Works Cited

Kurtis, Bill. The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice. New York: Public Affairs, 2004. Print.
Lifton, Robert Jay, and Greg Mitchell. Who Owns Death?: Capital Punishment, the American Conscience, and the End of Executions. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print.
Coleman, John A. Globalization as a Challenge to Catholic Social Thought. Loyola Marymount University: Charles Cassasa. Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought. University of San Francisco, 12 Oct. 2004. Web.
"U.S. Executions Since 1976." Welcome to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Web. 20 May 2010. .

Action Prayer

There are many things that America does right. Like feed its people, clothe them, and provide living space. But just like nation, America makes mistakes. The death penalty is one of these things. God created man to live and grow. God did this and said no one has the right or power to kill another human being. And yet, the government has done this many times. Even though people make mistakes, there are other consequences that can be put into place instead of death. We pray for those who have suffered from the death penalty, their families, and beloved ones. We pray that God can give us the strength to determine what is right and what is wrong.

Action Poster

CST Handout

CST #1 – Life and Dignity of the Human Person
We are called to treat everyone with dignity and respect. Unjust prices and unfair working policies must be changed. Human life is sacred and should not be used as revenge for murder. The human life is highly valued by the Church. However, the death penalty is threatening that value.

CST #2 – Call to Family, Community, and Participation

The survival of communities relies and families. The church says people have a right and duty to participate in society. When the death penalty is involved it removes these sacred rights. Every person is responsible to be involved in a community and the general society. Some have the responsibility to help the poor and the vulnerable.

CST #3 – Rights and Responsibilities
All humans have the God given right to food, shelter, clothing, and education. In addition, everyone has the responsibility to care for one another. The Church believes that every person has the right to live. There are also responsibilities that people must live up to such as taking care of their families.

CST #4 – Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
The needs of the poor and vulnerable must be cared for first. There has to be an option that is fair for the under privileged. The Church feels that people should help the poor and vulnerable. When an injustice like the death penalty arises, the community must act to fight against it and give people back the rights they deserve. We are all born with these god-given rights, and on death row these rights are stripped.
CST #5 – The Dignity of Work and Rights of Workers
We need to unite and spread the word about unfair pay and harsh working conditions. Workers should be protected by fair wages, hours, and working conditions. The Church feels that the basic rights of workers must be respected.

CST #6 – Solidarity
We are all brothers and sisters under God. As a society we have to learn that we must love our neighbors. Everyone is the same and no one human family despite age, gender, race or economic background.
CST #7 – Care for God’s Creation
Caring for the Earth is a requirement of our faith. We must protect the people and the planet. Everyone has the responsibility to care for one another and the planet. We must protect the world that God gave us. In today’s society, death row inmates face social injustices involving their trials and execution. Life is being threatened by the use of capital punishment.


Sources: USF – Themes of Catholic Social Teaching

Interview Plan: Prepared by Brandon Norwood

1. Stefanie, you served as Program Director of Death Penalty Focus for seven years before being promoted to Associate Director. How has your responsibilities and focus of your job changed since being promoted?
2. In the past, you have lectured at different colleges in the bay area such as Stanford University and Notre Dame in Belmont. What were some of the things that you said during those lectures and what message were you most trying to convey?
3. As a person working against the death penalty, what exactly are you trying to accomplish?
4. I recently read the book Who Owns Death by Robert Jay Lifton. There were many times in the book when he discussed about how the severity of a crime can change within bordering counties. Do you think that our government needs to fix this problem?
5. You taught a class at UC Berkeley in 2001. What was the focus of the class and what were you hoping for the students to take out of the class and use in life?

Action Reflection prepared by Brandon Norwood

I chose to write a prayer on the death penalty for many reasons. First of all, a prayer can stay with a person for a life. A person can recite a prayer at specific times and pray for loved ones when they might need it the most. The words or specific phrases of a prayer can lead to inspiration to others that can live with someone for a lifetime. This prayer will have effects on people because it has deep thoughts and meanings. They are intended for not just people on death row, but their families, guards that work on death row, and the lawyers and judges that help make a decision of whether someone will receive the death penalty. Hopefully, the words and phrases in the prayer will lead to inspiration to others. I will continue and strive to learn more about the death penalty as I grow older and more mature. I want to help the families that have a loved one on death row and try and make it a more positive experience for them. I not only want to learn but I want to teach and tell people what I know about capital punishment so they can hear the point of view of this injustice from a young adult.

