Spain: Jews receive apology over Spanish Inquisition executions

The leader of Majorca has become the 1st government official to apologise for the execution of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition -- centuries after the events.

Francesc Antich, the regional president of the Balearic Islands, issued an official condemnation of the killings in what was heralded by Jewish groups as the first of its kind in Spain.

"We have dared to gather here to recognise the grave injustice committed against those Majorcans who were accused, persecuted, charged and condemned to death for their faith and their beliefs," Mr Antich said at a memorial service held in Palma de Majorca.

At the end of the 15th century King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella set up the Spanish Inquisition to root out remnants of Islam and Judaism after the reconquest of Spain. Over the following two centuries thousands of so-called heretics were burned at the stake.

Following the order to convert or leave the country, the majority of Spain's Jews fled to safer shores while many of those left behind publicly converted to Roman Catholicism yet practised their true faith in secret.

34 Jews were garroted and their bodies thrown on to bonfires in 1691. 3 others, including a rabbi, were burned alive.

Mr Antich said the purpose of the recognition was to "recover part of that memory" of Majorca's dark past and recognise the violence and discrimination that converts faced for centuries.

An estimated 15,000 people living in Majorca are thought to be descendants of the island's Jews, though almost all are Catholic.

The Israel-based group that came up with the proposal for the ceremony lauded the event as "an important gesture of reconciliation".

Source: The Telegraph, May 6, 2011

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Mississippi: Faith leaders call to end death penalty

Leaders of Muslim, Jewish and Christian congregations gathered Thursday at the Capitol to call for an end to the death penalty in Mississippi.

Death penalty supporter Ann Pace of Jackson, meanwhile, held pictures of her daughter, who she said died at the hands of a serial killer.

The main point of contention between the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference and Pace is whether the death penalty effectively deters crime, but the issue also hinges on inequity in the criminal justice system and religious principles.

“We face the real possibility of three state-sanctioned executions within the next month,” said the Episcopal Rev. Carol Borne Spencer. “The organization thus felt that the time was now for us to ask our state leaders to find new ways to deal with one of the largest societal dilemmas of our time, that is how to deal with heinous criminal actions of murder and violence and still hold people accountable in ways that do not require the killing of a person."

On Wednesday, the Mississippi Supreme Court set execution dates for 2 convicted killers, and Attorney General Jim Hood has requested an execution date for a 3rd.

The religious conference, which grew out of the 1960s civil rights movement, asked Thursday for crime victim support. But members said executions only create new victims — the families of executed criminals. Isolating criminals is better than condemning them to death, members said.

Pace, whose daughter Murray Pace was slain by reputed south Louisiana serial killer Derrick Todd Lee in May 2002, disagrees.

Lee, 43, sits on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for Pace’s murder. Murray was killed at the age of 22, 1 week after graduating with an MBA from Louisiana State University.

Lee is suspected of killing 7 south Louisiana women between 1998 and 2003, but Pace said he has not yet been put to death because Louisiana state law allows too many appeals.

“Even though the case is a DNA case, his DNA in 7 murders, and it’s been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court twice, Louisiana still provides for a system called post-conviction relief that can go on for years and years and years, and it made sense before forensic science. It does not make sense now,” said Pace.

She cited a series of studies in the early 2000s finding that each execution prevents between 3 and 18 slayings. The studies have been widely disseminated by pro-death penalty advocates but widely criticized for technical and conceptual errors by those who oppose execution.

“I am here for those three to 18 additional victims,” Pace said. “I think abolishing the death penalty is idealistic, sounds good, feels good to support, but it does not protect life, it does not protect us, and I think our most important moral obligation in our life is to protect ourselves, our children, and our community, and I think that the death penalty does in fact do that."

In addition to the debate over deterrence, the Capitol press conference brought up issues of social equality and faith.

Okolo Rashid of Jackson's International Museum of Muslim Cultures signed the MRLC's call for a moratorium. She said her faith would allow her to support the death penalty if the system did not disproportionately execute black men.

Another MRLC member invoked the symbolism of the Christian day of Good Friday, which marks the day Jesus Christ was crucified.

“We know that Jesus Christ would not want the death penalty for anyone, having suffered himself at the hands of the state,” said the Catholic Bishop Joseph N. Latino of Jackson.

Set to be executed May 10 is Benny Joe Stevens, now 52, who was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing his ex-wife and her husband, his 11-year-old son and his son's 10-year-old friend.

Meanwhile, state officials have set a May 17 execution date for Rodney Gray, now 38, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1994 rape and murder of 79-year-old Grace Blackwell of Louin. Blackwell, who had last been seen withdrawing a large amount of money from her bank, was found shot multiple times in Newton County.

Robert Simon Jr. was sentenced to death for the killings of 3 members of a Quitman County family, but his attorneys say a fall has rendered him incompetent for execution. Hood had earlier asked for an April 20 execution date.

