Post by CCADP on Apr 13, 2006 7:02:06 GMT -5
Ex-death row inmate to speak in focus on capital punishment
As the modern era of executions began in Utah in January 1977 with the
death-by-firing-squad of Gary Gilmore, a man named Gary Beeman was sitting
on Ohio's death row.
"I remember I stayed up and listened to it on the radio," Beeman said of
Gilmore's execution, the nation's 1st in a decade. "It was a shock, it was
a real shock."
While Beeman awaited his own date with death, he, unlike Gilmore, was
armed with the knowledge that he was innocent.
After he had spent four years in prison for aggravated murder, Beeman won
a new trial, served largely as his own attorney and was acquitted in 1979.
Beeman showed the 2nd jury that the state's key witness in the 1st trial
had bragged to 5 witnesses that he was the real killer and was framing
Beeman.
Now Beeman of Niagara Falls, N.Y., is back in Ohio as part of a speaking
tour of colleges and universities. He'll speak Tuesday before a criminal
justice class at Sinclair Community College.
It's the 1st time Beeman has taken his story to the public. He said his
aim is to start a dialogue on capital punishment.
Beeman says the death penalty "is totally unfair. It's wrong. It's about
power. It's not about truth, it's not about justice, it's not about
right."
The rate of false capital convictions is unacceptably high, he said,
noting there have been 5 exonerations in Ohio since 1979 and 20 executions
since 1999.
"What if 1 out of 4 air bags fail? 1 out of 4 airplanes crash? Nobody
would put up with that (failure rate)," Beeman said. "And we're talking
about people's lives."
Sinclair instructor Cynthia Baugh-Gunder said Beeman's message "is not so
much to abolish the death penalty, but that the system is flawed."
After well-publicized exonerations here and in other states, she said,
"people in Ohio are starting to question not whether the death penalty is
wrong, but is the system wrong."
(source: Dayton Daily News)
As the modern era of executions began in Utah in January 1977 with the
death-by-firing-squad of Gary Gilmore, a man named Gary Beeman was sitting
on Ohio's death row.
"I remember I stayed up and listened to it on the radio," Beeman said of
Gilmore's execution, the nation's 1st in a decade. "It was a shock, it was
a real shock."
While Beeman awaited his own date with death, he, unlike Gilmore, was
armed with the knowledge that he was innocent.
After he had spent four years in prison for aggravated murder, Beeman won
a new trial, served largely as his own attorney and was acquitted in 1979.
Beeman showed the 2nd jury that the state's key witness in the 1st trial
had bragged to 5 witnesses that he was the real killer and was framing
Beeman.
Now Beeman of Niagara Falls, N.Y., is back in Ohio as part of a speaking
tour of colleges and universities. He'll speak Tuesday before a criminal
justice class at Sinclair Community College.
It's the 1st time Beeman has taken his story to the public. He said his
aim is to start a dialogue on capital punishment.
Beeman says the death penalty "is totally unfair. It's wrong. It's about
power. It's not about truth, it's not about justice, it's not about
right."
The rate of false capital convictions is unacceptably high, he said,
noting there have been 5 exonerations in Ohio since 1979 and 20 executions
since 1999.
"What if 1 out of 4 air bags fail? 1 out of 4 airplanes crash? Nobody
would put up with that (failure rate)," Beeman said. "And we're talking
about people's lives."
Sinclair instructor Cynthia Baugh-Gunder said Beeman's message "is not so
much to abolish the death penalty, but that the system is flawed."
After well-publicized exonerations here and in other states, she said,
"people in Ohio are starting to question not whether the death penalty is
wrong, but is the system wrong."
(source: Dayton Daily News)