Action Reflection prepared by TJ Ryan IV

The action I chose for my social injustice was a poster. It portrayed the statistics of the people that have been convicted, killed, and that are currently on trial. I chose this action because during my research, I didn’t realize how many people are actually affected by this social injustice until actually seeing the numbers. It is striking, that this many people are struggling because of America’s social injustice in capital punishment. Thousands of people, some innocent, are left literally waiting to die on death row. I believe that my poster will make people think about the injustices in our world and act to help get rid of them.
My goal with this action was to notify people of an injustice. With the images and the statistics displayed I feel that I was successful in doing so. People that view my poster will be surprised that so many are affected daily by this injustice. Hopefully those who understand the injustice will work towards abolishing it, or at least dampening its negative effects. If everyone is informed of injustices in our society, we can better work against them as a community.
In my future I see myself taking action on social injustices. This project was the catalyst to my thinking about my prophetic role. Before this project I knew very little about social injustices and how people work with them. I know understand that it is easy, and rewarding to help against these issues. It is simple to get involved, and gives a feeling like no other.

Death Penalty Narrative

In the fall of 1992 Ray Krone was convicted of aggravated murder. An innocent man on death row, Ray Kurtis describes his journey through the system in Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice. Ray Krone was accused of murdering and raping Kim Ancona while she was closing up the bar where she was employed. Ray was a responsible, average, educated, thirty four year old white American male. He worked on technology for the United States Air Force and for the Postal Service. Little old ladies along his route would give him pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas; they couldn’t believe he would be involved among something like this. They, however, were among the few.
After Ray was found guilty, he had to get his sentencing. His feelings: “I was in a whirl; I couldn’t believe I was found guilty. I didn’t do it. How could I be guilty of something I didn’t do? How can that be our system of justice?” (p. 66). His crime had one aggravating factor; murder committed in a heinous or depraved manner. This was from the bite mark found on Kim Ancona’s breast. Krone had predicted that he was going to get the death penalty. “I wasn’t surprised when I was sentenced to death. The judge never ruled in our favor on anything. I wasn’t startled, I wasn’t stunned…I no longer had a life” (p. 44). The prosecuting attorney Jeffery Jones contract to defend indigent people in the county had certainly not been motivated by a desire to get rich. He wanted to help people; the last thing he thought would happen was a death penalty for Ray Krone. The dynamics of the Phoenix criminal justice system were against him.
Life on death row was another story. He thought his family and close friends were the only ones in the world who believed that he had not murdered Kim Ancona. For the time being, there was nothing they could do. After sentencing Ray went from Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix to Florence, home of Arizona’s death row in November 1992. “I mean I had chains just about everywhere except across my eyes and my neck. I was chained up and they put me in a van by myself and drove me straight to death row.” (52) There’s one thing death row inmates get when they are christened with their new status–respect. Inmates quiet down in their presence; the guards treat them with special care.
The appeal for Ray’s case came from someone unexpected. Jim Rix, Krone’s cousin, didn’t know that he had a relative on death row. Through a lawyer friend in Phoenix, Rix received the transcripts of Ray’s trial. In addition, he used his contacts from his dental software to track down Dr. Homer Campbell, one of the leading bite mark experts in the country and former president of the American Academy of Forensic Science. Rix showed Dr. Campbell the bitemarks and he quickly concluded: “This is bullshit! Who marked this?” (76). This clearly indicates a false match given in the previous evidence. Ray Krone was given a second trial which would have a new attorney and new evidence including tests to show that someone else’s DNA was present at the crime scene.
Many Americans oppose the death penalty. In Krone’s case, he luckily had a cousin hired a team of experts to help him. Through extensive research and reviewing the trial, Krone was proved innocent. This was done largely in part by taking a closer look at the DNA samples found at the crime. There are many non-profit groups aimed on educating the public about the social injustices of the death penalty. Protestors get out basic facts about capital punishment by writing them on signs, and there are many school organizations that help to take action on capital punishment throughout the entire United States. The death penalty is an example of evil disguised as good in our community.

