writing letters to the editor

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WRITING WRONGS

HOW TO SHIFT PUBLIC OPINION

ON THE DEATH PENALTY

WITH LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

By Nancy Oliveira


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Notes


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Edited by Stefanie Faucher.

Copyright 2009 by Nancy Oliveira.

First printing June 2009.All rights reserved.

This booklet contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always

been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such ma-

terial available in our efforts to advance understanding of human rights and

social justice issues. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copy-

righted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In

accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this booklet is

distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in re-

ceiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For

more information, visit: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If

you wish to use copyrighted material from this booklet for purposes of your

own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright

owner.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter OneWhy Your Letter to the Editor Is Important

Chapter TwoHow to Write a Letter That Has a Good Chance of BeingPublished

Chapter ThreeDo Not Despair If Your Letter Is Not Published!

Chapter FourGetting The Death Penalty On Peoples Radar Screens

Chapter FiveSix Facts You Should Know About the Death Penalty

Chapter SixResources

Chapter SevenPublished Letters by Topic


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Innocence

San Jose Mercury News

May 18, 2007: DNAevidence gives us pauseEditor: In light of the high

number of DNA exonerations illuminating the fact that our justicesystem is not accurate, it is time to rethink our death penalty inCalifornia, not refine our death delivery.

December 18, 2008: Due process and the death penaltyEditor: Georgia lawmakers' attempt to allow the death penaltywithout a unanimous jury decision misses the point of dueprocess. Our current laws exist not only to punish the guilty butalso to protect the innocent.

Los Angeles Times

December 21, 2007Editor: New Jersey has made one giant leap for humanity: endingstate killing. It will never run the risk of executing an innocentperson, which as we know has happened in the past and continuesto happen as our flawed justice system in America arbitrarilydeals out the death card. The remaining death penalty statesshould follow suit.

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Chapter OneWhy Your Letter to the Editor Is Important

x Support for the death penalty is a mile wide and an inch deep.Once people learn just a few facts about capital punishment,they usually begin to question whether it is effective or evenappropriate.

x Letters to the editor section of newspapers is a cheap andeasy way to reach large numbers of people. Hundreds ofthousands of people read the newspaper everyday. Whereassomeone might not pick up a book on the death penalty orread a long article in a magazine, they might just read a shortletter to the editor as they come across it during their dailyroutine. In fact, letters to the editor are the most widely readsection of the newspaper making it an excellent way to shareinformation with the public.

x By writing letters to the editor, you also indicate to anewspaper how much interest there is in a subject.Newspapers are inclined to run more stories on subjects thatreceive attention from readers.

x Newspapers print letters in the ratio that they are received.Your letter often helps someone elses letter get published.The more letters a newspaper receives on a subject, or on oneside of a debate, the more likely they are to print them.

x Your letters give people who share your perspective on asubject useful talking points.

x Writing letters to the editor enables all of us to have a voiceand help bring about the changes we want. Whats more wecan do it in a few short minutes from the comfort of our ownhome.


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Chapter TwoHow to Write a Letter That Has a Good Chance of BeingPublished

x Use email if possible. Most newspapers accept emails, faxesor snail mail, but emails are timelier and preferred.

x It is better to respond to a specific article or editorial in thepaper. Be timely. Write within a day or two of an articlespublication

x Include the title of the article and date of publication in thesubject line of the email.

x Include your name, address and phone number. Newspapersmay call to confirm your identity; however they will not printyour contact information

x Know which newspapers insist on exclusivity. Do not sendyour letters to more than one newspaper at a time. Ifnewspapers see that you have sent your letter to other papersthey may not even read it.

x Use metaphors whenever possible.

x Focus on making one point in your letter. If you try to do toomuch, your message will be lost. Try to be brief and succinct.

x Look for a theme in the article and then play off of it. As I amreading, I always have an immediate reaction to somethingwritten in the article. I guarantee you will also. That is what Iwrite on. Period. There is a tendency to throw in everythingyou know about the death penalty. Resist that temptation

x Try to be wise and thoughtful. Anger can turn off readers.

x If you are citing facts, make sure that they are accurate.

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May 22, 2009: Death Penalty Robs Us of ServicesRe "Can California afford to keep the deathpenalty?" (Forum, May 17)Elisabeth Semel's commentary on the cost of the death penalty inCalifornia is a wake-up call for all of us. She reminds us that forthe huge sums of money we spend to execute a few people, 13 in30 years, we give up a lot of important services that would benefit

many, such as education, day care, senior centers, and police andfire department services. Remember, fewer than 1 percent of allmurderers get the death penalty.

Even if one is for capital punishment, one has to ask if it is wiseto continue to fund the one we have that is broken, dysfunctional,rarely carried out and would cost hundreds of millions of dollarsmore to fix, according to the California Commission on the FairAdministration of Justice.


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Chapter SevenPublished Letters by Topic

Cost

San Francisco ChronicleApril 21, 2007: Execution chamber scamEditor, -- Our death penalty is too barbaric,too costly, too carelessly applied and toooften wrong ("New execution chamberinfuriates lawmakers,'' April 14).What theheck is our governor doing throwing taxpayers' money at this"badly broken system of state-sponsored killing?"

San Jose Mercury NewsApril 27, 2009: Join 21st century on capital punishmentEditor: Lawmakers in Nevada are discussing plans to replace

Nevada State Prison's old death chamber (described by a formerwarden as "almost medieval") with a new one. Perhaps theyshould instead discuss replacing their "medieval" death penaltypunishment with a 21st century one of life without parole. It is aless costly and more effective punishment. It also eliminates thepossibility of executing an innocent person.

