Follow-Up on Roundtable Discussion

This past Monday night, IAPP held a death penalty roundtable discussion led by Will McAuliffe of InCASE (right), Chris Hitz-Bradley from IICACP (center), and local attorney Mary Spears of Kammen & Associates (left). The turn-out was fair. The event was free to the public, with about 15 in attendance. I attended the discussion with two fellow housemates from the Peace House, both of whom didn't have any knowledge of the current issues within the system so it was definitely interesting to hear their take on what was being said. Both of them left the discussion informed and interested in finding out more. Therefore, I'd consider this event to be a success.

Here are some highlights of the discussion:

• An estimated 60-70% of all death sentences are commuted, which increases costs. If the death penalty wasn't even an option, it would have saved the costs of those trials because LWOP could've ended the process immediately and spread out the costs over a number of years, allowing it to be cheaper.


• Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions


• Indiana is tied as the 14th state with the most executions since 1973


• A major roadblock to abolition is the arbitrariness of the system. The prosecutor ultimately gets to decide what punishment to seek for the offender, and often times, I see that it is a political decision and doesn't take into account the victim family members.

Sometimes it comes across as if the system is playing a game by picking and choosing which cases to try as a capital case. Is it time for another one? When was the last one?
Is that how the system should approach someone's life?

What can we do?

1. One important piece that I took from the discussion was from what Mary Spears said. She mentioned at the very end of the discussion that it is important for us, as citizens, to fulfill our jury duty. And when doing that duty, to be willing to say that we will consider the death penalty, because if you say one way or another, if you're biased, you won't be able to be on the jury.


2. Talk about it. Just as the discussion helped inform my friends, it can lead to someone else becoming interested in it simply through talking.


3. Another important aspect of abolition is lobbying. Look into it. Write to your legislators.