Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty |
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Founded
in 1928, MCADP is the oldest active anti-death penalty organization
in the United States.
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Detail of Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco from the cartoon of a mural by Ben Shahn © Estate of Ben Shahn /Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Fall 2002 Newletter
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Contents |
From the Chairman
and President
David M. Ehrmann
Welcome to this fall edition of the MCADP newsletter. My involvement with MCADP is a family inheritance. My grandmother, Sara R. Ehrmann, was an early executive director as well as member of the board of the organization and later served as its chair. My grandfather, Herbert Ehrmann, early in his career as an attorney, served as a junior counsel for the defense during the last two years of the Sacco-Vanzetti case.He later authored two books on the case: The Untried Case: The Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Morelli Gang (1933 and 1960, The Vanguard Press) and The Case that Will Not Die: The Commonwealth vs. Sacco and Vanzetti (1969 Little Brown).
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| David M. Ehrmann | Herbert B. Ehrmann |
75 years after the
executions of Sacco and Vanzetti the death penalty is still in the news
—a moratorium in Maryland, case by case clemency hearings in Illinois,
a Supreme Court ruling forbidding the execution of the retarded, the
mounting number of those convicted being exonerated after new proof
of innocence, including many on death rows. One might believe that the
national tide has shifted away from the Death Penalty and that the United
States is in synch with every other country in the industrialized world-but
such is not the case. We must never sit content simply because of our
present legislative success in Massachusetts.
We know from past
experience the passion for revenge lies just below the surface of our
present civil legislation. We know that we are always just one horrendous
crime away from public outrage and the cry to “kill the killer!”
MCADP’s mission
to keep the death penalty out of Massachusetts, is constantly in need
of our efforts. Governmental interest in federalizing the death penalty
can be seen on a regular basis. The Gilbert case and, perhaps, the Sampson
case demonstrate that even in Massachusetts we are perilously close
to imposing the ultimate sentence once again.
As concerned citizens,
we need to stay together, stay informed and remain vigilant in educating
others concerning legislation, stances of candidates for public office,
national trends and most fundamentally the negative impact that the
death penalty has on society.
We thank you for your membership and continuing support. Local chapters of MCADP offer an excellent opportunity for our members to become more actively involved. We encourage you to join (or form!) a chapter of MCADP in your area.