Hinrichtungstermin: 10. September

SCHREIBEN SIE BITTE FAXE, E-MAILS ODER LUFTPOSTBRIEFE MIT FOLGENDEN FORDERUNGEN

• Ich möchte die Ermordung von Holly Washa mit diesem Schreiben auf keinen Fall verharmlosen.

• Doch möchte ich anmerken, dass schwerwiegende Einwände gegen die Auswahl der Geschworenen bei Cal Browns Verfahren erhoben wurden.

• Auch möchte ich an den Bundesstaat Washington appellieren, nach fast einem Jahrzehnt ohne die Verhängung der Todesstrafe nicht wieder einen Schritt zurückzugehen und ein Todesurteil zu vollstrecken.

• Ich denke dabei auch an die großen Bedenken, die nach dem Fall von Gary Ridgway hinsichtlich der Gerechtigkeit der Todesstrafe aufgekommen sind.

• Ich appelliere an Sie, das Todesurteil gegen Cal Brown in lebenslange Haft umzuwandeln.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY

• Acknowledging the seriousness of the crime for which Cal Brown was sentenced to death;

• Noting the serious concerns that have been raised about the jury selection at Cal Brown’s trial;

• Urging that Washington State not take the backward step of carrying out an execution after nearly a decade without one;

• Noting the concerns raised about the fairness of the death penalty in the wake of the Gary Ridgway case;

• Calling for commutation of Cal Brown’s death sentence.

  [WEITERE HINTERGRUNDINFORMATIONEN AUF ENGLISCH:]

  In 1998, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions expressed concern that in the USA, "while the jury system was intended to represent the community as a whole, the community can hardly be represented when those who oppose the death penalty or have reservations about it seem to be systematically excluded from sitting as jurors." As early as 1986, the US Supreme Court had itself acknowledged evidence from numerous studies that the "death qualification" of capital jurors "produces juries somewhat more 'conviction-prone’ than 'non-death-qualified’ juries." In 1998, a review of existing research indicated that a "favourable attitude towards the death penalty translates into a 44 per cent increase in the probability of a juror favouring conviction." Another expert review in 1998 concluded that "death-qualified jurors, regardless of the standard, are more conviction-prone, less concerned with due process, and they are more inclined to believe the prosecution than are excludable jurors." In 2008, US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, with more than 30 years experience on the Court (he retired earlier this year), said that "the process of obtaining a 'death qualified jury’ is really a procedure that has the purpose and effect of obtaining a jury that is biased in favour of conviction." Justice Stevens authored the dissent in the Cal Brown case.

There have been four executions in Washington State since the USA resumed judicial killing in 1977. Its first execution was in 1993, which was the first execution in the state since 1963. The last person to be executed was James Ellege in August 2001. Like three of the four men put to death in the state since 1977, Ellege had given up his appeals and "volunteered" for execution. The last "non-consensual" execution in Washington State was that of Charles Campbell, hanged in May 1994. Cal Brown is one of eight men on death row in Washington State.

Washington State’s current method of execution is lethal injection. Earlier this year, the Department of Corrections abandoned its three-drug method and adopted a new, one-drug protocol. Under the old method, sodium thiopental (an anaesthetic), pancuronium bromide (a paralytic agent) and potassium chloride (a heart-attack inducing agent) were used to kill the prisoner. Under the new protocol, the inmate is killed with a single large dose (five grams) of sodium thiopental. On 29 July 2010, the state Supreme Court dismissed as moot a lawsuit that had been brought by death row inmates challenging the three-drug method. Cal Brown’s lawyers are seeking a stay of execution in order to challenge the new lethal injection method.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally in all cases, regardless of the crime or the method used to kill the prisoner. The USA has carried out 1,224 executions since 1977. There have been 36 executions in the USA this year.