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.
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. 