Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:49:51 GMT -5
Catholic-school kids roll in to protest Ohio's death penalty.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The Columbus Dispatch
Byline: Alan Johnson
Apr. 11--After bicycling 140 miles from Cleveland to Columbus over the weekend, Jayson Gerbec still had enough energy to lead a student rally against the death penaltyyesterday at the Statehouse.
The 17-year-old senior at St. Ignatius High School was joined by about 200 other Catholicschool students from Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and other parts of the state who chanted, sang and spoke out against capital punishment.
While they would like to see it abolished before another execution -- Joseph Clark of Lucas County is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on May 2 -- Gerbec said he knows it will take time.
"You may not see a difference now. Sooner or later, we'll be the adults. We'll be cranking out the ballots."
"Wheels of Justice," as the rally was called, was inspired by Catholic students who regularly travel from Cleveland by bus to protest and pray outside the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where inmates are executed.
While there were many protesters at Lucasville for the first few executions, the students from Cleveland often have been alone in their vigils in the past two years.
About 24 students made the cycling trek from Cleveland beginning last Friday. They battled rain and nearly freezing temperatures over the weekend before arriving in Columbus on a sunny Monday that marked the beginning of Holy Week.
Joining them in Columbus were students from St. Francis DeSales High School and Bishop Hartley High School.
Cristin Day, 16, came to the rally fresh off a performance in the play Dead Man Walking at Hartley, where she is a sophomore. Day is zealously opposed to capital punishment.
"There is so much more to be done," she said yesterday. "You have to scream at the top of your lungs to be heard."
Since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999, 20 men have been executed. There are now 193 men and two women on Death Row.
The students gave state Rep. Mike Mitchell, D-Columbus, a petition against the death penalty bearing 1,756 signatures.
Among the rally speakers were Gary Beeman, a former Death Row prisoner who was acquitted at a new trial, and David Kaczynski, who turned his own brother, Ted Kaczynski, also known as the "Unabomber," over to authorities.
"I don't believe innocence or justice has any place in the death penalty today," Beeman said. He called for a moratorium on capital punishment.
Kaczynski said he was faced with a horrendous choice when he realized that the man wanted for killing three people and injuring two dozen others was his reclusive brother. He could remain silent, knowing it might mean more innocent lives would be lost, or he could turn in his brother, knowing he might get the death penalty.
Eventually, he turned his brother over to authorities. In 1998, Ted Kaczynski was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
"I feel very strongly we did the right thing," said Kaczynski, now the head of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty.
ajohnson@dispatch.com
Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The Columbus Dispatch
Byline: Alan Johnson
Apr. 11--After bicycling 140 miles from Cleveland to Columbus over the weekend, Jayson Gerbec still had enough energy to lead a student rally against the death penaltyyesterday at the Statehouse.
The 17-year-old senior at St. Ignatius High School was joined by about 200 other Catholicschool students from Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and other parts of the state who chanted, sang and spoke out against capital punishment.
While they would like to see it abolished before another execution -- Joseph Clark of Lucas County is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on May 2 -- Gerbec said he knows it will take time.
"You may not see a difference now. Sooner or later, we'll be the adults. We'll be cranking out the ballots."
"Wheels of Justice," as the rally was called, was inspired by Catholic students who regularly travel from Cleveland by bus to protest and pray outside the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where inmates are executed.
While there were many protesters at Lucasville for the first few executions, the students from Cleveland often have been alone in their vigils in the past two years.
About 24 students made the cycling trek from Cleveland beginning last Friday. They battled rain and nearly freezing temperatures over the weekend before arriving in Columbus on a sunny Monday that marked the beginning of Holy Week.
Joining them in Columbus were students from St. Francis DeSales High School and Bishop Hartley High School.
Cristin Day, 16, came to the rally fresh off a performance in the play Dead Man Walking at Hartley, where she is a sophomore. Day is zealously opposed to capital punishment.
"There is so much more to be done," she said yesterday. "You have to scream at the top of your lungs to be heard."
Since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999, 20 men have been executed. There are now 193 men and two women on Death Row.
The students gave state Rep. Mike Mitchell, D-Columbus, a petition against the death penalty bearing 1,756 signatures.
Among the rally speakers were Gary Beeman, a former Death Row prisoner who was acquitted at a new trial, and David Kaczynski, who turned his own brother, Ted Kaczynski, also known as the "Unabomber," over to authorities.
"I don't believe innocence or justice has any place in the death penalty today," Beeman said. He called for a moratorium on capital punishment.
Kaczynski said he was faced with a horrendous choice when he realized that the man wanted for killing three people and injuring two dozen others was his reclusive brother. He could remain silent, knowing it might mean more innocent lives would be lost, or he could turn in his brother, knowing he might get the death penalty.
Eventually, he turned his brother over to authorities. In 1998, Ted Kaczynski was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
"I feel very strongly we did the right thing," said Kaczynski, now the head of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty.
ajohnson@dispatch.com
Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.