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Stop Execution of Brain-Damaged Man
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Progressive Portal
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Jan 16, 2005 09:40 PST
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DONALD BEARDSLEE SCHEDULED FOR EXECUTION ON 19 JAN 2005;
URGE GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER TO GRANT CLEMENCY
[From Amnesty International USA <http://www.amnestyusa.org> and the
American Civil Liberties Union <http://www.aclu.org>]
Barring clemency or a last-minute stay, the State of California will
kill Donald Beardslee by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. on 19 Jan 2005.
The 61-year-old Beardslee has been on death row for more than 20 years
for the 1981 murder of two young women.
Unlike many highly publicized death-penalty cases, Beardslee's does not
involve racism - he's white - nor the possibility of innocence - he has
confessed to participating the murders. But the facts of his case raise
many other troubling issues about the fairness and morality of the death
penalty.
* The jury that sentenced Beardslee was not told that he suffers from
serious brain damage. In fact, the prosecutor told the jurors that the
defendant was "not suffering from any mental disorder." Yet medical
experts have since testified that he suffered severe brain damage at
birth, which was compounded by two traumatic head injuries when he was a
young man. One expert recently told California's Board of Prison Terms
that he had found severe malfunctioning in the right hemisphere of
Beardslee's brain, which controls the processing of information,
expression of emotions, and self-awareness.
* Beardslee's lawyer in his original trial encouraged his cooperation
with the prosecution as his "best chance to avoid the death penalty."
This lawyer sat in court reading "Bon Appetit" magazine as Beardslee
testified. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the lawyer's
performance "fell below constitutionally accepted standards," but this
assertion has not been sufficient to reverse the death-penalty verdict.
* California prosecutors were permitted to include testimony regarding a
prior homicide conviction in Missouri in order to create a death-penalty
case, even though the Missouri case was tainted by illegally obtained
evidence. In that case, police have since admitted to lying at a hearing
to suppress evidence.
* Even though Beardslee was not involved in initiating the plot that led
to the murders, he was the only one of four defendants in the case to
receive the death penalty. The three others charged in the case received
lesser sentences or were acquitted. At his trial the jury sought
information about the sentences imposed on the co-defendants, but the
request was denied.
* Despite the prosecution's claim during the trial that Beardslee had to
be executed because he was "an extremely dangerous and merciless
individual" who would pose a danger to other inmates and guards in
prison, he has actually had an exemplary disciplinary record in prison,
without a single rules violation.
Beardslee's life is now in the hands of the "Terminator," California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Contact him today and urge him to use
his power of clemency.
Take Action
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Call Schwarzenegger at 916-445-2841, fax him at 916-445-4633, or send
him a message at one of these addresses:
http://tinyurl.com/66m7w
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=11457
More Information
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An excellent summary of the issues in the Beardslee case:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/action/display/wacmoreinfo.asp?item=11457
Additional information on the Beardslee case, including protest
activities in the San Francisco Bay Area:
http://www.2flawed2fix.org
http://tinyurl.com/3vqve
http://www.smdailyjournal.org/article.cfm?issue=12-28-04&storyID=38129
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/factsheets/BeardsleeFactSheet.pdf
(29K, Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
General death-penalty sites:
ACLU death penalty page:
http://www.aclu.org/DeathPenalty/DeathPenaltyMain.cfm
Campaign to End the Death Penalty:
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org
Death Penalty Focus:
http://www.deathpenalty.org
Death Penalty Information Center:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
"The Lonely Abolitionist," a blog devoted to death-penalty news and
discussion:
http://lonelyabolitionist.blogspot.com
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