The Armband Protest Against the Death Penalty

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.

TX       Derrick Charles                                scheduled 05/12/2015

You can e-mail Governor Greg Abbott at his website: https://gov.texas.gov/contact/

phone: (512) 463 2000
fax:       (512) 463 1849

other Texas contacts:

Pardons and Paroles
phone: (512) 406 5852
fax:       (512) 467 0945

Austin American Statesman
e-dress: letters@statesman.com

phone: (512) 445-3667
fax:      (512) 445-3679

Houston Chronicle
e-dress: hci@chron.com
phone: (713) 220-7491

I ask you, Governor Abbott, to stop your state’s execution of Derrick Charles. Mr. Charles is scheduled to be poisoned to death by the government of Texas next Tuesday, 05/12/2015, for the 2002 murders of Myiesha Bennett, her mother Brenda Bennett, and her grandfather Obie Lee Bennett.

Mr. Charles is a classic case of a misanthropic childhood combined with lifelong medical problems.  He was born prematurely to a mother with schizophrenia, causing him to require more care and limiting the care his mother could give him.  He suffered at least two seizures as a child and moved in and out of the juvenile justice system with regularity.  He committed these murders at nineteen years old with extraordinary violence impelled by his anger at accusations of child rape levelled by Ms. Bennett.  In this country we have a clearly established responsibility to provide our sick the treatment they need rather than killing them.  You must stay this execution so your state can reconsider its inhumane action in the case of Derrick Charles.

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 Abbott, stop this killing of Derrick Charles. 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.