Source: Associated Press, April 23, 2011

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Connecticut's Religious Leaders Say End the Death Penalty

Dozens of Religious Leaders Rally in Hartford to Advocate the Abolition of Connecticut's Capital Punishment Law

Calling it the just and moral thing to do, dozens of religious leaders from the state’s Christian and Jewish communities gathered at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford Tuesday to petition the General Assembly to repeal Connecticut’s death penalty law.

“There are times where sometimes we have theological debates about things in which we disagree, however when it comes to the death penalty this is one item that members of major denominations agree, there is consensus that the death penalty should be abolished,” said State Rep. Bruce Morris, D-Norwalk, who also serves as a minister and emceed Tuesday’s proceedings.

The religious leaders presented Morris and State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, D-New Haven, with a letter signed by more than 300 clergy supporting passage of House Bill 5036, a bill introduced by Holder-Winfield that would abolish Connecticut’s death penalty. Speakers advocated replacing the state’s capital punishment law with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release for the state’s most violent convicted murderers.

“As people of faith, we reaffirm our opposition to the death penalty and belief in the sacredness of human life,” the letter stated. “We urge you, our elected officials, to examine the reality of Connecticut’s death penalty and seek ways to achieve true healing for those who suffer because of violent crime. Please support repeal of the death penalty. It is time for Connecticut to move beyond this broken and harmful system.”

Speakers argued that the death penalty was an “ineffective, unfair and fallible” response to violent crimes.

“The death penalty applies disproportionately to the poor and minorities and puts innocent lives at risk of execution,” Morris said. “Since 1973, 138 individuals sentenced to death were later exonerated of their crimes. When a human life is at stake, there’s simply no room for error.”

James Curry, a Bishop from the Episcopal Church, said that he has spoken to the victims of many families who feel that the death penalty only adds to their pain and suffering, because of lengthy trials and appeals and the notoriety associated with the cases.

“By abolishing the death penalty, we in Connecticut have an opportunity to affirm and respect our dignity as a society,” Curry said. “…Life imprisonment without possibility of release is a punishment that can respect the needs of a victim’s family for closure in the legal process, it can respect their needs for justice, and it can respect the memory of all their loved ones.”

Peter Rosazza, a Bishop from the Connecticut Catholic Conference, said that the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty because it violates the sanctity of life.

“Human life is a gift from god that must be respected from conception to natural death,” Rosazza said. “Our profound respect for human life also explains why we are opposed to any attack against human life, including abortion and euthanasia.”

Rosazza noted that Connecticut was the last state in New England to abolish slavery, adding “we hope it is not the last state to abolish the death penalty.”

Rabbi Donna Berman said that the death penalty went against the Jewish tradition and was not an effective deterrent.

“Even in ancient times there were those who felt that capital punishment was a deterrent to crime, but they represented the minority opinion,” Berman said. “In our own day, studies show that capital punishment is in fact not a deterrent. The truth is we can deter crime and protect society just as effectively, more effectively, with life imprisonment without the possibility of release. In this way we can avoid the very real risk of taking an innocent life.”

The death penalty has always been a hot button issue in Connecticut, but has risen in prominence the past several years due to a brutal 2007 Cheshire home invasion. Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were sexually assaulted and murdered in their home after a failed robbery attempt. One man, Steven Hayes, 47, was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to death, while another, Joshua Komisarjevsky, is currently on trial for the crime. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Komisarjevsky.

Both houses of the legislature approved a bill to veto the death penalty in 2009, but then governor vetoed the bill, citing the Cheshire home invasion.

Holder-Winfield said he expected the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee to vote on the current bill within a week. He said he expected the bill to pass, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to sign it into law.

“The work that I’m doing on the death penalty comes out of both my religious faith and my sense for justice,” Holder-Winfield said.

During his campaign, Malloy, a former federal prosecutor, repeatedly stated he was opposed to the death penalty.

In the most recent Quinnipiac University Poll on the subject, released March 10, 67 percent of Connecticut residents said they supported the death penalty, compared to 28 percent who said they opposed it.

The event was originally intended to be held on the steps of the state capitol, but was moved indoors because of the weather.

Source: Montville Patch, April 6, 2011

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Condemned Ohio killer of 3 asks panel for mercy

A condemned Ohio inmate with Nazi sympathies who killed 3 men at Cleveland State University is asking the state's new governor for mercy.

Frank Spisak blamed the 1982 murders on his hatred of gays, blacks and Jews and also claimed his crimes were sparked by mental illness related to confusion about his sexual identity.

His attorneys planned to tell the Ohio Parole Board Thursday that Spisak suffers from a severe bipolar mood disorder that was not diagnosed until years after he was convicted.

The lawyers argue the information could have led jurors to consider a different sentence.

Spisak's plea to spare his life will be the 1st death penalty case to come before newly sworn-in Republican Gov. John Kasich

Source: Associated Press, January 13, 2011