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Group will petition for committee on death penalty if not established by Beebe Friday, Nov 30, 2007 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The president of an anti-death penalty coalition in Arkansas said Thursday the group would push for a ballot initiatives next year to establish a committee to study the death penalty if Gov. Mike Beebe does not establish a panel on his own. Beebe has said he had no intentions of establishing a death penalty commission, but that he would listen to the group's arguments. "If the governor is not will to appoint a study commission without some help, we are going to go out and get 100,000 signatures next year to show him there is a great deal of interest on all sides of the political spectrum," David Rickard, president of the Arkansas Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, said Thursday. Rickard said the group anticipates announcing the campaign officially in February 2008. In the meantime, he said the group was gathering supporters and lining up endorsements from key political, religious and economic officials. Rickard and other members of the coalition met with Beebe's chief of staff, Morril Harriman, this week asking the governor to impose a formal moratorium on executions and to establish a committee to study the cost and numerous other aspects of the death penalty. Beebe said Wednesday a state-imposed moratorium was unnecessary because states have halted executions until the U.S. Supreme Court reaches a decision on whether a Kentucky inmate should have the right to petition for a stay on the argument that the method the state administers lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has said he would not certify any executions until the high court rules, and Beebe said he supported the attorney general. "If they truly want us to explore the options and listen to the evidence, I'm there, I'm ready to listen," Beebe said. "Now is a good time for them to come forward with the information rather than talking about some duplicative moratorium." Rickard said Thursday his group has only anecdotal evidence. A committee composed of sociologists, criminologists, prosecutors and defense attorneys from around the state needs to be formed to study a variety of factors, Rickard said, such as the cost of the death penalty, an execution's effect on the family of a murder victim, whether convictions are geographically biased and the cost to the state Department of Correction in terms of turnover of personnel involved in the process. "We don't think we have adequate data to assess how well or how poorly the death penalty is working in Arkansas," Rickard said. He said Beebe should impose a formal moratorium on executions while a commission studies the issue. "We want to get some facts on the table so we can have a rational discussion in a political environment rather than having individuals citing anecdotes to try to make their case," Rickard said. |
