the parole board what did they say to you?" Pelley asks.

"They always told me, as long as you deny your guilt its saying something about you, you know you are not willing to own up to your deed. And we gonna deny you," Woodard says.

But Woodard refused to admit guilt. "I wasn't guilty," he says.

"You chose truth over freedom," Pelley remarks.

"I mean, a man has to stand for something," Woodard says.

James Woodard became the 17th prisoner in Dallas to be set free after a wrongful conviction. He walked from the courthouse into a hometown he could no longer recognize. At 27 years and four months, he became the longest serving inmate in the nation to be cleared with the help of DNA.

~~~~~
update:

just re-watched this.

it's important not to focus blame on the deceased district attorney to the point that we fail to ask whether the problem is bigger than just this one guy. it is. there's good evidence that this is a systemic problem. there are dna exonerations going on everywhere. we need to examine the system.

glenn edward chapman

i spent the day with glenn edward chapman, recently exonerated and released from north carolina's death row.

i wish i had a picture to show you. here's the video clip again.

i wish i had words to convey what a delightful human being this man is. he has something to teach the rest of us about being centered and clear in the midst of the worst circumstances.

we went for a long walk in the botanical gardens, had lunch, hung out downtown all afternoon. i'm trying to think of anyone i know who is more grounded, grateful, free of resentment, intent on creating a life and continuing to grow as a person. he is present in his moments, smiles easily, and can say no without drama. i'm seriously impressed and grateful for the time he spent with me.

and looking forward to the next time.

cornell

i'm in binghamton at the airport, heading back to nc. pretty exhausted.

here are some thoughts on cornell law, edited from an email i just sent to meg:

i really love the law school. compared to cardozo, all the other schools which accepted me were better for me in certain ways but not others, or were better but not enough better to justify the cost, or whatever. so cardozo remained my top choice until cornell said yes last week.

cornell has it all for me: good program, good students, the ivy tickets which may actually help in launching me, and people here who are actually doing capital defense work in all phases. this means that i can learn on actual cases but also make the human connections that will be so good once i'm out and working. in addition to the death penalty focus, there is a professor who is focused on the issue of race in capital work, and another who is doing empirical studies which might make use of the math way back there in my background. cornell's loan repayment assistance program will make it doable, even though i'll officially take on an impossible debt.

eric is being unbelievably supportive. he is so excited that i have the option of going to a great school that i have fallen in love with. we're not sure what this means for him -- whether he can make it work in ithaca or will need to spend some/all of his time in the city, with us both doing some back&forth. too soon to know yet.

there are lots of little bonus things: a pottery studio just across the way, a moosewood lunch cafe right inside anabel taylor, the chance to spend a semester or year elsewhere, which may help with the eric calculations -- they say lots of folks go to nyu, which was another school with which i fell in love. of course most surely go for the corporate stuff, but i don't see why i couldn't go for the death penalty stuff. of course, ithaca feels a lot like the parts of asheville i love, all crunchy-granola.

it's a relief to be allowed to put this process down, and get to work on the next phase!

there are still a few good schools which haven't responded, but i think i've sent my regrets to all but one of the schools which admitted me. that one deserves a thoughtful letter.

another school & why i need to do this work

hard to believe i've been admitted to an ivy league law school and wait-listed at another. what feels posible has changed so much in these last few months. i'm in binghamton, ny, heading over for a look at cornell law.

stray word thought: why are we under various circumstances?

if you have a few minutes for something really compelling, watch this news clip of glen edward chapman, just released after spending 15+ years on nc death row for one murder he did not commit and another which may not have even happened. apparently a police officer who testified has just been suspended during a perjury investigation. chapman was deeply wronged by the state, and may not receive any compensation for it, but check him out. especially under the circumstances, his attitude is amazing.

Leadings #3: get proactive

still in austin. nick has been a great sport about another night of ‘rents on the futon and has even offered his dad a clean t-shirt (complete with law firm logo). tornado problems in houston kept us from flying home yesterday.

today, instead of participating in the asheville events to mark the fifth anniversary of the iraq invasion, i’ll be flying home this evening. (and get some of my thoughts about that down — as well as some pics from austin — later this week.)

yesterday, instead of flying, i got more time with nick & serine, some great pizza, more episodes of arrested development, and a wonderful phone conversation with a good friend about this whole issue of Leadings or Call or Rightness in our lives. here are some thoughts arising from that conversation and other events this week.

as is true for an uncanny number of people in my life, my friend is doing good work, but is wondering whether there is something more Right for her. it’s a tricky situation. it’s easy for me to make arguments that what she is doing is good: it’s important, it benefits lots of people, she is good at it. these things are true, but they are also the external voice talking. her Insides are saying yeah, yeah, but i want something more — i want to be doing something i love, that uses more of what i have to offer, that’s a really good fit, that motivates me, that Lights me up at least when i remember why i’m doing it.

this week i had a brief conversation with a law student who is wondering whether a life in death penalty work would be too . . . ummm, dark? good question. important question. one i’ve asked myself, and lots of other people have asked me. and a question each of us can answer only for ourselves because we’re all so different.

this week i also had the real honor of meeting rob owen of ut law’s death penalty clinic, someone i’ve been admiring from afar since i first stepped into all this. he came to austin with his 1989 harvard jd, and has been doing this work ever since — not just fighting for condemned clients, but doing so in Texas (it’s hard to overstate the bleakness of the capital punishment situation here, his recent wins notwithstanding). in my conversation with him, though, i was struck by how enthusiastic he is and how he seems to love this work he’s been doing for close to twenty years. it seems Right for him, and he for it.

that’s what we’re looking for — not his work, of course, but that Rightness.
some people will tell you that’s too much to ask for, but i don’t believe it. some people will tell you that not everyone has a calling, but i don’t believe it. i think it’s like creativity — we all have it, the question is how to find it, tap it, live it.

so here are some thoughts on finding it, if i don’t already have a strong sense of what’s Right for me:

be pro-active — make regular space for exploring. your own way of living with this question is fine, but here are some to consider: julia cameron’s the artist’s way recommends a two-fold practice, including daily morning pages and weekly artist dates. this may sound odd, but for me, the every-morning speed-writing, which i’ve been doing more on than off for 14 years now, is a way to dump what’s inside out onto a page where i can see it. it’s a great tool for catching myself telling the Truth, instead of saying what i’m supposed to think or feel. the artist dates (much harder for me) are a way to just sort of wander or play regularly, to try to find out what delights me or is really fun for me, which is surprisingly hard for some of us.

be still — make regular space for listening. this means silence with absolutely no distractions or interruptions. call it meditation, prayer, whatever you like, but be willing to be still and ask. be willing to do it again and again, even if no answer comes. be willing to wait for an answer. it’s worth it. the regular asking itself will help me notice the clues when i get them. this doesn’t have to be a big deal, but it is hard to do. how about sitting ten minutes when i first get up every day? i can burn a candle if i like. i can drink coffee/tea, doesn’t matter, i just sit.

get help - is there anyone i know who is a good mirror for me? who can help me notice when i Light up about something, or when an issue seems to particularly hook me? is there anyone in my family or who has known me a long time, who can help me think of people i’ve admired? quakers have a thing called clearness committees, in which a group is invited to just listen and ask questions, to sort of serve as this mirror when one has an important decision. this kind of thing can be amazing.

revenge legitimate?

less than 3 minutes: an articulate former prosecutor whose brother was murdered: