Subject: Wait a minute!! Isn’t *THIS* Child Abuse??!! (long) (fwd)

From: Jan Groenveld <>

Folks,
Is this not child abuse?
Most of this information is from Moses Klein (). Note that

Rep. Jim Pitts, Republican law-maker, proposes that Texas put children as

young as 11 on a “juvenile death row” until they’re old enough to be killed.

Of course these are children who’ve killed. Then again, in this forum we’ve

seen research which says that children that age are just beginning to form

solid ideas of wrong and right.
What is this nation becoming? Nothing I like..
Below, you’ll find some info about two juveniles scheduled for execution.

Since it comes from the Abolish list, there’s a pitch for help in saving their

lives. Whether you participate or not, I hope you object to killing such young

people. Their minds are not even completely formed, yet we treat them as fully

cognizant adults. Although I did no such horrendous thing at that age, I did a

few very reckless things, and cannot find it in myself to believe, even with

those who murder at such an age, that they are not redeemable. I hope you

agree. (Those who *really* care about children were just waiting for this

opportunity to *really* do something, weren’t they?)
I think this is child abuse. Where are CPS and the other child saver folks on

this one? The issue promises to heat up in the future as *thousands* of

children are torn from families and delivered into their futures on death row

or in prisons across the nation.
These things are all part of one fabric. They are not separate issues, but

flow seamlessly into one another.
Do we as a nation seriously believe that more prisons and more punishment will

cover the problems caused by too little education and broken families, and a

host of other problems? We’re in trouble.
Protect the children. Indeed.
ClaraT
First, Snippets from Time Magazine, January 19, 1998:
“The U.S. has executed six juvenile offenders this decade–more than any other

country.  A 1988 Supreme Court ruling (Thompson v. Oklahoma) is widely

interpreted as prohibiting the execution of offenders who committed crimes

when under the age of 16, but individual states can set higher minimum ages.

Of the 38 states that allow the death penalty, 13 set the age at 18, 4 set it

at age 17, and 21 have a minimum of 16 years of age or no minimum at all.”
[-]”Republican Governor Pete Wilson of California has suggested that 14-year-

olds should be eligible for the death penalty. …”
[-]”But in addition to the racial imbalance of the death-row population that

Hawkins cites, experts say juvenile offenders on death row are often the

victims of recent, horrible child abuse.  The case of Robert Anthony Carter, a

child of abuse who was put on death row in Texas 15 years ago for crimes he

allegedly committed when he was 17 years old, is not atypical.”
“Carter, who is black, grew up in a Houston housing  project and was routinely

taunted and beaten by other children because his clothes were ragged and

dirty. His mother and stepfather would thrash Robert and his 5 siblings with

wooden sticks and electric cords.  At age 5, he was hit in the head with a

brick.  At 10, one of his brothers hit him so hard on the head with a baseball

bat that the bat broke.  Another time, his mother smashed a dinner plate on

his head.  None of these injuries was ever treated.  His IQ has been measured

at 74, which is considered semiretarded.  None of this information was

presented at Carter’s original trial for the robbery and murder of a gas-

station clerk.” [A jury convicted him in 10 minutes, btw]
[-]”A 1988 study by Georgetown University neurologist Dr. Jonathan Pincus and

New York University psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis of 14 condemned juvenile

offenders, one of whom was Carter, found that all 14 had suffered serious head

injuries as children, all had serious psychiatric problems, all but 2 had been

severely beaten or physically abused as children, and 5 had been sexually

abused by relatives.  Only 2 had IQ scores above 90.”
[-] [About another juvenile on death row:] “Cousin… has maintained his

innocence since he was arrested and charged with murder more than two years

ago.  What makes his claim of innocence so compelling is that there is a good

deal of evidence that suggests he may be telling the truth.
“His case raises the question: Should teens, guilty or not, ever be put in a

situation where they are forced to fight for their lives?  “Knowing I’m on

death row for something I didn’t do is pretty hard,” says Cousin. “You picture

yourself being executed. You think about what your next life will be like.

It’s like a fantasy, something you never dreamed could happen. I feel like I’m

in the middle of reality in a fantasy.  What did I do to be treated like

this?” ”
        ;’+:*4`3$34`*:; From Moses Klein ;’+:*4`3$34`*:;
1. Texas has scheduled two juvenile offenders to be executed in April and May

1998. If these executions go ahead they would be the first executions in

almost five years in the USA for crimes committed by people under 18 years of

age. Such executions go against very well-established international human

rights standards (see below).
Name:           Joseph John Cannon      Robert Anthony Carter

Execution Date: April 22                May 18

Race:           white                   black

Crime:          murder                  murder

Age at crime:   17                      17

County:         Bexar (San Antonio)     Harris (Houston)
Information about Joseph Cannon from the National Coalition to Abolish the

Death Penalty.
Joseph Cannon is the quintessential example of a child who, because he was

consistently denied the basic resources he needed to grow up normally, became

a danger to himself and others.  At the age of 4, Joseph was struck by a truck

and suffered a fractured skull, a broken leg and a punctured lung.  Instead of

being released from the hospital into the arms of his parents, Joseph was sent

to an orphanage.
Hyperactivity, among other severe learning disorders, made it virtually

impossible for Joseph to function in the classroom.  A Texas school expelled

him in the first grade, and he received no formal education beyond that point.