Sacramento Bee

February 13, 2009: Save a quick $117 million

Re "Governor files suit against controller" (Capitol & California,Feb. 10): Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is furloughing moreemployees to save more money, and his spokesman says that anyamount the state government can save is less of a burden on thetaxpayers of California. I would like to remind our cost-consciousgovernor that if we dismantle our dysfunctional death penaltysystem, we would save $117 million a year, according to thereport of the California Commission on the Fair Administrationof Justice.

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x Read the Letters to the Editor section of your targetpublication for least a week or two before you send a letter sothat you get a sense of what type of letters the newspaperselects. Are they short? Are they passionate, funny or factual?Are they from experts or locals? This will vary from paper topaper.

Write, write, and write!


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Chapter SixResources

Tips for Finding Articles

1. Sign up for daily/weekly Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a freesystem which emails news articles that contain key words thatyou specify. http://www.google.com/alerts

2. Sign up for Death Penalty Focuss email alerts atwww.deathpenalty.org

3. Scan your local newspapers on a regular basis.

Useful Websites on the Death Penalty

Amnesty International USAwww.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/

California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penaltywww.californiacrimevictims.org

Death Penalty Focuswww.deathpenalty.org

Death Penalty Information Center

www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

Murder Victims' Families for Human Rightswww.murdervictimsfamilies.org

Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliationwww.mvfr.org

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penaltywww.ncadp.org

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Chapter FourSix Facts You Should Know the Death Penalty

1. Capital Punishment is Costly

x Death penalty trials cost two to three times more than non-capital murder trials. Some of the reasons for this are: thereare two trials instead of one, (one for guilt and one for thepenalty), more attorneys are required on both sides, there is alonger jury selection process, more investigators and expertwitness are needed, and more pre-trial motions are filed.

x What could we do with this money?

x Improve schools, roads, parks, public works,emergency services, public transportation, and lawenforcement.

x Provide mental health servicesx Provide pre-school for all children.x Focus on solving crimes.

2. Wrongful Convictions Are a Persistent Problem

x As of the printing of this booklet, 133wrongfully convicted persons have beenreleased from death rows around thecountry. Greg Wilhoit (pictured right) is

among them.

x The causes of wrongful convictionsinclude:

x Incompetent defense lawyersx Faulty eyewitness testimony,x Over zealous police or prosecutorsx False confessions extracted after tortuous hours of

interrogation


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x False information provided by jailhouse snitchesx Junk science

3. The Death Penalty is Applied in an Unjust Manner

x A recent California study showed that people who murderwhites are three to four more likely to get the death penalty

than those who murder African-Americans or Latinos.

x Studies have shown that that the followingfactors unjustly affect those who aresentenced to death:

x Local politicsx Race and social standing of the

victimx Race and social standing of the

defendantx Quality of legal counselx The jurisdiction where a crime was committed.

4. The Death Penalty Is Not a Deterrent

x People often kill when under great emotional distress or underthe influence of drugs and alcoholthey do not consider theconsequences of their actions.

x Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate thatexecutions deter people from committing crime anymore thanlong prison sentences.

x States without the death penalty have much lower murderrates. The South accounts for 80% of U.S. executions, yet ithas the highest regional murder rate.

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San Francisco ChronicleDecember 26, 2006Editor -- The revelations of the costs to taxpayers forstate-sponsored killings are staggering. Anotherunconscionable cost is the fight over how to kill more"efficiently" those on death row. It costs less to housethem in prison without parole. Let's abolish the "broken"

state killing machine and use the funds to help our schoolsand fire and police forces operate more "efficiently.''


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window into our capital punishment world. When theformer warden of San Quentin State Prison says the costlydeath penalty system is a waste of taxpayers' money anddoes not keep us safer, we should all listen.

Denver PostMay 3, 2009: Re: Death penalty, R.I.P. April 26

Vincent Carroll columnEditor: I agree with Vincent's Carroll's statement that thedeath penalty is a "grisly throwback". It originated in thecolonies when prisons did not exist. Step by step, courts,defense attorneys and now juries are catching up to thefact that this is a problematic punishment and life withoutparole is an effective alternative. As to customizing thedeath penalty to just apply to the worst of the worst...likeall government programs it is a bureaucracy, not a finedtuned machine that can be depended upon to work well.

3. Share personal stories of learning, change, and grass rootsinvolvement.

New York TimesMay 7, 2008: To End the Death PenaltyRe The Death Penalty Returns (editorial, May 7): Ispend 20 hours a week working as a volunteer to end thedeath penalty. I write letters to the editor and op-ed

articles, and I am the chairwoman of the San Franciscochapter of Death Penalty Focus, a grass-roots anti-death-penalty organization. Here is what I am learning: Mostpeople never give any thought to the death penalty. Onceyou get them to think about it, they are more often againstit. If people want to help end state killing, they shouldstart talking to everyone about it.

4. Offer practical solutions.

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5. The Death Penalty Can Contribute To the Pain and Sufferingof the Victims Families

x The complex,constitutionallyrequired appealsprocess in capital

cases forces victimsfamilies to endureyears of uncertaintyand waiting. Thealternative sentence ofpermanentimprisonment, (life without parole), offers severe, swift andcertain justice to victims families.

x The funds currently used on just a handful of costly death

penalty trials (less than 1% of all murder cases) could be usedto provide all victims families with counseling, restitutionand other vital services.

6. There is an alternative.

x All 35 states that sill have the death penalty offer life withoutthe possibility of parole as the alternative punishment forcapital murder.

x Life without parole is permanent imprisonment; it means theoffender will die in prison.


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