Gary
Sampson: The Case Against Federalization
Massachusetts
Citizens Against the Death Penalty opposes the effort by the federal
government to seek the death penalty for Gary Sampson. The crimes
he committed in July 2001 were heinous: the killings in Massachusetts
of Philip McCloskey and Jonathan Rizzo and the killing of Robert Whitney
in New Hampshire. But the federal prosecution has little to do with
obtaining justice, which is readily available in the state courts
of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The sole point of the federal
prosecution is to seek the death penalty.
Sampson was arraigned
on federal carjacking-homicide charges in connection with the killings
of McCloskey and Rizzo. Both crimes occurred in Plymouth County, Massachusetts
at a time when current U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan was the District
Attorney. Were Sampson tried in Massachusetts state court he would,
if convicted, face life in prison without possibility of parole. Sampson
turned himself in to the police and admitted his guilt to each killing
as soon as he was arrested. Had the cases been left in the state system,
they would long ago have been resolved and justice been served as
Sampson is willing to plead guilty and accept life in prison.
The Massachusetts
legislature over the last ten years has repeatedly defeated efforts
to bring back capital punishment, each time by greater and greater
margins. The federal prosecution is an end run around this choice
made by Massachusetts to reject capital punishment. Indeed, the Justice
Department in the Bush administration, far from respecting state’s
right to run its own criminal justice system, has chosen to consider
as a factor favoring a death penalty prosecution the lack of such
an “appropriate” punishment in the state system.
But even by federal
standards, capital punishment is not appropriate for Gary Sampson,
who acknowledges the despicable nature of his acts and is willing
to plead guilty. The federal government has routinely agreed to accept
guilty pleas for even the most serious crimes. It did so in the Unabomber
case and the case of the man who opened fire on a Jewish day care
center in Los Angeles and then killed a postal worker. It should do
so now and end what would otherwise be a long, painful process for
all concerned that will simply delay justice.
Remarks
by David Ehrmann at the Arraignment of Gary Sampson in the Federal
Courthouse in Boston, January 17, 2003
Legislators,
Clergy, Community Leaders and Citizens from across the Commonwealth,
on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Citizens
Against the Death Penalty Welcome and thank you for coming here on
this cold winter afternoon. As we stand outside this Federal Courthouse,
our hearts and prayers go out to the murder victims families of Philip
McCloskey, Jonathan Rizzo and Robert Whitney.
We demonstrate
against our Federal Government’s decision to seek the Death Penalty
in Massachusetts!
In this location, on December 16, 1773, 50 protesters methodically
dumped tea from 3 ships into this harbor. The were protesting the
imposition of taxes by the British Empire on our emerging nation.
Today, we protest
the selective interest of our federal government to impose the death
penalty within our Commonwealth, thus overstepping our state’s
right to the punishment of Life in Prison without Parole.
We in Massachusetts
have had our share of Death Penalty cases and we have learned some
important lessons. 310 years ago we hanged 19 individuals for their
involvement with witchcraft. Just over 75 years ago people the world
over protested the trial and executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. My
grandfather, Herbert Ehrmann, a young attorney, joined the Sacco/Vanzetti
defense team and later wrote two books about the case. Sacco and Vanzetti
were electrocuted right over there in Charlestown on August 23, 1927.
My grandfather
pointed out weaknesses within systems of Justice from admissibility
of evidence to credibility of eye witnesses. As a result of that case,
my grandmother, Sara Ehrmann, spent the balance of her life fighting
to abolish the death penalty in Massachusetts and across the nation.
She joined the board of MCADP, formerly known as the Massachusetts
Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, in 1928 and was an
active leader for the next forty years.
My grandmother
used to tell me that regardless of the law, we are only one horrendous
murder away from calls for the imposition of the Death Penalty. Nanna
was right! The fight is not over! The Massachusetts Citizens against
the Death Penalty will continue to actively pursue its Mission, to
keep the Death Penalty out of Massachusetts.
As we celebrate
the life of Martin Luther King this weekend we are reminded of his
words, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do
that.”
