An emptying death row

Plus a touch of doggerel.

It’s an unofficial long weekend for me, so I’ve decided to do something a little different with this edition of the newsletter. Instead of focusing on Graphic Dead Man Walking and closely related topics, I have a heads up about some positive news on the death penalty front. And, of course, I’ll announce the results of last week’s joke contest.

Two leaders for life

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, was in Italy this week for a climate resiliency summit hosted by the Vatican. While there, he and Pope Francis had time to talk privately.

According to the governor, Pope Francis “immediately brought up the issue of the death penalty” and told him “how proud he was of the work we’re doing in California.”

Pope Francis has been [link] a force in solidifying the Catholic Church’s complete opposition to the death penalty.

Note: It appears that the links in these newsletters don’t display correctly in some email programs, so until I find a more elegant workaround, I’ll precede each link with a [link] label.

On his own turf, Governor Newsom has taken an equally strong role in putting a stop to executions. In 2019, he promised to dismantle California’s execution chamber and to close its death row.

Sister Helen Prejean had a chance to talk with the governor before he made his announcement, and he impressed her both with his commitment and his clear moral thinking. If you didn’t catch Gov. Newsom’s speech that day, [link] it’s definitely worth watching.

Newsom undertook the first of those tasks immediately, ordering Department of Corrections staff to dismantle the state’s gas chamber that week.

The second task, of moving all the people housed on death row into the general prison population, is now well underway. Already 174 men have been rehoused, and an accelerated schedule to move the remaining 457 men was announced in March of this year.

Califonia’s death row also housed 20 women. They, too, have recently been moved to general population.

One of those women is Kerry Lyn Dalton, whom Sister Helen Prejean has been visiting and corresponding with for several years. Kerry Lyn joyfully related to Helen that the women in general population gathered to welcome, cheer and applaud the newcomers as they transferred into their new housing. After 30 years of segregated and harsh conditions, it was a monumental day for Kerry Lyn and the other women from death row.

Department of Corrections staff dismantling California’s gas chamber, in which more than 100 people were killed.

Who won the joke contest?

Last week’s newsletter was titled [link] An owl, an ant and Albert Camus walk into a book. I failed to come up with a joke to go with this title and so I crowdsourced the task, offering a signed copy of the book, on its release, as a carrot.

Two brave subscribers took up this challenge.

Many thanks to Pat F., who sent in a little “doggerel”:

An owl, an ant and Albert Camus walk into a book;

They give it a thorough and critical look.

Finding no footnotes,

They decide Let's be bolder,

Perch on an authorial shoulder

And whisper magisterial quotes.

Jane C’s submission, although maybe missing on the joke front, was laser focused on the issue:

Owl: I think the death penalty is absurd. 

Ant: And I think it's senseless.  

Camus: You're both right; just like life, it's meaningless, absurd, and contradictory. 

Both Pat and Jane will be receiving a certificate redeemable for a signed copy of Graphic Dead Man Walking when it’s published. (See, it’s worth the effort! 😉)

In the meantime, I put my brain to the task as well and finally came up with this:

An owl, an ant and Albert Camus walk into a book. They meet at an outdoor cafe and sit together at a table. A figure shrouded in cloak and hood is seated at a nearby table, eating breakfast.

ANT: Look, look! They’re eating a croissant. Crumbs for the taking!

OWL: Hoo, hoo?

ALBERT CAMUS: L’étranger!