In a year when many aspects concerning human rights are depressing, we are pleased – particularly at this time of the year – to report some good news this time from the state of Oregon.
In Oregon, the outgoing Governor, Kate Brown (Democrat), is commuting the sentences of the 17 prisoners currently on death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and dismantling the State’s execution chamber in an effort finally to end capital punishment in Oregon. In practice, the death penalty has not been in use since 2011, and, while in office, Ms Brown has exercised her power to grant clemency more than any of the State’s previous Governors, citing personal growth as part of the reason for reducing a person’s sentence. This final decision is based on her belief that the death penalty is immoral, a waste of money, and does not make communities safer. The incoming Governor, Tina Kotek, is also a Democrat. Obviously, under the existing circumstances, the 17 prisoners were unlikely to have been executed anyway, but what a relief it must be to have their actual sentences commuted. The Republicans are reported not to be happy – at least one saying it should have been put to ’the people’.
The Death Penalty Information Center reports that in a year that featured massive campaign advertising attempting to portray legal reformers as responsible for increases in violent crime, candidates committed to criminal legal reform or who promised to continue state-wide moratoria on executions posted key election wins in the 2022 midterm elections. Defying a pre-election narrative forecasting a backlash against progressive prosecutors and conventional wisdom that fear of crime drives political outcomes, reform prosecutors were re-elected to office and gained new footholds in counties across the country.
There is an interesting post on the Oregon State’s Department of Corrections website on the history, use of and methods of execution as it operates there.
The latest death penalty report for November/December is now available thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. At 8pp it shows there is a lot going on in the world and actions by Saudi authorities with their barbaric executions are particularly noteworthy. The distraction of the World Cup next door in Qatar no doubt helped to act as a shield. Note as ever that China remains the world’s worst executioner with numbers in the thousands but details are a state secret.
We are pleased to attach the minutes of the group’s November meeting with thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling them. They contain a lot of interesting material including information about future events, planned or actual, as well as reports on refugees and the death penalty.
Note that the next meeting is December 8th at 2pm. We welcome new members and we hope to see returning ones now that we have shifted to an afternoon slot. We remain concerned about the range of bills and laws the government is planning to pass which will limit our rights to protest and its increasingly authoritarian tone. Refugees remain a live issue receiving much coverage in the media particularly about the boat crossings but who fail to mention the full facts.
Iran is appearing in the news in the last week or so as a result of the death of a woman, Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten by Iran’s Morality Police for not covering her hair properly. Riots have broken out all round the country and have continued for many days. According to Hrana, the Iranian human rights organisation, the family was told she would be released after attending a session on re-education. Yesterday, schoolgirls were reported to be shouting ‘get lost’ to a spokesman from the Morality Police.
This urgent action concerns two women under risk of execution for their real or perceived sexual orientation. If you are able to sign, that would be greatly appreciated. See the link below:
We are pleased to attach the monthly death penalty report with thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. Note it contains no information about China which is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world put together, but the details are a state secret.
We are pleased to attach the current death penalty report for July/August 2022 thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling it. Iran and Oklahoma feature in this report together with Myanmar and Japan.
The group minutes for July 2022 are attached and thanks to group member Lesley for preparing them. They are longer than you would expect from ordinary meeting minutes and serve more of a newsletter with reports on the death penalty, current UK government bills which are causing the human rights community some alarm, and a report on refugees.
We are pleased to attach the latest death penalty report thanks to group member Lesley for the work in compiling this. There is a lot this time about Ukraine and as usual, the USA and its tortuous processes especially in the southern states. Note that there is no report on China which is believed to execute more of its citizens that the rest of the world combined but where information is a state secret.
Texas has executed more people than any other state in the Union and five times as many as Oklahoma, the next heaviest user of the penalty. If the method is a deterrent which is so often claimed, why the need for its continuing use?
Below we attach a draft letter to the Governor which you can adapt to your own circumstances. Note that the cut off date is 13 July.
Ramiro Gonzales was 18 years and two months old at the time of the murder of Bridget Townsend in 2001. He was emerging from a childhood of serious neglect and abuse. A neuropsychologist testified at trial that he “basically raised himself”, had the emotional maturity of a 13- or 14-year-old, and in her opinion was likely in the top 10% of emotionally damaged children.
I do not wish to minimize the consequences of violent crime, but I am disturbed by your state’s use of the death penalty, including against young adult offenders. Over 13 per cent of all those executed in Texas between 1982 and 2022 were 18 or 19 years old at the time of the crime.