Death Penalty Background

Ray Crone was a normal man. However, he would not be like this for long because he was convicted of a murder and then sent to death row. This innocent man ended up serving on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. The death penalty is one of the most controversial acts in America today. It cost a lot of the states money, exploits more cases of possible racism, and mostly asks the question if it is morally right to kill a person despite the crime they have committed. It has affected many families across America as well as people that work within the prisons.
One of the main reasons why the death penalty is such a controversial act by the United States is that of the people that are placed on death row. These inmates are primarily African American and come from a poor economic background. In the book Who Owns Death by Robert Jay Lifton, the author writes, “A Prisoner’s fate is often determined mainly by the makeup of a jury and the competence of his attorney, not the brutality of his crime” (Lifton 47). This is an interesting assumption by the author. The author is mainly saying that how hard a lawyer works and the people that serve as the jury decide the fate of the convicted man. This is an important idea because this is saying that people decide the fate of a man rather then the crime deciding the fate. This is where the role of racism can come into play because if a jury sees an African American that comes from a poor background, they may be more likely to find him guilty rather then a white man from a middle class family.
Another reason why capital punishment is immoral is because it is inconsistence in all states. For example in Who Owns Death, Robert Jay Lifton writes, “Kill one man in Texas, and you loose your life; slaughter a family in Michigan, and you never face the execution chamber” (Lifton 4). This data reveals that the death penalty is inconsistent throughout the United States and that needs to change. If a man kills a human being in one state, and a different man kills a family in another state, they both should have the same punishment. However, as seen in the quote above, that is untrue. This is important because it is morally wrong for some states to be stricter then others. This is one country and all criminals should receive the same type of punishment for similar crimes.
The last reason why the death penalty is controversial in this country is because it cost a lot of money to keep inmates on death row. According to Stefanie Foucher, it costs about 125 million dollars a year in California to keep inmates on death row. This money could be used in other areas of the government such as improving education. She also said that most inmates on death row each sleep in their own sell rather then them sleeping with two to three other people like normal jail sells. This creates wasted space which cost money.
The government is causing this problem because they see the issues but fail to address them publicly. The government knows that the death penalty costs millions of dollars to run each year. They know that district judges have their personal opinions on the death penalty and a person’s conviction can be placed solely on the judge’s preference. According to Death Penalty Focus, one of the reasons why the government is not making any effort to change the death penalty is because there are much more concerns that the government is focusing on such as the economy and foreign affairs.
The Death Penalty can be seen as evil disguised as good. The government convinces the public that the criminals placed on death row are extremely dangerous and cannot be living on this planet any longer. Even though, many of them are dangerous, staying in a high guarded prison may be a better option then killing them. According to a survey conducted by CNN.com, most of the public is unaware of the effects that the death penalty plays in the government such as millions of dollars being spent to an activity that is considered by many to be immoral.
People outside of the government and people that are aware of what is happening in capital punishment are saying that the death penalty is immoral. Stefanie Foucher of Death Penalty Focus in San Francisco has traveled to universities in the Bay Area such as Stanford and Berkeley to voice her opinion on the death penalty and to make people more aware of what is happening in capital punishment. She receives a lot of praise for the work she has done such as teaching a class at UC Berkeley that was mainly focused on capital punishment. Sometimes politicians or government officials agree with many of Stefanie’s opinions and listen to her view and change of the death penalty.
High spending, racism, and morality are three key elements that prove why the death penalty is a practice that should be discontinued. The death penalty cost millions of dollars that could be spent in a more needed area of the US government. Racism is another key factor that plays into deciding whether a man should be convicted or not. Lastly, the death penalty is morally wrong because it is killing a human being.