By the time he was 10, Joseph had sniffed so much gasoline, glue and other

solvents that he was diagnosed as suffering from permanent brain damage.
Inhalants offered Joseph some escape from the sexual abuse he had been

suffering at the hands of his third stepfather since he was 7 years old. Men

in his family sexually assaulted Joseph right up until the time he was

arrested for murder at the age of 17.
Only on death row, where there is some sense of stability has Joseph been able

to better himself.  He has learned to read and finds some comfort in bible

study.  But once again, rather than provide Joseph with the support and

encouragement he has desperately needed all his life, the state of Texas

chooses to look away and push the plunger.
***************************************************************************
2. Send appeals urging that the executions of Joseph John Cannon and Robert

Anthony Carter be stayed, and that the sentences of all juveniles on death row

be commuted, to:
George W. Bush

Office of the Governor

Box 12428

Austin, TX 78711-2428

Voice: 800-252-9600 (only within Texas)

Voice: 512-463-2000

FAX: 512-463-1849
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

P.O. Box 13401

Austin, TX 78711-3401
Under Texas law the governor can issue a 30-day stay of execution by himself

but can only commute a sentence if the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends

it; however, most commentators believe that if the governor wants a

recommendation for clemency, he has the influence to get it. (He appoints the

members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.) It is therefore appropriate to

write to both.
Some suggestions for your appeals:
a) Be courteous and respectful. Acknowledge the horror of the crimes by Joseph

Cannon and Robert A. Carter, and the grief of the friends and families of

their victims, but that you do not want to see the state of Texas compound the

crimes by killing two kids.
b) International human rights standards (see below) set 18 as the age of

majority. Executing juveniles puts Texas in some of the world’s worst company

as far as human rights goes.
c) Juvenile justice is supposed to be rehabilitative. The death penalty cannot

possibly rehabilitate.
d) In any event, the death penalty … has been shown not to deter crime,

brutalizes society by legitimizing violence, is unevenly implied and

irrevocable, and is inconsistent with a professed concern for human rights and

the dignity of human life.
****************************************************************************
3. Some facts about juvenile executions in the USA and the world, which you

may wish to refer to in your letters:
a) The only countries to have executed juvenile offenders (i.e. for crimes

committed below age 18) in the past 10 years: Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Sa’udi

Arabia, Yemen, USA.
b) International human rights treaties prohibiting juvenile executions
i) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ratified by USA in

1991), Article 6(5):
Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below

eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women.
ii) American Convention on Human Rights, Article 4(5):
Capital punishment shall not be imposed upon persons who, at the time the

crime was committed, were under 18 years of age or over 70 years of age; nor

shall it be applied to pregnant women.
iii) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (still not ratified by the US

Senate*), Article 37:
States Parties shall ensure that: (a) No child shall be subjected to torture

or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital

punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be

imposed for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age; …
(*) Interesting note: this treaty is the closest that the world has to a

universally ratified human rights standard. Apart from Somalia, which doesn’t

even have a government which could ratify the treaty, the USA is the *only*

member of the UN which has not ratified this agreement.
c) 5 of the 9 juvenile offenders executed in the USA since 1976 have been

killed in Texas.
****************************************************************************
4. One Texas legislator has proposed *lowering* the minimum age for capital

punishment from 17 to 11. However, he does have some concerns for the welfare

of the kids he wants to kill:
;’+:*4(source: Dallas Morning News,   Thursday, April 9, 1998)`*:;’+
A state lawmaker who proposes allowing 11-year-olds to be sentenced to death

for capital murder said Wednesday those bound for execution should be held in

juvenile facilities until the sentence would be carried out – at age 17.
“In no way do I want an 11-, 12-, 13-year-old kid in a TDC (Texas Department

of Corrections) facility, even if they’re waiting for death row,” said Rep.

Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie. TDC is the former name for the adult prison system.
Mr. Pitts said he was concerned about children being placed in a facility with

adult “hardened criminals.”
“I don’t want them to be taken advantage of,” he said, and suggested, “Maybe

we ought to have some type of facility like death row” for such juveniles.
Mr. Pitts, who made the proposal concerning capital murder in the wake of the

Jonesboro, Ark., schoolyard shootings, stressed that he would expect an

execution to be sought only rarely for young defendants.
He said the idea simply would be an option for local prosecutors and judges.

Under his proposal, someone as young as 11 who is convicted of capital murder

could face either life without parole or the death penalty.
Since he made the proposal Monday as part of a juvenile crime package, Mr.

Pitts said his office had received hundreds of telephone calls, with about 60

% in favor and 40 % against.
Gov. George W. Bush, a fellow Republican, has said he would oppose lowering to

11 years the age at which juveniles could be executed in Texas. “I don’t think

the death penalty ought to be administered to 11-year-old children,” he said.
Under current law, someone can be sentenced to death for a crime committed at

age 16, but the execution isn’t carried out until the person is at least 17,

according to the attorney general’s office.
Mr. Pitts had said on Monday that he would look at whether such a delay should

be built into his proposal, adding that appeals probably would take that long,

anyway.
On Wednesday, Mr. Pitts said, “I think that a small child needs to answer to

their crime, but I think the actual putting to death should take place as the

current law says.
“I’ve had a little time to think about it. I’ve had a lot of calls I was

putting people to death at age 11. That is not my intention,” he said.
Mr. Pitts added, “I want every appeal process…to take place before this

child would be put to death.”
Mr. Pitts, who plans to introduce the juvenile crime package when lawmakers

meet in regular session in January, said he would continue to refine it.
“That’s why I put the proposal out there, so I could get some comment,” he

said. “I think the basic plan is going to stay. There’s going to be probably

some expanding of it.”
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