Thursday February 11 10:57 PM ET
Eleven lesbian and gay rights groups issued a statement February 10 formally announcing their opposition to Wyoming prosecutors seeking the death penalty in the gay-bashing murder of Matthew Shepard. Among the signers of the statement are the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Lesbian & Gay Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and Gay Men of African Descent.
"This is one of those moments when we, as a community, should lead," according to Richard Burns, Executive Director of the Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center of New York. "We consider this a teachable moment." Burns does not see the death penalty as a way to deal with anti-gay violence and said, "The answer to homophobic violence is not more violence, it is education." Those thoughts were echoed by National Latina/o LGBT Organization (LLEGO) Executive Director Martin Ornales-Quintero, who said, "Killing a homophobe will not kill homophobia."
Inequities in the application of capital punishment were underscored by Lambda's Kevin M. Cathcart, the ACLU's Matt Coles and Gay Men of African Descent's Kevin McGruder. McGruder pointed out that, "The death penalty is applied in an inequitable way and when factors of race, sexual orientation and income are taken into account, there is even more inequity." Cathcart described his organization's daily observation of the fallibility of the legal system, which has led them to "oppose the death penalty as a harsh and irreversible use of government power." The Astraea National Lesbian Action Foundation and OutFront Minnesota also added their names to the list of anti-death penalty groups.
NGLTF Executive Director Kerry Lobel said, "We join our colleagues today to oppose the death penalty with a unified voice. We participate in a social movement that places faith in the possibility of change. Capital punishment, a final and hopeless solution to the social problem of violence, not only subverts the possibility of individual change but it also fails to solve the problem of violence. Hate crimes laws, on the other hand, recognize that classes of people become terrorized by violent acts against individuals. Hate crime laws draw attention to that problem and offer at least one solution: criminal justice resources directed toward educating and deterring the domestic terrorism of bias crime."
Albany County prosecutor Cal Rerucha announced December 28 his decision to seek the death penalty in the cases of Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, the accused killers of Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student. Rerucha did not state reasons, but among the dozen justifications for a death sentence in the state which might apply are murders which are "especially atrocious or cruel, being unnecessarily torturous to the victim," or occur during a robbery or kidnapping; Henderson and McKinney face charges of robbery and kidnapping as well as first-degree murder. At the time, the fact that Rerucha is a Roman Catholic gained some notice, as Pope John Paul II had just called for an end to capital punishment in his Christmas Eve sermon; Wyoming Bishop John Hart, who also opposes the death penalty, told reporters that it was "not a core teaching of the Church" and that Rerucha is free to act on his conscience in his official capacity. Since then, a death row in! mate in another state was pardoned by the governor following a Papal visit. Only two men are currently on Wyoming's death row, and the last execution there took place on January 22, 1992; before that, the state had not executed anyone since December 1965.
Since Rerucha's announcement, gay activist Michael Petrelis and his Queer Watch organization have lobbied hard to get key lesbigay groups to come out in opposition to the death penalty. Many organizations have not taken an official position one way or the other, but the gay and lesbian Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) had issued a call for Shepard's killers to be executed even before the prosecutor's decision was made. In LCR's view, "Seeking anything less than the strongest possible punishment allowed under state law would send a message to the world that Matthew Shepard's life was somehow less valuable than the law demands, and would send a further chill through the gay and lesbian community across the nation."
Gays and lesbians have also taken an active role in the movement to stop the execution of African-American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 murder of a white police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but his innocence has been proclaimed by progressives around the world. Rainbow Flags for Mumia: The Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Two-spirit, Trans Contingent for the April 24 Millions for Mumia Marches in Philadelphia and San Francisco says it has received over 70 endorsements from organizations and individuals.
