Execution Log – 02/10/13-02/16/13: 02/13,Sepulvado,LA
Here are copies of the e-mails I sent to people in states with scheduled executions asking them to intervene. Please e-mail, phone or fax appeals of your own. You are welcome to cut & paste.
LA Christopher Sepulvado scheduled 02/13/2013
You can e-mail Governor Bobby Jindal through his web-site http://www.gov.la.gov/index.cfm?md=form&tmp=email_governor
other Louisiana contacts:
New Orleans Times Picayune
e-dress: jsimmerman@nola.com
The Baton Rouge Advocate
website: http://theadvocate.com/help/contact/
I ask you, Governor Jindal, to stop your state’s execution of Christopher Sepulvado. Mr. Sepulvado is scheduled to be poisoned to death by your state next Wednesday, 02/13/13, for the 1992 murder of Wesley Allen Mercer, his 6 year old stepson.
Christopher Sepulvado has suffered from brain damage since he was an infant. His functional level is in the lowest 2% of the country. His condition affects his ability to control his behavior and emotions, his decision-making, planning and problem solving. Based on his medical profile, he cannot not be held responsible for the terrible tragedy of this crime. In the United States of America, we treat our ill, not execute them. Further, he was ineffectively represented at appeal; his lawyer failed to present clear evidence of racial bias in jury selection because the lawyer himself had been sanctioned previously on similar grounds. Governor Jindal, for medical and judicial reasons you must cancel this execution; justice in your state must catch up to our country’s standards of justice and humanity.
Former Attorney General of the United States Janet Reno, as well as myriads of scholars, can find no evidence that the death penalty deters capital crimes. In fact, the warden of the famous Sing Sing prison believes that the death penalty exacerbates the violence in his facility by setting an example of cold-blooded killing. Recent studies show that the largest increase in capital crimes is in the state of Texas, the state which executes the most people. As for vengeance, that is the Lord’s, not the government’s.
Please, Governor Jindal, stop this killing of Christopher Sepulvado. If this execution goes forward, look around this country for the black armbands worn, and the church bells tolled, in protest of this injustice.
Thank you.
The Armband Protest Against the Death Penalty 
“We hear the politicians tell us all the time we got to exeutce them, end of discussion. Most people are not affected directly personally by the death penalty. This is making them think about it and also to experience it through the film in a very visceral way. Not just rationally. ” I totally agree with that. Before I watched this film and we began talking about it in class I was for Capital Punishment and after watching this film and putting myself or a family member in that position it would be a totally different story. After seeing how much it affects the families and the children of the criminal you begin to think wow what if that was my brother or my father. Even though you know they did something horrible you never wanna see your family member killed right before your eyes. Another comment that she made which I also agree with is, “There are some human rights that are so deep that we can’t negotiate them away. One right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the United Nations is the right to not be tortured and not to be killed.” The way that she described an actual execution and when they described it on the movie, gave me cold chills. I would never want anyone I love to go through that, getting to eat your favorite meal and knowing its your last, just lay there and know that in two hours you will no longer be alive. On the other hand, I understand how some people think it is fair because the criminal did the same thing to the other person, I just believe that there are other solutions rather than torturing and giving that person a horrible death.