[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: [gpca-forum] Who in the party has worked most on anti-death penalty and on amend three strikes?
Gerry Gras
gerrygras at earthlink.net
Tue Oct 9 18:19:41 PDT 2012
Here's the sequence:
- Mike Feinstein sent an email to the GPCA forum list
- I forwarded it to the GPSCC list
- Fred replied suggesting that Valerie knew more
- Valerie made a short reply
- Spencer made a lengthy reply with four numbered paragraphs,
and a bottom line paragraph
- you replied
- now I am replying
Does that help?
Gerry
Caroline Yacoub wrote:
> I'm confused. Who wrote this?
> Caroline
>
> --- On *Mon, 10/8/12, Spencer Graves /<spencer.graves at prodsyse.com>/* wrote:
>
>
> From: Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at prodsyse.com>
> Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] Fwd: [gpca-forum] Who in the party has
> worked most on anti-death penalty and on amend three strikes?
> To: "Valerie D. Face" <vdf at juno.com>
> Cc: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> Date: Monday, October 8, 2012, 7:44 PM
>
> Hi, All:
>
>
> On 10/8/2012 6:23 PM, Valerie D. Face wrote:
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > I have been somewhat involved, but really only sporadically over
> the last few years (depending on job commitments, other issues I'm
> working on and such). I wouldn't be surprised if there are other
> Greens in the state who have been more involved, and for more years.
>
>
> I reviewed the literature on this in the 1970s. I have not
> followed the more recent developments in detail, but I think the
> following is clear:
>
>
> (1) Some studies have found a modest deterrent effect
> from capital punishment. Others have found no statistically
> significant effect. I'd be surprised if there were any serious
> studies that found a large deterrent effect for capital punishment.
>
>
> (2) There are reasonable numbers of former death row
> inmates walking free today, because subsequent investigative
> journalists found someone else who admitted to the crime. Other
> former death row inmates are free today, because other (e.g., DNA)
> evidence came to light to establish they were wrongly convicted. The
> record of these and other cases make it fairly clear that many
> convictions (including in capital cases) have been obtained on the
> basis of coerced perjury and falsified evidence.
>
>
> (3) The US today has the largest prison population per
> capital in the world. The primary contributor to the increase in
> the punitive nature of US law has been changes in the structure of
> the mainstream commercial media: The increased concentration of
> ownership of the media has meant that commercial media compete less
> on content -- especially news content. This has enable a drastic
> reduction in money spent on investigative journalism. The space has
> been filled by increased reliance on the "police blotter". Reporting
> on elite crimes is generally a losing proposition, because the
> commercial media company could easily lose advertising that would
> not likely be recouped by increase in the size of the audience --
> and they could be sued for libel. However, if the alleged
> perpetrator is poor, the media can disseminate whatever they want,
> because they won't lose any advertising, and the alleged perpetrator
> will not likely sue for libel. Also, the best data on crime in the
> US is the National Victimization Survey: This is a random sample
> survey asking people about whether they have been a victim of
> crime. Changes in law and incarceration rates are not correlated
> with actual victimization rates but are correlated with changes in
> the structure of the ownership of the media and with the
> accompanying editorial policy. (Potter and Kappeler 1998
> Constructing Crime: Perspectives on Making News and Social
> Problems, Waveland Pr.). It's also known that states and nations
> with high rates of abortion have falling crime rates 15 - 20 years
> later: States with very restrictive abortion laws have higher crime
> rates 15 - 20 years later because the immature girls who might
> otherwise abort don't do a very good job of parenting (Levitt and
> Dubner 2005 Freakonomics, Harper Torch, pp. 141-142).
>
>
> (4) The primary use of capital punishment from the dawn
> of human history to the present day has been political. Jesus of
> Nazareth was tried, convicted and lawfully executed. In his day,
> the established government had reason to be concerned about
> potential attacks on authority. A group know as the Zealots were
> actively assassinating governmental officials (Wikipedia,
> "Zealotry"). Capital punishment has no more justification today
> than it did 2,000 years ago.
>
>
> BOTTOM LINE: Changes in public opinion and law on many issues
> including crime are driven first and foremost by changes in the
> editorial policies of the media. Changes in incarcerations and
> capital punishment are not correlated with actual crime rates.
>
>
> Spencer
>
>
> p.s. If you like this, I can polish it a bit more, update my
> literature search, etc. See the Wikipedia article on "Capital
> Punishment".
> >
> > Best wishes,
> > Valerie
> >
> >
> > ~*~*~*~
> > Jill Stein for President -- A Green New Deal for America
> > Campaign website: http://www.jillstein.org/
> > Don't waste your vote: http://www.jillstein.org/only_wasted_vote
> > First TV ad: http://youtu.be/vaObRxkX8K4
> >
> >
> > ---------- Original Message ----------
> > From: fred Duperrault <fredlois2 at gmail.com
> <http://us.mc1813.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=fredlois2@gmail.com>>
> > To: Gerry Gras <gerrygras at earthlink.net
> <http://us.mc1813.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=gerrygras@earthlink.net>>
> > Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2012 18:08:29 -0700
> > Cc: GPSCC <sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> <http://us.mc1813.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sosfbay-discuss@cagreens.org>>
> > Subject: Re: [GPSCC-chat] Fwd: [gpca-forum] Who in the party has
> worked most
> > on anti-death penalty and on amend three strikes?
> >
> > I think Valerie Face has focused on the "death penalty" issue more
> > than anyone.
> >
> > Fred D.
> >
> > On Oct 6, 2012, at 3:30 PM, Gerry Gras wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> -------- Original Message --------
> >> Subject: [gpca-forum] Who in the party has worked most on anti-death
> >> penalty and on amend three strikes?
> >> Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:46:38 -0700
> >> From: Mike Feinstein <mfeinstein at feinstein.org
> <http://us.mc1813.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mfeinstein@feinstein.org>>
> >> To: GPCA Forum <gpca-forum at cagreens.org
> <http://us.mc1813.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=gpca-forum@cagreens.org>>
> >>
> >> The state party is putting together press releases on Props 34
> and 36
> >> and would like to quote people who have been active on these issues
> >> within our party for a long time
> >>
> >> Prop 34 - end death penalty
> >> http://www.cagreens.org/elections/propositions/34
> >>
> >> Prop 36 - amend three strikes
> >> http://www.cagreens.org/elections/propositions/36
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> gpca-forum mailing list
> >> gpca-forum at cagreens.org
> <http://us.mc1813.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=gpca-forum@cagreens.org>
> >> http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/gpca-forum
> >>
> >>
>
> -- Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
> President and Chief Technology Officer
> Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
> 751 Emerson Ct.
> San José, CA 95126
> ph: 408-655-4567
> web: www.structuremonitoring.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> sosfbay-discuss mailing list
> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> <http://us.mc1813.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sosfbay-discuss@cagreens.org>
> http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> sosfbay-discuss mailing list
> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
>
More information about the sosfbay-discuss
mailing list