Interview with Stefanie Foucher Pt. 2

On Monday April 5, my partner and I drive up to downtown San Francisco to interview Stefanie Foucher of Death Penalty Focus. The interview lasted about thirty minutes in her office as we asked many different questions about her experiences with the death penalty and specific cases that have occurred in capital punishment. She was very thorough in her explanations of answering our questions and used examples to clarify her ideas. At the end of the interview, she gave each of us a folder that statistics about the death penalty and about Death Penalty Focus. Stefanie was excited to have us their and we could tell that she wanted to talk to us. Some people do not like to be interviewed by high school boys, but it did not seem to bother her that we were. She enjoyed that we are doing our social justice project the death penalty and she wanted to answer all of our questions so that our project could be the best possible.
Stefanie was very welcoming and gracious that we were interviewing her. She was very nice and answered all of our questions thoroughly so that we fully understood what she was talking about. She supplied us with a packet of papers that explained Death Penalty Focus and the death penalty in general.
I learned more about Death Penalty Focus which is what I expected to learn. We asked her a few different relating to her specific job within the non profit company and questions about the overall company and what it is trying to do. She told us how she has visited multiple colleges in the bay area such as Stanford, Santa Clara, and UC Berkeley to voice her opinion and view on the death penalty.
I learned that district judges can determine whether a man receives the death penalty or not. This can be unfair because judges have their different views on the death penalty. Some are in favor of it and some are against. I also learned that she taught a class relating to capital punishment when she attended UC Berkeley. The point of her class was to make her students more aware of capital punishment. She wanted to outlay the facts of the death penalty and how it is costing millions of dollars that could be going to our schools or other areas of the state.
I was very impressed with the interview. It went just how I expected. She was very nice and gracious despite that we showed up thirty minutes late. She was very smart and knew what she was talking about. She was prepared for us to ask all types of different questions relating to her life, to her job, to the company she works for.

My partner and I interviewed Stefanie Faucher from the Death Penalty Focus group of San Francisco. We met in her office in downtown San Francisco and she welcomed us both with many informational packets about death penalty abolishment in California. Her focus group is a non-profit organization whose goal is informing the public of the injustices of the death penalty. Stefanie has a lot of experience with the death penalty. While at Cal, she was enrolled in an undergraduate teaching program in which she wrote a curriculum and taught a class about the death penalty. In addition to answering all of our questions from research, we also learned many new interesting facts about the death penalty that we had not yet discovered.
Stefanie was very kind and polite when we arrived. We even showed up ten minutes late due to San Francisco traffic. She gave us our full thirty minutes plus a few so we could answer all of the questions we had. Even as high school students, she treated us with respect and not as a few kids looking to complete a school project. For future students looking for an interview, I would highly recommend they go to Stefanie Faucher.
Our general questions were easily answered by Stefanie. There are two trials for the death penalty; one for the crime, and one for the execution. It also takes up to three months just to get the jury together, as many pople are biased and can not be on trial. One piece of information that was not included in the text was the extreme cost of the lawyer. Technically he is getting paid the entire time while the defendant is on trial, which usually is around 12-15 years. We also learned that the biggest help to stop crime is increasing the apprehension rate. People don’t murder because they don’t want to get caught.
Some of the information that we gathered was quite surprising. We learned that 2 of 13 executions in the state of California result in voluntary execution. This is where the prisoner gives up his right to petition and is willfully executed; speeding up the long trial process. We also uncovered the wrongfully convicted percentage of death row inmates, it is strikingly high. While 1% seems low at first, one must look at the total number of inmates, 3500. If 1% of 3500 inmates were wrongfully convicted, then that is 35 people that have lost their lives due to an unjust and faulty system.
I took a lot from this interview, not only information. Setting up an interview and actually interviewing a professional such as Stefanie gave me a lot of experience which I am sure will help me in the future. The Death Penalty Focus of San Francisco seems to be one of the most dedicated and well-known anti-death penalty groups in the state and from what I can tell they are getting their message across very well. I hope that after this project is over I will be able to perform a small fraction of what they have accomplished.