Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 10:13:48 -0700
From: kevin@spidel.net ("Kevin R. Spidel")
Subject: [aiarizona] FW: [AzANlistserve] FW: The Abolition Fight will Continue!
To: aiarizona@yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: kevin@spidel.net


The Legislature voted Thursday to pass SB1001, which was the so-called
"fix" to the US Supreme Court's Ring decision declaring Arizona's form
of the deathpenalty unconstitutional.  It passed with an amendment from
Sen. Martin that allows victims' families to state their preference for
or against the death penalty.  This took the bill from bad to even
worse.

All other bills (like Rios' moratorium or Hartley's abolition, Giffords'
death penalty study commission or Loredo's abolition) died quickly.  All
other amendments (variations on the above amendments, plus one from
Brotherton that would reinstate de novo review) also died.  Legislators
wee left on the floor with only SB1001, a horrible bill that not only
reinstated the death penalty but now excluded independent review and
included victim recommendation for sentencing.

The following Senators voted against SB1001:  Aguirre, Yrun, Richardson,
Hartley, and John Verkamp, a Republican (former county attorney in
Coconino County).  Senator Lopez was absent, otherwise he would have
voted against the bill as well.  All the other Democrats voted for the
bill.  Verkamp's statements as he explained his vote were the most
cogent, principled and reasonable comments made all day.  He told the
body that they were rushing into something that will cost millions of
dollars in litigation; that politics was obviously driving the quick-fix
passage, and stated, "You all know that some of you would vote very
differently on this bill were it not for the fact that you have a
primary election coming up in a few weeks."  He  explained the problems
he envisions with the bounce-back provisions, telling his colleagues,
"I'll bet most of you haven't even read the Ring decision."  He stated
that the prosecutors a! re "well aware" of the unconstitutional portions
of this bill, and that Ring said "a jury," not several juries, will make
the determination, and so on.  

Representatives who voted against the bill:  Avelar, Brotherton, Burton
Cahill, Camerot, Cardamone, Foster, Landrum. L. Lopez, Norris, Tom,
Sedillo, Lugo, Miranda, Loredo, Giffords, Clark and Cheuvront -- all
Democrats.  Four Democrats voted in support of the bill - Cannell,
Soltero, Laughter, and Maiorana.  Were it not for Debra Brimhall's 40th
vote in favor of the bill, they would not have had enough votes to make
it an emergency measure.  Brimhall arose in the chamber after almost
everyone else had cast a vote and stated that she was opposed to the
death penalty because, as a child, she remembered that one of her
friends had a relative who was executed, and later found to be innocent
(she did not mention the state in which this occurred).  She then
proceeded to vote in favor of the bill, stating, "I am who I am . . ."
It was pretty confusing to everyone.
(Info compiled from Donna Hamm, Eleanor Eisenberg, and Kyrsten Sinema's
notes)


So now where?  
*       Write a letter to the editor and to your legislators expressing
your disappointment.  Let them know we'll be back in the regular
session, and we're not going away. 
*       Go to azcentral.com and vote against the death penalty in the
poll on the lower left side. 
*       Join Amnesty International, CAADP, and AzA on Monday evenings
at 7:30 to plan future actions to work towards abolition in Arizona. 
*       Don't give up -- we're not! 
*        

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