Speaker urges action to end capital punishment

By Timothy Kudo
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

When Bryan Stevenson met his first death row inmate, the group
he was working with prepared him for the encounter, telling him
what to do and what to say.

When he arrived, he did just that, telling the man he
wouldn’t be executed for at least 12 months. And when he was
done talking, the inmate broke down crying.

“He said, “˜You’re the first person I’ve
talked to in three years who’s not a prison guard or a death
row inmate,” Stevenson said to a crowded audience in the UCLA
School of Law during the Irving H. Green Memorial Lecture.

“My willingness to be somewhere where people were
struggling made a difference,” he said.

Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in
Alabama, has worked to rescind the death sentences of more than 40
inmates.

“He does all these things against the odds,” said
Jonathan Varat, dean of the School of Law.

At his lecture Thursday, which left some listeners in tears and
ended with a standing ovation, Stevenson talked about the
injustices often perpetuated against poor people and
minorities.

His talk comes on the eve of a presidential election in which
both the Democrat and Republican candidates support the death
penalty.

“I feel that, because George W. Bush and Al Gore are
pro-death penalty, I can’t in good conscience vote for either
of them,” said Meghan Lang, a second-year law student who
will vote for Ralph Nader.

Californians are split on whether they support Gov. Gray Davis
issuing a moratorium on the death penalty with 42 percent of the
population for the moratorium, 44 percent against, and 14 percent
still undecided, according to a recent Los Angeles Times poll.

Similarly, support for the death penalty nationwide is at a
19-year low at 66 percent, according to a March Gallup poll. In
February, the Republican governor of Illinois placed a moratorium
on the death penalty after a number of inmates were exonerated in
the state.

The race and class-based problems facing the justice system,
especially regarding the death penalty, were the focus of
Stevenson’s talk.

“No matter where you are, the criminal justice system
treats you much better if you’re rich and guilty than if
you’re poor and innocent,” he said.

“Sadly, these problems are getting worse, not
better,” he added.

Floating around the discussion of the death penalty are figures
about the disproportionate number of African Americans and men on
death row, but Stevenson was able to provide a personal feeling to
these numbers.

Stevenson recounted a story about a time when a man called him
asking for legal help, knowing there wasn’t much anybody
could do.

All he was asking for was someone to fight for him in the 29
days prior to the carrying out of his sentence. He had lost the
right of attorney, as provided by the Sixth Amendment, because he
was convicted of his crime, and thus needed Stevenson’s
help.

On the night of his execution, after all appeals and legal
possibilities had failed, Stevenson sat with the man, crying,
praying and talking.

Strangely, the man began talking about how, for each meal of the
day, they had asked him what he would like, Stevenson said.

“The man said, “˜It’s been so strange because
more people have asked me how they can help in the past 14 hours,
than in the first 19 years of my life,'” Stevenson
said.

Nobody tried to do anything when his parents abused him or when
he was sexually molested. It was only when he was 19 years old, and
committed murder, that someone stepped in, Stevenson said.

“Then this man was pulled away, strapped into the electric
chair and executed,” he said.

Though Stevenson spoke to a group of law students and
professors, his message could apply to all.

“I’ve learned through my work that each of us is
better than the worst thing we’ve done,” Stevenson
said. “If you’ve taken something, you’re not just
a thief; if you lie, you’re not just a liar; if you murder
someone, you’re not just a murderer. You’re more than
that.”