When banning the execution of under 18-year-olds in 2005, the US Supreme Court noted that “the qualities that distinguish juveniles from adults do not disappear when an individual turns 18” andmade clear that the death penalty be “limited to those offenders… whose extreme culpability makes them the most deserving of execution”. I urge you to consider how a death sentence imposed on a severely emotionally damaged 18-year-old meets this requirement.
I urge you to stop the execution of Ramiro Gonzales and to ensure that his death sentence is commuted.
Yours sincerely,
Additional information
In October 2002, Ramiro Gonzales pled guilty to the abduction and rape of a woman in September 2001 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Soon after he began this sentence, he admitted to the murder of an 18-year-old woman committed in January 2001 while robbing the home of the person who supplied him with cocaine (a drug he had already consumed that day). At the time of the murder, Ramiro Gonzales was 72 days past his 18th birthday.
At the sentencing phase of his 2006 trial, the prosecution presented a psychiatrist who testified that Ramiro Gonzales would likely commit acts of violence in prison. He acknowledged that the American Psychiatric Association viewed such predictions of “future dangerousness”, a jury’s finding of which is a prerequisite for a death sentence in Texas, as unscientific and unreliable. Such predictions have long been shown to be grossly inaccurate, even if seen as effective for the prosecution’s pursuit of a death sentence. While Ramiro Gonzales has had some minor disciplinary infractions on death row, all have been non-violent.
When the US Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that states could continue executing individuals for crimes committed when they were 16 or 17 years old, the four dissenting Justices noted that “many of the psychological and emotional changes that an adolescent experiences in maturing do not actually occur until the early 20s”, and that “adolescents on death row appear typically to have a battery of psychological, emotional, and other problems going to their likely capacity for judgment and level of blameworthiness.” When the Court in 2005 banned the death penalty against individuals who were under 18 at the time of the crime, it expressly recognized young people’s immaturity, impulsiveness, poor judgment, underdeveloped sense of responsibility and vulnerability or susceptibility to “negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure”, as well as their potential for reform. This time the majoritynoted that “the qualities that distinguish juveniles from adults do not disappear when an individual turns 18”.
Sixty per cent of the USA’s executions of those under 18 at the time of the crime occurred in Texas. Of these 13 individuals, nine were Black (8) or Latino (1), and six of these nine (67%) were convicted of crimes involving white victims. While not subject to the categorical international and constitutional law prohibition relating to under 18-year-olds, the execution of those who were 18 or 19 at the time of the crime has followed a similar geographic and racial pattern. More such individuals have been executed in Texas than in any other state; indeed, only four other states have executed more people of any age than Texas has executed individuals who were 18 or 19 at the time of the crime. Seventy-seven of the 574 people (13%) put to death in Texas from 1982 to June 2022 were 18 or 19 at the time of the crime. Of these 77 people, 48 were African American (62%), 34 of whom (71%) were convicted of crimes involving white victims. Since 2014, Texas has executed nine people for crimes committed when they were 18; four were Black, three were Hispanic, and two were white. Ramiro Gonzales is Hispanic. The victim was white.
Two of the 13 federal executions carried out in the USA between July 2020 and January 2021 in the USA were of two Black men convicted of the murder of a white couple committed when they were 18 or 19. They were convicted in federal court in the same District of Texas in which Ramiro Gonzales was tried at state level. As the second of the two federal executions approached, the federal prosecutor who defended the death sentences on appeal revealed that she had changed her mind. She noted that “science has established that the structures of the brain are not fully developed in young men until they are 25 or 26” and that “18-year-olds are no different from 17-year-olds in both immaturities and potential for rehabilitation.”
There have been seven executions in the USA this year, one in Texas, which accounts for 574 of the 1,547 executions in the USA since 1976. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally.
PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: English.
You may also write in your own language.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 13 July 2022
NAME AND PRONOUNS: Ramiro Gonzales(He/his)
Additional TARGETS
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles Clemency Section 8610 Shoal Creek Boulevard Austin, Texas 78757, USA Fax: +1 512 406 0945 Email: bpp-clemency@tdcj.texas.gov Salutation: Dear Presiding Officer Gutiérrez and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles
We are pleased to attach our latest death penalty report thanks to group member Lesley for preparing it. It is a lengthy one – possibly the longest we have posted – as there is a lot going on, both positive and negative, on this topic. Note as ever that China is not reported on as information about executions are a state secret. China is believed to execute more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 