Murder Survivor Speaks Against Death Penalty as Connecticut Legislature Takes Historic Vote
TCASK just sent out this press release. Connecticut's House of Representatives votes on a measure to repeal the death penalty today!
Hartford, CT – Vivian Dobson, the only woman to survive an attack from Michael Ross, will call for an end to the death penalty today, detailing a 22-year ordeal of psychiatric wards, medical bills, and emotional trauma following her 1983 rape.“Dobson’s story exposes a hidden perversion of the criminal justice system in this country,” said Randy Tatel, Executive Director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK), a statewide organization advocating for a halt to executions while the death penalty system is thoroughly examined.
“Here is a women who got absolutely nothing, no support, no services, while Connecticut spent millions to turn Michael Ross into a celebrity in an attempt to kill him,” Tatel continued.
Dobson’s first public appearance comes as the Connecticut House of Representatives votes on a measure to repeal the death penalty today. The vote marks the first time since the death penalty’s reinstatement that a repeal bill passed out of Connecticut’s Judiciary committee to be voted on by the full House. The forward progress of the Connecticut debate reflects a national trend of states that are reevaluating the death penalty.
“Across the country, states are recognizing that the death penalty isn’t working. A thorough examination of victims’ services and the impact of the death penalty on victims is sorely needed,” Tatel added. “Is spending millions and millions of dollars to execute a handful of people truly the best use of our state’s scarce resources? Is that the best way to help victims?”
On April 7, 2003 and again April 19, 2004 TCASK called for support of victim’s compensation funds to assist the survivor’s of homicide in their quest to heal.
“The Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK) sees it self as a part of the victim’s rights movement and backs First Lady Andrea Conte in seeking adequate and fair compensation for violent crime victims,” said Tatel. “However TCASK challenges the public and lawmakers to re-think the hierarchy of ‘good’ victims versus ‘bad’ victims that capital punishment creates.”
New Mexico’s House of Representatives passed a bill to repeal the death penalty and improve victims’ services last month. New Jersey and New York have moratoriums on the death penalty as the courts and legislature reevaluate their death penalty systems. North Carolina’s Senate passed a moratorium bill in 2003 and is reconsidering the bill this year. A total of eleven states are considering moratorium bills while questions of fairness are studied. Juries are sentencing fewer and fewer people to death, and fewer still are being executed.
Earlier this year, the New York State Assembly held five full days of public hearings on the death penalty. Almost a dozen murder victims’ family members testified before the Assembly panel, saying they did not want the death penalty for their loved ones’ killers.
“The hearings made clear that the death penalty is the exact opposite of what victims really need," said David Kaczynski, Executive Director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, who also testified at the hearings. "Vivian Dobson is living proof that the system is broken. Victim's services are being cut while tax dollars are wasted on a system that is sentencing innocent people to die and letting the guilty go free."
Paul House remains on Tennessee's death row twenty years after his conviction in spite of DNA evidence and 6 witnesses that support his innocence.
“If we were to redirect tax dollars toward crime victims, think of the services we could provide,” Tatel said. “We could offer more extensive counseling for victims of violent crime and college scholarships for children who lose a parent to murder. We could more fully compensate for the true costs of burial and medical expenses. They need real support not empty rhetoric.”
Posted by beth at 01:16 PM
